Editor’s Note: Safety is always the number one concern for all backcountry exploring. Before heading into the backcountry, be certain of conditions. Always contact the
LOVELAND PASS —It’s a colder-than-average Tuesday afternoon. The wind, typically a fierce, breathing sigh across the Continental Divide, is uncharacteristically still. It makes the cold more bearable.
We dance a serpentine path from ridgeline to ridgeline. The freshly applied duct tape on my three-year-old gloves is peeling off, causing me to stop periodically to readjust.
I had pulled a fast escape, taking the afternoon off to find powder turns on Loveland Pass with an Australian doctor-ski instructor friend. He wears pink to be ironic.
Like East Vail chutes, Loveland Pass is one of the best worst-kept secrets in backcountry skiing. It has the sort of exotic, alpine scenery that should be in an action movie. Sixty miles from Denver and straddled between two classic, above-treeline resorts, it’s a quick bootpack to powder turns and a hitchhike or car shuttle to do it again. Skinning makes entry to the far side of the western bowl more efficient, but it’s possible to skip them entirely. On cold Tuesday, we huffed it in our boots with minimal postholing.
We chose a moderately steep line skier’s right of a 20-foot, windblown cornice and settle on a roller to meet up on after we each drop. As my friend drops in, making half of a figure 8, I ask the snowboarder sans beacon, probe, shovel and backpack who is climbing above me if he’d like to drop with us. He refuses. I drop, shaking my head, and enjoy knee-deep, untouched snow. People without appropriate backcountry equipment are a sadly common sight at Loveland Pass, despite its long history of slides.
Easy access aside, Loveland Pass offers an introduction to big-mountain riding, with lines, cornices and chutes for those willing to work their way to the western bowl and beyond it. Line decisions are fun and critical, because certain parts so steep you can’t see where you’re going. That’s not to say there isn’t something for everyone — low-angle terrain can be accessed by dropping in closer to the road on north side, or by taking a south-southeastern line on the west side of the road.
Car shuttles are the most efficient way to manage this pass. You don’t need to worry about thumbing your way up to the top and the waiting that inevitably goes with it. Single-car visitors should pack the bribe of their choice and park at the lower lot on the north side for laps there, or from Arapahoe Basin for south-side laps. Weekends will be busy with people who don’t want to pay for turns, or people avoiding the crowds at A-Basin and Loveland. There are also great off-piste laps from either resort. Weekdays will be less busy, so the waiting for a shuttle may be longer.
Get there: Take Interstate 70 west to exit 216 and merge onto U.S. 6 west toward Loveland Pass. Continue 4.7 miles to the upper parking lot. The lower parking lot is located on the third hairpin turn on the lefthand side.
Access: This is the most hike-friendly pass of all three. Windblown ridges and a nearby parking lot make it ideal for car-laps. Longer tours include the terrain past the West Bowl and dropping over the eastern ridge towards Grays and Torreys.
Best time to go: Due to above-treeline exposure, Loveland Pass has the best conditions midwinter to late spring. There are rare early season storm cycles that cover its very rocky terrain.
Best line: Ski journalist Tom Winter likes the Little Professor because it’s a short tour from the top of the pass and then skis down toward Arapahoe Basin (read: There’s a bar at the bottom and all the quirkiness of the beach scene). Good for a late-season day in March and April, when the snowpack is starting to solidify. Winter calls it “as good as it gets in Colorado.”
— MacKenzie Ryan
