Colorado Purgatory vs Cooper vs Sunlight

[nemesis256]

Planning for next year. I discovered that a small mountain I go to occasionally here in the Northeast has cheap season passes for locals. They're also part of the freedom pass, which gives you 3 ski days at 19 small independently run resorts. For the last few years I've been doing ski trips for 3 days out west. See where this is going?

So I'm considering these 3 resorts. I like off piste but I travel with a friend who relies on groomed.

Purgatory is the least interesting. I've read there's a lot of flats and rollers, which is a turn off. It's also way out there by itself and it looks like flying to ABQ would be better.

Cooper (not Copper, confusing) is the one I have most questions about. Today's snow report only shows 4 groomed trails, which isn't good for my friend. It's also rather small, but it's close enough to Sunlight that we could sleep in between them somewhere and go to Cooper just for one day. Their site also talks about cat skiing, which I would LOVE to try. But when I go to book there's no availability. Is it that popular or is it not offered?

Sunlight looks like the best overall. Enough groomed and ungrommed to keep both of us happy.

Opinions? Some suggestions on where to rent/demo skis would be great too.

 

[jmeb]

Cooper is fun for a day, but it will bore you over 3 days if you're an advanced skier.

Sunlight has great fall line skiing, good off-piste trails and a cool community. If you can splurge a day at an Aspen mountain all the better.

I think you're underselling Purg a little, but there is no doubt it is the further away from everything. But it has a lot of good skiing albeit all below treeline.

If you fly into Denver, a 1/2 day at Cooper on your way to Sunlight ain't out of the question.

 

[Coach13]

We like all 3. Cooper is a family favorite. No crowds, cheap but great food/drink and varied terrain (just not a lot of it. They groom enough and leave enough ungroomed to entertain everyone imo. I agree you probably won’t want to spend all 3 days there but many times we’ve been there twice on each end of the same week without complaint.

 

[tball]

Cooper (not Copper, confusing) is the one I have most questions about. Today's snow report only shows 4 groomed trails, which isn't good for my friend. It's also rather small, but it's close enough to Sunlight that we could sleep in between them somewhere and go to Cooper just for one day. Their site also talks about cat skiing, which I would LOVE to try. But when I go to book there's no availability. Is it that popular or is it not offered?

I believe Ski Cooper is still offering cat skiing, but maybe just on the weekends. I haven't done it but heard from a friend it was great powder and relatively inexpensive. I've looked at the tracks from the area and very much wished I was up there! Maybe give them a call and ask about the likelihood of there being enough snow and the cat skiing being open at the time of your trip.

Ski Cooper is great, it just doesn't have much pitch even on the advanced runs. That's fine for some advanced skiers but too boring for others depending on their personal preference. You getting a day of cat skiing while your friend skis in the area sounds like a great plan if it works out.