Steamboat Resort, Steamboat Springs, CO
Sunday to Friday, December 2-6, 2018

Organized by the AA Ski Club. Group lessons for everyone Mon-Thurs. Planned Apres Ski and Evening Social Events.

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Here's a Report of the week from Dennis Mellon.
Read and enjoy!

STEAMBOAT,  WOW. !!!!!!! What a great week. Yes I started the week on skis, trying to improve.

So spent Monday and Tuesday  training with Ciao . It was really hard keeping my attention  though, the groomed runs were absolutely  perfect for carving, and my boards were calling me, then to top it off the Steamboat Snowboard  race team was at the top of ALL OUT.  Over on Basher the race courses  were in  pristine condition.  Looking at the snowboard  gates as they collected  snow, wishing that I could play.  But nope I was determined to get better at skiing. But where were all the snowboarders ? Ok so yes it did snow every night, and there were reports of rope drops all over the mountain, but did not see any boarders near the race course, Jim of course was there training on his skis as well. I could see him looking yearning for turns in the triangles as well. So we talked and said that Wednesday  was the day, we were gonna tear up that course. Talking with the rest of the boarders at the dinner,,,,,, asked about rope drops and freshies,,,  all I got were huge smiles and laughs and total giddiness,  so Wednesday  morning  I put on my race board determined to abuse that awesome course that had been set up for us....and Earl  and the two Pedro's just smiled.... snickered a little ithink...  . So I get to the top of the gondola,  what do I see?    Nothing,, visibility was well,,,,,,,,,,  NOT !!!!!

But I was determined,  Basher was primed  for the carving Monday  and Tuesday like a Thanksgiving  Turkey,,,,, sorry,, just had to steal that line from our favorite  announcer Fritzy , was fun skiing with you.

Anyways  got to the top of Basher and nope not happening, can't even see the first gate showing hard.  ok I'll try a little lower,,, nope wasn't  till I got half way down Vogue that it cleared up.  So Vogue has rep of getting  icy as the day goes on, but first thing in the morning .  OH MAN let me tell ya , it just does not get better than this.  So now what my plans of shreading fresh chorderoid are withering.  So what about the Sunnyside,  maybe I can duck under the clouds over there.  Ohhhhhhh yeeeeaaaasssss, high noon was the absolute  BOMBE , we call it Hero snow, was supposed  to meet with the rest of the boarders,,,, But !!!!! I just had to run it again. Made my way back over towards Basher,  still shocked in.

   Ok, I can hear the whoops  and hollers in the distances.  So back to the bottom to brake out the pow board,,, I just couldn't  take it any more. Tracy one of the great instructors  at Steamboat says to meet up at the 4 O Clock restaurant,,,,, big big smiles,,, means I get to go romping through the fresh pow under the Storm Peak chairlift,  that's right fresh knee deep Steamboats  famous champagne  powder for lunch. At lunch discussions were of epic runs lots of big smiles , one of my favorite under the BAR UE lift came up. I was soooooo jealous.  We played a little then made our way to finally get some runs in at basher. Pedro was living his new Knappy board from Donek , Tracy and D.J. gave some excellent coaching tips we learned about lines and turn initiations  and all manner of stuff for racing. And believe it or not I even played in the terrain park. So all during the infamous pub crawl the question was ask time and again by many,,,, Does it get any better than this ???? Our imaginations  queried How, how can it possibly  get better? 

  Then it was Thursday... race day.?. Had to do the Ski racing thing,,, awesome  coursed,,,, fooled me on the start, something about following  Steve,,,,,,, had a good run,,,, the quick change to the race board , met up with Tracy and D.J. did a few groomers to warm up. Got to Basher just as the last of the B  racers were finishing up. The race department said they needed to repannel the gates for us,,,, well being the impatient  snowboarders that  we are, we took off and did a run, Big time apology  to the race department.  Heard you had the course set and ready to go in ten minutes.  That's awesome. Jim won the race then Pedro surprised us with his second place finish,  he actually took a break from his caviar and  champagne  dreams to put togeather a great run, me I came in third, then pedro on his new Donek, he actually got to tour the factory.  Then Earl.  

   Back to the ???? Better,, hmmmnnnnnn. After the races was back on the powder board,,, hmmm` morning side lift is opening. ?????? Finished the day on the Concentration  run.... knee deep and waist deep untracked.  Thank you D.J.  , Tracy,, Pedro for suggesting it, Earl for sticking with it on your warn out legs, and pedro for shreading it with me.... so now BETTER,,, ?????

ITS SNOWING LIKE CRAZY IN STEAMBOAT,,,,,best season in more than a decade,, and we're going back in January!!!

BE THERE!!!

Think that about Simms it up.​

OK, this last picture shows a little "Apres Ski" Training!  ED.