Loveland End of Season Wrap-Up

Loveland officially closed its doors to the public yesterday, and all the regulars were out in force. We couldn't have asked for better conditions during closing weekend, especially since April delivered for us in a big way. And although we fell just 6" short of our all time season snowfall record, we did manage to break our record for deepest snowpack in Loveland history at 120". There's still hope for the record to be broken though because technically they keep track of the snowfall through May 15th. Don't ask me why.

Any way, on Saturday some friends and I hiked a couple of fun lines on the southwestern flanks of Mt. Trelease (pics may follow depending on whether or not Cory gets his shit together).

Sunday we hiked out to Marmot where my friends Bo, and Will proceeded to get stupid off of the massive cornice sitting atop peak 13,010. The landing was less than ideal and the drop was man-sized; but that didn't stop Bo or Will from stomping that shit like it was their job. My hats off to you guys. I don't have the sack to drop that thing into anything but pow.

Bo(1st pic) and Will (2nd pic) do their thing off the massive Marmot cornice.





From 13,010 we headed down to the Rock Chutes where the girls got rowdy in the main line while Bo managed to slip into a little pinner on his tele's.

The view was ok I guess.


Erica says, "I wanna do that one."


And she did...


As did my boss' girl Jenny.


Bo slippin silently between the rocks.


The Citadel has watched over the Loveland Basin from the north for millions of years. I'm hoping to climb and ride this beast in another week or so. Stay tuned.


Monday was the last day the lifts would turn at Loveland, and only for employees. Crowds gathered at the base of chair 1 (the only one spinning) and the private corn harvest was on! Never being one for the crowds, I decided that it would be fun to take a walk up to Porcupine Ridge, a zone just out of Loveland's boundaries. Porcupine is a massive fin of Rock rising some 4-500 vertical feet above chair 6, and some ~900ft or so above where we started our hike in Dave's ditch. Porcupine holds some great sustained fall line riding, a little gnar and a lot of fun for anyone determined enough to hike it.

Looking at Porcupine ridge from Marmot the day before.


I was joined by my good friend and fellow instructor Ron. This was Ron's first year living out west, and its been really fun riding with the "old man" as we affectionately call him. He has no problem keeping up with us, and he's commented regularly in the last few months that when he rides with guys his age (45), that he regularly has to wait on them, and that riding with us "young punks" has been a good influence on his riding.

Ron and I were both stoked to do this hike, so we set off around 11am planning on about a 45minute hike. We gained the saddle from Dave's ditch in about 20mins and from there we figured we'd have about a half hour climb up the shoulder of the ridge to an elevation of 12,500ft. From there, the plan was to descend the eastern flank of the ridge as we figured the snow in the northern lines hadn't softened up enough yet. We hiked on from the saddle for about 15mins or so with the wind picking up and beginning to gust HARD. With boards on our backs acting like sails, wind gusts approaching 70mph, and dark clouds looming over the divide we tucked tail, pulled the plug and settled for an abridged version of our original objective.

The hike up was pretty straightforward, but variable snow conditions were encountered along the way. In the chute in the saddle we were faced with a pretty nasty crusty layer and no crampons. All in all though, the hike was pretty tame.

Ron taking a rest just before the saddle that takes us up to Porcupine Ridge.


Me gazing up at the ridge. We were headed for that little point of a cornice on the looker's left.


The ride down was great. Beautiful creamy corn turns were pushed out down the lower third of the eastern flank, while a more firm surface awaited us on the more northerly facing line that we booted up to gain the saddle. All in all it was a great hike, even though we had to turn back. You can bet I'll be back up to Porcupine Ridge again soon to bag my original objective.

Our consolation line. (my tracks are on the right and Ron's are on the left)


I'm always stoked to hike for turns.


Ron admires our handiwork on the mountainside.


Thanks for looking. PB

Lookin' out my backdoor...

As the days grow longer, and the temperatures warm, the opportunities to explore more of my "neighborhood" continue to expand. Its becoming some what of a nightly tradition to make the drive up Guanella Pass just south of Georgetown to watch the sunset. Its fun heading up there with my camera, trying to figure out where the good shots are, and essentially scouting the location for when the light finally pops.

Last night myself, my good friend Erica, and my buddy Bo ended up at Clear Lake and were treated to a dynamic sky, which although lacking in color had some interesting cloud formations to shoot. Enjoy.

Looking north back toward Georgetown from Guanella.


Here's my buddy Bo. He's Persian (from Iran), and he's not a terrorist. He also snowboards, skis, and telemarks better than you. What'chu got on that? Fuck you Glenn Beck.


Clear Lake Sunset in black and White




And in Color (note: the B+Ws are not conversions)

(Sorry about the spots on this one. They aren't dust on the lens, and I'm working with some very basic PC editing programs currently.)

May fun at A-Basin

My buddy Giri and I hit up a couple of classic big mountain lines at A-Basin, CO today. Our day started off with a hike up the North Pole to the craggy, steep couloir known as Notch 1. The hike out to the Notch was a little interesting with visibility coming and going and a nearly sheer drop down the south side of the ridge for what looked like close to 1000 vertical feet. Once we got into the low spot marking the top of Notch 1 we were able to relax a little and scout the line.

Looking down Notch 1


With isolated snow showers coming and going, we had to wait on top of the line for a good 5-10minutes while visibility improved. Here's Giri taking it all in. (judging by the angle the slope makes below his legs, I'd say its safe to say that Notch 1 averages the low 40s for about 3-400 vertical feet.)


The snow in Notch 1 wasn't exactly ideal deep, open 'er up powder; but it was soft enough that we could get our edges in and push out some nice turns over the moguls. Here's Giri turning down the fall-line setting up a heelside turn. (I can't believe how well this shot turned out since it was taken with my 1.3MP "dumb" phone.)


After successfully navigating Notch 1, Giri and I traversed over to Willie's Staircase. The staircase is about a half-hour of suck. By that, I mean its about a half-hour plus of sustained low to mid 40-degree bootpack. Here's a shot just a little over half-way up. We were headed for the rock cluster in the center of the photo. (note the group of 4 to the left of the rocks for scale.)


We relaxed at the top of the staircase for a bit, discussing safety, snacking on a PB&J, fruit roll-ups and some cheese before dropping into a beautiful apron of soft snow. All in all a great time at A-Basin today. I have to keep reminding myself its May.

1 Lap Down Loveland Pass

Here's a quick lap down Loveland Pass. April was an amazing month in Colorado; more than 100" of snow fell at Loveland Ski Area in that time and conditions have been stellar. I hope to have a longer edit up soon featuring more of the Luv crew, and some of the steeps, rocks, and features that make this area so fun.

Lockdown at the Luv

Some tunes to accompany the read.



The Huron Mountain Club, The Yellowstone Club, and Loveland Ski Area?

On Tuesday April 5th, 2011 Loveland Ski Area joined the ranks of such exclusive sites when I-70 completely shut down in both directions for rock control work. If you weren't in the lot at Loveland or one of the Slummit County resorts by 915am on Tuesday, you weren't riding....period. Conditions weren't perfect with high winds and unseasonably cool temperatures; but that didn't stop a solid crew of locals from throwing down a respectable park session before taking things to Loveland pass in search of powder.


Here's a look at the parking lot. There couldn't have been any more than about 150 people on Loveland's 1600+ acres. It was sick.


Such unusual circumstances had Loveland scrambling to bring people in to ski, so they offered up a free pancake breakfast that included two strips of bacon and a free cup of joe.

Yes, I ride Loveland, and so should you. Errr, wait...the Luv sucks, keep driving to Breck. Nothing to see here.


Seth(left) and Chris(right) heading up chair 1 to the Rockhouse, a mandatory stop before getting rad.




The Rockhouse sits atop lift 1 at Loveland Basin, and is a great place to round up your crew, discuss saftey, and meet some of the locals at the Luv.


Seth talking about a young 11 year old ripper who was throwing backside rodeos the day before.


Loveland is one of those iconic area's that still manages to fly just off of most people's radar. The likes of Jamie Lynn, Mike Ranquet, Jeremy Jones, and many other legendary riders have spent time riding Loveland and the nearby pass. This place is steeped in history.


Me too...but I'm pretty sure its spelled snowboarding. Oh well.


No, seriously. Kill Gapers.

Steve-o and Chris are ready to go...


The park session started with Seth getting a little inverted.


He followed that up with a nice nose press over the rainbow box.


and a nice nose-slide on the following lap.


Chris got a nice backside 50-50 as well.


Here's a skier doing whatever skiers call this.


My buddy Jerome going not quite board-slide, not quite 50-50 over the rainbow. I still like the shot though.



The newly installed cannon saw a lot of action too...

Seth back-1 out.


Chris gettin' in a nice frontside-air off the end.


Steve-o in black and white.


And in color.


There may be some video coming of the riding that went down on the pass after the park session; but at this point that is neither here, nor there. So I guess you'll just have to check back to see if I manage to get that footage uploaded. Thanks for taking a look.

A last minute trip to the 'Boat

When you live out west inevitably all your friends from back east are going to want to come visit. They see your status updates all season long about how good the snow has been, and how regularly the Pacific has been tossing moisture your way, and they arrive with high hopes for waist deep snow. Unfortunately, often times as Murphy's law would have it, your friends manage to pick the only week of consistent high pressure of past month and a half; and of course, since you are the local it is up to you to deliver them the goods.

Such was the case when my friend Joe arrived this week from Michigan. It had been 7 days since the last significant snowfall, and pickings were indeed slim. We did get lucky however when the tail end of the big system passing through the Northwest dropped 5-7" on the Continental Divide. While I was busy teaching first-time kids how to snowboard, Joe and Tom ripped their way around Loveland Ski area. I got the last laugh though when I took them up to Loveland Pass on Sunday after work and got them into thigh deep snow.

We decided to take Monday off, and let our bodies rest a bit since there were talks of a storm coming later in the week. Looking at the satellite image that afternoon it looked like it might be worth our while to head up north to Steamboat to poke around a bit. After moving my first car-load of stuff up to Georgetown, we loaded our snow gear into Tom's Audi and were off over the divide and north-bound to Steamboat. Not too long after leaving the madness of Summit County during spring break, the Gore Range loomed over our heads to the west. Composed of massive, jagged, alpine peaks sliced-through with numerous couloirs, the Gore is definitely on my hit-list for the spring and summer touring season.

We pressed on through the rolling high-desert valleys ringed by hills covered with sagebrush until climbing up through the more familiar pines of Rabbit Ears pass. I had heard Rabbit Ears pass come up several times in conversation regarding backcountry zones, but was admittedly a bit disappointed by the lack of what I considered to be good terrain. I'm sure that Rabbit Ears pass is one of those areas that hides its best secrets from the casual gaze from the daily passer-by, and I am sure that I will have to spend some time in that area as well to see what all the fuss is about. Eventually we crested the long and winding pass, and began our decent into the Yampa Valley. Low clouds and drizzle greeted us in Steamboat Springs, and doubt began to set in about what condition the mountain would be in the following day. Eventually though the rain turned over to snow and a more optimistic take on things began to take shape.

Tom loves his Audi...


Going for a pass around the bend...yes, we had the dotted line...


Like a boss.....lol


With decent barbeque and some good beer in our bellies we called it a night.


All the hops in the Ranger's had me thinking I'm some kind of an artist.


Checking the snow report the next morning, we found a measly 3.5" had fallen the night before; checking out the window we found a fog as thick as pea soup had swallowed the valley. Once again hopes for deep turns teetered in the balance. Arriving at the top of the Gondola by 915am we found 2" of dust on a nice firm crust. Sweet. 3hrs of driving for shit conditions. Awesome.

Dropping into our first glade of aspens confirmed our fears....bumpy, shit-pow on top of a crust that made this midwesterner cringe. I reassured my associates that we would find good snow on any north facing aspects on the upper portion of the mountain, so we set off for the hikes off of storm peak. Sure enough runs like North St. Pats, and No Names delivered the goods. 6-10" of creamy pow on top of a nicely consolidated base of wind slab made for bottomless turns on the upper flanks of Steamboat. Here's a shot of Tom VanHeule gettin' after it in 'No Names' on our second lap. (photo cred: Joe Fodrocy)



Not too long after this photo, I managed to tweak my lower back on what seemed like a routine tumble after landing a little flatter than I had wanted to launching off of a lip in the woods. With temperatures rising well into the 40s and the sun affecting more and more snow, we decided we'd head back to the car for some lunch. The afternoon was spent tearing around the groomers, using gapers like moving gates, and looking for little hips and kickers on the sides of the runs. This style of riding is quickly becoming one of my favorite things to do. It reminds me a little of street skating, and its just fun to see what kind of features you can find around the mountain that aren't the result of hours of cat work. You can call me a hater if you want, but I'm so over the park scene. Get out of the park and see what you find....you might just be surprised.

We got off the mountain around 315 and had planned on soaking our bones in the Strawberry Park Hot Springs about 10miles north of town. Unfortunately, our local friend failed to mention that the hot springs were $10/person before 930pm. Had we been staying another night, I'm sure we would've come back; but we had to get back to Denver that night, so we enjoyed the scenery on the drive in and promptly back out of Strawberry Park and turned the Audi back toward Summit County and eventually I-70. I had just nodded off (literally) when I snapped my head up and awake, I was greeted by amazing light on the Gore Range. I had Tom stop the car and managed to pop off a couple of shots.

The Gore Range looms to the south on CO hwy 9.


Another Gore-y shot.


We got back to Denver around 8pm, stoked on a pretty good day of riding at the 'Boat. We'll definitely be back. There is definitely some potential up there when the conditions allow.