Steamboat

Steamboat is the last resort in Colorado that I wanted to ski at while I was here (I want to check out Telluride and Silverton as well, but those are really far away). I went to Steamboat for a day trip today. It took about 2 hours to drive up there in snowy conditions for about half of the drive. It is far North of Breckenridge. Steamboat is famous for its Champagne Powder. It tends to get a lot of very dry snowfall. This year I think they have been having a below average year, but the last few weeks have seen a lot of snowfall. Today they reported 15" of new snow and 30" in the last 3 days, so I was pretty excited to get there. I was not disappointed. Steamboat Springs is a big town, much larger than Breck or Aspen. As a result there were a ton of locals who were out in the morning to get a few powder runs before work. It was pretty crowded on the hill until about 11am. Once I got to the top of the gondola I basically had no idea where to go. Visibility was poor so I couldn't see any of the mountain either. I looked at the trail map and decided to head for some of the EX terrain at the top of the mountain. My first real run was down Chute 2 off the top of Mt. Werner. I had first tracks down. It was a steep narrow chute with lots of trees, and the snow was thigh deep. It was incredible skiing. I did another run through Christmas Tree Bowl off the top of the mountain and the snow was just as good. I spent the next few hours exploring the mountain. Steamboat is a lot lower than the other resorts in Colorado that I have skied at. Everything is below treeline. The tree skiing is spectacular. It was weird, some tree areas got skied out early in the morning, while other groves where untracked around mid-day. I found lots of great tree skiing, but still nothing as good as the first few runs off the top that I did. In the afternoon I headed back to the top of Mt. Werner and started doing laps in the Christmas Tree Bowl and the Chutes. It was cool and nearly every line I skied was untracked. Overall I thought Steamboat was a really cool place to ski. The snow conditions were as good or better than any I have skied in the last 6 years. I guess Steamboat is renowned for snowfall quantities. The tree skiing (both evergreen and aspen trees) is the best I have ever seen. My biggest complaint about Steamboat is the lack of difficult terrain. They don't have a ton of steep terrain. The stuff rated EX at the top of the mountain is only steep for a few hundred vertical feet. It is necessary to take two chairlifts to get to the top and the fun part of the run is really short. It was still a great mountain. I skied 32,370 vertical feet today, and I was exhausted after two very big days of skiing back to back at BC and Steamboat. At Steamboat, guest services gives out hot chocolate at the end of the day at the base area. For the second day in a row I was shafted as they ran out just before I got there. This time it was even worse because they let a little kid cut in line ahead of me and he got the very last cup. Because of this injustice I will probably never come back to Steamboat.