Winter Park Nearly Doubling Expert Terrain for 2022-23 Season

Winter Park’s hike-to Jelly Roll zone, pictured behind some trees from the Eagle Wind chair, is set to reopen for the first time since the late 2000s.

Winter Park will nearly double the size of its expert terrain footprint for the 2022-23 season, according to a post put out by the resort. The Colorado resort has also expanded parking and instituted some operational enhancements for the upcoming winter.

As part of this initiative, Winter Park is planning to reopen its Jelly Roll trail, located at the far end of the hike-to Cirque Territory, for the first time in decades. In addition, the resort is planning to open more terrain in the Mary Jane Chutes, expanding the skiable footprint into “controlled avalanche chutes”. All new trails will receive Winter Park’s highest difficulty rating of double-black.

Winter Park will also significantly increase its parking lot capacity, adding 350 parking spots on the Mary Jane side of the resort. The resort is also making updates to its mobile app to provide information on remaining capacity in each parking lot.

Finally, the resort is increasing grooming and activity operations across the mountain this winter. Grooming will reach a wider variety of slopes than last year, with longer and steeper trails now becoming a part of the corduroy roster. Select previously available evening activities, such as guided night skiing and aprés activities at the top of the gondola, will return as well.

Winter Park is likely to open for the 2022-23 season in mid-to-late November.

Our Take

Winter Park’s terrain expansions sound like they’ll be too tough to be practical for most guests, but they have the potential to upend the resort’s current expert experience. Winter Park is known for its demanding terrain, but these challenges chiefly come in the form of long bump runs. Truly gnarly terrain is harder to come by, only existing in small pods or hard-to-access zones with no lift service.

The Jelly Roll trail will be hard to access, being at the far end of the resort’s Cirque Territory, which is only accessible via a hike or sled ride. But for the few who have experienced the rest of the Cirque, the Jelly Roll terrain looks like a fun, promising addition.

The new Chutes terrain in Mary Jane will probably have the much bigger impact on the Winter Park expert experience. The already-existing Mary Jane Chutes are the only lift-serviced double-black trails at Winter Park, and a terrain expansion here will leave a lot more for thrill-seekers to enjoy before running out of terrain to explore.

Considering a ski trip to Colorado this year? Check out our Winter Park review, as well as our full Colorado rankings.