jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
Amongst the many reasons that the winter of 2020/21 will be remembered as an oddity, it'll go into the books for me personally as the latest I've ever had my inaugural ski day of the season: January 28. Previously, the latest I'd ever made first turns was in early January.
Arriving at 9 am to pick up my Loveland season pass, I was surprised to see that the large main parking lot was already 2/3 full on a non-vacation weekday. They told me to keep my mask on for the pass photo -- is that how they're doing it at other ski areas?
I skied for a quick hour and conditions were fine considering the ongoing low-tide conditions (only 95 inches YTD there); however, given the likelihood of snow on Saturday, I decided to drive an additional 40 minutes to Ski Cooper, one of the many independent areas throughout the Rockies where Loveland passholders get three free days. I'd been there a few times in the past and liked the local vibe and lack of crowds. With its extensive intermediate terrain, including lots of skiable trees, I thought that Cooper would be a better choice and it turned out to be the case.
With the base lodge being the only access point for the mountain, their new protocol is a great idea that should've been implemented years ago. They check your pass or day ticket here at the base lodge and that's it -- no annoying scanning or RFID checkpoints the rest of the day.
Similar to Loveland, there were a couple hundred cars in the lots; however, once on the hill, I skied run after run without running into anyone, so I didn't get many in-action shots. First chair:
A two-inch dusting overnight refreshed surfaces nicely and they kept lots of trails ungroomed and bumped up to varying degrees so it was a good way to shake out the cobwebs after a ten-month break from skiing.
As during previous visits, I enjoyed skiing through the many red pines:
I had such a good time, I decided to ski a second day there:
I did a bunch of runs off the surface lift at the far looker's left:
... and about ten runs through the trees, some low-angle like this one, some decently steep:
Arriving at 9 am to pick up my Loveland season pass, I was surprised to see that the large main parking lot was already 2/3 full on a non-vacation weekday. They told me to keep my mask on for the pass photo -- is that how they're doing it at other ski areas?
I skied for a quick hour and conditions were fine considering the ongoing low-tide conditions (only 95 inches YTD there); however, given the likelihood of snow on Saturday, I decided to drive an additional 40 minutes to Ski Cooper, one of the many independent areas throughout the Rockies where Loveland passholders get three free days. I'd been there a few times in the past and liked the local vibe and lack of crowds. With its extensive intermediate terrain, including lots of skiable trees, I thought that Cooper would be a better choice and it turned out to be the case.
With the base lodge being the only access point for the mountain, their new protocol is a great idea that should've been implemented years ago. They check your pass or day ticket here at the base lodge and that's it -- no annoying scanning or RFID checkpoints the rest of the day.
Similar to Loveland, there were a couple hundred cars in the lots; however, once on the hill, I skied run after run without running into anyone, so I didn't get many in-action shots. First chair:
A two-inch dusting overnight refreshed surfaces nicely and they kept lots of trails ungroomed and bumped up to varying degrees so it was a good way to shake out the cobwebs after a ten-month break from skiing.
As during previous visits, I enjoyed skiing through the many red pines:
I had such a good time, I decided to ski a second day there:
I did a bunch of runs off the surface lift at the far looker's left:
... and about ten runs through the trees, some low-angle like this one, some decently steep:
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