Today was one of those sweet surprises that only locals can truly appreciate for its goodness... there were many factors about today that would have made any visitor or occasional skier an antsy Nancy. The snow report said 5" at 5am and still snowing with minimal 9m/h wind and a balmy 20°. We knew it would make for some strange conditions, and we were right.
Driving up to the hill we could only see the bottom of the mountain, the top was socked in and the clouds were a very dark shade of charcoal. . . STILL snowing. You all know what 3 hours can do to the 5am snow report, and sure enough there was easily 10" in spots, and thick, like freshly churned butter.
We made it to Four Points in time for its opening, BC and Storm weren't running yet and we were antsy to make some turns. We teamed up with Doug Enochs at the lift and skied with Douglas all day. Sunset was barely touched and we carved big down to Duster, making our way slowly down into the Moonlight trees. A ride up Sundown showed the top in full glory- dumping styrofoam-like pellets by the bucketload, and visibility of only 4 chair lengths. It got darker the higher we went, and it was like skiing blind on Keith's Ridge, feeling our way down Sunshine Liftline and through the trees to High Noon. From there we took One O'clock to 1:30 trees, smoothing along this barely touched run like narrow boats on a glassy lake.
After that we did a top of Three O'clock taste over to Pumphouse trees, both with wide open freshies abound, and down Fawn to Southpeak for a taste of a groomed Rolex. There's nothing quite like a just-tilled Rolex with nearly a foot of fresh on top.
This time we traversed the top to Storm, and over to another fresh-till on Cyclone, but both were pretty chewed up by 9:30, so we bombed down Vortex and hit the bottom of the lift line on the right, not a track in sight. LALALA!
Doug suggested Pony, he hadn't been there this year yet, Craig hadn't been there in a couple years, and I was a Pony virgin. Seriously. Here is where we found the mid-morning goods, however, and now that Craig and I are more familiar with some of Dougs favorite Pony spots, we'll surely be back. Thanks Doug! We hit the trees on top of Longhorn to the left above Nash Junction, an untouched glade of goodness that started this neverending run out nicely. We cruised in and out of Longhorn's left side, and found a completely untouched WJW at the bottom. Someone should rename that W-OHHH-W, as it was definitely wow. We dumped back into Drop out and decided it was maybe time for a top-to-bottom... we had some work to do!
Sunday is the start of our annual ski camp for disabled vets and friends, so if we have time to post, we will. Otherwise, we'll see you IN THE DEEP sometime after the 16th's 1st Annual Legends of the Deep Powder Invititational!!
Oh! And we hit the slopes today with the new camera (Canon EOS XSi)... still ironing out the kinks of new technology and settings, but today's pictures came out better than they used to, no question there! Thanks to the Jehn Foundation for that!
Well powder hounds, today was a deep day but not one for everybody. The warmer temperatures made for some heavy snow that made us stick to the steeper pitches all day. Our first couple of runs were challenging as we broke through the top layer, but once we got to Three O’clock (with a fresh groom two days before) we were happy campers! The deep butter snow combined with the nice steep pitch made for an incredible run. And that was just a warm-up. As some of you may know, heavy snow turns moguls into everybody’s friends. Hero bumps I like to call ‘em. And as we skied from run to run; sideburn to sunset to lights out, storm peak face to cyclone to drop out, and then over to twister and four points lift line, the bumps got bigger and softer and turned us all into amazing skiers. And while the tourists were not happy at all with the conditions, the locals were as happy as ever.
The heavy snows are always a welcome sight as we reach this point in the season. More trails open up and more rocks and sticks get buried until spring. If you haven’t been out the last couple of days, it’s definitely time to get out and ski all the runs that you weren’t sure were ready to be skied. Have a great day and we’ll see you IN THE DEEP!
This afternoon we spent some time at the Christy Sixpack under still-snowing skies with eight Lift Operations and Maintenance Supervisors in an adaptive equipment training session. After a twenty minute discussion on equipment types, disability awareness, maze and loading preferences, and legalities for adaptive riders, the crew took turns back-loading (pull-back) Craig and his Revolution Pro Comp onto the sixpack, giving Craig several turns down Preview after two weeks off the slopes.
This training is the final stage of an all-department awareness and update training on handling customers with disabilities. We are very proud of to have this opportunity with Steamboat's employees to make our ski area the best it can be for all our visitors and their special needs. Other ski areas go through similar training for their lift operators, and our goal as always is to make Steamboat #1.
Future plans are to have a repeat training session with more staff as well as today's staff who was eager to try the equipment themselves. Due to lack of outriggers, we were not able to put today's participants in the monoski and biski, but many expressed interest to do so, and we'll keep you posted on that when it happens!
It's still snowing, so we'll see you again tomorrow!
Since last I wrote, and despite the all-clear from Dr Sisk, Craig's foot turned a multitude of black and blues while in Myrtle Beach for the holidays, and he finally got the doc to take a second look today... the toe is broken. Unfortunately that meant he had to miss today's foot of freshies, while I made a few turns, broke my toe strap (what's it with TOES?) and tossed myself upside down on 1230's entrance roller. Other than that, it was a glorious day. Although Craig was sincerely missed, I took his favorite turns in his honor with fellow snowboarder Joey Rind. Craig DID get the go-ahead to ski tomorrow despite the toe... yessss!
I met Joey in the Christy line, the Gondy line was around the maze and out to ski school so it was a no brainer to take the lifts up, despite being stopped thrice on Christy. At the top of T-head we made our way to Four Points and started out with fresh tracks down Sunset and into the trees above Moonlight. Easily knee deep in those trees, and glorious on Sunset as well. We made our way up Sundown and did Keith's Ridge to High Noon to One Oclock, all of which virtually untracked. Literally there were 3 tracks on 1:00, so the howling ensued. Despite the line in the Gondy, those 200 peeps spread out far and wide and I saw two people on High Noon and maybe 50 in the Sundown line. EMPTY. That was one of those runs that sparks a "that was so nice, we have to do it twice!"
At the top of Sundown I went to strap in and noticed I'd be missing one... the back toe strap was just simply GONE. Granted, I'd ducktaped it first day this season, but it looked like a good hold. Must have been that tumbler I took off 1:00 to get into those trees... I'm still feeling some vertebrae compression going on, and will prescribe myself a much needed soak later today.
So onward to the repeat run... and beyond that a lap down Storm Peak (FYI, severely windblown) to what Joey calls MiddleBurns and what we call Storm Meadow, into the trees and again up to our knees in untracked goodness. Without a strap and some tired 2-weeks-off legs I made a run for it down Rainbow and got some last tasty pow left side of Rainbow, seemingly up to my thighs but surely I'm mistaken.
A wonderful first day back on the hill in the new year, oh, and it's STILL SNOWING!