Steamboat scores high again with readers of SKI & Skiing Magazines - Voted #1 Best Tree Skiing and #1 Family Program in North America

For the second year in a row, Skiing Magazine Readers give Best Trees to Steamboat. The gladed areas of Pioneer Ridge, Sunshine and Storm Peak are Steamboat's particular claim to fame. Signature trees runs such as Closet, Shadows, 1:30 and 2:30 will have you grinning from ear to ear on a powder day.

Steamboat is the home of Champagne Powder snow, coined in Steamboat back in the 1950s by a local rancher to describe the light, dry quality of the snow in Northwest Colorado. The abundant and dry snowfall is a result of Steamboat’s location within the Park Range, which is the first significant barrier in the Northern Colorado Rockies to storms arriving from the Pacific. So it is no surpise Skiing Magazine voted Steamboat #2 for Best Snow.

Skiing Magazine also voted Steamboat #9 for Best Overall.

“Take a couple tree laps during a Steamboat storm, and you’ll quickly understand why the term “champagne powder” was coined there. Start off your tasting tour on the gentle pitches of the Twilight Glades. It’s sort of like a swig from a bottle of Krug Clos du Mesnil—the experience is soft yet intensely flavored and only mildly desperate. Wipe your face on your sleeve and make your way over to the Pony Express lift to build up your tolerance. The tighter pines will force your turns to be short and sweet, like the taste of blanc de noir sucked through a Slurpee straw. After a few more runs, the champagne-pow buzz kicks in. You might fall on your ass more than 20 times trying to get down Morningside’s hairy chutes, but the champagne is so crisp you won’t even care about the pain the morning after.”