In late February/early March I visited Steamboat Ski Resort with my ski club and we stayed in the Storm Meadows complex. We wanted ski-in/ski-out condos and technically that’s what we got though beginners shouldn’t even think about trying to ski in or out of these units.
Check-in
Check-in takes place at the Mountain Resorts main office which is technically located on Resort Drive but is visible from Mt. Werner Road, which is the main road to the ski resort when coming from Lincoln Ave/Hwy 40. There is a city bus stop right outside the office. (Note: Steamboat has a wonderful and free city bus system! As of my visit masks were required on city buses.)
I arrived before my condo was ready but I was able to hang out in the office until it was available. They have free guest wi-fi in the lobby but I found that the router was on the back side of the fireplace and when I was relaxing in the comfy chairs in front of the fireplace I had trouble getting the signal. The lobby also has restrooms with showers which is very nice. If you have a late flight and want to ski in the morning after checking out but before your flight, you can clean up before heading to the airport.
Once my room was ready, the office called for a shuttle to take me and my bags up to the Storm Meadows Club Condos which is about a 1.7 mile drive up the hill. There are three Club buildings and my group had units in both Club B and Club A, where my unit was.
Our group typically pays for porterage, which usually means our bags will be delivered to our room. I don’t know if we didn’t pay for it this time or if there was a difference in the definition of “porterage” or what but my bags and I were dropped at the front door of our building with no offer of assistance to get my bags to my room. I will say there was a shortage of drivers during my stay. The airport shuttle companies were slammed with business and not enough drivers to go around. The local taxi service did not run in town during the day as they were too busy with airport transfers. So that could be a part of it.
Storm Meadows Club A Condos
The Club A building is actually the middle of the three Club buildings. The main entrance is in the center on the second floor. On the lower level is the ski locker room, the coin laundry and, in winter, a small hot tub that will hold about 4-6 people. At one end of the first floor is the exit to the slopes which I’ll discuss below. Condos are on all four floors.
Storm Meadows Club A
(photo from stormmeadows.com)
We were assigned condo 317 which was up one floor from the entrance. While there was only one elevator it was reasonably quick and rarely crowded. The main stairwell opened to the elevator lobby so sometimes I did take the stairs down but rarely did I take them up!
Here’s the link on the Storm Meadows website to the unit. The photos there are a fair representation of the room.
One thing not pictured is the entryway just inside the door. It has about a half-dozen hooks for coats and two plastic trays on the floor. This is a great place to put ski boots that are usually wet. There are also four cubby holes for miscellaneous ski gear but two of the cubbies are so high that it requires someone fairly tall to make good use of them.
The kitchen is immediately on the right upon entry to the condo and is modern and had everything my roommates and I needed as far as pots and pans and cutlery. While the refrigerator doesn’t look especially new we were easily able to store everything we needed for the week. There are a couple of tall chairs for use sitting at the bar that separates the kitchen from the living/dining area but we did not use those except to store things.
Storm Meadows Club A 317 Kitchen
The living/dining area has a table with six chairs, a couple of swiveling recliners and a sleeper sofa. The Smart TV is wall-mounted in the corner of the room and sits above a small corner cabinet that holds games. On the wall by the dining table a couple of old Steamboat trail maps were framed. It was fun looking back at how the mountain looked when I first visited in the early 1990s and seeing how it’s changed since then.
Storm Meadows Club A 317 Dining Area
The three small tables that essentially combined to be a coffee table were a good touch. They could be set together or separated as needed which made them quite handy. The gas fireplace was a mystery to us. Although there was a thermostat next to it, we could never get the flames to burn. It was not an issue because it was so warm during our week that we really didn’t need additional heat. We ended up turning the ancient thermostat for the unit down to 55F or so. The units below us provided plenty of heat and overnight we’d even crack open the window in the small bedroom just a bit to keep us at a comfortable temperature while we slept. Notice the small “tree” in the corner by the fireplace. I’ve never seen one of these before but it was a fantastic place to be able to air out hats, gloves and neck gaiters overnight. I highly recommend one of these if you have a ski-country condo!
Storm Meadows Club A 317 Living Room
Between the fireplace and the blue recliner was the sliding glass door leading to the balcony. One thing this unit does have going for it is a terrific view of the slopes.
Storm Meadows Club A 317 View of Steamboat Slopes
From the condo’s entry, the bedrooms are down a short hall on the left. The small bedroom is first and our unit had two twin beds, a chair, a 5-drawer chest of drawers and a nice-sized closet. A night stand was between the two beds. Rather than having to move the beds around to find outlets I was pleased to see a power strip peeking out from under the left bed. I had brought a short extension cord and was easily able to stretch it to my bed by the window and plug in both my tablet and my phone overnight. Note that all 2BR units are not exactly the same. Members of our group in the Club B building had a unit where the wall had been moved to make the living area bigger which made this room just wide enough to fit a twin bed lengthwise. Another unit in Club A had dual sliding doors as the wall to the living room.
Storm Meadows Club A 317 Small Bedroom
In the hallway was another closet containing the vacuum and ironing board. Fortunately it also contained a shelf with bedding for the sofa and a hanging rack (I assume for use by those sleeping on the sofa). That worked perfectly for my gear and my roommate was able to use the closet in the bedroom.
Across from that closet was the hall bath. The counter ran along the left wall and since the sink was on the left side, it left lots of counter space for us to use. Since housekeeping service was not provided during our stay, they left plenty of toiletries and extra towels in the cabinet. The design of this bathroom makes me wonder if it had been reconfigured at some point. Under the right side of the counter is a large empty space with toilet paper holder attached. Then there’s a huge gap between the counter and the toilet and barely enough space to stand between the toilet and the tub/shower. The tub/shower has sliding glass doors which were a pain to deal with. They would slide well for about a foot and then began to stick to each other. The towel racks on either side of the doors were good places to hang up the bath mat and our wash cloths. But it would have been nice to have other places inside the shower to hang up wet swimsuits. The shower head was adjustable to some extent but still did not pump the water as hard as I’d like. That may be just as well because the unit has its own hot water heater and it only held two showers’ worth of hot water. One day I had the third shower and it was barely lukewarm. One other thing I found odd was that there was no rack to hang the hand towels. The only towel rack was over the toilet although there was a two-pronged hook on the back of the door. Such a simple thing that would make a difference in keeping the counter uncluttered.
Provided toiletries were by Aveda. I liked the shampoo and conditioner but the bath bar was so thin that it would break in half after just a couple of days. I’d have preferred a bath gel product.
Storm Meadows Toiletries
At the end of the short hallway was the master bedroom which had a king-sized bed and a chair in the corner. A three drawer chest with a TV atop it was in the corner by the window. I wish I’d taken a picture of the inside of the closet as it had a lot of closet organizer divisions in it with areas for hanging things as well as areas of shelves and a humidifier. This room had its own thermostat.
Storm Meadows Club A 317 Master Bedroom
The master bath was spacious with a long counter with the sink again at one side instead of in the middle. Both bathrooms had the small Sunbeam hair dryer attached to the wall. Those work fine for my short hair but I imagine folks with long, thick hair wish for something more powerful. The toilet and tub/shower were at the far end of the room. I don’t know if those sliding doors worked any better than the ones in the hall bath. But either way, the design makes it difficult to slide between the doors and the toilet to turn on the water and get it hot before closing the doors and entering the shower at the other end. Someone did not think this through.
Common Areas
When staying in the Club Condos you are eligible to use the Pool, Hot Tub, Spa and Gym found just across the parking lot from your building. Enter on the ground floor, sign in and grab a pool towel. Hopefully they’ll have enough but we were warned we might want to bring our own from our unit. There are changing rooms with showers and a sauna. We typically used these to change out of our wet swimsuits into dry clothes for the short walk back across the parking lot. From these changing rooms you can take the stairs up to the gym area. It’s not a large space but it is surprisingly well-equipped.
Storm Meadows Club Gym
Storm Meadows Club Gym
Back on the ground floor is the exit to the hot tub and the pool. The hot tub is surprisingly small for one meant to service three buildings, even if those buildings do have small hot tubs of their own. This one can seat about 10-15 people, max. It was nice and warm and once the jets got fixed it helped massage our poor legs.
Storm Meadows Club Hot Tub
The pool is heated to about 98 degrees and there were several folks, especially kids using it.
Storm Meadows Club Pool
Ski-In/Ski-Out
This property claims to be ski-in/ski-out and technically it is. But if you are a beginning skier (if you’re not solid on blue runs) please don’t attempt this, especially if the snow is thin, has been icy or been through lots of freeze/thaw cycles due to warm daytime temperatures. From the Club A building you first go down a slight pitch and then have a hairpin turn to the right along the front of the Club A building. Keep going past that to the Club C building where you’ll find another hairpin turn, this time to the left and you’ll once again ski the length of the Club A building. Only this time about halfway through you’ll be going slightly uphill so must shuffle-walk along until the trail goes slightly downhill again. And just before you reach the Right-O-Way ski trail, the side trail coming from the Club B building comes in from your left so you have to be careful about folks coming down that steep trail. Storm Meadows has YouTube videos on each of their properties’ pages showing how to do the ski-in and ski-out. Here’s the page with the Club A videos. I note that there was lots of snow when the videos were shot – it was much more treacherous during my stay.
Shuttle Bus
There is a shuttle bus that leaves the common Club A/B pickup spot at 06 and 36 minutes after the hour from about 8:06 AM to 4:36 PM. It only goes as far as the transportation hub at the resort base but from there you can pick up the great free city bus system to wherever you like. Last pickup at the resort base back to Storm Meadows is at 4:50 PM. From 5 PM on you’ll need to use the RG Shuttle app to schedule pickups. The RG Shuttle will take you pretty much anywhere you need to go in the area.
In the End
Would I stay here again? If I was visiting in the summer and had my own vehicle I’d be fine with staying here. No, the condos are not super-luxurious but they’re functional. In the winter I would not stay here again and it has nothing to do with the units themselves. We paid for ski-in/ski-out but it was nerve-wracking and downright dangerous at times to do the ski-out. Due to the warm weather the ski-in was often quite a slog and a couple of times I ended up carrying my skis for a good part of the way. If the shuttle had come more often I’d have taken that to the resort base instead.
2B Traveling 
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