Whoever is tickling the snow monster, please continue.
That’s what followed the report of more than 30 inches of snow in one week from Sherpa, a new on mountain app from Copper Mountain Family Ski Resort. Sherpa guided us through a busy President’s Day weekend at Copper Mountain, which is located about 90 minutes from Denver, Colorado.
As you can imagine, with that kind of snow, it was great skiing. In addition to shredding some powder (or maybe just snowplowing our way down) we found lots to do OFF the slopes at Copper. Here are a few of our favorites.
1. Grab a sweet treat at Sugar Lips Donuts
These tiny donuts are a bit like a crunchy beignet. We preferred the cinnamon sugar topping to the powdered sugar, two to one. In addition to traditional toppings, there are lots of flavors to choose from, including this month’s special, maple bacon. Because obviously, bacon makes everything better.
2. Spend some time at the Barn
The barn is where you’ll find Woodward at Copper, an indoor freestyle training facility for X-Games style snowboarding, skiing, skateboarding or BMX that my boys labeled ‘sick’. My son returned from his session all smiles at his newly perfected back flip. Woodward at Copper offers half and full day sessions for beginner to advanced riders ages 8 and up. Full day sessions spend the morning at the barn and the afternoon on the slopes. For sessions on the snow, you should be a somewhat proficient skier. If you can’t make the barn, spend some time at the Woodward at Copper Cage in the Copper Mountain Village. There’s a small skate park, computers and ping pong.
3. Tubing the way you like it
One of the things I love about Colorado is they don’t bubble wrap kids. At the Copper Mtn. tubing hill there are a few simple safety rules, but after that, it’s anything goes. Want to go down superman style? As a 10-person train? Spinning wildly? OK.
4. Play in the snow
For my Southern boys, just playing in the snow was a treat. They threw snowballs and pushed each other around in waist high powder. Mine weren’t the only ones playing king of the mountain. Overhead at the shuttle stop “if you have the energy to climb up and down the snow 10 times, you can carry your own gear.” Parents. They’re the same everywhere.
5. Warm up by the fire
According to my son, this list was incomplete without mentioning the fire pits around the Copper Mountain Village. At one pit we found s’more roasting sticks, while another was enclosed in a giant sphere.
