Steamboat - World Snowboard Guide

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Steamboat is a curious place in more ways than one. What you get is an old mining town with a seemingly laid back approach coupled with a mountain that offers some great riding with over 2965 acres of terrain that is spread out over four tree-lined mountain peaks. The resort coined (and copyrighted) the phrase Champagne Powder^© and it certainly gets more than its fair share on the stuff.

Unfortunately, many will find Steamboat is certainly not the best place to spend a weeks vacation. Although this is not a bad place to visit in terms of the riding opportunities and the good annual snow record, its tacky dollar hungry, fur-clad ski-cowboy image will make most normal snowboarders want to throw up.

However, Steamboat has a growing snowboard population and has made a real effort to drag itself into the 21st century (although having live bands playing on the lower slopes on a Friday afternoon is hardly ground breaking stuff). Still, the resort has several things in its favour. The resort offers some fantastic tree-riding, theres ample deep powder and some great carving slopes. There is also a couple of double black diamond trails offering extreme slopes for advanced riders to tackle along with some over-rated blacks for intermediate riders to try out. What is most notable here, are the trees and the options for backcountry snowboarding, which can be explored by taking a snowcat trip organised locally.

The resort was taken over by Intrawest mid last season, and has major spending plans over the coming seasons.

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New for season

2007/8: $16million spent. New 6-person Christie Peak Express chairlift. Headwall slope re-grade and significant snowmaking improvements.

2006/7: new Sunshine Express High-Speed Quad Chairlift powered By Solar/Wind Energy. New Sunshine Bowl Trail & Improved snowmaking. New Zaugg Pipe Cutter

2005/6:$1.3 million spent on new wind powered chair lift which replaces the old Burgess Creek Double lift.
$2 million spent in 03/04 on various resort infrastructure improvements.

Resort Statistics

Resort Type: Alpine
Winter: mid Nov to April
Summer: None

Lifts

Total Lifts: 20
Gondolas: 1
Chair lifts: 17
Drag lifts: 2
Max people per hour: 33,619
Board Leashes required: Yes

Mountain

Total pistes/trails: 166
Total ride area: 2965 acres
Longest run: 3miles (4.8km)

Top lift: 3224m
Vertical drop: 1118m
First lift: 2103m

Piste suitability

Green runs: 14%
Red runs: 42%
Black runs: 44%

Lift Passes

Lift Passes:
Half-day $61
Day Pass - $80-85
Season Pass - $1499 (early bird $935)
Lift times:8.30am to 3.30pm

Snowfall

Average annual snowfall: 8.59m
Artificial snowmaking coverage: 15%

Facilities

Snowboard Schools: group clinic all day $27
private 2 hours $235 all day $475
Snowboard Hire: board and boots $33/day
Night Riding: : No

Other activities

Heliboarding: : Not available
Snowmobiles: 2hr $80 4hrs $135 all day $175

Further information

www.steamboat.com
Email:info@steamboat.com

On the mountain this a great place to ride with some excellent treeriding to try out and some cool carving runs. But off the slopes the place is way too stuck up.

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MONEY WISE: Everything is way over priced and not always good value

HALFPIPE: Yes - 2
TERRAIN PARK: Yes - 3
BACKCOUNTRY/OFF-PISTE:Yes
TREE RUNS:Yes

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