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Joel Reichenberger

Joel Reichenberger's column appears Sundays in the Steamboat Pilot & Today. Contact him at 871-4253 or e-mail jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com.

Steamboat Springs — Early season skiing is the college football nonconference schedule of the mountain world.

For the most part, nonconference games are terrible.

I grew up attending nearly every home game during the golden age of Kansas State football, a stretch when the Wildcats went to 11 consecutive bowl games from 1993 to 2003. I saw more than my fair share of awful nonconference or generally uncompetitive games.

The Wildcats played plenty of good games against top-rated opponents during those years, too, and whenever those big games came around, the focus on the action on the field was appropriate.

The rest of the time, though, the game often took a back seat.

My parents used to stage elaborate tailgate parties, meeting up with friends before almost every game. We never missed a snap, but the day trip certainly wasn’t just about the football game.

That became even truer in college. Again, I kept a certain devotion to actually attending the games, but a home football game day was a guaranteed party. It was a guarantee few of my classmates ever passed on.

A game against Directional U instead of No. 1 OU was sometimes preferable because it came with no guilt in leaving at halftime.

It was with that attitude that I loaded up my season rentals for the first time early Monday morning and guided a car full of associates to Loveland Basin.

At this point, I’ve logged one full winter on the mountain, and an early trip to Copper Mountain last fall taught me what to expect from early season skiing.

That day last season was mostly memorable because I fell off the lift before I even got on it. Twice. We stood in line, made our way down one short run and stood in line. We ate an expensive lunch, and after a little more standing in line and a few brief moments of skiing, settled down for a few not-so-hard-earned beers.

It was a fantastic day, but that analysis had little to do with the quality of the snow (mostly icy and terrible), the atmosphere (mostly crowded and annoying) or the resort (mostly closed and brown).

But sometimes, even against opponents your team should blow out, something else happens.

I screamed myself hoarse in 2002 as K-State edged out Carson Palmer and the University of Southern California, an entirely atypical nonconference game. I went crazy in 1991 when the Cats intercepted a two-point conversion attempt and returned it for two points and a one-point victory against Indiana State.

And, when we showed up in Loveland on an early November day so warm people in Steamboat were wearing shorts on Lincoln Avenue, we found good snow, short lines and an awesome early season day of skiing.

It was a great day to be surprised.