Copper Mountain Ski Resort Colorado
The name of Copper Mountain is a bit of a give-away regarding its origins as a copper mine. Now Copper Mountain Colorado is a purpose-built ski resort with all the bells and whistles. Copper Mountain Ski Resort has world class facilities with more amenities than you could poke a stick at. In addition to great skiing and snowboarding, Copper is a complete snow vacation destination with ski-in ski-out lodging, lively après, shopping and non-skiing activities.
Pros & Cons of Copper Mountain Colorado
Pros
- Copper Mountain Ski Resort has outstanding beginner and intermediate terrain with its outstanding fall line groomed runs, so it’s scored a couple of “best Colorado ski resorts” awards from us.
- Copper Mountain Colorado is very family friendly and has superb kids’ programs.
- The ski area has nice challenging high alpine bowls & spanking views.
- The terrain parks are very good and there is also a cracking superpipe for those with a superpipe kind of inclination.
- Copper has some very convenient ski-in ski-out lodging.
Cons
- Whilst après ski (immediately after the lifts close) can be fun, there’s not much nightlife.
Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective
- The village is delightfully quirky although it’s still lacks the charm of a real Colorado ski town. The village is not very upmarket but overall the lodging is more affordable than Breck or Vail.
- Copper Mountain Ski Resort is accessible on the Ikon Pass and it’s often very busy, especially on the weekends. I-70 traffic and getting a park can be a real bitch.
Copper Ski and Snowboard Terrain
Copper Mountain ski resort has 2,490 acres of skiable terrain. Copper packs in 140 named trails, 2,738 feet of vertical and 24 lifts.
Copper Mountain is renowned for the perfect topography that has allowed the design of the ski terrain to be naturally separated into differing ability levels. The ski resort lay-out has the easy slopes on the western side of the mountain, intermediate slopes in the center, and black terrain on the eastern side. Some groups or families may see this as a disadvantage if they want to ski together in the one area, but the pros are that timid beginners don’t need to fear that speedsters will bowl them over, and advanced riders don’t have to worry about slow-poke moving obstacles getting in the way.
Even though there is fabulous terrain for beginners and intermediates, experts need not fear that there is inadequate terrain to challenge them. Copper has steep alpine terrain with chutes, cornices and expert-only bowls to delight.
For shredders, Copper Mountain has impressive parks and pipes ranging from a pint sized terrain park through to a jib park for the big boys (and girls).
Where is Copper Mountain Colorado?
Copper Mountain Resort is located in Summit County Colorado, about 75 miles (121km) west of Denver. Whilst Copper Mountain is an all-inclusive destination resort in itself, it’s also well located to allow multi-resort sampling. Nearby ski resorts include
Breckenridge,
Arapahoe Basin (also on
Ikon Pass), and
Keystone, and
Vail ski resort is only 25 minutes away.
The town of
Frisco is 5 minutes away, and Silverthorne which has some great outlet shops, is about 10-15 minutes away.
Copper Mountain Hotels and Facilities
Some budget conscious vacationers choose to lodge in Frisco or Silverthorne, but there are also plenty of
Copper Mountain hotels and other on-mountain accommodations such as condominiums.
Rather than having a genuine ski town at the base like Breckenridge, Steamboat or Aspen, the Copper Mountain base has three purpose-built villages. Because of the segregated terrain they tend to service differing ability levels. East Village is for the hard-core, West Village (Union Creek) is for beginners, and the Center Village at Copper is the main base area and is a compromise between the two. Easy access between the areas is available via the slopes and shuttle buses.
Copper Mountain Accommodations Listings
In addition to hotels and condos, the base areas have a good range of restaurants, bars and shops. There are also plenty of additional
Copper Mountain activities on offer including tubing, snowmobiling, sleigh rides, cross-country skiing and dog sledding.