Silly vista

Dave said he wanted a trip report, so...

My wife's continuing quest to ski every lift-served ski area in the state took us to Sol Vista on Sunday (Powderhorn and Howelson Hill yet to go) . Skiing was free, thanks to the GEMS card, and worth every penny.

Seriously, I'm not knocking beginner areas. I've run into Texans at Ski Cooper who come up and ski there because, hey, if you only ski once a year and aren't going to do anything tougher than an easy blue, why pay $75 for a lift ticket?

But I'm a little confused why anyone would buy a house or a condo next to Sol Vista. Even if you have young kids, they're going to outgrow the area in a couple years. Sure, your house would still be close to Winter Park/Mary Jane, but living next to any ski hill is probably a lot more expensive than just buying a place in Granby (Civic motto: "Let our giant, armored bulldozers bring the Granby spirit right to your door. Heck, through your door!").

We did three runs, one labeled black, one blue and one green. You can downgrade each of those one category if you're comparing them to a normal ski area. I'm not sure what green downgrades to, though - lime? Sea mist?