Jay Silveira
New member
Last week I attended a conference in Colorado, and the great part was that it was broken up in such a way that we had ski time each day. Being in the Summit County area, it was a perfect opportunity to meet up with Matt Duffy and get in some local-guided skiing. The conference was right on the slopes of Breckenridge, but for our first day, we decided to head over to Loveland Ski Area. Matt had a coupon to get me a cheap ticket, and he could show me some of his favorite playground. <BR> <BR>I hadn’t seen Matt in over a year, but since many of our ski reports get sent to SkiVT-L anyway, we didn’t have much catching up to do on that front. It was fun to catch up on the status of Matt’s truck, which is in ultimate ski bum form. His dog, Winter kind of likes to devour it, so the ceiling and other parts were somewhat eaten. He’s got the usual assortment of ski bum stuff scattered throughout the front and back, essentially everything you’d need for a ski day. The starter has issues, so he makes sure to park it on a hill at all times for a good roll start. We both laughed about how long it was before we learned that second gear, not first, was the gear of choice for a roll start. First had always worked for me, but I guess second is a bit less of a shock. Anyway, I shot some good video of the Duffymobile and I’m sure I’ll work it into next year’s ski movie. <BR> <BR>It was maybe a 30 minute trip from Breckenridge to Loveland Ski Area, during which we headed over Loveland Pass (11,992’). On the front side of the pass was Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, and Matt pointed out some of his favorite lines, including East Wall. Next, I got to see the car-serviced terrain that Matt always talks about off the pass itself, and it looked like a lot of fun. Finally, on the far side of the pass was Loveland Ski Area. Loveland can be thought of as one huge bowl-shaped area with skiing on 3 sides (it reminded me a lot of Sunshine Village in Alberta). There are lifts scattered all around the three sides, and a lot of above tree line terrain. <BR> <BR>They weren’t running some of the lifts that service the big areas above tree line, so Matt said we could just stick to Chair 1. There is some nice tree skiing of this lift, and since conditions were generally firm from a warm-up and no new snow, Matt suggested that the trees would be a good idea. Since I only had a few hours to ski, it seemed like lift 1 would provide more than enough fun. <BR> <BR>I’m not sure of the names of all the things we skied, but I do recall we hit “Over the Rainbow”. It’s an open area far skier’s right of Loveland, maybe 30 degrees or so in pitch. I could see how it would be awesome on a powder day. We also skied in a lot of trees, and I got to ski some of the bobsled tracks that Matt enjoys taking in Jedi mode. I got to see “Mr. Rock” a big jump that is a favorite when there’s powder. It looked like a 20-footer, or maybe even more depending on how far down the slope you landed. <BR> <BR>All in all, conditions were the worst I’d skied all year (Matt said the same). The snow was icy on the groomed runs and crusty in the woods, but fortunately with Matt’s guidance we found some softer sections. Despite the lackluster conditions, the skiing was fun because I was with Matt. Matt was especially excited to get hooked up to the head cam. I was happy to get some Duffy-cam footage, and while wearing the cam, Matt did some of the tree sections he’d memorized. We took a quick peek by playing it back on the camera, and it looks like we’ll have a nice view of the world as seen through Matt’s eyes (how scary is that?). <BR> <BR>On the way home I did an extensive video interview with Matt while we went back over the pass. He pointed out some of the terrain areas that he’d either skied or heard about, and filled in with some stories. I also had him give his thoughts on moving to Colorado and living the ski bum life. He pointed out that technically most ski bums actually have jobs (like at the resort) so we’re not really sure what Matt is. Anyway, I hope to use some of the material for next year’s movie, it should make for a fun interview segment. <BR> <BR>J.Spin