Colorado Family Skiing: Loveland Ski Area's Affordable Mountain Experience

In this episode The Ski Moms welcome Sage McCririck, marketing and events manager at Loveland Ski Area in Colorado, as the resort approaches its 90th anniversary. Sage shares her three-generation family connection to the mountain, where her father, ski photographer Flip McCririck , taught her to ski and she now teaches her own daughter. Located just 52 miles from Denver, Loveland offers two base areas: the Basin with challenging Continental Divide terrain, and the Valley with beginner slopes and affordable $50 adult/$30 kids tickets. This independent, family-owned resort prioritizes accessibility with dynamic pricing, Indy Pass partnership, and creative packages. Sage shares insider tips including the convenient Valley base area, unique on-mountain BBQ grills, and special events like the 35th annual Mountaintop Matrimony on Valentine's Day and live music every weekend March through May. April is the sweet spot for visiting with fresh snow, sunshine, live music, and lower prices after April 6th. Loveland maintains its old-school community vibe while offering over six months of quality skiing from early November through early May.

Resources: 

• Loveland Website  Loveland on Facebook Loveland Instagram
• Location: 52 miles from Denver, right off I-70
• Base Areas: Loveland Basin (main terrain) and Loveland Valley (beginner/family area)
• Nearby Lodging: Georgetown, Silverthorne, Dillon, Keystone, Frisco, Breckenridge
• Season: Early November through early May

"The first thing that comes to mind is old school, but that's really just because the community feel reminds me of what growing up in the ski industry really felt like. A lot of smiling, friendly faces that know each other, a lot of people coming back year after year, families that have raised their kids here."

"April is definitely my favorite month. You get the best of all the worlds. You usually get fresh snow, you usually get sunshine. You get the live music on the patio. Get the full experience."

"We, through and through want everybody to be able to love this sport. And we want everybody to feel like they're able to participate in this sport."

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Transcript

Nicole: Welcome back to the Ski Moms podcast. It's season five and we're hitting the slopes. We're sharing real unfiltered stories of motherhood on the snow. From conquering the bunny hill with toddlers to squeezing in your own powder days, this season celebrates every type of ski mom.

Thanks for joining us. We've got a great season lined up and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. The ski moms are excited to be joined by Sage McCrary today.

She is the marketing and events manager at Loveland Ski Area in Colorado. Sarah and I absolutely love this gem and we are excited that they're coming up on 90 years of skiing.

So it's a perfect time to talk with Sage.

She has been at Loveland for 15 years, but more importantly, it's really part of, like her family history. Her dad, Flip McCrarick, is a well known ski photographer. And so now there's like three generations of them running around in Loveland, which is so exciting.

So she's going to tell us about her personal history with the mountain, a little bit about the mountain's history,

and help families really make a special Loveland ski trip happen this winter. So welcome, Sage.

Sage: Thanks. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Nicole: As I said, both Sarah and my family have been to Loveland. We are big fans for the outsider who's never been there. Can you describe a little bit about the Loveland vibe?

Sage: The first thing that comes to mind is old school, but that's really just because the community feel reminds me of what growing up in the ski industry really felt like.

A lot of smiling, friendly faces that know each other,

a lot of people coming back year after year, families that have raised their kids here, that we've all watched each other's kids grow up, and then it's fun. As you mentioned, now multiple generations like my dad and my grand, my daughter, his granddaughter, spending closing day up here together with local family friends that we've grown up with in the area.

Loveland's really special. It definitely cares about its guests in the way that it wants you to enjoy your time here. It wants it to be accessible for your whole family.

It wants to be fun for your whole family. So we try to think of ways to include different generations in all of our events, all of our activations, kind of everything we do up here.

But it does just remind me of that old school ski community sense that you get some places still.

Sarah: And for people that don't know where exactly is loveland?

Sage: Loveland is 52 miles from Denver,

right off the i70 corridor. It's really accessible because we are just about an hour away, a little over an hour away from the airport without ski traffic. So it makes it really accessible for people who are just visiting Denver, who might be in town for the weekend to come up and experience the mountains,

experience a day of skiing, or plan their trip around a really accessible ski area close to the city.

Nicole: We love a good ski origin story. I'm guessing that yours started when you were pretty young, considering that your dad is a very passionate about the mountains. Tell us how old you were and how it all started.

Sage: I was skiing as early as I can remember. I feel like skiing was part of my memories before my memories even really started to formulate. I was skiing at two and a half.

I woke up every weekend with my brother. They loaded us in the car before the sun rose. We would drive an hour up to the mountains. I grew up kind of in the foothills of Denver, right outside of west Denver.

Grew up skiing at Loveland, Copper and Winter park, which are all kind of an hour, hour and a half away from where I lived.

And, yeah, every weekend when there was snow on the ground, we would be up before the sun rose in the car, trekking up to the local ski area.

I did Copper choppers for a really long time, so I was in like the weekend ski program at Trip Copper Choppers. And then after I kind of got out of childhood skiing, my parents used to put me on the Winter park ski train with my friends all the time when I was an early teenager,

which is crazy to think about now, just because that's so not. I feel like what I would do with my daughter at 12.

But back then, it did feel really safe. We'd jump on the train, go spend the day at Winter park, hang out in the lodge. All of our friends were there.

We did it every weekend, so we'd be with the same families and same kids every weekend.

And then as soon as I got my driver's license, all bets were off. Every free moment that I had, I was at the ski areas with my friends.

And that's what led me to work at Loveland. I started at Loveland in 2008, and it's kind of just been ingrained in who I am since I even thought of who am I.

Sarah: So did you ever have any career or think of any career outside of the ski industry?

Sage: I did, actually. I went to culinary school fresh out of high school, and I got my culinary arts degree. I worked in kitchens all over Summit County. I was the sushi chef at Copper Mountain actually for a handful of years.

So I still figured out a way to tie my skiing into my job, even if I wasn't working in the ski industry.

But kitchen hours are pretty exhausting. I actually ended up going through a couple knee surgeries. I've had three knee surgeries. Freestyle skiing isn't kind on your knees always.

So after a couple knee surgeries trying to juggle injuries, kitchen, life, skiing, all of it became a lot. So I actually went back to school and got my business and admin, like business admin and marketing degree.

And when I was going to school I actually started working at the front desk of the marketing intersectionist office here at Loveland part time. And it was a perfect job cause I got a ski, I got to work and I was in school full time down in Denver.

And I was able to juggle all of them, which looking back on it was the perfect combination for me.

Sarah: And so tell us about your career path at Loveland since 2008 and a little bit about your current role.

Sage: So in 2008 I actually started as an independent contractor. I was doing sales events all all over the state of Colorado and I would travel around the state with who's one of our marketing managers now.

He ran all of the sales events. We would travel around Colorado selling the products, informing our guests.

We would have a lot of different activations. We used to have like these scratch off Loveland lottery tickets that we would give away. We used to give away sunglasses, we used to give away all sorts of fun swag and prizes to people.

But we would just travel around selling Loveland products, educating people about loveland. Then in 2014 I started as the front desk receptionist part time of marketing and administration.

And that's kind of what started my real career journey here. That's when I started working at the ski area all winter long seasonally. And then I would actually juggle kitchen jobs in the summertime, switch back and forth.

And then I did that for three years. And then I moved on to be our marketing coordinator here in the marketing office,

which our marketing coordinator position really just kind of helps facilitate all of the marketing office's duties. They help out with events, they help out with our marketing promotions, help with the front desk receptionists, media content, kind of a little bit of everything.

And then in 2021 I started is the marketing and events manager here. So I run all of our seasonal events that we have. And then recently weddings, we just started doing weddings.

So now I Manage all of our wedding events and then handle a lot of our promotional partnerships as well.

Sarah: That could probably be a whole separate podcast. You know, ski resort weddings behind the scenes. Right, so, so, so now your position is year round, full time.

Sage: It's been year round since 2020.

Sarah: Oh, okay.

Nicole: I'd love to. Speaking of what we were talking about year round, I'd love to sort of get the seasonal overview of how things run at Loveland. Tell us like when your ski season starts with Walk us through a year of Loveland.

Sage: I think the best place to start, be early October is usually when we try to get our snow guns on. That's kind of the big celebration for us. Cause that's really what we feel like starts the season.

We usually try to have that happen early to mid October, depending on Mother Nature.

We hope to open every year end of October or early November. But the last handful of years has definitely been that early November mark.

That kicks us off for the season. The fun starts pretty quickly after that. We have events starting in November. Things go quickly once we get the lifts turning, get through the holiday.

That's always a really busy season for us, as you know, being in the industry.

Get through the holidays, celebrate spring breaks. Those come quickly after the holiday season with the holiday weekends thrown in there and spring breaks after we get through the busy holiday.

Spring breaks is really when our big event schedule kind of takes over. Mountain Top Matrimony is the first big event that we have of the season that's on Valentine's Day every year.

And that just kicks off what I like to think of as the spring party up here. We have live music every weekend in March, April, May. We have events pretty much every, every weekend.

And so to us, we kick off the season, get the snow made, Mother Nature takes over. We have an incredible snowy fun winter.

And then our springtime events take over. And we combine the powder with the fun. We usually wrap up the season in early May. First or second weekend of May usually is closing day.

And prior to us doing weddings, that kind of wrapped it up. And then we would just kind of have skeleton operations to get through the summer, finish summer projects, get ready for next winter.

That has been changing over the last few years. We recently started hosting an archery tournament, actually the nation's highest archery tournament.

So we started hosting that at the end of July every year. And then we started hosting weddings as well, which keeps us very busy up here in the summer.

Sarah: Now archery at the highest altitude in the country, that's quite a she.

Nicole: She doesn't Mean stoned archery.

Sarah: Maybe it is Colorado.

Sage: Okay, it is, but we don't mix those two things. That would be dangerous.

Nicole: Sounds very dangerous. Some of the events sound so creative. And tell us about the mountaintop matrimony. What. What is happening there?

Sage: Yes, the mountaintop matrimony, that is one of my favorite events every year. I've had a hand in helping with it for a really long time. It's our 35th anniversary this year, so we are really excited.

We're trying to break out all the stops to make it extra special. Even though it is such a special event.

That one is really nice because we have couples who have gotten married there 20 years ago and who come back year after year to renew their vows. We have other couples who fly in.

We had a couple from Poland. We've had couples from other states fly in. And it's a mass wedding and vow renewal ceremony up in Forest Meadow every Valentine's Day. And it is just so much fun.

Everybody is just here to celebrate love in the place that they love.

And everyone is such. In. In such great moods in fun costumes. People wear full bridal attire sometimes.

It's really just a big party up at Loveland to celebrate Valentine's Day and celebrate the special place.

Nicole: Is this binding? Is it legal? Is this like Vegas? You know, it is.

Sage: Okay, it is. New couples bring their marriage certificates. They have to be from Clear Creek County. We have an officiant, an ordained officiant who signs marriage certificates. It is a legally binding marriage.

We don't. The vow renewals are more up to you. That's more honor system based. We're not going to double check that you're saying what you need to say to each other.

But the marriage part of it is definitely legally binding.

Sarah: And so would we see like people skiing down in suits and tuxedos and dresses, like, what, what does that look like? How many people are we talking?

Sage: Oh, yes. They go all out. I have seen full blown wedding dresses, suits full, like red dresses for Valentine's Day.

People go, oh, I love the costumes.

We usually have about a hundred couples. So it's about 200 people that participate. Last year we had over that. We had 240 people that participated this year. I'm really hoping we can get to that 250, 300 range.

Just because it's our special anniversary. And I'd love for more people to show up.

But it is so much fun. Just the costumes. People go all out. We usually give out like red, pink and silver Mardi Gras beads.

Some Years, Coors Beer has donated, like make fake mustaches and these big fake rings that people could put on. So we always try to have some sort of accent that we can add to people's outfits that make it a little bit more fun.

But people definitely bring the costumes after the ceremony. It's so much fun. Everybody skiing rides down together. And it's one of my favorite photo ops that we get of all time here at Levelland.

Nicole: As we said, we've experienced leveling. But for the person who hasn't,

tell us a little bit about how your day is going to start. Where are we parking? Where are we going? Where are we getting our skis? Assume that we're going with a family and we need to get set up with gear to start our ski day there.

Sage: Okay. Just assuming it's a family who might need a little bit more of the beginner access,

I would immediately tell you we have two different base areas. The Loveland Basin is where the majority of our terrain is. And then we have the Loveland Valley where our ski and ride school is located.

The Loveland Valley is such an incredible place for families to go. I know when I go there with my daughter,

the parking lots are right by the base of the magic carpet in the bunny slopes. It's right by the lodge. I can walk from my car to the bunny slope to the lodge, all very easily and accessibly quickly.

It has fun terrain too. There are blues and greens down there, so you can, you can progress. Even if you have some older kids, you can definitely still have some fun down there.

But the Loveland Valley is definitely the place that I would recommend people to go. We have the rental shop down there. We have our skiing ride school down there. We have all base hop facilities down there.

So you definitely can be self sufficient down there, even if you aren't planning on coming to the basin. And then if you have a little bit older kids, a little bit more advanced skiers and you want to come check out the basin, same thing.

The parking lot is right at the base of the staircase to the main lodge,

right at the base of the ski lifts. So everything is incredibly accessible depending on which base area you want to go to.

But yeah, it kind of depends on what you want to ski. For families. I definitely say go check out the valley if you want to go have a fun ski day and you can handle blues.

Come up to the basin and check out the ridge, the divide, and all the terrain we have up here.

Sarah: Which side are we seeing from the highway?

Sage: Yes, we have a Shuttle that runs back and forth. When you're driving on the highway, you look at the basin and that's one of all of our favorite things about Loveland.

When you're driving on the highway, you think you see Loveland, but you're really seeing a small percentage of the skiable terrain. When you're looking from the highway, you can kind of see the bottom of the bowl of what makes up the basin.

But there is so much more terrain that's kind of hidden along the mountainsides along there. And then the valley base area, a lot of people don't even realize that all the terrain at the valley base area is there.

And like I said, if you have young kids, it is such a convenient place to just go camp out for the day and have so much fun with your kids.

Nicole: And tell me if I'm wrong, but I believe Leveland is one of the spots with glades that kids absolutely love. Because is it one of those places that there's some like, gentle glades for them to start skiing in the trees?

Sage: We have a couple little runs through that we've kind of created that is just a little bit more of a spaced out, cleared out tree run.

It's. We don't. I. I don't know if I'd say we have like a large area of glades, but we have created a few little rainbow,

like rainbow trails through the trees so that kids can start going through little slaloms through the trees and start skiing the trees in a safe way.

Nicole: But many people come to Loveland because there's big skiing as well that you can have a challenging day. I know a lot of camps that do racing and lots of gates and lots of turns over at Copper.

Come to Loveland to really let it rip and let those kids feel what it feels like to ski for fun again and to really make, you know, those big arcing turns on steep terrain that's just a whole lot of fun.

So tell us a little bit about that type of skiing there.

Sage: Yeah, you are very right about that. The valley is also home to the Loveland Ski Club, our race team.

We have some of the best training areas and especially early season, some of the best training terrain for race clubs. I know we're about to kick off our race wing training season here,

so it's really fun because a lot of teams get to come here and it's kind of creating that inspiration for a lot of the kids in the ski and ride school too, because they do see all of these ski racers right next to them coming down the slopes right from the base area,

which is really inspiring to the younger generation who might just be starting out. So we have our great race training facilities,

but that I feel like is even like the ski and ride school, the beginner bunny slopes. And the race training is such a small portion of our terrain. Once you come up to the basin,

I love it because we have a little bit for everybody. We have the long, steeper runs. If you want to make big arcing turns. We have the steep, tighter, technical, big mountain style terrain.

We get some of the most stone Colorado. So on a good powder day, you get the most fun. Either it's wide out powder turns or tight tree powder turns. And that's what a lot of people are surprised about when they come to Loveland is just the variety of terrain that we have.

They think we're a small mountain and so they think they kind of see what it is. Oh, it's a lot of blues. That's it.

But being on the Continental Divide, we really have from the easiest beginner bunny hills to Porcupine Ridge, which we're opening up, which is some of the most technical terrain I've seen in bounds in Colorado.

Sarah: How about getting to Loveland? Do we need to have a car and lodging if people are coming for like a week?

Sage: Yeah, Loveland does. Sometimes people think we're a little tricky to get to just because we don't have lodging on site. We do partner with busting. We offer the Snowstang service. So if people are coming from out of town, they can take the Snowstang from Denver directly to Loveland and right back down to Denver.

So if they want to be based more in the city, it's a very easy way to just load up with your family, relax on the ride up here, get back down to where you're staying without having to worry about the mountain roads, the mountain traffic.

If you're planning on staying in the mountains, Georgetown is very close and very cute. It's a very cute small mountain town, but it is on a smaller mountain town side.

There's definitely less amenities.

Most of the people that we have come to Loveland are staying over in Summit County.

Summit county just offers a lot more hotels. Bigger hotels, more price ranges, has a lot more restaurants, stores, shopping, so you can really make a full vacation.

Thankfully, Summit county is only 12 miles away from Loveland. You're going the opposite way of ski traffic, too. So it makes it really easy if you have a rental car to get back and forth to the ski area.

Nicole: And when you Say, Summit county. When we're Googling Airbnbs, we're going to be looking for Silverthorne. What's the other town?

Sage: Yeah, Silverthorne, Dillon. They're right next to each other. Keystone is really close by, too. That's the Styria that most people know when they're looking in the area. So you can look there.

Frisco and Breckenridge are also pretty close by, right around in Summit county as well.

Nicole: Okay. And as you were saying, that's going to have cute restaurants, it's going to have little Main Street.

It's going to have things for the kids to do.

Speaking of kids, what are some of the things that make Loveland so great for young families? Tell us about the learning experiences there. You told us about the beginner area, but are there.

Are they known for their lessons? Are there other things that really make it a great pick for families who are just getting going?

Sage: Yes, definitely. We cater a lot of our business decisions for families and young kids and making it family friendly and accessible for those young families from our products like our three class pass, which is a season pass combined with three lesson packages that's really cost affordable,

that comes with your rentals, that comes with your lunch for the day or lift ticket. You get a season pass out of the deal. It's a great bundle package for families that makes it really accessible to our a la carte lessons.

We're expanding our skiing ride school from our facilities to all of our skiing ride school operations. Like, we just redid one of our chairlifts, Lift seven, and we actually made it the width of a quad chair, but we're only loading it as a triple to really give those Bunny Slope skier and riders space to get on and off the chairlift,

which we're really excited about. I think it's going to help get people through the skiing ride school and through the beginner terrain more smoothly.

Two right. Everything right centered at the base area.

I love that I can park, I can walk to the bunny slope, get some runs. I can walk inside the lodge, get hot chocolate, walk back to my car, play with the beach ball in the parking lot with my daughter.

It is so easy and accessible and to access as a family to keep your kids happy from playing in the snow right by your car, right at the base area safely and your steps away from the bunny slope.

If one of your kids is like, I want to go take a run, you can stay right at the base with your other child and watch them get on the magic carpet and ski down the slopes all right in front of you.

And then like I said, the lodge is right there, bathrooms are right there. Rental shop, sports shop, all of it is so accessible so you don't feel like you're trucking your children and your family all around far distances.

And just the inclusivity. We pride ourselves like all of our events, we have free family race days up here so that we cater so that kids can come race their parents, which they always have so much fun with.

To making sure that even our more adult style events like our Neverland Big Slalom is this slalom race that we have with Never Summer and Toyota every year.

And even that it's an adult based event and the majority of our competitors are adults. But we always try to go above and beyond for our GROM like U12, 12 to 17 age groups to make sure that those kiddos feel really included, really appreciated and like they belong in these events.

And just the way that our employees and the way that our locals treat kids and families, we're all so excited to see this youth take hold of our sport and fall in love with our sport.

And you can just tell in so many people that are at Loveland how much they love seeing that process of kids fall in love with what they love. So you just feel that when you're here that everybody here wants your kids to have a good time and your family to have a great experience.

Which helps.

Sarah: Yeah, definitely. So it sounds just like an amazing culture, like such a special place. Tell us a little bit about the history of Loveland.

Sage: Yeah.

So we opened in the fall of 1937. So we are coming up on our 90th anniversary. The 2728 season will be our 90th anniversary, which we're really excited for. It's a huge milestone for us.

We are so proud of our history.

Still owned by the same family,

multi generational ownership, which has been incredible. Everybody who works here gets to know them really well. They get to know their employees really well, which just makes a really special working environment.

We opened the Valley in 6162 season which just added that beginner ski and ride school, family focused area that we really wanted to provide.

But it's. It's cool. And then we started doing free snowcat skiing on the Continental Divide. And we expanded into Dry Gulch and started offering like introductory to backcountry courses. It's backcountry skiing, but it's a really good step for people who haven't done it before.

Kids do have to be 14 or older to do it, but it's a really fun way to get your family out into, into the backcountry in a really safe environment.

And so it's amazing just watching us go from that little rope toe to now this ski area that's still small, still family owned, still definitely not trying to compete with the big corporate areas around us.

But just watching how much we've expanded, how much we've grown and how intentionally we've grown throughout the last almost 90 years has been really special to be a part of.

Nicole: That's one of the things I wanted to chat with you about, is the independent spirit. There's families that jump on the pass and they have a spreadsheet. Okay, we've got to ski this many days.

We're going to pass on the cheapest possible rate available. But there's also families who miss those deadlines and they, maybe they're going to go skiing this year, maybe they're not.

You know, maybe their families are doing other sports.

And it gets prohibitively expensive to try to get day passes if you're a type of family who is not planned years in advance for this adventure.

But places like Loveland still have affordable day tickets.

And tell us,

why is that important to you? Why is that still something that Loveland's going to offer to customers? That day ticket experience that isn't going to break the bank?

Sage: We, through and through want everybody to be able to love this sport. And we want everybody to feel like they're able to participate in this sport. And we understand that when you're a family of three, four, five people buying tickets and buying passes for everybody in your family, along with all the gear and everything that comes along with it,

can get really cost prohibitive and can get really intimidating. So we try to offer a lot of different options to families to make it accessible and make it affordable for people.

From our day ticket to our dynamic pricing on our day ticket. Like if you purchase in advance on our website, even a couple days out, week out, you'll get different deals than you would at the lift ticket window.

We also have 50 and $30 tickets. At the Loveland Valley. It's $50 for an adult, $30 for a kid. So if you're a new family starting out and you only need the beginner terrain, we have options for that that will not cost you as much as coming up and seeing the entire mountain wood.

And then like I said, with our three class pass, we try to do bundle options. So it's like the cost of three lessons and a season Pass and rentals and lunch and all of the things that come along with it can add up quickly.

And so we just bundle that all together and make it one product that to us feels like it holds a lot of value for the cost that it is and just really offer a lot of options for people.

And it's funny because a lot of people think, since we are an independent security, a lot of people think that they have to kind of make the choice between one of the big corporate passes that come with a lot of mountains or Loveland.

But people don't realize all of the perks that come along with our Loveland Pass. From our bonus days, extra days at Monarch or Ski Cooper, which is another fantastic ski family friendly ski area,

to being on the Indy Pass, which I know we have a lot of Indy Pass partners on the east coast out by you guys. We have so many partnerships with other independent smaller ski areas that make it so people feel like they have a lot of value in the passes that they're purchasing through us too.

So then they can go to a lot of different places because we understand everybody wants to check out as many mountains as they can. When you love to ski and snowboard.

Nicole: We have been to the barbecue mid mountain and that is super fun. David and I were skiing and we stopped in there, I think to get something to drink. And then all of a sudden we see people with these backpacks and they're pulling out kielbasa and they're pulling out like veggie burgers.

And then you see like a couple beers come out of there. I'm like, what is happening?

So the first time I was there, we asked somebody like, oh yeah, the grills are set up for the community and you can pop in here and grill.

And it's just part of Loveland. And I thought that was so cool. I've never seen that. I mean, even, you know, Sugarbush is a nice mountain. They seem to like skiers, but that's not happening.

When did that tradition start?

Sage: That's been around as long as I've been here. I can't speak to before my time, but even as a kid I do remember having grills successful. We didn't have quite as many on mountain cabins when I was growing up as we do now.

But as far back as I can remember, we've always been the type of ski rear where if you choose to bring your lunch, you can. We have a microwave in our lodge that you can use, but we have grills at all of our on mountain cabins for people to use.

Thankfully, when we open the Turn Begin Roost cabin, we do have F and B services up there. So if you didn't plan ahead, you can still get a chili dog or a burger or food from up there, a beer from up there.

But you can also go inside and buy beer and cook your stuff that you brought on the grill if you want to, which is really fun with family and friends standing out on the patio on a nice sunny day after you've taken some ski laps to grill nice lunch for you and your friends.

Have a beverage if you choose to, and then continue taking more laps or just ski to the bottom. We've always wanted to make it feel like you could just come be yourself,

not have to buy stuff from us necessarily, not have to buy into every part of what we're trying to sell and just be able to come spend a day skiing with your friends and family, enjoy the beautiful landscape that you're in and yeah, have a nice lunch.

Nicole: The stuff that was coming out of those backpacks was no joke. And then, then you get down to the base and it is like a beach down there. It's so fun.

Describe a little bit of that vibe.

Sage: I know this isn't why I've worked at Loveland for so long, but sometimes I question if it is why I've worked at Loveland for so long. Our apres patio in the springtime is so much fun.

Having a great ski day. We get great snow in the springtime, so you'll go get incredible powder turns and then you'll come down to the base. It'll feel so nice and sunny outside.

Sometimes you can even strip down to a T shirt, have a drink. We have live music every Friday, Saturday and Sunday,

so you just get to go dance on the patio outside.

The Rat Skiller bar is super fun, so you can head inside and get drinks in there. Get a little reprieve from the dancing and the high energy on the patio if you want to, but we oftentimes have a barbecue going outside in the springtime.

We'll have live music starting right after the barbecue's wrapping up and it's just a great time. It's my favorite apres that I've ever been to at a ski area.

Sarah: So what would you say would be the best time of the season? It's a very long season if a family is has the flexibility to avoid some of those school vacation weeks, which can maybe get a little crowded there.

I'm not sure when would you recommend what would be like the perfect time to come for this powder and sunshine and apres.

Sage: April is definitely my favorite month. It's hard to beat because sometimes we get really good snow in other months and weather lines up where it can give April a run for its money.

But April is so much fun. If you come in early April, especially right after April 6th, our lift tickets get a little bit cheaper. So you can come after April 6 and save a little bit of money.

Our valley closes mid April, so come early April if you want to experience the valley with your family. But April, you get the best of all the worlds. You usually get fresh snow, you usually get sunshine.

You get the live music on the patio. Get the full experience. Our base is incredibly well filled in by then, so the skiing on the mountain is just incredible. Even if we don't have immediate fresh snow when you're here, April up here is very hard to beat.

Nicole: Sarah's giving her knowing nod. Anyone who's been listening to the podcast knows Sarah just gets going in March.

She leaves January and February to the newbies to, to battle it out and the, you know, the, the wind and the, the icy conditions and then she, she clicks in in March.

She's hitting her stride in April and she just knows that the best is yet to come.

And I'm just thinking about that, the value of that pass.

It's over six months of skiing, over half a year of skiing. That's pretty incredible. And I'm sure there's people who really get every penny's worth of that pass.

Sage: Oh yes. It's actually amazing how much of our clientele is here. From the day we open until when we close in May. I see them every weekend or during the week if they work on weekends.

And there are people who get a lot more than what those passes cost value out of it because they are here so often. They ski all season and it's good snow for the majority of the season.

Sometimes early season can be a little rough,

but the mountain still skis incredible in May. It's not to the point where we're having to shut down terrain and farm snow. The whole mountain's still open.

So you really get that full winter experience from the day we open until when we close, which is special to be skiing in sometimes mid May and have it still feel like full blown winter.

Sarah: I think that's such a good point and a reminder because I think at least on the east coast, a lot of our things shut down end of March,

the later ones maybe mid April.

So I think a lot of time for April breaks School breaks. People don't think of skiing.

And this is a great reminder that some of the best skiing is still happening out in Colorado.

Sage: It's definitely my favorite time to ski with my daughter. I ski more in April with her than any other month, just because it's when the weather and the fun lines up just right.

Nicole: That was our my next question for you. Because you work in events and you're always planning fun for other people and making sure that the community has fun.

How do you make sure that you are still tapping into the joy of being involved in a winter sport?

Sage: Thankfully, working here makes it really easy. I get a lot of time on the mountain, whether that's skiing on the mountain, for my events, going to set up my events to my lovely boss with all this stuff behind me.

She encourages us to take a lot of ride breaks as well.

So I get a lot of time on the mountain from early ups on the lifts before the lifts open to go get content when we get fresh snow and a new chairlift is opening to.

I'm gonna go take my lunch and throw my sandwich in my pocket and go take some laps on my lunch break. To setting up these fun events. And even if I'm working them and yes, it's hardworking them sometimes, but I still get to participate in the fun.

I still get to feed off of the fun energy around all of these people that I'm throwing this event for.

I've definitely never had a problem having a good time at my job, especially because it gets to be in the mountains on my skis so often.

Nicole: And now you've got the newest generation is out on snow.

Are you letting your dad kind of do the lessons? Are you doing it? Are you relying on the professionals? Is your dad nicer now that he's a granddad? Is there.

Are there more cocoa breaks? How is this all happening?

Sage: Yes. My dad has gotten so soft with my daughter compared to how he was with my brother. He used to crack the whip on us like, we're going skiing whether you like it or not.

And now my daughter will start fussing. He's like, well, hey, we'll just come play in the snow over here. Like, let's just have a lollipop instead. We'll take a break.

Which it's been pretty funny to see because I definitely felt forced into it sometimes, which I'm so thankful for. It became my life.

But he is definitely not forcing her.

I've been doing most of the teaching so far. She is pretty new. I tried getting her out Two winters ago. She's three and a half right now. I tried getting her out two winters ago.

She wasn't about it and I wasn't trying to force it. Last winter we got a handful of days on the slopes. It was still very bribed. It took a lot of gummy bears and toys and play breaks and hot cocoa breaks.

But she did it. Got a handful of days on the slope, rode the magic carpet, got down a few times.

Right now it's still been me mostly. I actually thought about putting her in our winter wigglers program this season which is a program we have for three to four year olds.

This season with her preschool schedule, it didn't really work out because she just started preschool. But next season, since her days are going to switch at school, I'm planning on having her in our little winter Wiggler ski program.

So this winter it'll probably be me teaching her. And then next season I'm going to let the professionals take the reins from there.

Nicole: I love that your dad has gotten so soft. I mean that as expected, that was a leading question.

And I'm sure there were no gummy bears and lollipops for you. It was just sort of tough love.

Sage: Yes, it was pretty funny. My dad traveled a lot my childhood with his career. He was gone a lot of my childhood because he was jet setting all over the world chasing the professionals around the mountains.

So it how involved all of a sudden he is now with my daughter, now that he's more on the retired side.

Has been really cute to watch because for us it was like I'm in town, we're going skiing as a family. This is the two weekends we have before I leave again.

Whereas her he's a lot slower paced. He's a lot more I just want to see you happy instead of you're going to learn how to ski now.

Nicole: I mean Forest family fun has a long tradition in ski families. So totally respect that and respect his, his journey as a grandparent as well. We've talked a lot about events.

I do want to make sure we mention where are the food, the places to get. Where are we going to get those calories back into us after we've been skiing hard.

Sage: Our on mountain cabin that serves food and beverage is the Ptarmigan Roost cabin. It's at the top of the Ptarmigan chairlift kind of right in the middle of our terrain up at the basin.

It has light food and beverage offerings. There you can get. We actually won an award for our chili dog up at the Ptarmigan Roost cabin so definitely try that if you like chili dogs.

But yeah it has any kid friendly adult friendly offerings that you might want for a mid mountain stop.

Has a beautiful patio that looks out east kind of off the continental divide towards Denver down I 70 corridor in between the mountains. A beautiful view from up there in the winter or in the springtime in March and April.

I also started doing ptarmigan tunes up on the patio cabin. So I have live musicians from 1:30 or 11:30 to 1:30 who play acoustic sets up there we have a mandolin player player, a cello player, some guitarists so they bring their instruments up and we have music on the patio or inside if weather doesn't want to play ball and you can get lunch,

listen to some tunes, take a break from your ski day and then go back out and enjoy the beautiful mountains.

Nicole: How does the cello get down? Do they ski the cello down?

Sage: They ski the cello and the mandolin and all of their instruments down. They're impressive.

Nicole: I mean the content that you have available to your to your Instagram page sage is just overwhelming. I'm jealous.

Sage: I do need to get some of the skiing fiddler and the ski o skiing cello player on our instagram.

Nicole: I love that. Anything else that you need to tell us about Loveland for the new families? Before we get into our wrap up questions, please come visit us.

Sage: We'd love to have your family here at Loveland. We definitely have great facilities and easy access, affordable prices to try to make it an enjoyable trip for all. Come check out our events.

We definitely have ones that your kids will love to participate in and we hope to see you and your family at Loveland soon.

Sarah: And where should people go to find information on Loveland?

Sage: First place would be skiloveland.com Our website is a wealth of information but we also do have a call center that you can call open seven days a week. They are so helpful.

They can answer any questions. They can kind of help cater packages in your trip to your needs depending on what you need for each individual family and they would love to help you plan your trip.

Nicole: Okay, I forgot one thing before we get to apres.

I feel like Loveland has more skiers in costumes or dressed in fun attire per capita than any other mountain I've been to. Agree or disagree?

Sage: Agree. I can't say statistically I know that's true, but I would definitely agree by spending my time here. We encourage all the costumes, all the fun, all the self expression people can bring and I do try to tie in costumes to A lot of my events.

So I will often have costume contests and things like that just to make people really bring out their fun costumes. Costumes.

Nicole: I picture people who live in Georgetown or people who live close by. They have the ski costume closet. They're like, oh, it's February. I'm gonna go in and get my pink tutu.

Or, you know, I'm gonna wear the dinosaur today.

The times I've been there, I've definitely seen some characters. I mean, you know, people who are characters but dressed as characters as well. And the kids love it because it's grown ups and it's also little kids who are have decorated helmets.

You're gonna see kids with antlers on. You're gonna see kids with like lion manes. It's definitely a place that it just embraces whatever you want to be.

Let it fly.

Sage: Yes. You are not wrong there. We do a lot of partnerships with local school programs, so we have like the snow Dodgers programs that kids come up every Friday.

And I think amongst the kids, they almost start a competition of who can add more color and bling and sparkles to their outfits, which is so fun to watch progress throughout the season.

But I think you're right with the ski closet. I definitely think I have some friends down there that have. From the retro 80s outfits to the inflatable T. Rex costumes.

Sarah: Whenever I see those videos of the T, the inflatable T. Rex skiing it, I can't help but laugh. I don't know. I could. I, I, I kind of want one, I think.

But it looks like it might be really hard to ski in or at least ride the chairlift in.

I'm not sure. But this leads us to our favorite question. It seems like Loveland was, you know, made for this question. But,

you know, you've had this beautiful powder day. Maybe you're wearing a costume, maybe you're not.

And the band is playing the sun's out. What does operes look like for you at Loveland?

Sage: Apres definitely meeting up with my friends and family, getting a libation, depending on what that is. For the kiddos, this season we actually are opening a gourmet hot chocolate bar that'll have gourmet hot chocolate, all sorts of toppings so the kids can gouge themselves on the gourmet hot chocolate bar for their libation.

For the adults, I normally opt. I know our ****** Marys are really popular, but that might be more of a morning drink for some people.

Mine actually, it's pretty funny. I don't know how it progressed. I usually get a high noon and a pickle shot, but it depends. We have kind of something for everybody.

Whether you like hot toddies, whether you cocktails, beer, wine. Our bartenders are really fun and they'll make any drink you want up here for your happy hour experience.

Nicole: Sarah, are you going to ask it or am I? What is a pickle shot?

Sage: It's a little odd. It's literally vodka and pickle juice comes with electrolytes, so I'd like to pretend that I'm not doing so much damage to my health by taking a shot.

For some reason, our bartenders started making them in batches and they were delicious and a ton of the employees started having them and it's kind of become a thing to the point where I have coworkers who have Our bar is called the Rat Skeller.

We jokingly call it the Rat. I have coworkers that have a rat holding a martini glass with a pickle inside of it as a tattoo, as an ode, because somehow pickle shots became so popular here amongst employees.

Nicole: Amazing. And I will also say ****** Mary's. It's kind of like having a salad if you do it right. So you know that can be healthy too.

Sage: Agreed.

Nicole: Sarah and I have been smiling like from start to finish of this podcast because we love your mountain,

we love the vibe, and we love what you're doing to make ski families feel welcome. So thank you and here's to 90 more.

Sage: Yay. Here's to 90 more. Thank you for having me and we hope everyone comes to visit us at Loveland.

Nicole: Hey ski moms. We hope you enjoyed today's episode and got some great tips for your next family ski adventure.

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