Ski (3) Colorado – Ski Cooper

Ski Cooper is non-profit, so it is cheaper :). It is about half an hour passing the Coper mountain and 2 hours from the Denver airport. If I remember correctly, its day pass is $65 per person and then weekend and spring break is $100. Kids have decent prices like $35 a day. You can buy them online. They don’t have a massive number of trails like Vail and Breckenridge, but they have enough greens, blues, blacks and double blacks for everyone, and certainly you can have a good time here for a few days.

I like how everything is simple here. All the facilities are in tiny buildings and closely located within 1-2 minutes walking distance. The parking lot is close to the slopes and ticket offices. The lines in ticket office, teaching school and lifts are almost none. The rental is cheap about $40 for non-performance ones.

Trails here are not super complicated. You can follow a green or a blue without getting lost at the intersections of black :). The slopes are not very busy but very long, so you say “yay, we are in mountains”, and cruise for a bit :). The ski lifts here are slow, but that does not bother me much, it is a good time to get some rest and views.

Ski Cooper is 20 minutes away from a town called Leadville, and that’s where we have stayed. From the name, probably there was a mine of lead here. In winter, they have snowmobiles and siteseeing trains. Both are super cool. This year, there is not much snow in Colorado, so snowmobiles are already closed when we were here in mid march. The boss said they take people out for a guided tour and probably it is not a good idea for you to just drive around yourself 🙂 In summer, people come here for 14ers. I have hiked Saranac 6 in Adirondacks with my friends. It was such a memorable experience. I am very much into this type of hiking 🙂 Wish one day I can be a 14ers.

Leadville has a few good coffeeshops. My favorite is before & after in downtown. There are both coffees and the bar, and they open long hours with good vibes. Food in the town is so so, but covering some varieties like Mexican and Thai food.

Walking along the main street in the downtown Leadville, you pass souvenir shops, outdoor rentals, but do you know what’s my favorite? It is the rock shopping, fossils and cool looking rocks, you name it. One rock shop is called antique mall and the other is called rock hut.