S'No Go (well, not yet...)!

Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation announced today that it has rescheduled its 2007/2008 Scholarship/Opening Day to Friday, November 30, 2007 due to the recent period of warm weather. The ski area is trying to put a positive spin on the slow start to the winter, which is optimistic given that they cannot after all control the weather...

"Steamboat is headed into a La Nina winter, which as studies show, could mean heaps of Champagne Powder® snow throughout the season, but the warm weather patterns we've experienced lately have made snowmaking a challenge," said Andy Wirth, executive vice president of sales & marketing and chief marketing officer for Intrawest. "Snowmaking crews, which were busy making snow last night, are ready to take full advantage of colder temperatures and conditions; and, as we've seen in the past, everything can change in a matter of days."

When Mother Nature finally delivers a consignment of Champagne Powder we look forward to the debut of the new high-speed, six-passenger Christie Peak Express. Installation work has moved fast (probably in light of the easier summer-like working conditions) and the lift, which was not targeted to open until mid-December, will begin operations a full two weeks ahead of schedule.  This is great news in light of the fact that the lift will now probably sit idle for the next two weeks while we wait for some snow.

In another bizarre twist of fate the Steamboat Ski Area has also announced that they will be replacing the 21 year old Gondola haul rope (that's the technical name for the wire that carries the gondola cars) in the next week or so. A replacement wire has been shipped from the manufacturers in Switzerland and will now be installed in time for the revised opening day if all goes according to plan.

Grading work at the base area still has many locals confused as to the final layout, but officials from the Steamboat Ski Corp. remain positive that it's nearly done and that opening will not be delayed due to construction issues.

So in case you are worried that we're not keeping busy, there's a lot going on in advance of what will no doubt be another great ski season.