In a press release this morning, Copper Mountain announced operating plans for the 2020-21 ski season. The news comes on the heels of a Vail Resorts announcement last week which outlined an elaborate skier reservation system. In a letter from the Copper’s General Manager, Dustin Lyman, a different type of reservation system has been outlined for the POWDR-owned resort, along with other updates to operating procedures and general guidelines for guests.
The primary difference between Vail and Copper’s reservations systems is that the latter will be based on parking, as opposed to Vail’s, which is tied to individual skiers. When we asked Copper representatives if they could provide any further details about how that might work for multiple skiers arriving in a single car, they said more details would be announced soon.
Other guidelines are similar to what we heard from Vail and what we expect from most resorts this season. Guests will be required to wear face coverings and physically distance around the resort as well as in lift lines. Skiers should expect to be self-reliant when loading lifts and will be required to ride up with the other people in their group. Lift attendants will not require you to ride along with anybody outside of your group but “high capacity chairlifts and closed cabin carriers may be the exception.”
As for the much-anticipated opening day, Copper will push it back slightly, to November 30th, in hopes that it will more terrain open for skiing to avoid congestion on the mountain. Along with this news, Copper has also extended its “best pricing” on four-packs of tickets and wants to remind people about the Copper Passholder Promise, which includes full refunds on unused passes up to December 10th and vouchers if the season is adversely affected by COVID-related closures.
