CO 2025 - Loveland, Ski Cooper, and Copper

[Jenny]

Quick little trip report!

Landed in Denver on the 4th and headed out for three nights at Georgetown. We bought the Ski Cooper season pass for this year and had to make a trip here to use it! We had three days at a partner hill in Michigan, but the other hill close to us there dropped off, so we were ”forced” to head west.

Skied Wednesday and Thursday at Loveland, which I’ve never been to. DH was there one day, back in 1980/1981, so it's not like he was familiar with it either. Weather was reasonable, they’d had a fair amount of fresh snow, and it wasn’t too much for me to handle. I did go down one looooong messy run off chair 4 on day 2, and then had to retreat to some that were less chopped up. We'd skied a grand total of 3 (very) partial days at home this year before so the legs are unaccustomed to this level of activity. We had sun and clouds, and then it kind of clouded up more solidly both afternoons. On Thursday we were just about to head to the car when the snow squalls started.

Here's a couple of pics.



Today we took the day off from skiing and moved up to Leadville. We could have skied a partial day at Cooper, but decided to just rest the legs and be fresher tomorrow. So we wandered around town for a while before checking in to our lodging, and then ended up going to dinner and are now relaxing. Oh, we also drove up to take a look at Cooper.

i don’t think they’re expecting any fresh snow, but I’m fine with that. I like the sunny days and blue skies you get here in CO. I can ski in flat gray light any time.

We'll ski the next two days at Cooper, and then Monday at Copper (not on the pass, but we got free tickets, so can’t let them go to waste).

 

[Jenny]

And THIS is the weather I come to CO for! Sunny blue skies today, temp forecast for mid 20s. Feels like that was probably right, based on what I was wearing and my comfort level.

Had a good day at Cooper. We’ve never skied here before. Nice low-key atmosphere. There are two lifts on the front (not counting the magic carpet or the other surface lift, which was a platter, I think). They are slow. 10 minutes uphill for one, kept forgetting to time the other. We spent most of the day doing different runs off the Piney Basin Triple, as that one didn’t go completely to the base.

It was nice to be on some groomers, where I could ski faster and without worrying too much about what was underfoot. However, I also got brave and skied a couple of mogul-y runs and had fun on them, too. Actually managed to get a rhythm going, which was nice.

My only fall of the day was walking to the car - I could see the danger, and was trying to get to the flatter part of the terrain, but still managed to slip and fall, and smash part of my face into the ground. There's only a couple of scrapes, though, so once I come up with an appropriately badass story about how I got them, it’ll all be good.

After we were done we had a quick drink and snack at the Taproom. Did you know that they have free refills on wine? Me neither!

Here’s three pics from today.

 

[Jenny]

Second day at Cooper was essentially a copy of the first, except that we met up with a friend of a friend and skied with him in the afternoon.

Final day was at Copper yesterday. We haven’t been there since 2019, when it was the first place I skied after my ankle surgery the prior year. I’d liked it before, but it does have a special place in my heart for letting me know I could still do this.).

We started off at the east village, then wandered toward center village, then over to west village. Lifts used were Super Bee, American Eagle, American Flyer, and Timberline. Then we worked our way back. By now, the Excelerator lift was running, and that’s where we spent most of our time.

Looks like I only took one picture, from near Aerie/Excelerator.



Oh, and here’s one from the top of Excelerator. It wasn’t nearly as chilly as we look dressed for, but we were also fighting off sunburn!



Today we headed back to Denver, met up with @vickie for a morning at Red Rocks and Dinosaur Ridge, and are now just waiting for our flight.

Thus endeth the 2024-2025 ski season for us. We need to retire - got a whole 8 days this year. Sad.

 

[RachelV]

Wish I could have made it up to join you, but Diva East timing made it a stretch. Glad you got some gorgeous bluebird days and no I-70 fiascos while you were out here.