EMSC
Well-known member
Super complicated day for me personally. Jr had dedicated lane space at Loveland, I sure wasn't paying $119 for the one run there so popped over the pass and snowboarded ABasin for a couple hours on my Ikon pass before rushing through Summit County to get specialty gear before returning to Loveland for a late lunch and to pick Jr up. In all, I stopped at or passed by Loveland, ABasin, Keystone, Breckenridge, and Copper.
Despite sun and temps warming into the mid 30's F at the bases, snowmaking was an all day affair for everyone except Abasin who is once again out of water for the moment.
Crowds were plenty for the terrain available, though obviously tiny compared to mid-season volumes. As usual every ski team you can imagine was in attendance depending on venue. The weirdest by far that I saw was ski teams from Calgary area at Lovelnd which made no sense to me. They looked to be U16-ish (14-15yr olds). Nakiska, Norquay and Louise are all open up that way already. Why would you come all the way to Loveland?
For example...
Loveland Valley racers only
Now we are at ABasin, which has a long way to go to getting their 2nd trail open (from the top). I feel like Al made a bad call this year. Usually AbAsin goes for a 2nd trail on the bottom before opening the top. I bet they could have had that 2nd trail open to spread people out by now, but the top takes way longer.
Even a tiny bump field hidden in the shade. The fluffy layer on top was definitely thicker then normal, so somewhat above average for WROD.
Overall I have hardly any pictures of me snowboarding, which I do early season when I'd be bored to tears on skis.
Only a couple more months for East Wall
Typical lift line. Singles line moved so fast it basically didn't exist.
I boarded for exactly two hours, 9a-11a. That equaled a dozen runs of WROD survival (plenty). And by survival I literally mean it in some sense. At the bottom of my first run I was bent over unstrapping my back foot but heard a loud thump followed by a guy yelling "What the @#^%!! etc.... " roughly where the single snowboarder is standing in the below pic had been a direct collision. Since I didn't see it I had no idea who was the idiot vs innocent. But one guy walked away and the other one very much didn't... Both appeared to be skiers for what that is worth.
And then on to the rig-a-morole. I was on the phone passing by Keystone, but noted that they had skiing all the way into the base, though on a fairly narrow strip. Lots of snowmaking visible too. Up and over swan Mtn shortcut to Breck. There is a reason tourists love the place:
Welcome to Frisco:
How about Copper:
The snowmaking is concentrated on the Super B area for world cup level downhill training. The snowmaking here is only on the bottom in prep for building up the half pipe. I believe they have an early December event for that. They open to the public on Monday (weird day to open) and as far as I know they will only have Ptarmigan trail off the Excelerator up top for the public; and will require downloading on the gondola. And yes, that is a large group of racer chasers about to load for some afternoon training up top (this pic was ~1:15p).
And eventually back to the Basin side of Loveland (kids only had am lane space at Valley, then they freeskied on the one trail on Basin side).
Welcome to Ski Racing parent life.
Despite sun and temps warming into the mid 30's F at the bases, snowmaking was an all day affair for everyone except Abasin who is once again out of water for the moment.
Crowds were plenty for the terrain available, though obviously tiny compared to mid-season volumes. As usual every ski team you can imagine was in attendance depending on venue. The weirdest by far that I saw was ski teams from Calgary area at Lovelnd which made no sense to me. They looked to be U16-ish (14-15yr olds). Nakiska, Norquay and Louise are all open up that way already. Why would you come all the way to Loveland?
For example...
Loveland Valley racers only
Now we are at ABasin, which has a long way to go to getting their 2nd trail open (from the top). I feel like Al made a bad call this year. Usually AbAsin goes for a 2nd trail on the bottom before opening the top. I bet they could have had that 2nd trail open to spread people out by now, but the top takes way longer.
Even a tiny bump field hidden in the shade. The fluffy layer on top was definitely thicker then normal, so somewhat above average for WROD.
Overall I have hardly any pictures of me snowboarding, which I do early season when I'd be bored to tears on skis.
Only a couple more months for East Wall
Typical lift line. Singles line moved so fast it basically didn't exist.
I boarded for exactly two hours, 9a-11a. That equaled a dozen runs of WROD survival (plenty). And by survival I literally mean it in some sense. At the bottom of my first run I was bent over unstrapping my back foot but heard a loud thump followed by a guy yelling "What the @#^%!! etc.... " roughly where the single snowboarder is standing in the below pic had been a direct collision. Since I didn't see it I had no idea who was the idiot vs innocent. But one guy walked away and the other one very much didn't... Both appeared to be skiers for what that is worth.
And then on to the rig-a-morole. I was on the phone passing by Keystone, but noted that they had skiing all the way into the base, though on a fairly narrow strip. Lots of snowmaking visible too. Up and over swan Mtn shortcut to Breck. There is a reason tourists love the place:
Welcome to Frisco:
How about Copper:
The snowmaking is concentrated on the Super B area for world cup level downhill training. The snowmaking here is only on the bottom in prep for building up the half pipe. I believe they have an early December event for that. They open to the public on Monday (weird day to open) and as far as I know they will only have Ptarmigan trail off the Excelerator up top for the public; and will require downloading on the gondola. And yes, that is a large group of racer chasers about to load for some afternoon training up top (this pic was ~1:15p).
And eventually back to the Basin side of Loveland (kids only had am lane space at Valley, then they freeskied on the one trail on Basin side).
Welcome to Ski Racing parent life.
