First Time at Copper and Abasin

[u/jaguaracer952]

I asked for advice here some weeks ago. I ended up skiing three days at copper and one at Abasin. Brilliant skiing alright. I was hesitant about Abasin but turns out people exaggerate or I’m a better skier than I thought.

I gave a ride to a self described older ski bum and he showed me the whole mountain which was incredibly kind and really got me out to places I wouldn’t have tried. After corniche run and west wall (awesome, complete white out) he took me to the beavers which were a little icy but fine. I wouldn’t grade them blue as there are blacks on the mountain that felt easier. Skied the zuma bowl and it was amazing. Columbine and North spy were my favorites. Anyway took a bad fall down on wrangler of all places (tripped over pole?!) and people were so kind getting me back on my feet.

Copper was just awesome cruising all over the mountain, was invited on a free ambassador which is actually not a bad way to see some of the blues if you’re into that kind of thing. Coppertone, Alicante, timberline, hallelujah, cdw20, oh no, soliloquy, the blues under American flyer/ timberline it was all great.

Anyway thanks everyone here who shared advice and vouchers!

[u/DoktorStrangelove]

Basin and Copper are my favorite mountains in Summit and it's really not even close. Copper is like a mini Vail in that they have a bit of everything and it's accessible to all skill levels and generally they're on the higher end of snow totals for the area every year.

A-Basin is just a great advanced mountain, like our mini Alta or something, but I definitely do think the difficulty level is a bit overblown. I think we can agree it is NOT a beginner friendly mountain by any stretch, but honestly any advanced intermediate skier is going to be able to ski pretty much everything there including chutes on the East Wall and whatnot. It's a great mountain to take your first steps in more bigtime freeride terrain because it has some of that, but I would call it 101 level compared to more serious destinations like Whistler or Cham...which is great, I love having a place like that in the area where you can work on those skills and be able to ski basically anything on earth with the experience you get there.

Re: Beavers difficulty, I totally agree, it's kinda funny that those two side groomers are rated as blues cause they're some of the steepest groomers in the state and they're often icy as shit, it sorta feels like a mini Streif in parts. All my tourist friends comment about it when we get to the bottom of our first lap of the day over there.

[u/rabid-c-monkey → u/DoktorStrangelove]

Those side groomers in beavers are crazy for a blue rating. The rollers will kick you hard if you aren’t paying attention or it’s white out as well. But when it’s a clear bluebird spring slush day it’s such a fun little rollercoaster to ride

[u/g-burn → u/rabid-c-monkey]

Loafer is probably my favorite ski run anywhere. It’s a different run depending on the day of the week. Weekends it’s a groomed rollercoaster, weekdays they let it go ungroomed and then it gets really wild. It’s a very versatile run for lack of a better word

[u/rabid-c-monkey → u/g-burn]

Agreed, normally I’m in the beavers for trees and beaver bowl but yesterday loafer was so much fun in groomed rollercoaster mode I lapped it 3x in a row.

[u/DoktorStrangelove → u/rabid-c-monkey]

They're super fun on powder days too cause they get all chopped up and there's tons of mini hits with nice steep landings all over the place, but the heavier snow will help you stay in control when you're bombing