Finally Some Airtime!

After a morning of skiing newly opened terrain at Loveland Ski Area, Matt and I headed out the gate to Loveland Pass to build a pow booter. We had a spot in mind that is high up on the pass and gets little traffic, but strong winds over the last few days had turned that area into punchy windslab. So, we headed farther down, settling on probably the most popular jump spot in the front range. Its a perfect roll with a long approach and a mellow runout. Amazingly, no one had built a jump here yet this year. Thanks to Matt Teuling for the great pictures!

The snowpack is still quite thin in the northern mountains, with 18 inches of storm snow sitting on top of 12-18 inches of facets. So you have to do a lot of digging...

 

to make a pretty small jump

 

Matt set the tone by throwing his first ever backflip on snow on his first hit on the jump:

 

another backie:

 

Matt throws a big 3:

 

Another 3:

 

which I may have over-rotated a bit...

 

Matt going very large on a front flip:

 

 Flat 3:

 

What a fun day! The snowpack is finally starting to get a little deeper out there; building a jump allowed us to get out into the BC while avoiding the treacherous avy conditions that are prevalent on all steep terrain.

Pic of the Week

Rossignol athlete and photographer Doug Evans took this picture of me in the Mine Dumps zone of Loveland Pass recently. Check out his site: theskierslife.com Thanks for the great shot Doug!!

The Mine Dumps - 4.15.2011

In 36  hours starting about 5 PM Wednesday nearly 2 feet of snow fell in and around Loveland ski area. Originally Josh and I had been planning on a sled assisted mini golf day on Jones Pass, but after reading about 4 foot slab development from strong winds during the storm we axed our plans and headed to Loveland. Inbounds the snow was heavier than what we have been skiing throughout the winter months, both a combination of wind effect and warm temperatures, still very good skiing though! By noon we decided to head out the gates into the surrounding sidecountry. Despite cool temperatures, as the day grew later the snow got quite sun affected, its amazing how much an effect the higher angle of the sun in springtime has on snow metamorphism!

Jordan Scheremeta

Matt Teuling

Josh Nunnamker

Jordan Scheremeta

Mike Records
Photo: Matt Teuling

Storm Skiing

High avy danger and cold weather has kept us exploring in the tight trees, but thats certainly not a bad place to be anyways! Thanks to Matt and Josh for the photos!

Matt Teuling

Matt Teuling

Josh Nunnamaker

Josh Nunnamaker

Matt Teuling

Colorado Early Season Skiing

After last season I came into this season expecting the worst from early season.  However, its been awesome! I was lucky enough to get out into Dry Gulch a several times in late October and early November. Dry Gulch is an area I have spent significant time in only in the spring, so its been fun to get out and ski some smaller lines.

10.30.2010 - Dry Gulch
 This being our first tour into Dry Gulch this year we didn't really know what to expect. We rounded the corner into Dry Gulch just as they sun rose, it was a beautiful moment, surrounded in sparkling snow as the high peaks became illuminated. We ended up skiing two lines. One off the saddle between the Citadel and Bethel into Herman Gulch and a second off the East face of the Citadel. The snow varied from styrofoam to  to wind slab pow to some down right awesome corn on the lower South facing slopes.

Erik with Loveland ski area in the background

Moonset over the Citadel

A mountain goat surveys the strange visitors to his world.

Ben

Jordan

11.5.2010 - Dry Gulch
Going back we planned to ski the North facing trees of Trelease, an area I had never been into before. As soon as we started skinning up it became clear that the snow was going to be good. As soon as we started skiing we quickly realized how much better than man made groomer it was. We were skiing pow!

Brennan

Brennan

Ptarmigan

Brennan was here!

11.12.2010 - Dry Gulch
After the previous weeks gloriousness off of Trelease I couldn't wait to get back up there. It had supposedly snowed about a foot since our last mission, but gearing up in the parking lot it was extremely difficult to believe. Even on the skin up I wasn't that optimistic. However, as soon we took our skins off and rolled over onto the first pitch I realized it was even better than last time!

Brennan off the north side of the summit of Treleasse

Erik

Skier: Me       Photo: Brennan Metzler

11.19.2010 - Mine Dumps

The Mine Dumps are a small zone on Loveland Pass accessed from the top of chair one at Loveland ski area. They are awesome because they can be lapped starting from the base of chair one and back in an hour. The lap entails the following chair one, 20 minute hike over to Loveland Pass, ski, traverse to Loveland Valley, catch shuttle back to Loveland Basin. Awesome!! The mine dumps are almost exclusively east facing, which make this a great time of year to hit them while the snow is low in the sky. Ethan and I did a couple laps, one going farther south then we had ever been, which I am going to go ahead and say was a waste of time, but how would you know without looking right?

Skier: Me       Photo: Ethan Vimont

11.24.2010 - Steamboat

Today was opening day for Steamboat and it couldn't have been better: 6" in 24, 14" in 48, the best early season snowfall in 15 years, 960 acres open, and $30 lift tickets. Absolutely killer! The only thing less than killer was the weather. The drive over was some of the worst visibility I have ever driven in. Fortunately most other people seemed wise enough not to make the drive.

Steamboat 11.24.2010 POV from Mike Records on Vimeo.

11.26.2010 - Mine Dumps

After good snow conditions in the Mine Dumps the previous Friday I was excited to get back out there. We skied the main east facing slope which was great. Didn't hit anything all the way down even in the trees at the bottom, which gets me stoked to go hit some of the tree shots slightly north of what we skied.

Skier: Rachel       Photo: Jordan Scheremeta

Skier: Me       Photo: Jordan Scheremeta