EMSC
Well-known member
The tween-age racer years.
Primary goal was that my sons race team started training, thus the early season start despite not much open. It's been an interesting fall in Colorado this year in that I would say that natural snowpack is probably pretty close to normal (at least in central/northern Mtns), but temperatures have not been particularly cold, especially at night, which has significantly slowed the amount of snowmaking that has occurred.
At Loveland that means 2 runs open off Chets Dream, 1 flat one off Chair 2, and one racer-only gate bashing trail down at the valley. Snowmaking was still going when we arrived (both at the valley and on Chair 6 area). But temps quickly warmed by mid-morning as the sun came out. Its clear that on recent weekdays with less people around, patrol has opened up a couple more trails temporarily on natural snow only; which appeared to be decent coverage, but would have gotten hammered and destroyed by the decent sized weekend crowd. Speaking of which, I'd put the decent sized crowd as ~75% ski instructors and racers from all over and only ~25% as actual 'civilians'. Wait times for the quad were probably about 5-7 min on average, which is about as long as lines get at Loveland really.
Anyway we actually beat the rest of the team up the hill by enough to get two laps in before meeting up with them. I then skied with our clubs ED for the entire morning before retreating for lunch and a short meeting in the lodge. Skiing after that for a handful more laps before pulling the plug at 2p with plenty of pain in my quads. I guess tons of work and flying around doesn't make for great physical shape to start the year.
That said, conditions were pretty good. Mostly soft, fairly fluffy snow and even by mid-afternoon only a handful of scratchy patches to deal with.
Snowmaking Early
Lots of ski cutting and packing going on by patrol
Note the roped and well skied natural snow only trail (not open on Saturday)
Yes, I did do one lap on Chair 2 just for something different. Getting close-ish on natural snow in non-windy areas...
Primary goal was that my sons race team started training, thus the early season start despite not much open. It's been an interesting fall in Colorado this year in that I would say that natural snowpack is probably pretty close to normal (at least in central/northern Mtns), but temperatures have not been particularly cold, especially at night, which has significantly slowed the amount of snowmaking that has occurred.
At Loveland that means 2 runs open off Chets Dream, 1 flat one off Chair 2, and one racer-only gate bashing trail down at the valley. Snowmaking was still going when we arrived (both at the valley and on Chair 6 area). But temps quickly warmed by mid-morning as the sun came out. Its clear that on recent weekdays with less people around, patrol has opened up a couple more trails temporarily on natural snow only; which appeared to be decent coverage, but would have gotten hammered and destroyed by the decent sized weekend crowd. Speaking of which, I'd put the decent sized crowd as ~75% ski instructors and racers from all over and only ~25% as actual 'civilians'. Wait times for the quad were probably about 5-7 min on average, which is about as long as lines get at Loveland really.
Anyway we actually beat the rest of the team up the hill by enough to get two laps in before meeting up with them. I then skied with our clubs ED for the entire morning before retreating for lunch and a short meeting in the lodge. Skiing after that for a handful more laps before pulling the plug at 2p with plenty of pain in my quads. I guess tons of work and flying around doesn't make for great physical shape to start the year.
That said, conditions were pretty good. Mostly soft, fairly fluffy snow and even by mid-afternoon only a handful of scratchy patches to deal with.
Snowmaking Early
Lots of ski cutting and packing going on by patrol
Note the roped and well skied natural snow only trail (not open on Saturday)
Yes, I did do one lap on Chair 2 just for something different. Getting close-ish on natural snow in non-windy areas...
