My parents moved to Steamboat Springs, CO when I was in the
7th Grade and settled there. My sister attended school there K-12.
Barbed wire fences there are usually four strands, and a
normal winter is a 3 wire (about 30’ of snow total, but compacted). Some
winters are 2 wire (a disaster) and some, like this winter, not only cover the
fourth wire, but the top of the fence posts.
It is a hard winter for ranchers but a boon to skiers and
those who live off them.
Steamboat gets little, if any, wind being in a deep valley.
To the east is the Continental Divide where 100 mph winds are not uncommon.
What Steamboat does get is extreme cold temperatures, like -50°, night after
night. Tires develop flat spots sitting and in extreme cold don’t get round for
a few miles.
About ¼ mile from the location of the picture in the article
is Thorium. I’m not sure if there is a commercial quantity deposit, but I get a
perverse delight imagining the howls of the residents should it be developed.
Snow pack is at 123% of normal and winter isn’t over. Good
news for Lake Powell as the Yampa, which flows into the Green, isn’t impounded
anywhere downstream of Steamboat. Neither is the Green below Flaming Gorge in
Utah/Wyoming.
On a personal level, I don’t miss Steamboat but still have
fond memories of the Yampa Valley.
