The Wonders of Ski Trips

I thought I would share a recent article from the New York Times that speaks to the essence and value of skiing with family and I would add friends. I think that we would all have a bit different take on what trips have done for us in good times and possibly bad, what we love most about them but the overriding experience, the stories we will never forget and lasting power of ski trips to bring us together is s strong presence that will span decades in any skiers life.

The sheer beauty, challenge, strange abilities to sail down a mountain almost like flying, unpredictably and countless rewards that skiing brings us all is irresistible. For me and many I know skiing forms a steady current that links many of the best times of my life together and has also brought me many of the best things like countless friends, my wife and a shared love of the sport already strong in Alden and Neve that I can’t wait to grow over time.

Sorry I have been an infrequent blogger lately. It was a crazy fall with many opportunities, 2 moves and remodels, concurrent with the holidays and then being sick for 4.5 weeks without a voice twice. All that was superseded by countless good times with friends, family, skiing with the kids and many great powder days. All is now well with us and I trust the same is true for you.

Here is the NYT article on Family Ski Trips Back to the Steamboat Springs blog main page for more.

Someone turned the snow back on... 32 feet so far

We have had incredibly consistent snow this year with 8 out of 10 days fresh until about a week and a half ago many locals were hoping for a break from shoveling and a chance to see the sun. We had some nice sun and late winter / spring conditions that allowed people to catch up on snow removal and the snowpack in valley to consolidate easing things a bit on the wildlife. We are closing in on 400 inches this year and it's not even March yet so let's hope for a record year with 460 plus inches!

Here is a quote from today's Straight Talk Ski Report " And the award goes to... While Hollywood rolled out the red carpet for the 80th Annual Academy Awards last night, we've rolled out the white carpet for yet another powder day in Ski Town, USA® a creamy-dreamy 6-8" at 5 a.m. with more falling from the sky. As Hollywood reached their milestone of 80 years, we are nearing our milestone of 400" just having surpassed the 32 foot mark. Keep it coming!

For my first turns down Rudi's I stayed skier's right and still found untracked lines with my name on them. Thick and rich, more vanilla milkshake than champagne, I floated through easing into my Monday morning nice and slow. The mountain is capped with a snow cloud and the visibility is minimal, we're talking last scene in Casablanca here's not being able to look at you foggy. "

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Snowmobile Slalom Skiing in Steamboat

We are having a great winter here but that doesn’t stop me from thinking water-skiing or engaging in similar endeavors. Yesterday I took two snowmobiles 5 friends and I bought recently out to another friend’s Ranch in Steamboat yesterday to ride a little. My friend had the bright idea to pull out a vintage snow snake ski to Slalom with( it is basically an old 4 ft long ski crudely designed to be pulled. It was more than a little challenging since it uses a normal ski boot and the forward lean really throws off your position on the ski and the partial rear toe piece puts almost all of effort on your front leg since you can’t get the normal leverage and thus control from using both feet. I suspect it was designed for leather boots that didn’t have the forward lean modern ski boots do given it’s age. “Water-skiing in 3 dimensions” instead of just two added an additional challenge. It was a ton of fun, sparked some great falls and has me thinking about modifying an old water-ski for future excursions on a powder day, the snow in the valley has consolidated quite a bit in the week or so since it has snowed here vs. almost every day before then. A real water-ski handle would hurt either.

For more click back to the Steamboat Springs blog main page.

Steamboat Winter Water-skiing in the snow?

We are having a great winter here but that doesn’t stop me from thinking water-skiing or engaging in similar endeavors (If you want a good laugh watch the videos at the links below). Yesterday I took two snowmobiles out to a friend’s Ranch in Steamboat yesterday to ride a little. Dave had the bright idea to pull out a vintage snow snake ski to Slalom with( it is basically an old 4 ft long ski crudely designed to be pulled or so we thought until Dave Googled the inventor and found out it was for ski area use in the bumps and soft snow. The inventor is considering driving up to Steamboat to meet the guy that still uses one of his handmade snow snakes.).

The Snow Snake was more than a little challenging to ski for me since it uses a normal ski boot and the forward lean really throws off your position on the ski from normal water-ski form and the partial rear toe piece puts almost all of effort on your front leg since you can’t get the normal leverage and thus control from using both feet. I suspect it was designed for leather boots that didn’t have the forward lean modern ski boots do given it’s age. “Water-skiing in 3 dimensions” instead of just two added an additional challenge. It was a ton of fun, sparked some great falls and has me thinking about modifying an old water-ski for future excursions on a powder day. I case your are wondering the snow in the valley has consolidated quite a bit in the week or so since it has snowed here vs. almost every day before then. A real water-ski handle would hurt either.

Hartley starting things out and then me (Jon) water-skiing in snow, I hope I will be able to water-ski better than this come late March when the lakes melt here. Float back to the Steamboat Springs blog main page for more.

Steamboat Airline Schedules & Connections

Steamboat's airline connections are improving. We have added 50,000 new ski season seats in the last few years and our Fly Steamboat program continues to actively work with the airlines to add more seats and more direct flights year round. In addition, the airport is upgrading electronic controls, to cut the interval between landings of aircraft, now at 15 minutes, down to two minutes. The technology that will make this possible is called WAM, or wide-area multilateration. It is expected to be in place for the 2010-11 ski season. We have the most accessible airport in the Rocky Mtns right now in bad weather and this will allow us to get in even more flights in bad weather.

It is also worth noting that beginning in May United Airlines is going to year round jet service out of Hayden (HDN) for the flights that connect via Denver.

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Barrons article on Vail demand - how Mtn properties are different

Here are some quotes from an article in Barrons about Vail stock with many interesting references to their clientele and real estate market. Steamboat is different than Vail in many regards but close if not the same in regards to supply demand and the credit quality of our buyers. Our prices are also about ½ of Vail’s and we have a much better story for improvements going forward. They make some points that have a lot of basis beyond Vail about how mountain resort real estate is sold to a clientele that is less sensitive to the national market because they recognize that the supply of prime ski area property is limited especially given the number of people looking to own or retire here and are willing to buy quality. Vail is different from Steamboat in many ways but the same in the desire of successful people that have visited to own or at least retire here. Something about mountain towns and the lifestyle they provide access to keeps a large place in people's hearts to the point many people aspire to live here. I should know, it happened to me and I meet people that feel the same way all of the time.

The "housing crisis" we have in mountains as mentioned in the article below is more based on how the lack of supply, buyers with great credit or cash, and demand that looks to continue to outstrip supply come together to make it more difficult for low to moderate income people to purchase in mountain resort communities. Sort of the opposite problem from the 5 states that are driving 80% of our national housing crisis that isn't really national.

Clips from the article in Barrons: "the surging ranks of the world's wealthy -- is relatively insulated from economic slumps. Heavy snowfall in the past two months, meanwhile, has been whetting the appetites of both skiers and a new breed of young visitors: snowboarders. Perhaps most important, a number of promising residential developments by Vail are starting to come to fruition. The company is developing hundreds of townhouses and condos in its area, and demand is proving remarkably strong.

"The pricing was done with a full awareness of what was going on in the global real-estate market," he says. With a limited number of residences being sold -- a total of 90 in the first building -- "buyers are confident they're getting something that may never be available again," he adds. "Even in soft years for the country, they keep growing," he says, mainly because of the limited supply and growing global demand. "It's surprising to me how many people will buy a $2 million vacation home and use it for three weeks out of the year."

Donnelly also found little to no correlation between economic changes and skier visits at Vail Resorts, including income growth for the top 20% of the U.S. population. That is, even when incomes of the affluent slip, they still manage to get away on ski vacations.

Here is full article in Barrons. It is worth reading. Back to the Steamboat Springs blog main page for more.

Housing Crisis Hits the Colorado Mountains

Eagle county is not unique in this regard but the meaning of housing crisis is quite different that in most of the country. The maxim that all real estate markets are local definitely holds in this case. Don't worry now, the problem here and in most mountain resort communities is a shortage instead of a glut like we all read about in the national papers. The national market is suffering from both oversupply and credit issues from the sub-prime market, two factors where the mountain resorts differ significantly from other areas. Limited land given the vast national forests / desire to maintain our rural character, the limited growth of city boundaries if any at all, the goal of so many to spend more time in the mountains they have vacationed in for so long and the prosperity of the baby boomers is creating demand far quicker than supply in a market where a large group of people have the means to buy with a large cash down payment if not just in cash.

We are all here for the quality of life so that is something people here think about and guides land use and development here in Steamboat.

MSNBC -EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado - It's official. Eagle County is in a "housing crisis" and can expect to feel the economic impacts in the next few years, experts say.The county needs 3,400 homes now, both affordable and market-priced, to address the current housing shortage, and more than 8,000 homes in the next decade to keep up with future growth, according to a recent study by RRC Associates and Rees Consulting, firms that specialize in housing analysis in resort communities.

Also, local residents own about 51 percent of the homes in Eagle County, a drop from the 69 percent of locally owned homes in 2000, the study said.

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105 inches to go ...

Let's hope for another 400 plus inch snow year. After our late start it has been a truly spectacular year. The snow quality has been amazing even when there was only 4 inches new since that nearly always followed a couple of feet in the previous few days. Most days have been truly Champagne Powder and Intrawest is keeping up the Steamboat tradition of under reporting on the daily snow report so us locals can keep more of the good to ourselves :) I'll toast to that with a deep day in my favorite places to find the best Champagne powder. Come out soon and help us ski all of this snow!

From Today's Steamboat Pilot:
"Today marks the first day of February, typically the third-snowiest month of winter at the Steamboat Ski Area. The ski area reported more than 100 inches of snow falling on the slopes of Mount Werner in December and January — just the third time in resort history that’s happened.The ski area reports receiving 295 inches of snow since late fall. There have been only five 400-inch ski seasons in Steamboat Ski Area history: 1983-84, 1992-93, 1995-96, 1996-97 and 2005-06"
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