With the slightly warmer temperatures of late March, the foot of snow that landed on the mountain last night was just a little too heavy to be Steamboat's famous Champagne Powder, but if it wasn't Champagne it was a very nice sparkling wine.
I had some conference calls with the east coast and Dublin this morning so I didn't get out until nearly 11am, but there were still plenty of freshies in the trees, especially on Shadows and Typhoon. But the best run of the day was definitely the powder bumps on Whiteout, and not surprisingly with a non-stop top to bottom run on a really tight line my maximum heart rate of 181bpm was at the bottom on that run.
I had some trouble uploading my GPS data from Saturday so here is the delayed report.
After the warm weather earlier in the week, I had my skis retuned. Then Saturday was cold and wintry, so my skis were so "grabby" I could barely turn them. Which meant I had to stop and get them tuned again for the colder snow. Thanks to Ryan at Edgewerks I only lost 15 minutes.
A lot of people like spring skiing because it's warm. Give me a full on winter storm with a foot of fresh powder any day. But if it has to be spring skiing then slush bumps are where it's at. They're soft and slow so you've got plenty of time to ski them just right.
Today the best slush bumps were on Whiteout. Here's the GPS data.
A spring storm dropped more than a foot of powder on Steamboati n the past 48 hours and with the sun shining brightly this morning, that makes today a bluebird powder day.
Picking a best run today is really hard. I'd have to go with this unexpected powder stash found in the trees between Valley View and Heavenly Daze on the way home.
My timing today was much better than on Monday so the snow was nice and slushy by the time I hit the mountain. Unfortunately my skis were inadequately waxed, so the snow was also sticky and slow.
Best run of the day was super slushy bumps on Surprise.
Yesterday I was only able to get our for about an hour. Due to work constraints I wasn't able to get out late enough for the snow to really have softened. But the sun was shining, so it was still fun cruising a few groomers on the lower mountain where it gets warmer sooner.
Here's the GPS data.
The problem with not being out late enough was compounded by the ridiculousness of starting Daylight Savings Time in mid-March, an idea brought to us by our DST overlords in Washington a few years back supposedly to save energy. In a rational world the fact that it doesn't (save energy) would have led to the change being reversed by now. Of course politics is the only field of human endeavour where the gap between intentions and results is completely and utterly irrelevant.
And I still have one pesky clock that I haven't managed to change yet!
It looked like it was going to be a classic spring skiing day when I headed out this morning, but half way up the mountain the clouds started to gather. Fortunately it stayed warm enough to soften the snow a little, but not enough to create slush bumps, so I largely stuck to the groomers.
Hard to believe but best run of the day was Flintlock which is a lower intermediate trail. But when you do railroad tracks in a tuck all the way down it's a hoot.
I'm often up early to talk to my colleagues in Dublin and I'm always hungry when I wake up. But I also find when I eat at 6am I need to eat again at 9am. Actually I'm just finishing second breakfast as I write this post!
I thought the storm that brought fresh snow yesterday was pretty much over, but today was even better than yesterday. It's hard to pick a best run on a day like this but if I had to choose I'd say the trees between Twister and the Four Points liftline.
It's another Fat Tuesday, Fat Ski day. The 5am report said 2 inches, but that was on top of six inches yesterday. And it was snowing hard all morning, so by the time I hit the mountain at 11 am it was at least 8 inches of fresh. Plus with barely anybody about there were plenty of nice stashes left even that late in the morning.
Shadows and Closet were good, and Vertigo was nice on the way home, if a little dust on crust on the lower half, but the best run of the day was definitely very big, very soft powder bumps on Whiteout. The first time non-stop from the road to the bottom was sweet, but the second time non-stop from the top was even sweeter.
I've had a lot going on this season and last season I'd taken some time off work, so I'm not too disappointed. I have figured out though that skiing every day is actually easier on your body, at least after the first month. By then you're in such good skiing shape you don't feel a thing. Whereas today, after not skiing for a week, everything seemed to ache.
Nevertheless it was worth the pain. The five inches of fresh snow over the past two days made for a nice soft base, not the normal spring crunch, and there were still some nice stashes in the trees, especially on Closet and Rainbow. And the mountain seemed deserted.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The weather forecast shows a storm moving in tonight or tomorrow, so being the eternal optimist that I am, I decided to preserve my legs for the upcoming powder day/s by just cruising around a few groomers. Best run of the day was high speed race turns down Two O'Clock. Here's the GPS data.
It was a glorious day on the mountain today - great snow, very few people and the sun was shining. The only problem was that we just got back from being in Dublin for the past two and half weeks, so all those extra red blood cells were gone and I soon found myself puffing like a steam train. So I put in just an easy hour. Well sort of. I did hit the 2.30 trees for a bit. And the Sundown liftline. And I did tear up a couple of groomers. But other than that an easy hour. And I was very happy with the way I skied technically.
For several years airlines have been squeezing their traditional distribution channels like travel agents and driving business to their own websites. American Airlines took it a step further recently and withdrew its flights from other websites like Orbitz and Expedia.
I'm not criticising the strategy. Just saying that if you are going to do that you probably need to be extra, extra, extra careful about making sure that your website works!
I had my last Local's Clinic for the season (I'm going to try telemark skiing next year and I'll definitely want to enrol in a clinic to learn that so it's definitely not my last clinic ever).
I arrived 45 minutes before kick off time so I decided to get in a lazy 6,00 vertical ft before we started (Gondola, Storm Peak, Thunderhead) which was a nice warm up. Teh morning was fairly casual with technical drills in Wally World, but the afternoon picked up with mostly bump skiing in the fog (bumps are extra interesting when you can't see them!).
Best run of the day was the bumps to skiers right of Cyclone.
