Neither Liz nor I had skied Copper since the 1990’s, so we decided to check it out for a day. I expected well preserved snow from the high altitude and mostly north exposure. What we did not expect was how much colder Copper was than Vail this week. It was 4F when we go to the free Alpine parking lot ~8:35am. Fortunately I had brought along a warmer fleece mid-layer, which worked well all day long. Temps probably stayed below 20F, though with clear skies and no wind it was very pleasant skiing.
We started out of the West Village, which serves a vast number of easy runs. We took a couple of blue cruisers on Timberline, then skied to Center Village and rode American Flyer. It was now 10AM and we needed a short thaw break. We rode Excelerator and skied the long Andy’s Encore run to the Super Bee lift. Then we took the Storm King T-bar and ran 2 laps through Spaulding Bowl and the Resolution lift. The first lap was the wide open but somewhat bumpy So Fine.
The second lap we traversed out farther to Marvin Garden. All of the Spaulding runs funnel into Cross Cut and then to the Resolution lift.
We rode Storm King a third time. View from the top of Union Bowl, then Copper Bowl behind it.
We skied off the back to first Blackjack and then Mountain Chief. From the back you get a nice view of the north side of Tucker Mt. and a few tracks from Sunday.
There ‘s a free snowcat at least part way up Tucker, but it only operates on weekends. We made a few tracks of our own in Upper Union Peak.
We returned to the top via the Sierra chair and Celebrity T-bat. Copper bowl is the rare terrain facing south here, so we figured noon-to-1PM would be the optimal timing. Schaefer’s was lightly sun affected.
The next run we traversed farther right to Iron Mask, who had chalky snow.
The runout was a delightful meadow of snow and lightly tracked powder.
Overview of Copper Bowl from the Mountain Chief lift:
We returned to the front side via Union Meadow and some trees below it. We soon reached the T-Rex Grill at Timberline, but it was still cold enough for us to prefer an indoor lunch, so we skied down to Center Village about 1:30. We had soup and salad at the Incline, then rode 3 lifts up to the top of Storm King again. This time we skied Enchanted Forest.
There was lots of soft snow in here because it takes several lift rides to get back to Enchanted Forest. We skied to the bottom, rode Flyer and barely got on Sierra before closing. Our last run was Far West.
From here we skied to the East Village, finishing the day with 23,800 vertical.
We started out of the West Village, which serves a vast number of easy runs. We took a couple of blue cruisers on Timberline, then skied to Center Village and rode American Flyer. It was now 10AM and we needed a short thaw break. We rode Excelerator and skied the long Andy’s Encore run to the Super Bee lift. Then we took the Storm King T-bar and ran 2 laps through Spaulding Bowl and the Resolution lift. The first lap was the wide open but somewhat bumpy So Fine.
The second lap we traversed out farther to Marvin Garden. All of the Spaulding runs funnel into Cross Cut and then to the Resolution lift.
We rode Storm King a third time. View from the top of Union Bowl, then Copper Bowl behind it.
We skied off the back to first Blackjack and then Mountain Chief. From the back you get a nice view of the north side of Tucker Mt. and a few tracks from Sunday.
There ‘s a free snowcat at least part way up Tucker, but it only operates on weekends. We made a few tracks of our own in Upper Union Peak.
We returned to the top via the Sierra chair and Celebrity T-bat. Copper bowl is the rare terrain facing south here, so we figured noon-to-1PM would be the optimal timing. Schaefer’s was lightly sun affected.
The next run we traversed farther right to Iron Mask, who had chalky snow.
The runout was a delightful meadow of snow and lightly tracked powder.
Overview of Copper Bowl from the Mountain Chief lift:
We returned to the front side via Union Meadow and some trees below it. We soon reached the T-Rex Grill at Timberline, but it was still cold enough for us to prefer an indoor lunch, so we skied down to Center Village about 1:30. We had soup and salad at the Incline, then rode 3 lifts up to the top of Storm King again. This time we skied Enchanted Forest.
There was lots of soft snow in here because it takes several lift rides to get back to Enchanted Forest. We skied to the bottom, rode Flyer and barely got on Sierra before closing. Our last run was Far West.
From here we skied to the East Village, finishing the day with 23,800 vertical.
