As an East Coast boy, Steamboat always seemed to me to be the epitome of a Warren Miller segment from the early 90’s. Picture it- an opening shot with a pair of cowboys riding horses with skis on their back, a bunch of little kids getting towed down Main Street by some other cowboy into a kicker. Then there’s the four minute montage with lots of bump skiing closeups and Billy Kid destroying tree sections while somehow managing to keep a cowboy hat with a silver and turquoise broach on the front secured to his head. Countless ads from old SKI magazines that I read in the dentist’s office showed Steamboat’s front side stocked with thousands of moguls glowing in the pinkish dawn sun. It always somehow suggesting that a) people go on vacation to ski moguls, and b) no one on the East Coast knew what powder was or wanted to ski it. Needless to say, I wasn’t really sure what I’d be getting when I visited the ‘Boat this December, days away from 2010 and at least ten years since I’d seen a Warren Miller movie (by the way, middle fingers in the air to the Bonnier Corporation!).
Sundown Express, scene of literary & spiritual investigation for the duration of the stay.
