Loveland

We arrived in Colorado late Tuesday night to below zero temperatures. I assumed that because they are in the mountains, people would be used to cold temperatures, but apparently the temperatures are unreasonably and unseasonably cold for this area. Between waiting on the luggage and waiting for a rental car, we didn't get out of the airport until almost 11p local time. We had to be up early the next day because Wednesday was our only chance to ride some powder.

Loveland was my pick for snowboarding because it was a less expensive and less famous area, so I hoped it would be less crowded and that I wouldn't feel so bad if I had to quit early. The altitude change is a killer, just walking from the parking lot to the lodge (up 3 flights of stairs) had me panting. The ski report included 7" of fresh powder in the last 48h and a morning temperature of -20 at the base lodge. My plan succeeded - there was us and only a few other crazy people out on the hill. We made fresh tracks on our first several runs, and even throughout the day we were able to find some untouched areas.

I've never snowboarded in powder before, so I took some good spills early in the day, but the powder is definitely more forgiving than the extremely compacted snow and ice I usually see in VT/NH. K even took a good tumble on one run where he went head over heels twice before coming to a stop. I missed it, but looked down in time to see the giant poof of powder that was probably 5-6' high where he fell.

We're off to interviews this morning and ride-alongs tomorrow.