Unquestionably the best day and best powder we've had all year, today brought a reported minimal 8" of new in the last 24 but it was definitely more like a foot in spots as usual.
First chair up Christie to Four Points, we made our fresh knee-high turns down into Moonlight trees in light powder with Keith and Jesse, and headed up Sundown to seek out the stashes before the Saturday mob arrived. From the top we did "Keith's Ridge" under the top of Sunshine Lift Line, where visibility was pretty minimal under a thick fog but the snow was downright glorious.
From there we hit OneOClock to find some tree stashes, which were so nice we did 1230 first then 130 later on when we caught up with Drew and Jeannie from Colorado Springs. ("Look there's a whole flock of em!" -Texan says about the monoskiers.) The trees below the Duster cat track were mint, but what was groomed was also nice with about 4" on top of fresh cord.
We also found some goodies in the Sundial area trees, on Ramrod and Buckshot, and frankly, there isn't a bad run out there today! We didn't burn out until about 11, shocker, since we haven't had this much snow to burn the quads since ... well, April 2009 maybe. :)
Both Westside and Rolex were lovely, for Westside, I rode the left side into the trees towards Broadway for shin-deep stuff; and Rolex had "hero" bumps up to my waist in spots. We found similar on Hurricane, and ducked into the trees back to Rainbow for the stashes there. DIVINE!
Just like that, one day of the good and the bare and not-so-nice spots are filling in very nicely- Sundown Liftline, Thunderhead Liftline, and Sunshine Liftline were all back to excellent.
Finally, we have some deep! And hopefully more of it. Real soon.
With my parents and their college friends in town this week for the Carnival, of course we've been joking daily about old people- being old, creaking bones, social security checks, and waiting for the old men to catch up to us on the hill.
Ward Doyle however is NOT an old man. I'm officially declaring that right here.
Uncle Waddy ripped this mountain wide open today and it was US trying to keep up with him! Brilliant! Not often do we meet our match, groomer day or powder day it doesn't matter; when you spend 50-80 days a year on the same hill, week in week out, it's hard for anyone else to keep up. But this is Ward's third ski trip this year, he was bragging about Idaho on Sundown lift so we were hopeful and our hopes were granted.
The morning was sunnier than the afternoon; so we cranked out 6 runs while the rest went "gourmet snowshoe touring", and then met up with them at Hazie's for a divine lunch. The respite ceased up the joints, so come 1pm we were ready to head down the Daze. We timed it right so they could shoot us from above for a change! What a glorious day; many took advantage of it, there was a "line" at Sundown!
There's something blowing in... someone say a prayer it doesn't go to my parents' house in DC yet again... they're supposed to get FEET. Where's my Powder Day!?
See you in the deep!
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.