Loveland, Colorado

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Pretty low motivation today. Was a bit dehydrated in the morning, and that probably played into it. Had a good breakfast, hydrated, and then got out there. Pretty flat light to start the day, so groomers off of 1, 4, and 8 before heading back. Switched to the low light goggles, headed back out to take a couple runs off of Ptarmigan and 6, and it got real sunny, so I went back and changed into the mid-light goggles.

Met Marty in the lodge, and then we had a good time ripping around for a couple of hours. After a couple warm-ups on 1 and Ptarmigan, headed over to 9 and to the Cat. Marty put me on a bit of a death march to Golden Bear, the 13,010-ft summit. Really not that long a hike, but I really felt my sea-level lungs (and out-of-shapeness).

We caught the end of the sunlight for what was an amazing run from Golden Bear. The snow was still winter-soft, in spots, and I was able to be a bit more aggressive on the Enforcers in the softer snow ... and they work nicely.

From there, we skied around the rock chutes and to the top of 8. The ungroomed from there to the cattrack were also pretty good and pretty fun, but a bit heavy towards the end.

Took 8 up, and it started nuking this really wet graupel. The travers from 8 back to 4 was pretty rough - couldn't really see the cat track, but the snow under 4 was decent. Changed back to flat-light goggles, and finished the day with a couple rippers off of 1 and 6.

Not nearly as much skiing as other days this trip, but possibly the most fun and rewarding. Hopefully Loveland can become my main place to ski, and I'll get better at this 3D snow stuff.