Beginner’s guide to Winter Park and Mary Jane.
First, a disclaimer.
Take a ski lesson, don’t try to learn on your own. Assuming you’ve had a lesson (or you ignore sound advice and charge ahead anyway), this is intended to help you ease into the Winter Park ski slopes.
First thing, grab a map of Winter Park while you are at the base, and put it in your pocket. You want to be able to find your way around the mountain. For purpose of this exercise, you can find a map online at Trail Map.
Next, at the base, put on your skis and practice walking in them (either by skating with your skis, pushing with your poles, or a combination of the two). You will need to be able to move in your ski’s without the aid of gravity (and in some cases, even against gravity) in order to enter ski lifts and make your way to the runs you want.
From the base, go to the far north (right as you look up the mountain) to the Gemini Lift. This is right next to the area where ski lessons are given. The lift is fairly easy to get off of, and has a nice flat area to stop for someone who may not be so sure on their skis.
From the top of Gemini, exit to the right. This will aim you to where the Discovery Lift drops off at the top of Bill Wilson’s Way. This is a fairly flat and bump free slope, and is where all beginner lessons at Winter Park move to after getting done in the area by the base. Discovery Lift is at the bottom. Take a few runs down Bill Wilsons Way, practicing turns back and forth and stops.
Once you have the hang of turning and stopping, I recommend getting off the Discovery Lift and heading right, down the slope and look for the Prospector Express Lift. There are two lifts in the same general area, the Eskimo Express and the Prospector Express. The Prospector Express is the furthest away of the two.
At the top of Prospector Express, go right (you may have to walk a little) and find Jack Kendrick. This is a green slope, but will have much more downhill drop than Bill Wilson’s Way. Follow Jack Kendrick all the way around (it has a big curve to the right); it will take you to the bottom of the Prospector Express again. I suggest a couple of runs down Jack Kendrick, practicing turns, control, and stops. If, after your first run down Jack Kendrick, you think you need some more practice in the flatter slope of Bill Wilson’s way, you can go past both Prospector Express and Eskimo Express, and you will see the bottom of the Discovery Lift to the right.
When you are ready for a more challenging beginner slope, after taking Jack Kendrick, ride up the Eskimo Express instead of the Prospector Express. At the top of Eskimo, go right and look for March Hare. Follow March Hare to White Rabbit (if you look at the map, you will see the top of White Rabbit is an intermediate (blue) slope, but turns to beginner (green) as it meets March Hare. March Hare, on the other hand, is a beginner (green) slope at the top, but if you stay to the right as you follow it, it turns into an intermediate (blue) slope for a bit. On the mountain, there are signs to guide you. One tip on the first part of March Hare, which is a U shaped slope as it heads down (flat in the middle and going uphill on either side). If you find your speed getting above where you are comfortable, simply turn go to the upper side of the “U”, and gravity will slow you down. Of course, you will have to reverse and go back down the side.
As you get down into White Rabbit, you will first come to a two seater lift called Looking Glass. If you take this, it will drop you off at the top of Jack Kendrick again. A little further down the slope (just past the restrooms, warming hut, and Waffle house) is the Olympia lift. This will take you to the top of White Rabbit, but you can take three of different green slopes, Whistlestop, Dormouse, or Hookup. You can get back to the top of March Hare from Dormouse, the others will take you to Village Way, which will also take you to the end of March Hare.
Beyond Olympia is the Pioneer lift, but you will end up walking a fair distance on Wagon Train if you want to get to Pioneer via this route. In any event, you should decide which lift you will take at the outset, as the slope is pretty flat in the area around Looking Glass and Olympia.
If you are ready for an intermediate slope (blue), I suggest you take Looking Glass to the top of Jack Kendrick. As you head down Jack Kendrick, a little ways past the “Family Ski Area” (there is a sign), a little before Jack Kendrick starts sweeping to the right, you will see a trail going left off of Jack Kendrick called Mock Turtle. This is an easy beginner slope. As you descend it, you will see the trail turns to the left, while another trail goes right. The trail to the left is the continuation of Mock Turtle, and the trail to the right is Tin Horn. I don’t recall seeing any signs, so just stay to the right (assuming the trail is open). This will take you all the way down to the Pioneer Lift. One tip, as you come to the fork in the trail, if you are comfortable with speed, go as fast as you can down that part of Tin Horn. The trail will go flat at the bottom and will slow you down. Without speed, you will end up walking.
Once you get to the Pioneer Lift, take it (it is your only choice at that point). From Pioneer, go left off the lift, then go right down Gun Barrel. You will recognize it as the only slope that doesn’t appear to drop straight down, and it is the only beginner run coming immediately off of the Pioneer Lift. At the bottom of Gun Barrel you will find the High Lonesome Express Lift. Instead of getting into the line for this lift, take the trail that goes to the left immediately in front of the lift. This is Lonesome Whistle, an intermediate (blue) run. It is relatively flat and bump free for a blue run, and it has some flat areas where you can naturally slow down if you get too much speed going down the run. It is a bit narrow in places. The bottom of this run dumps into March Hare, and you can then decide if you want to take the Looking Glass lift and do the same run again, or take the Olympia Lift.
At this point, if you’ve successfully navigated a blue slope, you can start looking at the map and find all kinds of runs. If you want to try the Mary Jane side of the Mountain, I suggest taking the High Lonesome Express lift, then going straight ahead to Blue Bell. This is a fairly easy intermediate run, between it and Eidelweiss, probably two of the easier runs on the Mary Jane side of the mountain.
Have fun!