EMSC
Well-known member
Mixed bag of conditions.
Melt freeze cycles occurring reasonably regularly on most terrain, but not all - say one or two days per week lately it seems. SO despite some new snow mid-week, late week got some warmer temps. Not to be outdone, it also snowed 3" on Saturday night and brought decent winds along. That is another piece of the complex snow conditions pie. Lots of wind for what feels like a week straight in Colo.
Day one included everything from soft, to firm and chalk, to firm and wind blown sastrugi, to icy refrozen, to softening spring snow. It all depended on altitude, orientation to the sun, wind direction/protection, etc... Day two was more predictable as nearly nothing softened in the sun except very bottom flats near chairs and only by mid afternoon.
Day one had plenty of overcast thrown in as well. Starting by going up Super B to the T-bar.
Sun facing Upper Lillie G was refrozen with too much breeze up that high, though lower down things did soften as the breeze disappeared part way down Blackjack lift. (upper here
It's hard to tell in some pics, but the mid-week storm must have had some Utah dust blown in with it. Not near as bad as Europe, but still will melt things out faster. From tucker Mtn looking back to copper bowl and Mtn Chief lift:
Tucker was firm but chalky high, softer spring snow on the lower few hundred verts.
But also had wind sastrugui in places too. I have no idea the current names, back in the cat ski days this was Fremont 1:
This pic was in what used to be named the Taco and was the best winter like snow of the day:
After some chow my wife & son wanted to hit blue trails and they were finally softening with a bit more sun in the afternoon, though I only took this picture of Timberline chair all afternoon.
Fortunately the snow that fell overnight was fairly dense so it skied somewhat better than dust on crust, though you definitely wanted to seek out untouched, or piles of soft and avoid the refrozen parts. This was a bit harder to do on steep bump areas. It was also much chillier, especially up top where the wind howled all day and even shut a few lifts (like the t-bar for example). In spite of the wind in your face on the last couple of towers, Resolution chair had some of the best snow of the day as the terrain faces East and mostly out of the west wind.
I didn't get many pics on Sunday due to the wind/chill. But in general I switched up laps on Alpine chair and Resolution trying to stay away from the wind somewhat. Alpine chair here:
Being my first days of the season at Copper (which feels a bit strange as i usually hit it a few time during a typical season), I was surprised to see these new signs at most lifts:
The upper steep pitch on Resolution was mostly endured, not skied. It was an icy crunchy mess underneath the couple inches.
But then there were some really fun turns to be had as well if you knew where to go:
Finally, I have no idea on the "why" part of the new lodge they were supposed to build at the top of the chondola Eagle lift. Originally they said they would build it the year after installing the Gondola but it has now been several years with very little work done (the actual concrete foundation was done the same year as the new lift was built, so I think only small amount of steel put up since then). Seems pretty strange for a major Colo resort to present itself to the public over several years in this way.
Melt freeze cycles occurring reasonably regularly on most terrain, but not all - say one or two days per week lately it seems. SO despite some new snow mid-week, late week got some warmer temps. Not to be outdone, it also snowed 3" on Saturday night and brought decent winds along. That is another piece of the complex snow conditions pie. Lots of wind for what feels like a week straight in Colo.
Day one included everything from soft, to firm and chalk, to firm and wind blown sastrugi, to icy refrozen, to softening spring snow. It all depended on altitude, orientation to the sun, wind direction/protection, etc... Day two was more predictable as nearly nothing softened in the sun except very bottom flats near chairs and only by mid afternoon.
Day one had plenty of overcast thrown in as well. Starting by going up Super B to the T-bar.
Sun facing Upper Lillie G was refrozen with too much breeze up that high, though lower down things did soften as the breeze disappeared part way down Blackjack lift. (upper here
It's hard to tell in some pics, but the mid-week storm must have had some Utah dust blown in with it. Not near as bad as Europe, but still will melt things out faster. From tucker Mtn looking back to copper bowl and Mtn Chief lift:
Tucker was firm but chalky high, softer spring snow on the lower few hundred verts.
But also had wind sastrugui in places too. I have no idea the current names, back in the cat ski days this was Fremont 1:
This pic was in what used to be named the Taco and was the best winter like snow of the day:
After some chow my wife & son wanted to hit blue trails and they were finally softening with a bit more sun in the afternoon, though I only took this picture of Timberline chair all afternoon.
Fortunately the snow that fell overnight was fairly dense so it skied somewhat better than dust on crust, though you definitely wanted to seek out untouched, or piles of soft and avoid the refrozen parts. This was a bit harder to do on steep bump areas. It was also much chillier, especially up top where the wind howled all day and even shut a few lifts (like the t-bar for example). In spite of the wind in your face on the last couple of towers, Resolution chair had some of the best snow of the day as the terrain faces East and mostly out of the west wind.
I didn't get many pics on Sunday due to the wind/chill. But in general I switched up laps on Alpine chair and Resolution trying to stay away from the wind somewhat. Alpine chair here:
Being my first days of the season at Copper (which feels a bit strange as i usually hit it a few time during a typical season), I was surprised to see these new signs at most lifts:
The upper steep pitch on Resolution was mostly endured, not skied. It was an icy crunchy mess underneath the couple inches.
But then there were some really fun turns to be had as well if you knew where to go:
Finally, I have no idea on the "why" part of the new lodge they were supposed to build at the top of the chondola Eagle lift. Originally they said they would build it the year after installing the Gondola but it has now been several years with very little work done (the actual concrete foundation was done the same year as the new lift was built, so I think only small amount of steel put up since then). Seems pretty strange for a major Colo resort to present itself to the public over several years in this way.
