Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Steamboat Ski Resort 2008 Capital Improvements

Winter feels like a long way off. I am relishing every opportunity to enjoy everything that Steamboat Springs has to offer in the summer - mountain biking, tubing, the Steamboat Wine Festival (only 1.5 weeks away!), the Brewers Festival (Sept. 22)... just for starters.

Winter feels like a long way, away. But, it's only 3.5 months till the Steamboat Ski Resort's Opening Day on November 27, 2008 to be precise!

Today, The Steamboat Ski Resort today distributed their press release about 2008 resort improvements. "Over the past three seasons, $27+ million in on-mountain improvements have been made to the Steamboat Ski Area, including more than $4 million invested specifically for the upcoming 2008/09 winter season. Steamboat’s on-mountain momentum augments nearly $8 million in completed and planned public revitalization projects sweeping the mountain village (Steamboat Unbridled).

Building upon last year’s record on-mountain capital expenditures, the majority of the 2008/2009 season improvements target continued base area re-grading, enhanced snowmaking, grooming, parking expansion, additional retail outlets, new rental equipment, automated external defibrillators, IT upgrades and master planning.

The truth is, Steamboat is still relishing in the benefits of the new Christie Peak Express high-speed quad that opened last December, as well as the excellent re-grade of the base of the ski area. If I may, let's hark back to Billy Kid's comments about the new lift: “It goes at a thousand feet per minute — you can almost get a speeding ticket it’s so fast, and you probably need goggles going up,” said Billy Kidd, the ski area’s Director of Skiing and a silver medalist at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

“This lift is unique because it services beginner, intermediate, expert and even Olympian training,” he said. “The fact you can go up and race in the NASTAR finals, you can compete in the World Cup aerials and moguls, you can go up and get in the halfpipe — there is just a variety of skiing you can do on this lift, and you may be riding with some of Steamboat’s Olympians on the way up.”

...so, it's not too early to start thinking about winter. Check-out ResortQuest Steamboat's ski season lodging deals. Don't forget to check-out our Snow Guarantee...