jamesdeluxe
Administrator
Amongst the many reasons that the winter of 2020/21 will be remembered as an oddity, it'll go into the books for me personally as the latest I've ever had my inaugural ski day of the season: January 28. Previously, the latest I'd ever made first turns was in early January.
Arriving at 9 am to pick up my Loveland season pass, I was surprised to see that the large main parking lot was already 2/3 full on a non-vacation weekday. I skied for a quick hour and conditions were fine given the ongoing drought (only 95 inches YTD); however, given the likelihood of snow on Saturday, I decided to drive an additional 40 minutes to Ski Cooper, one of the many independent areas throughout the Rockies where Loveland passholders get three free days. I'd been there a few times in the past and liked the local vibe and uncrowded trails.
With the base lodge being the only access point for the mountain, this new protocol is a great idea that should've been implemented years ago. They check your pass or day ticket here at the base lodge and that's it -- no annoying scanning or RFID checkpoints the rest of the day.
Similar to Loveland, there were a couple hundred cars in the parking lot; however, once on the hill, I skied run after run without running into anyone, so I didn't get many in-action shots
First chair:
A two-inch dusting overnight refreshed surfaces nicely and they kept lots of trails ungroomed and bumped up to varying degrees so it was a good way to shake out the cobwebs after a ten-month break from skiing.
I had such a good time, I decided to ski a second day there instead of driving an additional 80 minutes to Monarch.
I did a bunch of runs off the surface lift at the far looker's left:
... and about ten runs through the trees, some low-angle like this one, some decently steep.
The terrain off the Tennessee Creek Basin t-bar that I skied with EMSC last year is still densely treed and very few people are in that sector on weekdays so I only did two runs there.
Arriving at 9 am to pick up my Loveland season pass, I was surprised to see that the large main parking lot was already 2/3 full on a non-vacation weekday. I skied for a quick hour and conditions were fine given the ongoing drought (only 95 inches YTD); however, given the likelihood of snow on Saturday, I decided to drive an additional 40 minutes to Ski Cooper, one of the many independent areas throughout the Rockies where Loveland passholders get three free days. I'd been there a few times in the past and liked the local vibe and uncrowded trails.
With the base lodge being the only access point for the mountain, this new protocol is a great idea that should've been implemented years ago. They check your pass or day ticket here at the base lodge and that's it -- no annoying scanning or RFID checkpoints the rest of the day.
Similar to Loveland, there were a couple hundred cars in the parking lot; however, once on the hill, I skied run after run without running into anyone, so I didn't get many in-action shots
First chair:
A two-inch dusting overnight refreshed surfaces nicely and they kept lots of trails ungroomed and bumped up to varying degrees so it was a good way to shake out the cobwebs after a ten-month break from skiing.
I had such a good time, I decided to ski a second day there instead of driving an additional 80 minutes to Monarch.
I did a bunch of runs off the surface lift at the far looker's left:
... and about ten runs through the trees, some low-angle like this one, some decently steep.
The terrain off the Tennessee Creek Basin t-bar that I skied with EMSC last year is still densely treed and very few people are in that sector on weekdays so I only did two runs there.
