Cold clear day in Steamaboat

Yesterday was a cold clear day here in Steamboat. The snow was packed and fast. You could still find powder if you looked for it. The holiday crowds were still travelling, so the lift lines were short. All was well on the mountain.

The picture on this page is a view looking west from Steamboat. The smoke plumes are from the power plant at Hayden, about 20 miles from Steamboat. The calm winds allowed the smoke to rise unusually high. You can see the town of Steamboat in the foreground.

Need a job?

Want a great job here in Steamboat? You can work the graveyard shift from 2am until noon. This gives you half the day to ski with the great unwashed masses. You get some weekends off too. The pay is not great, $9.25 per hour, but you do get a Season Lift Pass. The job only lasts until mid-January, but the Lift Pass is good all season.

What, you ask, is the job? Snowmaker, of course. You get to go out on the mountain and turn the snow blowers on and off. You get to fix them. You get to move the snow guns around. We chatted with one of these guys on the lift today. "The coolest thing was boarding down Rolex (a black diamond run) before it was open to the public, and before it was groomed, by the light of a full moon at 3am!", he said. You've got to admit that does sound pretty cool, eh?

This snowmaker also told us they blow 100 million gallons of water onto the mountain each season to help Mother Nature out. I think that is a lot of water.

The picture on this page shows one of these guys dragging a snow gun down Drop Out.

Bump on the road to Steamboat

We had a great week in Longmont babysitting for Charley and Josephine. I'll put some new pix up shortly.

Heading back to Steamboat we hit some snow. Not too much, but the roads were covered as we went from Silverthorne towards Kremling. I was doing about 40 down a gradual hill when Joani pointed out that I was driving on the shoulder. The snow had covered the road, so the shoulder and the road were nearly indistiguishable. As I eased the car back onto the road, the car began to slide, and I found myself heading into oncoming trafic and heading across the road.

I managed to keep the car going forward without sliding or skidding, and we just missed (by a few feet...very few) an oncoming car, and we then found ourselves heading off the road onto the opposite shoulder and then onto the roadside. The land leveled off about 4 feel below the road, and the car was still moving at a pretty good clip. Ahead was a deep ravine, barbed wire fences, and who knows what else. The anti-skid brakes had been activated, but the car was still moving. Still under some control, I uttered a few yelps, as the car finally came to a stop ON the edge of the ravine. It is hard to estimate how deep it was...certainly 30 or 40 feet. Plenty of room for a real good rollover had we gone over the edge.

Joani jumped out of the car thinking we were going over. When we didn't, I tried to back out, but got nowhere. Shades of our Duck beach experience several years ago.

I called 911 and the State Police showed up an hour or so later. Sometime thereafter, a tow truck appeared and dragged us back to the road. No harm, no foul, but it was a mighty close call. While waiting for the tow, we observed an accident less than 100 yards up the road. One car turned over, another off the road at a 90 degree angle. They needed ambulance services for that one. Lucky us...no injuries to us, no damage to the car, no damange to the Holiday presents we were carrying. Whew!

More runs, snow, travel

Over the past few days, they opened more of the mountain. We can now ski the runs served by the Sundown Express and we can get to the newly renovated Rendezvous building. The picture on this page is Rolex which is bumped up pretty good and was rock hard on Sunday. Renovations to Rendezvous look nice, albeit not done yet. I suppose they didn't realize that winter would arrive on time this year, so they took their sweet time with the construction work. Go figure.

On Monday, more snow arrived. We had a good powder day and enjoyed skiing the newly opened runs. Then, back to Longmont for work. The roads were fine, except for a bit of snow over Rabbit Ears pass.

Skate ski's

We had a busy week of skiing, working out, and just plain having fun. The weather has been cold and clear. No new snow, but at least the old stuff is still around. They continue making snow where they can, and the grooming has made it fast.

After skiing, I usually go to the local health club for an afternoon of lifting, swimming and spinning. Like last year, the swimming is in a spring heated outdoor pool. It takes a few days to get used to going from the locker room to the pool in 10 degree weather. Occaisionally I can take a long run outside if the streets are clear and the weather cooperates. I got in an 8 miler on Friday.

And finally, I'm trying to learn to "skate ski". You might have seen this in the last winter olympics. It is a variant of cross country skiing. You use very light, thin ski's, and you propel yourself using a skating action and your poles. So far I have been able to fall repeatedly but have not mastered the technique of moving much faster than a slow walk. I will give it another try soon.

Powder day in November...what could be better?

We got the 2006-7 ski season started with a bang...a powder day. Hard to beat that, eh? It started snowing last Tuesday, and it's snowed off and on ever since. Cold too.

It's still quiet here. Not many visitors yet. The mountain still get's crowded, however, since there are not many runs open, and everone has to ski the same runs. We get on and off the mountain early. Below, the sun is coming up over Storm Peak, and we are just about done for the day. Tough life.



I'll get more pictures online as soon as I can remember how to do it. Keep in touch.