EMSC
Well-known member
F..f..f..f..f..f..f..f..f..frigid.
I’m not actually sure what the temps were in the morning, I just know that by 12:30 it had warmed all the way up to 3F. I do know that a patroller let me know that Chair 9 (the ridge) would not open on Sunday due to windchill – which at the top of that lift was not expected to get above -25F which is one of their operating limits/protocols. Based on riding some of the other lifts, I’d have to say it was a good call. Almost no sun all day with flurries and even occasional snow showers coming down to give a very January’ish day to late March.
Loveland has had ~2 feet of snow since the 2 day big warm up on the 14/15 of March. Including something like ~10” in 48 hrs though only ~2” in 24hrs on Sunday. I arrived before the opening bell planning to meet a friend from back east, but he was running late. Given the opportunity to ski for the first time in a while I had to go ahead and sample the super soft conditions ahead of his tardy arrival. I’d say things are in pretty good shape right now though a bit thinner for end of March than they should be. Basically everything is open at Loveland. I hit Avalanche bowl twice, being the 3rd person down it my first run and only a handful more tracks my second run (granted only an inch or so of smoothness on top of very soft). Pockets of the additional snow from previous days were to be had over the course of the day as well.
After meeting up with my friend and his randonee partner we headed back up Chair 1 which had some of the least wind of all the chairs. With the temps as cold as they were I was very surprised that other than my face I did not get particularly cold. Granted, I had about a hundred layers on everywhere. With my friend having competed in a 6K+ vertical randonee race on Saturday at Breck with one of his friends they were feeling it a bit so I mixed up our routes from steeps to short poma runs to one run off every lift but chair 8 (well, and 9 which was closed of course).
It was my first ride up the ‘new’ Chair 4 which was upgraded to a triple a couple years ago. Speaking of which, the wind on the upper part of Cahir 4 was enough that we only skied a single run off it all day. Despite the 2 warm days earlier in March, only a couple of minor scrapes in the very troughs of only a few bumps were to be found on the S facing slopes all day.
They needed to leave just after noon to head to the airport so we did a couple of final laps on Over the Rainbow, the steepest open trail today given the ridge closure. Thin up top, but very soft and oh-so-fun to ski.
After a quick lunch break to refuel I headed back out hitting Chair 8 for a bit which is certainly not steep at all, but as expected did have lots of only partially cut up powder to ski since it is so hard to make your way over to that chair. The wind on the upper 1/3 of that lift was bad enough I could only tough it out for 4 laps though, before retreating to the poma for some low wind laps and finally ending my day with one final run down Over the Rainbow.
Easily the best snow of my Colorado ski days this year. I took more pics than expected today, though still a bit sparse for me.
I’m not actually sure what the temps were in the morning, I just know that by 12:30 it had warmed all the way up to 3F. I do know that a patroller let me know that Chair 9 (the ridge) would not open on Sunday due to windchill – which at the top of that lift was not expected to get above -25F which is one of their operating limits/protocols. Based on riding some of the other lifts, I’d have to say it was a good call. Almost no sun all day with flurries and even occasional snow showers coming down to give a very January’ish day to late March.
Loveland has had ~2 feet of snow since the 2 day big warm up on the 14/15 of March. Including something like ~10” in 48 hrs though only ~2” in 24hrs on Sunday. I arrived before the opening bell planning to meet a friend from back east, but he was running late. Given the opportunity to ski for the first time in a while I had to go ahead and sample the super soft conditions ahead of his tardy arrival. I’d say things are in pretty good shape right now though a bit thinner for end of March than they should be. Basically everything is open at Loveland. I hit Avalanche bowl twice, being the 3rd person down it my first run and only a handful more tracks my second run (granted only an inch or so of smoothness on top of very soft). Pockets of the additional snow from previous days were to be had over the course of the day as well.
After meeting up with my friend and his randonee partner we headed back up Chair 1 which had some of the least wind of all the chairs. With the temps as cold as they were I was very surprised that other than my face I did not get particularly cold. Granted, I had about a hundred layers on everywhere. With my friend having competed in a 6K+ vertical randonee race on Saturday at Breck with one of his friends they were feeling it a bit so I mixed up our routes from steeps to short poma runs to one run off every lift but chair 8 (well, and 9 which was closed of course).
It was my first ride up the ‘new’ Chair 4 which was upgraded to a triple a couple years ago. Speaking of which, the wind on the upper part of Cahir 4 was enough that we only skied a single run off it all day. Despite the 2 warm days earlier in March, only a couple of minor scrapes in the very troughs of only a few bumps were to be found on the S facing slopes all day.
They needed to leave just after noon to head to the airport so we did a couple of final laps on Over the Rainbow, the steepest open trail today given the ridge closure. Thin up top, but very soft and oh-so-fun to ski.
After a quick lunch break to refuel I headed back out hitting Chair 8 for a bit which is certainly not steep at all, but as expected did have lots of only partially cut up powder to ski since it is so hard to make your way over to that chair. The wind on the upper 1/3 of that lift was bad enough I could only tough it out for 4 laps though, before retreating to the poma for some low wind laps and finally ending my day with one final run down Over the Rainbow.
Easily the best snow of my Colorado ski days this year. I took more pics than expected today, though still a bit sparse for me.
