Meet The Loyal Skiers Of Copper’s Hike Park All Summer

It’s a sunny, 75-degree July day at Copper Mountain. Wildflowers are in full bloom, hikers and bikers are working their way up and down the mountain, the golf course is in full swing, and patios are popping. Somehow, despite one of the worst winters on record, there is a giant snowfield at the base area, where a steady stream of skiers and snowboarders are spending the day lapping park features.

Opened in early June, Woodward Summer Hike Park, consisting of 13 rails and one jump built from snow farmed from the Superpipe, is holding up solidly despite the increasingly warm July days.

While many skiers were hitting the Hike Park for the first time, others are long-time mainstays, and a few have trekked across the country expressly to check it out.

Tom Sylla drove out from Portsmouth, N.H. to live in his car for the summer and take a Wilderness First Responder course. He brought his skis.

“I come out for the weekends. I just love skiing more than anything else in the world. There’s nothing I’d rather do with the summer,” he said.

When asked why he chose Copper, he pointed out that it’s a lot closer than Mt. Hood. As far as conditions, he said, “What you see is what you get. Some rails and a pile of snow.”

It was more than enough to work on his switch tail glide 4, although he hadn’t quite nailed it.

With a closer commute, Alex Fornoff went to Copper from Golden on his motorcycle with skis strapped on to the back.

“People on I-70 saw skis on the motorcycle and were like, where are you going? I had to get some runs in July,” he said, adding that the trip was his first to the Hike Park this summer.

“This is honestly much bigger than it was last year, which is surprising, given how bad last season was. I’ve been in Colorado since 2012. Last season was the worst. Honestly, they have more snow here at the base than I recall from two years ago,” he said. “I think it goes for at least another month or two. I don’t know how long this will last, but it’s awesome to have some degree of snow to ski on.”

Fellow Coloradans Ryder Noakes and Caleb Hottovy were focusing their skills on the park’s hip jump, both working on a 540 spin.

Noakes, from Arvada, came to the park for the first time because he “just missed skiing,” and made a new friend in Hottovy, from Eagle, who tries to hit the park every weekend.

“We’re trying the same trick, so trying to help each other out,” Noakes said. “It’s pretty fun. I didn’t expect there to be a jump. I didn’t expect there to be this much. It’s a good setup. I think I’ll start coming more often.”

Not everyone at the park was working on a specific trick. Adele Leskela, a Colorado transplant from Lake Superior, Wisc., was simply looking for a snow fix after a lost winter.

“Just missing winter,” she said. “We’ve got a little taste of it, a little snow for us leftover, so definitely trying to utilize it.”

Lance Lavalle, who works at Snow Snake Ski & Golf, made the haul from Michigan exclusively to shred Copper’s Hike Park as many days as possible.

“I’ll be here for the month,” he said. “It’s really good. I came out last year in September. There’s something about creativity, the motion when you’re on a rail.”

Lavalle’s focus for the day?

“See how many tricks I could do on the barrel rail,” he said. “A little Tokyo drift; I 180ed on and kept spinning. It was pretty fun.”

Copper Mountain’s crew deliberately built the park with several feet of base depth to give it the strongest chances of lasting through the hot summer. It will stay open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday to Sunday, as long as conditions allow. Day tickets are $25.

Provided that snow holds up, Copper is planning a jib competition in the park during its Union Peak Festival Aug. 28-30. The weekend-long event also features a 5K mountain run, yoga, a mountain bike meet-up, and free concerts by The Revivalists, Turnpike Troubadours, Magic City Hippies, and The Sheepdogs.