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.

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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.

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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!

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We arrived up at the summit of Berthoud Pass in the afternoon, temperatures are still below zero. My truck is telling me -10 degrees to be exact, I look at AKD to make sure he’s still down for the hike ahead. No one else around, we decide it’s worth it and head up the East Face towards the communication towers. Searching for a good spot to build a boot we settled on re-building an older kicker from a few weeks ago. We hit the jump for a few hours, messing around–just having fun! What a great time, as many of you know this is such a great way to refresh. Get yourself out in the mountains, move some snow, and just have fun!

Tempted by the 4-5″ new snow on BP we decied to do a few laps in the trees. The snow back here was great, deep wind blown powder, on a good base. Hitting the trees along the old Powder Line we ended the day with huge smiles on our faces!

   

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