NeedhamSkier
New member
Arrived at Copper a little late after taking 3 hours for the drive from Boulder, thanks to several spin-outs on what looked like very tame conditions on I-70 (others not us). We were armed with a 2-for-1 lift ticket secured on Ebay (thanks to Johnnash for the idea). Purchased from the Thrifty Diva (highly recommended - great service and very helpful to this Ebay newbie). This brought the cost for two lift-tickets down to a much more reasonable $43 ea, so of course we then blew $20 on the close-in parking – go figure.
The conditions were very, very good. It had been snowing a little for the previous 3 or 4 days with about 6” of new snow on top of a substantial base, and snow showers on and off all day continuing to add to it. Did a couple of warm-ups off the Excelerator lift. Then headed over to the Resolution area, where we suffered on Highline – medium-big bumps, with substantial chopped up powder on top and in between – very hard to stay balanced. Far East off the Alpine lift was the same – just not much fun because of the big bumps that had formed. Triple Treat, which we did later, was great however– a good pitch, groomed overnight, with 4-6” of broken powder on top.
With the ongoing snow and lack of visibility, we decided not to go over to Copper Bowl. But the highlight of the day (and it was a pretty good day) were two runs in Enchanted Forest. After a rocky traverse, we dropped into widely spaced trees with about 12” of very light powder collected in them. I did the first run by myself, then went back and collected my wife from the restaurant where she was warming up. Felt much more secure in the woods with some company the second time round. If it’s open, Enchanted Forest is definitely an area worth exploring for some freshies after the obvious hits.
Stayed Friday night at The Frisco Inn. Very comfortable and friendly, right on Main St in Frisco.
Next day, met up with some friends to ski at Breck. It was the Saturday before the SuperBowl, the morning was sunny and not too cold, and there were perfect conditions and. So being East-coasters, we were a little surprised to see zero lift lines at Peak 9 base when we arrived at 9am. Or at 9.30… Oh, to live in Colorado... But we did run into a few longer lines (10-15 minutes) over on Peak 8 later that day, and there is I-70 to contend with, so I guess it’s not quite nirvana. (and I really don't want to get the whole CO Vs. UT thing going again)
We started with a couple of runs on Peak 9, while we waited for our friends to show. The trails were groomed super-smooth and had nobody on them, so we carved some major turns and enjoyed the sheer thrill of just letting them run. For my wife, these were probably the best runs we did on a couple of pretty good days. Having met our friends, we headed over to Peak 8. We were heading up to do a couple of runs on Lift 6, when we saw that Imperial Express was opening – way too good an offer to refuse. By the time we got to the top, the lines underneath were tracked out, so we followed others round the corner into North Bowl. Picking our line, we peeled off down through knee-deep untracked, but heavy powder - very skiable, once you summoned the confidence to ski it a bit faster and hope not to hit one of the occasional rocks poking through. We all got some great turns in, with much whooping from us and the assorted crowd who all also got lucky.
After that, we poked around in the trees off Lift 6 for a few runs. That is a fun area, with a ton of different lines and lots of opportunity for each of us to find our own kicks. The morning had been sunny, but it started snowing again later and so after a leisurely lunch we finished off over on Peak 10, alternating between bumps in the trees on The Burn and smaller bumps at speed on the trails.
A couple of excellent days. Thanks to everybody on the board for your advice and tips. Conditions in Summit County are close to perfect right now and they were calling for a major winter storm as we headed back to Denver for the Jetblue red-eye back to Boston.
The conditions were very, very good. It had been snowing a little for the previous 3 or 4 days with about 6” of new snow on top of a substantial base, and snow showers on and off all day continuing to add to it. Did a couple of warm-ups off the Excelerator lift. Then headed over to the Resolution area, where we suffered on Highline – medium-big bumps, with substantial chopped up powder on top and in between – very hard to stay balanced. Far East off the Alpine lift was the same – just not much fun because of the big bumps that had formed. Triple Treat, which we did later, was great however– a good pitch, groomed overnight, with 4-6” of broken powder on top.
With the ongoing snow and lack of visibility, we decided not to go over to Copper Bowl. But the highlight of the day (and it was a pretty good day) were two runs in Enchanted Forest. After a rocky traverse, we dropped into widely spaced trees with about 12” of very light powder collected in them. I did the first run by myself, then went back and collected my wife from the restaurant where she was warming up. Felt much more secure in the woods with some company the second time round. If it’s open, Enchanted Forest is definitely an area worth exploring for some freshies after the obvious hits.
Stayed Friday night at The Frisco Inn. Very comfortable and friendly, right on Main St in Frisco.
Next day, met up with some friends to ski at Breck. It was the Saturday before the SuperBowl, the morning was sunny and not too cold, and there were perfect conditions and. So being East-coasters, we were a little surprised to see zero lift lines at Peak 9 base when we arrived at 9am. Or at 9.30… Oh, to live in Colorado... But we did run into a few longer lines (10-15 minutes) over on Peak 8 later that day, and there is I-70 to contend with, so I guess it’s not quite nirvana. (and I really don't want to get the whole CO Vs. UT thing going again)
We started with a couple of runs on Peak 9, while we waited for our friends to show. The trails were groomed super-smooth and had nobody on them, so we carved some major turns and enjoyed the sheer thrill of just letting them run. For my wife, these were probably the best runs we did on a couple of pretty good days. Having met our friends, we headed over to Peak 8. We were heading up to do a couple of runs on Lift 6, when we saw that Imperial Express was opening – way too good an offer to refuse. By the time we got to the top, the lines underneath were tracked out, so we followed others round the corner into North Bowl. Picking our line, we peeled off down through knee-deep untracked, but heavy powder - very skiable, once you summoned the confidence to ski it a bit faster and hope not to hit one of the occasional rocks poking through. We all got some great turns in, with much whooping from us and the assorted crowd who all also got lucky.
After that, we poked around in the trees off Lift 6 for a few runs. That is a fun area, with a ton of different lines and lots of opportunity for each of us to find our own kicks. The morning had been sunny, but it started snowing again later and so after a leisurely lunch we finished off over on Peak 10, alternating between bumps in the trees on The Burn and smaller bumps at speed on the trails.
A couple of excellent days. Thanks to everybody on the board for your advice and tips. Conditions in Summit County are close to perfect right now and they were calling for a major winter storm as we headed back to Denver for the Jetblue red-eye back to Boston.