Loveland, CO 12/12/09

jamesdeluxe

jamesdeluxe

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Things were looking good for my Colorado trip until the storms that everyone had been hyping earlier this week turned into a big fat bust. So my brother Scott and I headed west on I-70 this morning with low expectations. All I knew was that 10% of Loveland's terrain was open. Still, it turned out better than expected. There were enough groomers open to help clear away the cobwebs since last April, and while there was some hardscrabble in places (especially up top where the winds were howling), conditions were soft and carvable on most runs.

All morning, there were flurries, which softened everything up. Me on Drifter:
Loveland2a.jpg


By 1 pm, the skies had cleared. My brother deserves props for sacking up and joining me. He's lived in Denver for 25 years and today was his third day on skis -- but he didn't slow me down, and he didn't fall until the final run. Here he is on on Richard's Run:
Loveland3a.jpg


Me on Roulette:
Loveland4a.jpg


Me on Firecut:
Loveland6a.jpg


I love the no-BS vibe there too, and it's big -- kinda reminds me of Sunshine near Banff. I'd love to go there when everything's open. And we got back to his house in southeast Denver in 55 minutes... not bad. I'm taking tomorrow off, then heading to Winter Park on Monday.
 
James,

Sorry I missed meeting you up on the hill. The scheduling gods just didn't let things align this weekend. Glad you had a decent day.
 
On my last lift ride of the day, I was talking to a local about Loveland being the only independent I-70 resort -- meaning it isn't hooked into a season-pass deal with other ski areas. On a strictly dollars-and-cents level, I wonder how that plays out for them.
 
jamesdeluxe":2u16yxyy said:
On my last lift ride of the day, I was talking to a local about Loveland being the only independent I-70 resort -- meaning it isn't hooked into a season-pass deal with other ski areas. On a strictly dollars-and-cents level, I wonder how that plays out for them.
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My understanding is that it was going mediocre for them for especially the first few years of the pass wars. They seem to have picked up business a bit the last 2-3 years as some portion of the masses has decided the crowds were getting too big at the name brand places... At least that's my understanding. I don't have a great feel for the actual profit/loss $ for them. Last year was the first in a while that cars had to regularly park at the valley lots and shuttle up to the Basin for example.
 
Looks pretty good to me James.

It's amazing that that amount of snow would only open 10% of the terrain.

How much of what you were skiing on was manmade?

How much snowfall do they need to be 100% open?
 
Harvey44":161n2sto said:
How much of what you were skiing on was manmade?
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I didn't see one piece of snowmaking equipment anywhere. Maybe EMSC can comment on how much (if any) snowmaking is used there.

They need a couple feet of snow to open some of the upper offpiste stuff... especially given Loveland's propensity for wind.
 
Much of what is opened at Loveland so far is on snowmaking trails. In fact there are one or two more trails not open that should have snowmaking capability (based on just glancing at their trails report. I wonder if they feel it's not worth the $, or perhaps water limitations.

I'd guess that some more of the lower pitched, natural snow trails are pretty close to being opened. Just needs that last 6-12 inches of fresh to come in. Chair 9 (visible in the background 'james on Firecut" pic), takes a long time to open. Too much rock and too much wind to get a decent base on that whole upper ridge line till prob end of Jan or even later.
 
nice report. my lange girl Emily is flying me out that way for a long weekend (ski 4 days) for my b-day from jan 8-11th. should be fun whether the skiing is good or not. \:D/ we'll probably hit loveland, vail, copper, and maybe a repeat of 1 of those for the 4th day.

rog
 
With a 6 pm departure, it's possible to ski almost an entire day at Loveland, so that's what I did yesterday. Bluebird skies and soft off-piste leftovers from Monday's storm.

Looking forward to going back when the north lifts are open. One guy was pointing out his favorite hike-to shots along the ridge.

Spoke to many locals who seem to be very proud of being the red-haired stepchildren of I-70 skiing... my kind of place.
 
jamesdeluxe":25mhkd82 said:
Spoke to many locals who seem to be very proud of being the red-haired stepchildren of I-70 skiing... my kind of place.
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my kind of place as well. never too crowded and plenty of acreage to roam on pow days and beyond. i remember a day thatmy buddy fred and i caught on april 8th of 1995. it had snowed a foot and a light cross wind was blowing. it didn't reduce viz, but made every run completely untracked again, and again.....we were like the only ones lapping chair 8, "in the mood" bowl i think, and it still stands as one of my best all time lift serve ski memories. add to that 50 cent tacos and 1.25 coronas, $hit what more do ya want? well, this time fred will be replaced with Emily.

did you all vote Emily "hot" yet? so kind that she's taking me to colorado for my b-day. vote below:

http://lange2009.freeskier.com/profiles ... reen=posts

rog
 
ICE ... buddy .... I'm going to have to stay neutral. Too many requests to balance.

There are some beautiful girls on that site. You're a lucky dude.

OK how about this ... if you post at least one TR, here on FTO, from your trip, WITH PICS ....I'm in.
 
Harvey44":4ofua3e1 said:
ICE ... buddy .... I'm going to have to stay neutral. Too many requests to balance.
There are some beautiful girls on that site. You're a lucky dude.

OK how about this ... if you post at least one TR, here on FTO, from your trip, WITH PICS ....I'm in.
Click to expand...

lucky? no $hit! she just like fell onto my lap somehow! :drool:

i will definitely have a story with pics to post on FTO. thanx for the support. E appreciates it also.

rog
 
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