29&30-April-2024 Copper

On Monday my time pet sitting Kiki came to a close. I spent the morning cleaning up, and Kiki’s mom arrived in the early afternoon. Once she was back I headed out on a 2-hour drive to Vail to meet up with my friend Meg whom I hadn’t seen in about 10 years.

I arrived around 5pm Monday and Meg treated me to a gourmet feast: appetizers (such a variety), a delicious salad, amazing chicken, and a yummy pasta with veggie medley. Wow! A home cooked meal WAY better than anything we would’ve gotten in a restaurant. And it was so nice to just sit and chat and catch up after all this time. A nice after dinner walk thru her neighborhood (on a golf course in the foothills) was a great way to get some more steps in and conclude our day.

On Tuesday morning, Meg and I got another walk in and then she treated me to a gourmet breakfast before I headed out the door to Copper Mountain (about 30 minutes away). It was cloudy and I was only on the highway for a few minutes before I saw a sign to expect winter driving conditions …. It’s still winter here in the mountains! Thankfully it was just a snow squall and the snow stopped falling and never stuck to the road. By the time I got to Copper Mountain the sun was out and I had another awesome ski day.

Copper has a really cool lift called a “chondola” - a combination chairlift and gondola. On the same wire there are 4 chairs then a gondola then 4 more chairs then another gondola, etc. If you want to ride on a chair you go on the left side of the left and if you want to load onto a gondola you go on the right side of the left. It’s a pretty cool invention and I enjoyed riding both the chair and the gondola at different times during the day.

The base of Copper Mountain is at 10,000 feet and the peak is just over 12,000 feet and the snow was fantastic! In the morning it was a little bit firm up top but after about an hour the sun warmed things up and conditions could not have been better. Interesting at this resort that the pine trees are very tall and skinny and close together so you can’t really ski through the trees because they are too dense. Definitely different than other ski areas I have been to. I was literally one of the only people on the mountain today - had to laugh when I got back to my car at the end of the day which was parked right at the base of the lift that there was only one other car in my lot! Cooper had intended to close earlier in the month but due to a great base of snow and recent storms that added to the snow they extended their season and are staying open through the weekend. Lucky me!