Saturday, February 26, 2011

Back from DC

I was at the office in DC (well northern Virginia to precise) most of this week so I didn't get out on the mountain until Friday. My timing was perfect because the 5 am report said 8 inches and there must have been another 4 inches between then and 9 am when I got to the mountain.

I spent the bulk of the morning riding the Pony Express as you can see from the GPS data with a quick hop into Closet before heading home to do some work on an important project. This time instead of Vertigo on the way home I hit Valley View and then See Ya which was super sweet.


Here's some video of my first run for the morning.


Today I skied with another Aussie friend Drew and a couple of other visiting Aussies guys that he met in a bar somewhere downtown. Best run of the day was Broadway trees where the leftovers were awesome. Here's the GPS data.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Ski report catch up

I've been busy since I last posted with my second trip to Dublin so far this year and friends from Australia in town. So here's the catch up reports on the past two weeks of skiing.

Yesterday it snowed hard in the morning. Unfortunately I had too many other commitments to get out, but there were still some nice leftovers today, especially in the trees. I skied with my Aussie friends MaryAnne and Vicki and Brad from Nantucket who we met on the lift. Here's the GPS data.

Wednesday was like spring with the temperature around 40F and the sun out. I skied with my Aussie friends Amanda, Therese, Rod and Claire. Here's the GPS data.

Last Sunday I skied with mostly the same Aussie crew, less Claire and plus Vicki. Here's the GPS data.

The really good stuff was the Sunday before last (February 6). I was due to fly out to Dublin midday but my flight got delayed so I missed my connection in Chicago for the direct flight to Dublin and had to go the long way via London, but it was absolutely worth it since I got to spend a whole morning playing in a foot of fresh powder! Here's the GPS data.

And here's some video of the awesome conditions. I skied with a local friend, Steve "Lewi" Lewis. That's him in black on the snowboard.



Saturday, February 05, 2011

Best 3 inches ever

The 5 am report said three inches but it was snowing hard so I expected something more than that. But it turned out way better than expected. In places it was at least a foot deep.

The trees were awesome as expected, especially the 2.30 trees. But the best run of the day was the huge but very soft powder bumps to skier's right of Vertigo on the way home. So good in fact that I had to do it again. So the best run of the day turned out to be Vertigo the second time around, this time on a line to skier's left where the bumps weren't as big so I could really, really, really rip it up.

Here's the GPS data.

Friday, February 04, 2011

Better with friends

After a couple of bitterly cold days, it was still quite chilly this morning but I ventured out anyway, in need of some turns. I skied for a bit by myself and was about to head in when I ran into one of my many Aussie friends MaryAnne. So I skied with her crew for a couple more hours and had a great time. Especially good were the bumps to skiers right of Cyclone.

Here's the GPS data.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

It's officially cold

Unlike the DC area where a few inches of snow closes the schools, there's no such thing as a snow day in Steamboat. But we do close the schools when it gets to -40 (F or C take your pick because that's where the scales cross). At that point there's simply too much risk of kids getting frostbite waiting for the bus and unless we're planning to change our system of arithmetic to Base 9, I think it's a good idea for small children to keep all ten of their fingers.

Anyway I mention this because the Steamboat schools closed today due to weather for the first time in 22 years. Interestingly Marie and I were here in Steamboat on our honeymoon the last time this happened in February 1989. We were staying at a hotel that is about 500 yards down the street where we now live.