Loveland 10/10/09

With the Colorado shred season underway now that two mountains are open, it’s definitely the time of the year that my free days are spent on the mountain.  Saturday was the perfect day to drive down from Steamboat with friends for an afternoon of shredding.  We had a minor glitch in the plans when we realized Philip left his snowboard pants at home, but a phone call to friends in summit county solved that.  Made a small detour to borrow snowboard pants from Joey, huge thanks!  The best part of driving to Loveland was seeing the K2 Van pull up next to us on the highway and waving to JP the rep, its time to see all the CO shredders once again.

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We didn’t roll up to Loveland until 11:30am but from the highway we saw that there was still parking and no lift lines (yes on a Saturday).  It was really mellow and laid back for the day.  Teddy from Omatic was grilling up in the parking lot and we got wind of how long the lines were at A-basin.  It’s why I would rather pay to ride Loveland than use my season pass at A-basin.

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Today I rode my new 686 KR3W softshell and even had a jacket twin on the mountain, we high fived and shared the stoke of having good taste together.

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Our Steamboat crew was the Click’s Philip, Sonny and Munson for the shred day.  It’s always great to find people willing to drive down from Steamboat and go shred with.  Definitely a good crew for the day’s adventure.

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Conditions were definitely the WROD (white ribbon of death) but in a good way.  By the time we arrived the sun went away and only came out in patches, it was mostly overcast and flat light conditions.  The temperatures were low and the snow guns were blaring all day to fill in more runs.  The snow was hardpacked and icy in spots and by the time we left the mountain at 4pm it was getting windy.

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Philip carving up the hardpacked conditions

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We ran into Santino, sub rep for C3’s Dave Graves and the Utah bloggers Bad Boy Sodas who are so dedicated to shred they drove out from Utah to ride the white ribbon of death.

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The Utah blogger Jack had mad skills

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Later in the day I saw the mini shred mafia on the mountain, Daniel and Chicken were out in full force for their first day of the season.  Daniel’s helmet has the shayboarder.com sticker and I’m stoked on that appreciation.

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These mini shreds kill it, love seeing them on the mountain and watching them ride.

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It was a great day of riding, despite the snow conditions I still had a blast just charging down the runs, keeping up with the boys and playing around in the snow.  I felt better riding than I did opening day, actually trying to bonk stuff and tail tap the poles around the mountain plus ollies again.

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We just made laps all day with a stop through the terrain park with the box rail and Cbox set up.  The sides of Loveland offer up the most fun, jumping, bonks, trees, anything you can imagine is there to ride and have fun with.

Sonny

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Philip

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On the last run, Philip and I switched up boards so he could try the Ultrafear FK.  I should have warned him on butters but I always forget, it’s a bit touchy and easier to butter than you expect.  He had a good crash and this shot came out of it.

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No trip is complete without making sure you sticker up the mountain.

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4pm came quick and we ended the day of shredding when the lifts closed down.  With a quick stop for beer in Silverthorne, we returned the snowboard pants to Joey and hung out for a while before making our way back to Steamboat.  It was a great day of shredding and stoked for the season to be well underway!