Glorious day for a snowshoe

January 8, 2009

We woke up today to sunny skies. It was a beautiful day, so we took the day off skiing and rented some snowshoes. Most of the parks in the area are not accessible easily by the free city bus, so we headed over to a city park and ski area called Howelson Hill. It seems to be more of a small ski area for the locals. They train many Olympic athletes here and are open for night skiing. They have ski jumps, tubing, and for us today, nordic trails. We snow showed on the side of the cross country ski trails through a meadow area and them up the mountain almost to the top. It got up to about 32 today, so we were very warm and put our jackets in our packs and just wore our fleece. As long as we were moving we were comfortable if not warm. The sun was out and so were the people. We encountered many people cross country skiing, or just out jogging through the snow with their dogs. The skiers had their dogs with them as well. I don't think we saw any dogs on leashes, but they were all very well behaved. With a clear day, we took the good camera out with us and got some good landscape shots. For the most part we stuck to the groomed trails, but had fun going "off roading" too. The snow here is so soft and powdery. Even in snowshoes we sink down to our knees. Without the snowshoes, I'm sure we'd be buried past our waist. It is also gorgeous snow because it sparkles like glitter in the sunlight. That's the Steamboat Springs Champagne Powder.

In order to be home in time for the BCS football championship game, we left the hill and headed back to the condo getting back by 6pm. It's been a tiring week and a tiring day traipsing through the snow so we were happy to collapse in the condo. However, I manged to get up to get some night pictures. Steamboat tonight was very different from the rest of the days. The day was so warm that the snow had melted from the roads and the sidewalks had melted and were refreezing into ice. Everything was now dirty instead of the pure white snow we'd been seeing. But it was still a perfect night for photos because the almost full moon was out, the sky was clear, and it wasn't crazy cold out.

If you can't see the pictures be sure to visit: http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com

Night shot of our condo:

Powder

January 7, 2009

The skiing today was very different from yesterday because it snowed 16 inches yesterday and today we were skiing through the powder. This meant that first there were lots of people out to enjoy the powder, and second that with so many people making fresh tracks in the snow, humps almost like moguls were forming on the ski runs. It was a bumpy day if we skied straight, but it was also very hard on the knees to ski around these small moguls.

Steamboat is on a warming trend, being in the 20s today, so while on the lower part of the mountain, we were too warm. We left our fleece layer in our storage bin at the base, however it got a bit chilly up at the gondola. We went up to the summit again today, but ended up stopping at the warming hut up on the mountain for food and warmth. It's amazing that we can ski at the top of the mountain, but still find a place with food and facilities. It was a great idea to stop there for lunch as we had time to relax and warm up before we headed back out. By today we've already skied the green runs on the mountain, so we were just repeating what we'd done. However, it felt very different with all the fresh snow.

We stopped early and headed downtown towards Howelson Hill to watch a ski jump competition that was supposed to happen, but it was canceled at the last minute due to all the deep snow. It just wasn't safe for the jumpers. So, we had a yummy dinner downtown followed by ice cream at a candy shop. We got to wait for the bus while eating ice cream that was not melting at all as we stood outside. It was good ice cream though. =)

I didn't take many pictures today, but posted a few below. If you can't see the images, be sure to check out http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com

Snow Tubes

January 6, 2009

It's our first day skiing together without an instructor. Steamboat had a very large mountain for skiing. So far we've really only been taking a lift called the Christy Express that only goes up what is called lower mountain. Lower mountain is perhaps only 1/3 or 1/4 of the height of the summit. Now we know how to take the gondola up the mountain. The gondola goes quite a ways up the mountain, but still not to the summit. In fact to get to the summit, we skied down to another lift called the Sundown Express and took that up to the summit. There is only one green run from the summit back down to the gondola, and most people that come up here are coming up for the blue and black runs. So, our skiing today was fairly uncrowded and we were able to take our time. If it had been less cloudy today and less snowy, we would have had a great view of Steamboat Springs, but even so we had a lot of fun trying out the new trails. We had lunch up on the mountain at the gondola where there was a food court for all the skiers that stay up on the mountain rather than going back down to the base. In fact even further up from the gondola was another shelter with a food court and facilities in case you were higher up and tired.

In the evening we reserved a spot to go tubing at a place called Saddleback Ranch. They came and picked us up at the transit center and took us out to the ranch. As it turned out, the ranch was pretty far away, a 40 minute ride with the road conditions. The snow was really picking up tonight. However, this meant the tubing was fantastic. The ranch has a whole lift just for tubes! Last year I went tubing at a place downtown called Howelson Hill and we just rode a sort of moving walkway up a hill (called a magic carpet) with our tubes to come sliding down. At Saddleback Ranch tonight, however, their hill was twice as tall and the lift was specifically made for tubes. Each tube is just an inner tube like we use to tube on a river, but it is covered with fabric and has a hard plastic bottom and a handle. To drag the tube, just hold the handle and drag it along behind like a puppy. So, their lift was pretty easy. At the bottom we sat in the tube at the bottom of the lift. the lift consisted of a wire with straight bars that act as hooks. We simply sat in the tube, and the operator attached the handle to the hook and we were dragged up the hill. once at the top, we were automatically unhooked from the hook by sliding down a small incline. We had a fabulous time tubing. We had an hour and a half and we made the most of it. We usually raced each other down by taking a running start at the top and sliding down belly down on the tube. It was a blast. It snowed very hard the whole time too, so the course was nice and slick. Also as we were pulled up the hill we had a small pile of snow in our laps by the time we were at the top. We got so covered in snow. Not only from the falling stuff, but very often while tubing down, we'd slide through the sides and get covered in powder. I flew through some powder head first and came out looking like a snowman. It was cold, but hilarious. I've never been so covered in snow before.

I've added some pictures of us tubing and standing in the snow below. If you can't see the images, be sure to check out http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com

January 5, 2009

Today was warm compared to yesterday! We could even pull down our face mask to breath the cold air. It was 8 degrees out when we started, but I forgot to check the temp when we left the ski area. We both took the level 4 ski school together. We had a huge group of 11 people. After a quick run down the short run, our class divided up in half and we took off to learn how to control our skis. In level 4 we learned how to control our skis while making turns. We were to keep our skis parallel and we learned how to control our weight distribution over the skis using technics like edging. Of course the big key to skiing is leaning forward, always. This is hard because we just aren't used to falling down a mountain. We all want to lean back and that's when we lose control. Yesterday we only took a lift called Christie III that took us about a quarter of the way up the mountain. In the afternoon today, we took the gondola up to the halfway point up the mountain. The elevation here was about 10,000 compared to the 7,000 at the base. Luckily there are still easy runs (green) at the top. Our ski instructor pushed us to move to the next level (blue runs) and half of our class was able to do the blue runs by the end of the day. Mark and I stuck to the greens. I don't know about Mark, but I'm okay with going slow and staying in control. I'm sure the blue runs aren't that bad, but from the top they look rather steep.

During our final run down the mountain, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped as the snow rolled in. By the time we stowed our skis for the night, it was snowing outside. We walked in the snow for a while, but eventually came back to the condo to warm up, make spaghetti for dinner, and watch the Fiesta Bowl on the TV.

We are having a great time on vacation and want to say Hi to everyone back at home. We've still got the rest of the week here in Steamboat skiing before we head to Yellowstone.

If you have trouble viewing the pictures below, be sure to check out: http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com/

Below Zero

January 4, 2009

Today was a beautiful, clear day. It was a great day for skiing because Steamboat had just received about 8 inches of snow the night before making the conditions on the mountain much better. According to a local, this was the first snow in about a week and some of the runs were getting a bit icy. It was also a very cold day due to the snow. The temps stayed around -4 throughout the day. It was cold. Very cold. Cold enough to freeze your nose hairs. Luckily, Mark and I brought the right clothing, and we were able to completely bundle up to cover all exposed skin. Our faces are the hardest to keep covered, but we had the right gear for it.

Joanna took ski lessons at Steamboat last year, so she spent the day remembering how to ski on the easy runs. Mark took the same ski lesson that Joanna had last year so that tomorrow we would be at the same level. Due to the cold weather and end of the holiday week, the mountain was very empty. In fact, many times I found myself alone for a few minutes on the runs. With the clear skies we could see for miles and the snow covered landscape was gorgeous. Every other corner seemed prettier than the one before. I brought my little camera with me, so I was able to take a few pictures. Only a few because my fingers froze when I took them out of the glove to get the camera. =)

Mark had fun, too in his class. There were only a few people in the class, so they all got plenty of ski time in and by the end of the day he was at the same level as Joanna. At the end of the day we were sore and exhausted. We came back to the condo to spend the evening. Our condo is quite large. I would guess it's at least 600 square feet if not a little bigger. The bedroom has a king size bed, dresser, and plenty of room to move around. The kitchen is the size of a decent apartment kitchen with a bar area that leads into the dining area complete with dining table and chairs. The dining room opens into the living room which has a couch, a loveseat, a coffee table, fireplace, and TV. We feel right at home here. We ended up finding a marathon of House on USA and relaxed with our leftovers from last night for dinner followed by hot chocolate.

If you have trouble viewing the pictures below, be sure to check out: http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com/

Arriving in Steamboat

January 3, 2008


Today we flew from Houston to Denver, then took Alpine Taxi (shared shuttle) from Denver to Steamboat Springs, CO. I was very prepared for all kinds of air delays due to winter conditions in Denver, but everything was perfect. We took off on time, we arrived early, and we got our lugage perfectly. We had about an hour to kill in the airport waiting for the shuttle, so we had lunch and ice cream. The Denver airport is very well labeled and has quite a large area with food and shops for people to hang out and wait. It reminded me more of a mall than an airport. Once on the Alpine Taxi with about 18 other people we found out from the driver that Steamboat Springs and the road called Rabbit Pass heading into Steamboat was getting quite a bit of snow. The normal 4 hour drive took 5 hours for the driver to get to Denver to pick us up.

Off we went west of Denver to Steamboat. Mark and I slept, watched some TV on the laptop, and watched the snowy landscape pass by. The drive wasn't too bad as the plows had come through Rabbit Pass already, so we could get through. We arrived at our condo (Rockies Condominiums) with plenty of time to get our evening errands done. We walked the half mile to the ski area to get our ski rentals, then we caught the free bus to downtown to eat a yummy Italian dinner. After dinner we bused back to the grocery store and stocked up for the week and then it was back to the condos and to sleep nice and early since we were bushed from the day of travel.

Snow travel

Mark and I are starting off 2009 with a vacation to Steamboat Springs, CO and Yellowstone NP. We'll spend a week in each place starting on 1/3/09. On 1/10/09 we'll head to Yellowstone and we'll be back in Houston on 1/17. You can check out the weather in Steamboat here: http://www.weather.com/weather/print/USCO0370 . It looks like it'll be snowy, but not too too cold.

We hope to keep our travelblog updated at least while we are in Steamboat, so be sure to check back for updates. If you have problems viewing this, please visit http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com/