{"id":424230,"date":"2017-02-15T22:42:43","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T05:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/?p=424230"},"modified":"2017-02-15T22:55:11","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T05:55:11","slug":"tbt-loveland-pass-widow-maker-hippie-trees-1-may-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/tbt-loveland-pass-widow-maker-hippie-trees-1-may-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"TBT: Loveland Pass &#8211; Widow Maker &#038; Hippie Trees (1 May 2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This post is part of a Throwback Thursday series featuring trip reports that we haven\u2019t had a chance to write about until now! Look for them at least every other Thursday!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s nothing quite like spring powder.  The storms often come with a vengeance, dumping more snow than most storms in winter, leaving wet snow that stabilizes fast.  When they come, I start feeling like I live in the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n<p>Susan and I had taken a little trip to the Front Range during one of those storms last season.  The first day, we found great turns on <a href=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/tbt-tr-mount-trelease-30-april-2016\/\" target=\"_blank\">Trelease<\/a>.  The next day, we focused on Loveland Pass, with the Widow Maker in mind.<\/p>\n<p>From across the way at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, the Widow Maker is easy to spot.  It&#8217;s ominous avalanche path swoops across the mountain and calls to backcountry skiers who dare.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/20160328_1850162Widowmaker.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/20160328_1850162Widowmaker.jpg\" alt=\"Widow Maker on Loveland Pass\" width=\"800\" height=\"auto\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-424231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/20160328_1850162Widowmaker.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/20160328_1850162Widowmaker-300x282.jpg 300w, https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/20160328_1850162Widowmaker-768x721.jpg 768w, https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/20160328_1850162Widowmaker-800x751.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1152px) 100vw, 1152px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more READ MORE!--><\/p>\n<p>But, it&#8217;s an avalanche path, which means it does slide.  Skiing the Widow Maker on a pow-day in the heart of winter would certainly lead to grave outcomes.  Yet, our day was in spring.  Late spring really &#8211; the day after a cement-like snow fell and bonded quickly to the stable snowpack beneath it.  The Widow Maker was a good choice for the day.<\/p>\n<p>Looking down the Loveland Pass Widow Maker.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1645WidowMaker.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Loveland Pass Widow Maker\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Susan dropping in.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1608WidowMakerSusan.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Susan Mol backcountry skiing Loveland Pass Widow Maker\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And she just kept on going \ud83d\ude42<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1637WidowMaker.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Susan Mol backcountry skiing Loveland Pass Widow Maker\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A look back at some of our tracks.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1649Widowmaker.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Backcountry skiing Loveland Pass Widow Maker\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When we got to the bottom we weren&#8217;t done.  We wanted to keep skiing.  So, we headed down the road and began making our way up the Hippie Trees.  Although these are normally accessed from a shuttle at the top of the pass, these aren&#8217;t hard to access from the road either.  Before we knew it, we&#8217;d arrived to the top of the ridge.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1688hippieTreesTop.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Backcountry skiing Loveland Pass Hippie Trees.\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Susan.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1696HippieTreesSusan.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Susan Mol backcountry skiing Loveland Pass Hippie Trees.\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1698HippieTreesSusan.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Susan Mol backcountry skiing Loveland Pass Hippie Trees.\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1720HippieTreesSusan.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Susan Mol backcountry skiing Loveland Pass Hippie Trees.\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Me.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1724HippieTreesBrittany.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"603\" alt=\"Brittany Konsella backcountry skiing Loveland Pass Hippie Trees.\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1758HippieTreesBrittany.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Brittany Konsella backcountry skiing Loveland Pass Hippie Trees.\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1755HippieTreesBrittany.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"605\" alt=\"Brittany Konsella backcountry skiing Loveland Pass Hippie Trees.\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The of course, in true Loveland Pass style, we hitched a ride back to our car \ud83d\ude42<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/widowmakerhippietrees_1may2016\/IMG_1763BrittanyHitch.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Brittany Konsella backcountry skiing Loveland Pass.\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Loveland Pass Widow Maker is a great backcountry ski route in more stable conditions, while the Hippie Trees would make a good lapping option in the heart of winter.  All in all, it was another fun day out in the backcountry!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From across the way at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, the Widow Maker is easy to spot.  It&#8217;s ominous avalanche path swoops across the mountain and calls to backcountry skiers who dare.  But, it&#8217;s an avalanche path, which means it does slide.  Skiing the Widow Maker on a pow-day in the heart of winter would certainly lead to grave outcomes.  Yet, our day was in spring.  Late spring really &#8211; the day after a cement-like snow fell and bonded quickly to the stable snowpack beneath it.  The Widow Maker was a good choice for the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backcountry-skiing","category-front-range"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424230"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":424235,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424230\/revisions\/424235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}