Copper Mt., CO, March 17 & 21, 2025

[Tony Crocker]

The object lesson of altitude/exposure in March was demonstrated in the opposite extreme today. In my snow preservation formula (altitude/latitude and exposure distribution) for North American ski areas Steamboat ranks #89 and Copper Mt. #5. There was zero spring or melt/frozen snow anywhere on the front side from Super Bee to the West Village, even at the base, which is at 9,600 feet. 9,600 would be 3/4 of the way up Steamboat's vertical. We did not ski the A lift or Spaulding Bowl, which face more east.

The first bus we caught from the free parking lot went to the West Village, which serves a massive amount of beginner and low intermediate terrain. After a warmup run on the Timberline lift, we crossed to the Center Village, rode Eagle and Excelerator to ski two long Super Bee cruisers.

OpenSnow did advise of moderate winds, and here's Liz near the top of Super Bee.

Once again the weather models missed on the sun forecast. It clouded over completely within an hour.

The Storm King poma was closed, so we skied down Ptarmigan and Fairplay to Center Village. I recalled the peculiarity that it's almost impossible to cross between the Eagle and Flyer sides of the mountain without going down to Center Village.

From Flyer we rode Rendezvous on our way to the backside. First view of Tucker Mt.:

We got down to the Blackjack and Three Bears lifts at 12:15, but alas the wind at the top of Three Bears was gusting 80-90mph and it had been shut down shortly before we got there.

So we took Blackjack back to the front side and moved to Sierra. Riding Sierra had a strong windblast in the face that would not be out of place at Mammoth. But also like Mammoth the Revenge run under the lift had considerable windblown snow.

I had to check out the backside via the poma above Sierra. View down Mountain Chief with Tucker in the background:

That view is directly south, so I decided to traverse skier's right where the exposure bends more to the east.

That might be a good idea in January (last visit was in Jan. 2015) but not on an overcast and windy day in March. The Bradley's area I skied was bulletproof and partly mogulled and Liz was wise not to go with me. Riding Mountain Chief I could tell that direct south facing Six Shooter was partially softened.

But the main reason I was riding Mountain Chief was to reach the longer Union Bowl fall line on the front side. I was right about that call as there was a lot of windsift in there. I also noticed the Otto Bahn traverse track from Rendezvous of Mountain Chief, so I wanted to round up Liz for that more comfortable route to Union Bowl.

Independently we both missed the traverse track to Timberline chair and ended up at West Village. In my case the chair stopped for 10 minutes, building up a considerable lift line. Fortunately we made it back to Rendezvous at 2:25 so we could get back to Mountain Chief. Liz in the Union Peak windsift:

We decided to end the day on that high note and got down to Center Village at 3:00PM with 19,200 vertical. It is likely we will return to Copper Friday and hopefully get a shot at Tucker. With similar orientation as Union Bowl and longer fall lines, Tucker could have Castle quality windsift in the right circumstances.

 

[EMSC]

We did not ski the A lift or Spaulding Bowl, which face more east.

A lift was probably same winter snow. Spaulding Bowl probably would have been fine, but lower down on the Resolution terrain would probably have been mixed winter on top of scratchy surface.

I recalled the peculiarity that it's almost impossible to cross between the Eagle and Flyer sides of the mountain without going down to Center Village.

It is possible to get to East Village directly from the west side terrain and it is possible to get directly to Sierra/Rendezvous from top of Exelerator going back the other way; but not obvious how to do so for either one really (required glade skiing for getting to Sierra).

The Bradley's area I skied was bulletproof and partly mogulled and Liz was wise not to go with me.

Much of the original Copper Bowl is rarely in good condition IMO. Some combination of too soft, too refrozen, etc... Plus it is really short vertical. Though Bradleys for example is slightly steeper for that short vert than Tucker.

Tucker could have Castle quality windsift in the right circumstances.

Sometimes yes and sometimes too windpacked into dense chunky sastrugi. Overall though, Tucker has best/softest snow surfaces on the mtn IMO.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Friday at Copper worked out very efficiently so I was able to ski the places I missed Monday. The weather was still cold for March, likely no more than 15F up high and the car showed 18F when were we leaving 4:30PM. It was overcast more often than not but sunny breaks were more frequent than on Thursday. Breezes up top were light so no lifts were closed.

As EMSC noted, we got on a black bus to East Village and had a breakfast sandwich there. We arrived at 8:50AM Friday and the parking was just slightly more full than at 9:05 Monday. We warmed up on Super Bee: Andy’s Encore, then as EMSC mentioned Triple Treat under the A lift still had winter snow.

Next we took a lap on the Storm King T-bar; then I used Lille G to get to the backside. Liz wanted me to curate Tucker, so she skied Sail Away Glade down to American Flyer.

From Lille G I had panoramic views during a sunny break. Tucker through the proposed Jacque Peak expansion:

Jacque Peak to Union Bowl:

Zoom of Jacque Peak:

Tucker’s ski terrain is excellent, but the entries to them are tricky. Wind strips the entries to many runs, and this is at peak snowpack of an above average snow year. Immediate skier’s left Western Slope was easy to navigate.

On my second and third runs I went the other way. The far entrance to Boulderado was sketchy with deep gouged bumps and rocks. Once in I skied Valentine in cut up but now somewhat dense snow from the storm two days ago. The entry to Ram’s Run required crossing some thin spots, but they were on the ridge before it rolled over to steeper pitch. Both of these runs were in the ballpark with Pallavicini at A-Basin in terms of required effort top to bottom though not quite as steep.

Liz then joined me and we skied the easiest single black rated Summit Stash. View back up from there:

Liz was comfortable on Western Slope too.

The skier’s left Tucker runs can get you to Mountain Chief, so Liz took a Summit Stash Encore while I explored Falcon Alley.

The intermittent sun had softened direct south facing Six Shooter so we skied that.

And of course we returned to the frontside via Union Bowl.

This was excellent though different from Monday, soft leftovers from Tuesday’s storm vs. blown in windsift on Monday. We rode the morning bus with a local who said Union Bowl consistently has Copper’s best snow.

I had enough energy left to cross the mountain to Super Bee and Storm King to check out Spaulding bowl, which was as good as Union Bowl. This was not a surprise as I knew the skier’s right traverse bent around to partial north exposure. The pleasant surprise is that a road has been groomed out skier’s left so you are not forced down to the resolution lift. View of Spaulding Bowl from there:
8862

I skied to Resolution anyway since Hodson’s Cut had been groomed. There was occasional crunch but it was manageable.

I met Liz at the Flyer hut where she had met a couple with a different Iron Blosam week than us. I finished the day with 24,000 vertical, highest day of the current trip.

 

[EMSC]

The pleasant surprise is that a road has been groomed out skier’s left so you are not forced down to the resolution lift.

The road has several flats and even a couple short uphills to make it quite annoying if you try to take it all the way out to Alpine Lift or Super B. I only take that road when Resolution lift has closed for the season but they keep Spaulding or the short pitch at the very top of Resolution open for an extra week or two (which makes the road the only way out).