Summit County Citizens Voice

Keystone celebrates the Dercums, A-Basin offers top-to-bottom skiing and Copper Mountain launches a new season

Flying high on opening day at Copper Mountain. PHOTO BY BOB BERWYN.

SUMMIT COUNTY — With several early season storms augmenting snowmaking efforts at local ski areas, both Keystone and Copper opened to rave reviews, while A-Basin was able to open the upper part of the mountain earlier this week.

Keystone’s opening day focused on celebrating the legacy of ski area founders Max and Edna Dercum, and also highlighted an impressive array of terrain features, along with top-to-bottom skiing on River Run and Spring Dipper.

Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz posted his early season accomplishments on Twitter:

I earned 7 pins today at @KeystoneMtn using #EpicMix. See all my pins and stats at epicmix.com/User-Profile.a….—
Rob Katz (@RickysRidge) November 05, 2011

And Keystone posted this picture of the Dercum family getting into River Run gondola cabin wrapped with images of the ski pioneers:

Opening day at Keystone. PHOTO COURTESY KEYSTONE SKI AREA.

Copper Mountain currently has 3 lifts open (American Eagle and Easy Rider Surface Lift, while the Excelerator Lift is open for race training only), 4 trails (Rhapsody to Main Vein and the Woodward at Copper Bouncer Terrain Par, and once again Copperopolis is only open for race training) and 49.7 acres of skiable terrain, with an 18 inch base.

Copper Mountain prepared some big hits on the lower part of the mountain for opening day.

Early season events continue with the Colorado Demo Days (Nov. 19-20), the opening of the Superpipe (Nov. 24, conditions permitting) and the popular Thanksgiving events, including theLeftover Yam Jam (first rail jam of the year, Nov. 25), followed by the Gobbler Snowshoe Race and the first En Fuego (Both on Nov. 26. Check the Copper Mountain Calendar for more details.

Arapahoe Basin, which has been operating for several weeks, celebrated its first local’s day with skiing on Lenawee Face and Dercum’s Gulch, as well as a couple of runs on the lower mountain and a rail jam. Check out more more photos on Al’s Blog.

Plenty of room to let 'em run on Lenawee Face at A-Basin.

Next up for snowmaking is Sundance, and several weekend storms could add to the snowpack at A-Basin, with locals hoping for more terrain openings soon. Here’s a short video of a run from the top of Lenawee to Black Mountain Lodge.

A few more pics from Copper:

Hang time at Copper Mountain.

Old-school tip grab at Copper Mountain.

Mellow telemark action at Copper Mountain.

Carving at Copper.

And some Copper Mountain video:

Filed under: Colorado, seasons, Snow and weather, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news, Summit County snow and weather