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Copper Mtn 1/2/14 POWDER DAY!

skiNEwhere

Active member
Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
4,141
Points
38
Location
Dubai
Date(s) Skied: 1/2/2014

Resort or Ski Area: Copper Mountain, Colorado

Conditions: POWDER!

Trip Report:

I wasn't quite sure how big the crowds would be seeing as it is still technically winter break, but I decided to risk it and head to copper since their trail report showed they had a lot of new terrain open. I was a little worried when I saw a thousand cars with ski's on top on I-70, but I made it to Copper in just over a hour, and parked in the Alpine lot.

I bought K2 Pontoons a couple of seasons ago, and had my old boots set up with them. I bought new boots at the beginning of the season that are slightly smaller, so I had to adjust my bindings. I couldn't get the heel binding on one of my ski's to move forward any more though, so I took it to a ski shop I trust out here. Turns out this shop in Hadley, MA didn't know what the hell they were doing when the bindings were originally mounted. The toe piece and heel piece were mounted different lengths from each other!!!! So while one of my new boots fit in the binding fine, my other boot had a 1/4 inch gap to the back binding (The toe piece doesn't move). I was able to step out of the binding without too much effort. Looks like I'm going to have to get the binding remounted.....grumble.....

Anyways, so I didn't get to use my powder ski's but had to use my rock ski's.

First run up, as you'll see in the video, I went into the glades and not 10 seconds later I hidden a branch barely visible (you can see it if you look close in the video) and ejected and nearly hit the trunk of the tree. Thankfully I was able to turn a little bit and only brush up against the branches.

I headed up to the Sierra lift, where ski patrol was blasting the union bowl for avalanches. I took a run 6 shooter in the backside, which was pretty tracked out from the day before (This was no later than 9:30) but still had a couple of fresh spots.

On my way back to the Sierra bowl, I accidentally took the wrong trail and ended up at the bottom with the masses at the American Flyer lift. I waited 10 minutes and line, and by the time I got back to the Sierra lift, I saw that ski patrol had opened the Union Bowl and people were skiing down. After I got off the lift, I headed over to the Union bowl and tried to find some terrain that wasn't tracked out yet. (3:27 in the video)

Lapped trails off of mountain chief and blackjack before venturing out into the glades, where I found some DEEP powder, actually too deep considering the tightness of the trees and not having powder ski's. I got stuck in almost waist deep powder a couple of times and had to dig myself out (Go Pro died after the first time I got stuck). Glad I was able to make some fresh tracks in there, although it was clear it was not a marked trail based on the fact that there were downed trees and low lying branches.

All in all, I stayed at the summit the majority of the day, and was able to avoid the masses for the most part.

 
Last edited:

Edd

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
6,537
Points
113
Location
Newmarket, NH
Holy crap, dude great video! The first part with the tree made me wince. Copper looks great!
 
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