Loveland Basin, CO 11/13/2002

Matt Duffy

New member
Lift 4 opened this morning, for the first time this year. You know how much snow has fallen since Saturday. 188 acres of unblemished powder became open game today. Here we go again! <BR> <BR>Windswept fields of rippled powder. Tear jerking speed on a cushion of air. A cloud bursts up and hangs suspended. A layer of white frosts facial hair. The world looks crooked, alternating one way then the other. Maximum edge angle. It happens fast. So fast. <BR> <BR>Ultra steep woods filled with snow. Back and forth, back and forth down the fall line. Breathtaking slow motion tight turns in the deep. The steep forest becomes too open eventually and bottoms out at a traverse along the ropes with signs forboding avalanche danger. <BR> <BR>Before today's new 188 became fully tracked however, it was baked in the sun. Thick cement became of anything deep and untouched. Lower angle windswept powder became creamy smooth silk. <BR> <BR>Elsewhere, in the shadows of the dark side, the snow remained sweet and light. Pockets and stashes remained pure. The furthest jaunts down the rabbit hole yielded the deepest powder I've seen yet this season. The cushion turns, the exploding snow and the serious pitch all add up to the sweetest couple of runs I could have wanted. <BR> <BR>The sun and traffic had started to alter the whole feel of the snow by mid-afternoon. More of a spring like styrofoam catagorizies much of the open snow now. The cruising and the carving on the wide warm butter terrain is all very good. Only in those dark places now, between the trees and in the shadows, lurk a few more pockets of deep fluffy snow and a few more virgin turns until it snows again.
 
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