IN THE DEEP

Steamboat TV18's and NRC Broadcasting's Eli Campbell injured his knee early this season and has been unable to ski since the start of the year. We ran into Eli and his lady Erin at Creekside one day, and discussed the idea of monoskiing... it gave him something to look forward to... when the doc would clear him for some strapped-in safe snow sliding! That day was finally yesterday, March 29, coincidentally one day after the anniversary of Craig's ski accident.

Eli's a great snow athlete- one look at his Facebook pictures and you can see he has a thirst for adventure in the woods. So with even more powder coming at us this week, we think we've timed this perfectly! Hopefully Eli will take this lesson to the next step and make some turns.

101 Fitting
Fitting the monoski bucket, foot cage, and outriggers to a beginner stance is primary; you should have an expert help line this out for you. Once you've mastered the basics, you can adapt to a more intermediate stance.

101 Control
Even more so than able-bodied skiing, when monoskiing you must start out slow to control the rig. It's a heavy piece of equipment that can hurt someone; so control of the device is of the utmost importance.

Push forward and backwards, lift up, pivot, and get an overall feel for your balance in the bucket and on the outriggers. Then on a flat surface practice getting up some momentum and stopping yourself. Monoski stops are made by pressing down with your arms and shoulders and pivoting one way or the other, as if the outrigger is doing the job, but it's your body is setting the turn in motion. Once you've mastered stopping the rig on a flat surface, move up the bunny slope to begin working on turning.


Eli did great at the base; he took to the rig right away, and was able to find his balance quickly. As a ski racer and athlete, Eli wasn't learning to ski, he was learning to adapt his existing (excellent) skiing skills to this particular equipment. The concepts are mostly the same, so he had a head start; but even his success far succeeded anyone's expectations!


101 Turning
Turning the rig is similar to turning when standing skiing; your head/eyes and thumbs should direct your turns. If you're overturning, you're looking into the next turn too late. [Overturning on a monoski will cause "wash out," where the ski turns back uphill and the bucket slides
out beneath you.] Prevent this by staying ahead of the turn by always looking to the next side once your turn has begun.

Now you're monoskiing!

Eli made some great turns, first twice down Headwall and then Craig took him to Swinger, and as he picked up momentum he seemed to pick it up, by the wide part of the trail, he was bombing away, turning less, and really getting the hang of it!




Thanks for being such a good sport, and thanks to TV18 for putting together the video of yesterday, we can't wait to see it!

We probably wouldn't have gone up today had it not been for Jeffrey Krauthamer (left) celebrating his birthday on the hill all the way from MD... we woke up to a 1" report and bad reports all week about the hill. Craig had been up once, made it to Thunderhead, and turned around because he said it felt like a skating rink. Our temps have been warm, too warm, and we just haven't gotten any snow for about two weeks. Some locals go up every day. Some, like me, are just way too picky for putting up with subpar.

But the skies were unloading by about 9am, and by the second report, there were 5 new inches to be had! We'll have to thank Jeffrey for getting us up there to appreciate it. He visits every winter since I can remember, and had his adaptive turns scheduled for 10am today. We met them at the top of the Gondy shortly after, and made some fabulous, and I'm not exaggerating, turns in Wally World.

There wasn't much to be had in the obvious places, but first turns in Sundial trees and I was in heaven, even on my short groomer day board. At least a half a foot and untouched, on top of a relatively grabby surface. A surprise from above. We kept searching for the stashes along the sides, and beelined down Ramrod for some more.

Sunnyside was the highlight (left), although the turns in Sideburns on our final descent was what we live here for as well. Light, fluffly, untracked, and deep enough to get some yips out of us!

Hopefully we'll get a few more turns in before we leave town on Monday, snow or no snow. With Jeffrey in from MD and Kevin in from Scotland, it's likely! ... video?

We didn't get up early today, and instead watched the snow fall in piles of snowflakes the size of pancakes from our offices until we could take it no more. The 2" and 5° on the 5am report kept building and building, and by the noon report there was a foot. So sometime after lunch we both started putting our gear on for some late day turns and made it to the top by 2.

The wind, snow, and cold were relentless all day apparently; Storm Peak was such a blizzard we couldn't even get across the plain to drop off onto the Face and had to cut across the track to Sideburns, where we dove into thigh-deep powder, blind as bats. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face; even the top of Sundown, which is sometimes milder than Storm, reminded me of Eric Weihenmeyer's ascent up Everest- blowing sideways, bundled mountaineers huddling together deciding which line to take, and visibility nil. Needless to say it was not a day for the camera folks; apologies.

We headed for the favorite stashes as usual, and if there were tracks in 1:30 trees at any point today, they were already covered. Craig buried himself in a treewell, luckily landing upright, because he just plainly couldn't see! Faceshots and fog combined, we were both as blind as Weihenmeyer. By the second lap up Sundown my goggles were toast, and I had to nip into the Patrol shack for a quick clear up.

From there we dropped down Sundown liftline, enticed by skiers below our previous ride, and despite a few screeching halts, Craig bombed those knee deep bumps like a porpoise, getting hoots from the riders above, while I surfed behind to make sure he didn't find another hole to hide in. By the time we hit the bottom of Moonlight we were already spent.

We headed to the top for a frosted-goggle top-to-bottom through the meadow below Storm and the untracked left side of Hurricane. The blizzard was just as bad at the bottom, six inches of fresh lay waiting at the bottom. It's gotta be snowing several inches an hour.

Tomorrow is going to be ridiculous! WOOT!

"See you in the deep" is an understatement.

Another gorgeous day in the Boa, people... a perfect condition kind of day. With 11 new inches today on top of yesterday's foot, and however many before that (how long has it been snowing?), the groomers were covered, the bumps were filled in, and the trees were like butter. The snow was exponentially lighter today than it has been, the temps cooperated, and we're back to our Champagne!

A little wind blown from the dropping jet flow at the top, we ducked into the trees immediately, hitting 3:00, 1:30, and 12:30 right off the bat. A lap through Sunset to Moonlight, cutting into the trees above Moonlight yielded some of the most deep stuff out there.

The place was deserted as well, so seconds and third helpings were a-plenty. Likely the crazy inversion valley fog and clear peak is what kept the peeps at bay; their loss, it was a gorgeous bluebird powder day indeed, you just had to get above the Gondy to see it.

No equipment failure today, just tired bodies from several days of riding in the heavy powder. We had to cash ourselves in at only 10:30, just when the clouds rolled back in for some more dumpage.

What a crazy day.
1. Lifts opened an hour late due to some ice creation making the detachables detach...
We wind up on Gondy much earlier than that but only to take first run down Rudy's and ...
2. Lose a binding. Craig'd been saying that ski felt soft these last few days; last year's demo model Bro with a racing plate and Marker binding. First run, racing plate rips off the back end and renders the Revolution motionless. Skiing down wasn't an option, so we sent the packmule down for the backup, and I made it back in 30 minutes with the ski, a very nice Patroller and his phillips head. We didn't let the late start or groomer ski hold us back. Thanks to cell phones, we met up with Matty and Lang, Craig's Sig-Pi brothers from St Lawrence, for a full day of faceshots.

The temps have stayed around 30, so the snow is heavy, but much softer than we expected. We started in 130 trees; untouched, deep, and controllable. The snow slowed things down a bit, so we sought out the steeper stuff. Rolex was a perfect choice. But then again, so were Sideburns, Sunset and Lights Out, FP Lift Line, Hurricane...

Definitely still stormy up top, the wind was buzzing and the peak snow blown off; visibility was 3-4 chair lengths. Once you got below the cloud coverage though the conditions improved considerably, visibility was endless, and the sun-kissed valley glowed up from below.

Thanks to Lang's visit we had the excuse for Slopeside, so we grabbed some beers and apps- go with the White Out pizza with BBQ chicken if you're there- and made a day of it. We rarely get to do that, so it's a treat when we do. Then we came home and watched the Monocross. Hats off to Andy Cambell for trying his best, and for a quick recovery on that femur... we know how that goes. Of course hats off to Tyler, Sam, and KJ for medalling in that crazy Monocross event!

Storm's supposed to keep hitting us until tomorrow, and taper off through Thursday, temps are also supposed to drop down to 20.

Matty's our guest photographer today, we'll load some foot-o-fresh pics when we get them.

See you in the deep-

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!

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!

It was an exciting morning in the 'Boat today; we've been watching the snow pile on since yesterday afternoon until this morning thinking... ooooh, deeeeeep. I personally couldn't sleep past 6:30 from all the excitement.

We pressed glass at the Gondy, getting first chair once again thanks to some mule help from Rob W and Travis G with the gear! We didn't make it up before the Thunderhead pressers but Rudy's tracked out on a 24" day is dreamy just the same. We reached the Storm Peak line with over 100 other dedicated 'hounds and made about 12th chair up. Giggling and bubbling excitement aside, you don't get much happier than looking down from a Storm Peak chair and seeing Hurricane and Storm Face completely untracked and beckoning yours. We had to do it, and it was one of the top 10 best runs of my life. Long, steep, untracked, and thigh deep snow with intermittant face shots, seriously? Who's hatin' that? It was of course over Craig's head, so not him. We had shouts of encouragement from the lift the entire way down

Deep doesn't necessarily mean painless though... First run Rob snapped his pole in half (see right!). Laughing, we checked the lift shacks for replacements and made our way to Sideburn and Sunset and Lights Out so we could take Sundown up to check in the Patrol shack for one. Sideburn was as deep as you can ski it, folks, literally, choking on snow. Sunset was slightly tracked but up to my waste in spots, and Lights Out was bottomless. Unfortunately however Craig jumped his bouncing rabbit-like butt into a 2' hole and three of us, including a patroller, had to dig him out. But by the time we blazed through Lights Out to the lift, his leg was jumping now too.

For Craig this isn't good... bouncing legs means something in there is wrong- you paras know this, your body tells you when your nerves can't. Needless to say we had to exit the mountain to get him checked out. Alas, a glorious morning cut short but not wasted, for sure. TONS of pow. We made our way down the hill via Storm and our meadow (or I've also heard it called "Middleburns") to Rainbow for some final face shots.

Craig's at Dr Sisk's now getting it xrayed (I'll keep you posted, we're hoping for an ankle sprain), and then we head down to Denver this afternoon and fly out to Myrtle Beach tomorrow! We'll miss the holiday week of snow, so get after that powder for us and we'll see you next year!

Happy Holidays!

Today's tasty surprises were everywhere, and the skiers were nowhere to be seen. We had the place to ourselves this morning, and it was delightful. Craig's bff Keith insisted on the Gondy, even though Thunderhead is now open, and we got first tracks down Rudy's, fresh untracked cord with a few inches of butter on the side... tasty. Storm wasn't open so we rode up BC for a few turns down newly-opened Surprise for some fresh.

Up Sundown and on to High Noon for a top-to-bottom hauler, speedy, carvy, buttery, delight. I've literally never seen High Noon look or feel so good with one person on it, me! I lost the boys who headed down Sunshine Lift Line, reporting it to be identical conditions of course. We met up via Sundown and Sunshine lifts at the top- I can effectively confirm that Sunshine is only about 2 chairs slowly than Sundown now... remember when that lift took 15 minutes?

Then on to Tomohawk, with 3-4" of fresh along the side we surfed to the tunes and followed Craig down to Ramrod. This one was so nice, we did it twice. Ramrod was carvable, again with about 4" max in spots, definitely stiff from the wind but not noticable on the big boards; we found fresh tracks through the meadow. Second time around our buddy and guest photographer Jessie parked it at the cattrack at the bottom of Ramrod and took some shots. . . apparently however we don't get to view them yet today!

We took The Face (lovely) to Rainbow and Vagabond; they're blasting Vagabond still, filling in the holes. We checked out the sad empty forest removed from Rough Rider Basin, wow, talk about Beetle Kill Meadow. It looks so different, there definitely will be some sad kids missing their wood ferries in there this year.

The views from the top extended to the hazy Flattops, glowing blue under partial clouds, looking downright magestic today. The sun is trying to peek through but it's mostly overcast, and no, it's not snowing. We did in fact only get about 4" max, but don't let that stop you from tasting the goods from the Gods. It's unbelievable up there.

We've been in the mix of a tentative- and temperamental- storm warning these last few days and I'm beginning to lose track of things already! It's Thursday, a week from Christmas, it's frigid, and it's snowing- it's not snowing- it's snowing... that's the extent of my awareness right now.

Yesterday we had a few new inches at the top and today we had a dusting as well. It started dumping huge saucer-sized flakes today around 11:30am, and snowed for several hours. But the big dark storm system they promised would drop several feet on us is unfortunately sneaking out the back door. We're all a bit disappointed to say the least, but that hasn't been stopping Craig from making turns religiously (well, it is the holiday season!). He went up yesterday morning and mid-day today, both times reporting conditions were above average~ cold, good leftovers, and empty.

I'm a little more finicky myself and have immediate plans to mount the helmet/bike cam on Craig's foot cage so he can fill in with better details when I bag it (as I have the past few days). For clarification, I prefer fresh snow, early morning turns, am ok with minimal visibility and swirling snow, and don't care what temperature it is so long as there's new snow. But then again, I also snowshoe....

Craig's single option in the winter is skiing, and by golly, he's in-it-to-win-it right now. Gearing up for the 1st annual Legends of the Deep Powder Invitational in January, Craig's not only skiing daily, he's also working out at the gym and his skiing shows it. He's bombing bumps and piles of old snow like it's UPS's popcorn. He'd never race, says it's too much "waiting around," but a powder competition? You just wait.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring us some powder but frankly it doesn't look like it; that storm front is puking itself dry somewhere Ft Collins right now... I mean even VEGAS got some. COME ON.

For the record, weathermen of the US, please don't predict "several feet" of snow for us ever. Steamboat's Bermuda Triangle of weather seems to like it best when you say "1-3 inches" instead.

Glorious day up there today friends; Steamboat is inching towards max opening and today was an outstanding advance in the right direction. The Gondy line was enormous, full of the weekend warriors and the usual faces in front, we bypassed to the disabled entrance, loaded, and made it down to Storm to collect with the early rising hikers and staff for some fresh powder. The ride down Rudys was mint: 3" of fresh or so on top of a blanket of cord? Oh my. It was a all-layers morning, 6° at the summit, giving the snow the lightness we love.

From Storm Peak we headed right over to the sunny side and caught first tracks down 2 O'Clock, almost over Craig's head in spots, we bombed through the bumps like butter all the way down Daybreak without a sound. Silent carving, deLIGHTful.

Up Sundown and down Sunshine Lift Line, through the trees to the right and over to Fawn, again first tracks, and almost too deep to surf with tacky wax and flatter momentum. Big GS turns down Fawn to South Peak, all to ourselves.

Up South Peak and down Westside, maybe 5th tracks or so, again bombing through buttery snow and loving every minute of it, despite the goggle steam and icing corners of the lenses... I made a pitstop into the shack to warm them up at the top of Sundown, and the boys did a lap without me, spending most of it chilling out (literally) on a stopped Sundown lift.

Then onward to our last runs, traversed to Storm Face, through the meadow and down Rainbow; tasty freshies to the left side, down to Storm Express for a top-to-bottom- which included Rainbow again it was so nice. These are the days we live here for.

What's new? They're blasting snow on Moonlight and Vagabond, and they opened Thunderhead lift around 9am... as we inch towards 100% and hopefully a 100" base...

See you in the Deep-

It's been snowing since around 2am, and it's piling on!! I heard today that over last weekend we got up to 3 feet at the top, and some wiseguy at the gym told Craig that he'd skied Hurricane and it was sick. Reminding a monoskier you can hike to get your turns, some nerve. [chuckle] Not that hiking UP Rainbow sounds like our cup of tea anyway.

So Craig has vowed to get his rig sorted out today (whence last I wrote he had issues with the shock jamming) while we're up at the activity fair at the Grand, so we can ski tomorrow and Saturday.

They announced they plan to open the Gondola and Burgess Creek tomorrow and Storm Peak on Saturday (lifts) and we're excited for more terrain, to say the least. Tomorrow might even be our first powder-blue-bird day, folks; stay tuned. I've got to get some pictures of him for PMGear with his new skis, so expect some good shots over the next couple days-

I'm off to hike the hill behind our house for some cardio work to get me up to speed so I can keep up.

-See you in the deep (for REAL this time)

If small towns churn rumors like coffee beans in the grinder, Steamboat is the Rumor Mill...

Word is they're opening a few extra runs this weekend, but no more lifts: The bottom of Valley View (exit stage right off Christie) and See Me (next to See Ya). Now, that's unconfirmed, but the runs have been tilled by the grooming crew, meaning they are at least fixin' to do somethin' with them! And NOT a rumor: To entice the skiers Steamboat's offering Ski Free tickets till Christmas if you book lodging; an unheard-of deal and a sign of the times.

It's unseasonably warm today, but the skies are blackening, there's something dark red on the satellite moving across the CO-UT border as I type, and there's snow on the forecast until Thursday night. One can only hope at this point, 'cuz my snow dance seems futile; Mother Nature has a mind of her own.

At least we'll be in ridiculously good shape by the time Steamboat opens full steam, but I'm a little bored with this "ski conditioning" by now for sure.

Dreaming of Face Shots- Craig's one and only cover shot; SNS0307.

Truthfully, we never ski on Scholarship Day.But we always ski on Thanksgiving.

Now, on a year when we have a powder day on opening day and I'm really THAT itching to ski, I might very well ski on Scholarship Day- proceeds for this day ($15 tickets, season pass or not) go to our local youth Winter Sports Club- but so far, that hasn't happened in 10 years. However for at least the last seven, I've skied Thanksgiving morning, before I start churning out pumpkin pies.

2006 was the most memorable opening for me; we had a week of snow and we were all choking on it during opening week. (11-30-06, left) The rest have not been... a few runs for the kicks of it, and that's about it. Get your legs under you again, see if all that "ski conditioning" exercise was worth the puking (yes, for the first time since I was 18 I threw up after running today, OMG), and test out your new boards- unless of course it's this year, then we're dusting off our "rock" skis. You know the ones, those 210s from '91 with serious gouges out of them already? Right. Those of us who ride haven't been knuckle-dragging long enough to have "rock boards." Pisser.

So... we're at one-more-day (!) and counting hours... 38... tick tick.

With sunny skies and warm temps for over a week, talk of town is a repeat of last year's delayed opening. Consensus is that's OK if we get last year's quantity; who needs snow in November if we're up to our neck in it by January?

The ski area does, that's who. With a cut-back budget, reduced staff, and bookings far below average, a continual dumping of the white stuff would be key right now. Or as one of the higher ups told me, a national broadcasted Broncos game under snowing skies would increase bookings considerably.

The sunny skies are fading though, there's something storming over in Utah, and I noticed one of my Facebook friends in Oregon is "hunkering down, the storms have begun." So I have hope amidst my doubts of an opening in just one short week. Please do your snow dance with me... please.

The mountain is already reporting two feet of snow thus far, with a one-foot base and it's been snowing all day. A Twitter friend's update tells me that skiers are lappin' it up at Loveland already, and although we're ready, we're not.

Craig's been gathering gear like a ravaged midwestern soccer mom on Black Friday; Old skis and bindings checked? Check. New leg for the monoski? Check. New powder skis? Check. New powder outriggers? Check. Smartwool layers? Check.

But what's left to do? Bring the Revolution Pro Comp and the old outriggers down from the rafters and throw on that new leg. Put up the bikes. Wax the boards. Pick up our passes. And Open Up The Lifts!

Pick up our passes?? That should be first! Yikes, we need to get on that early next week before the lines start forming and the locals start frothing at the bit...