It’s closing weekend at Loveland so today was definitely a good day to finish out the season. I met up with friends at 8am to make the drive down to Loveland. It was Jakub, Amy, John and myself to make the trek together. We met up with Jay in the base when we arrived at Loveland.
We managed to make it to the mountain around 10am when the parking lot was full. However with our good luck, we got a spot up close as someone pulled out. It was a beautiful day, fresh new snow on the mountain and the sunshine was out, no winds in the morning either. The entire mountain was open including chair 9 which had the goods.
We made our way over to chair 9, made our way along the ridge and dropped it without having to hike.
John coming down
Those first turns we made were good, some iffy spots and rocks to watch out for but overall really wide open and some freshies.
Below this run, Jay took us to a drop to get some shots. Unfortunately the shots I took were so bright out that it’s hard to see the snow vs the rider. Here’s the original shots without any adjustments.
One of the photos of Jay’s drop and grab. He’s the rider in the center of the photom white jacket and black pants.
Our second run, we headed up chair 9 and decided to hike the ridge. You can only ride so far before you have to start the hike.
There is 100 acres of in bounds terrain that is hike to terrain from chair 9. It’s at the top of the continental divide, 13,000 ft high. We hit up the North side going through gates 1, 2 and 3. There’s a cat track you follow through each gate making it a nice hike with easy footing.
Jay hiking up
Looking back at our path we hiked. If you enlarge the image, you can see the top of chair 9 and the terrain we hiked. You can also see a better view of the cornices that are available to drop.
Everyone else hiking the ridge was very friendly, offering advice and wishing us good turns on the way down. We dropped in on the left side of this photo. I was amazed at how deep the snow was, a bit heavier snow but made some good fresh turns including a good crash. I had to adjust this image with color to make the lines pop out more. It was not that dark out.
Jay and Jakub on the rocks looking over Loveland
I rode the Never Summer SL R today
Here are our 4 lines up close with the image adjusted to show the lines. I was the last to drop and watched everyone take their lines and saw the one side was still open with fresh turns to be made.
My line is the far left.
Here’s a view of it without any adjustments
Here’s a shot taken further away, the big group of rocks in the middle is where we stood and our drop in point is to the right of that.
We took a run through the trees which put us in front of a closed run. So with some traversing we made our way back out.
We hung out above the closed sign, looking over at the mountain.
I took some groomers to finish off the day before we headed to the base to enjoy our BBQ time. We came prepared with a grill, plenty of food and beer to hang out after such a good day of riding.
Jay with his old Chub
The Steamboat Crew finishing off the day
