IN THE DEEP

After five days of skiing and a stompin-fast African Dance class this week, I wasn't sure my body could handle the additional 9" on top of it all, man is Mother Nature piling it on!  But between a morning and afternoon meeting today I managed to make it up for about 90 minutes of powder hunting.

As I love to challenge myself when riding alone, today I decided to avoid riding the same lift twice, and went from the Gondola to Pony to Storm Peak to Sundown to South Peak to Elkhead, and think it might be a fun day to try and ride every one them once, as I am pretty sure I've never done that in one day!

The powder wasn't as elusive as I thought it might be not arriving until about 10:15; thanks to a lull in visitor numbers right now the hill was deserted.  (Although I did hear one tourist say from South Peak as we were looking up High Noon, "See honey, how crowded that is? We just need need avoid the busy runs." Lady, you have no idea what busy is apparently.)

I started out with a few Norther trees, knowing the shape it was in from yesterday, and from Pony I took Nash Junction to Chuckwagon to Drop Out.  From the top I traversed to upper 3:00 and then on to 1:00 and into 12:30, back to about 1:30 into the grove below Daybreak.  Then knowing that the Sundial grove doesn't ever seem to get eaten up, I headed there for the freshest powder of the day.  Then on to Pup's right side trees and South Peak for a West Side bomber, no powder there but the soft groomer provided a nice a break, as did Vagabond down, as I had to take the fastest route, pushing my noon meeting time to the edge.


What a week it's been!  3+ feet of snow this week and counting!

Happy Valentines Day!  It's another powder day in the Boat amigos y amigas, and we've been awarded for our patience, Pony Express opened today and Pioneer Ridge was amazing.  I only had about 90 minutes this morning, but enough for 3 sweet luscious laps in the Ridge, unfortunately without my Valentine, who got up there about an hour after I did.

But I didn't ride alone and made some turns In the Deep with Alicia (today's photographer, Steamboat native) and Peter, who has lived here since 1974 and therefore native as well. 

We started out with a lap up Four Points and down Cyclone and Drop Out, exploring the trees and about 10" of fresh, which has now pretty much covered up that ccrrrrrr sound beneath.  From Drop Out we headed right over to a newly opened Pony, which hasn't been open all year due to abysmal conditions, leaving the 16 or so in the last few days wide open for us, glorious us.  We went right to Fetcher's Glade and the bottom of Middle Rib, surfing and yipping like it was early season again.  Another lap up left me with little time to make my 10am Zero Waste meeting, so I did Cabin Fever to Longhorn to WJW- which I have always thought should be called WOW instead, and was tearing up at the return of winter. 

I must say, I'm glad I took yesterday off to work out and bulk up, because after 3 days of riding Friday-Sunday, my rudder leg was outright whining. 

A last note, it was clouding up around run two, and started snowing upon my descent down Valley View... and suffice it to say, it hasn't stopped snowing since!  BIG FAT FLAKES, tomorrow is going to be another beautiful powder day in the Boat.  Winter, we love you, thanks for sticking around.

See you In the Deep!

Today was a strange ski day. Having worn myself out the last 2 days in dense powder, I was like cold molasses moving down the hill today.  We didn't get up until around noon, as the sun was trying to poke its orb through the clouds, unsuccessfully... those clouds were extremely close all day, lightly snowing midmountain, densely foggy at the top, and by our last run, they'd broken open and begun to dump large silent snowflakes that stuck to my goggles like glue. 

We stayed up until about 2:30, mostly saving ourselves for the rest of the week, as the snow was soft on the groomers, hugely bumped up on the rest, and caked over in the trees, and snow is on the forecast for the next 3 days!

Thank God for the farmer's almanac, Winter has finally arrived.

-See you In The Deep