When I was a freshman at the University of Wyoming in the fall of 1987, my roommate, Mike, was from Steamboat Springs. There was always tons of snow in Steamboat, so we occasionally made the two and a half hour drive from Laramie for a couple days of training and a change of scenery. Mike's family had one of those little pets that looks like a dog, only smaller, like a little schnauzer or a poodle or some such little vermin. Mike would slide open the door to the rear deck and toss that little animal as far as he could out into the back yard, where the snow was so deep that the little guy would vanish into the light, deep snow, out of sight. Mike slid the door closed and said, "That should give us about a half-hour of peace and quiet." By and by, the dog would swim its way back to the slider door. We'd let him in and he'd fall asleep by the fire, well-exercised for the evening.
Steamboat Springs is the land of "Champagne Powder". That's the trademark tagline that the Steamboat tourism marketing people came up with many decades ago to describe the winter experience here, where the snow tends to fall heavy, and lie deep on the ground for months at a time. Steamboat is known for its reliable, bottomless, light, deep snow, and the powder skiing in the wooded glades on Storm Peak is legendary.
But this winter in Steamboat is not turning out to be so legendary. Unless you're talking about a legendary lack of snow.
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| The view from my bench on the sidewalk outside the Lucchese store on main street yesterday afternoon. I was wearing a t-shirt. |
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| The snow was a little thin on the Howelson ski trails yesterday. |
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| But we found a little snow here and there. And we aren't complaining about a lack of sunshine. |
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