Loveland Basin 4/6/99 Lift Ticket - $22 I passed this very impressive place on Monday, on the way to A- Basin. It was a difficult thing to do. The only thing that made it possible was the promise I made while cruising up the Divide - "I'll be there tomorrow." The ski area looks like a giant, snow-capped asymmetrical horseshoe. It wraps around I-70, which passes straight through the heart of the mountain via the Eisenhower Tunnel. The sky was nearly cloudless with a bright radiant sun on this crisp, beautiful morning. I was in for a gorgeous day. While taking things out of my car, I noticed that I had left something behind at Arapahoe. It was a sizeable chunk of P-tex. My guess is that it's new home is Rock Garden. I brought the boards into the shop for a quick fix where I met Jon, a ski repair man who recently transplanted from Maine. He appreciated the duct tape fix on one of my caps and we hit it off. He fixed my p-tex problem for next- to-nothing and threw in a quick tune to boot. I spoke of looking for some inspiration and he told me to come back in a couple hours when he could escape for some runs. I got on Lift # 2 which brings you up to the Ptarmigan Roost. It's a neat cabin about 1,000' feet below the 13,010' Summit Ridge. From here I captured several images on film. I now am looking at many pictures of the widespread tree-less terrain and out of this world views. I looked all around at the millions of ripples in the snow and had the feeling of being in a great desert. The overnight winds had compressed the powder everywhere and the moisture content was very low. This was the dominating surface, and it was very fun to turn in, especially on the steeps. After wasting some time (not!) taking in this pleasant imagery, I took a long run, which gravitated left across a casino tour (North Blackjack, Roulette, Straight Flush, Royal Flush and Deuces Wild), and a few other trails until I came to Zip Trail. It is a scenic traverse that connects to West Ropes - the first black diamond of the run. (some of them could arguably be rated black) It was a pleasing, typical western tree run with big evergreens and no scrub. It connected to East Ropes, which had all the same qualities, just steeper. The run wasn't over yet! I came to The Face, which started out gently enough, until the first corner where it drops very abruptly down to I-70. I was wondering how I would get across the road to the lifts until I reached an access tunnel, which passes under the highway and takes you there. Cool! I got on Lift # 1 for some double diamond challenge. At the top there was an open gate with a nameless traverse that accesses 5 runs. I wanted the far one, mostly because of the name. I followed the yellow brick road to somewhere, way up high. It's called Over The Rainbow, a huge snowfield that is exceedingly vertical. Judging by all the tracks that were on it, it seems to be very popular. The last 5-600' of it is below tree-line. It's of the same pitch, only gladed. It comes out to a traverse just above the parking lot, back to Lift # 1. It was a loop that I would take about 6 different times throughout the day. I stayed to the sides above the trees, where I was able to make tracks in the untouched. The reward was terrific. Normally, untouched powder on a pitch like this would result in a spray of face shots. That would have been great, but certainly nothing I've never experienced before. Instead, I was treated to something new. This dry, wind treated powder would explode into pieces with each turn. It did not come up into my face, but was kicking up high behind me and showering the back of my head, neck and shoulders every time I turned. It all was happening in slow motion - plant… turn… shower… plant… turn… and little chunks of snow would come raining down on me from above. It was AMAZING! I did several other runs that were ho-hum in comparison, but one that was really nice was off of Lift # 9. This is a brand new quad that rises all the way up to Straight Creek Ridge. From here, I traversed over to the Summit Ridge. I dropped down over a cornice into an untouched swath and yahooed all the way down. I later did a variation of this one. Jon didn't end up getting out on his board until about 2:30. He took me down one of his favorite tree runs that ends just above a public cabin on Forest Meadow, where he had a 6-pack stored for convenient refreshment. We swilled a reeb on the sun deck while people watching and waited for his friend Barry. Barry works in the rental shop and is very funny. He told entertaining stories and is the local source of "inspiration" for most of the Loveland employees. I would stay inspired for the rest of the week. They took me through another tree run (I can't remember where) before one last pass on Over The Rainbow. They affectionately refer to it as "OTR". I was really glad to meet these guys and offered to give them my own little tour should they ever, for some bizarre reason, come to Vermont in the winter. I joined them at the bar and was introduced to a patroller named Pip, the wizard who made OTR what it is today. A few years back, after a big storm, he threw an avi bomb that set off a far bigger slide than was anticipated. It took out an entire stand of trees and dumped into the parking lot, crushing several employees' cars. No one was hurt and this grand run was born. It was another remarkable day and is very hard to compare with the previous one. I'd have to say that my day at A-Basin was just a hair better, but the next two elswhere would be the best, by far. _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. 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