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Free Skiing at Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado, USA for the 2011/12 season for Mt Ruapehu Season Pass Holders. Stay 7 or more nights at Copper Mountain Resort in a gold, platinum or silver grade condo to qualify. Number of days skiing will be one less than the number of nights accommodation booked. Offer open to Mt Ruapehu 2011 Season, Five-Season, Life/Life Plus and Ultimate Pass holders. Child must hold a season pass. Book accommodation and pre-reserve passes with Ski Traveller to qualify. Not valid with any other promotion. Conditions apply.

Copper Mountain has announced that this summer they will begin construction on a new chairlift, replacing the High Point fixed grip double chair located at the base of Union Creek, which has served Copper faithfully since 1976.

The new lift will provide improved service to all levels of skiing and riding ability. The lift, manufactured by Doppelmayr USA, will have a new alignment to help improve skier and rider circulation in and out of Union Creek. In conjunction with the new lift, the addition of a new trail connection from the east will make the circulation from the Catalyst Terrain Park and the tremendous beginner and intermediate terrain in the area, much easier.

The new lift will have a capacity of 2,400 people per hour, a length of 4,937 feet, with a vertical rise of 1,005 feet. The ride time will be 5 minutes, a fraction of the current lift ride from Union Creek to mid-mountain now. Copper Mountain would like to recognize the US Forest Service, and specifically the White River National Forest team, for being a great partner throughout this entire process.

We hear you like snow. Well it just so happens that Copper Mountain Resort have received some this year, and by some they mean some record breaking amounts! It’s feeling more like February with a 53″ mid-mountain base and over 2000 open acres. Copper Mountain have now received 149″ inches of the white stuff; nearly 3/5ths of there annual snowfall! This year has been huge and the conditions have been awesome. Copper Mountain are averaging nearly 1 in 4 days as a Snow Day! If you haven’t picked up your Snow Day Pass, now’s the time!

Just two more weeks of powder-filled-dreams before it’s the real deal and you’re skiing down Copper Mountain’s sexy slopes. They have gotten 100+ inches of the good stuff already this season and conditions are amongst the best they have ever had. See you soon!

Hi Lianne,
 
This was my first trip to Copper Mountain.  I have previously skied Keystone (3x) and Breckenridge(1x) when I lived in the US.  I must say that I was a bit hestant as my general perception of Copper developed over the years was that it represented a smaller mountain with less challenging trails (I’m an expert skier) and less exciting nightlife. 
 
Boy was I completely wrong.  I found the mountain fabulous. Staff were very friendly, the sking great and the range of expert trails super.  As an added bonus the mountain was extensive enough to hide a crowd of skiers. …but that wouldn’t have mattered as the lodge/ski pass combination provided a “fast pass” electronic ski pass that vertually put you in the front of any lift line.  Add two days of fresh powder …what more can you ask for.
 
The lodge (single bedroom with murphy bed) was also super.  Easy check-in, 5 minute walk to the lift with views from our room of the slopes.  The village bars and restaurants were also great.  My wife and I also took day trips to Aspen and Breckenridge to view the shops and the slopes and concluded that Copper was definitely our choice.  
So an emphatic 10. 
Cheers,
Terry P

Hi Lianne

We had a fantastic holiday thanks and came back with no injuries, so that was lucky!  I absolutely loved Disney California park, that would have been the highlight for me in LA, terrific rides.  Michael couldn’t quite handle the tower of terror ride and had to have a sleep at the first aid at Disneyland on new years eve!  The only negative about LA was the Disneyland Express.  We missed it because it came 10 minutes early and so we had to catch a shuttle, luckily we made it to the airport and our shuttle (all to ourselves, not Super Shuttle) was cheaper than Disneyland Express without all the faffing around.  

We absolutely loved Denver, very glad we stayed there.  The Doubletree hotel in Denver is superb, with free pick up from the airport, which was great and the staff were very helpful.  Cherry Creek mall is an excellent shopping spot, I managed to blow a heap of cash there at the sales.  It is about a $15 cab ride from the double tree and well worth it.  At the nearby shopping complex that Doubletree run a free shuttle to there is a fabulous restaurant called something like Jim and Nicks bbq, it might be a chain restaurant but I have never seen it anywhere else is the States.  Anyway, highly recommend that restaurant to eat at. 

Copper was our favourite resort of the two, in fact I don’t think either of us would go back to Winter park.   Copper was fantastic.  We had 15 inches of powder overnight at one point and it was a lot of fun.  They also have the beeline advantage which was good, and would be even better if you were there when it was busy.  We were in Copper One so basically right next to the American Eagle, really convenient.  It was fabulous having kitchen facilities, we cooked most nights.   

The winter park accommodation was really fabulous, especially the hot tub, but founders pointe is too far away from the mountain so you had a bit of a hike with all the gear.  The best thing about winter park resort was the free on demand shuttle they provide that will take you anywhere you want to go.   Winter Park itself was windy almost the whole time, in fact I got caught in a blizzard at one stage because they didn’t close the highest lift quick enough, that was unpleasant.  On our last day there though we had a blue sky day and it was beautiful up the top then.  Unfortunately though the snow quality at Winter Park was poor, by our last day there it was absolute rubbish, almost as bad as Turoa on a bad day.  They simply didn’t get enough new snow.  Also, Winter Park is hopeless for snowboarding.  I think they actually need to warn people that it is NOT a snowboarder’s mountain.  Constant flat long traverses are a killer and there are way way too many mogul runs.  Even for skiing there were too many mogul runs.  I actually changed to skiing for pretty much the whole time I was at winter park because it was just too much effort to snowboard (especially at high altitude, it is pretty hard to get around). San Francisco was undoubtedly a major highlight.  What a beautiful city, we only wished we had more time there.  The Handlery is quaint, and I enjoyed staying in Union Square (fabulous Niketown store). 

So everything went very smoothly except for the minor hiccup with the Disneyland Express.  Thanks for doing such a great job organising the trip.
 

Kind Regards

Joanne

Hi Lianne - just a quick email to let you know we had a great time at Copper - so thanks very much for all your help.  The snow and mountain facilites realy worked well for our family, the apartment was flash - oh, and we were lucky enough to get an upgrade on the flight to San Fran - so slept lying down - fantastic! 
Cheers, Jenny P

Here is a rare event me on a snowboard!    I usually try snowboarding once every other year and only when the snow is nice and soft.   I have decided to actually  learn the sport this season and on Monday December 1^st  conditions were perfect  at Copper,  the snow was  soft (mid-February condition)  everywhere on the mountain and surprisingly I only had a few  hard falls and could still get out of bed on Tuesday morning. 

Roger Markel
Director of International Sales & Emerging Markets

Dear Lianne,                             
I wanted to let you know that Copper Mountain opened a week early on November 7^th for the 2008-09 season.  We are currently having a very snowy week with 9 inches (22.86 cm) of new snow in the last two days and a winter storm warning has been issued for the rest of the week.

I got out and made my first turns for the season yesterday and here is a photo from my office looking down Main Vein into the Village.

Regards,
Roger Markel - Copper Mountain

Did you also know that you can try CAT Skiing for FREE at Copper Mountain….ring Sarah or Lianne and find out how !!

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