This ski season started off with a bang the likes that hasn’t been seen in quite a while. An impressively powerful storm rolled in at the end of opening day last Sunday, dropping 30″ of snow in just a few days. Lauren and I pulled in to the parking lot Tuesday morning to snow falling at about 2″ per hour.
Patrol opened some new terrain (Upper Richard’s) and we missed the rope drop, but still got some boot-deep turns that made it feel like mid-winter. Continue reading
As you’re no doubt aware, this has been a long, warm and dry late summer/early fall in Colorado. This pushed off the start of ski season by a couple weeks; though some friends were going out of their minds, I tried to enjoy it on the mountain bike, running Scout, hiking, and just generally enjoying the pleasant temperatures. Things finally cooled off enough recently for Loveland to get the snowguns blasting, and today was finally the day. After grabbing our passes we got in line, as the clock ticked down to 9am. And then we were off!
It was great seeing friends I hadn’t seen in a while – that’ll change now that the lifts are turning once again. Continue reading
The weather has been extremely conducive to late-season hiking this year, with above average temperatures and a near-total lack of precipitation. With the weather on our side, Lauren and I continued on our quest to hike all of Colorado’s 14ers together yesterday morning with an ascent of Mt. Huron. After an early wake-up call at home, we pulled in to the parking lot shortly before 6:30, finding the 14ers.com “Gurlz Hike” about to get underway (though they were hiking La Plata Peak). The walk along the 4WD road to the trailhead was quick enough, and offered beautiful views of the surrounding peaks under an early-morning alpenglow.
Through Polarized Eyes 