Loveland Pass

One local tradition in Summit County is to go night skiing at Loveland Pass when there is a full moon. Loveland pass is on US-6. The road winds its way up to almost 12,000ft as it crosses over the continental divide. It is way above treeline and on a moonlit night everything is lit up really well. Beacuse of the way the road is laid out, you can park a car at the bottom, drive a second car to the top and ski back down to the first car. On nights with full moons, there are tons of people up at the pass skiing and having fun. People have bonfires going, and sometimes have kegs at the lower parking area. Last night I went up to Loveland Pass to ski for the first time. It was a day after the full moon, so it was easily bright enough to ski. We did two runs which each involved a 30 minute hike from the top of the pass. The snow was excellent and only had a few tracks from previous skiers. The area where we skied was not very steep which avoids avalanche danger. It was a lot of fun. Skiing at night with only the moon to light the way is a very unique experience. I'll try to go back there in the daytime and take some pictures where we skied. After 7 hikes in 2 days at Aspen, Keystone and Loveland I was pretty exhausted.