The infamous Jeffrey Krauthamer, man of many nicknames, and his lovely family are in town this week with something close to 25 years of visiting Steamboat under their belts, traveling all the way from my neck of the woods in Maryland. As usual, Craig got in many days of turns with Jeffrey but unfortunately due to being gone for part of the week, I only got to ride today with his troop. Luckily it was the best one it seems!
I got a late start due to some technical difficulties with a (dare I say) mediocre tune job; lesson learned, always check your equipment when you get it back. Thanks to the stellar crew at the Yurt at the top of the Gondola however (a huge thanks to Mike and Fred!) , I was back on the slopes in less than 30 and caught up to the pack at the bottom of Storm, only missing 2 runs.
"Blue bird" days are always the best; with sun on your face, the snow softens as the day progresses. I know I've said this before this season, but it felt like March up there today for certain. Everywhere we went was very nice, from Buddy's to StormPeak to Wally World, the mountain is in great shape still, despite the lack of snow.
Jeffrey was killing it as usual, skiing with Rick and Uncle Benny- who just can't seem to stay away from Steamboat no matter how many times he tries to leave- and the two pushed JK to ski better than he ever has this week. They were carving big turns on the steep runs, and maching so fast down the long ones that this photographer could barely do her job. Good stuff, boys, good stuff.
Winter Carnival starts next week, and my folks and their friends arrive tomorrow and Monday respectively, so it'll be a fun week of photos, some more skiing, and Mother Nature permitting, hopefully a little snow for the festivities.
Not much "deep" this year, but we'll still see you in it when it comes.
The glorious day we've been awaiting has arrived. Starting out with an empty Gondy maze and 8 inches new or more to play in, we made our way to Four Points for first chair. It was blowing sideways at the top though, visibility was nil, and the temp felt surprisingly colder than 14° to all of us.
The snow was a little heavy, but buttery, up to my knees in spots where the fierce overnight winds had blown in drifts, and still shin deep everywhere else. First tracks down Keith's Ridge, Moonlight and Fawn were the best of day, Storm and Daze were blown off down to the hardpack and the peak was invisible in the fog, so we finished off with some lower mountain favorites like Concentration [images], lovely knee deep soft pow stashes all along the right side of that one!
Thankfully it kept snowing all day, so tomorrow promises to be even better... albeit colder. And snow's forecast for several more days- it looks like Mother Nature is cranking up the machine, finally, in preparation for the 97th Winter Carnival next week! So we'll likely be posting more... whew, I know this local's glad winters back!
-See you in the deep!