Copper Mountain
Copper Mountain Resort is a premier ski and snowboard destination located in Summit County, Colorado. With over 2,400 acres of skiable terrain, Copper Mountain Resort offers a variety of trails for skiers and snowboarders of all abilities. With a summit elevation over 12,000 feet and a vertical drop of over 2,600 feet, Copper Mountain Resort boasts some of the best skiing and snowboarding in the Rocky Mountains.
In addition to downhill skiing and snowboarding, Copper Mountain Resort also offers cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowtubing, and has 4 terrain parks with jumps, rails, and other features that are regularly maintained and updated throughout the ski season. With a variety of lodging options and on-site dining and entertainment, Copper Mountain Resort is the perfect place to experience all that the Colorado Rockies have to offer.
The ski season at Copper Mountain Resort typically runs from mid-November to late April, but can vary based on weather conditions.
We recently ranked all of Colorado's ski resorts, so you can see where Copper Mountain stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Copper Mountain is a part of the Ikon Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all or most of the Ikon-sponsored slopes with it throughout the year, depending on the type of pass you bought.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Copper Mountain around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Copper Mountain Mountain Resort Terrain Overview
Copper Mountain has a total of 140 ski trails, which are serviced by 24 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 2,507 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 1,015 hectares, 3.9 square miles, or 10.1 square kilometers.
Copper Mountain's slopes see on average 305 inches (7.7 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 25 feet every year!
Total Runs
140
Lifts
24
Skiable Acres
2,507(10 km2)
Annual Snowfall
305"(775 cm)
Copper Mountain Ski Resort Elevation
Copper Mountain Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 12,441 feet, or 3,792 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 9,712 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 2,738 feet (835 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
The summit of 12,441 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.
Summit Elevation
12,441'(3,792 m)
Vertical Drop
2,738'(835 m)
Base Elevation
9,712'(2,960 m)
Copper Mountain Ski Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
71.5out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Copper Mountain has 2,507 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Seeing as Copper Mountain is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, it's no surprise that over 79% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level. This leaves only 21% of its skiable acres as beginner terrain.
Beginner
21%(526 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
25%(627 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
54%(1,354 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Copper Mountain Ski Resort good for beginners?
This is one of the hardest ski areas in the country to ski at, so it is not great for beginners. Copper Mountain Ski Resort ranks in the top 10% of the most-difficult ski resorts in the country. It has 54% of its trails rated as expert, or black-diamond level.
Copper Mountain Ski Resort Location
Copper Mountain Ski Resort is located in the state of Colorado, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Frisco, CO.
Address:
Frisco, CO 80443 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
coppercolorado.com
GPS Coordinates:
39.46000, -106.17000
Getting to Copper Mountain Mountain Resort
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Copper Mountain Ski Resort), its coordinates of 39.46000, -106.17000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Frisco, CO to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Copper Mountain Ski Resort.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denver International Airport | DEN | Denver, CO | 84 mi |
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Copper Mountain.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aspen-Pitkin Co/Sardy Field | ASE | Aspen, CO | 41 mi |
| Eagle County Regional Airport | EGE | Eagle, CO | 42 mi |
| City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport | COS | Colorado Springs, CO | 91 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Copper Mountain Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Copper Mountain Ski Resort.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breckenridge | Breckenridge, CO | 12,998 ft | 85% | 8 mi |
| Ski Cooper | Leadville, CO | 11,700 ft | 56% | 10 mi |
| Keystone | Dillon, CO | 12,408 ft | 76% | 15 mi |
| Vail | Vail, CO | 11,570 ft | 79% | 16 mi |
| Loveland Ski Area | Dillon, CO | 13,010 ft | 65% | 21 mi |
| Beaver Creek | Beaver Creek, CO | 11,440 ft | 64% | 22 mi |
| Winter Park Resort | Winter Park, CO | 12,060 ft | 87% | 37 mi |
| Ski Granby Ranch | Granby, CO | 9,202 ft | 32% | 38 mi |
| Echo Mountain Resort | Idaho Springs, CO | 10,650 ft | 28% | 38 mi |
| Aspen Mountain Ski Resort | Aspen, CO | 11,212 ft | 62% | 39 mi |
| Aspen Highlands Ski Resort | Aspen, CO | 11,675 ft | 78% | 41 mi |
| Aspen Ski Resorts | Snowmass Village, CO | 12,510 ft | 74% | 45 mi |
| Aspen Snowmass | Snowmass Village, CO | 12,510 ft | 68% | 45 mi |
| Eldora | Nederland, CO | 10,600 ft | 50% | 46 mi |
| Crested Butte | Crested Butte, CO | 12,162 ft | 77% | 60 mi |
| Sunlight Mountain | Glenwood Springs, CO | 9,895 ft | 66% | 63 mi |
| Monarch | Salida, CO | 11,952 ft | 53% | 64 mi |
| Bluebird Backcountry | Kremmling, CO | 9,845 ft | 60% | 68 mi |
| Buttermilk | Larkspur, CO | 9,900 ft | 34% | 69 mi |
| Cranor Hill Ski Area | Gunnison, CO | 7,000 ft | 0% | 72 mi |
| Arapahoe Basin Ski Area | Dillon, CO | 13,050 ft | 81% | 76 mi |
| Howelsen Hill Ski Area | Seamboat Springs, CO | 7,136 ft | 46% | 79 mi |
| Powderhorn Ski Resort | Powderhorn, CO | 9,850 ft | 60% | 96 mi |
Copper Mountain Ski Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 12,441 ft |
| Base Elevation | 9,712 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 2,738 ft |
| Trails | 140 (21% Beginner, 25% Intermediate, 54% Expert) |
| Lifts | 24 |
| Skiable Acres | 2,507 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 305 inches |