Full moon boarding at Loveland Pass

The full moon was on March 4th and we headed out to Loveland pass to hit a few runs under the moonlight. We jumped in the car and rolled out, with a quick stop in Frisco to meet Jeff's friend, Drew and grab a quick bit in Wendys. We also had a few beers for the ride up the pass just to liven things up a bit. Once we hit the pass we saw a whole bunch of people all riding under undwer the moonlight and having a bit of a party. We hit the back side of the pass first, heading down towards A-Basin. We hiked in a little and got up to a little shack. This was our drop in. We strapped in and took a run. It was pretty sketchy. The snow was heavy, crusty powder and the tracks were pretty icy. The light was pretty good but at the same time it only gave you the general lie of the land, the details of the bumps and tracks were a bit harder to make out. So it took a bit of jedi boarding to run out the flats and carry some speed. The first run was pretty sweet, with a few fresh powder turns. I also almost stacked it trying to carry some speed across a flat. It was pretty tracked and the tracks were iced up. So running through them I was catching edges all the time and I just had to float it and follow my board.

After the first run we had to wait for a passing car so we could hitch hike back up to our cars. This took a while. We finally decided to start walking after half an hour. Another half hour later a car finally came by, it was supposed to be a lot quicker than that. Oh well. Anyway, we made it back up to the cars by sending Jeff and Drew up to the cars and they came back with the truck. Then John, Arthur, Mike and I jumped into the bed like a bunch of sardines in a tin for a riide back up to the top of the pass. From then on we decided that we shoul drun a shuttle and send one person down to pick us up on each run. We also decided to drop down the front of the pass towards I-70, which was seeing a lot more traffic. We took a few runs down the front. The snow wasn't quite as good because there had been a lot more people running it, but we still found some good lines. After hitting the front a few times it was getting late and we decided to jam home. We got in by 3:00am which gave me 3 hours sleep before I had to wake up for work in the morning, sweet.

So whats the verdict? Full moon boarding was cool and I definitely loved it, even if I only got 3 hours sleep before work today. The riding wasn't that good, but I guess we could have hit better snow conditions but thats not the point. It was sweet because just strapping in under a full moon is an experience that is truely unique and something I'll remember forever.

Check out the photos.

Full moon boarding at Loveland Pass