Copper Mountain, CO March 3 to 6, 2025

tseeb

Well-known member
Monday, March 3 - my first day ever here although I've driven past it a few times.

Leaving Steamboat on Sun, we drove about an hour to Kremmling we were spent night. Their brewery/distillery has stopped distilling and had limited beers on tap. Friend and I each had Peruvian chicken potato soup and we split a salad. I had a stout beer.
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Mon AM we drove an hour and arrived Copper about 9 and (for $55) parked near where friend’s shuttle pickup would be between 3 and 3:30. It would have been much easier (and maybe cheaper) if he had used the 35% off Ikon Friends and Family I sent him before Valentine’s Day, but instead we waited in line to be told to go back and enter info online which took him 5 tries with desk person finally helping and almost 30 minutes to get his ticket. We loaded American Eagle after 9:30 and skied a run on it. Next time up we continued up on Excelerator and all skied long Collage to base.
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I left my friend and wife and went up and rode a skied Excelerator a couple more times before riding Storm King T-bar to the top of Copper Mtn.

Snow at Copper was much better than Steamboat, with almost no sign of melt/freeze. Lillie G Traverse I skied to get to Blackjack and Three Bears lift was an exception. Snow on that run was thin and firm, probably from wind. I rode and skied Blackjack a couple of times and skied Western Slope on Three Bears once. Snow was good, but all the chutes in Three Bears were narrow with rock along edges. I met-up with my wife and friend at the Aerie and quickly went out with a small group of SkiTalkers. We skied Excelerator once, then skied down and rode American Flyer to get to Timberline which we rode a couple of times as some of the group wanted to do the skier-cross. I found my friend on Timberline and took him down the skier-cross which he enjoyed. We skied back to main base and he quit before 3 to change and re-pack for shuttle to DEN and flight. I went up American Eagle and did a couple of more laps on Excelerator before coming down near Super Bee lift so I rode a beginner chair and poled to bottom floor of parking garage where we’d parked. I finished skiing at 3:45 with 27.5K
 
Not sure if I should give away any punchlines about conditions this week, but I did ski with tseeb today in pretty good snow. Still need to download pics and all though.
 
Not sure when I'll have time to write-up Tuesday (9" new but hard surface underneath often found) and Wednesday (7" and getting better).

Thursday with another 2" new was the best day. Lucia and I skied out of Lodge at Copper where we had stayed 3 nights to nearby American Flyer lift that we rode to Timberline that I wanted to show her. I didn't want her to have to push across top of Timberline line so we went down The Moz which she did not enjoy due to the 1-2" on top of smooth run. She sat out a run while I repeated The Moz.
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I then took her down groomed green Soliloquy and groomed blue Copperfield and she enjoyed both of them. We returned to Flyer base where I showed her route to where we stayed while I continued to Eagle and rode it and Excelerator meeting up with @EMSC at top. We rode the T-Bar and skied still a little tough due to wind Lillie-G Traverse to Three Bears lift that we would ride 7 times. I spotted some of the SkiTalk group from lift so we did a quick lap down The Taco and got ahead of them. We found some very good, mostly chopped up but deep powder on Three Bears. Will have to write up rest later, but here's my photo dump. First is MDF/Mike who now lives in Napa.
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EMSC skiing Three Bears and going past me.
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Matt Smith, who has been patrolling at Beaver Creek for three years and loves the tight trees and Tex/Scott from Dallas.
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A few more of EMSC skiing Three Bears runs
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Another of Mike/MDF. Have more but need to leave for Aspen. A couple of wet inches on cars at motel in Glenwood.
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Edit to add that my vertical was just under 24K and a few more photos. First two are Tex who we wore out both days.
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Two more of @EMSC in Three Bears that I ran out of time to post yesterday.
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I need a pre-amble to tseeb's report as I was a touch late for opening bell due to a weird 20 minute dead stop at the tunnels and then a long long of cars spilling onto I70 to be parked in the free lots.

While tseeb was showing his wife the joys of Timbeline I managed to get three laps in Spaulding bowl. Two in Patrol Chute and one down the main bowl. That involves the double lifts of Resolution and Storm King t-bar. Roughly 1900 vert per lap. At the top of my 3rd lap is when I met tseeb at the top of Super B/Exelerator.

Apparently 1st one in Patrol Chute for the day...
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2nd run (360 X3 doing a bad helmet stich line)
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Picking up after tseeb's commentary through 3 Bears lift. We took Mtn Chief out of the backside and Matt lead us on a Union Meadows run. Mostly low angle, but skiing nicely. Part of the departure from the back was that what turned out to be a heavy squall was coming through making visibility difficult. The squall lasted long enough to drop 1-2" in maybe 45 minutes. Along the way we lost Mike and Tex decided to take a rest.

After taking Timberline up ourselves we skied an easy cruiser over to Super B. where we did a Oh No to Freefall glade run 'first tracks' as it were in the inch+ of new snow in the glade. Followed by a 2nd lap into 17 glade where tseeb called it a day. I took just one more lap also back in 17 glade as the section I showed tseeb had been lightly skied for the week and seemed had not been at all on that day yet. Finishing up ~3:35p with 25.3K of Vertical. I was on the road by 4p and home in 2 hours on the nose.

tseeb on what used to be known as Fremont 2 on Tucker mtn (I have refused to learn most of the new names they gave when the chair went in)
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tseeb in blue in The Taco
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Matt, tseeb, Mike contemplating our next pitch
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Tex and tseeb on lower Falcon
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tseeb catching air
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tseeb top of Freemont 1/now Boulderado
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windy snow squall starting up
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I need a pre-amble to tseeb's report as I was a touch late for opening bell due to a weird 20 minute dead stop at the tunnels and then a long long of cars spilling onto I70 to be parked in the free lots.

While tseeb was showing his wife the joys of Timbeline I managed to get three laps in Spaulding bowl. Two in Patrol Chute and one down the main bowl. That involves the double lifts of Resolution and Storm King t-bar. Roughly 1900 vert per lap. At the top of my 3rd lap is when I met tseeb at the top of Super B/Exelerator.

Apparently 1st one in Patrol Chute for the day...
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2nd run (360 X3 doing a bad helmet stich line)
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Picking up after tseeb's commentary through 3 Bears lift. We took Mtn Chief out of the backside and Matt lead us on a Union Meadows run. Mostly low angle, but skiing nicely. Part of the departure from the back was that what turned out to be a heavy squall was coming through making visibility difficult. The squall lasted long enough to drop 1-2" in maybe 45 minutes. Along the way we lost Mike and Tex decided to take a rest.

After taking Timberline up ourselves we skied an easy cruiser over to Super B. where we did a Oh No to Freefall glade run 'first tracks' as it were in the inch+ of new snow in the glade. Followed by a 2nd lap into 17 glade where tseeb called it a day. I took just one more lap also back in 17 glade as the section I showed tseeb had been lightly skied for the week and seemed had not been at all on that day yet. Finishing up ~3:35p with 25.3K of Vertical. I was on the road by 4p and home in 2 hours on the nose.

tseeb on what used to be known as Fremont 2 on Tucker mtn (I have refused to learn most of the new names they gave when the chair went in)
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tseeb in blue in The Taco
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Matt, tseeb, Mike contemplating our next pitch
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Tex and tseeb on lower Falcon
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tseeb catching air
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tseeb top of Freemont 1/now Boulderado
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windy snow squall starting up
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Looks great. When the snow is good, Tucker mtn can be a lot if fun.
 
Finally adding some details and photos from Tuesday March 4 and Wednesday March 5. Started writing this on March 9 and tried again earlier this week. Monday night there was a party hosted by Racewax rep in his condo that was less than 10 minute walk from where we stayed. It started snowing about the same time the 4-person shotski was first used with ULLR. I tried it much later, not long before I left.

Tuesday the group went to A-Basin, but I and a few others could not see driving 25 miles each way on snow-covered roads when we could walk to Copper where according to OpenSnow 9" new had fallen in last 24 hrs. My SUV Tues AM.
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I should have followed Dave Bostedo's directions for meetup, but instead followed another post that said 8:45 meetup would be outside Jack's. Lucia and I were under the big sign for Jack's from 8:40 to 8:50 and watched the line grow slowly for American Eagle, then much faster when American Flyer went down. We should have been on the other side of the building near the big COPPER snow carving as we found everyone there the next day. So not only was I skiing the new snow solo, I had to return after a powder run on Excelerator to get Lucia up the mountain and show her an Eagle run that had a one cat wide groomed path.

I rode Eagle again with Lucia and pointed her towards narrow groomed path while I continued up Excelerator, then Storm King T-bar and skied Lillie-G to get to Blackjack. Lillie-G was better than previous, but visibility was tough. I skied Otto Bahn, finding some untracked, to Mountain Chief that I would ride and ski 3x. First time up, I hiked up ridge almost as far as they would let you, probably coming down in Brandley’s Plunge where after skiing some wind-affected powder where I often found hard layer underneath, I skied a narrow chute between rocks. I found better snow lower, but a tree branch took off a ski and luckily affected hiking back up I quickly found it,. Next lap I did not hike as far and skied Six Shooter then ducked a rope to an untracked powder field they wanted you to enter from higher. My last Mountain Chief lap I skied Matchless and got into the same powder field, but went off about a 15’ steep unexpected drop in bad light that caused me to sit down. And I got into powder field lower. My three laps on Mountain King and Three Bears.
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I then moved to Three Bears for three laps, first skiing what was probably Denverite although I was trying to get to an untracked edge of The Springs I’d spotted from chair. Next two laps was Falcon Alley that held a lot of decent powder, then Summit Stash the only single black run on Three Bears. I rode Mountain Chief again and exited Copper Bowl area into left side of Union Bowl that I skied to bottom, then came back up Flyer. I rode and skied Excelerator a couple of more times and skied lookers right of Storm King T-Bar once before skiing to bottom and quitting about 3 with 22.5K


Wednesday 3/5, Skied with group led by Prosper, a Dr. from Denver area who skis Copper a lot, and Matt Smith, the Beaver Creek patroller who likes leading into untracked tight trees. Skied 9 to 3:15 and counted 22.7K

Even with maps from my Garmin Watch and SkiTracks, the day was and still is a blur. Looking at posts from others, mainly Tex, we skied Union Peak from the top of Mountain Chief and Spaulding Bowl, probably Patrolman’s Chute and Enchanted Forest. Photo of Lucia and I taken by @dbostedo when we got to meetup early.
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First two photos I think are Justin in Union Bowl and the next is @Tex.
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View from top of Storm King T-Bar at 2:58 before we skied Enchanted Forest.
13,205' Jacque Peak where new lifts and terrain were recently approved in shadow left of center.
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Filet tips with gorgonzola and Fat Tony (two meatballs with sauce and Parmesan) appetizers went well with Happy Hour (3-4:30) Chianti at Sauce. We added an order of bread that took forever so we could soak up the sauces. Thanks to Kara/@Pumba for the tip. Previous evening we went to Eagle BBQ, barely getting in before 7 PM close. Employees there said they were the only independent restaurant in the area.
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