Skiing K Chute, SKY Chutes, Copper, Colorado
Mike in K Chute
Every time I drive eastbound over Vail Pass, I find myself staring at the SKY chutes near Copper. Mike and I decided we’d check out the K chute as we felt comfortable with the avalanche risk for this chute. We parked at the lot near the 7 Eleven as Copper’s Far East lot (which would have been closer to the bottom of the line) was gated and impenetrable. This added some distance to our day, but it went by quickly.
Once we got to the bottom of the chute, we followed an old skin track that went up the chute itself. As we got towards the top of the chute, it got a lot steeper and the snow became much more wind-affected. We ended up pushing into the looker’s right woods at this point and continued up that ridge until we hit the snow line.
Once there was no more snow for us to ascend, we transitioned and skied back down the chute the way we had come up. The snow on the skier’s left side of the chute was much better than skier’s right due to its more northerly aspect. Before we knew it, we were down at the bottom and back at the bike path with smiles on our faces. We transitioned back to skins and skinned back to our car.
Total stats: 4.7 miles, 2200 ft of elevation gain
