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Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin ski areas to open new terrain

The gondola cabins for Copper Mountain Resort's new American Eagle lift in Center Village are seen at the resort earlier this week. It's still undetermined when exactly the new American Eagle and American Flyer lifts in Center Village will open. In the meantime, Copper will open for the season on Friday with top-to-bottom skiing out of both its East and West Villages via multiple chairlifts servicing 270 acres of beginner, intermediate and advanced terrain.
Courtesy Curtis DeVore

It won’t only be East Village terrain available for top-to-bottom skiing and riding at Copper Mountain Resort’s opening day on Friday, as the resort announced on Thursday that there will also be terrain available out of the West Village via the Union Creek Quad and Timberline Express lifts.

As a result of opening up 13 ski runs and terrain park features out of West Village, Copper will now offer 275 acres of skiable terrain via seven lifts and 27 trails to the public on Friday.

Off of the Union Creek lift, skiers and riders will have access to the beginner runs Vein Glory, Easy Feelin’, Minor Matter as well as terrain park features.



Off of the Timberline Express, skiers and riders will have access to intermediate runs Jacque’s Pique, Windsong, The Moz, Copperfield, Tempo, Little Burn, Bucksaw and beginner runs Woodwinds Traverse, Woodwinds and Soliloquy.

Over in East Village, Copper announced on Thursday that skiing and riding will not only be available off of the Super Bee lift, but will also be open off of the resort’s high-alpine Excelerator lift and above-tree-line Storm King lift.



Via Excelerator, skiers and riders will have access to the intermediate run Ptarmagin and advanced runs Mine Dump, CDL’s Trail No. 20, Brennan’s Grin and Hallelujah. Via Storm King, skiing and riding will be available on Hallelujah Ridge and Spaulding Ridge.

Down at the Super Bee, Copper also announced skiers and riders will be able to access Center Village by way of the intermediate Frank’s Fave run off of the intermediate Skid Road. In Center Village, Copper says it will have dining and shopping open.

Previously, Copper initially announced two weeks ago its opening day terrain would be off of the Super Bee lift via the intermediate runs Ptarmigan, Rhapsody and Fairplay, circling back to the base of the Super Bee lift by way of Skid Road. Copper will also have its beginner/learning area of Green Acres via the Pitchfork lift in between Center and East villages open.

Copper said it was able to open all of this terrain for Friday thanks to the more than 5 feet of natural snow that has blanketed the resort thus far this season.

At 9 a.m., both the Super Bee and Union Creek lifts will begin turning, with Copper conducting its first chair celebration at the Super Bee lift at 9 a.m. As part of their “Welcome Home Weekend” festivities, Copper is also offering complimentary parking, two-for-one rides on the Rocky Mountain Coaster in Center Village, free live music in East Village, raffle prizes and more.

For a complete list of Welcome Home Weekend happenings, visit: coppercolorado.com.

Breckenridge and Keystone

Copper won’t be the only ski resort in the county to open more terrain, as both Breckenridge Ski Resort and Keystone Resort are providing more skiing and riding options in time for the weekend.

After opening high-alpine terrain at the Contest and Horseshoe bowls earlier this week, beginning Saturday Breckenridge will open up skiing and riding on two of its five peaks with terrain out of the Peak 9 base area. In total, Breckenridge will have nearly 1,000 acres of skiable terrain open, as the resort’s received nearly seven feet of snow since mid-October.

Lifts at Breckenridge set to open on Saturday include the Quicksilver SuperChair, the Beaver Run SuperChair, the Mercury SuperChair, the lower station of the Peak 8 SuperConnect and the Snowflake lift.

The resort also added to “keep an eye out” for the T-Bar and E-Chair to also open soon.

Over at Keystone, by Saturday the resort will have terrain open across all three of its peaks totaling 650 skiable acres, with more than 300 lift-serviced.

On Friday, Keystone will open its Mountain House base area and Peru Express lift for the season, with skiing and riding access via the beginner Lower Schoolmarm trail. Also on Friday, Keystone will open the intermediate Anticipation run on North Peak, with access to the Wayback lift.

Then on Saturday, Keystone will open expert terrain at The Outback.

Also this week, Keystone opened above-treeline advanced and hike-to skiing and riding terrain in its Bergman Bowl.

Keystone this week also opened top-to-bottom skiing and snowboarding to the River Run base area after the resort previously was requiring skiers and riders to download from the top of the River Run Gondola on Dercum Mountain, due to closed terrain at the bottom of Dercum.

The resort’s Labonte’s Smokehouse BBQ restaurant at the base of the Ruby and Santiago Express lifts will open ahead of schedule on Saturday, with limited menu options available on the weekends until the restaurant’s official opening on Dec. 7.

Arapahoe Basin

On his blog on Thursday, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area chief operating officer Alan Henceroth teased the opening of lift-serviced skiing and riding in the new Beavers terrain expansion is oh-so-close.

“I think a good solid storm could be enough to make it happen,” Henceroth said on his blog. “We are still dialing the chairlift in and waiting to get its license. That should happen soon.”

As of Thursday afternoon, A-Basin had 15 runs open across three lifts, including three groomed runs in the Upper Lenawee Zone and the advanced Exhibition trail on the lower mountain.

The new quad Beavers lift will service 339 acres of A-Basin’s 468-acre terrain expansion into The Beavers and Steep Gullies. The double-black-diamond Steep Gullies terrain will not be serviced by this lift and requires a 30-minute hike.


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