Rockies road trip
Three resorts. Historic snowfall. Mind-blowing steeps… Stoke is sky-high on a mini road trip to some of Colorado’s highest peaks
Saturday
16:00 Landing in the mile-high plains surrounding Denver to drive into the mountains with some of the highest peaks in the Rockies, I’m surprised how mellow and open the roads are as my friends and I make the climb to Copper Mountain (2960m).
18:28 Snow-laden roofs fuel the excitement as we pull into Center Village and check into Tucker Mountain Lodge. It’s been a dryish week, but Copper has recorded historic snowfall for February (2.4m) and a (so far) season total of 5.5m. Tomorrow should be a good day.
Sunday
05:30 A cocktail of jet lag and altitude has me up before dawn grappling with the condo’s coffee machine before, defeated, I wander the deserted base village to wait for breakfast spot Toast & Co. to open.
09:00 I’m ready and impatiently waiting at the American Eagle lift, and scolded over the loudspeaker for my less-than American lift line etiquette. We head up and east to Copper’s training centre for a warm up. “It’s not so steep,” a lift buddy tells us. “Racers tend to like it as they can seek speed rather than ski defensively.”
09:20 We charge down the top of Andy’s Encore, taking the advice as if we are GS racers ourselves, and cut into Rosi’s Run, dropping 700m in elevation over two miles. It is steep, but 5cm of ungroomed powder on top helps control speed.
11:26 I’m looking over Woodward Peace Park and learn the term ‘yard sale’ as a skier sends it, strewing every piece of equipment, and some clothing, across the park.
13:00 The panorama at the roof of Copper (3753m) is a powerful one. To the east Breckenridge is visible, just five miles as the crow flies. South looks over a lithium mine, and west is Jacque’s Peak (4024m).
15:36 Day-one, grom-level stoke has meant we skipped lunch, so it’s off to Downhill Duke’s, the patio where you step off the slopes in Center Village, for cocktails and loaded nachos.
Monday
09:30 It appears to be snowing from blue skies as glittering powder blows off trees sagging from the overnight fall. We’re led to Spaulding Bowl by our guide and Copper veteran, Todd Casey.
09:54 It’s heavenly off-piste skiing with 10cm of dry powder in this little back bowl with 10 or so lines to take. I head down the untouched Marvin Garden chute, below the tree line through double-black Spaulding Glade. Hodson’s Cut is ungroomed and chopped but soft, so I let off the brakes to fly down to Resolution lift. One run in and Todd’s delivered.
12:00 The afternoon is spent playing in the bigger backside Copper Bowl, with its rugged inbounds off-piste terrain. The Three Bears chair, new for the ’19/20 season, replaces a snowcat, opening up this north-facing aspect.
15:45 800m below at base and I’m practicing flips on an Olympic-grade trampoline and 360s into a foam pit, tricks I intend never to take onto snow. I’m half shown up, half awed at the younger girls and guys training for the park. The Woodward presence is where Copper really stands out as a resort.
Tuesday
06:45 With jet lag at a crux, we jump in the truck to take a 24-mile detour to the old gold rush town Leadville for breakfast. State Highway 91 runs along the foot of the Tenmile Range where tracks are visible on wide untouched faces. It’s a popular backcountry spot for roadside hike-ups (it’s illegal to leave for the backcountry from Copper Mountain).
07:26 A win, a lose, and all so early in the day…
Spotted: a peregrine falcon sat out on Main Street as I dive into City on a Hill for my fourth breakfast burrito of the trip. But there’s disappointment as I discover we’ve missed by just a day the legendary skijoring event where cowboys and skiing collide.
08:08 It’s Texas holiday week. Could their trucks possibly be even bigger than Coloradians’?
We’ve hit the road and it’s a beautiful morning as we pass Cooper Mountain – a cat skiing haven (not to be confused with its neighbour Copper)– Dillon Lake and Keystone, en route to Arapahoe Basin.
08:50 A-Basin is an indie ski mountain that favours ‘authentic skiing’ with a relaxed, locals feel and expert terrain, which is among the highest in-bounds skiable terrain in North America. We pull in, chomping at the bit.
09:35 Beavers, hard skier’s left, was until 2018 hike-to backcountry terrain that’s been developed (subtly gladed and patrolled) and completed with the Beavers quad chair. The expansion has been decades in the works.
From Lenawee lift we head out the gate and take the long Loafer traverse before frothing over, down into the [Dead] Dog Woods with runs named after passed A-Basin avy dogs Digger, Alex, Jetta and Jaeger.
09:57 The further west you head, the more remote the Beavers landscape and terrain is. Dreamcatcher is a serene beaut of a ride deep in nature untouched. An egress skirting the area boundary scoops up skiers, throws them around on a luge-like, leg-burning track and spits them out right at the Beavers lift. It’s too easy to jump on again and repeat. So we do. All day long.
15:35 The weather’s come in and it’s spitting snow as we duck into 6th Alley Bar at base for a famous bacon Bloody Mary.
17:30 Plans to stay in Keystone – the nearest lodging to A-Basin – are scuppered as Covid-19 takes its hold here. We head to Frisco, an old mining town turned cool mountain hotspot dubbed ‘Main Street of the Rockies’, for food and rest.
Wednesday
09:00 It’s as if the jagged peaks of the mighty East Wall are smoking as wind whips up snow from the ridgeline. There’s blue sky, cold temps and ankle-deep powder.
09:30 I’m hot tailing Whitney Henceroth, ex US-racer and A-Basin native, towards the Steep Gullies, the other half of the Beavers-Steep Gullies expansion. We ride up Pallavicini and make a beeline for the double-black diamond chutes. The Steep Gullies usually open up pronto on a powder day.
09:50 It’s a steep, bony entrance to Steep Gully 4 (of eight). Whitney points out the access to SG3 that includes a tricky but short boot up. The inconvenience means it’s often untracked but we have first tracks here anyway. Later…
09:52 A few jump turns before letting go on the 50°-minimum pitch and all too quickly I’m riding out the steeps into a warm morning sun.
10:05 The 20-minute hike out deters a lot of people, so it’s terrain for skiers who really want it. And there’s no intention to change it, preserving a little of its previous exclusivity. Whitney chats away as she marches strong, the casual 3,200m no bother, and I fight not to KO.
13:40 Looking across to Loveland ski area from Il Rifugio, I ask the main man at A-Basin, Alan, and father of our morning gullies guide, if Arapahoe and Loveland would ever link. “How European,” he jibes with a smile. I cringe at this truth, thinking of our ever-expanding, interconnecting ski areas. Loveland and A-Basin indulge in friendly rivalry each year in the bid for the longest ski season (often October through June). “It certainly is possible.”
I ask what it would be called. “Arapahoe Basin…” Here says everything about these maverick ski areas, fiercely true to their roots and identity, leaving the big dog resorts to their own business. Leaving Love-A-Hoe on the table as a portmanteau, we head out to ski Montezuma bowl on the backside.
13:43 Spurning the Lazy J rope tow for a 100m ski-skate up the subtle incline with Alan, I think I’m going to KO again as I try to keep up with a Henceroth, this time near 4000m.
16:30 On the road again and 11 miles from our final stop, Winter Park (an hour’s drive from A-Basin), I clock a gathering of trucks on Berthoud Pass, once a functioning ski hill, now a backcountry paradise with easy hike-in access.
20:05 We head out for dinner at Rippy’s Mountain Tavern in Winter Park’s lively and modern cobblestone village for craft-style food and drinks, proud to have made it past 8pm.
Thursday
11:20 Led by a very good man on Mary Jane mountain, one of seven Winter Park territories, I’m bouncing down through Topher’s, a tightly packed tree and boulder field. It’s well hidden and virtually untouched. At risk of being trolled for printing its whereabouts, you access it from the fade on Roundhouse, skier’s left – a hard catch, so fun is this piste at speed. A four-minute boot to this magical spot and you’re in a feature-full playground with cliffs, big rocks and drops.
11:45 And repeat. All afternoon.
Friday
08:30 The collective aim of today is to ski the Vasquez Cirque, the crown of Winter Park.
10:10 The gate at the top of Parsenn Bowl leads towards the snowcat to trailer-tow riders along the barren, wind blown brow of the cirque.
10:30 Best not to stand looking over the edge of the 50° steeps too long. I launch over for 10 or so spectacular turns over 100m.
10:45 The crew convenes on the alpine apron below the headwall and sets off in messy formation through a ski field. It’s a memory bank moment as we soar down into the trees and, with tunnel vision, everyone chases their own line.
10:48 I’m completely alone in a white wilderness on a long, beautiful descent.
10:55 Surely I’ve gone too long without seeing a soul? I stop for a few minutes, see no one, and head off again at a glacial pace, regretting the pause; there’s just enough of a fall-line pitch to bomb down with gathered speed.
11:05 Funnelling down to what’s now very obviously the end, skiers are reappearing, popping out of the trees from every angle.
11:07 Jump on the Eagle Wind three-man and repeat. It’s roughly an hour loop.
16:00 End of play at Doc’s Roadhouse in town and it’s here the group splits, with some staying on to continue the tour.
16:03 Huge wet flakes are falling as I arrive at the station for the Winter Park Express to Denver. I try not to think about what this storm will dump up high and overnight as it gets colder, and consider bolting back to the pub.
19:09 Alighting the train at Union Station in a dusky Denver I walk the two blocks – skis on shoulder – to LoDo (LowerDowntown) and the ultra-cool Dairy Block micro district right on cocktail hour. It’s good to be in this urban atmosphere after a week on the hoof, but that storm that’s rolled in higher up is looming over my subconscious as Colorado’s record-breaking winter marches on.
Don’t miss
Arapahoe Basin’s East Wall
As you drive into A-Basin it’s the mighty East Wall that dominates the view with its lofty peaks (3978m) and vast face. Boot pack along the ridge from the North Pole gate (definitely recommended for snowboarders), take the long traverse as far as you can manage to skip the steeps and drop into Land of the Giants or the brutal hike up Willy’s Wide staircase to slide through Snorkel Door for a heart-pumping descent down Snorkel Nose. It’s worth noting the Wallis in clear view of the entire Basin (so don’t stack it).
Copper’s Union Meadows
I mentioned the easterly skiing in Copper, but don’t forget the extreme west. Union Meadows is high, steep and north facing and is an isolated idyll, the access not exactly obvious. And damn does it hold snow. The stash was deep and had been around for days untouched when I skied it.
Leadville
Take a moment off skis and visit this old mining town, located in Lake County, where the bar and the first aid centre share a home.
A-Basin’s ‘beach’ session
Arapahie-Basin is a ski area with no base village (Keystone resort is your best bet for lodging 5 miles away, or in the towns of Frisco, Dillon or Silverthorne). What it does have is one of the best atmospheric bars at its base – 6th Alley – for end-of-day beers and camaraderie. Even better are sunny-day ‘beach sessions’; Park up and join in an A-Basin beach sess at the main parking lot where you’ll find everyone from the mountain (and their dog, literally) kicking back with grill-outs, music and beer.
Essentials
TRAVEL
British Airways has daily, direct flights from Heathrow to Denver from £380 return.
Colorado is best explored by road: rent a mid-sized vehicle from Avis from £320 a week. The Winter Park Express train between the resort and Denver city centre runs from Friday to Sunday from £22 one way.
SKI
There are dozens more resorts to add onto a longer tour. Visit Colorado Ski Country, representing 23 of Colorado’s ski areas, to see more. Buy an adult season IKON Pass for £658 for up to five days’ skiing each at 27 destinations for the best-value way to ski these three resorts, as well as a host of others near and far.
STAY
- Tucker Mountain at Centre Village by Copper Mountain Lodging has doubles from £167 per night
- Hotel Frisco Colorado, Frisco hasdoubles from £94 per night
- Zephyr Mountain Lodge 1520 at Winter Park Base Village has doubles from £160 per night
- For a night in Denver, stay at the boutique Maven Hotel in the Dairy Block from £139 per night
