It seemed like such a good idea. I’ve always heard about the fantastic “champagne powder” of Steamboat Springs Ski Resort. And for someone like me who loves tree skiing like I do, groves and groves of Aspen and conifers on the slopes beckon to me. So planning a 3-day trip to Steamboat, what could possibly go wrong? Mother Nature, that’s what.
Our first trip to Steamboat was in January last year. It should have been prime time for fantastic snow conditions, but instead, it warmed up, then cooled down. Really cooled down, and all that snow that had thawed, froze over solid. It wasn’t quite east coast ice, but it was definitely hard, bullet-proof hard. We stayed optimistic, as snow had been predicted for the last night we were there. Then, we woke in the morning to find a dusting, or what skiers call “dust on crust”. We gave up and drove south, only to find a foot of new snow had fallen at Winter Park, my home resort where I had a pass. What kind of cruel joke was this?
Ok, it was our first time, just an aberration. The terrain at the “Boat” seemed so appealing, I had to give it another try. Maybe another month, in another year would bring more favorable conditions. Let’s try March instead of Janauary. Well, the result certainly was different — there was precipitation falling from the sky, but it’s not of the frozen variety. Instead, we arrived today to find rain falling — RAIN!!
For those of you who aren’t skiers, rain is about the worst possible kind of weather for a ski resort. Skiing in the rain in temps in the upper 30s is a recipe for hypothermia. Rain also turns the snow into a sort of granular slush, and then once the temps drop below freezing, turns into what I heard one fellow skier refer to as “chicken heads”, an apt description. Chicken heads are whipped up slush that result in snow that forms little points and nubbins and then freeze that way. There is nothing worse to ski on.
And such is my ski experience, skiing the place lauded for champagne powder. I’m sure they do get their fair share of incredible snow, because I’ve talked to many a person who gushes about the incredible powder skiing they have done here. Apparently, the snow Gods do not deem it so for us.
