Loveland, CO: 04/04/21

jamesdeluxe

Administrator
Following picture-perfect spring skiing at Monarch, more of the same appeared to be on tap for my final day of the season, at Loveland. As I drove from Salida on scenic Route 24 in the early morning -- through Buena Vista, stopping for coffee in Leadville and continuing past Copper Mountain onto eastbound I-70 -- the sun was shining and predicted temps of 50 at Loveland's base didn't seem entirely out of the question.

Driving into the main parking lot at 8:15, a good hundred cars were already there with people who had the same idea as me. Skiers in line were raving about the previous day's corn and I joined them in looking greedily at the southeast-facing terrain over the tunnel.
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As the lifts opened at 8:30, directly overhead and to the west was mostly blue sky; however, a big cloud bank to the east floated across the sun. Figuring that would be temporary, I took the traverse to the skier's left and arrived as they were dropping the rope on the Lift 8 sector over the tunnel.
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Over the next hour, I tried my best to find the same velvety snow that was on similar facets at Monarch first thing in the morning; however, no sun + 12,000-foot elevation kept things rock hard and the cloud cover to the east wasn't budging.
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90 minutes later, it was clear that the expected warm-up wasn't happening so I went back to the north-facing terrain off the HSQ. With a full parking lot, that lift, usually Loveland's busiest, was ski-on at 10:15. Even the penguin was perplexed.
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I spent the next two hours making trenches on the loose winter snow before packing it in at 12:30 to head back to Denver for Easter dinner with my family. Heading down-canyon, often at 75 mph, I made it back to my brother's house (where it was 81 degrees) in only 49 minutes. While playing cornhole in the sun, they couldn't believe my tales of bulletproof snow.
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It was the only one of my 13 western days this winter where conditions weren't really nice. Still, my season was decent enough given the challenges: 16 days total and it's time to transition over to golf and mountain biking.
 
jamesdeluxe":2cszmix3 said:
I won't be back in Denver until mid-May, when I'll be bringing my golf clubs with me.

Even Winter Park extended again to mid-May (granted only a single lift spinning by then). Very cool and snowy pattern this spring (which is not unusual). So by mid-May you can golf in the chilly rain or still ski at 3 resorts (Breck, WP, ABasin by mid-May). Heck why not do both? :mrgreen:
 
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