Breckenridge vs. Copper: Which Should You Choose?
When it comes to skiing or riding in Colorado, Breckenridge and Copper are two of the most popular options out there. Both mountains offer the high-alpine footprints, plenty of terrain, and extensive infrastructure that Colorado is known for. But while they share a state and a reputation for offering high-quality experiences, there are some key differences between the two mountains. In this piece, we’ll go through the differences between Copper and Breckenridge, what they both do well, what they both fall short in, and who each is for.
Snow Quality
Advantage: Tie
In terms of overall snow quality, both Breckenridge and Copper enjoy quality accumulation and receive plenty of snowfall throughout a typical season. The resorts exist only a few miles apart from one another and typically sit in the same storm tracks. Even some good April storms are common occurrences at both mountains. Nondescript powder stashes can be found at both mountains; Breckenridge’s high-alpine often retains fresh snow if you traverse far enough, while many of Copper’s bowls benefit from light, wind-blown snow brought about by intense wind gusts. Ultimately, both resorts offer very good snow, and the choice between the two may come down to which resort received a couple more inches in the last snowfall event.
Both Copper (pictured) and Breckenridge enjoy high-quality snow throughout a typical season.
Reliability
Advantage: Copper
Both Breckenridge and Copper are reliable resorts overall, but Copper maintains more consistent openings for much of its high-alpine terrain.
Both resorts have invested heavily in snowmaking infrastructure, allowing them to keep key runs open throughout the season. However, Copper's terrain is generally less prone to closures due to wind or avalanche danger than Breckenridge's, due in part to the resort's lower altitude and more protected location.
Breckenridge's advanced and expert terrain—especially in high-alpine areas—can occasionally suffer from closures due to wind or avalanche danger. This is true of terrain of this type at most Colorado resorts, but Breckenridge’s bowls make up such a high percentage of its footprint that the resort is uniquely vulnerable in this respect. Some of Copper’s bowl areas are smaller and more protected, allowing for the resort to get some flavor of high-alpine terrain open more consistently than Breckenridge; however, Copper has its fair share of fickly-open terrain, including the experts-only Three Bears zone, which can take months into the season to open.
Skiable Footprint
Advantage: Breckenridge
Both Copper and Breckenridge boast impressively large footprints compared to one’s typical ski resort, offering more than enough terrain for most guests to explore over several days. However, Breckenridge offers 16% more terrain than Copper, with 2,908 skiable acres, versus Copper’s 2,507 skiable acres. When it comes to the total footprint, both mountains are bigger from boundary-to-boundary than their claimed skiable footprints would have you believe; once again, Breckenridge takes the crown here, with 4,300 total acres, versus 3,625 total acres for Copper. Breckenridge also boasts a longer vertical drop than Copper, measuring in at a very strong 3,400 feet from top to bottom, versus Copper’s 2,700; however, two of Breckenridge’s main bases sit higher than its true lowest point, which somewhat diminishes this advantage.
Copper’s footprint may be smaller, but the resort offers lift service to a larger portion of its terrain than Breckenridge. Almost 13% of Breckenridge’s terrain requires hiking to reach, which can be especially taxing to climb in the high-altitude environment. On the other hand, only 5% of Copper’s terrain requires a hike to get to. As a result, when only incorporating terrain that’s served directly by lift, Copper’s skiable footprint is a lot more comparable to Breckenridge’s.
Terrain Layout
Advantage: Copper
Breckenridge and Copper hold considerable differences in their layout. While Breckenridge sits along an exceptionally wide front side featuring five mountains in a row, Copper’s footprint spans a front side, a back side, and an additional further back mountain zone with incredibly remote terrain. Breckenridge’s bowls extend up a higher portion of the resort’s vertical, but Copper’s bowls span all three resort sides, making for an expansive high-alpine network.
While the ski area isn’t quite as expansive, Copper’s resort design gives it some notable advantages over Breckenridge. The resort offers natural insulation for skiers and riders of different ability levels, with runs generally getting harder from east to west, and the backside zones hosting the most extreme terrain. On the other hand, while Breckenridge’s Peak 7 generally hosts intermediate terrain and Peak 10 solely comprises advanced and expert terrain, the resort’s terrain zones are a lot more mixed in terms of difficulty, causing a number of situations where less experienced guests face more aggressive skier and rider traffic.
Breckenridge’s exceptionally wide layout makes for tons of terrain but relatively confusing navigation.
Navigation Logistics
Advantage: Copper
In addition, Breckenridge is harder to take advantage of than Copper due to its navigational difficulties. Getting between the resort’s five peaks—or even from one elevation zone to another—is relatively arduous, requiring flat terrain zones, indirect or confusing lift routes, or both. On the other hand, while Copper does have a couple of annoyances, the resort is generally straightforward to navigate for its size.
Both Breckenridge and Copper include multiple base areas, with three main bases at both resorts and a few other secondary areas to start or end the day. However, if you end up at the wrong spot at the end of the day, it’s easier to course correct at Copper, which offers a frequent inter-base shuttle service that’s fairly straightforward to use to return where you need to. Breckenridge, on the other hand, is less forgiving; those who end up at Peak 9 and need to get back to Peaks 7 or 8, and vice-versa, will need to rely on the public bus system, which runs as infrequently as every 20 minutes and can get packed by the end of the day.
Beginner Terrain
Advantage: Copper
Although Breckenridge has made some important investments in recent years, Copper is a significantly better mountain for beginners. Copper offers a variety of beginner slopes, with plenty of easier runs in its West Village area, as well as a small amount of high-alpine green terrain—which is really unique for a Colorado ski resort. On the other hand, while Breckenridge has added high-speed lifts to more of its beginner-oriented areas in recent years, the mountain’s green terrain is fairly limited; beginner trails only exist in lower-mountain areas on Peaks 8 and 9, and there’s no good way to get between these two terrain pods without engaging in harder terrain first. In addition, in the case of Peak 9’s green terrain, there are no intermediate or advanced terrain alternatives, meaning that less-proficient guests will face less-than-ideal traffic from higher-ability guests.
Intermediate Terrain
Slight Advantage: Breckenridge
Both Breckenridge and Copper offer very strong intermediate terrain experiences, with enjoyable cruisers spread across the vast majority of terrain zones. And while Copper’s blue runs are by no means bad, Breckenridge’s blue runs stand out from Copper’s in a few ways. First off, Breckenridge offers a wider array of high-alpine intermediate terrain thanks to its Peak 6 area; while Copper does have some intermediate bowl runs, they’re a lot more limited and function more as traverses than anything else. In addition, while not universally true, Copper’s blue trails tend to be on the tougher side compared to Breckenridge’s; as a result, those used to intermediate runs at regional mountains may find Copper’s blues somewhat steeper than expected, whereas at Breckenridge, this usually won’t be the case.
Intermediate trails at both Breckenridge and Copper tend to be well-groomed, although both resorts allow bumps to build up on a small minority of blues.
If you like mogul terrain, Copper is home to some serious endurance runs.
Advanced Terrain
Slight Advantage: Copper
Both Copper and Breckenridge offer a lot to like for experienced guests, with a wide variety of advanced-level runs, glades, and bowls at both mountains. Both resorts offer a handful of steep groomed trails, allowing for some serious speed runs.
But despite Breckenridge’s longer vertical drop, Copper actually hosts longer sections of steep, ungroomed mogul and tree runs, especially in its Alpine and Resolution zones. Breckenridge does host its fair share of steep, demanding bump trails, chiefly off the 6 and E Chairs, but none of them are particularly lengthy as far as Colorado destinations go. This arguably makes Copper a better bet for endurance runs. And while both resorts offer unmarked tree terrain in lower-mountain areas, we’d say Copper’s is a bit longer, continuously steeper, and generally more enjoyable.
Expert Terrain
Advantage: Tie
Neither Breckenridge nor Copper is the hardest resort in the world, but both offer some seriously demanding double-black expert terrain. The overwhelming majority of expert runs at both mountains exist in high-alpine areas, and when it comes to lift-served bowls, Copper offers more technically-featured terrain, with cornices, cliffs, and rocks across its double-black terrain zones. But when factoring in hike-to terrain, Breckenridge offers what’s arguably the toughest terrain across both mountains; with approximately 10 to 15 minutes of hiking, the resort’s Lake Chutes and Six Senses areas offer access to extremely high consequence chutes that involve essentially no room for error.
In addition, Breckenridge features a higher quantity of expert below-treeline terrain than Copper. Copper does offer a handful of lower-mountain double-black tree runs, and the resort’s below-treeline single-black trails are longer than the expert-level runs at Breckenridge; however, the double-black Breckenridge trails off Peaks 9 and 10 involve much steeper pitches than these aforementioned Copper runs.
Terrain Parks
Advantage: Copper
When it comes to freestyle terrain, Breckenridge used to have the clear advantage over Copper. However, the tables have turned over the past few years. Copper’s freestyle setup has only gotten better since it started partnering with Woodward a few years back, and the mountain hosts a series of progression-oriented parks, ranging all the way from a bunny hill beginner park to a massive 22-foot halfpipe that’s often used for competitions. On the other hand, while Breckenridge offers a strong terrain park setup with boxes, rails, and jumps ranging from small to large, things have been watered down quite a bit in recent seasons, and the resort’s extra-large features—including its own competing 22-foot superpipe—have all but disappeared. As a result, those hoping for a top-tier terrain park setup should now try for Copper, rather than Breckenridge, on their next vacation.
Breckenridge’s hike-to chutes involve what’s probably the most difficult terrain at either resort.
Lifts
Advantage: Breckenridge
Both Breckenridge and Copper boast massive lift fleets, boasting over two-dozen chairs and surface lifts each. However, Breckenridge’s overall lift fleet is significantly more modern than Copper’s, with high-speed lifts in most areas, including much of its bowl terrain. On the other hand, while Copper features high-speed lifts in most of its below-treeline areas, including both a chondola and a bubble lift out of its Center Village base, all of its high-alpine lifts are slow—as are select lower-mountain chairs that hold down service to key resort zones. On top of that, many of Copper’s high-alpine lifts are difficult to load, and it’s hard to get to the back side without taking a surface lift first (although depending on where you’re coming from, it can be tough to access some of Breckenridge’s bowls as well without taking a t-bar).
Crowd Flow
Advantage: Copper
However, Copper also offers a notable advantage over Breckenridge in crowd management. Both resorts do attract lots of destination traffic, but Breckenridge just gets significantly more slammed than Copper, partially due to higher visitation, but also in part due to its lift setup. Breckenridge’s limited beginner terrain results in horrendous lines at those lifts, and it’s not uncommon to see half-hour lines in other popular terrain zones on weekends and holidays. On the other hand, while Copper’s out-of-base lift lines do get lengthy in the morning—and their low-capacity upper-mountain lifts can get backed up—the resort generally offers reasonable waits. However, both mountains include some terrain zones that rarely see lines, chiefly in advanced and expert-oriented areas.
Snowboard-Friendliness
Advantage: Copper
Another area where Copper offers an advantage over Breckenridge is in snowboard-friendliness. The flat sections required to get between mountain areas or out of certain runs make Breckenridge fairly strenuous and hard to keep speed on, especially when there’s fresh snow. While Copper does have a fairly large footprint as well, these situations are far less common. In addition, Copper’s more extensive freestyle setup results in an environment that will just be more amendable to riders. That being said, the snowboard-friendliness varies across both massive mountains; both Breckenridge and Copper feature benches at the top of some, but not all, lifts where boarders can easily strap in—and not all snowboarders will love the surface lift rides required to get up many of Copper’s frontside bowl areas.
Thanks to its terrain parks and less strenuous traverses, Copper offers a somewhat more snowboard-friendly experience than Breckenridge.
Facilities
Advantage: Breckenridge
Breckenridge and Copper experience similar temperature conditions throughout the winter, and while both are comparably mild as far as destinations go, they can both get really cold and uncomfortable. But while both mountains offer convenient, high-capacity lodges to stop in at in key lower and mid-mountain areas, Breckenridge offers much better facility access in its outermost reaches. Breckenridge’s extensive network of lodges and huts means you never have to go far to get inside for a break, no matter where you are. But at Copper, the backside Copper Bowl and Tucker Mountain areas lack lodges entirely, meaning that guests in these areas will be in for a really long journey to get inside. At least Copper’s back side does have a well-placed bathroom, so it’s never too inconvenient to access that type of facility. Neither resort offers particularly economical food options, but at Copper, they’re generally higher quality for the price.
Getting There
Advantage: Tie
If convenience of location is a factor in your ski trip, neither Copper nor Breck will be your first option. While Copper is slightly west of Breckenridge, both are about the same distance from the Denver International Airport, with both being about two hours away via Interstate 70. That being said, weekend drives to both mountains often come with substantial backups, and you’ll need to leave at the crack of dawn if you’re driving up from Denver and want to reach either resort at a reasonable hour.
Parking
Advantage: Copper
But once you reach the mountain, Copper is much easier to park at than Breckenridge, especially when it comes to free options. The resort’s directly slopeside lots require payment, but the free Alpine and Far East lots are bolstered by free shuttle services to and from all of Copper’s main base areas.
On the other hand, most of Breckenridge’s lots, including some that aren’t even slopeside, require payment. The only remaining free option is the Airport Road parking lot, and while shuttle service is frequent enough, it only drops guests off at the BreckConnect Gondola, which then takes another five to seven minutes to ride to get to the resort’s real bases. As a result, guests hoping to park for free should bake in significantly more time when visiting Breck than when hitting Copper.
While both mountains offer plenty of on-site lodging, Breckenridge boasts a much better walkable ski town with extensive post-slopes activities.
Lodging
Advantage: Breckenridge
For many, the defining factor on whether one decides to book a trip to either Breckenridge or Copper will be lodging. And while both resorts offer a fairly comprehensive selection of options, Breckenridge ultimately provides the larger variety of accommodations thanks to its excellent nearby ski town.
Breckenridge sits next to an extensive, charming former mining town, which exists in stark contrast to the built-up villages at most other resorts, including Copper. The resort hosts plenty of hotels, condos, and Airbnbs ranging from economical to luxury, with a number of ski-in/ski-out options, albeit expensive ones, available. Copper’s base village feels fairly local, which may appeal to those looking for a less commercialized vacation, and the resort also features options across various price ranges—but while all accommodations are a short walk from the resort, the vast majority do not offer ski-in/ski-out access.
Aprés-ski
Advantage: Breckenridge
Breckenridge features a much better aprés enviroment than Copper thanks to its town. The resort sits within easy access of an array of bars, restaurants, and other activities, whereas Copper’s base village, while still fun after a day on the slopes, is more muted—and pretty much dead after dinner. In fact, if you’re staying at Copper, you might actually consider driving over to Breckenridge at night to check out some of the happenings there. Both Breckenridge and Copper also sit within short driving distance of the towns of Frisco, Dillon, and Silverthorne, which offer their own aprés activities and food options.
Pass Access
Advantage: Tie
A big difference between Breckenridge and Copper—and one that likely means that few people will be visiting both on their next Colorado ski trip—is in their pass affiliations. Breckenridge is on the Epic Pass, while Copper is on the Ikon Pass. If you have your heart set on certain other mountain in the Colorado Front Range, you may want to choose between a Breckenridge or Copper trip accordingly; the Epic Pass also offers access to Keystone, Vail, and Beaver Creek, while the Ikon Pass also offers access to Winter Park and Arapahoe Basin.
Both Breckenridge and Copper are unique on each of their respective base passes in that access to both resorts comes with no restrictions or holiday blackouts. This means guests can use the Epic Local Pass as a season pass for Breckenridge, and the Ikon Base Pass as a season pass for Copper. If cost is a factor, the Epic Pass suite is quite a bit cheaper than the Ikon suite—and Epic also offers the Summit Value Pass, which comes with even cheaper near-unlimited access to Breckenridge.
Copper’s 1-day lift tickets are generally less pricey than Breckenridge’s, but both mountains offer much cheaper lift ticket alternatives if one purchases before the season starts.
Pricing
Advantage: Copper
For the 2022-23 season, Breckenridge’s lift tickets were a lot steeper than Copper’s. While 1-day adult tickets generally weren’t particularly cheap at either resort, Copper did offer a $99 midweek special on select Wednesdays if booked early enough.
That said, for those who book before December, the best way to get lift tickets to Breckenridge is now to buy through an Epic Day Pass. These flexible day ticket products offer much more reasonable rates than dedicated lift tickets, and even Copper’s tickets. However, guests can also score solid early-season deals on Copper access by buying an Ikon 2-4 Day Session Pass or a Copper 4-Pack; while there’s no 1-day option, these products are generally comparable in value to Breckenridge’s Epic Day Pass options.
Adult 13-64: $186-$255
Child 5-12: $121-$166
Senior 65+: $176-$245
Child 0-4: Free
Adult 13+: $99-$229
Child 5-12: $99-$149
Child 0-4: Free
Verdict
So when it comes to booking a Colorado ski vacation, Breckenridge and Copper both present very strong packages. Breckenridge offers larger bowls, faster lifts, and a much livelier town, while Copper offers a more family-friendly footprint, better crowd management, and stronger endurance runs.
Copper holds significant advantages over Breckenridge in our Crowd Flow and Navigation categories, and holds a slight advantage in Resiliency. On the other hand, Breckenridge holds a significant advantage over Copper in our Facilities category, and earns a slight advantage in Lifts and Mountain Aesthetic. Ultimately, the resorts score incredibly closely in our overall rankings, with Copper having a one-point edge over Breckenridge, boasting a PeakRankings Mountain Score of 73 vs. Breckenridge’s score of 72.
In our overall rankings, Copper ranks 13th in North America, and Breckenridge isn’t far behind in 19th. Both resorts face stiff competition from resorts that are either bigger, more reliable snow-wise, or home to better on-mountain infrastructure. But while they may not be perfect at everything, they’re still both outstanding choices overall.
For more information on these resorts, check out our comprehensive Breckenridge and Copper mountain reviews. If you’re interested in seeing how they compare to other similar mountains, check out our Rockies, Colorado, and full North American rankings.
