Spring Steambunnies
Two is the magic number. Two more days of March. Two final weeks of ski season. A blue moon tomorrow – that’s our second full moon of the month. Then on Sunday, we can all be April fools!
Mother Nature has been kind to Steamboat during March, especially since the dawn of spring. We’ve seen 16 fresh inches in the past seven days, and the summit is reporting a respectable 81-inch base. The spring skiing isn’t sparse, by any stretch of the imagination!
Head out under pastel blue skies filled with shaving cream clouds. It’s a little breezy up top, but mostly calm and still and just crisp enough to keep that fresh snow soft. I had the great fortune of stumbling into the gondola with my favorite local Shredding Betty, aka Jennifer, this morning, and we made some fabulous upper-mountain laps.
After a ride up Storm Peak, plotting our egg coloring strategies for apres ski, we made a loop on Morningside, complete with a soft stash of freshies on Huevos. (Unintended theme, I swear — but I’ll admit I am always praying for an encounter with nature’s peeps, aka the gray jays, on that lift.)
The Ridge is cushy and forgiving, and groomers like Cyclone and Vortex are fast and fun. The cats have rolled things extra nice and flat with the dense snow we received over the past week — great raw material for corduroy! They even groomed Nelson’s Run, an interesting decision on a run named for an Olympic mogul medalist. And at the end of the day, my fave Ted’s Ridge was perfection: soft, smooth and screamer.
It’s a hoppy Easter weekend. So, I offer my reminder that Steamboat gets kind of over-the-top crazy about our egg hunts – indeed, it’s and Eggstravaganza. On Saturday, you should have the mountain practically to yourself when you opt to ski. And I’ll vouch that this week’s free concert in Gondola Square is extra fun, too: The Goonies rock a bona fide ’80s dance party.
Wishing you a hoppy Easter and many happy turns, Steambunnies!
Jennie Lay, Telemark skier
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