Red Gerard
Audio By Carbonatix
“Before I knew it, [snowboarding] was a career for me,” says Red Gerard, a 22-year-old Olympic gold medalist who won the Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle event in the 2018 Winter Games. This weekend at Copper Mountain, he’ll aim for a three-peat Winter Dew Tour win.
Gerard placed first in the Dew Tour’s Snowboard Slopestyle Final in 2020 and 2021. This year, he competes in the new Snowboard Super Streetstyle event, which features a course that’s double its previous size and begins at 7:15 p.m. on February 26. Attendance is free and open to the public.
However, if you can’t make it to the Dew Tour (which started today, February 24, and runs through Sunday, February 26), you might be able to catch Gerard at a few other areas throughout Summit County. In fact, when asked to talk about his favorite places to snowboard, Gerard was pretty generous with recommendations.
“By far, my favorite place to go snowboarding in Colorado is Copper Mountain,” Gerard says – and that comes as no surprise, considering that it’s where his namesake terrain park, Red’s Backyard, opened in 2019. “They’re just nice people out there, and they have really good terrain, and it’s a little more low-key than some of the other resorts,” he adds.
Especially when he’s training for competitions, Gerard says he likes to hit the terrain park. “But on a regular given day when I’m riding with my family, we immediately try to get away from the crowds and go right to the back side,” he explains.
Gerard points to the Three Bears list on the Copper Mountain winter trail map. “I like to take this chair up, then ride across the ridge and into Copper Bowl,” he says. “Then you hop on the Mountain Chief [lift], and if you decide to go all the way down to the bottom, you have a twenty-minute run.”
His favorite way back to the base is via the Far West, Colman’s Retreat and Gold Digger black-diamond trails. “Then you’ve got a little bit of traversing to do. Go under the Timberline Express, [and] you can actually get to the half pipe [from] here,” says Gerard, noting that this route is best suited for advanced riders.
Novices, he adds, should head to Kokomo Express and the nearby magic carpet lifts. For those wanting to hone their skills, he recommends checking out the runs below Woodward Express, which is also the best way to access Red’s Backyard.
While Copper is Gerard’s undeniable favorite, because he grew up in Summit County, he’s experienced the other local resorts, too. For early- and late-season outings, for instance, Gerard heads to Arapahoe Basin. Generally, this ski area opens in October and closes down operations in May, but its season has lasted as late as August.
On the A-Basin front side map, Gerard points to Dercum’s Gulch below the Lenawee Express lift. He recalls that one year at the end of the season, “there was a crazy pond skim from all the snowmelt. It was seriously, like, 200 feet long.” He explains that to make it across, you need to build up speed, and then jokes, “I fell in,” adding that he’s never actually successfully done it.
Pond skimming aside, he knows his way around this mountain, and especially enjoys what lies below the Pallavicini lift. Except for the Grizzly Road traverse, this chair strictly services expert trails. As a whole, Gerard sees A-Basin as a locals’ mountain, and he wouldn’t recommend it to families, explaining, “It’s too extreme of terrain, and it’s in a no-cell-service place.”
But Gerard believes that all of the other Summit County resorts are family-friendly, given their diverse terrain and accessible amenities, like lodging and restaurants. He mentions that Breckenridge Ski Resort delivers on the mountain-town experience, in particular.
“I used to snowboard at Breckenridge a ton when I was younger,” Gerard says. “I’m kind of strictly a Copper guy now, but when I used to snowboard there, I would go over to Peak 9. That’s where you get rid of the crowds, you get really long runs, and it’s really fun.”
The Breckenridge trail map shows several lifts traveling up Peak 9; Gerard explains that he likes to take the trails below C-Chair, as well as those beneath Beaver Run and Mercury Superchairs. He says he hits the trees in this area, too, and suggests that those who enjoy gladed runs should check out Peak 7.
He clarifies that he hasn’t snowboarded down Peak 7 in a while, but recalls, “They have a ton of log jibs in one of the tree [areas], which is really interesting if you’re an advanced snowboarder looking to free-ride.” Log jibs, he explains, are created when “a tree falls over and someone goes in, cuts up the tree and makes a rail out of the log.”
Red Gerard at Copper Mountain, his favorite place to snowboard.
Red Gerard
For those not ready to take on snowboarding tricks, Gerard notes that Breckenridge caters to a variety of skill levels. Keystone Resort is similar in this regard, and although he hasn’t experienced its terrain in several years, he gives props to one of its key differentiators: night skiing.
Given his skill set, he also enjoys venturing into the nearby backcountry. “If I’m not riding [at Copper Mountain], I go snowmobiling at Vail Pass. They do snowmobile rentals, and you can snowmobile to Red Cliff.
“It’s pretty well trafficked, but there’s so much land back there,” he continues. “You’re so cold, and you’re out in the middle of the mountains, and then you come upon [Mango’s Mountain Grill, where] you can get a beer and have a burger.”
When asked about where he goes for other après-ski fun, Gerard describes the typical family day at Copper Mountain. “We stay on the mountain for the longest we possibly can, and then we go to Eagle BBQ – that’s my jam.
“Other than that, I really like Bluebird Market, which has six or seven different restaurants and a bar in the middle,” he adds. “It’s cool to see restaurants like that come to Silverthorne. Like, we’re finally getting good food.” He jokes, “I had a poke bowl the other day in the mountains, which was trippy.”
After a day of riding, Gerard also likes to hang out at Mono Cera Tune Shop in Dillon. He remarks on how fun the staff is, and says that for $30, a beer while your board’s being tuned up just can’t be beat.
“I think everyone lives in Summit County for the same reason,” he muses. “It’s to get out on the mountain and enjoy life. I love that you can be at four or five different ski resorts within ten minutes in Summit County.”
But for those commuting to the area’s incredible resorts, he says, “I-70 just sucks.” He notes that issues can arise when drivers aren’t accustomed to navigating the mountains, and that two-wheel-drive rental vehicles can pose significant dangers.
“The conditions can be definitely gnarly, and all it takes is one person to have an accident,” he adds. “What I really want is for Colorado to build a train from the Denver airport to Summit County. I think it would save a lot of lives, and it would be a lot more fun of an experience, I think, for everyone.”
For now, I-70 traffic is the price of admission to Colorado’s winter playgrounds, but as Gerard affirms, “Once you make it to the ski resorts, it’s all up from there.”
