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Colorado Steamboat Trip Video

Ken_R

Living the Dream
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Feb 10, 2016
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Denver, CO
I drove up from El Paso, Tx to Steamboat Springs on Jan 1st and skied 3 1/2 days until Jan 5th spent the night at Breck and kept driving south to Santa Fe on the 6th. 33" of snow fell during my stay. Yes, it was good. Only on the 5th got really cold. The other days were in the 20's on the hill. The first 12-15" of snow was quite heavy at mid elevations but on the last day it was almost blower up top. Steamboat takes a long time to know it well since it has a LOT of nooks and crannies and it is not your obvious top to bottom ski hill. Lots of trees that are well spaced but get bumped up quickly. Hard to tell on the video but there were a lot of soft bumps almost everywhere. Some folks were having trouble skiing since it was mostly crud except at a few choice locations. Generally the best snow was on Morningside bowl but that place is basically flat after 3-4 turns unfortunately. I had the best runs under the Sundown chair and on the edge of the three o clock trees and also had an amazing run in Closets which I think was over 1200 ft vert easy. Unfortunately the battery on the GoPro is terrible and when I tried to record a lot of runs it just shut off. I still got a lot of footage skiing with my nephews on open runs and some trees. Overall Steamboat is a really unique mountain in Colorado. It is a snow machine compared to most i70 resorts. The upper mountain just gets gobs of snow too bad a lot of the terrain is low angle and there are a LOT of long flattish areas that you need to negotiate after short steep pitches. Rolex is a good run that has a good pitch and was excellent on this trip with great snow. For groomers the Thunderhead area was well maintained and fun and also the Sunshine is quite mellow and nice but felt more like green cruisers. Overall the terrain under and to either side a good bit from the Sundown and Stormpeak lifts was the best and Steamboat is a mountain to explore not just stick to trails. There are a lot of hidden drops and cliffs than one can huck if you are so inclined. Basically the entire mountain is fair game if the coverage is good.

Here is a Video I made (first time using iMovie...)

 

mdf

entering the Big Couloir
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Team Gathermeister
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I enjoyed your edit. Nicely done! Looks like a great trip.
 

Ron

Seeking the next best ski
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glad you liked our little hill! next time feel free to give me a shout. you are absolutely correct about all the hidden gems here. happy to show you around.
 

UGASkiDawg

AKA David
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Location
CO
I drove up from El Paso, Tx to Steamboat Springs on Jan 1st and skied 3 1/2 days until Jan 5th spent the night at Breck and kept driving south to Santa Fe on the 6th. 33" of snow fell during my stay. Yes, it was good. Only on the 5th got really cold. The other days were in the 20's on the hill. The first 12-15" of snow was quite heavy at mid elevations but on the last day it was almost blower up top. Steamboat takes a long time to know it well since it has a LOT of nooks and crannies and it is not your obvious top to bottom ski hill. Lots of trees that are well spaced but get bumped up quickly. Hard to tell on the video but there were a lot of soft bumps almost everywhere. Some folks were having trouble skiing since it was mostly crud except at a few choice locations. Generally the best snow was on Morningside bowl but that place is basically flat after 3-4 turns unfortunately. I had the best runs under the Sundown chair and on the edge of the three o clock trees and also had an amazing run in Closets which I think was over 1200 ft vert easy. Unfortunately the battery on the GoPro is terrible and when I tried to record a lot of runs it just shut off. I still got a lot of footage skiing with my nephews on open runs and some trees. Overall Steamboat is a really unique mountain in Colorado. It is a snow machine compared to most i70 resorts. The upper mountain just gets gobs of snow too bad a lot of the terrain is low angle and there are a LOT of long flattish areas that you need to negotiate after short steep pitches. Rolex is a good run that has a good pitch and was excellent on this trip with great snow. For groomers the Thunderhead area was well maintained and fun and also the Sunshine is quite mellow and nice but felt more like green cruisers. Overall the terrain under and to either side a good bit from the Sundown and Stormpeak lifts was the best and Steamboat is a mountain to explore not just stick to trails. There are a lot of hidden drops and cliffs than one can huck if you are so inclined. Basically the entire mountain is fair game if the coverage is good.

Here is a Video I made (first time using iMovie...)



Winning!
 
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coskigirl

Skiing the powder
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Evergreen, CO
Aw, man, if I'd known you were coming up from EP I would have had you bring me a couple of things! I went to college in Las Cruces.

Great video, glad you enjoyed Steamboat. Definitely get in on a tour by @Ron if you can sometime but I'd also be happy to pass along the knowledge I've gained of the mountain from him and Tam.
 
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TS
Ken_R

Ken_R

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Aw, man, if I'd known you were coming up from EP I would have had you bring me a couple of things! I went to college in Las Cruces.

Great video, glad you enjoyed Steamboat. Definitely get in on a tour by @Ron if you can sometime but I'd also be happy to pass along the knowledge I've gained of the mountain from him and Tam.

I live in West El Paso now until August (during the summer I need to look for a place in the Denver area), close to the border w/ NM so I take i10 to Las Cruces whenever I head north to take i25N. I might be driving up to Vail in Feb.

The visibility was low during my trip so it was a bit hard to figure out Steamboat I could have definitely used some guidance. The snow was awesome though! so most areas were good.
 
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Ken_R

Ken_R

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On a side note, notice how all the people that ate it were on mid-fats including my nephew (pure coincidence I guess jejeje, well except the guy in the Mantras) then we got him some QST 106's which he loved. :D The eldest got Rossi Soul7 HD's and he loved them as well. My brother in law got some Enforcer 93's in 177 that he liked and my sis the Santa Anas which she loved as well. Those demos basically allowed them to enjoy the trip much more since they struggled on the Rossi E83's rentals the first two days. Gotta thanks the PugSki Forums for that. I know, it is not typical to get that much snow in such a short period of time during a trip they planned in advance but hey, well take it :D
 

Spelunker

Booting up
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Nice video!

I'm heading there in a few weeks myself. I heard CO was having a bad season but by the looks of your trip, seems ok to me!
 

Ron

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Steamboat Springs, Co
Nice video!

I'm heading there in a few weeks myself. I heard CO was having a bad season but by the looks of your trip, seems ok to me!

that video is not from this season.

Our conditions here are rapidly improving and with this storm and then one behind it, we should be in good condition.
 

James

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Dec 2, 2015
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24,453
On a side note, notice how all the people that ate it were on mid-fats including my nephew (pure coincidence I guess jejeje, well except the guy in the Mantras) then we got him some QST 106's which he loved. :D The eldest got Rossi Soul7 HD's and he loved them as well. My brother in law got some Enforcer 93's in 177 that he liked and my sis the Santa Anas which she loved as well. Those demos basically allowed them to enjoy the trip much more since they struggled on the Rossi E83's rentals the first two days. Gotta thanks the PugSki Forums for that. I know, it is not typical to get that much snow in such a short period of time during a trip they planned in advance but hey, well take it :D
Yeah but if they keep eating it on the narrow skis they won't till up all the powder. Snow conservation says skinny should be the law...
 

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