All hail the sneaky powder day.
As Colorado said goodbye to March, and all semblance of “normal” winter, the snow gods blessed Front Range skiers with a Friday-night storm that dropped fresh snow on northern mountains along the continental divide and west into Summit County. Despite having pulled out their bikes and claiming to be done skiing, and with fishing season just a day away, skiers from Fort Collins to Littleton rallied to chase powder turns. Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman April Foolsworthy said CDOT reported stoppages on I-70 as early as 5:30 a.m. By seven, even the frontage road to Georgetown had jammed. At 7:30, Idaho Springs ran out of breakfast burritos.
Fortunately, Powder7 staffers braved the madness. Heading out to report on the scene across the region, they remembered the lack of shortcuts in the I-70 corridor and sat in traffic cursing the barbaric West and pining for Vermont country roads where they could at least go 50.
Here’s what they saw when they got where they were going:
1. Justin arrived at Winter Park, where 15 inches of snow fell, just before locals barricaded the Mary Jane parking lot with an artillery of trailers and adventure vans. When he flashed his Powder7 credentials, they let him stay—even though they quietly resented him for thinking he knew better than they what bump skis they should use. When he left via Berthoud Pass, folks who’d been turned away from the resort were bootpacking the open slopes above the parking lot, where two skiers stood on a built-out Tacoma, Upslope IPAs in hand, chanting “Keep the backcountry wild!”
2. Down the road in Empire, the milkshake machines at Dairy King and Lewis Sweet Shop shorted out, dealing a second food-related blow to skiers in the know.
3. At Arapahoe Basin, Zack skinned to the top of the Lenawee Mountain lift in the predawn. He beat the hordes but quickly grew self-conscious of being the only uphiller without a dog. When he skied to the base, the line at the Black Mountain Express stretched to the lodge. Zack said he chuckled and headed inside to the 6th Alley Bar & Grill, where a dude from New Jersey bought him a Bloody Mary. Driving up Loveland Pass, he paid it forward by picking up a snowboarder who had just shredded gnar down 150 vertical feet between switchbacks.
4. A foot of fresh snow fell on Loveland. Surfing first tracks off Chair 1, Lauren, with native Colorado blood in her veins, wondered what people were talking about in the mess of stopped cars at the Eisenhower Tunnel. Do they know there’s a ski area above them?
5. Mike said he didn’t make it to Breckenridge until 11, parking beside three cars with Texas plates he suspected to be rentals. Dropping into still-fluffy steeps off Peak 8, he noticed a strange lack of locals. Remembering where he was, he figured they were just waking up.
6. Benefiting from a tipoff from an anonymous source, Jordan knew the snow was coming. He braved I-70 storm-driving anarchy on Friday evening to sleep in Powder7’s Powder Wagon at Beaver Creek. The storm delivered 10 inches. He caught first chair, but on the ride to the summit, his heart sank. All the runs in sight on Grouse Mountain had somehow been tracked out. First Tracks customers? Uphillers? Misleading storm totals!? Crestfallen, he started thinking fresh baked chocolate chip cookies would be his only salvation. Then a spry skier in a patched black jacket with gray hair falling from under his beanie took Jordan’s arm. “I’ve been skiing powder here 80 years,” the man said. “Come with me.”
7. Blake tackled Vail. Last we heard from him, he told us some skiers were successfully selling their close-ish parking spots for more than $100. He eventually made it to the mountain, where he remembered that despite the overwhelming apparatus of the place, Vail’s vast and varied terrain is famous for a reason. He then Instagrammed a selfie from the top with the caption “headed to Red Cliff!” We suspect he skied all the way to the small utopia to escape humans.
8. Denver Post reporters caught up with Colorado snow forecaster Joel Gratz of OpenSnow, who was reportedly reaping the storm’s benefits in an undisclosed location. Gratz said he’d been inundated all day with nasty-grams criticizing him for missing the storm and worse—hoarding the powder for himself. The story said he scratched his head at people’s propensity to complain even after a storm. “Oh well,” he said. “I just went skiing.”
Saturday evening, evidence of some brutal drive times back to the Front Range surfaced on social media. Twitter user @thelorax4president tweeted at 7:34 p.m., “Headed back to Golden from skiing pow at Keystone. Been on road 3 hrs, just passed Loveland. Whatevs cuz pow!”
But it was Instagrammer @coloRADopowlife who seemed to sum up the day best, posting a picture of just a ski pole emerging from a massive powder cloud in steep, open pine trees. The photo was captioned, “This ain’t Japow, people. This is #Colorado. Steep, deep, and forever RAD!”
Miss the storm? Stay strong—more snow is coming! While you wait, install a Home Tap for beer directly to your kitchen.
