My Colorado Life

Eight Inches of fresh pow and sunny skies at Copper Mountain made it a phenomenal Monday to be out snowboarding. Temperatures were low and face masks recommended.

Matt launching off Cornice in back bowl at Copper Mountain

During the weekday at Copper Mountain you can park right near Central Village in the Chapel Lot ($5). Allows for an easy-going tailgate while you get your gear on – no need to worry about missing a bus.

View of Half Pipe from Chapel Parking Lot

Super Pipe at Copper Mountain - American Eagle Chairlift

There were fresh lines for the taking all morning and most of the afternoon. When we put in the effort to hike, we were rewarded with top-to-bottom lines.

Fresh powder run down back side of Copper Mountain

Hike-to-terrain located off top of Union Peak at Copper Mountain. We got fresh lines all the way down. The hike takes anyone from 5 min to 20min.

Copper Mountain runs a free Snow-Cat on some days to help transport you to the freshest snow on Tucker Mountain – definitely worth going if they are running it – usually from 10am – 1:30pm. Unfortunately, the snow cat was not running while we were there-even though the liftie said it was. Never trust a liftie.

Read more on snowboarding at Copper Mountain.

On Monday, we golfed at Wellshire Golf Club in Denver, CO. We played the back-nine.  Wellshire Golf Course is conveniently located in Denver. It’s on the corner of Hampton Avenue and Colorado Blvd. It offers you three holes that run parallel with Hampton Ave., giving you ample opportunity to slice a drive into oncoming rush-hour traffic. We did not hit any cars on those holes.

Club house at Wellshire Golf Course

Wellshire Golf Course driving range.

The pond you splash your balls in at the Wellshire Golf Course driving range.

Hole 10 at Wellshire Golf Course

One of the holes on the back-nine at Wellshire Golf Course.

View of a few holes at Wellshire Golf in Colorado.

Craig teeing off at Wellshire Golf Course in Colorado and demonstrating his unique form.

One of the holes on Wellshire's back-nine that runs along Hampton Ave.

Hole 16 at Wellshire Golf Course - Craig approches confidently.

Hole 18 at Wellshire Golf Course in Denver, CO.

My Colorado Life has  more information on golfing in Colorado.

A Basin got seven inches of fresh powder today. By the time we got up there at noon, we had to traverse to get to most of ours.

Short hike and traverse terrain in Montezuma Bowl at A Basin (Keystone and Breckenridge in distance)

View of the top half of A-Basin

Easter at A Basin brings out the finest.

Front-side of A Basin Ski Resort

Arapahoe Basin beginner lift near The Beach (There is some expert terrain on far right of picture).

We decided to go right for A Basin’s Montezuma Bowl. It was real windy up top,  so we headed down into A Basin’s back bowl. There is a nice blue groomer right off the chair lift we started with. After that we did some traversing/hiking in both directions of the chair lift at the top of Montezuma Bowl looking for fresh snow.

Montezuma Bowl groomer and traversing terrain at A Basin.

View of A Basin's Montezuma Bowl (and Keystone and Breckenridge)

Tree run in the Montezuma Bowl (you need to traverse, skier-left, from the top Zuma chair)

Fresh lines down Montezuma Bowl (must hike/traver skier-right from top Zuma lift).

Montezuma Bowl - A Basin (same traverse terrain as above).

After getting fresh lines in the Montezuma Bowl, we traversed the East Wall a couple times to get more snow. You begin traversing from the top of the Lenawee Mountain lift (keep your speed up).

East Wall at A Basin (We traversed the bottom half the east wall to get fresh lines).

After A Basin closed up at 4:00pm, we grabbed a quick beer at “the beach” and then headed to Loveland Pass to get a couple more runs in for the day. Thank you day-light savings time.

A Basin main lodge restaurant and bar.

A Basin's Beach - This place gets packed when it's actually warm out.

View of Loveland Pass from A Basin

We arrived at Loveland Pass for some back country and were lucky enough to have a driver with us (otherwise we would just thumb a ride). The snow at Loveland Pass was exceptional, better than at A Basin. The risk of avalanche is usually greater in the Spring (because of the varying temperatures and layering of snow), however, most of the runs we do are through the trees, where the risk is minimal. If you are new to back country this is a great place to start honing your skills and awareness.

Loveland pass bowls (the avalanche risk is high over in the bowls - we don't go over there).

Loveland Pass back-country tree run (notice Loveland Pass - Highway 6)

Travis tree sliding at Loveland Pass back country.

Travis eyeing up a jib stump at Loveland Pass

Travis takes to the air with near-perfect form.

Afterwards, we got some food at BeauJo’s in Idaho Springs. The pizza was great, but we may have to do the Prairie Pizza next time. It has much thinner crusts. The crusts on their mountain pie dominated us.

BeauJo's in Idaho Springs, CO.

BeauJo's Mountain Pizza dominated us.

My Colorado Life has more information on skiing at Arapahoe Basin.

We went up to Vail this weekend for a bachelor party on Saturday night and a day of riding on Sunday.

View of Vail Village and I-70

Great tree run at Vail (not the trees across the way)

Chris mid-front-flip at Vail

Chris did not land his front flip at Vail

Sunday night we headed to Eagle, CO for the night. Eagle is located about 25 minutes west of Vail down I-70. Glenwood Springs is 30 minutes west of Eagle, so we drove to Glenwood Springs for their Hot Springs Pool.

Hot Springs Pool in Glenwood Springs

Silver Leaf Hotel in Eagle, CO - not a bad way to spend 65 bucks

Historic downtown Eagle, Colorado

Beaver Creek is a world-class mountain and one of Vail Resort’s best ski areas. It is large with lots of terrain variety and its easy to navigate from village-to-village. They claim a unique village-to-village mountain, since you can ski from Beaver Creek ski village to Arrowhead ski village. We started on the Arrowhead Mountain side of the ski area and worked our way to the top of Beaver Creek.

Arrowhead Mountain (part of Beaver Creek Ski Resort)

Blue Groomer at Arrowhead Mountain - Beaver Creek

Beaver Creek Mountain is calling (view from Arrowhead Mt.)

Hiking terrain at Beaver Creek in distance (see pic above for idea where its at)

Time to leave Arrowhead, and take-on Beaver Creek Mountain.

Welcome to Beaver Creek (leaving Arrowhead Mountain)

Beaver Creek Ski Resort is made up of three different mountain peaks:  Arrowhead Mountain, Grouse Mountain, and Beaver Creek Mountain. On the way from Arrowhead to Beaver Creek we tried a couple runs at Grouse Mountain. You pass it on the cat walk over from Arrowhead Mountain. Grouse Mountain has lots of wide-open blue groomers.

Grouse Mountain - Beaver Creek

Why not try the run Birds of Prey at Beaver Creek… (it was a bit icy, like these Olympic downhills usually are)

Entrance to Birds of Prey - Olympic Downhill - Beaver Creek

Birds of Prey Olympic Downhill - Beaver Creek

More Olympic Downhill at Beaver Creek

One last picture of the Olympic Downhill at Beaver Creek

After the Olympic downhill, we explored the rest of Beaver Creek ski mountain…

Snow Bears at Beaver Creek

Beaver Creek Snow-Hawk-Man will mess you up

Mogul run in Rose Bowl at Beaver Creek

Easy blue groomer in the Rose Bowl - Beaver Creek

Expert Mogul run in the Rose Bowl at Beaver Creek

This guy is actually a scare-crow - Way to go Beaver Creek

Texas Land Mines make travel difficult at Beaver Creek Ski Area

Copper Mountain is always worth the trip. It is a big mountain with lots of different terrain options: groomers, steeps, bowls, trees (trees are only o.k.). Despite there not being any new snow on Monday at Copper Mountain, it was still an awesome time and gorgeous blue-sky day. We arrived around 11am to a full-parking lot.

View of east-side trails at Copper Mountain

The terrain on the front-side of the mountain is mostly blue groomers with some more difficult terrain near the top. The groomers were in great condition, allowing you to really bomb if you wanted to.

Half-Pipe view from Copper Mountain center village

Copper Mountain blue groomers

Blue groomer at Copper Mountain

Pommel Lift at Copper Mountain

View of I-70 towards Frisco from mid-Copper Mountain

The back-side of Copper Mountain consists of bowl skiing at the top which leads into groomers at the bottom. The bowls were pretty chewed up from the sun, but were more ridable than the Vail bowls a couple days ago. There is a nice tree run at the bottom of east-side bowl. There is also hike-to terrain for the Copper back-bowls.

Copper Mountain expert terrain - Bowl Skiing

Tree run at bottom of Copper Mountain bowl

Old chair lift taking you up one of Copper's bowls

View from Copper Mountain back bowl

Hike-to terrain for Copper Mountain back-bowls

The back bowls were showing signs of spring skiing towards the bottom of each run. The snow was wet and slushy.

Dirty runs at Copper Mountain - Spring Skiing

After skiing, we grabbed a bite to eat at Pizza Carlo in Copper Mountain’s center village. It was o.k., not worth the higher prices.

My Colorado Life has more pictures and feedback on Copper Mountain.

Buffalo along I-70 near Genesee Park

We passed this home-made car ski rack (it's attached to a bike rack)

This Subaru was getting a parking spot at all costs

Travis points the way to fresh lines at Vail

View of the mountains and gondola while riding Vail chair lift

A Vail groomer under the lift

Group pose at Vail

AJ looking for powder in Vail back bowls

Tree run on Vail back bowl

Bra tree at Vail

Closing time at Vail Ski Resort and we pass a brigade of snow cats.

Army of Vail snow cats ready to groom

Side profile of Vail snow cats

Our last run of the day we ducked rope so we could ski the fresh snow under the lift. This was the best run of the day. The base wasn’t  super thick, but it covered what was needed for an easy ride down.

Trail to road under Vail Lift

Heading to apres-ski after great Vail day

For apres-ski we grabbed a pizza at Old Forge Pizza in the Lion-head Village at Vail. Its a style of pizza from Old Forge, PA and is excellent.

JP's Old Forge Pizza in Lionhead Village

For more information on Vail Ski Resort, be sure to check out: My Colorado Life – Vail.

We left for Breckenridge late, about 11:15am and were on the mountain by 1:00pm. Spring Break meant it was crowded today at Breckenridge. There were Texas land-mines all over the place. Breck is laid out in a way that if you do not stay at the very top, you inevitably will hit long flat groomers to the bottom where the noobs are plentiful.

View from Peak 9 Chairlift - Breckenridge

Breckenridge Peak 8 Imperial Bowl

View South of Breckenridge past Peak 10 Lift

It was blue sky all day long. We got a chance to check out Leo’s cabin. It’s a real nice shack built off of Peak 10-in the middle of the trees. The trees at Breckenridge are all pretty tight-packed. The real draw here seems to be the beauty of the massive peaks and the bountiful number of e-z groomers. We did not get a chance to check out Imperial Bowl or any of the hikable terrain, so maybe what the hell do I know.

Outside view of Leo's Cabin in Breckenridge trees

Inside and upstairs of Leo's Cabin - Breckenridge

Upstairs of Leo's Cabin - Breckenridge

First floor of Leo's Cabin in Breckenridge - Pissed off Craig

View from atop Leo's Cabin - Breckenridge

Afterwards, we got some mexican food in Silverthorne at Fiesta Jalisco. It was quick service and large portions. Mountains near Frisco Dam

View of mountains from Frisco Dam

Mexican restaurant in Silverthorne, CO we ate at - Fiesta Jalisco

For more information on Breckenridge, please check out: MyColoradoLife.com.