Free gondola rides at Copper Mountain on Fridays this summer. We took advantage, and Antero got to experience his first gondola ride! Four mile hike down (or you can take the gondola back down). 1,374ft elevation change from the top of gondola to the base of the American Flyer (blue bubble) chairlift. We took the opportunity to stop at the top (and the bottom) of the Half-Pipe (only 1 of 2 half-pipes in the US). Temp was around 81-83 degrees, so the snow was a nice refresher. Antero especially enjoyed cooling off his feet in the snow and chewing on ice chunks :-)