Almost Bluebird Morning
The longer you stay in Steamboat, the more you will see that the weather here seems to have a mind of its own. Sometimes we aren’t supposed to get an inch and out of nowhere a foot of champagne powder falls overnight. Unfortunately those bad predictions go the other way too and we get skunked instead of getting that epic dump. No wonder local weather forecasters say that Steamboat is one of the hardest places in Colorado to predict the weather. This morning was supposed to be clear already, but there are some high clouds clinging to the top of the mountain and blocking out the morning sun. Fear not though, as a long time Yampa Valley weather watcher I can say that the skies want to clear today. And when they do, it should warm up to full on spring conditions.
The light was a little flat up top, but with freshly groomed runs all across Sunshine bowl and Sundown it didn’t really matter. I took a run straight down Sunshine lift line to start out this morning and was able to carve my way most of the way down before I crossed another track or an icy spot. Because it’s been so warm during the daytime the corduroy is a bit firm to start but it should soften up into early spring conditions by the afternoon.
Even with the morning clouds hanging around, the temps at the top are pretty mild today. It was in the mid 20’s when I got there but felt a bit warmer and by the time I left the upper mountain, you could already start to push around the top layer of snow. The best plan of action today is gonna be sticking to the groomers in Sunshine bowl like Tomohawk and Sunshine lift line during the morning, then venturing over to the Storm Peak and 4 Points areas during the afternoon. With smooth grooming lines from edge to edge and no icy spots I thought High Noon and West Side had the best conditions this morning.
Once the sun comes out in full force, the temps should rise up into the lower 40’s by the early afternoon. You know what that means? Slushy Bumps!!!! It might be a little early in the year for them, but there will be a lot of great lower mountain runs with super soft springy bumps this afternoon. My personal favorite run for spring bumps is Hurricane, but I think anything that wasn’t groomed last night will be great. My upper mountain pick would be 3 O’Clock and for the lower mountain I would check out Upper Valley View.
Enjoy the Sunshine!
Dan Tullos, snowboarder
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