Point6 Blog

Just when I was about to re-post our tips for depressing safe “early season” skiing, it happened, it snowed!  I believe a collective “AHHHHH” could be heard throughout the state of Colorado on Monday as a potent, blinding storm dropped a thick blanket of snow across our favorite resorts and mountain tops.  We woke up to 11” at Steamboat Ski Area and -11 degrees to accompany it.  Frigid yes, but were we going to let this lung-burning, nose-frosting air prevent us from executing our first powder clause of the season?  A resounding “Hell No” was the locals’ answer!  Wearing as many warm, wooly layers as possible under my biggest and fluffiest down and a super cozy pair of Ski Medium Free Falls, I made it to the Gondola line for a few minutes of waiting before the 8:30 opening.  And I was sweating.  Happy, smiling faces greeted us in the line along with BIG, FAT skis that haven’t seen the light of day outside the garage since they were mounted back in November.  Yay for powder boards!  A beautiful morning of crisp, bluebird skiing awaited.  It’s amazing how frozen moisture crystals stacked peacefully on top of each other on the maintained mountain slopes can create such pure, unadulterated joy.  I’m pretty sure that every single freshly fallen snowflake was completely shredded, ripped apart and annihilated by 10:15.  And then the locals left.  Like a pack of honey badgers taking what they want, because everyone knows that nothing can stop a honey badger when it’s hungry.  And right now, the locals are hungry for snow; light, fluffy, and deep, please.  With winter storm warnings in effect, it’s time to be stoked, happy, hungry, and it’s time to spend more than an hour and a half on the mountain before going in for beers.  GAME ON!