Christmas Shredding: Steamboat

Today’s ride day is an ode to Steve who woke my ass up at 8am telling me that the top of gondola was 2 feet of fresh snow…despite what snow reports said. Needless to say, I skipped opening the rest of the presents and stockings to make it to the mountain for some early morning shredding.

Put on some new gear including 686 Smarty snowboard pants and my new Rome reign gloves for the morning of shredding. Made my way over to the mountain, where even on the beginner run (Stampede) it was a couple inches of powder. The base was already packed full of people awaiting the gondola. The new Christie chair was not running yet (late start morning).

Once I got on the mountain, since friends were already up I just rode by myself. I cut over to Norther then hit up Blizzard to get down to 4 points chairlift. I figured with the lines it’d be easier to take 4 points than deal with Storm Peak. On the way up I took this shot of a skier which made photo of the day today.

By the time I made it to the top, I was totally stoked on the snow. Every turn I saw down the hill looked epic, couldn’t see their boards or skis because of how deep the snow was!

I chose to hit up Nelson’s Run scoping out the trees first, making fresh turns in the trees. Then eventually I cut over to Tornado to make fresh turns on the far left. It was awesome! Easily 2 feet of snow in places, riding and having the snow blast my face on the way down. My only mistake today was not riding my powder board which doesn’t have wax on it…my premier held up fine but required more work so I could cut through and ride the powder.

Here is what snow looked like to me for the first couple turns this morning…fresh powder and my board pushing through it.

Eventually more people started arriving and then runs started getting tracked out. I made my way down and hit up Concentration for some more goodies.

I took off my facemask for a run on Concentration and as I came to the bottom…I got this shot of myself just to give an idea of the face shots I got on the run. Personally I like the snow mustache.

But really today was epic. Best Christmas present ever!