Photo by Matt Sklar / Dew Tour
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include reaction from athletes.
One of Summit County’s largest winter sports events just became the latest casualty amid the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic.
The 2021 Winter Dew Tour at Copper Mountain Resort has been canceled, the Adventure Sports Network and Copper Mountain Resort announced in a news release Thursday morning
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The release said the event was canceled “in light of safety regulations and guidelines concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The four-day Winter Dew Tour includes the world’s best skiers and snowboarders competing in halfpipe, slopestyle and Dew Tour’s Streetstyle and Team Challenge competitions. The weekend also includes snowboard and ski industry award shows and fan-based activities at the resort.
Photo from Woodward Copper
Copper Mountain Resort has opened the Red’s Backyard hike-to rail garden in similar fashion to last year.
The rail garden opened late last week in the same location as last year looker’s right of the Woodward Superpipe just above the Center Village base area.
Copper Mountain spokesperson Taylor Prather wrote in an email that the hike park is once again free for guests to ski or ride as long as they pick up a free ticket and sign a waiver before accessing the rail garden, which is segmented off with red fencing from other base area ski runs.
Photo by Liz Copan / Studio Copan
Several outbreaks have been reported among ski area employees in the first weeks of ski season, including one at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area and two each at Keystone Resort and Breckenridge Ski Resort. All of the outbreaks were initially reported by public health officials as two cases each.
In their state-approved operation plans for the season, each ski resort was required to address plans for isolating and quarantining employees who are sick or exposed to COVID-19 in the workplace, including sending the employee home and identifying other employees who might have been exposed
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But for workers who live in employee housing, the process is a bit more complicated.
Aaron Blunck of Crested Butte competes in the freeski finals at the Land Rover U.S. Grand Prix World Cup at Copper Mountain Resort in December 2019. Though this month’s event was canceled due to COVID-19, American and international athletes are currently training at the Copper pipe.
Photo from U.S. Ski & Snowboard
Despite the cancellation of this coming week’s U.S. Grand Prix World Cup events at Copper Mountain Resort due to concerns amid the novel coronavirus, Copper Mountain is hosting athlete training on the Woodward Superpipe through Dec. 23.
U.S. pro and rookie team halfpipe snowboarders and skiers began dropping into the only Olympic-sized superpipe currently open on the continent on Monday, Dec. 7. Copper Mountain Resort spokesperson Taylor Prather said in an email Saturday afternoon that the resort continued with training in the superpipe but not the annual Grand Prix World Cup competition because the resort “remains committed to athlete progression and development t