Second last day - before heading home

Departed Las Vegas, no instant millionaire!!!. 


Back to LAX and then overnight in Santa Monica, before heading home tomorrow evening.

Bellagio Las Vegas Water Show

Bellagio Las Vegas Water Show Click here to see video of water show.

Yesterday off to LA and Las Vegas

Departed Colorado yesterday, heading back to the west coast before heading home on Wednesday night.

Thank you again to Chris and Wendy for your hospitality while I was in Loveland, CO.

Arrived at Denver International Airport to light snow flurries. Final snow that I will see for a  quite a long time.

Long wait at LAX for connecting flight to Las Vegas, which was running very late. Didn't arrive at the Bellagio until nearly 7:00pm. 

Leaving Steamboat

I'm leaving Steamboat Springs this morning, heading back to Denver to stay with Chris overnight.
Tomorrow Denver - LAX - Las Vegas for a couple of days.


Currently overcast, still and -2deg C.
Heavy snow expected at Steamboat this afternoon and evening. Up to a foot of snow likely - just as I'm about to leave!!! Hopefully my flight departs before the forecast storms arrive.


Steamboat has been excellent, especially given the very bad start to the ski season. Had some great skiing on fresh powder snow.


Based on about 30,000 vertical feet of skiing on each day of my eleven days of skiing, I have skied over 300,000 vertical feet in total = 100,000 metres = 100km !!!!
Mt Everest is 29,035 feet (8850m). So I have skied over 10 Everest's 

Final day of skiing at Steamboat

Had a big day for my final day of skiing at Steamboat Springs. Skied from lifts open to lifts close.
4 inches of snow during the day. About -2deg C. Blizzard conditions on the higher peaks. Excellent soft powder skiing on a hard packed base.

Final ski day at Steamboat

Started to snow lightly at 7:30am. 2 - 4 inches expected during the day.
No snow overnight. Currently -3deg C.
Looking forward to my last day of skiing at Steamboat and my last day of skiing on my Colorado ski holiday.


Yesterdays 3D ski tracker - Thanks Chris

Day 5 of skiing at Steamboat - Only 1 ski day to go

One and a half inches of snow overnight on the mountain, none at the condos.
An overcast day at Steamboat. Temperature around 0deg C. Strong winds on the higher ridges and some lifts closed due to the wind.
Skiing was excellent on packed powder.
Skied another 31,000 vertical feet with Chris and had a great day. Really got my new skis carving today.


Sorry no photos again as it was overcast and grey.


Some more snow expected overnight, 2-4 inches, so hoping for another powder day for my last day of skiing at Steamboat, before heading back to Denver on Saturday and then off to LA and Las Vegas on Sunday.


Trip so far has gone very quickly and all to plan. Will be home at this time in a week.

Day 4 of skiing at Steamboat

Chris has joined me at Steamboat for 2 days.
High cloud and a bit warmer today. Strong winds on the upper exposed peaks and ridges. Some lifts closed due to the strong winds. Very good skiing on packed powder. 
Skied all day approx. 33,000 vertical feet. A big day!!!


Follow the 3D ski tracker for today here


Sorry no photos today!!

More pics from Powder Day at Steamboat

More pics from Powder Day at Steamboat

Powder Day at Steamboat

Massive powder day at Steamboat. 11inches of powder in yesterday's cold front. A sunny but cold day, especially in the shaded chutes. Skied the famous 1, 2 and 3 o'clock powder runs in the morning.

11inches of snow at Steamboat

11 inches of snow has fallen at steamboat since midday yesterday. Currently -19deg C at 7am and clear, with cloud and wind increasing.
Should be a great day.

Snowing at Steamboat

It started to snow continuously and heavily at Steamboat at about 1pm.
By mid afternoon approx. 3inches of powder had fallen and the skiing had improved dramatically, from the morning's hard packed icy machine made snow.
Strong winds at the top of the mountain (some lifts on hold) and limited visibility, but snowing heavily.
Still snowing at the mountainside condos.
6 to 10 inches of snow expected out of this system. Tuesday is looking good.

Day 1 of skiing at Steamboat Springs

A warm (+2deg C) sunny day at Steamboat Springs. Unfortunately no champagne powder to be seen. Hard packed and icy conditions on the main trails only. More like a typical spring skiing morning at Mt Buller. Not the best skiing conditions. The forecast is for 4-8 inches of snow on Monday and likely the same again later in the week. It is desperately needed!!! Will post some photos of the condo tomorrow. It's a short (10minute) free shuttle from the condo to the Gondola base station. 

Middle of the afternoon headed to downtown Steamboat Springs.

From the top of the gondola looking down on the Yampa Valley and Steamboat Springs township.













Looking up the Steamboat Springs main street back towards the Steamboat Springs Ski Resort.

Off to Steamboat Springs

Chris most kindly took me out to Denver International Airport for my flight to Steamboat Springs (Hayden). Only a short 35 minute flight over the Rocky Mountains.

Then a 30 minute shuttle from Hayden to the Steamboat Springs mountainside condos.
Sunny warm 0deg C day at Steamboat. 
Looking forward to a great week at Steamboat. Snow is forecast for Monday and Wednesday/Thursday. Also looking forward to Chris joining me for a couple of days in the middle of the week.

Final Day at Winter Park

Sorry for the very late update on my final day at Winter Park on Friday 13 Jan.
Skied with Chris again which was most enjoyable.
A cool overcast day with plenty of great skiing on packed dry powder. Still some untracked skiing on Wednesday's powder.
We skied 27,500 vertical feet. View 3D Skier Track
I had a very enjoyable time at the Winter Park Resort. Highlights were the powder day on Wednesday, skiing with Chris and long cruising carve turns down Mary Jane Trail.


Left Winter Park at 3:40pm and headed back to Loveland to stay with Chris.
Ended a great week heading out for dinner with Chris & Wendy to Buffalo Wings.

Day 4 at Winter Park Resort - enjoy the video

Winter Park Resort video (click to see)


Another perfect skiing day at Winter Park.
A chilly -20deg C at 9:00am !! but a fine sunny day with light wind.
Dry powder on a packed base.

Powder Day at Winter Park

What a magnificent powder day. 6 inches of powder overnight and during the day. Mostly overcast and a cold -12 deg C. Untracked powder could be found all day. Packed dry powder on the main runs by afternoon. Great skiing.

50th Birthday Powder Day

5 inches of snow overnight.
Powder day at Winter Park on my 50th birthday.
Thank you to everyone for their birthday messages.

 

Day 2 at Winter Park

Day 2 at Winter Park Resort from top of Mary Jane

Another perfect day at Winter Park. Sunny, no wind and 3deg C. 

Hard parked dry powder. Only 60% of the mountain open, but still plenty of skiing options.

Lost count of how many runs I did. Very few people here, so no wait for the lifts.

Forecast is for snow and much colder weather over the next 2 days.

Off to Winter Park

Up at 6am to leave at 7am to head to Winter Park Resort.
Approx. 2 1/4 hours by car with Chris. Arriving at 9:30am.
Winter Park - sunny blue sky, no wind and 2deg C. 6 inches of snow yesterday.
Great skiing on perfectly groomed runs on packed dry powder.
Chris and I skied from 10am - 3pm and did about 21,500 vertical feet.
New skis and jacket were great.
Legs and feet all made it through my first of many days of skiing over the next 2 weeks.

Fantastic first day of skiing. More snow expected on Wednesday.

Sunday was a very long day!!

Thank you to Cindy and the girls for seeing me off from the airport in Brisbane.
12 hour Virgin Australia flight from Brisbane to LAX was very good. Lots of room and good in flight service. Watched 4 movies, had 2 meals and slept for about an hour. The time literally flew, arriving at LAX ahead of time at 6:00am on Sunday morning - 4 hours before I left Brisbane.
LAX was a bit of a drag - 5 hours to go through border protection, customs, change terminals and then check-in (long wait), security check and wait for flight to Denver at 11am.
LAX to Denver was about 2 1/4 hours - slept most of the way.
An old friend from Melbourne, Chris, collected me a Denver airport. It was great to catch up with Chris. It had been 11 years (2000 NYE) since we had last caught up.
Stayed with Chris and his family in Loveland, approximately 1 hour north of Denver. Thank you for your wonderful hospitality.
A very long day and crashed at 9pm after watching Denver win their play-off game.

One sleep to go

Bags are packed and ready to go.
The beach at Surfers Paradise the morning before departure day.
One sleep to go.
Snow expected on Saturday in Colorado.