Loveland, Colorado

My guest today is Bud Marolt. Bud is a member of the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame; oldest of the Marolt  brothers (the others being Max and Bill), all of whom have contributed so much to US skiing. The Marolts grew up in Aspen CO where they began their ski careers and witnessed the exploding growth of skiing.  Bud, in his youth was an accomplished ski racer including national downhill champion in 1950, he and his wife Jeannine created the Loveland Ski School’s children’s ski programs that brought 2,500 kids from Denver to ski each winter. Bud also founded the Loveland Basin Ski Club and established the Loveland Derby, the oldest amateur ski race in the U.S.

Why Loveland of all places. I call Loveland the ski area with a heart. It’s the kind of place where you can ski with a family without being worried about where your kids are, you can buy lunch without taking out a loan, the skiing is amazing and they simply care.

Loveland has a summit elevation of 13,010 ft and a vertical drop of 2,210 feet serviced by 9 chairs and substantial off-piste skiing serviced by snowcat. The mountain has 1900 acres of skiing, 96 trails with 13% for Beginners, 41% Intermediate and 46% Advanced spread across two mountains—Loveland Valley (for beginners) and Loveland Basin for all ability levels—with shuttles and chairlift connecting the two.

My Favs

• Best Restaurant – Loveland Grill - solid food at the best prices in the ski world

• Best Hotel - closest is to stay in Dillon /Silverthorn area or Georgetown

• Best Apres - Rathskeller - on the mountain in the base lodge - great gathering spot

• Best Run- Patrol Bowl for the steeps - Rookie Road for the groom and view,

• Don’t miss – Cat trips to some amazing terrain or Loveland Valley for the beginners

Episode Transcript

Welcome to Where to Ski with me, your host, John Morgan. Today, we go high in the mountains of Colorado to Loveland Ski Area. My guest today is Bud Marolt.

Bud is a member of the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame, oldest of the Marolt brothers, the others being Max and Bill, all of whom have contributed so much to U.S. skiing. The Marolts grew up in Aspen, Colorado, where they began their ski careers and witnessed the exploding growth in skiing. Bud, in his youth, was an accomplished ski racer, including national downhill champion in 1950.

He and his wife, Janine, created the Loveland Ski School's children's ski programs that brought 2,500 kids from Denver to ski each winter. Bud also founded the Loveland Basin Ski Club and established the Loveland Derby, the oldest amateur ski race in the U.S. Why Loveland of all places? I call Loveland the ski area with a heart. It's the kind of place where you can ski with a family without being worried about where your kids are.

You can buy lunch without taking out a loan. The skiing is absolutely amazing, and they simply care. It's easy to access.

You may have driven under Loveland. It's just about 53 miles from Denver, right off I-70 under the Eisenhower Tunnel. This area offers remarkable high alpine experience, uncrowded slopes, remarkable terrain, free close-in parking, and a long season that lasts from October through at least May.

Loveland also averages 422 inches of snow each season, more than any Front Range or Summit County resort. This resort has a summit elevation of over 13,000 feet and a vertical of 2,200 feet serviced by nine chairs and off-piste skiing serviced by Snowcat. Bud, it's not very often I talk to a legend on a podcast.

Thanks for joining today. Let's talk Loveland. Okay.

I didn't grow up in Colorado, but after being introduced to Loveland by Ted, I found it to be one of the friendliest, most beautiful, and challenging skiers I've ever been to. What brought you to Loveland, especially considering that you have a deep Aspen background? Well, what brought me to Loveland was right after I got out of the Army in the 50s, a group from Aspen purchased Loveland. And Loveland was just a very, very small area, and it had nothing but rope tows there.

I mean, everything you see today with ski lifts up there was serviced years ago by rope tows. And so Loveland was disconvenient because I settled in Denver after getting out of the service, and then Loveland became our home. Well, that's pretty.

I had no idea that it was all started with rope tows. So was it started by a 10th Mountain Division group? Oh, no, no, no. It was started by a fellow named Al Bennett.

And he ran that area. I think he started it in 1936, and he ran it up to World War II. And then, of course, he had to do a tour with the Army.

But Al ran that, and he was probably the only skier you'd see on the slopes that were skiing around with two 5-gallon gas cans. He had all those rope tows, and he had to go from each tow to keep him running. So he was the gasoline source.

Bud, past the easy access from the Front Range, you know, Denver, Boulder, all the way down almost to Pueblo, what is it about Loveland that makes it so special that people go back over and over and over again? Well, number one, Loveland offers a good quality, you know, excellent quality of snow and good terrain. But Loveland is known because it's nice and near. So it's very accessible from the huge population base.

Well, and I think it also has a good instructional program too, doesn't it? Oh, yeah. I mean, Loveland offers all of the amenities that any ski area offers. They have a good program for children, a racing program, excellent ski school, and, you know, food service is wonderful there.

The mountain is very well groomed every day, so they just offer a good product. So really when you talk in Loveland, there's two parts to it. There's Loveland Basin and Loveland Valley.

They're both very, very different. Well, they are, and they're really not connected. I mean, you can't actually ski from one to the other even though you can see one area regardless of whether you're at the basin or the valley.

The valley is primarily the area where they have the ski school, and everyone that's learning how to ski will go to the valley until they can graduate up to getting on the chairlifts up at the basin. And then the basin is for everyone else once they've gotten to the point where they can get some skiing in, and there's even some pretty easy stuff up at the basin. Well, yeah, well, once they progress to where they can ski, you know, have a good control of their skis, the ski school even takes those students up to the basin.

So actually a student gets acquainted with both areas. I'm going to switch up a little bit. There's some crazy terrain there.

I mean, there's some really, really steep, incredible high mountain alpine skiing up there. Oh, yeah, there is. They have a chairlift that goes right up to the top of the Continental Divide right at Loveland, and that's outstanding skiing.

Everybody comes from—they come to Loveland. There's a group that come to Loveland primarily just to ski that high alpine terrain. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

I've done a lot of some up there, you know, off the top of nine and we get on the plunge or hook them horns off the top of eight. What's a—for an expert skier, what would be a good couple of runs up there? Well, that depends. I mean, you can take a couple of warm-ups up in the basin, and then you can go up lift eight or lift nine.

There's just—or actually some of the steeper runs are right off of lift number one at Loveland. Yeah, there are people just do laps riding up lift one to see how many runs they can get in. Skiing Cat's Meow and the Busy Gully and the Avalanche Bowl.

So that's some of the steepest terrain at Loveland that's serviced right off of lift number one. Yeah, and they've also added, which I haven't done yet, the cats that go up there too. So there's— Oh, we've had snow cats for a number of years.

You ride up lift nine and ski over to the saddle and meet the snow cat, and then they take you up to the ridge. And from the ridge down, you actually ski down to lift number eight. You cross over to that other valley, and it offers some wonderful skiing.

That sounds like fun. That sounds like a good— Well, it really is. And one incredible thing about it, when you get up on top of that ridge and you're looking over the state of Colorado, you almost feel like you're in the Himalayas.

I mean, it's such a majestic mountain view. When I'm in Loveland, I feel like I'm on the top of the world there. I mean, it's amazing.

Well, when you go up on the snow cat, you are on top of the world. What about if you're not willing to, like, touch the side of the hill with your elbow? For most regular people, they probably won't do the really steep stuff for the cats. Well, no, they don't.

They like the cat skiing because you have a lot of wide-open powder skiing. I mean, it's limited. You know, the cat only holds 20 people, and so when you get up on top of that ridge, you have your choice of skiing down a different path each time in powder snow.

And Loveland does get the snow. They get more snow than, I think, anywhere in Summit County. Oh, yeah.

Well, Summit County is our neighbor, but, yeah, Loveland gets good snowfall. In fact, I think one year we closed on May 8th, and they had 88 more inches that season. You know, I'm going to go back to where some of the easier runs are.

You know, we've talked a lot about the really hard stuff, and that might scare some people off that listen to this. There's a lot of stuff there that's really good, solid intermediate or even beginner skiing at the basin. Oh, yeah.

Well, a big part of the Loveland ski audience likes coming to Loveland because Loveland offers some very good beginning terrain as well. The beginning terrain is really good, and especially early in the season, you can get some. You know, as warm-ups, I love going over to even Ptarmigan and making some runs on some of those, some laps on some of those ones.

Yeah, the runs off of Ptarmigan, they're very, very popular. Most of the skiers ski off of Ptarmigan or Lift 6. That's terrain that suits the beginning skier. So the big audience of Loveland is beginners, actually.

Not beginners, but people that have skied a little bit, and they just go to Loveland to improve their skiing. But they do go there because it's very convenient. That's convenient, and it's good.

And on top of that, the ski school is excellent there. I mean, that's one of the better ski schools that people can get to without going to some major, major resort. Well, yes, it is.

Yes, it is. My wife worked in that ski school for 54 years. And I was the ski school director there for about 12 years.

Where do you pull your instructors from? You've got some really good guys and gals there. Well, we have an audience. You're familiar with a front-range skier.

A lot of them come from universities, schools. They just come from all over the place. You have to recruit them.

We offer a ski instructor training program every fall, and we charge a fee for it, and it lasts about six weeks. And everyone goes through that program, and they learn all the skills of ski instructor. Oh, yes, because we lose people every year from attrition, but we still maintain a base.

The ski school at Loveland has about, I don't know, 15 full-time instructors that are under contract, and they teach seven days a week. And most of the part-timers in the ski school just come up to Loveland on weekends or holidays, and that's when all the skiers come up there, of course. So when do you like to ski Loveland the most? Is it early? Is it late? Is it Valentine's Day? I've done all of them.

Well, we all go to Loveland because they open up early. Loveland opens up in mid-October, and then they ski till May. So Loveland's very popular to start off in the fall, and then as the snow progressively gets better, so does the skiing.

We like Loveland from the mid-season on because that way you can get up and ski lift nine and do lift eight and get some powder in and some good bump skiing over on the steeper runs. You know, since Loveland isn't really based out of a town like some of the big resorts are, it doesn't have all the overhead. You know, you've got free parking.

You've got a lot of things that are making an advantage, but what's there to do around there for, let's say, families that go up and go to Loveland for a few days? Well, Loveland really is not known as a destination skiing resort, but they have people that come in from Kansas and Oklahoma and Texas, and a lot of them stay in Idaho Springs, and some of them commute from Denver. Some stay over in Summit County and come over through the tunnel and ski at Loveland. So they have a customer base that comes up there every year.

So even though they're not known as a destination ski area, they do have large groups. Most of the surrounding states have ski clubs, like the Kansas City Ski Club has 2,000 members, so they're a big audience for Loveland. Going back over into Silverthorne and Dillon and Frisco, there's some good restaurants, and there's stuff to do over there, too.

As well as lodging. So it probably works out pretty well. Well, it does.

There's good restaurants, I mean, on both sides of the mountain. I mean, Georgetown, Idaho Springs, Empire, all have some good restaurants. And, of course, you get over to Summit County and there's just numerous restaurants.

So it's not a problem going to restaurants. So, Bud, you've probably skied longer than anyone I know in terms of years. What's your philosophy about skiing and instruction? You've been doing it a long time, and you keep coming back year after year, and you grew up with it, and you still do it, and you're my hero for doing that.

Well, I do it because I enjoy doing it. You know, it's not just the skiing that's great, and I think Loveland is probably known for it, but the social aspects of skiing is something that almost everybody looks forward to. You get out every weekend, you see all your friends that ski, and you're sharing, you know, a common interest.

Yeah, and that's true. And Loveland has a really, really delightful group of people and a really nice feel to it. No, they do.

It's not one of the big resorts. It's homey. It feels like you're at home when you're there.

Well, Loveland's philosophy is we will not deny service to anyone that comes up there. So in other words, if you come up there and forget your skis, they will accommodate you and get a pair of skis at a rental so you don't lose the time coming up and ruin a good ski day. Well, that just tells you what kind of place it is.

What's your favorite ideal day at Loveland? What would that look like? Oh, I don't know, John. I like a variety of terrain and a variety of conditions, and I think that's the challenge in skiing. So we mix it up.

We usually ski with a group. We get together with a group of people because we all like to do it, and we just travel around the mountain and do various things. That sounds awesome.

Follow the sun and hang out with friends and just make some turns. Well, that's right. That gets back to the social aspect.

You get to see your friends every weekend and get together. Well, that's what brings you back every weekend just for skiing. Well, Bud, thank you so much for taking some time to talk to us about Loveland.

This has been a really fun talk. When you go to Loveland, you might see Bud standing on the side of a race course watching the Next Generation train, or you might find him skiing almost anywhere on that mountain. If you like our podcast, please share them and listen to the perspectives on this and other areas like St. Anton, Palisades, Jackson, Sugarbush, and others.

Thank you for joining us.