Great skiing in very cold conditions
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
I couldn’t bring myself to press glass with only a 7.5” overnight report, and caught the 10:40 am bus to see what was left. I was not planning on heading up to the -8F temperatures up top, but it was clear the powder hounds were out early this morning as all of the Four Points trails were very tracked. First run was in the upper parts of Closet and then a traverse over to Shadows, which is the usual for me. Good skiing, but not great as there was some crunchiness underneath from the sun this past weekend. It got better as I went lower as the snow report went from 7” on top to 9” at mid-mountain, and the snow became less tracked.
But I wanted UNTRACKED, so I headed over to the Twilight area. Because the egress from the Priest Creek area is on the Duster cat track, the runs get progressively less tracked the further towards High Noon you go. In here I found the goods as bouncy bottomless powder greeted my every turn. I did have to cross tracks, but that did not affect the quality of the turns.
I had considered going over toward Flying Z, but went back for more in Twilight. Even though the temperature had risen a few degrees to -6F, it wasn’t warm enough to convince me for another run and I headed down Heavenly Daze.
Pretty good skiing this afternoon as the storm moves in
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
There was about an inch of snow on the hill by the time I made it up there this afternoon, and skiing on the north and northwestern aspects was soft. The left side of Storm Peak Face in the Sideburn area was excellent after which I tested the left side of Twister. A bit crunchy, so I traversed over to Tornado and skied soft snow to Tornado Lane.
Up for another ride and skied soft snow in the Ridge area down to Flying Z. Even the sides of the more trafficked runs Tornado Lane, Heavenly Daze and Vogue provided a soft mix of natural and man-made snow. About an inch of snow on my deck in these last 2 hours, and it is currently snowing. Looking forward to tomorrow!
Great solid base on the upper mountain
Saturday, November 30, 2013
I went over to Chute 1 yesterday to see how the coverage was, and was very impressed with how solid the three feet or so of base felt. Only a rock or two poking out, but even the top rollover was covered well enough to ski. A bit tricky yesterday and then again today when I went back as the snow surface is very uneven due to avalanche control work by Patrol and the resultant slides, but good steep skiing nonetheless!
Found some powder in the trees around Four Points along the northern aspects and in other shaded regions. But these swatches of powder were only a few turns at a time, except near the cat tracks where I found maybe a half dozen sweet turns. Same was true over in Priest Creek, although that has a far more southern exposure allowing the sun to affect the snow more. The lower half of Flying Z was also skiing quite well.
So great coverage and excellent early season skiing! We may get a bit of snow tomorrow, but the storm cycle forecast to begin mid-week or a bit earlier is eagerly awaited.
Surprisingly good powder skiing in the trees
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Today is the traditional Scholarship Day when the Steamboat Ski Area donates all ticket sales to the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. I received varied reports yesterday as to the conditions up top, and with some of the reports indicating good skiing and others not so good, I ventured out to explore the Priest Creek area myself (encompasses Closet, Shadows, Sundown lift line and then all the way across the O’Clocks to High Noon).
Skier traffic is limited by skiers and riders having to skate/slide as much as 1.25 miles on the Duster cat track back to Rainbow saddle. For those willing to do the work, I thought the skiing in any of the tree shelterd northern and northwestern aspects excellent. There is about 36” of dense base snow, with only about the top foot penetrated by the springy and buttery turns. Coverage is excellent. However, I did find some of the no-so-good reported to be on the open runs with southern or western aspects where wind and sun had compacted the powder into a crust.
Also ripping fun was White Out, which has a northern aspect and thus great snow. That run develops lots of bumps early in the ski season, however today it was soft and flat. I was able to make wonderful long and medium radius turns from top to bottom, and I can’t remember when that was possible!
More fall colors from from the Steamboat Ski Area
Monday, September 30, 2013
It’s remarkable what a day of sun will do to dry out the mountain, as I was able to ride to 9000 feet and snap some more pictures of our rapidly evolving fall landscape. The picture on the left was taken from Duster looking down towards Moonlight and highlights the South Valley of Routt County. The picture on the right is a similar perspective, but vertically oriented. 
Moving further up Duster towards Rendezvous Lodge, the picture on the left was taken from Duster looking up into the Twilight trees. Lastly, the picture on the right was taken near Rendezvous saddle looking up towards High Noon. 
