Steamboat 12/27/15
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Steamboat 12/27/15
 
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All I could think after skiing today was "I never knew skiing could be this good". Here's how the day went.
It was very cold in the morning, meaning -15 at the base. I wanted to be out right at open, but my dad wanted to wait a bit for it to warm up. My mom took today off and XC skied. I got on our hotel shuttle at 8:15 and was in line (there really wasn't a line) for the gondola just before they opened it. I got the 3rd car up. My dad got on at about 9 and he walked right on. I was going to meet my dad at 9:30 at the top of the gondola, before that, I took 2 laps on the Thunderhead Express skiing Heavenly Daze to Ted's Ridge and then Vagabond. After that, Storm Peak was open, so I took a lap up there taking Storm Peak South to Rainbow. I then got on the Burgess Creek Triple to meet my dad. He took a lap on Vagabond before meeting me. These runs were nothing but perfect fresh cord. I had never seen such good conditions on any groomers anywhere. After we met up, we took Spur Run to the Sundown Express and rode it up. We wanted to hit the Sunshine area early since it had warmed up more there. We took 3 laps on the Sunshine Express. First Quickdraw, then Tomahawk, and Sunshine Lift Line. The runs were in full sunshine and in better condition than any eastern terrain I've skied. We wanted to get to the other side of the mountain, so we decided to go through Morningside to do it. We took Cowboy Coffee and got on the lift. The bottom of Morningside is very very flat. We decided to try a different run on Morningside. We took Alarm Clock and actually went off the marked trails into some trees. It was pretty cool to have our first experience with western trees. They are a bit more widely spaced, and there's much less of a risk of running into rocks. We rode the lift up again and worked took Over Easy to Buddy's Run and got on the Bar-UE lift. This is an older double chair with no safety bar. It's a 9 minute ride through some beautiful, snow covered trees. We then took Storm Peak North to Rainbow to the Four Points lift. This lift dropped us right at the Four Points Lodge, where we had lunch. After lunch, we took Cyclone to Dropout and got on the Storm Peak Express. We repeated that run, but from the top taking Storm Peak North. It was an awesome run with tons of sustained pitch and vertical. We got on the Storm Peak Express again and decided to venture into the trees some more. We cut into Cowtrack/Big Meadow/Flying Z from Buddy's Run and ended on Dropout. This was unlike any other run I had ever skied in my entire life. There was plenty of powder, although it was all tracked out, and there were widely spaced trees that made the run more interesting, but not too tight that we had to go walking speed through them. Snow coverage was so good that we never bottomed out. Following this run, we decided to give Pioneer Ridge a try. We took the Pony Express up and took Longhorn first. This is a great cruising run that has great views and some real character to it. It was back to the Pony Express again after this and then down Middle Rib to Outlaw. This was another natural part glade run. Another run that I've never skied anything like. We took the Pony Express up again and took Longhorn to Wapiti and got on the Bar-UE lift again. After reaching the top, we took Storm Peak South to Moonlight and got on the Sundown Express. We took High Noon to the Rendezvous Lodge for a short snack break. After the break, we took Spike to the Sunshine Express. That area was very crowded, so we headed out back to Sundown. That lift had an even bigger line, so we moved back over to Storm Peak via Storm Peak South, Meadow Lane, and Tornado Lane. The Storm Peak Express had a short line and we got on and took Buddy's Run to Tornado Lane. We decided that it was time to start heading toward the bottom, so we got on the Burgess Creek lift and took Heavenly Daze to Main Drag to the Thunderhead Express. While Heavenly Daze is rated blue, it is steeper than most blacks in the east. It has great constant pitch and still had good snow at about 3:25pm, even though it was a bit crowded. We took the Thunderhead Express again and skied Vagabond back to the same lift. Still in decent condition and a fun cruise. We decided to make the next run our last and we took Heavenly Daze to Jess' Cut Off, to See Me to Stampede to end the day. It was long run, still in good shape by eastern standards. Pictures are below Bar-UE  Middle Rib  Outlaw  Heading up Sundown  Morningside  Top of Storm Peak  Ending the day on Heavenly Daze 
I've lived in New York my entire life.
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Re: Steamboat 12/27/15
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 Woohoo! Great pics, brings back great memories of last year. Love Bar UE, Longhorn, Storm Peak. Glad you're getting great conditions, keep us posted! |
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Re: Steamboat 12/27/15
Administrator
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In reply to this post by snoloco
Good one. The cold, sun and (dare I say it) bumps look very very nice.
I love the impatience too! What's the forecast?
"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp
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In reply to this post by Harvey
One weird thing I noticed about the temperature. It was COLD today and never got above maybe 15 degrees. In fact it was -15 in the morning, and probably at least below -20 when I went up Storm Peak for the first time. However, it was perfectly comfortable without any extra layers. Had these temperatures been in the east, many mountains may have decided not to open. It was more comfortable at -20 degrees than it is in the east at 10 degrees. I'm thinking this has to do with the altitude and that the air is more dry and less dense. This would mean that it doesn't conduct heat as well and therefore cannot suck all the warmth out of your body.
I've lived in New York my entire life.
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