Summit County resorts end-of-season events

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By LARISA GRAHAM
summit daily news
March 25, 2008

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In Summit County spring skiing and riding means warmer temps, plenty of sun and end-of-season celebrations. Each resort in Summit County ends the ski season with a bang, which includes; live music, food, competitions and tons of slopeside fun.

Copper Mountain
Each year Copper Mountain hosts one of the biggest end-of-season celebrations in the county, Sunsation. In the past Sunsation has hosted huge musical acts such as; Michael Franti and Spearhead, De La Soul and John Popper from Blues Traveler. Best of all, the shows are all free and located slopeside in Copper’s Burning Stones Plaza.

In addition to free live music Copper offers a series of rail jams on their Super Pipe and Catalyst terrain parks. The event will have activities for the entire family. This year Sunsation weekends will be April 4-6 and 11-13. Copper’s closing day is April 13.

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Arapahoe Basin
Spring skiing last much longer at A-Basin than any other resort in Summit County, usually closing their slopes in early June. With spring at the Basin comes the opening of their famous “beach”. The Beach is a section of the base area which they open for tailgating.

Included with the beach and spring skiing is the Shakin’ at the Basin concert series which offers a different band every weekend in May, accompanied by a rail jam at their Treeline Terrain Park, all concerts are free.

A-Basin also holds the Festival of Brew Pubs featuring beers from Summit County’s finest breweries.

Other signature A-Basin events include Enduro, where the toughest skiers and riders see how many laps they can take, with a friend, on A-Basin’s advanced Pali Terrain in 10 hours. Also, the Marmot Grind challenges those who like a tough climb. Athletes hike or skin up from the base area, approximately a 4,500 foot vertical then ski or ride back to the base area.

Breckenridge Ski Resort
Breckenridge celebrates the end of the ski season for the entire month of April with Spring Massive. For the whole month Breck has events, live music and family entertainment.

Signature endurance events during Breckenridge’s Spring Massive are the Imperial Challenge, in which athletes ride bikes from the Breckenridge Recreation Center to the base of Peak 8, from there they skin or hike up peak 8 then ski or ride back down to the finish line. Also, the 29th annual bump buffet, mogul skiing competition will take place on Breck’s closing day, April 20th.

Keystone Resort
Keystone ends the season with the Volcom Stone’s Peanut Butter and Rail Jam on April 12. The rail jam takes place on Keystone’s A51 terrain park and is free to 100 competitors of all ages. The event is for snowboarders only and divided into pro and amateur categories. Keystone will close their slopes for the year on April 13.