We drove from Snowbird to Telluride Mar. 16. Telluride had the same substantial dump of 2+ feet that AltaBird did Mar. 13-15 and also the same sunny weather since. Telluride is higher and probably a bit cooler, so nearly all of the north facing side above town retained winter snow all three days. High temps were about 35F every day though Sunday was the warmest as it was clear and calm.
We stayed in a comfortable Airbnb across the parking lot from the Coonskin lift. The combination of the excellent snow year and Epic Pass affiliation has been excellent for business in Telluride. Hotels on short notice during our time frame were either sold out or at least as expensive as the nicer places we have stayed in the Alps.
Every day we started with Chair 9’s Bushwacker and Plunge (each appeared to be groomed every third day), 2,100 vertical dropping due north from 11,885 feet, two of the best fall line groomers anywhere.
View south from top of Chair 9:
The San Juans are among the US mountains that have some resemblance to the Alps.
The upper left quadrant of this picture would make ideal alpine ski terrain.
It would be quite a project to connect it to Telluride’s existing ski area though.
Revelation is at left, 13,150 foot Palmyra Peak at right.
The tower formations at center are similar to those above Furtschellas at St. Moritz.
View SW over the Chair 5 intermediate terrain and the Chair 10 beginner runs beyond.
We skied to Chair 14, then into Revelation Bowl, the expanded terrain since I was last here in 2004. View from skier’s right boundary of Revelation:
At right is the Bear Creek drainage, a 3,800 vertical backcountry ski route into town. Bear Creek was off limits during our visit due to the high avalanche danger persisting from last week’s dump over weak layers common in the San Juans.
After a couple of Revelation laps we went through the gate to Gold Hill 1. The rest of Gold Hill was closed due to snow instability. However north facing Palmyra Peak was open to hiking from the Prospect Chair 12.
You can see a line of hikers on the ridge ascending from center right, a few people on the peak and three skiers, one high up and two lower down. The hike is 1,300 vertical feet, twice that of Highlands Bowl and ending 700 feet higher, so there was no way I considered it. The sign says allow 2 hours, so perhaps comparable to Staley’s hike of Entre Rios at Las Lenas. The picture above reminds me some of Eduardo’s, which I did ski at Las Lenas because it is lift accessible.
Gold Hill 1 proved to be enough of an adventure. The fall line below Gold Hill 1 narrows into a choke so it was roped off. You need to traverse right through the trees to Little Rose. The traverses are tight and the one I took was above the rope but still too low, approximate red line in picture below.
I had to squeeze through a couple of confined areas, and the west facing snow below was crusty and partly melt/frozen. The correct traverse (green line) was marked by wooden green circles nailed to trees along it and fortunately Liz saw those and went the right way.
I skied Little Rose, met Liz halfway down and we decided to ski groomers the rest of the day. Here’s the view of all the Gold Hill Chutes from the Prospect chair:
Only the first one at far left was open.
After a Prospect lap, we skied Galloping Goose to the Lynx poma about 3PM, then Sundance down to the Meadows base. The outlying lifts all close 3:15 or 3:30, but we rode the Chondola and Chair 4 to get to Chair 5. It too is posted as closing 3:30, but fortunately it has been extended to 4PM in late season. We skied Polar Queen and Stormin’ Norman, then Butterfly on Chair 4. We descended into town mostly via Telluride Trail.
Sunday I skied 21,600 vertical.
Monday started out mostly sunny but was completely overcast from noon onwards. Thus we stuck with chair 9’s packed powder even longer, following the Plunge and Bushwacker groomers with one of Telluride’s famous mogul runs. Liz on Kant-Mak-M:
After that we needed a break with some gumbo at Giuseppe’s:
Giuseppe’s and the nearby Vino Alpino are the highest restaurants in the United States. Note also the dense forest behind Giuseppe’s at 11,885 altitude.
We tested the chair 5 groomers at 1PM and found them in excellent condition despite the west exposure and no sun. Liz is here on Silvertip, a short mogul run dropping north between the two main groomers.
This was one of the first places Adam skied powder at age 7 on our 1992 trip.
Next we rode chair 6 and skied to Spiral Stairs, which has perhaps the most impressive view down into town.
We thought Spiral Stairs’ steepest pitch was a bit longer than Kant-Mak-M’s.
I continued into town via Bail Out, expecting to ride chair 8 back to meet Liz at chair 9. But Chair 8 closes at 1:30 so I had to use the gondola and Telluride Trail to Lookout.
By the time we got into Prospect Bowl it was past 3PM, too late to take any laps there. So we rode 14 and skied See Forever to Mountain Village. From Chair 4 we skied ungroomed Humboldt Draw, which Liz remembered for practicing moguls on her first visit 20 years ago. To no surprise they were crunchy in the overcast Monday. We skied Milk Run to town to finish the day, 23,900 vertical for me. On both Sunday and Monday we could sideslip through some trees below Kid’s Hill to our building at Mountainside Inn.
On Monday we walked through the center of town and saw this Christmas tree made from skis, star on top from poles.
It was lit after dinner under the near full moon.
Anybody else remember Molnar skis?
Molnars were favored by some skiers for powder in the 1970’s as they had soft flex and were slightly wider. No one back then asked the question, “Why don’t we make them a LOT wider?”
Tuesday started with scattered cloud and became mostly sunny for the rest of the day. However there was a breeze, so temperatures/snow softening was between Sunday and Monday.
As we had packed to leave Telluride, we got out early but Liz had to ski into Mountain Village for morning coffee. We were both pleased to see that Telluride grooms the Chair 4 runs intensively to minimize morning hardpack despite the west exposure. Nonetheless after coffee we went to Chair 9 to ski Bushwacker and freshly groomed Plunge.
Liz next got her mogul fix on Chair 6’s Zulu Queen.
Zulu Queen is mostly shaded by the trees, as is skier’s left of Allais Alley below.
These were the most challenging runs Liz skied at Telluride 20 years ago.
From the top of Chair 6 we have a good view of the distinctive San Joaquin Couloir.
Note the powder tracks in the foreground leading into the Bear Creek drainage.
We then skied See Forever to Gorrono Ranch for lunch. Gorrono Ranch is noted for specialty burgers and meat sandwiches far above the usual ski area norm in quality.
After lunch we skied down to Meadows and rode the 2.5 mile long Sunshine Express to get to Prospect. The lower half of Sunshine is similar to Deer Valley, crossing roads and numerous mansions. Sunshine is also one of the premier beginner terrain pods anywhere for its length, excellent snow and scenic views. An instructor requested we take 4-year-old Ellie on the ride up.
Liz had never skied Prospect before as it opened between her visit and my second one in 2004. She took a couple of runs there while I hiked looker’s left up the ridge toward Black Iron Bowl. The sign says it’s half an hour to Mountain Quail. But at 12,000 feet it took me 15 minutes to climb all of 170 vertical feet. At that point Lakeview looked good enough for me.
I also had to consider we would be on the road with 4 more ski areas ahead before any break.
Lakeview still had winter snow but it had stiffened up some over the past 4 days. The short hike and ski route are marked on this picture I took Sunday.
The rest of the day was all cruisers: Sandia and Magnolia in Prospect, a lap in Revelation, then West Drain and Milk Run on the north side. I finished with 23,900 vertical.
We stayed in a comfortable Airbnb across the parking lot from the Coonskin lift. The combination of the excellent snow year and Epic Pass affiliation has been excellent for business in Telluride. Hotels on short notice during our time frame were either sold out or at least as expensive as the nicer places we have stayed in the Alps.
Every day we started with Chair 9’s Bushwacker and Plunge (each appeared to be groomed every third day), 2,100 vertical dropping due north from 11,885 feet, two of the best fall line groomers anywhere.
View south from top of Chair 9:
The San Juans are among the US mountains that have some resemblance to the Alps.
The upper left quadrant of this picture would make ideal alpine ski terrain.
It would be quite a project to connect it to Telluride’s existing ski area though.
Revelation is at left, 13,150 foot Palmyra Peak at right.
The tower formations at center are similar to those above Furtschellas at St. Moritz.
View SW over the Chair 5 intermediate terrain and the Chair 10 beginner runs beyond.
We skied to Chair 14, then into Revelation Bowl, the expanded terrain since I was last here in 2004. View from skier’s right boundary of Revelation:
At right is the Bear Creek drainage, a 3,800 vertical backcountry ski route into town. Bear Creek was off limits during our visit due to the high avalanche danger persisting from last week’s dump over weak layers common in the San Juans.
After a couple of Revelation laps we went through the gate to Gold Hill 1. The rest of Gold Hill was closed due to snow instability. However north facing Palmyra Peak was open to hiking from the Prospect Chair 12.
You can see a line of hikers on the ridge ascending from center right, a few people on the peak and three skiers, one high up and two lower down. The hike is 1,300 vertical feet, twice that of Highlands Bowl and ending 700 feet higher, so there was no way I considered it. The sign says allow 2 hours, so perhaps comparable to Staley’s hike of Entre Rios at Las Lenas. The picture above reminds me some of Eduardo’s, which I did ski at Las Lenas because it is lift accessible.
Gold Hill 1 proved to be enough of an adventure. The fall line below Gold Hill 1 narrows into a choke so it was roped off. You need to traverse right through the trees to Little Rose. The traverses are tight and the one I took was above the rope but still too low, approximate red line in picture below.
I had to squeeze through a couple of confined areas, and the west facing snow below was crusty and partly melt/frozen. The correct traverse (green line) was marked by wooden green circles nailed to trees along it and fortunately Liz saw those and went the right way.
I skied Little Rose, met Liz halfway down and we decided to ski groomers the rest of the day. Here’s the view of all the Gold Hill Chutes from the Prospect chair:
Only the first one at far left was open.
After a Prospect lap, we skied Galloping Goose to the Lynx poma about 3PM, then Sundance down to the Meadows base. The outlying lifts all close 3:15 or 3:30, but we rode the Chondola and Chair 4 to get to Chair 5. It too is posted as closing 3:30, but fortunately it has been extended to 4PM in late season. We skied Polar Queen and Stormin’ Norman, then Butterfly on Chair 4. We descended into town mostly via Telluride Trail.
Sunday I skied 21,600 vertical.
Monday started out mostly sunny but was completely overcast from noon onwards. Thus we stuck with chair 9’s packed powder even longer, following the Plunge and Bushwacker groomers with one of Telluride’s famous mogul runs. Liz on Kant-Mak-M:
After that we needed a break with some gumbo at Giuseppe’s:
Giuseppe’s and the nearby Vino Alpino are the highest restaurants in the United States. Note also the dense forest behind Giuseppe’s at 11,885 altitude.
We tested the chair 5 groomers at 1PM and found them in excellent condition despite the west exposure and no sun. Liz is here on Silvertip, a short mogul run dropping north between the two main groomers.
This was one of the first places Adam skied powder at age 7 on our 1992 trip.
Next we rode chair 6 and skied to Spiral Stairs, which has perhaps the most impressive view down into town.
We thought Spiral Stairs’ steepest pitch was a bit longer than Kant-Mak-M’s.
I continued into town via Bail Out, expecting to ride chair 8 back to meet Liz at chair 9. But Chair 8 closes at 1:30 so I had to use the gondola and Telluride Trail to Lookout.
By the time we got into Prospect Bowl it was past 3PM, too late to take any laps there. So we rode 14 and skied See Forever to Mountain Village. From Chair 4 we skied ungroomed Humboldt Draw, which Liz remembered for practicing moguls on her first visit 20 years ago. To no surprise they were crunchy in the overcast Monday. We skied Milk Run to town to finish the day, 23,900 vertical for me. On both Sunday and Monday we could sideslip through some trees below Kid’s Hill to our building at Mountainside Inn.
On Monday we walked through the center of town and saw this Christmas tree made from skis, star on top from poles.
It was lit after dinner under the near full moon.
Anybody else remember Molnar skis?
Molnars were favored by some skiers for powder in the 1970’s as they had soft flex and were slightly wider. No one back then asked the question, “Why don’t we make them a LOT wider?”
Tuesday started with scattered cloud and became mostly sunny for the rest of the day. However there was a breeze, so temperatures/snow softening was between Sunday and Monday.
As we had packed to leave Telluride, we got out early but Liz had to ski into Mountain Village for morning coffee. We were both pleased to see that Telluride grooms the Chair 4 runs intensively to minimize morning hardpack despite the west exposure. Nonetheless after coffee we went to Chair 9 to ski Bushwacker and freshly groomed Plunge.
Liz next got her mogul fix on Chair 6’s Zulu Queen.
Zulu Queen is mostly shaded by the trees, as is skier’s left of Allais Alley below.
These were the most challenging runs Liz skied at Telluride 20 years ago.
From the top of Chair 6 we have a good view of the distinctive San Joaquin Couloir.
Note the powder tracks in the foreground leading into the Bear Creek drainage.
We then skied See Forever to Gorrono Ranch for lunch. Gorrono Ranch is noted for specialty burgers and meat sandwiches far above the usual ski area norm in quality.
After lunch we skied down to Meadows and rode the 2.5 mile long Sunshine Express to get to Prospect. The lower half of Sunshine is similar to Deer Valley, crossing roads and numerous mansions. Sunshine is also one of the premier beginner terrain pods anywhere for its length, excellent snow and scenic views. An instructor requested we take 4-year-old Ellie on the ride up.
Liz had never skied Prospect before as it opened between her visit and my second one in 2004. She took a couple of runs there while I hiked looker’s left up the ridge toward Black Iron Bowl. The sign says it’s half an hour to Mountain Quail. But at 12,000 feet it took me 15 minutes to climb all of 170 vertical feet. At that point Lakeview looked good enough for me.
I also had to consider we would be on the road with 4 more ski areas ahead before any break.
Lakeview still had winter snow but it had stiffened up some over the past 4 days. The short hike and ski route are marked on this picture I took Sunday.
The rest of the day was all cruisers: Sandia and Magnolia in Prospect, a lap in Revelation, then West Drain and Milk Run on the north side. I finished with 23,900 vertical.
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