Ski Cooper: Two Boys, Two Degrees, and One Run; Warming Up to the Terrain Park

By Mark Phillips, 3-15-06

	Caption: Click here to see the video from the trip to Ski Cooper.

Every time I've driven to Vail, I've passed the sign to Leadville and Ski Cooper. I'd heard about Leadville's long and storied history and it's Victorian charm, and I had heard good things about Ski Cooper (Oscar's ski team raced there, but for some reason, we'd never been). I imagined a quaint mountain town and a solid family hill (or Hausberg) just over the rise from Copper. Mapquest tells me it's only 23 miles, but after dark on Friday night it felt much longer. The moon was nearly full, the sky clear, and with several inches of fresh snow, seemingly treeless hills, and snowplowed banks that dwarfed my car, the landscape had an eerie Shining-esque quality. Oscar's friend Kyle joined us that weekend, so backseat hilarity offset any serious horror-movie fears of the driver.

What two joyous fifth graders couldn't offset was the actual chill in that kept my Jetta's heater maxed for the duration of the drive. When we checked into the hotel in Leadville, the temperature was -10F and expected to drop another 5 degrees before sunrise. We unpacked and headed into downtown Leadville for food. Leadville is full of the turn-of-the-century building that typify old Colorado mining towns, though they exist on a grander scale in Leadville than in any other town I've seen. The street is broader, the buildings taller, and there's even an opera house. While a quick scan of Leadville's history clearly shows a penchant for high-living, both of the rabble-rousing and the refined sort, Leadvillians clearly didn't like the cold any more than we did. The streets were virtually empty, and from what I could see from the street, the saloons had few patrons that night.

Oscar, Kyle, and I settled on an Italian restaurant called Zichittella's. We were the only kids in the restaurant, but the staff was very friendly, the prices were reasonable, and the food was good.

Back in our warm hotel room, we took advantage of hotel cable and caught up on a few episodes of Billy and Mandy.

Saturday morning came early and, even with a clear sky, the temperature hadn't broken 0. Ski Cooper was a ten-minute drive from Leadville and our check-in procedure matched the expectations set by other Gem Resorts. Parking was easy and free, the staff was welcoming, the Passport check-in was simple, and the lifts were 50 yards from our car.

Like Monarch, Eldora, and Sol Vista, Ski Cooper is great for beginners. 70% of the mountain is dedicated to beginning and intermediate terrain. (For the adventurous among your crew, give serious consideration to Ski Cooper's Chicago Ridge Snowcat tour.) I was surprised to learn that Ski Cooper only has 400 skiable acres. The mountain feels like it has many more options than that number implies.

Even so, Oscar, Kyle and I only managed to cover one or two of the 26 available runs. We began with the Molly Mayfield and 10th Mountain runs and quickly discovered a very manageable terrain park mid-way down Molly Mayfield. I found a nice little tree run about 100 yards below the lift and found a back way into the park. There was plenty of powder left from a large Thursday-night storm, and though the temperature never beat 5F, the sun helped keep things comfortable. After a few full-runs through the terrain park and back down to the lift, we decided to focus on one jump at the bottom of the park and bypass the lift. We took turns unstrapping, hiking back up the hill, and trying our best to get braggable air.

We discovered two shovels on the side of the park and began building our own jump which turned out to be more accessible even than the regular jump. This became our day. Oscar, Kyle, and I spent nearly an entire day hiking and riding a 20-yard section of the mountain. This could bore some, but as I've mentioned before, one of the things I love of about snowboarding is finding a stretch that fits whatever need one develops on a particular day and sticking to it. We warmed ourselves with our work (we even shed our coats at one point!), both at the shovels and carrying our boards up the hill, we perfected (or made progress toward perfecting) our game, and even met a group of similarly-focused teens who shot every cliche about territorial locals to bits.

Ski Cooper got three thumbs up from us and I hope you'll find your own small section to shred before they shut the lifts (April 2nd is the last scheduled day!) on the best snow season and one of the most enjoyable family resorts I've ever seen.



Postscript: For those of you who wonder about the rest of Ski Cooper, I managed to sneak off and get two runs off of the Triple Lift. I'll say it again: for the number of skiable acres listed, the mountain has plenty of interesting runs to offer. I played in the trees between Eagle and Getaway and thoroughly enjoyed some wide-open carving on Ambush. Chicago Ridge faces this side of Ski Cooper, in all of it's deep-powdered, untracked, sunlit glory, and, as brilliant and beautiful as it was to spend such concentrated energy on a small, improvised bump with two enthusiastic boys, it made me hope that by the time 6th grade rolls around, we'll be ready to tackle a Snowcat trip or two.
[End of article]