EMSC
Well-known member
Day 29: Freaking Cold Powder Day
By the time I got Jr dropped off at preschool I had to endure an annoying drive up a partly snow covered I70. With trucks using chains, it caused a slow go adding probably 30 minutes to my drive with me arriving ~9:45 on a day with a snow report of 10" (plus an inch the day before). Annoyingly late, and fairly large crowds (for Loveland anyway). I was 2/3 of the way back in the parking lot which would eventually fill and go to overflow down to the Valley part of the resort. I knew it would be cold to start given the below zero readings on the 5am snow report, but I had expected a reasonably quick warm up given the time of year... Not so much as we'll see...
I started off with a couple of steep laps on Chair 1 where a helicopter was still dropping explosives onto the seven sisters chutes. Ever since the road crew accident a couple of weeks ago with a pickup truck mounted avalauncher, all use of avalaunchers in Colorado (even at Abasin which has 2 of them for example) has been put on hold until the accident investigation is complete. It was definitely cold out (maybe 10F?) and the wind was whipping at 15-20mph to boot. Nothing I couldn't handle, but a bit shocking to the system given the low 70's we'd just had last week in the Denver metro. After just a couple of laps I headed toward Chair 9 (the Ridge) which always has a later opening. First hitting a partially chopped up Chair 4 before getting to 9 a touch after it opened, and with an actual lift line to boot.
That's when things got interesting. 3/4 of the way up or more, at ~12,500' altitude with temps probably in the single digits, and a 20 mph wind blowing at you, the chair broke down. Not kidding. They would try to restart and you'd go anywhere from 5 to 50 feet before the chair would stop again. I know it probably wasn't, but it felt like 45 minutes that we were stuck up there (probably 'only' ~25). I had been prescient and actually put a package of hand warmers in my jacket pocket just before leaving my car. And I am oh so glad I did. At some point about 15 minutes in, people started jumping off the lift up above us. There was a section where the chair came within about 8-10 feet of the ground, and as they would keep trying to restart the lift and another chair inched up to that area the skiers and boarders would just jump. Probably ~20 people in total jumped off because it was so freaking cold just sitting there in the wind. Eventually a patroller skied down from the top lift hut letting us know that it was a solvable mechanical issue and would be 5-10 more minutes (turned out to be ~5). There was also something about technically you are not supposed to jump, but...... basically a "read between the lines" indicating it wasn't exactly their priority at the moment so do what you have to do.
Eventually the lift started up again and with most of the chairs ahead of us having jumped off, we were almost first in line - for the moment. I headed to lookers left and hit a sweet Jelly Roll run. With my hand warmers having helped, I hit two more runs off 9 in slightly different variations of Jelly Roll and Castle Rock. But the damage had been done per se and I was just too cold after all that. Skiing all the way down to the base and having a long 40 minute lunch to warm back up.
After lunch, a quick run through the trees of of chair 1 found me on my way back to the Ridge.I got in another ~6 laps on the extremes of the far left and right terrain that was open (a few sections were still being bombed) and where there were still unadulterated freshi's to be had. Although you do have to hike for the Porcupine saddle area (maybe 100' of vert? and some flat distance too). So a couple of laps of hiking and then several laps out to Challenger/north Star area for quality snow. It was still quite cold, but by late afternoon the temps maybe hit the upper teens up high with the ever present ~20mph wind. The wind seemed to change a bit in the afternoon, mostly raking the upper ridgelines and not the entire ski area like it had during the morning. Eventually I quit about 3:45 after a nice day of full on winter and powder. Quite possibly my final day for this season. It's been a good one in many ways; from # of days on snow, to getting Jr out, to big powder days all the time.
By the time I got Jr dropped off at preschool I had to endure an annoying drive up a partly snow covered I70. With trucks using chains, it caused a slow go adding probably 30 minutes to my drive with me arriving ~9:45 on a day with a snow report of 10" (plus an inch the day before). Annoyingly late, and fairly large crowds (for Loveland anyway). I was 2/3 of the way back in the parking lot which would eventually fill and go to overflow down to the Valley part of the resort. I knew it would be cold to start given the below zero readings on the 5am snow report, but I had expected a reasonably quick warm up given the time of year... Not so much as we'll see...
I started off with a couple of steep laps on Chair 1 where a helicopter was still dropping explosives onto the seven sisters chutes. Ever since the road crew accident a couple of weeks ago with a pickup truck mounted avalauncher, all use of avalaunchers in Colorado (even at Abasin which has 2 of them for example) has been put on hold until the accident investigation is complete. It was definitely cold out (maybe 10F?) and the wind was whipping at 15-20mph to boot. Nothing I couldn't handle, but a bit shocking to the system given the low 70's we'd just had last week in the Denver metro. After just a couple of laps I headed toward Chair 9 (the Ridge) which always has a later opening. First hitting a partially chopped up Chair 4 before getting to 9 a touch after it opened, and with an actual lift line to boot.
That's when things got interesting. 3/4 of the way up or more, at ~12,500' altitude with temps probably in the single digits, and a 20 mph wind blowing at you, the chair broke down. Not kidding. They would try to restart and you'd go anywhere from 5 to 50 feet before the chair would stop again. I know it probably wasn't, but it felt like 45 minutes that we were stuck up there (probably 'only' ~25). I had been prescient and actually put a package of hand warmers in my jacket pocket just before leaving my car. And I am oh so glad I did. At some point about 15 minutes in, people started jumping off the lift up above us. There was a section where the chair came within about 8-10 feet of the ground, and as they would keep trying to restart the lift and another chair inched up to that area the skiers and boarders would just jump. Probably ~20 people in total jumped off because it was so freaking cold just sitting there in the wind. Eventually a patroller skied down from the top lift hut letting us know that it was a solvable mechanical issue and would be 5-10 more minutes (turned out to be ~5). There was also something about technically you are not supposed to jump, but...... basically a "read between the lines" indicating it wasn't exactly their priority at the moment so do what you have to do.
Eventually the lift started up again and with most of the chairs ahead of us having jumped off, we were almost first in line - for the moment. I headed to lookers left and hit a sweet Jelly Roll run. With my hand warmers having helped, I hit two more runs off 9 in slightly different variations of Jelly Roll and Castle Rock. But the damage had been done per se and I was just too cold after all that. Skiing all the way down to the base and having a long 40 minute lunch to warm back up.
After lunch, a quick run through the trees of of chair 1 found me on my way back to the Ridge.I got in another ~6 laps on the extremes of the far left and right terrain that was open (a few sections were still being bombed) and where there were still unadulterated freshi's to be had. Although you do have to hike for the Porcupine saddle area (maybe 100' of vert? and some flat distance too). So a couple of laps of hiking and then several laps out to Challenger/north Star area for quality snow. It was still quite cold, but by late afternoon the temps maybe hit the upper teens up high with the ever present ~20mph wind. The wind seemed to change a bit in the afternoon, mostly raking the upper ridgelines and not the entire ski area like it had during the morning. Eventually I quit about 3:45 after a nice day of full on winter and powder. Quite possibly my final day for this season. It's been a good one in many ways; from # of days on snow, to getting Jr out, to big powder days all the time.
