ADDITIONAL POSSIBLE HIGHLIGHTS: (most just a 5-minute walk from Bears Den)
- Glassblowing with John Hudnut at Gatherhouse just off Main Street. Tuesday and Thursday.
- Occasional impromptu live music at Ein Prosit, where the best German beers are on tap, and the sausages and sauerkraut are warm.
- Near-nightly live music at the 10-Mile Music Hall.
- The Breckenridge International Snow Sculpture Championships Sculpting Jan 24-28; Viewing Jan 28-Feb 3.
- Tour-the-world slide shows of WVD missions ...
... and much more.
TRANSPORTATION: Denver International Airport (DIA) receives non-stop flights from many international cities including London and Frankfurt. TRAFFIC on I-70 from Denver to Frisco is AWFUL on Friday afternoons and early Saturday mornings, as skiiers "head to the hills" each weekend. Keep this in mind as you arrange your flights. You are welcome to arrive in Frisco on Thursday to decrease your travel time.
Summit Express, Epic Mountain Express, Fresh Tracks, and Peak1 Express offer non-stop shuttle service from DIA to the Frisco Transportation Center for about $100 per person. From there you can take the Free Summit Stage to Main and Sixth, one block from Bears Den. For about $40 more per person, the shuttles will take you directly to our condos at 117 South 6th Avenue. The ride takes about 90 minutes. (Our personal favorite is Summit Express, owned by long-term Summit County residents Bob & Jackie Ropell. They own a fleet of thirty five 2021 and 2022 Ford vans with 6-cylinder 10-speed Echostar Turbo engines, All Wheel Drive, and dual rear wheels. Each cost $95,000 and they are impeccably maintained. During ski season, they transport 55,000 skiers.
Reservationists are in Summit County and in Denver, and employee satisfaction is high.) For families, a rental car or van can be a good investment and you would have wheels during your visit, but small sedans can be suboptimal on mountain roads in bad winter weather. For individuals, there is no need for a car in Frisco, as the FREE Summit Stage transports vacationers to all ski areas from a stop less than 50 meters from Bears Den. Uber drivers are available for grocery shopping, getting to hiking trail heads, or outings to places like the Silverthorne Outlet Mall, a 10-minute drive from Frisco. Uber drivers usually don't like to make the trip from Denver to Frisco for fear of traffic and weather, but travelers who have found a rare willing driver have usually paid about $140. I will arrive at DEN on Thursday January 22 to prepare, acclimate, and strengthen my skinny legs so that I can keep up with the better skiers and hikers. I usually make a reservation on Summit Express. I keep an old Honda CRV in Frisco which anyone can borrow for a short errand.
ACUTE MOUNTAIN SICKNESS: Denver's altitude is 5280 feet (1609 m). Frisco's altitude is 9075 feet (2766 m). The incidence of acute mountain sickness (often just a bothersome headache) may be as high as 70% among Colorado skiers. I usually take 1/4 of a 250-mg acetazolamide tablet on the evening before the day of travel and on the morning and evening of the day of travel.
VENUE: The Great Room of Bears Den A8 is large enough to host at least 30 seminar participants. A 65-inch TV screen will suit the audio-visual needs of anyone wanting to show some slides easily fed into the wide-screen TV from your phone by screen mirroring or from your computer via HDMI cable (bring an adapter if your computer output is not HDMI). Our adjacent A7 condo has a big TV where kids can watch movies or play games during our evening sessions.
ACCOMMODATIONS: As of October 12, 2025, I have reserved Units B3, B4, B5, and C12 in Bears Den. Some attendees have already claimed some of the rooms and agreed to cost-share those condos. I will send a spreadsheet of available rooms and prices. Some attendees prefer to arrange their own accommodations. Many guests know each other and can pre-arrange to share condos. This is an educational Seminar, so your practice should cover lodging. The units within Bears Den are closest to the meeting venue.
HERE is a large house directly across Granite Street from Bears Den if your family is large or you know who you want to stay with.
For those who want more complete privacy of bedroom and bathroom, the Hotel Frisco on Main Street is a 5-minute walk from Bears Den, very cozy. The Snowshoe Motel is even closer but a little less fancy. Another good choice, just off Main street but 7 blocks away, is the Frisco Inn on Galena Street.
January is not the height of ski season (March is), so in January, visiting families can pick from plenty of available condos and hotels.
SKIING: Ski and snowboard rentals are available at many locations in Frisco. If you reserve rental skis and boots online, you may save about 30%. The second most convenient location is Rebel Sports, about 4 blocks from Bears Den. The MOST convenient location is Podium Sports, only 1 block from Bears Den. Podium does not offer an online reservation system, but they never run out of rental unventory during the last week in January. Lift Tickets can be bought any day at each resort, but multi-day passes are often less expensive on a per-day basis. Season Pass options and day passes for Breckenridge and Keystone are HERE. Copper Mountain has even better deals, even during ski season. Again, even if you do not ski or snowboard, the hiking is fantastic.
