Colorado Copper Mountain Receiving Two New Lifts

[tball]

On FB they say you can access from the top T Rex.

They just updated the trail report too:

https://www.coppercolorado.com/the-mountain/trail-lift-info/winter-trail-report

That's great news for progress on the Flyer. Must be getting something done to let folks ski under it.

 

[UGASkiDawg]

They just updated the trail report too:
View attachment 60655
https://www.coppercolorado.com/the-mountain/trail-lift-info/winter-trail-report

That's great news for progress on the Flyer. Must be getting something done to let folks ski under it.

Haul rope is up and locked in place except for a few towers where they are splicing. My guess is that they will be putting chairs on by this weekend.

 

[UGASkiDawg]

Lift running and chairs being put on the rope this morning.

 

[MarkEss]

View from the top of Flyer...

 

[coskigirl]

Interesting video of the chair installation on Flyer.

 

[PinnacleJim]

Looks like the exact same bubble 6-pack we got here at Killington. Powdr must have gotten a quantity discount. Killington.is still sorting this thing out with frequent stoppages due to loading, unloading and other issues. I was stuck on it for almost 10 minutes today before they could get it going again.

 

[mike_m]

Testing today. Won't be long now.

 

[john lantz]

Saw on Twitter that it's still closed this week .How hard is it getting around the mountain without this lift?

 

[tball]

Saw on Twitter that it's still closed this week .How hard is it getting around the mountain without this lift?

It's not too hard, depending on the level of skier. Beginners should take the bus to the West Village and stick there and Timberline, avoiding returning to Center Village at all costs. I hope they have signs up warning beginners to head to West Village rather than returning to Center.

Advanced skiers can ski the whole mountain from the Eagle, but I'd also avoid going back Center Village as there must be capacity issues with just one lift. I generally start my day on the Eagle and never return to Center Village until I'm done, so it's not a big deal if you know your way around. The only trick is using the Storm King T-bar to get to Copper Bowl via Lillie G or the Sierra lift via Upper Enchanted Forest (follow the path up the hill by the Rendezvous Lift to get over there).

 

[mikel]

^this

You can use Union or a combination of Union and Timberline to cover most anything you would do off of Flyer. Just take the bus to west village or do the relatively short walk from center village (unless you have little ones then I definitely recommend the bus) . Yes both Union and Timberline are extremely popular lifts and can be very busy with lines along with the need to use 2 lifts but they still will work to get you around.

 

[tball]

9 am on Saturday between Christmas and New Years and 13 degrees outside. Looks like folks are willing to wait longer for Gondola cars. Not a horrible line, yet, considering the Flyer isn't running:


https://www.coppercolorado.com/the-mountain/webcams/mountain/center-village-hd-cam

Nobody is on the Super Bee. This is why you don't head back to Center Village until the end of the day:


https://www.coppercolorado.com/the-mountain/webcams/mountain/super-bee-hd-cam

 

[tball]

Quite the line at the Eagle at 11:10 am, but Super Bee is still a minimal wait.





Just watching for a few minutes I've seen the Eagle stop a couple times, as @SBrown predicted.

 

[coskigirl]

Copper posted on FB and their website today that the Tramway Board is onsite and testing on Flyer began yesterday. Statement said 3 days to a week of testing so it sounds like it should be open next weekend if not before. Maybe a New Year's Day opening?

 

[UGASkiDawg]

Eagle and Timberline have been miserable since the 27th. Everywhere else ski on as usual. Avoiding Timberline without Flyer is a royal pain.

 

[mikel]

9 am on Saturday between Christmas and New Years and 13 degrees outside.

At 9:00 a.m. It *may* have been 3 degrees. I wish it had been 13. 13 degrees might have been the high for today.

 

[UGASkiDawg]

I've been very patient with Copper but this is officially a disaster for them. I had a friend in town for 4 days who had never skied Copper before. He had no idea they were replacing two major lifts. Eagle shut down multiple times today for more than 30 minutes leaving hundreds stranded with basically no way out of Center Village. He loved the mountain but wow what a cluster f#ck with NO communication whatsoever. They need to be talking to public every damn day about the nitty gritty details of what's going on. I heard a lot of people grumbling they would never return to Copper in the lift lines and lodges today. You cannot over communicate. Flyer didn't appear to really be doing anything for the last two days. This will be a case study in piss poor execution.

 

[PinnacleJim]

It's hard to believe that Copper missed the entire holiday week with the new Flyer lift. Killington got their new LP bubble 6-pack open pretty much on schedule, right after Thanksgiving. Not without some early issues and still sorting out how to get full chairs loaded and unloaded without running the lift at less than full speed. I will be interested to hear what problems Copper ran into with their new bubble 6-pack.

 

[tball]

Flyer didn't appear to really be doing anything for the last two days. This will be a case study in piss poor execution.

From the outside, it sure seems LP isn't too motivated to get these lifts done. I wonder what the performance dates and clauses say in the contract? Given how late Copper signed the contracts putting them last in line, is it possible LP isn't feeling any pain yet?

Just speculation, but maybe Copper's choices were to build the lifts this year with no guarantees on the delivery date or wait until next year with firm dates. The lifts were announced just after the IKON deal. I can see how Copper needed to wait for IKON to be finalized before signing for this big investment in lifts.

With the hindsight of the Flyer being down for Christmas, they should have waited until next year. Or, pushed to have the Flyer done first given the greater capacity needs on the beginner side of the mountain. I hope they can come clean and communicate and apologize, but the contract with LP could limit what they can say.

 

[SBrown]

I've been very patient with Copper but this is officially a disaster for them. I had a friend in town for 4 days who had never skied Copper before. He had no idea they were replacing two major lifts. Eagle shut down multiple times today for more than 30 minutes leaving hundreds stranded with basically no way out of Center Village. He loved the mountain but wow what a cluster f#ck with NO communication whatsoever. They need to be talking to public every damn day about the nitty gritty details of what's going on. I heard a lot of people grumbling they would never return to Copper in the lift lines and lodges today. You cannot over communicate. Flyer didn't appear to really be doing anything for the last two days. This will be a case study in piss poor execution.

Blessing in disguise?

Can you imagine how bad this would have been if it were a low snow year like last year ... at least the entire mountain is open, so you can get off the base (eventually) and get somewhere else. Although the T-Rex line I saw was one of the worst ... singles line extended past two towers. Looked like ABasin on opening day.

 

[mmascolino]

Before Christmas I was at Winter Park and happened to sit at the same lunch table as two LP workers who were there to build their Gondola. They looked battered, worn out and just beat down. They mentioned the early significant snow really slowed them down.