Christmas in Steamboat

The shirt I bought in Steamboat says; "A quaint little drinking town with a skiing problem," and that really does sum up Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Referred to as "Ski Town USA" and claiming to have Colorado's best Champagne Powder, Steamboat has a well deserved reputation for some of the best early snow around, so we went to check it out in December, 2005.

Apart from the totally awesome skiing, what else does one do in Steamboat Springs? Well we tried hot-air ballooning with Wild West Balloon Adventures, mountaintop evening dining at Hazie's and snowmobiling with Saddleback Ranch. There is also sleigh ride dinners, climbing, horseback riding, a vast array of restaurants, and of course, the famous natural hot springs.

When fur trappers came to Steamboat in the early 1800's, the Ute Indians had been living in the Yampa Valley for 100's of years. They knew of the many local natural springs and were accustomed to their particular "bubbling" sound. The trappers were not, however, and instead mistook them for the sound of a steamboat's steam engine. And so, "Steamboat Springs" was born.

Ranching has always been strong in Steamboat. In the early 1900's, Steamboat Springs was the largest exporter of cattle in the western United States. In addition to ranching, mining has played an important role in Steamboats development.

However, it is the tourism industry that supports the local economy. It all started in 1913 when the legendary Carl Howelsen went to Steamboat and started ski-jumping. Howelsen, dubbed the "Flying Norseman" built a 100-foot jump and became the father of skiing in Steamboat. Founded in 1915, by Howelson himself, Howelsen Hill is the oldest continuously running ski area in Colorado.

In 1963, the Steamboat Ski Resort opened as Storm Mountain with one lift and an A-Frame warming hut at the base. The mountain was renamed Mt.Werner in 1964 after Buddy Werner, a famous local Olympic skier who died in an avalanche. Today the Steamboat Ski Resort boasts over 25 lifts, 164 runs, and almost 3000 skiable acres of terrain. Steamboat averages 350 inches of snow per year and is famous for its tree skiing and light, fluffy, 'Champagne Powder'

Quick Tips:

We stayed at the Sheraton Steamboat Resort & Conference Centre, a true ski-in, ski-out experience. The hotel is within a snowball throw of three lifts, and only a 50m walk to the Silver Bullet Gondola.

Truly, this is how skiing should be; take the lift from your room to the basement level of the hotel, walk the 20m corridor to the back of the Steamboat Ski & Sport store, collect your skis, exit the shop, ski 20m to the Headwall or Preview lifts. How easy is that—no buses, no parking, no lines!

The best part though is when you finish the day. Ski from the top of the mountain, non stop, to the front door of Steamboat Ski & Sport, click off your skis, walk inside and hand them to the staff, walk the 20m corridor to the lifts, press level 2, exit, and get into one of the four outdoor hot tubs. This is the only way to finish a day of skiing.

The view from Sevens Restaurant at breakfast is magnificent, looking directly over Headwall lift to the top of Heavenly Daze. It not only affords excellent views, but allows you to time the end of your breakfast with the ebb and flow of the morning lift crowd.

Best Way To Get Around:

The downtown area of Steamboat Springs is contained almost exclusively on the main road of Lincoln Avenue. There are almost 30 restaurants downtown and nearly all of them are either on Lincoln Avenue, or within a 100m walk of Lincoln Avenue. This makes getting around quick and easy. A free Steamboat Springs Transit (SST) shuttle, which has four drop offs on Lincoln Avenue, leaves the Gondola Square area every 15 minutes and heads downtown. The SST shuttle also stops at Walmart & Safeway, and there are other SST shuttles that service the condominiums. One tip though if you stay mountainside, avoid the 3:30 to 5pm shuttles; they are always standing room only.

For more pictures and information on Steamboat visit my website Shane Currie's Website

A good option in downtown Steamboat is the Old Town Pub. This historic building on the corner of 6th and Lincoln was originally built in 1904 by Ernest Campbell as the Albany Hotel. It was one of the area's finest hotels and catered to the upscale Steamboat visitors who arrived by train. As Steamboat Springs prospered and the needs of the town expanded, this two-story Victorian structure was converted to the town's first hospital by Dr. Willett.

The Old Town Pub later became a post office, general store, and movie theatre. It was also a library, a ceramic shop, a barber shop, and a radio shop. The Odd Fellows maintained their lodge in the building and the second floor was once used as a dance hall. In 1983, it became the Old Town Pub & Restaurant.

The menu wasn't your typical pub menu; there was some good variety. The thing we liked best was that the serving sizes were realistic. The American propensity for huge servings that no one could possible eat always amazes me. They seem to equate big dishes with value for money, even though  they can only eat half the serving.

We shared the Fancy Schmancy Platter as our entrée—coco shrimp with a sweet chilli sauce, grilled chicken skewers with Thai peanut dipping sauce, apple-and-brie quesadilla wedges with a berry couli, and caprese crostinis for $14.95.

For mains we tried the elk, a grilled two-bone Rocky Mountain rack of elk served atop onion and dried cherry marmalade for $25.95, and the ribs, fall-off-the-bone pork ribs smothered in a homemade sweet and smoky BBQ sauce and slow roasted for $16.95 (half rack).

The service was good and the food was excellent. There were a lot of families in the restaurant, perhaps partly due to their smoke-free policy—even the bar is smoke free.

They have a good selection of local beers, including Colorado's Best Microbrews. I didn't try them all, but I recommend passing on Steamboat Ale (in my opinion), but Avalanche Ale is worth a try.

They open for lunch from 11:30am and dinner from 5:30pm.

For more pictures and information please visit my website www.shanecurrie.id.au

Only a short walk to the Gondola, the Gondola Pub & Grill isn't a bad way to start the day. The restaurant is located on a second floor mezzanine and consists of about 12 booths and 6 tables. The first floor is the bar area, which is quite small with 3 booths and enough standing room for about 20 people. This means that when the place is totally full you can still have a conversation with the person next to you.

The decor is your basic sports theme; there's hockey, baseball, and American football memorabilia on the walls, along with some local ski history. However, the feature that dominates the room is the full size Gondola car hanging from the roof, complete with skis.

Breakfast is served from 8am to 11am with the normal fare of eggs and bacon, toast, waffles, pancakes, etc. Prices start at $3 for a Fried Egg Sandwich, $5 for Breakfast Sandwich (one egg with cheese on an English Muffin) to $8 for the Club Car Breakfast (2 eggs, ham, bacon, sausage with fries).

The service was good, the food was reasonable, and we had breakfast there on several occasions. Whilst the view wasn't anything in the Sheraton, it's location, close to the gondola, meant that we often got an insight into the conditions before hitting the snow. The early risers would come down off the mountain for breakfast, and listening in on their conversations allowed us to select which part of the mountain we would visit first. This inside scoop was particularly handy when the conditions were tricky.

Quite near to the Gondola area is the Tugboat Grill and Pub. A sports bar feel, with walls covered in everything from a two-headed pig and water buffalo, to sailfish, to all sorts of local skiing memorabilia. The seven TVs play non-stop sports; it is setup for a live band to play in one corner, and claims the title of "Steamboat's Best Live Entertainment."

The bar stretches for almost the full length of the room, and it seems to be popular with the locals as there were numerous groups of them holding up the place. They have all the local beers, a sun deck (we didn't try that out), and best of all the place is located on the SST bus route.

The menu is what you'd expect from a sports bar:

French Fries: $3
Nachos with Beef or Chicken: $9
12 Burgers: $7-$10
7 Salads: $6-$9
Ribs, Pasta, Steaks: $11-$21
Onion Rings: $4
Chicken Marsala: $13
Steak (10oz) & Shrimp: $21

The Tugboat is open from 11:30am to 2am for lunch and dinner.

We went to Steamboat for one thing and one thing alone—skiing, and we were not disappointed. I had spent some time researching resorts that had good early snow. After all, you don't want to spend 32 hours sitting on planes and in airports, travelling to the other side of the world, to get there and have no snow. Well snow isn't a problem in Steamboat, with snowfalls of 38cm in October, 210cm in November (snowiest November on record), and 264cm in December (5th snowiest December on record). We were welcomed with a base of 170cm when we arrived December 24th, 2005.

We were early to rise Christmas Day, thanks in part to the jet lag, and hit the slopes straight after breakfast. We enjoyed two perfectly fine, blue-sky days that we spent familiarising ourselves with the various runs. Lucky we did to, it snowed for the next 10 days straight!

We are both Intermediate skiers, although my wife is more comfortable on long green groomers than blues. We spent several hours on the first day cruising on the green run Headwall getting reacquainted with our skis. In the afternoon we headed up Christie III triple chair and explored Main Drag, Boulevard, Giggle Gulch, Bigfoot, Swinger, So What, Right-O-Way and Bee Line—all greens. The upper green runs off the lift are Main Drag and Boulevard, which whilst being fairly narrow are not that steep. The other greens, with the exception of Right-O-Way, are relatively steeper but are also wider. Having said that, we considered all of them within our ability level. It should be noted that before arriving in Steamboat we had spent a grand total of 12 days over the last 3 years skiing.

The great thing about Steamboat is that the mountain is divided into basically three areas; the lower levels, which are almost solely greens, are serviced by the Christie II & III lifts; the mid mountain is mostly blues and blacks, with some greens, serviced by the Silver Bullet Gondola; and the upper mountain is all blues and blacks, serviced by Sundown Express. So as we became more comfortable on our skis, and as our confidence increased, we were able to move further up the mountain into a wider range of terrain. It also meant we could individually ski different runs and meet back at the same lift.

Tip for the Beginners: If you want to go to the top of the mountain, take the Gondola onto Spur Run (green). This will take you to Sundown Express (high-speed quad lift), when you get to the top take Tomahawk (Blue). Whilst Tomahawk is a "blue", it has a very short but wide blue section less than 100m in length, at the top, which is followed by a long, wide, and relatively flat section for the next 1.5km or so. I'm sure that if it didn't have the steeper section at the top it would most certainly be a green.

Tomahawk takes you down to Sunshine triple chair, where it's back to the top. Alternatively, you can take South Peak triple followed by Broadway (green) back to the top of the Gondola. From there it is Why Not (green) all the way down to Right-O-Way (green), and back to the base area.

For the sightseeing groomers like my wife, I'd recommend So What (green) which branches off Why Not and then BC Ski Way (green). This is some of the prettiest scenery on the mountain, with relatively little traffic.

For those intermediate skiers, like myself, who are trying to improve but aren't quite ready to tackle a full blown black, See Me is a good option. See Me is accessible off the Christie lifts, via Sitz, and offers a small taste of black skiing. Stay to the right of See Me, as the left is a little steeper, and hang on! The great part about See Me is that it is only 'Black' steep for the first half of the run, after which it becomes more like a blue as you run down to Headwall. If nothing else, the great view from the top of See Me makes it a worthwhile run to attempt.

For more pictures and information please visit my website www.shanecurrie.id.au

Saddleback Ranch is best known as the location for the reality program "Rich Kids Cattle Drive." It is a 7,200-acre working cattle ranch run by the Lacovetto family and located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains about 20 minutes from Steamboat Springs.

The ranch runs numerous activities, including snowmobile tours, cattle-feeding sleigh rides, horseback riding, and dinner sleigh rides. We decided to try the snowmobiling at $85 for the driver and $45 for a passenger.

The tours are guided and last about two hours. They take in some fantastic views of Mt. Werner, the Flattops, and the Sleeping Giant as you wind you way through meadows, up hills, and down narrow tree-lined trails. The tour culminates in an all out "Free For All' in a back paddock, where riders are free to go as fast as they can around the meadow.

We rode 2004 model two-person Polaris snowmobiles, which were very well maintained; I especially liked the hand-warmer feature. Flat out in a straight line, with one rider, they go about 85km/h, but it seems a lot faster when you're actually doing it. This kind of speed makes cornering tricky. If you just turn the handlebars, you will turn, but it'll take awhile. You really need to lean into the corners to get them to turn quickly, so hanging off the side of a snowmobile, doing 85km/h, bouncing over rough ground, and trying to turn a sharp corner really gets the heart pumping!

The tour begins with an orientation lap of a nearby paddock. This allows everyone to get used to turning, stopping, etc., before we hit the trail. The tour then heads out into the back country, slowly at first and then speeds up as everyone gets more and more comfortable with their machine. Unfortunately, you can only go as fast as the slowest person, and in our tour, that person happened to be directly behind the guide. So it wasn't unusual for the guide to pull 200 to 300m ahead only to have to stop and wait for us; this got a little frustrating. The scenery is pretty spectacular, though.

At the end of the tour, we headed back to the barn for a hot cup of chocolate and a cookie.

For more pictures and information please visit my website www.shanecurrie.id.au

On September 19, 1783, Pilatre De Rozier, a scientist, launched the first hot air balloon, called "Aerostat Reveillon." The passengers included a sheep, a duck, and a rooster, and the balloon stayed in the air for a grand total of 15 minutes before crashing back to the ground.

On January 5, 2006, we followed in there footsteps aboard the "Velvet," run by Wild West Balloon Adventures. On an absolutely perfect blue-sky day in Steamboat, we climbed in the basket, and before we knew it, we were soaring at 10,000 feet, almost as high as Mt. Werner itself.

And what a view! We could see from Hayden Airport in the north to Saddle Back Ranch in the south and from Fish Creek Falls in the east and across the massive expanse of the Rocky Mountains to the west, and everything in between.

We were picked up from our hotel at 8:30am and were taken to the launch field, where we enjoyed a light continental breakfast while the balloon was being inflated.

The basket holds eight passengers, plus the pilot, and whilst it is a little cramped, it is not uncomfortably so. The basket is divided into five sections, four for passengers and one for the pilot; each section holds two people. The pilot is in constant communication with his ground crew and Hayden Airport and tracks his position and elevation via onboard GPS.

The view is awesome as you drift along the valley. The pilot alters altitude several times to use different air currents, so we seemed to follow a circular pattern through the valley, landing only 50m from our launch point. He was also able to rotate the balloon so we were not stuck looking at the same view during the 1-hour flight.

The ride was surprisingly smooth; there was no turbulence or bumps, and you have no sensation of movement or speed. In fact, the only sound to be heard is the periodic whoosh of the burner. Everything was so peaceful that in no time at all our hour was up and we were making preparations for landing.

After the flight, the next basket load hopped in and we were driven back to the launch field for a champagne celebration and certificate presentation. The origin of the champagne celebration can also be traced back to France in the late 1700s. Balloon flights were met by irate farmers and thought to be demons set forth by King Louis XVI. In order to appease the landowners, the pilots began to carry champagne with them, and the tradition stands today.

A half hour flight costs $125 and a hour is $185. This includes hotel transfers, the continental breakfast, the champagne celebration, and your flight certificate. You should wear warm comfortable boots or shoes and layered clothing, as temperatures are normally warmer in the balloon. There are limited restroom facilities at the launch site.

For more pictures and information please visit my website www.shanecurrie.id.au