Steamboat Feb 1-10

[NewEnglandSkier]

I'm back in Steamboat for my annual trip. I flew in last night so today was my first ski day. The weather was cloudy with light snow most of the day until about 2pm. I'd say there was like an inch of accumulation during the day. They really need snow. While everything is "covered" it is quite thin in places and there is dirt showing on trails that are normally very well covered by now.

This picture might not be the best example as I think this tends to melt faster than some, but this was taken under the Elkhead chair and that area is nearly always deep enough not to have bushes showing by now. I can only recall one other year this week that was nearly as thin.


Anyway, as per usual I rented demo skis instead of bringing my own. I went with ones I've tried in the past and enjoyed the K2 OooLa Luv in 156 length. I find these very versatile--they hold a good edge on firmer groomers and perform well in bumps and natural snow as well.

I spent the morning skiing the Sunshine area. The visibility was poor but the snow was good over there.

Not sure if this shows up in the photo well, but this is just light snow cover on the tree branches. I just thought it was pretty.


After lunch I decided to try another ski just for fun. I tried the Elan Ripstick 86. Last year I tried the Ripstick 94 and loved it, but the conditions I skied it in were very different (6+ inches of snow in the morning and heavy piles in the pm), while today was an inch on top of firmer snow. I didn't really care for the 86. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I felt myself becoming defensive and making poor turns. So I got rid of that one and tried the K2 Thrilluv It. I liked this ski pretty much equal with the OooLa Luv, though it is quite a bit lighter.

I spent the afternoon skiing off the Four Points Chair.
By now the storm had blown out and there were some views to be seen. This was taken from Lower Rainbow.


It's supposed to snow on and off for the next several days, so we'll see what happens.

Tonight I had dinner at the Ore House--I love their house potato. Shredded potato, mixed with spices, deep fried and covered in cheese sauce!

 

[Powgirl]

We were there at Christmas and there was a lot more snow under Elkhead...of course, they had just received a 3 ft+ dump...

We are returning in 3 weeks...hoping for some good snowfall in the meantime...

I love how the trees frost in Steamboat...

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Day 2
Mostly cloudy today and it snowed a little but not much. It was really foggy at times but other times not bad and it depended on where you were.
This morning I saw the resident moose while riding the Thunderhead chair

It hangs out in a certain area, so you're supposed to watch out for it. I'm glad I saw it from the lift and not on a ski trail.

I skied groomers in the morning and concentrated on more natural snow in the afternoon. I focused on skiing easy bumps off to the sides of the trails and I skied this little glade a few times.

This is the "olympian" trees off to the right of Quickdraw. They trees are very widely spaced and it gets a lot of traffic so it's pretty safe to ski it alone, as there are always people coming through.

The ski area now has fireworks at the base each Friday night. They are trying to attract more people to the base area/make it more lively. This is in addition to the night skiing. There were also quite a few people riding the new mountain coaster, which is also open at night.


Tomorrow I have one of my lessons.
It's supposed to snow some more but you never know. Hopefully the temperature drops a bit. The snow stayed pretty good up top today but it got wet and sticky closer to the base.

 

[marymack]

Hope you have a great week! I'll be out there the week of February 18-23rd. Please keep posting, its our first time out there and eager to see what will be best to ski and do!

 

[newboots]

This looks wonderful! I hope you get more snow. We are the lucky snow folks here in the northeast this year (and this week, coming up)!

 

[KarenD]

Glad to see your report. We're thinking of going to visit friends there in early March.

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Day 3
Today I had my lesson. It was cloudy pretty much all day with a little bit of new snow--a couple inches had fallen overnight. In the morning the fog was really dense but then it cleared out for the afternoon and was just cloudy.
Due to the poor visibility we skied in the trees for part of the day and for the rest of the day we focused on getting me to transfer my weight sooner in the turn. The snow turned cruddy by afternoon but I skied ok in it which is an improvement for me--though of course it wasn't that deep. I didn't get too much chance to take pictures today since it was very foggy and I was doing my lesson, but here is one I did take of more frosty trees. I love snow covered trees.


It was decently cold up top so the snow stayed nice, but when we skied to the base at the end of the day it was a bit slushy and sort of icey (western ice) in some areas.

Now for the next 3 days , I'm doing what I usually do and have gone to stay at Vista Verde Ranch for some light backcountry touring and other activities. I'll post pictures of those skis as well. I'll be back at Steamboat on Wednesday to ski for 4 more days.
Bonus picture---the chocolate pistachio dessert we had for dinner at the ranch tonight.

 

[newboots]

You can’t go wrong on theskidiva.com with pictures of snow-covered trees and chocolate!

 

[Powgirl]

Steamboat is a special place...

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Day 4
This morning I went horseback riding instead of skiing. Here is the view out my window.


Then in the afternoon I did a half day ski with another guest--and guide up to the Trilby West area.
Here is a view from one of the pitches we skied


Then here are our tracks on another pitch.


We skied each face several times and it snowed pretty much the whole time we were out.

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Day 5
Today myself and 2 other guests plus our guide did a ski over at Trilby East.
The snow conditions were really nice. We did steady climb upward and had some fun, gradual downhills.
Here is a view from one part of the ski

At the end, there was a nice face that faces the road with a pretty good pitch so we climbed that and lapped that several times. That was my favorite part of the ski! Getting to work on tele turns.

In the afternoon just myself and a guide did a ski closer to the ranch at the South Fork area--we did what they call the Figure 8 ski. Again some gradual climbing with some some downhills through trees. We made good time so we extended the trip by adding some more climbing/hills.
Here is a picture from the afternoon ski. You can make out our tracks as we skied down. We lapped this little pitch a few times as well.


I'm officially worn out from all the climbing I did. I'll do another ski tomorrow morning for sure and then I'm not sure if I'll ski tomorrow afternoon or do another activity. They have so many fun things to do, it's hard to pick just one.

 

[Christy]

I love the horses in the snow photo.

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Day 6
This morning I did a really fun ski with lots of hills. We took the snowmobile out to an area with the sole intention of hiking for turns. Most of the guests don't like going downhill, so they often send me out with just my own guide .
Right off the trail of where we parked was a perfect slope--great snow and steep enough to make lots of nice turns but not super steep. We lapped that a few times before continuing onward to look for more opportunities. We found a bunch more faces to ski--some were more mellow and some were relatively steep, but that first one was the most perfect. I only took one picture while we were out there.

It doesn't look like it has much pitch from the picture but it was pretty good--and even had a little jump to hit up near the top which I tried a couple times.

This afternoon I didn't ski. Instead I went tubing with some other guests for an hour and then took a fat bike out for about an hour.


Tomorrow I'm back in Steamboat for 4 more days of skiing.

 

[Christy]

Is this place pretty unique, or is this a thing? I mean with "light backcountry touring" and preferably with horses (and other activities). It sounds pretty cool, and I wonder if I have to go there to get it, or, are there lots of places that have this on offer.

ETA: I was thinking this was alpine backcountry skiing. Looking at the website it looks like Nordic. Now the "guests that don't want to go downhill" comment makes sense!

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

@Christy it's kind of unique--but there are other ranches that offer all of this. A few others in Colorado or some in Montana. Winter is low season for them, so they have fewer guests in the winter than in the summer.
Yes, it's nordic so many of the pitches you find will not be like blacks at the resorts---some of the pitches would be rated blues---and they don't guide in avy terrain. They use backcountry nordic skis---so they have metal edges, are wider than track skis and are shaped so are able to turn if you use tele turns. I can actually do a sort of modified alpine turn on them but its harder than using tele technique since the boots are not as supportive.

They always ask you what type of skiing you are looking for---some people just want to tour around on flat terrain and enjoy the scenery, others like to do some moderate climbing but are not thrilled by downhill--and then there is me who likes to seek out any and all hills I can find and hike them for turns.

It may not be alpine but it really is super fun. I spend most of my time skiing but they have so many other things to do, I always feel some slight regret if I don't do some other things too while I'm there.

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Day 7
Back in Steamboat. I got out skiing by about 9:45am today. It was sunny most of the day up until about 2pm.
I spent the day on the K2 Thrilluvit in 156 length. These were lots of fun in the ungroomed snow. I spent probably 60% of the day doing trees, small moguls and just skiing in the snow that hadn't been groomed--this is unusual for me as I am usually wimpy and stick mostly on groomers. The skis were very inspiring in those conditions so I took advantage of it.
Below is a picture from somewhere near where the Morningside lift unloads.

 

[Powgirl]

Lovely!! Thank you for your great trip reports...makes me excited to get back up there in a couple of weeks!

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Day 8
Today I had one of lessons. We worked on different aspects of my turns. I have different issues that occur depending on which direction I'm turning.
We also did some more trees and small bumps.
Only one picture today, due to time.


I'm also now the owner of a new pair of K2 ThrilluvIt. They offered me a price I couldn't refuse and the bindings were discounted as well and mounting is included since I bought them there, so now I have a third pair of skis. I envision these as a pair of skis I might actually want to travel with since they seem to handle the type of conditions I usually encounter on vacation out west very well. They hold a decent edge on hardpack and carve pretty well and yet are soft enough to be fun for me in beginner bumps and in the trees. And since the price was right, not as big a deal if the airlines ruin them.
They are being mounted tonight, so I should be able to ski them tomorrow.

I went downtown for dinner at Mambo and looked at the snow sculptures they have for Winter Carnival.
This one is the Olympic rings


And this one appears to be a dog

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Day 9
I had another lesson today and got to ski on my new skis. We worked more on my turns and did some moguls and trees as well. I did pretty well in the trees--better than I have skied them in years past--much less stopping and better flow.
This is picture of Morningside

I especially enjoyed the trees in Morningside today.

And this is a random photo of the view from my room.

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Day 10
Today was my last ski day. It snowed all day long and they got about 5 inches. I had another of my private lessons today. I would say it was a successful day.
Now, the combination of fresh snow and low visibility usually freaks me out, but I did better today. The first run was rough, but the second one was much better and I got better on each run. I don't often get to ski in fresh snow, so it feels like reinventing the wheel each each year, as I may only get one powder day per year! Luckily I was able to adjust more quickly this time so I enjoyed it rather than flailed.
We started over at Sunshine, as I am comfortable with the pitch over there so it was a good place to practice in the powder--we lapped Quickdraw quite a few times until I got the feel of it. We skied the little trees over there too.
We moved over to Storm Peak Face but the snow was not that great over there, so we took Rainbow down to Moonlight and went back to Sunshine, where the snow was really nice.

The mountain was really crowded today! We went to lunch early hoping to beat the rush, but to no avail---the lodge was packed and I mean packed with people. It was really awful--not only were all the tables filled but people were standing all over the place too. Luckily we found 2 people leaving so got in and got out quick!

After lunch, we skied the run that has been my nemesis for years. Now, for those who are familiar with Steamboat--don't laugh--you will probably wonder why I have such trouble with this run--but it's Hotcakes. Anyway, I skied it without any hesitation today and quite smoothly, so that was a success.
We then took the Morningside lift up and skied down the face into the Morningside trees. I also was able to ski those more smoothly than ever, with no stopping and wondering where to turn etc.
Then fresh from that successful run we did the bumps on The Ridge and Crowtrack area and some below that that I don't know what they are called---another success with minimal stopping to figure out where to go.

I didn't take too many pictures since you couldn't see anything, but here is one from the back of Four Points. Normally from the chairs you can see into the valley.


I went to an early dinner at Three Peaks Grill. It's been around for forever, but I'd never been there before. It was a nice way to cap off a fun trip. I really enjoyed my meal there.
Here's the mudpie


Then after dinner I headed downtown for the Winter Carnival night show. They have a fireworks display as well as other displays with various ski and snowboard disciplines.
This is not a good picture, but this is of a lighted ring that ski patrollers jump through holding flares and the capstone of that display is one who jumps with a flaming patrol sled.


It was a good trip, with lots of varied conditions. It's too bad the trip is over, since it's my favorite ski trip of the year, but I hope you'll join me on my future trip reports coming up to Aspen/Snowmass and Alta/Snowbird.