Steamboat Opening Day | Day 30 of 30 Days on the Road

Originally posted on SnowboarderGuide.com

Nov 25, 2009 – A cold, overcast day kicked off the season for Steamboat, but that didn’t prevent a horde of skiers and boarders from descending on the mountain to make a few turns.

Luckily the weather warmed up and the sky turned blue before too long, resulting in a gorgeous Steamboat day. Christie Peak was the only lift running today, but it served up several runs, and the snow was surprisingly good. More snow is right around the corner, and the gondola is expected to start running Friday, providing access to a couple of long blue groomers down.

The real story however is the terrain park. Steamboat’s new terrain park director, Nick Roma, put together one of Steamboat’s best opening day parks on record, and it was packed all day. The park has a dozen features, including a couple of flat boxes and rails, a rainbow, a battleship, a nice 15 foot jump, and a killer bottom feature that can be approached and hit in several different ways. The snow was a bit slow today, so speed was a bit of an issue, but as long as you stomped your landings it wasn’t too bad. This was just a start, but if Nick can keep this up all season, I think we’re in for a banger park year.

View the entire photo gallery here.

This is the final day of the 30 Days on the Road series, but there’s still a few back-posts coming, and I’ll be working up a follow-up post on the whole month as well.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.