Ken, Bob, and Tom met at HH at 7:30 and whisked up to Loveland Pass. While loading the skis on the packs and booting up, a couple of alpine skiers got dropped off and followed us on foot to the ridge above the bowl.
Mimas, the icy moon of Jupiter, has been bombarded by meteorites for millions of years to form its rough cratered surface. At Loveland Pass, it only took 10 days to create a hellish cratered mass of unskiable sun cups.
Ken managed to hang on with his AT gear, but tele turns were nearly impossible. We had our choice of icy sun cups in the middle of the snow field tossing us to the ground or softened snow on the edge of the snow field plunging the hapless skier into knee-deep icy sugar. Our arms and legs had so many scrapes it looked like road rash after a bike crash.
Dejected, we flailed across the snow ridges to dry ground and hiked back to the pass. The alpine skiers from earlier in the day were stuck down at the switchback failing to get a ride back to the top of the pass, so we gave them a lift. They apparently had more fun than us as they planned another run.
This weekend we were holding out a faint hope for Sundance, but unless I get a favorable report of the conditions there, I am planning to hang up the skis until next season.
I guess sometimes you go out like Elway, and sometimes it's more like Patrick Roy (who gave up 8 goals in his last game with the Avalanche).
1 run / 700' /1.8 mi / 2.5 hrs.
Tom
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