Loveland Ski area located at the intersections of highway 6 and Interstate 70 just on the eastern side of the Continental Divide is looking to the Dry Gulch drainage for cat-served skiing and riding.

The basin just northeast of the ski area's existing lift-served terrain has been in Loveland's permit boundary for quite some time.

It's also a popular backcountry spot with relatively easy access for Front Range and Summit County residents being only 45 minutes to some of Denver outer suburbs and 20 to 30 minutes to many Summit County locations.

A U.S. Forest Service master plan for Loveland dating to about 1997 identifies the area as suitable for guided skiing.

Loveland Ski area has not done much since they put in Chair 9 a lift that added service to the area's highest ridges in 1999. which added additional access and high country terrain.

The Forest Service authorized Loveland to take snowcats into the drainage this spring to explore the potential for a commercial operation. The master plan does not call for lift-served skiing in the drainage basin. Any activity, including cat skiing, would be subject to site-specific environmental studies and the idea is in a very early phase, with no formal proposal on the table.

The Dry Creek area could include as much as a 1,000 acres of new terrain. But will have a tough time making a go at it since Keystone has added expanded cat-skiing in the past few years in response to customer demand for so-called Backcountry Light experiences, and the addition of the Montezuma Bowl expansion last year at Arapahoe Basin.

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