Best Skiing.... Anywhere
Written: Sep 25 '03 (Updated Sep 25 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: It is the perfect mountain
Cons: Too far from NY
The Bottom Line: Do you like to ski? Are you sick of the ice in the east? This is the perfect place for skiing.
|
|
|
| dandino's Full Review: Copper Mountain |
I am going to start off by admitting my bias. In the late 80's, the real estate market in Colorado crashed. Something happened with what you could and could not write off on a condo, and people were abandoning ship. So my father was able to pick up a condo dirt-cheap. So for 15 years my family has had a condo at the base of a ski lift. I am very partial to Copper.
Copper Mountain is located about 1 hour and 15 minutes west of Denver International Airport off of Interstate 70. It is in Summit County, according to some, the best skiing on the planet. It is within less than 30 minutes of driving to Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone Mountains and the towns of Frisco and Dillon.
THE MOUNTAIN
Obviously the most important question is, how is the skiing? It depends on what part of the mountain you go to. The way the mountain is situated with the sun, its main face is able to keep the snow in gorgeous condition. It's back bowls get hit a little harder, so the snow is great, but not perfect. The topography of the mountain is unbeatable. It's almost as if this mountain was intended by the gods of tectonic plates to be a mountain for skiers. Not knowing what is east or west, I'll refer to it as the left and right side of the mountain if you were looking at their trail map.
The far right side is for the beginners. Nothing harsh over there, the slopes have just enough of a downward slope to keep you moving, but you're not going to be doing a slalom on them. This is where people go to learn to ski. The nice part about this, is that there are no advanced terrains above you. You will not have people skiers coming off of a double diamond passing you at 60mph in a perfect parallel while you’re trying to show your date how to do the wedge (pizza pie, snow plow, whatever tem you use to describe it). So this is nice. The lifts even run slower on this side of the mountain so it’s easier for those learning to get on/off.
The middle part of the mountain is where most of the action is. Multiple detachable high speed chairs, shops, rentals, tickets, large cafeteria, the main part of the town, etc are all located smack in the middle. The terrain is green to the right of center and blue to the left of center. These green trails are definitely not as green as the far right. They have a few moderately steep portions for a beginner and you can definitely pick up some good speed. This portion of the mountain is mostly populated by skiers who are coming out of the wedge, but still doing a Stem Christie to turn (when you ski parallel, but go into a wedge to turn). There are also a good number of boarders here because the terrain parks are in the middle of the mountain.
To the left of middle is my favorite part of the mountain. Two quads will take you to the summit and from there you can really open up. This is for intermediates to advanced intermediates. The grooming is kept up very well on this part of the mountain and the trails are just fantastic. You are not going to find many beginners here, maybe a few that got lost and went up the wrong chair. So if you’re pounding away, you will can be fairly sure that you won’t hit too much slow moving traffic. This is great for skiers that are still mastering parallel or if you just like doing your Lazy 8’s down the slope.
The left of the mountain, serviced by the high speed 6 person Super B Lift is for advanced intermediates and experts. This portion of the mountain has some very steep terrain and you definitely have to know what you are doing. Not all the trails are kept as pristine here to let the terrain get some bumps in it for those who like the moguls. When these trails are freshly groomed, you fly.
The far left of the mountain is for experts. These trails are steep, rarely groomed. This is where you see skiers who turn by hopping from mogul top to mogul top as opposed to shifting weight. On the rare occasion that they mowed down the hip deep moguls, this is where I go to get my speed fix. I did the math and figured out that I peak at about 70 on these trails. I could go faster, however I like my bones in their current configuration and K2 TR Comps are not the skis you want to be doing Autobahn speeds on.
THE TOWN
This always has, and most likely always will be, Coppers limiting factor. The town is kept to a small size by geography. It is squeezed between the mountain and a highway (I forget which, not 1-70). However, with the space that they do have, they have crammed in a lot. Many condos, a club med, a golf course (for the summer), many shops, a small grocery store, church, their own fire house, stables (again for the summer), and on and on. The nightlife here is not as large as you would find in Breckenridge or Vail. Breck is actually a town with a mountain next to it. Copper is a mountain with a resort squeezed at its base. There are some bars and restaurants, my personal favorite being the Double Diamond. The great thing is that you don’t need to rent a car if you fly into DIA. There are numerous shuttle services to all the resorts. Once at Copper there are trams and busses that make loops around the resort. At night, the smaller busses will drive you right up to your door. There are also Summit Shuttles, which bounce between the other resorts, Frisco, and Dillon. In all the times that I’ve been skiing at Copper, I think we rented a car only 2 or 3 times. I grew up in NYC, I’m not going up into the mountains for the club and bar scene. If I wanted that I’d go to the Village. For a second though, let’s be realistic about a ski vacation. You wake up early in the morning, hit the slopes for 6-8 hours. Unless you are a marathon runner, you’re going to be tired. 8 p.m. is going to feel like 2 in the morning. Especially if you are like me and coming from sea level. The town of Copper has plenty for you to keep yourself busy for a few nights. When you want to see something else, take the shuttle to see Breckenridge. For the majority of people, you won’t need more than Copper to keep you happy.
COST
Skiing is not cheap. So you should not be surprised that single adult Christmas week is $64. You should never pay this much money. The supermarket in Frisco sells the tickets at a discount. Multi day passes also have a steep discount. If you plan ahead and buy your Copper Card before the season starts you can save almost half. And even at all these extreme prices, Vail is still more expensive as are the other resorts in the area.
Rooms are also expensive. Depending on the season and the number of bedrooms, you can spend anywhere from 200-500 a night. But if you go with friends, it’s really not that expensive compared to Hotel Rooms. A hotel room can cost you 100 bucks a night for 1 bed. Getting a 2 bedroom with two baths, a pull out sofa, kitchen and dining room…. When you factor in the fact that you can get groceries and cook instead of eating out every single night the condo does not sound that much more expensive. You can definitely get it cheaper if you rent a condo in one of the towns and not the resorts. But listen to this…..
I wake up, have some breakfast. Take a shower and apply plenty of sun block to my face. I suit up, grab my skis I walk about 150 yards to the lift, buy my ticket and then ski all day. When I’m done I can ski up to the door of my heated garage. I only need to carry my skis about another 100 feet to the elevator, walk down the hall and my fantastic day is done. Did you hear any mention of parking spots? Traffic? Trying to drive with ski boots? Packing the kids into the back of the minivan? There is a value to staying on the mountain.
LESSONS
I have had some fantastic experiences with the lessons. My father taught himself to ski in his 20’s and passed on what he figured out to me. After seeing what a lesson was able to do to my abilities, he took one for himself. My father was able to get me to the point of making lazy 8’s down the mountain, mostly parallel. The instructors were able to show me how to do a perfect parallel and navigate the moguls. Unfortunately, I have bad feet for moguls. After hopping around the tops of a few, the slamming down really starts to hurt my feet. So that lesson wound up not being as fruitful as the first two. But the point is that the instructors there are fantastic. Many of them spend winters here and summers in South America and Australia teaching skiing there.
OVERALL
It is the perfect place for a ski vacation. I’ve met people on the lift from all over the planet. Even the Europeans come to Copper. One thing that was told to me by a German was “The problem with skiing the Alps is that you have to deal with the French.” His words, not mine. The people of Summit County are very polite and hospitable. The only flaw to this mountain is the Apres Ski which is not bad at all, simply not as large as Breckenridge or Vail. There must be some reason that all the people from Denver choose to ski at Copper instead of all the rest. They must know something.
Recommended:
Yes
Level of Experience Needed: All
Best Time to Visit: March
Best Suited For: Friends
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
dandino
|
|
Location: Long Island, NY
Reviews written: 49
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
I like tools and electronic gizmos.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.