Copper Mountain: Where Colorado locals do their skiing

By Heike Schmidt Feb 14, 2012, 13:01 GMT

Keystone, Colorado - It must have been on purpose that the newly-developed valley region of Arapahoe Basin, a small skiing area in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, was named after Montezuma, the ruler of the Aztecs of yesteryear. Steep and snowy-white it is here, with stone chippings strewn about, cliffs, monster moguls and extreme double-black category ski runs. Now, if that doesn't set your stomach churning nothing will.

The skier sitting on a lift, at any rate, has a stain on his bottom, covered up partially by a wide strip of adhesive tape. The young man with a scruffy goatee beard says, grinning, that the other day he had become perilously stuck close to the edge of a rock. Then he puts on his helmet with a skull-and-crossbones sticker and races off down through the glittering powder snow.

Colorado's world-renowned winter sports centres of Aspen and Vail - those chic playgrounds with heated sidewalks and mega-expensive five-star hotels - are a matter of course for the international skiing set, be they monarchs, corporation bosses, Hollywood legends or prominent politicians.

But the locals go to Arapahoe Basin, also called A-Basin. Unless Interstate 70 is completely crowded with commuting skiers, the lively mini skiing centre is about one hour's drive west of the state capital Denver. About a dozen wintersports areas can be reached along the highway in the region around the city of 2.8 million people.

Right next to Exit 216, before the bottleneck of the Eisenhower Tunnel, the lifts of the Loveland Ski Area are humming. An exciting quarter of an hour later, driving over the high-altitude Loveland Pass, where amid the scary hairpin turns the oncoming traffic often will include a tractor-trailer transporting half a house, you reach A-Basin.

The windswept at nearly 3,700 metres elevation is, for many locals, the entry point for ski tours in backwoods regions. Youngsters who are chronically short of funds can save the money on a ticket for the ski lift by skiing cross-country down through the pine forests, then hiking back up again.

Loveland and A-Basin are the retro-skiing areas for those out for a day of skiing. There is no real town to speak of, nor any well-planned resorts - just ski lifts, ski runs, and valley stations. The modest cafeteria, housed in an old former rocket testing station, a two-story day lodge with slanted roofs reaching nearly to the ground, serves up French fries, bowls of chili, and muffins.

There are still no hotels. Those who do not go looking for a camping spot in nearby White River National Forest or for a place to stay overnight in some neighbouring town - Georgetown near Loveland and Keystone near A-Basin - will simply drive back home in the evening. Some 1,600 guest rooms are available for those skiing in the Copper Mountain resort.

Ski bums arriving in camping vans have been known to exaggerate the apres-skiing parties in A-Basin. Even a couch atop skis was once brought up to the top of the mountain. As a result, camping is no longer allowed at the valley station. But people can have a barbecue.

'The Beach' is the name given to the area in front of the cars in the first row of the early-risers' parking lot. Especially in late Spring many hamburgers will be sizzling over charcoal fires, while people in skiing shoes and bathing shorts are playing beach volleyball.

Wind and the elements have given a smooth finish to many of North America's huge mountains. Because the tree line in Colorado is relatively high, many skiing mountains in the Wild West have the appearance of some tame, rounded lower-elevation hills elsewhere.

But not Loveland and Arapahoe Basin. Most of the high-speed downhill runs lie above the line where the wind-bent pine trees start. Located nearly 4,000 metres high, they are among the highest-elevation skiing areas of North America. The skiing season lasts longer than elsewhere, and Loveland and A-Basin vie with each other every year to be the first to open for business - usually in November - and to be the last to close down, quite often in June.

The resort Copper Mountain is named after the ore which once had been mined in the region. But where did the name Montezuma come from, next door in Arapahoe Basin? Public relations spokeswoman Leigh Hierholzer laughs at the question, and assures one that it is all harmless and that no sinister curse is implied. The new basin was simply named after a mining hamlet which one can see from the summit.