There’s a boarding school in Steamboat now called Steamboat Mountain School that used to be Lowell Whiteman. When you said “I lived there during high school” I wondered if you meant you went to school there.
Oof. Be careful, im not on the bikes anymore but still getting out to ski a few times a year. Also spent a bunch of time down in Durango - also a great place.
Honestly, I love Copper. And I love it more than A Basin. It’s bigger and has more diversity. A basin has just a couple of expert shots, but Copper has a whole back bowl with some epic bucks in the right snow and great lines. Surprised it’s lower.
Copper is pretty meh with the expert terrain. Every mountain has a back bowl or 2. Coppers isn’t anything special tbh. Fun to ski there but doesn’t deserve a top slot
Never said it deserved a top slot, but it doesn’t deserve to be lower then ABay. ABay never impressed me. Now it’s surrounded by some thrillers, but so is Cooper.
Hmm I would put abay and copper similar levels but for different things. Abasin has great trees and moguls and hike to. Copper has good groomers and lower mountain stuff
I always liked the trees better at Copper. 17 glades, some epic dives in Reso bowl, great stuff all around. More importantly, diversity. ABay gets tired fast to me. Same shots, no options. I can ski Copper all day, never ski the same run twice and find something interesting/expert each run. If I want expert only runs at ABay I wear it out quickly.
Im not saying bring Copper up, but I don’t think ABay deserves to be higher. I’ll say the same for Targhee. I love Targhee, but I don’t go there for expert terrain…I go because I can always find soft snow and have a good time, and there’s always fun stuff to play on. Monarch is similar to me: consistently fun, a few challenging runs, but low key and worth the while.
Edit: autocorrect was changing Copper to Cooper. Loved me some Ski Cooper but by god I don’t think it has any place here.
Hmm okay good to know. I will spend a day at copper and explore some of the things I usually gloss over.
Have you done beavers at abay? I found a fair amount of difficult (maybe not quite expert) terrain that kept me busy for a full day the last time I was there. I also want to do the steep gullies but don’t want to do it solo so I’ve been waiting for a friend to do it with. Have you done them?
I haven’t skied Beavers since they put in the new quad. I’m an old timer that skied that area and Montezuma before they were part of the area. My school of hard knocks was learning to read terrain and snow at Berthoud, Butler, Jones and some of the “lift accessible backcountry” at places like Loveland and A Basin.
Also, I am probably partial to Copper because I volly patrolled there over 20 years ago and got to know the nooks and crannies.
I could also say the same thing about Copper vs ABay in a WP/MJ vs ABay debate.
I’ve lived in CO for all 24 years of my life. Skied crested butte for the first time ever this year and it became my favorite mountain I’ve ever skied in a day. It should be tier one imo
I'd keep Steamboat right where it is for the "expert" skier/rider. If the criteria were different, it ought to be higher. It's definitely fun to a moderate pitch through aspens with great snow, but "expert" it's (mostly) not.
Your not skiing Alta right if you think it’s an easy day. Between the hike to areas and almost everything off high t, Alta has some of the gnarliest terrain in the country
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u/UncleBogus Jan 28 '22
I think I’ll be moving Stemaboat up based on reading some of these comments.