There are spots in the Rocky Mountains that flat out hold snow. Loveland Basin is one of them. The Loveland Racing Team is taking advantage of it and other teams, and camps, are joining them.

The upper mountain at Loveland hovers between 11,000 and 13,000 feet above sea-level and Loveland's race director, John Hale, explains, it has great exposure. Mountain operations has gotten behind the push to extend the training season, so stock-piled snow and a newly purchased salt-spreader for the snow cats has made for some incredible conditions this May.

“It's always been there,” says Hale of the snow pack. “but it hasn't been taken advantage of. Nothing has really changed, but this was one of the worst ski seasons in the last 30 years and you can see what we still have up here.”

What they have are two full length GS tracks, a slalom arena with up to five lanes and, in Fire Bowl, a speed training area recently utilized by a Rocky Mountain divisional camp.

“We were hoping to get this all started just with local teams,” says Hale. But word gets around fast in the small ski racing community. Burke Mountain Academy flew out from Vermont for a May camp and teams from throughout Colorado and Wyoming have been regular visitors.

“The thing that is amazing to me,” says Hale, “is that this has been a very lean snow year. A-Basin closed historically early. But what we're experiencing up there right now is phenomenal. ... We're really looking at taking the ski season from October to Mid-June. Last year, with a better snow year, we literally had conditions like are here now until probably July 1.”

Teams interested can contact Loveland at,email: manager@lovelandracing.com. Or phone: 303-571-5580 ext 169.