Backpack Training: Week 5 - Snowshoeing at Ski Resorts
Right Buddy's brother came to visit us for his annual ski vacation last week. He drives up and back to the slopes each day using our house as his "hotel". Since neither buddy skis anymore and in order to spend more time with Right Buddy's brother, we planned our training hikes around the ski resorts he usually goes to which are Arapahoe Basin and Loveland Ski Area. Left Buddy gave up skiing long ago, because he just didn't enjoy it that much to spend that kind of money on it. Right Buddy gave it up a few years ago due to a knee injury.
Arapahoe Basin (A-Basin) has an uphill access pass that allows you to go up along one side of an intermediate ski run (High Noon) to the Black Mountain Lodge during operating hours. During non-operating hours, you can go on any of the open terrain. However, non-operating hours usually means it is dark, so that didn't interest us so much. The uphill access pass does not cost anything, but you do need to sign a liability waiver. The uphill access allows you to hike, snowshoe or use ski skins (skinning). The High Noon run is groomed, so it is probably possible to hike up in hiking boots or snow boots. However, the slope is pretty steep, so we would recommend at least trekking poles to help keep your balance and some other type of traction, such as snowshoes, Yaktrax or microspikes. We chose snowshoes.
The first day we planned to snowshoe A-Basin, Left Buddy got tied up with work, so Right Buddy went by herself. It really worked out well. Right Buddy rode in the car with her brother up to A-Basin, got her uphill access pass from the office, and snowshoed up to Black Mountain Lodge in plenty of time to meet her brother for lunch. According to her Runkeeper app on her phone, it is only 0.8 of a mile up to Black Mountain Lodge, but it is about 725 feet in elevation gain. It took her about an hour to go up and about 45 minutes to go down, but that included lots of photo stops. Right Buddy carried her laptop on her back, so she used the extra time waiting for her brother to get his fill of skiing in by working on her laptop.
The next day, both Buddies went to A-Basin. One of the benefits of skiing, is the fantastic views of the snow-covered mountains from on top of the mountain and we were able to enjoy those views without the price of a lift ticket and without the stress on an old knee injury (neither of us have the resilience of a Lindsey Vonn) . Another benefit of the uphill access was allowing us to carry a nice camera and get close-up pictures of Right Buddy's brother skiing. The third benefit is eating lunch at the Black Mountain Lodge, which, in our opinion, has much better food than the A-frame East Lodge at the bottom. We recommend the Carolina pulled pork sandwich, the spicy bison brat, the bison stew, and the sweet potato fries. We also would highly recommend the uphill access for anyone who wants to accompany their friends or relatives skiing, but doesn't want to ski themselves.
The uphill access at Loveland Ski Area is not as nice as A-Basin. Loveland only allows uphill access during non-operation hours, so we took another approach. There is a nice trail from Bakerville to the Loveland Ski Area along I-70. Bakerville is two exits east of Loveland. There isn't much there except for the trailhead. The trail follows I-70, but is on the south side of Clear Creek with a buffer of evergreen trees so you don't see much of I-70 from the trail, although you can still hear the traffic, especially the semi-trucks. The first two or three miles of the trail is part of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). The CDT branches off near the Herman Gulch trailhead which is the exit off of I-70 between the Bakerville and Loveland exits. Continuing straight on the Bakerville-Loveland trail leads to the Loveland Valley area of the Loveland Ski Area. According to Runkeeper, it was 5.4 miles from Bakerville to Loveland Valley and 1058 feet in elevation gain.
Right Buddy's brother dropped the Backroad Buddies off at the Bakerville trailhead at 7:30 am on his way to the Loveland Ski Area. Temperatures were in the twenties, but most of the trail was in the shade. However, as long as we kept moving, we were very comfortable and the trees protected us from the wind. It took us about three hours to get to Loveland Valley. We didn't see any other human beings on the trail, but we did see lots of tracks. It looks like most people cross-country ski the trail, with a few snowshoers and even a couple of fat tire bicycles. The trail seems remote and isolated despite the traffic noise from I-70 with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains every now and then where there are breaks in the trees. The trail was packed snow almost the whole way but that's an unknown until you do it. We had no regrets wearing our snowshoes. We were a bit surprised we didn't see anyone else on the trail, but it may be that everyone else just starts later than 7:30 am - or perhaps they were there and gone by the time we showed up.
We couldn't determine if there was a good way to get from Loveland Valley to Loveland Basin by foot, so, after a bathroom break at Loveland Valley, we took the shuttle over to the Basin. We made it in plenty of time to accompany Right Buddy's brother for lunch in the base lodge at Loveland Basin. This time we had our laptops in the car instead of on our backs. That was because we we carried a little extra emergency gear on our backs. Even though the trail was close to I-70, there is no good way to cross Clear Creek to get to I-70 in case of an emergency. So, to protect us against frostbite in an emergency, we carried chemical hand warmers, our BRS Portable Folding Ultralight Camping Stove Outdoor Gas Burner Cooking Stove Titanium 25g and an emergency tarp in our packs along with extra layers of clothing. Better safe than sorry!
We only took the trail one way because there is no shelter at the Bakerville trailhead and we didn't want to be sitting around getting cold while we waited for Right Buddy's brother to pick us up. Well, that and going one way was a good enough workout for us for one day. However, it would have been easier on the way back, because the trail is a gradual ascent from Bakerville to Loveland which means it would have been downhill all the way back. Instead, we just worked on our laptops all afternoon in the lodge until Right Buddy's brother was ready to head back home. And so ended another successful day of combining snowshoeing with skiers.
(RB)