pttp03 - Steamboat and Winter Park

We rolled into Steamboat with a couple of different agendas. I was stoked for a sunny day of roosting the sleds to deep backcountry stashes, while my co-pilot Dave made a game time decision to rest his injured shoulder. I'm sure he enjoyed soaking his wounded wing at Strawberry Park Hot Springs, but by that time I was balls deep on my fourth lap up Buff pass. The locals showed the way and provided the horsepower, I was just there for the sweet laps and to gather some more content for tour. After a full day of skiing countless untouched pillow drops, cliffs, and powder fields, we skied out to a setting sun and called the day good.

The next day was spent gearing up for the party at the Tugboat. The folks of Steamboat came out in full force and we rocked the house till W.C Clark and the Blues Review took the stage. Taking full advantage of the slopeside accommodations, we partied with an intensity normally reserved for the mountain, and skipped out to Winter Park the next day under drizzling skies.

Entering Winter Park is like stepping back in time, but it is hard to decide which decade you're revisiting. Our lodging was a prime example of this. We stayed at the Silverado II. This place is a trip. Don't get me wrong, we loved the very spacious, comfortable digs, but it had a strange Star Wars inspired, 70's style space station layout, like a disco party on the Death Star. Then we went and checked out the mountain. The people that vacation at Winter Park and Mary Jane are making a concerted effort to keep it real. There were neon one-piece suits all over the show, and the rear entry boot seemed to be making a comeback in this part of the state. When we got skiing we were happy to find some great tree runs, three inches of new snow and some steep pillow sections, not to mention a secret refuge that Gabe remembered from his childhood days here. The mountain treated us well, but the people treated us even better. We threw an apres ski party at the Kickapoo Tavern with help from our friends from Red Hook and Gore-Tex. The staff and patrons treated us like gold and the event was a huge success. The newest technological ski trends and fashions may be ignored here, but we found this to be a refreshing change from an industry that seems to be driven by the latest and greatest.

So try and visit Winter Park this year before it undergoes an Intrawest facelift, it may be one of the last bastions of Colorado charm mixed with a great skiing atmosphere.