How Copper “farms” snow to last all summer
Every spring, the terrain parks on Copper Mountain are slowly consolidated into one large snow patch which lasts through the summer.
The man- made snow on the west side of the mountain gets moved over to the aptly named Central Park, which is formed in the center of Copper’s many other parks. The snow that creates the Peace Park, Pipe Dream and Red’s Back Yard terrain parks, along with the snow from some of the nearby trails, all gets pushed into one zone which has a magic carpet lift running alongside it.
That zone then becomes the only lift- served terrain in Colorado for the summer, allowing kids to sign up for one- week camps designed to help them progress during the months when their on- snow skills might normally regress.
But this year, due to the popularity of the offering for kids, Copper Mountain opened the summer snow patch camp to adults, as well. Last week, Copper had an adults- only camp that sold out, attracting 150 skiers and snowboarders from all over the world. That was Week 1 of what is scheduled to be a 10week run this year.
Snow farmers
Noah Schwander with the Woodward freeski and snowboard progression center at Copper said every year the summer snow patch gets a little better as his team learns more about what it takes to make the snow last throughout the summer.
And technology has improved in recent years, as well, making the process more scientific.
“Now there’s a computer screen in the snowcat that tells you how much snow you’re sitting on and where there’s more snow,” Schwander said. “It’s all run off of GPS — we also have handheld GPS that can measure things. We go out and figure out
how much volume there is and where we can move snow.”
The process is called snow farming, Schwander said, and it has given new meaning to the work performed by several
different areas of operation throughout the year, starting when the snow guns are first turned on in the fall. Now, when man- made snow is blown on the mountain, it’s seen as an investment
that can last all summer.
The snowcats know exactly where the snow is the deepest, and as trails are closed in the spring, those snowcats are used to move the snow that was made for those trails — as well as the natural snow that fell throughout the season — to the Central Park area where a man- made glacier is formed.
“We didn’t have GPS snowdepth technology when I first started,” he said. “We’d just say ‘ I think this is enough, hope it lasts.’”
Schwander has been at Copper Mountain for eight years and has been the director of the Woodward center — which manages the mountain’s terrain parks — for three years. He said it has been an exciting time to work for Copper as the mountain is always looking to improve its offerings for freeskiers and snowboarders who like to hit jumps and rails.
While Copper didn’t have a massive snow year like some areas of the country — the mountain received a cumulative 320 inches of snow, which is about average — Schwander’s snow farming practices were used to help provide a full terrain park to guests all the way through May 7 in a season officials said was the longest the mountain has enjoyed since the 1990s.
Schwander said while consistent snowfall and a strong base were the true factors allowing for the extension ( the original closing day was scheduled for April 23), he was most proud of the fact that Woodward was able to create a proper jump line for skiers and
snowboarders all the way through closing day.
“We blow the snow, we use it, then we reuse it to extend the season,” he said. “We were able to build a park in the area where the Big Air competitions were during the winter.”
Work your way up
Coach Holly Reitsema this month said her students were practicing jumps and rails by starting indoors at the Woodward barn at Copper Mountain. The barn is a 19,400- square- foot indoor training facility with Olympicgrade trampolines and foam pit jumps designed to mimic the on- snow experience in a more controlled setting.
Reitsema said Woodward campers start on the trampolines in the barn, then move to the foam pit, then take it outside to an airbag
feature on snow. The airbag allows kids to hit a real snow jump but land with their skis or snowboard onto an inflated airbag which provides a cushioned landing.
“The goal is to start learning a trick in the barn, try it on the airbag and then
try it on a jump,” she said. “We work our way up.”
Creek Iacona, 12, has been practicing 360s.
“I’ve been going off the jump that leads into the airbag, popping as high as I can and moving my shoulders, my chest and my head to the left,” he said. “If you
do that your feet just kind of follow you … I also want to try a front flip onto the airbag. I’ve been practicing that on the trampoline in the barn.”
Reitsema said while kids like Iacona are focusing more on jumps, the wide, plastic- topped boxes in the terrain park help the kids understand the slippery sensation of a rail slide, as well.
“The park crew has been so good about adding box lines to work our way up to rails,” she said.
A quarterpipe jump in the on- snow park also allows kids to practice for the halfpipe, Reitsema said. Nine- year- old Emma Johnson said the quarterpipe has been the biggest attraction for her at Copper’s summer camp as she wants to learn how to ride the halfpipe on her skis during the upcoming winter.
“I’ve been working on trying to get to the top of it, popping and turning in the air and then riding back down,” she said. “Having the quarterpipe makes it easier than the halfpipe because I don’t have to go from side to side, I just go do it up once.”
Not all kids who enter the camp have specific goals in mind. Skier Twyla Van Wyx, 12, is visiting from Arizona where she said she spends the winter practicing for ski racing.
“I want to learn some tricks, but usually we’re too busy doing slalom,” she said.
It’s Van Wyx’s first year participating in the onsnow summer camp, and she said it has been a great experience.
“I told my parents I want to sign up already for next year,” she said.