Mother Nature graced us with a bluebird day on Sunday (1/22) that undoubtedly pulled the strings of even the hardest of hearts. As the rising sun began to break way through the parting clouds, early skiers and boarders at Copper Mountain happily devoured the three inches of fresh, as millions of tiny crystals from the departing storm reflected glitter in the early rays.

My pop and I left Golden at 6:10 a.m., hoping for better results than two weekends ago when we left around 7a.m., when it took us four (4) hours to get from Golden to Copper, a drive that should take (with a little strategic speeding) 80 minutes. Granted, it was MLK Day weekend when we foolishly suffered that fate.

This Sunday, though traffic was already thick, it flowed. We triumphantly arrived in 90 minutes.

After a couple of 1^st-chair warm-up runs with JT Senior, I broke away to hit Union Peak. The snow was so good, though, a lush and thick shag carpet from the 80s, that I had to drop Copper Bowl once before hiking up to the Peak.

Steep and Deep, baby—that’s what any bowl worth its weight in acreage promises on the best of days, and my run that began with a stomach-clenching drop off the cliff was just that. I landed as on a pillow, and the rest of the run was simply floating on skis.

On the chairlift back to Union Peak, the traffic on Copper Bowl had picked up, and hoots and hollers could be heard as dudes and dudettes stoked out on the pow gnar.

I huffed and puffed my way up the few-hundred-yard hike to get to Union Peak—one of but not the—highest peaks at Copper Mountain, and dropped that. The snow wasn’t as good on that side. Wind, maybe. But it was still magnificent up there.

I skiied the long run to the Beach at T-Rex, next to the Timberline lift, powder dust flowing off the tips the entire way. My dad wasn’t there yet, so I went up to the window and got us a couple of cans of well-earned microbrew. The speakers were blaring “Space Cowboy/The Joker” by the Steve Miller Band, and in Literature Professor mode, I asked the bartender what was her interpretation of the line “I really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree.” She laughed but did not answer. It was then that I realized I had a new way of teaching symbolism to my Intro to Lit students (delivered in Monday morning’s lecture).

Ski resorts in Colorado are experiencing a near-record amount of snowfall in January. Get up there, folks. It’s sick. I’ll report back when I do.

Just remember: leave early.

~jt

Update 1/24: It’s being reported that Summit County is expected to receive it’s last big snowfall of the month, with another foot of fresh by the week’s end (!).