Loveland, CO: 02/01/26

[jamesdeluxe]

Loveland and ABasin are doing especially badly this season. I would agree the primary motivation would be to say you were there during their worst ever ski seasons.

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.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Also part of the Colorado-at-the-end-of-January experience: golf!

 

[Tony Crocker]

This is only the third worst season to date at Loveland of the past 53 years!

 

[jimk]

My daughter who lives in Wash DC joined us last week in the Alps. We joked that she fled the heavy snow, ice, and arctic temperatures of the Nation's Capital to escape to balmy, 40 degree Switzerland.

 

[EMSC]

Loveland Valley sector just to see what it was like. While the surface wasn't true ice, it felt like rock-hard styrofoam,

For reference, they explicitly make the snow on that lift to be extra wet/dense to meet the demands of the racer chasers that train on those couple of trails (tons of world cup racers train there in Oct/Nov for example). A bit of a 'user be warned' kind of scenario; especially when there has been so little snow to cover up the super dense snowmaking base.

An employee told me she'd heard rumors that Lift 4 may open.

Not open according to the website this morning, but who knows. I can't imagine them opening the steeper stuff under that lift on current base depths. Probably more like the couple of green trails that wrap around and then down the gully.

How does this window price compare to other independent ski areas?

Not that it is independent yet but Eldora is charging more than that except for Wednesdays when you pre-buy online ($99 wed, $159 other weekdays, $179 weekends for online tix).

The real ticket price competitor is Ski Cooper: $49 weekdays, $99 weekends/holidays. Monarch tix are also pretty competitive: $119 weekdays, $149 Sundays (plus off-peak Sat), $179 though for most Saturdays and Holidays.

 

[Skieric]

Thanks for the report. I will be heading to Summit County next week. Seems like I should bring my dedicated 74 mm piste skis. They are built for that firm snow. I cant imagine it could be any worse than Mt Tremblant or Blue mtn the day after rain and a hard overnight freeze.

 

[MarzNC]

Glad to have my Indy Pass. How does this window price compare to other independent ski areas?

You mean in Colorado? Here are regular ticket prices in 2025-26 for the ski areas I've been to in the last decade.

Wolf Creek: $93 Adult, $62 Senior 65-79
Monarch: $149 Adult, $89 Senior 62-68, $25 season pass $25 69+
Howelsen Hill: $52 Adult 19-64, $38 Senior 65+

Sunlight does variable online pricing. Range in Feb-Mar for Adults $74-94, Seniors 70-79 $69-79.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I will be heading to Summit County next week.

A Canadian? Must be for a non-ski reason like James under current conditions..

 

[Skieric]

A Canadian? Must be for a non-ski reason like James under current conditions..

I have a lot of family in Colorado. We generally go every February to ski and visit family. My son will be joining and he has a fixed break off from school. With the Colorado snow situation, it’s tempting to simply just drive somewhere east of here, but that would miss a lot of the purpose of the trip.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

For reference, they explicitly make the snow on that lift to be extra wet/dense to meet the demands of the racer chasers that train on those couple of trails

I saw racers on the trail alongside the lift and gates set up on the closed parallel trail, but didn't put 2 and 2 together until I noticed that conditions on the Basin side were noticeably better.

I can't imagine them opening the steeper stuff under that lift on current base depths.

A few pix from yesterday -- a long stretch of bumps along the Ptarmigan lift. Experts were ripping them; I bailed after 100 verts.

Heading into the South Chutes to the right, which skied nicely due to the low angle. You can see that the single-black bowls are bony but have enough snow to attempt if so inclined:

Directly above the top of Ptarmigan. You can see a guy at the bottom of the pitch who'd just finished that short line above him:

A long flat trail but fun to ski the soft chop alongside the trail:

The real ticket price competitor is Ski Cooper: $49 weekdays,

That's a very smart idea to avoid leaving money on the table from people who want to ski at the last minute without a mega pass. Cooper is a nice beginner/intermediate hill but not for expert skiers other than pine trees in the Tennessee Creek sector (I wonder if they've thinned them out a bit?).

We generally go every February to ski and visit family.

I can't vouch for the other I-70 resorts but I was glad to have brought my skis given modest expectations. 3.5 hours of turns each day was enjoyable as long as you weren't counting on steep terrain in nice condition. Certainly better than Tremblant after a rain/freeze.

 

[EMSC]

Directly above the top of Ptarmigan. You can see a guy at the bottom of the pitch who'd just finished that short line above him:

Yes, but how did he get there? Chair 9 is closed; yet I see several tracks on that face. All patrollers maybe?

Tennessee Creek sector (I wonder if they've thinned them out a bit?

Nope, they sure haven't. But they are talking about a new lift on the opposite mountain face from the t-bar. Though hard to tell if it will ever get built as it is in Phase 2 in the master plan with a very expensive (for Cooper) proposed Phase 1.

Cooper Master Plan Prescribes Four New Lifts

Colorado gem Ski Cooper is thriving among giants. Over the past ten seasons, visits have grown 63 percent, fueled in part by affordable lift tickets. Last winter, a midweek ticket cost $45, regardl…

liftblog.com

 

[Tony Crocker]

Loveland was the site of the Rocky Mountain region demo event where we are currently attending the California region's. The PNW event was at Misison Ridge with similar conditions to Loveland (12-21 inch base, 18% open). The Utah event was at Brighton, which is covered but has a lot of melt freeze with its varied exposures.