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Ski Report: Steamboat Springs

Steamboat Springs

Steamboat Springs

Steamboat Springs offers excellent skiing opportunities and has been the locale of world class skiing competitions, including competitions for the 1989 and 1990 Alpine Skiing World Cup. The Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club has brought forward many successful skiers, and the Steamboat Ski Resort attracts a large number of visiting snow aficionados.

The area surrounding Steamboat Springs was originally inhabited by the Yampatikas Utes, who hunted in the valley during the summer. Trappers began to move into the area during the first decades of the 19th century. Ranchers soon followed, and ranching traditions are still preserved by the large ranching community. However, the native Utes were forcibly removed from the area to a reservation in Utah by the U.S. Army starting in 1879.

Originally, skiing was the only method of transportation during harsh Rocky Mountain winters. In turn, the popularity of skiing as a winter pastime catalyzed development of the town and other communities all over the Rocky Mountains. In 1913, Carl Howelsen, a Norwegian, moved to town and introduced ski jumping. Howelsen built the first jump on namesake Howelsen Hill, now part of the Howelsen Ski Area. He also founded the annual Winter Carnival, a celebration still held each winter. Traditionally, the festival includes ski racing and jumping, dog sledding, and chariot events down Lincoln Avenue, the city’s main street. Light shows on both Mount Werner and Howelsen Hill are highlights.

The Steamboat Ski Resort was largely established by two local men, Jim Temple and John Fetcher. Temple led the effort to develop the area. Fetcher, a local rancher, was the main designer and builder. The resort opened on what was then called Storm Mountain in 1963.

In 1974, The Industrial Company (TIC) was started in Steamboat Springs and has since grown into one of the largest industrial construction companies in the United States with revenues of approximately $2 billion in 2007. The company is one of the largest employers in Routt County and has more than 9,000 employees worldwide.

Kayakers at Charlie’s Hole on the Yampa River

In 1993, the City Council of Steamboat Springs, Colorado conducted a poll of its residents to choose a new name for the bridge that crossed the Yampa River on Shield Drive. The winning name with 7,717 votes was “James Brown Soul Center of the Universe Bridge”. The bridge was officially dedicated in September 1993, and James Brown appeared at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the event.

The Yampa river is a popular conduit for water sports like fishing, rafting, tubing, and kayaking (playboating). The 4-mile grade II-III[12] whitewater run through town ends with two surfable holes. One is called D-Hole; the other one—near the library, close to the Steamboat Spring—is named Charlie’s Hole or C-Hole for short, after local kayaker Charlie Beavers (1981-2002), who started kayaking at age 12 and later was the first to explore a number of rivers (“first descents”) and successfully contended in playboating competitions, but died in a non-boating accident in 2002 and the hole and some kayaking events were dedicated to him.

Every year on the first weekend of June, Steamboat Springs organizes the Yampa River Festival. It includes a kayak rodeo (i.e. a playboating competition) which attracts national and international world class playboaters. Further events are a downriver race, Colorado’s only upstream slalom race, the Crazy River Dog Contest, in which dogs retrieve sticks from the river and may pass a whitewater section, and others.

Steamboat Ski Resort is a major ski area in northwestern Colorado, operated by the Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation in Steamboat Springs. It is located on Mount Werner, a mountain in the Park Range in the Routt National Forest. The ski area first opened on January 12, 1963.

The ski area has 165 named trails spread over 2,965 acres (12.00 km2). Fourteen percent are classified as beginner level, forty-two percent as intermediate, and forty-four percent as advanced. It also contains the Mavericks Superpipe snowboard/skiing superpipe one of the premier pipes in North America.

Elevation

* Base: 6,900 feet (2,100 m)
* Summit: 10,568 feet (3,221 m)
* Vertical Rise: 3,668 feet (1,118 m)

[edit] Trails

* Area: 2965 acres (12.0 km²)
* Trails: 165 total (14% beginner, 42% intermediate, 44% advanced)
* Longest Run: “Why Not” ~ 3 miles (4.8 km)
* Terrain Parks: 2 (including Mavericks Superpipe)
* Average Annual Snowfall: 334 in/year (8.48 m/year)

The three lower mountain lifts (the Gondola, Thunderhead Express, and Christie Peak Express) service most of the green runs, which include the long Why Not trail from Thunderhead. Blue trails can be found mostly off of these same lifts, plus the two high speed quads on Sunshine Peak, although more funnel to the Sunshine Express lift. A couple of blue runs can also be found from the Four Points, BAR-UE, and Storm Peak Express lifts, as are a few in Morningside Park.

Most of the blue black runs are scattered about the mountain, but most of them are located off the Pony Express lift in Pioneer Ridge. Black runs can be found off of pretty much any of the detachable chairlifts, but in the highest concentration on north Sunshine Peak, most of Storm Peak, Pioneer Ridge, and Morningside Park. The sole double black runs of the area make up the extreme terrain on Mount Werner.
[edit] Lifts

* 23 total
o 1 Gondola
+ 8-Passenger Gondola (2,200 ft. vertical rise, 9:00 ride time, Doppelmayr, installed 1986)
o 1 High-speed 6-passenger chair
+ Christie Peak Express (1,103 ft. vertical rise, 4:45 ride time, Leitner-Poma, installed 2007)
o 5 High-speed quad chairs
+ Storm Peak Express (2,160 ft. vertical rise, 7:00 ride time, Doppelmayr, installed 1992)
+ Sundown Express (1,936 ft. vertical rise, 5:30 ride time, Doppelmayr, installed 1992)
+ Thunderhead Express (1,638 ft. vertical rise, 5:30 ride time, Doppelmayr, installed 1997)
+ Pony Express (vertical rise NA, ride time NA, CTEC, installed 1998)
+ Sunshine Express (1,300 ft. vertical rise, ride time NA, Leitner-Poma, installed 2006, originally located at “The Canyons,” Utah)
o 1 Quad chair
+ Elkhead (710 ft. vertical rise, 6:00 ride time, YAN, installed 1984)
o 6 Triple chairs
+ Christie III (1,030 ft. vertical rise, 7:30 ride time, YAN, installed 1979, used primarily on high demand days)
+ Preview (vertical rise NA, ride time NA, YAN, installed 2007, originally Southface(YAN) installed new in 1979)
+ Four Points (1,366 ft. vertical rise, 7:30 ride time, YAN, installed 1983, shortened 1992)
+ South Peak (340 ft. vertical rise, 4:00 ride time, YAN, installed 1984)
+ Morningside (542 ft. vertical rise, 6:00 ride time, Garaventa-CTEC, installed 1996)
+ Burgess Creek (950 ft. vertical rise, 7:30 ride time, Leitner-Poma, installed 2004)
o 3 Double chairs
+ Priest Creek (1,930 ft. vertical rise, 10:30 ride time, Heron-Poma, installed 1972, used primarily on high demand days)
+ Bashor (315 ft. vertical rise, 3:00 ride time, YAN, installed 1974)
+ Bar UE (1,380 ft. vertical rise, 9:00 ride time, YAN, installed 1977)
o 6 Surface
+ Rough Rider (Surface Platter Tow) (140 ft. vertical rise, 3:00 ride time, Doppelmayr, installed 1989)
+ Wrangler (Magic Carpet)
+ Desperado (Magic Carpet)
+ Easy Rider (Magic Carpet)
+ Sundance (Magic Carpet)
+ Buckaroo (Magic Carpet)

The Howelsen Hill Ski Area is a small ski area located on Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. As such, it is not a typical downhill ski area, but is solely used for Winter Sports and Olympic snow events and has produced over 70 Olympians. With a vertical drop of 440 feet (134 m), it has one chair lift, one rope tow and one Poma lift. It has a bobsled track and a series of ski jumps, the largest being a 90 meter jump. The local youth ski team, the Steamboat Winter Sports Club, practices at the area, along with various ski jumpers in training, including U.S. Ski Team Jumpers.

Opened in 1914, it is the oldest continuously operating ski area in Colorado. On an area once known as Elk Park, a former small game preserve, it was renamed in 1917 for Carl Howelsen, the Norwegian immigrant who established it. The alpine area was established in 1931.

GHTime Code(s): 939e2 guidelines
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