Rocky Mountain Skiing

To enjoy skiing on this day, one had to take the lashes of nature’s fury, and seek out the pockets of soft, fresh powder that remained from recent snowfalls.

At an elevation of over 12,000 feet, this alpine terrain is exceptional, especially the glades of Lower Enchanted Forest, rated a double-black diamond.

While Crested Butte’s calling card is its wealth of extreme terrain (the most lift-served extreme terrain in North America, according to the resort), the ski area also has plenty of intermediate and expert (single black diamond) terrain

The frosting on the cake was the fact that the usually mild blue-black runs of Rainbow Cut and Lower Arrowhead Loop were also nearly empty, with large stashes of untracked powder adding a nice challenge to the descent.

Late day at Steamboat, when the sun peaks through, the light shines directly on Heavenly Daze and Valley View runs, creating golden shadows that add to the mystique of this classic ski mountain.

After several less-than perfect ski seasons (at least according to my spoiled Colorado standards), the 2002/2003 season began on a high note.

Luckily, not much has changed at Copper, although millions have been poured into the resort to upgrade lifts, add some upper mountain terrain and spruce up the base.