Day 1 western trip - Copper Mountain

We made it to CO for our school vacation trip. Got to our hotel in Golden CO at about midnight, so an early launch wasn't happening for us. Plus the one downside of shipping your stuff ahead of your trip is that when you get there - there's a lot of unpacking and sorting out to do.

Drove to Copper, nice scenic ride. Traffic was OK until we hit Silverthorne and then it was pretty slow to Copper. When we got there the parking lots were full or filling quickly. But the funny thing was that the lodges weren't crowded and we never waited on a liftline.

Good lord I had forgotten how much vertical you get on western mountains. The runs just go on and on. I didn't have too much problem with the altitude, a couple of mogul runs I was huffing but after a minute to catch my breath - back at it. We didn't spend any time in the Union Peak area as we didn't have a lot of time due to our late start. Everything skied great although a lot was boot deep broken up snow that was heavy. At 1st it took me a little to get the hang of it - mostly just needed to re-find my testicular fortitude and power thru it at speed. Once I did that - the rest of the day was great. By the last 2 hrs of the day things started to soften and there were some great bump runs to be had.

Overall - I really liked this mountain. Very interesting terrain and pods. I would have liked to have spent a couple of days there exploring but we just had this one day. I'll let the pics do the talking.

My boys (and 1 friend who jumped on the chance to come with us - smart kid). As predicted - having never skied the west - they were blown away by the views, the trails, and the size of the mountains.


Spaulding Bowl


Resolution area


Nice pic from mid-mtn area

Still looks very white out there Whitey. Good to hear. I'll be out there soon too, but different places than you. Have fun. Looks like there could be some natural snow as week goes on.

Best way to prepare for the killer vert is to ski top to bottom non stop at your local hill, even if its blue or green cruisers. We're used to 1000 maybe 1200 vertical runs here, then we go out west and get killed with 3000 sometimes 4000 vert.

Awesome. Copper's got enough to keep one entertained for many days. Enjoyed my 2 days there and look forward to a couple more in March.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

Pretty.

Whitey said:

We made to CO for our school vacation trip. Got to our hotel in Golden CO at about midnight, so an early launch wasn't happening for us. Plus the one downside of shipping your stuff ahead of your trip is that when you get there - there's a lot of unpacking and sorting out to do.

Drove to Copper, nice scenic ride. Traffic was OK until we hit Silverthorne and then it was pretty slow to Copper. When we got there the parking lots were full or filling quickly. But the funny thing was that the lodges weren't crowded and we never waited on a liftline.

Good lord I had forgotten how much vertical you get on western mountains. The runs just go on and on. I didn't have too much problem with the altitude, a couple of mogul runs I was huffing but after a minute to catch my breath - back at it. We didn't spend any time in the Union Peak area as we didn't have a lot of time due to our late start. Everything skied great although a lot was boot deep broken up snow that was heavy. At 1st it took me a little to get the hang of it - mostly just needed to re-find my testicular fortitude and power thru it at speed. Once I did that - the rest of the day was great. By the last 2 hrs of the day things started to soften and there were some great bump runs to be had.

Overall - I really liked this mountain. Very interesting terrain and pods. I would have liked to have spent a couple of days there exploring but we just had this one day. I'll let the pics do the talking.

My boys (and 1 friend who jumped on the chance to come with us - smart kid). As predicted - having never skied the west - they were blown away by the views, the trails, and the size of the mountains.

Click to expand...

The length of runs was one of the aspects that were immediately noticed when we skied here in vacation last February. Now with a half a season gone by we still think the same and bumps still get me huffing.