Given all the powder reports that have been posted over the last few weeks from Japan, Switzerland, and New York, this report may be somewhat exotic. With only 92 inches YTD, all of the upper-mountain black terrain along with everything over the Eisenhower Tunnel was closed leaving 540 open acres out of 1,800.
Glad to have my Indy Pass. How does this window price compare to other independent ski areas?
Since I knew going in that offpiste was off the menu, I started by warming up on the 850 verts in the beginner/intermediate Loveland Valley sector just to see what it was like. While the surface wasn't true ice, it felt like rock-hard styrofoam, which I've experienced quite a few times in the west during low-tide periods. Yuck.
Lots of boarders were scraping down the hill; however, I did see a number of racers who looked right at home on this surface.
Low-angle bumps were likewise unpleasant:
75 minutes later, I headed over to Loveland Basin. While the firm subsurface was still lurking here, the six inches that had fallen since last Wednesday freshened things up. By shopping my turns, the runs were surprisingly decent:
High-speed cruising while basking in the warm sun on lift rides amidst a Miami Beach-like (compared to the northeast) 37 degrees added up to a nice afternoon:
Good enough that I'll go back today for a few more hours of turns. An employee told me she'd heard rumors that Lift 4 may open. Not the most exciting terrain but beggars can't be choosers.