Check out this mountain!! It’s real. It’s like a real mountain like they have in Colorado. And you know why? Because it is in Colorado, fools!! That right there be Steamboat and I skied and snowboarded all over and up and down it like a maniac for 4 big huge days on Spring vacation.
This picture only shows part of it. Mostly because it’s hard to fit an entire mountain in a single picture. Unless you stand way, way back, I suppose, but then you’re so far from the mountain that you can’t immediately get back to kicking ass on the mountain when you’re done snapping your photos. And really that’s the whole point.
It was a great trip. First time we’ve done the big “family trip” thing with both kids and airplanes and heavy luggage and stuff. I’ll crank the recap below in bangbang bullet fashion. In a prior life I would have written a huge 5-page triplog or something. Maybe I’ll pick that up again when I’m older.
- Getting There – Flight out. Kids on a plane! Crazy bumpy ride into whatever tiny town it was we flew into. Hadly or something, maybe? Whatever, it was so so so bumpy and I was just ROCKED. Then like a 30 minute van ride in a van full of tourists driven by a guy who looked like a walrus and at that point I’m like half pukebarfy and half dumbstruck by how pretty it is. Snow and rivers and trees and all that stuff you only see in pictures, right there in front of your face like it’s supposed to be. We eventually get to our ghetto condo – more than half the lightbulbs in the place are burned out and the sink in bathroom doesn’t drain, but omg walk to lifts and SO CHEAP!! Settle in, then ride the free shuttle to the grocery, load up on food for the week, grab some dinner, adjust to altitude, etc, etc. Long day. To bed early, let’s hit it first thing.
- Action – Boarded 2 days, skied 2 days. The park scene was pretty tame, so even on the board it was mostly just cruisin. You could play on the sides of the runs and stuff, but I turned my bindings forward and spent most of my time gliding. Lovely. Long enough to burn your legs out by early afternoon, short enough that you could get around the mountain in less than a half day. The steeps were steep, the groomers were maybe a little tamer than you’d want – except the good ones, but then they were just PACKED – and the kid friendly greens were mostly just long catwalky type things, which was fine for the kids.
- Kids – Steamboat bills itself as “the most family friendly ski resort in the universe” or something and for sure I can see where they are coming from. It’s maybe a little intense when you roll into the ‘kiddie area’ to drop of junior for his all-day lesson and there are like 4000 parents there, too, but once he hits the slopes it small classes and good lunches and when you’d roll in 6 hours later to pick him up all the kids were still loving it. Then after class he’d want to ski another hour or two until the lifts stopped running, so clearly they were doing something motivational and great. The ‘daycare’ stuff for the really little ones was what you’d expect.
- Food – Brace yourself: on mountain food was awful and stupid expensive. I know, right? Who’da thunk? That said, one day Libby and I grabbed a quick sit down lunch at this faux-Scandinavian joint called Ragnar’s and I had a salad with like a whole smoked trout and a bunch of asparagus on it and it was fantastic. So maybe just eat that every day. Or pack a sandwich. In terms of non-on-mountain, as soon as you got off the hill everything got really cheap really fast, even right at the base. That was cool. We also had dinner in town one night at some Mexican joint. It was so so. I should have kept better tabs of where we ate. Mostly I ate a lot mini powdered sugar donuts and beer. Hooray for vacation!!
Random other stuff:
- The hot spring place right in down town is on the busline and is totally kid friendly and fun. Do it. Also: the locker rooms are gross. Go figure.
- The shuttle driver on the way back to the airport played a crazy loud ‘ski bloopers’ DVD for us to watch on the way back to the airport. Way to ruin the majesty of your scenery, doof. Do people still say ‘ring ring clue phone’? Totally I just did.
- Having my 2yo take off her tiny pink tennis shoes to go thru airport security was kind of a hoot.
- The free bus routes are super confusing, even after a few days of trying to get used to them. I’d recommend you study before you go if you think you’ll be riding them.
- Best plan: My last day I glasspressed and rode one of the first first few gondolas up. I was actually with ski patrol guys. Head right for Storm Peak and rip it up more or less all by yourself. You’ll get like 4 or 5 runs in before you even have to think about avoiding other people.
- All in all the crowds were super tame. Never more than like 3 minute lift line, even on ‘busy’ weekends. That’s a plus because you get to ride a lot, but oh man are you exhausted by like 2pm.
I think that’s about it. I’d go back for sure, but going other places would be fun, too.
Hooray for winter!
