Copper Mountain Resort Review

Copper Mountain Resort Review

Copper Mountain Resort Website: http://www.coppercolorado.com/winter

Trail Map

Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 Stars)

Summary: If you have driven on I-70 past Dillon, you have probably seen Copper Mountain on your travels. Located in the heart of Summit County, Copper is a great alternative to the other “epic” mountains in the area. Copper is composed of two main peaks (Union and Copper) with Tucker Mountain anchoring its back bowls. Although Copper Mountain does get busy on weekends, in my experience, the crowds are far less than most of the other neighboring mountains in the area. Copper Mountain offers a bit of everything for your skiing or riding experience: beginner trails, hike-to terrain, open bowls, glades and of course a variety of parks. Copper Mountain also has a sister business, Woodward Copper, which focuses on freestyle training for all action sports. Copper Mountain has a variety of shops and restaurants at its base for those of you who like to booze a bit more than you like to ride or for your mother babysitter who is watching the kids. Overall, Copper Mountain offers every bit of the Colorado ski resort experience one would expect and is a solid place to visit. 

Strengths: Copper Mountain is a pretty well rounded resort and offers a bit of everything one would expect when visiting a ski resort. If you enjoy open bowls, but don’t want to spend 40 minutes getting around the mountain, this is certainly a strength of Copper. In fact, I would consider Copper Mountain a very snowboard friendly mountain in general. Snowboard friendly to me means that you can access most points of the mountain without using long straightaways or annoying catwalks. The back bowls at Copper are really fun on a powder day, especially if you utilize their free snowcat. For me, one of Copper’s shining strengths is the lift layout. It is extremely easy to get from the back bowls to the front of the mountain and  vice-versa. To make the lift layout even better – they have upgraded a few of their lifts as of the 18/19 season and plan to do more before the 19/20 season including adding an additional lift on the back side of the mountain to access more terrain that was previously only available for hikers. 

Weaknesses: Copper Mountain does not have the best glades. This doesn’t mean that Copper does not have tree runs, I just don’t find them extremely fun to ride on a snowboard. The tree density here is rather thick, which makes a good rhythm in the glades hard to find. On a windy day, Copper can be rather unpleasant. This is mostly due to the fact that about 1/4 of the mountain is above treeline. If you are looking for long sweeping runs, Copper might not be your best option. The longest run on the mountain is Collage which is 1.7 miles long. Finally, one of my least favorite parts about Copper is the new American Flyer (blue bubble) lift. While this lift has been upgraded, if you ride it, you will notice a few things: it stops all.the.time. because of its weight and unclear unloading instructions when it comes to the bar/bubble and the seat depth is rather unpleasant if you are taller. I never feel uncomfortable on lifts with the bar up, but American Flyer is one where I like to ride with the bar down. 

Mick’s Tip: When first arriving at the mountain, consider the ski level you/your group has. If you have a lower level ability, I would recommend starting at the West Village as that is “green” central. If you have an intermediate or high ability level, start at the East Village and take Super Bee lift to the top of Copper Peak. After that,  I would strongly recommend working your way back towards the Copper Bow. Once back there, take advantage of Copper’s free snowcat. Even if you do not want to hike or have a lower ski/snowboard level, the cat will bring you to terrain that in many cases will offer fresh turns.

Parking: There are several parking areas at Copper Mountain including 2 free parking lots. If you want to park a bit closer, you will pay anywhere from $6-$40 a day at the Ten Mile Circle, Beeler, Chapel, Flyer, Triple Threat, Union Creek or Wheeler lots. All pay to park areas take credit cards. If you are going the free route, you can park at the Alpine or Far East Parking lots. To access the pay to park lots, follow signs to the main resort. If you are interested in the free lots, continue past the main entrance, the Alpine lot will be on your right and the Far East lot will be on your left. Typically if you arrive by 8-9AM you should have no problem getting a spot at the Alpine lot which is a bit closer than Far East. All free lots offer shuttles to the base(s) of the mountain.  One thing to note, if you have a Subaru, Beeler Lot has 10 complimentary spots which are first come, first serve. To be honest, the walk from the Beeler lot is probably longer than taking the free shuttle, but that is just my opinion. View parking map here.

Photography: Take a lift to the summit of Copper Peak and you will have stunning photos in all directions. In fact, I would say that Copper Mountain has some of the best views in Summit County, that are accessible to skiiers/riders of all levels. Once you leave the treeline, you will have a hard time finding a view that does not make you go “whoa.”