IN THE DEEP

At 6am I checked the infamous stick (get the Steamboat app), and it was pretty congruent with the report - 2" at mid-mountain, 5" at the summit. It was snowing, however.

I went back to sleep. 

My husband was rustling around at 7am and so I glanced one more time at the stick. Was that 6" and 8"? I wasn't motivated. But it's been weeks since I've snowboarded (powder-snob) so I thought... hmmmm.

At 7:20 I checked again. 8" and 8" and still snowing. I was up and driving out by 7:30. Now I was motivated.

It was a good choice. It just kept hammering all morning, and Ramrod was perhaps the best I've seen it all year with over a foot on it by the time we hit it at 9:40 or so. By then, we'd had 3 monster runs and face-shots galore. 

 

Our adventure consisted of:

Gondy

Rudis

Blizzard

Storm Peak

Buddy's

Calfroper

In between trees

Cyclone 

Dropout

Storm Peak

Storm Southwest to 

Meadow

Sunset

Moonlight trees

Moonlight

Sundown

Block Powder

Tomahawk

Ramrod

Buckshot trees

South peak

Westside

Elkhead

Tower

Heavenly daze

Ted's Ridge

Giggle Gulch

Short Cut

And we were done by 10:15. 

All in all, a great day on the hill. 

Hopefully I can stay motivated to keep documenting our powder days... because it's a really great place to live, and an even greater place to ski.  

What a delivery. Following what I heard was the "worst day of the season," Mother Nature delivers a 8-10" powderday under bluebird skies. What a way to end the season, totaling 338". Not bad.

It started snowing mid morning on Thursday, so we went up for afternoon turns.  It snowed off and on through Friday morning (that day's highlights here), and then warmed up, brightened up, and clouded up again - in usual spring fashion. Saturday's continual cloud coverage eliminated the chance for soft spring snow, and high winds scraped whatever snow was left completely off. So sure enough, although we didn't venture up there yesterday, we heard from the majority that the conditions were abysmal. Glad we skipped. Instead we enjoyed the festivities - which are unparalleled in my opinion, although not that I've tested the rest (why leave?).

Steamboat throws a mean party. 11am Cardboard Classic. 2pm birthday party for Billy Kidd (70!).  3pm 3-7time Grammy Nominated (depending on who you ask around here) local favorite Missed the Boat bluegrass. And we ended it with dinner at Slopeside. Yum.


Then around 7:30 last night it came roaring back in with a vengeance - high winds blazing ahead of a dark, thick cloud front.  (God, I love weather.)  It began drizzling on our walk to the car, and by the time we got home it was a full blown rain/hail/slush storm, smacking the back door's glass with a wall of water first, then caking the door, deck, and dish (required scraping) with a heavy layer of slush.   The forecast called for a foot... we went to bed anxious.

We woke up with a spring in our step, called the report, and jumped out of bed. 9 new inches and 8 degrees at the summit.  Then we looked outside. Oh yeah! BLUE! As far as the eye could see.  Frankly I can't remember a closing day like it. And the locals came out in force.

The Gondy line? Full. The SSRC VIPs reopened First Tracks to appease the masses, and there was happiness all around.

We started out with five, our favorite monoskier and a fourpack of snowboarders, much to his chagrin. We loaded at 8:20 and enjoyed fast, silky turns down Rudy's, as the sun crested over the summit.



We snagged 2nd and 3rd chair at Four Points, only behind Straight Talk Reporter David Wittlinger and his subject Pickle.  From halfway up the lift we noticed Storm Peak wasn't running due to high winds up top... although Tornado Lane/Nelsons looked oh so untouched and smooth, the wind was whipping upward, creepily running like ghost waves over uneven surface.


So we headed over to Sunnyside right away - via Rainbow and Moonlight. From the top of Sundown we could see what the fuss was about. Howling with a knock-you-over kind of force. We beelined it down 3 to 1230 and ducked into the trees wherever we could.



Next we hit Sundial to Ramrod - best run of the day I think; although grabby it spots, the snow was heavy on the bottom but light on top, like Billy's 70th cake.  Then to Westside/Wristband, yes, the trees were powder-icious.

3rd run up Sundown the boys decide - against my better judgment I'll add - that they should at least do ONE run over on the other side. So we traverse across the Land of Hoth Storm Face and meadow, and down to test out Hurricane. GONG. Back to Four Points (yes, Storm STILL closed), Sunset, Moonlight Trees. Ahhh, much better. Again, glorious in the trees.

We did Sundial again, and then to Rolex/Land of the Little People. Uh huh. Then Morningside opened and Craig ached to do Kodak one more time, one last powder run to remember her by.

On the way down we scored last goods in the trees off Vagabond left (surely they have a name), and the trees under Thunderhead lift. By then it was time to party again, and down at the base the weather was downright springtime, with a nip in the air.

Yes, another day of ridiculousness - 1pm Pondskim, 2:30  Head forthe Hills (bluegrass) and 4:00 Leftover Salmon!  Lots of costumes, tutus, fagbags, wigs, and locals with kids, dogs, and beers in hand. Good times.



See you next year snow-covered heaven, until then, we'll put up the boots and boards and explore your lush hills on foot or on wheels.  Gotta love it -

Another glorious day with the powderhounds in search of the mid-mountain 14 that fell since yesterday. The morning report clued us in to stay low, reporting only 7" up top, so we did mostly that...

Starting with a lap down Norther to Four Points, somewhat bumped out but still good. Next we hit Nelson's to Twister to BC, where the powder was knee deep and not as tracked. From BC we did the liftline back down, arguably the best run of the day with wide open glades of powder and empty at that, so we stopped for a few photo shots. Go Alicia!




Then we got the text I was waiting for, Craig was headed up the hill! So we hit Oops to Vertigo, also among the best of the day, lower thigh deep, glorious light powder. We ducked under the lower T-Head lift line and found the untouched stash hiding there! 

Riding Thunderhead up, we were tempted by what was below us, and hoping we were timing it right, (frankly we couldn't help ourselves) so we hit Concentration and the top was the deepest stuff we found all morning - upper thigh deep and then knee deep to Mother Nature. Wow. Back into the liftline, and back up to the saddle where Mr. Powderhound was waiting.

We took a rare trip down Vag to Surprise to get to Storm Peak so we could hit 3O'Clock and 1:30, otherwise known as ... errr, ask me in person next time you see me.   Very nice in here, all the way down the right side of High Noon even. 


From the top of Sundown we did the Face Mustache to Hurricane, freshies in both! At this point it was 10:45 and Alicia and I were hitting our limit, and apparently so was Craig's rig, which blew a bearing on the way down just before we got a chance to hit Vertigo again unfortunately.  Anyone got a new sit-ski they want to get rid of? ... yeah. Any kind will do, Craig's Revolution Pro Comp is a whopping 17 years old with 1300-1500 days on it!  A new one is $5000...

Well, we've been chewing up this mountain since before Christmas, and it looks like we will all finally get a bit of a respite to rest the old knees, backs, necks, ankles, and sit skis... a week of sunshine on the forecast should make a few people (non locals) happy for the New Year.

And when the snow returns... you'll see us In The Deep!
 

The snow Gods are smiling down on northern Colorado this week, making up for lost time, filling in the holes, and bringing joy to all the little powderhounds.



Our wee gaggle of single trackers honed in on first Gondy and first chair at Four Points today, (a-thankyou Craig!) and we were chomping at the bit after hearing a patroller say we got 18" in the last 24 hours.  It's the never-ending storm, so much so that I honestly can't - no really - remember when it started.  We are skiing ourselves into shape quickly on Mt. Werner, and no one's complaining. In fact, we're downright bragging. Everytime I look at my Ski Report app (get it, awesome), Steamboat still has the highest dropcount. 10" on this morning's report, but it's so much deeper than that. We're inching our base above 40 now... soon the trees will be safe again!

Rudy's and Blizzard were magic velvet, and it just kept getting better from there.  From 4P we did a Nelson's - Hurricane, hooting and hollering and OMG-ing the whole way down.  I was watching Craig get face shot after face shot on every turn, with snow billowing over his head (nearing goggle failure) , and up above my own knees in spots.  It felt like a backcountry day, weaving the outside of the track before me to assure freshies the whole way down. Glorious.  Hurricane was so nice, we had to hit it twice, taking Storm up to do a "Nose" run down the center of the face and then over to Hurricane's creamy left side.  There was nothing to do but smile, shit-eating-grin style.  It was perfect, every last bit of it. 

More terrain and lifts are opening every day- and today it was Sundown, so from there we headed over to do a Clock lap, from 3 to 2 to Daybreak, all good, all deep, all the time. Then another Nose lap to get us down before we headed into work.


It's still coming down out there, check the grooming report for openings, stay safe, and see you In the Deep!  (Which looks like it'll be tomorrow once again!)