One word describes today, sick. Pretty much one of the best days of the year so far, with almost 9 inches of snow over the last few days Mary Jane was hot. Most of the gapers and tourist crowd were hitting the groomers, so we duck into the trees and find limitless untracked pow lines down the mountain. Upper 30s bluebird day. We did a few laps on Sunnyside waiting for the Timberline lift to open up, this lift will take you to the top of Parsenn bowl. Up on Parsenn bowl we drop skiers right and follow the ridge line and duck into the trees, conditions were great. Lots of fresh powder on top of the base, we rode the back bowl pretty much all day. Surprised at how few people were hitting the tree lines, we got fresh lines all day.

 

Half asleep at 6:00am driving west up I70 we arrive at Loveland Resort near the base of the continental divide. It’s been snowing and windy all night and ski patrol tells us they’ve got at least 8″ inches at the base. After watching Chaulksmack and loveHATE on the drive up we are ready to shred some pow. We jump on lift #1 and head up, fighting the wind to stay on the chair. Hearing reports of gusts up to 70mph over near chair 8 we decided to do laps in the trees near #1. The snow was great, tons of fresh powder in the trees and all over the mountain. 8″-10″ on the groomers and at least 12″ in the trees. We made fresh turns for a hour or two before it began to get crowded, due to the wind many lifts had shutdown and most of the gapers were chilling near the base. Off of lift #6 the LovePARK is in effect, we found a couple of hips, kicker, rainbow, 2 straight rails, kink, trap and an aframe, fighting the wind we could only handle a few laps. Cold blowing snow and wind all day, conditions sucked at times– hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Today a few of us decided to take a last minute trip over to Copper, the holiday crowd was in full effect. After a few early groomer runs on the ice pack, the crowds and lift lines started to build. We went up the Excelerator towards the T-bar, at the top we found more wind blown ice pack. No new snow in a week, even the trees sucked. Good news, it looks like the Superpipe is almost up and running along with the main terrain park. At the top of American Flyer they have a nice minipipe going and some beginner ride on rails. We were happy to see some of the rails rotated out of the pre-season park here. None of the back lifts were up and running, and the ambassadors were handing out groom reports like mad. After killer burgers and guinness at Endo’s we split and head out, on the way we can see every single lot packed to the brim.

 

Heading down the north side of Berthoud Pass, you’ll run into the old Current Creek section of the now defunct resort. This is where some of the more extreme steeps and lines are located. Early Christmas morning I started the long hike up the ridge heading toward the North Chutes, I was pretty happy to see only a few other people out in the backcountry. No new snow since the 23rd, I wasn’t expecting great conditions. Surprised, I found a good amount of wind blown pow in the chutes from the previous days storm. Temperature outside was in the low 30s, and the sun was loosing up the snow quite well. After a couple laps in the chutes I broke for lunch and a few pictures up top.

The day turned out great, very few people up on the pass because of the holiday. Bluebird conditions, no wind, all we need is some more snow!