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For the final trip of the 2026 season, 18 members of the Peninsula Ski Club traveled to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a seven night stay. Depending on the type of pass that people purchased, that allowed from 4-6 days on the slopes. Most of us had the Ikon Base Pass, which gave us five days of skiing/boarding with one day off.

While a few travelers had other arrangements, the trip started very early for most of us on Saturday morning with a 6:00 a.m. flight out of Norfolk on American Airlines, connecting through Dallas to Hayden, Colorado, about a 45 minute drive from Steamboat. To ease the pain, Steve and Judy put a few of us up for the night at their house, just a few minutes away from the airport. Judy joined Rick in providing shuttle service to and from the airport at ridiculous hours of the morning and night, saving on parking fees. Thank you, Judy and Rick!

The flights out were a little bumpy, and our flight to Hayden was delayed by about 45 minutes due to air traffic congestion, but otherwise things went well and all of our luggage arrived with us. When we landed in Hayden, it quickly became apparent what the "congestion" was all about. Years ago most flights into Hayden were in smaller regional jets, but with increasing demand from skiers, full size aircraft are now the rule rather than the exception, with most flights arriving around the same time in the middle of the day. Several jets were lined up on the tarmac at some distance from the terminal, where we disembarked for a surprisingly long walk to the arrivals area. Once inside, the terminal was jam-packed with people and their luggage, but we eventually got our stuff from carousel #2 (there are only 2) and loaded up on the shuttle bus to Steamboat.

It was still early afternoon, well before the official check-in time, when we arrived at The Lodge at Steamboat. Some of our condos were ready, but some weren't and several folks had to wait for a significant amount of time. Some opted for an early grocery run into town—the lodging company, Vacasa, had an on-call shuttle available—while those fortunate enough to have their rooms ready moved in and hit the grocery stores later in the day.

The Lodge is conveniently located, not far from a side street that borders on the resort base, but still about a quarter-mile walk to the gondola. In ordinary circumstances that's no big deal, but in ski boots and carrying skis it's a bit more of an effort, so most folks used the shuttle bus to get back and forth, although a few opted for the hike. For $15/night the resort offers ski and snowboard storage right on the gondola plaza, so some of us ponied up to avoid schlepping our gear back and forth.

The Lodge itself is a large property, spanning six buildings (designated A-F), and unfortunately our units were scattered throughout the complex. The units are nice enough, but a bit dated and the second bedroom and bath are rather cramped. The buildings also lack elevators, making access to second floor units cumbersome in ski boots. The Lodge didn't provide porterage service so we had to haul our luggage through the parking lot and up/down the stairs, too. Steve gives it an A; Tom would give it a B-.

Once settled in, we turned our attention to skiing. Steamboat is one of the most popular resorts in Colorado, with crowds to match. It also has a great variety of terrain for all levels of skiers, with a nice collection of long blue runs, some relatively gentle and others more akin to blacks back East, along with numerous options for tree skiing. Rick found the mountain particularly easy to navigate; your experience may vary.

Colorado and most of the West have had an unusually warm and dry winter (again) this year, so we were fortunate that a break in the weather pattern prior to our arrival provided enough snow to ski on, from top to bottom. Nonetheless, the fluffy "champagne powder" that is Steamboat's claim to fame (at least for marketing purposes) was entirely absent and the more extreme terrain off of the Pony Express and Mahogany Ridge lifts was closed entirely. As far as snow conditions go, we could have done just as well or better this year in the Northeast.

Having said that, the snow was pretty good the first couple of days, but with daytime highs consistently into the 40's at the base, conditions steadily deteriorated as the week went by. Tuesday night delivered about 6" of fresh but dense snow on the upper mountain, though only rain at the base. Many of us took Wednesday off but those who ventured out reported challenging conditions with sticky snow and a cloud layer that made for very poor visibility.

The skies cleared on Thursday and Friday and the snow in the higher elevations held up pretty well. But repeated freeze/thaw cycles made things trickier on the lower half of the mountain: hard, fast, and crunchy in the mornings and a slushfest in the afternoons, with the base steadily deteriorating and muddy patches starting to show through. But hey, we're East Coast skiers so we're used to dealing with all of this, even if that's not why we flew 2,000 miles to Colorado.

Despite the great terrain, Steamboat is consistently crowded which diminishes the experience. Blue runs which were nicely groomed in the morning turned into mogul runs in the afternoon from heavy skier traffic. And to avoid collisions, we often had to wait for traffic to ease up before launching onto the piste or plotting the next few turns through the moguls. With a few exceptions, lift lines were busy, with waits of 5 to 10 minutes not uncommon, especially on the most desirable portions of the mountain. Given the crowds, though, the lifties did a great job of managing the lines, and the "front row" system of parallel lanes kept things moving along in an equitable fashion.

One particular highlight was the Morningside area which comprised the whole back face of the mountain, largely covered with conifer glades that afforded good tree skiing on moderate-to-easy terrain.  But that entire area is served by a single conventional (not detachable) triple chair, which made for predictably long lift lines. Because of that, we generally limited ourselves to one or two runs per day on that side, although many of us would have liked to have spent more time there.

Reports from the hill:

By mid-morning on Sunday, Tom, Rick, Steve, and Mike had knocked out several nice blue runs, and arriving at the top of the Burgess Creek lift they spotted a sign for Sunnyside, marked as a blue-black. Not a full black, mind you, so that should be easily manageable. Looking it over, the upper part of the run was covered with smallish moguls, but no big deal, so off we went. Mistake! A little farther down was a long, steep section covered with narrow, deeply rutted moguls. No turning back now. Rick, Mike, and Steve made it through with varying degrees of finesse. Tom started down that section with an initial burst of optimism, but after falling for the fourth time, concluded these bumps were beyond his skill level and decided to pick up his skis and walk down the rest of that pitch. That turned out to be no easy task either, postholing through the deeper snow on the side of the trail and getting overheated and dehydrated as the sun rose higher. It took so long that Mike eventually came back up for another pass to check on him. (Thanks, Mike!) Once off of the steeper pitch, Tom found the moguls to be more manageable and skied on down, but he swore off blue-blacks for the rest of the trip.

Mahyar and Trey took a different tack on Sunday, going into Steamboat Springs for the free skiing on Howelsen Hill, a small local area that offers free skiing on Sundays. Featuring a whopping 440' of vertical on 50 acres, it's a completely different experience than Steamboat. Being even warmer in town, conditions weren't that great, with only four trails open (2 green, 1 blue, 1 black), but Mahyar reported they had fun anyway.

Ronnie took advantage of Steamboat's large-resort status and the variable conditions to demo a few pairs of skis. He was particularly impressed with the performance of some Armada Declivity 92's in Wednesday's gunk, so he bought them. When Tom and Steve caught up with him at lunch on Thursday, the big smile on his face told them everything they needed to know about his satisfaction with his purchase. But the story of these skis continued: when we returned to the Norfolk airport late on Saturday evening, everyone got their skis except Ronnie. It turns out that they had been mis-tagged on our departure from Hayden and took a side trip to Miami! He finally got them back on Tuesday. Flying is such an adventure...

Steamboat has added a second gondola, the Wild Blue, since our club last visited in 2019. In contrast with the legacy Steamboat Gondola, Wild Blue goes all the way to the summit of Sunshine Peak via a midstation in the Greenhorn Ranch area. Having not yet ridden that gondola, Steve, Tom, Abby, and Lee figured they should check that off of their to-do list on Thursday morning. Another mistake. This must be the world's slowest gondola. Counting a long wait in the boarding line, it took at least 20 minutes to get to the top of the mountain. Had they taken the old gondola to mid-mountain and then subsequent trails and lifts, they could have easily been on top and made a couple of runs in the same amount of time. Live and learn. Steve's rating: D for disappointing.

Lee and Abby started off on Sunday by warming up on the lower blue runs on the front side. On Monday they took it up a notch (by another 1200' or so) in the Sunnyside area, with good skiing on the long, if busy, cruisers on that face of the mountain. Skiing with Tom on Tuesday, they gave Vagabond a try in the afternoon but found it covered with mini-moguls piled up from all of the skier traffic and decided it might be better for first tracks. Thursday morning wasn't it (slow ride on Wild Blue) but on Friday they "got it right", skiing with Mon and Mike first on Vagabond, then taking the Storm Peak lift up to Buddy's Run (Abby's favorite trail), and finally heading over to Morningside for a run down Cowboy Coffee. They came back out after a mid-morning break at Rendezvous Lodge only to find hordes of people in line at the Sunshine Express lift. (Did I mention Steamboat tends to be crowded?) They caught up with Cathy in the afternoon and finished off their week with the lower frontside blues. (Sounds like a great song title: "Lower Frontside Blues". Do we have any songwriters in the club?)

At one point on Monday, Cathy and Mahyar were being followed by a Russian couple who purported to be ski instructors. They complimented Cathy on her skiing (a perfect 10 from the Russian judges!) which made her day. Of course, those of us who ski with her regularly already knew she was a 10.

Mahyar and Cathy also had fun skiing through the aspen woods, where the unobstructed view of the terrain made for easy navigation. Judging from the video Trey shared with the group, he may or may not have had quite so much fun in the aspen groves—you'd have to ask him.

As for extracurricular activities:

Skiing wasn't the only attraction at Steamboat, and with a day off, many of us had the opportunity to explore further. The Sunset Happy Hour at Thunderhead Lodge showcased local bands—for free with an IKON pass—and an incredible sunset from the patio. Downloading on the Steamboat Gondola provided a magnificent nighttime view of the base and the town of Steamboat Springs. The resort's Winter Wondergrass Festival got underway on Thursday with live music at both the base and the Thunderhead Lodge. All of us who heard the band on the gondola plaza agreed that they were Really Good.

Lee and Abby went into town on Wednesday and found the Buddy Werner Library, supported by a special tax levy, to be extraordinary, with lots of PCs, magazines, and reading spaces overlooking the Yampa River. It also hosts a number of author workshops and reading sessions. They also enjoyed Booktrails, a wonderful bookstore "solving America's reading crisis one book at a time" and serving coffee, pastries, and sandwiches. While wandering around town, they ran into Rick, Terry, Kay, and Danny who were examining the dinosaur bones, fossils, t-shirts, and numerous other wonders that can be found in the many shops that line the main drag through Steamboat Springs. A further highlight was the paved Yampa River Core Trail which follows (more or less) the course of the river from the ski resort all the way through town. Tom caught part of that on his day off when he walked into town from the resort base, a bit longer hike than it looked like on the map.

Steamboat Springs has plenty of good restaurants, too, including Aurums (new American cuisine), Seedz Café (fresh, local, organic), and, at the resort base, Truffle Pig (daily happy hour featuring flights of whiskey and amaro). Mahyar arranged our group dinner on Thursday night at Fiesta Jalisco, a family-owned Mexican restaurant with great food and an extensive menu. Judging by the crowd, it must be one of the more popular places in town. Their prices were reasonable, too, so our budget allowed us to splurge on appetizers, entrées, drinks, and dessert. Rick enjoyed the roasted tilapia and a great Margarita, but reported that the ostras (oysters) were a little sketchy. Maybe better off getting those closer to the coast. Meg's order got mixed up, but she said the camarones (shrimp) dish she received instead was still pretty good.

And the best part:

No matter the conditions, the crowds, the lodging, or whatever else we run into, we always have a great time with our ski club friends. After a couple of seasons off, we were delighted to have Danny back with us, along with his sidekicks Rocky and Mouse. Danny is a wonderful storyteller, comedian, and clown; we were all cracking up when he told us about the time (pre-9/11) that Rocky checked in for an airline flight and jumped the security screener. Not to be upstaged, Mouse gave Abby quite a start at our Friday night leftovers party.

The upside of condo accommodations is that we have the option of saving money by cooking, we get to room with a larger set of friends, and we have more space to spread out and relax. Tom and Steve planned out their menus and put together a grocery list ahead of time (since when does that ever happen?) and surprised themselves with how good their creations were. Rick was especially happy to be rooming with Danny, Terry, and Kay, club friends that he has known for 30 years; it seems that their excellent cooking might have something to do with his contentment, too. We also enjoyed having Geoffrey (our lone snowboarder), Carol, and Betty along to round out the crew.

The downside of condos, especially when they are scattered like this, is that it's harder to organize our groups for skiing. In hotel settings, we're usually all together for breakfast, at least, and often running into each other in the halls, elevators, bars, restaurants, and lobby, so it's easier to figure out who wants to do what with whom on any given day.

Special thanks to Mahyar, our Trip Captain, for organizing another great trip and working through all of the complications that invariably arise. Also to his condo-mates, Meg and Cathy, for helping with the setup and cleanup and allowing us to crash their unit for the Friday night gathering. 

Submitted by Tom Crockett, with contributions from Lee Anderson, Rick Irby, Steve Liberman, Mahyar Malekpour, and Ronnie Triplett. Photos by Meg Gordon, Tom Crockett, and Lee Anderson.