MarzNC
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- Joined
- Jul 18, 2020
Probably not that related to skiing. More for the other seasons, or for transporting people to the top at night once there is something there for events.
Mom and Pop Style Mountains
- Thread starter Ripitz
- Start date
MarzNC
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- Jul 18, 2020
Anyone who goes to Steamboat really should spend a few hours at Howelsen Hill. It's literally few blocks from the center of town. Owned by the town and operated for locals who don't have the time or money for a pass to Steamboat. Opened in 2015 and has stayed open continuously!
My two ski buddies and I checked it out a few years ago the day we were driving to Denver. A mid-week ticket was $30 for adults, $20 for seniors. It had a different definition for First Tracks than destination resorts. For $15, could get a lift ticket midweek good from opening at 11:00am thru 1:00pm, essentially for a lunchtime. HH was opening at 11:00 Tue-Fri and at 10:00 on weekends. Sundays were free. By 1:30 that Tuesday, there were kids who started coming for afternoon team practice.
We heard from locals while shopping in town after breakfast that an hour was enough to cover all the trails at HH. That’s about right if you don’t stop to take any pictures. During the week, only the poma surface lift is open. It’s pretty steep at the start and has a few Exit gates directly onto Lower or Upper Face (black). The backside trails includes a nice long green that has great views and winds around to end below the ski jumps and the beginner area. I rode the magic carpet and it’s one of the steepest I’ve ever seen. Adults were taking off one ski to avoid slipping back. Halfway up I could easily understand why, especially when the carpet stopped suddenly. My buddies did all the short narrow blacks, which had BIG frozen bumps covered by fresh snow and were pretty steep.
Since HH had been closed after the snowstorm a couple days before, there were first tracks to be made.
My two ski buddies and I checked it out a few years ago the day we were driving to Denver. A mid-week ticket was $30 for adults, $20 for seniors. It had a different definition for First Tracks than destination resorts. For $15, could get a lift ticket midweek good from opening at 11:00am thru 1:00pm, essentially for a lunchtime. HH was opening at 11:00 Tue-Fri and at 10:00 on weekends. Sundays were free. By 1:30 that Tuesday, there were kids who started coming for afternoon team practice.
We heard from locals while shopping in town after breakfast that an hour was enough to cover all the trails at HH. That’s about right if you don’t stop to take any pictures. During the week, only the poma surface lift is open. It’s pretty steep at the start and has a few Exit gates directly onto Lower or Upper Face (black). The backside trails includes a nice long green that has great views and winds around to end below the ski jumps and the beginner area. I rode the magic carpet and it’s one of the steepest I’ve ever seen. Adults were taking off one ski to avoid slipping back. Halfway up I could easily understand why, especially when the carpet stopped suddenly. My buddies did all the short narrow blacks, which had BIG frozen bumps covered by fresh snow and were pretty steep.
Since HH had been closed after the snowstorm a couple days before, there were first tracks to be made.
jamesdeluxe
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- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
Right, that's probably the strategy. It would get annoying to have to take off your skis at the end of every 1,400-vert run but hey, it's better than bootpacking.
For background:
- Jan 2008 Arrival Day report
- Jan 2008 Day 2 report
- 2010 NY Ski Mag article
- An interesting 2011 NY Times article that details the challenges of being the town hill. Ten years later, the current changes seem to be addressing what was covered in this piece.
jasonwx
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- Joined
- Jul 22, 2020
I was there in June I can’t imagine they will have Gondi up this winter still pouring foundation.
I was shocked at the steepness of the hill
Cool little resort
MarzNC
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- Joined
- Jul 18, 2020
One reason my ski buddy and I didn't ski Snow King last Dec was that a friend who lives in Jackson noted that it can be icy. Combined with the steepness that's easily visibly from town, we passed since the only time that made sense was the morning before I drove back to SLC. I had Indy but he would've had to buy a day ticket.
I gather the local racing scene at Snow King is very active at night.
jamesdeluxe
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- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
Since northeastern independent ski areas get plenty of coverage on this forum, here are my favorites out west and in Quebec:
- Inland Northwest (WA/ID): Mount Spokane, Lookout Pass, 49 Degrees North
- CO: Sunlight, Powderhorn, Monarch, Ski Cooper
- NM: Pajarito, Santa Fe
- UT: Sundance, Brian Head
- QC: Morin Heights, Mont Blanc, La Réserve, Sutton, Owl's Head, Massif du Sud, Mont Grand-Fonds, Mont Édouard
- WY: Snow King
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Andy_ROC
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- Feb 23, 2021
Thanks for the info. Good to know about the learning area of Targhee--- I just checked out the trail map and it definitely has potential. Having only skied GT twice on extreme powder days I little idea on what groomed runs look like there.
Anyway my wife definitely can ski well groomed blues but is ultra cautious due to previous ACL injury and surgery to repair. She's made very good progress but will always be ultra conservative. What I really like about PowMow is there is so much vast green and blue terrain and it would be perfect for us to explore all day. GT feels a lot smaller but they do seem to get a ton of snow. PM can be snow challenged since they don't make any snow.
Another factor weighing in GT's favor for this year, I've been told it's the last year of Cat skiing there because they are putting a new lift in to cover that terrain. My wife wouldn't ski that but I sure would like to try it for a day.
MarzNC
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- Joined
- Jul 18, 2020
Since you were chasing powder turns, you probably didn't take the long green from the top of Dreamcatcher. It's great fun with good visibility. Best if the cautious skier is following someone who's done it before. There are a few places where it's important to keep up speed as the trail goes down and then up. If too cautious then won't have enough speed to get to the top of the hump.
There are groomed blues off Dreamcatcher and Sacagawea that are fun. Ended up on them last Dec since there wasn't enough coverage off-piste yet. At one point we were looking into some trees when a group of local tweens stopped before heading in. The oldest boy pretty said it probably wasn't a good idea because there wasn't enough snow. But that he knew where all the downed trees were so the kids would be okay. We took our time stopping and looking on the way down the groomer. The kids were taking a shortcut but came out after we did.
I was planning on hitting GT on the way to Big Sky this season because it's the last season for the cat skiing. Changed my plan a few months ago mostly because I had friends interested in a different ski safari in a completely different region.
Given a history of ACL injury, I'll repeat the recommendation of lessons. The reason I started taking lessons fairly regularly at my home hill and at destination resorts is that I popped off an ACL in 2012 (not a skiing injury). My knee injury and personality led me to opt to work towards being a "coper" instead of having ACL reconstruction surgery. I put the money I could've spent on a custom brace towards lessons, mostly semi-private with L3 instructors recommended by name. If your wife is interested, she can read my story here.
MarzNC
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- Jul 18, 2020
Checked out Sante Fe for half a day the first time I went to Taos. It was fun, even with not great snow conditions. Plenty of snow but was after a thaw/freeze. The mountain road getting there was a longer and steeper than I expected though. Still had ice on the shady curves from several days before.
