Ski Cooper
Overview
Ski Cooper sits atop Tennessee Pass on U.S. Highway 24, ten miles north of Leadville, Colorado, on ground with a genuine wartime history: soldiers of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division trained on this pass and the adjoining Cooper Hill during the 1940s, and the resort still marks a “10th Mountain Day” every February in the connection’s honor. Few American ski areas can point to a direct link between their terrain and a specific military unit’s training ground, and Ski Cooper leans into that history rather than downplaying it.
The area itself is built for volume over glamour: five lifts, two chairlifts, a t-bar, a platter and a magic carpet, serve an unusually high 49 mapped runs across 32.54 kilometers of trail, climbing 353.2 vertical meters from a 3,225.9-meter base to a 3,579.1-meter summit. That’s among the highest base elevations of any resort in this dataset, a legacy of Leadville’s position as one of the highest incorporated cities in the United States. Terrain skews toward intermediate and advanced, 12.22 and 10.89 kilometers respectively, but 9.11 kilometers of easy trail keeps the mountain workable for newer skiers, a spread the resort backs up with adaptive and special-needs lesson programs alongside standard instruction.
Like several small Colorado hills, Ski Cooper runs on 100% natural snowfall, no snowmaking guns, and cites an average of about 260 inches (roughly 660 centimeters) per season, a number high enough to make artificial snow largely unnecessary at this elevation. No multi-resort pass currently includes Ski Cooper, so every ticket and season pass is sold directly by the resort rather than bundled into an Epic, Ikon, or Indy roster.
Getting there means flying into one of the smaller regional fields nearby, Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) at 52 kilometers or Eagle County Regional at 62.7 kilometers, before driving over mountain roads to Tennessee Pass, since Denver International sits a much longer 149.3 kilometers away. Lakewood, part of the greater Denver metro with roughly 152,597 residents, is the nearest larger city at 110.6 kilometers, putting Ski Cooper within a manageable day-trip radius of the Front Range even without being close to any single major metro itself.
That combination of high elevation, natural snow, and Front Range proximity makes Ski Cooper an unusual fit for two different kinds of visitors at once. Budget-conscious Colorado skiers can treat it as a manageable day trip from the Front Range, drawn by lower prices and a 49-run count that punches well above the area’s modest 353.2-meter vertical. Meanwhile, skiers interested in the 10th Mountain Division history get a working ski area, not a museum, where that legacy is folded into the calendar rather than roped off behind glass. Combined with adaptive lesson programs and a deliberately old-school, no-snowmaking approach to the mountain, Ski Cooper reads as a resort built around affordability and heritage rather than high-speed lifts or luxury base-village amenities, a positioning reinforced by its cafeteria and Irish Pub dining rather than a full-service base village.
Key stats
Official website — Last checked 2026-09-14
Lifts by type
| Type | Count |
|---|---|
| t-bar | 1 |
| platter | 1 |
| chair lift | 2 |
| magic carpet | 1 |
Runs by difficulty
| Difficulty | Distance |
|---|---|
| easy | 9.11 km |
| other | 0.32 km |
| advanced | 10.89 km |
| intermediate | 12.22 km |
Maps
View official Ski Cooper trail map (page) →
Run & lift overview
Ski Cooper: 49 runs, 5 lifts. Drawn from OpenStreetMap run and lift data — not the official Ski Cooper trail map. © OpenStreetMap contributors, OpenSkiMap (ODbL).
Typical conditions by month
Monthly conditions data for Ski Cooper is not yet available.
Lift tickets & passes
Ski Cooper has no multi-resort pass affiliations on record.
Getting there
Nearest airports
- Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE) — 52 km straight-line
- Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE) — 62.7 km straight-line
- Gunnison Crested Butte Regional Airport (GUC) — 107 km straight-line
Nearest cities
- Lakewood, Colorado — 110.6 km straight-line
- Boulder, Colorado — 113.9 km straight-line
- Arvada, Colorado — 114.3 km straight-line
Also covered by
Where to stay
A dedicated lodging guide for Ski Cooper is not yet available.
Nearby resorts
- Copper Mountain — 19 km straight-line, 796.9 m vertical
- Breckenridge — 24 km straight-line, 992.7 m vertical
- Vail — 31 km straight-line, 1065 m vertical
- Beaver Creek — 36 km straight-line, 1223 m vertical
- Keystone — 40 km straight-line, 912.9 m vertical
FAQ
- How big is Ski Cooper?
- The area climbs 353.2 vertical meters from a 3,225.9-meter base to a 3,579.1-meter summit, with 5 lifts (2 chairlifts, a t-bar, a platter and a magic carpet) spread across 49 runs and 32.54 kilometers of trail.
- Does Ski Cooper make artificial snow?
- No. The resort relies entirely on natural snowfall, which it puts at an average of about 260 inches (roughly 660 centimeters) a season atop Tennessee Pass.
- Is Ski Cooper good for beginners and intermediates?
- It has real options at every level: 9.11 kilometers of easy terrain and 12.22 kilometers of intermediate trail sit alongside 10.89 kilometers graded advanced across the resort's 32.54 kilometers of runs.
- Does Ski Cooper have a connection to the 10th Mountain Division?
- The resort marks a '10th Mountain Day' each February, a nod to the WWII-era 10th Mountain Division soldiers who trained on Tennessee Pass and the surrounding Cooper Hill terrain during the 1940s before deploying overseas.
- What's the nearest airport to Ski Cooper?
- Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) is closest at 52 kilometers, with Eagle County Regional Airport not far behind at 62.7 kilometers.
- What's the nearest city to Ski Cooper?
- Lakewood, in the Denver metro area with a population around 152,597, is the nearest larger city at 110.6 kilometers, with Boulder and Arvada close behind, and the resort itself sits just 10 miles north of Leadville.
- Is Ski Cooper family-friendly?
- The resort positions itself as an affordable, low-key option with cafeteria and pub dining on-site, and its ski school offers adaptive and special-needs lessons alongside standard instruction for skiers and riders of all ages.
- Is any multi-resort pass accepted at Ski Cooper?
- No major national pass, Epic, Ikon, or Indy, currently lists Ski Cooper among its partner resorts; tickets and season passes are sold directly through the resort, which markets itself on affordability rather than pass-network access.
Data sources
Last verified: 2026-09-17
Base facts from OpenSkiMap (ODbL), OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata (CC0), OurAirports (public domain) and GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). See /data-sources/.