Telluride March 1-2 2017

A quick TR. I had always wanted to visit Telluride. It's a bit of a haul from Los Angeles -- about 14 hours. The haul from LA to Cortez is 12 hrs, overnight stay, followed by a 1.5 hr drive to Telluride.

It had snowed the last few days (M/T) and I arrived on Wednesday morning and made a bee-line to the top. I was a bit delayed getting on the lift (about 9:15 am) and when I got to the top, Revelation Bowl had just opened. It was a bluebird day. Revelation Bowl reminds me of a little version of Mineral Basin at Snowbird. I took two runs before the line grew to 15 min. Gold Hill #1 had just opened up and I unfortunately took a line that was good from far but far from good. The south facing slopes definitely were thin, as Telluride hasn't had the snowfall that California has had of late. I took a few more laps off of Gold Hill Express which served up some really great powder - definitely a foot + in some places. Perfect bluebird day.

Around 11 am the Black Iron Bowl opened up. Impressive to see some folks running up the hill. Coming from sea level the day before, running at 11k feet wasn't appealing to me. The Black Iron Bowl reminds me of a small Aspen Highlands Bowl. Pretty impressive. The line I took was good but I probably should have kept hiking a little further up. Down low, the snow was completely untracked and quite deep. I took another lap on on the Black Iron Bowl , bottomless in most areas, skiied beautifully.

The remainder of the day was spent on the groomers, quit around 2 pm to hit the hot tub.

Thursday March 2nd was spent exploring some of the restaurants and scene on the mountain and skiing the groomers. Telluride has absolutely some of the most dramatic views of any place I have ever skied. It definitely has local vibe, a lot of east coasters I spoke with, seemingly quite a large 50's/60's crowd, probably fairly well off, since Telluride isn't exactly a cheap place to hang out. Nevertheless, the on-mountain dining is comparable to Aspen and Squaw. I usually hit the car for lunch but the views and live music on the hill were too much to pass up.

Day 3 was spent snowshoeing up to Bear Creek Falls (5 mile RT from town). Lots of backcountry skiiers heading down the trail and ran into one guy who said his wife had to be airlifted out of the valley the day before. The out-of-bounds terrain is no joke here and is something I'd really hope to experience some day. Obviously some of the locals here have this place dialed in big time.

An incredible place, very unique, will consider flying into Montrose next time and taking the 1.5 hr shuttle vs long haul from LA.
 

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In 2004 it took Garry Klassen exactly one hour longer to drive home from Tellurude than for me to shuttle to Montrise, transfer at Denver, land at LAX and get home from there.
 
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