Steamboat Colorado, Feb 19-23 2015

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Great report!!
I heard great things about Steamboat. A great place to take the family. Love those Aspen Glades, so different then the tight mogul filed woods back east..

Adk Jeff wrote

we still squeezed in a night skiing session (included with our package deal)

Night skiing:

Steamboat is running those new Snow-Bright™ lights from Ultra Tech. Everybody in the ski area management circles seems to think those lights are the greatest thing since sliced bread. So I got to ask you, what was it like to ski under them? Did you notice any difference in your ability to see at night? Is your ability to see the snow surface improved when your skiing under them?

No doubt Colorado has done better than most of the west, and even better has entered a good cycle in recent days.  Looks KILLER. Love the aspens.  Good on ya Jeff!

Great trip report! I'm glad you had some good snow. Steamboat was our first family trip out west too.  That was in 2008 and we have been doing a big trip almost every year since.

Great report and that one shot! Wow. Double wow. Our kids are close in age - and we feel the same way - where this year it has been full on skiing!  It's wonderful.. Totally. Would love to get the families together one of these days. With all the fresh snow out West - we are thinking of a Spring trip now. 35 days in so far. Goal is 50 which we have not done since before kids.  

Steamboat really looks incredible.. Never been and has me thinking...

I love Steamboat and would ski there more often if it wasn't so hard to get to.  That also is a plus because they don't get the Denver crowds on the weekends.

In my book the best tree skiing in the world.

Nice report. How is the town? Cool and relaxed, or expensive and ritzy? Is there a grocery store?

I think the town is really still a part cowboy town.  One of my favs

There is several a big grocery stores making the condo thing workable

Bosco DaSkia wrote

Steamboat is running those new Snow-Bright™ lights from Ultra Tech. Everybody in the ski area management circles seems to think those lights are the greatest thing since sliced bread. So I got to ask you, what was it like to ski under them? Did you notice any difference in your ability to see at night? Is your ability to see the snow surface improved when your skiing under them?

Yeah, the lights are nice.  You almost forget that it's night.  You can see in the photo that Steamboat's night skiing slopes are pretty wide open, so they are relatively easy to illuminate well.  By contrast, other places I've night skied at back home (West, Willard) are tighter & twistier and therefore more prone to shadows and dark areas.

Skiray wrote

Great report and that one shot! Wow. Double wow. Our kids are close in age - and we feel the same way - where this year it has been full on skiing!  It's wonderful.. Totally. Would love to get the families together one of these days. With all the fresh snow out West - we are thinking of a Spring trip now. 35 days in so far. Goal is 50 which we have not done since before kids.  
Steamboat really looks incredible.. Never been and has me thinking...

Thanks Ray!  As others have mentioned, Steamboat is a great choice for a first family trip out west.  PM me next time you're at Gore, we really enjoy skiing with other families.

Coach Z wrote

I love Steamboat and would ski there more often if it wasn't so hard to get to.  That also is a plus because they don't get the Denver crowds on the weekends.
In my book the best tree skiing in the world.

Actually it was pretty easy for us to get to.  We flew Delta out of Albany through Atlanta to Hayden, which is just a half hour from Steamboat.  Left on the 6am flight and landed in Hayden at noon (local time).  And as you mention, the distance from Denver keeps the daytrippers away, so that's a real plus.

For the record, Coach Z was one of several people who recommended Steamboat to me for a family ski trip, so thanks for that Coach!

dobermann wrote

Shadows and Closets are awesome tree runs. Got to ski them with Billy Kidd who was the mountain ski Ambassador and used to do runs on mountain daily.

Billy's still doing that.  We got a kick out the sign at the meet-up spot and joked about why Billy would NOT be skiing on  such a beautiful powder day:



The town and the mountain make a big deal (rightfully so) about Billy and all the other Olympic athletes that have come out of Steamboat,giving the place a vibe somewhat like WF / Lake Placid.  Made us feel right at home.

dobermann wrote

Did my first true powder experience with fat skis in early 90s on Buffalo Pass

The backcountry looks cool.  Daniel really wanted me to take him to ski whatever was out Gate 4.  Next time.

mattchuck2 wrote

Nice report. How is the town? Cool and relaxed, or expensive and ritzy? Is there a grocery store?

I thought the town was very cool and relaxed Matt. We ate dinner several nights in town at inexpensive restaurants (like around $60 for the 4 of us) - an Italian place one block off the main drag and a cool diner on Lincoln (the main street).  Steamboat has more of a "real" town vibe than tourist town vibe.  I really liked it.  Less upscale than Telluride.

Great report. The mountain doesn't look very steep, but I can't really find any flat spots either. Is it pretty sustained? How long are the pods, 2-2.5k vert? Snow quality out there looks outstanding, even if thin.

I'm a US Air FF and they don't go to Hayden.  That may change with the hook up with AA.  The drive back to Denver is awful

Most of the runs are around 2k vert.  You only ski to the bottom at the end of the day.  There is a hump in the middle so it's kind of 3d.

Nice report! Steamboat was my first trip out west and will always be awesome - shadows/ closets and chute 1 are a hoot!

Thanks for the report. Seems like a great place for the first time with kids. I love the choice of aspens on one side and evergreens on the other side for tree skiing.

ml242 wrote

Great report. The mountain doesn't look very steep, but I can't really find any flat spots either. Is it pretty sustained? How long are the pods, 2-2.5k vert? Snow quality out there looks outstanding, even if thin.

There's not much extremely steep terrain, but there's plenty of long sustained black diamond terrain.  The Storm Peak and Sundown HSQs each go around 2K vert with lots of black diamond trail & tree choices.  And as Coach said, you ride the gondi once in the morning and don't return to the base until the end of the day.

Nice pics.

It's a fun family mountain, as already mentioned not a lot of super steep stuff but there are some cool shots off the top. Fish Creek Canyon just to the viewers left of the mountain has some good back country skiing and some longer steep shots.

I spent two winters there, 95/96 and 96/97. Both were record breaking seasons. The town was really fun and it's where I started to learn to ski off of big rocks/cliffs. My friends and I left though in search of bigger and steeper things.

If you ever have the chance visit the Boat in the summer, I always thought that the summer was really special there and I liked it more than the winter.