IN THE DEEP

Steamboat's had a good dumping of snow in the past few days while we were in Denver and we came home yesterday with eyes on the prize for skiing this morning's leftovers - and glad we did.  It was a beautifully warm midday under "Giants-Blue" skies (watch out Patriots!); we got up at about 10:40 and made turns for about 2 hours with Pops, aka Wild Bill, who was ashamed today was his first day of the season. (Some Local!)

We rode the lifts up and made our first mid-mountain turns down Rudys to Storm - soft groomer for carving!  We got wind that Sundown Lift was closed, so we skirted from the top to Sunshine and down the lift line and what a glorious run that was - groovy-soft rollers, powder along the sides in the trees, and I punched a little into Pumphouse and was pleased I did, cotton-ball fresh. And then came the burn for Old Man Kennedy, this is why we call it "skiing into shape."  That long run reminded Wild Bill he shoulda been riding his trusty treadmill more often!

We rode up Sunshine and took Flintlock this time, where I trailed our monoskier all decked out in his #10 Manning jersey. Why not, he'll be wearing that for 2 more weeks mind you. And hopefully more... but this isn't the place to talk football.

Watch and learn...

Good news, more snow is on the horizon - it seems Steamboat is finally out of its doughnut-hole! Time to build that base! 

-See you In The Deep!

Unquestionably, undeniably, our first full-on powder day of the year, today's foot of fresh brought the hoots, hollers, and yip-yips from locals that Winter's smile is all about.  But don't be fooled, it wore us out. And froze me out. It's a chilly-will up there today, with a -16 report on the 5am.

It snowed all day yesterday, starting while it was still warm, and bringing about 2-3" of heavy stuff, a perfect buffer layer over that unmentionable stuff beneath that we've been grimacingly skiing on for weeks now.  Then came the buttery layer; I wouldn't call it the Steamboat Champagne™ - it was heavy enough made turning not an option.  Today was brought to us by the letter P for point and go, and stick to the steeper stuff.  Unless someone broke trail for you, but since we were first, there was none of that!

We rode first car on the Gondy, got to Four Points 2nd in line behind a die-hard skinner (where all those behind us were chompin' about how great Rudy's was!) and bombed our way (hooting) down the knee deep glory on Sunset to the western gully of Moonlight trees.  A ride up Sundown gave the view of what First Tracks had chewed up, and we opted for Keith's Ridge to Sunshine LL's left side to 12:30, but never made it there.  The cut through the trees from Sunshine to High Noon was formidable, and I had to opt for the connector lane (found a frozen mouse-icle on the cat track, indicating the sub-zero temps) while Craig burned his guns out on a High Noon traverse to 1:00.  I found him at the bottom there - catching the lovely thigh-deep pow at the bottom of 12:30 mind you - and snapped this:



We did another run down 3:00 to 2:00 to Daybreak and were puffing for a top-to-bottom by then. It's time to ski yourselves in shape peeps.  We took Elkhead to Norther (omg HERO soft bumps for some more hooting), to Storm Peak for a SP-Face to Mustache Meadow (BEST run of the day without fail) to Rainbow and out.

While the snow fell early enough yesterday to fall prey to the night crew grooming schedule, even those groomers were nice again - with the only-occasional growl underneath.

I told her yesterday, "Winter, please stick around," and it looks like she will; snow is yet again on the forecast.  Check the Almanac, uncanny prediction for Winter's commencement on January 16 in the Western Rockies.  HOW do they do that??


-See you in the Deep once again-

We'll take what we can get this year, and the 2" last night turned into 5 or  6 on Morningside in the afternoon due to all the winds!  I took some late-day turns with the monos down Kodak and had a blast!  But brr, was it cold and windy!



Tomorrow is the last day of the camp, and the first time in 7 years that we've been unable to do Powdercats for lack of snow.  While as sad as that seems, it'll be nice to spend one more day with these amazing athletes on the hill!