Blogs

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.

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!

Surprised by the lack of people in the upper Mary Jane parking lot, we figured it was the below zero temperatures. With 3" of new snow over night we thought the holiday crowd would be in full effect. Thursday turned out to be a great day, as we spent most of the morning making powder turns in the trees and groomers. They had the Sunnyside lift up and running providing access to some MJ's great gladed terrain. Unfortunately, the Parsenn Bowl wasn't open and it looked pretty windy/wind blown up there. All in all, the top of MJ had at least 3" in spots and in the trees we found some nice deep untracked pow all on top of a 37" base. No crowds. The snow was cold and slow.

Today I finally had a chance to take the TP Capita out for a few laps, and I must say I love this deck. Tons of pop, great flex, stable, and very forgiving on big jumps. Did I mention it butters better than Martha on a good cooking day? Sick. Also, the 1st day on the Technine JH Dominator bindings. Very stiff, all metal binding with the baltimore toe strap. These bindings are tight, way better than my Drake MLBs.

Around 2pm we just couldn't take the cold anymore and my nose was starting to freeze together, so the decision was made to head Berthoud Pass and build a jump. More about that later..