After grabbing brunch at Denny’s in Denver we hopped back in the Suburban and headed up I-70 towards Eisenhower tunnel. We pulled off right before the tunnel though and made a brief stop at the Loveland Ski Area base, incidentally the destination of the first Colorado Ski Trip several years ago. Then we headed up US 6, switchbacking our way to the top of Loveland Pass at 12,000 feet. If you haven’t been there, it is a narrow 2 lane highway that cuts back and forth across the face of the ridge defining the continental divide, the ridge that the Eisenhower tunnel takes you under. This is still the way that hazardous material trucks are required to take, which makes for an interesting situation when you meet a tanker semi truck in a switchback.
At the top we pulled off and piled out to run around in the snow and snap some pictures. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and not overly cold if you weren’t directly in the wind. It is a beautiful view from the top, you can see a ways back down the valley towards Denver and into the basin where we were about to drop into. Parking at 12,000 feet and walking out on top of a mountain in the middle of winter is also a cool experience.
Something that looked like a lot of fun was the back country downhill skiing. From the top of Loveland Pass you could drop into the basin on the backside, reuniting with US 6 a little ways down through a decent sized powder bowl. The alternative route looked like a blast, hike along the ridge close to the peak if desired and then drop in the front side. Judging by tracks we saw on our way up people who knew what they were doing were making it all the way to the base before intersecting US 6 again, a drop of a few thousand feet.
It looked like a lot of fun, and about as accessible as back country skiing gets since you could drive from the base to the top easily! This is something I would really like to try next time I am in Colorado in the right season. Of course you would want to check the snow reports before hitting it up, there is a large sign warning of the use of long range artillery at any time for avalanche control. That could put a damper on your day!
Photo Credits
- Ben Larson
- David Larson
- Blake Kellar
