If there were such a thing as an organic ski area, Ski Cooper would be it. As one of the last few holdouts with no snow making, Ski Cooper is a paradise for natural snow purists. All the powder on the slopes — 250 inches per year — comes from Mother Nature and not from the nozzle of snow guns. That may seem quaint to some of the high-rolling ornamentals from Texas and California, not to mention execs at the nearby mega-resort, but for a core group of Colorado skiers and snowboarders, it’s exactly what they’re looking for. A range of exposures and low traffic helps preserve powder stashes for a few days after storms, with free-heelers and boarders searching out the glades on the far side of the mountain around Mother Lode and Corkscrew. Besides the all-natural snow, Cooper locals flock to the hill near Leadville for the family vibe and the $2 lift tickets, one of the lowest prices in Colorado. Last year, supermarket discount tickets were available for non-locals. With an average of 1,800 visitors on weekends and 300 to 500 during the week, chances are you can easily find your own untracked line any day of the week. www.skicooper.com
Best Run: First tracks down Nightmare under the chair.
Best Beer: Rosie’s Brewpub is tough to beat for fresh suds, but you can also drink where Fayhee drinks at the Manhattan Bar.
You’ll find a lot of ex-pat, skiing-since-they-could-walk Vermonters singing the praises of Eldora, because if you grew up skiing tight trees, this little, blustery area just five minutes from downtown Boulder will make you feel right at home. Eldora often gets lost amid all the big talk of I-70 resorts, and even in Boulder you’ll hear locals disparaging it for being too cold, too windy, too ramshackle, too bony. Those folks usually can’t turn as well as they talk—Eldora takes some poking around but once you “get it,” it delivers, especially in the spring when big upslope storms blanket the place in fluff. The backcounty, including some perfect, powder-laden chutes, is ridiculously underrated and local-knowledge tree runs like Bryant Glades and the tough-to-find Burl are the type of places where you can’t hide crappy skills. The vibe is far more Ned than Pearl Street—families from the Dakotas, rippers like the chimney sweep with an artificial hip who teles the backcountry every day, young parents from Boulder up to pound out runs before they pick up “Sage” at daycare, old dudes making perfect turns on 220s and a ski patrol that actually offers advice and lets you tag around for a run or two. Eldora.com
Best Run: West Ridge.
Best Beer: Otis Pale Ale at the Wild Mountain Smokehouse & Brewery
Wolf Creek is 237 miles from Albuquerque, 276 miles from Denver, 478 miles from Salt Lake City, 538 miles from Phoenix, 823 miles from Dallas, 861 miles from Los Angeles, 1,348 miles from Chicago, 2,061 miles from New York City, and 10,000 miles away from pretentiousness. You won’t see anybody here. You won’t be seen. If you somehow find it and can finally let go of your ego long enough, you’ll figure out there’s only one reason to ski here: snow up to your eyeballs—once a week…or two or three times a week…or (more often than you might imagine) for weeks at a time. See, nobody cares who you are because you are going to be skiing under the snow. It gets very real about February, when finally you’ve been under long enough that even you don’t care who you are. Wolfcreekski.com
Best Run: The face of Alberta Peak down to the Bankshot trees.
Best Beer: Fat Tires and True Blondes in the Pathfinder Bar.
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