Champagne Powder

"Champagne Powder best served chilled over a friendly ski town" is one of the Steamboat Ski area's new ad tag lines this year. It's the sort of authentic yet clever description that I love to see in the Steamboat marketing plan. My son Alden is letting letting some of the Champagne Powder tickle his nose in this picture from last February. He asked me to watch the first ski movie of the season about a week ago and has been talking about powder skiing with Daddy ever since. I can't wait to get out with my little powder hound soon.

A little bit of Steamboat Springs history you may not know is that the phrase Champagne Powder came from a one of the exploratory trips down from Rabbit Ears pass to Mount Werner. James Temple, the founder of the Steamboat Ski Area, and several other local ski pioneers were pulled by a snowcat down from the pass to Storm Peak that day when the phase Champagne powder was first used. I was at a dinner honoring Mr. Temple last night and he told the story about how one of the people skiing said the powder on the mountain tickled his nose like Champagne as it billowed up over them. They showed some pictures from that day on a DVD about the founding of the Ski area. James Temple is scheduled to be inducted into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in October. I think it is an honor that is well deserved. Hearing him tell the story of how skiing started on Storm Mountain with a twinkle in his eye sent chills up and down my spine. I am looking forward to getting a copy of the completed DVD with the whole story this fall. Let me know if you want to borrow it next time you are in town.