TR: Telluride March 3-11 2011 (and Silverton)

[pruitt]

I was junking up the "What are your ski plans..." thread with last year Telluride talk and davidski suggested I put up a trip report so here goes.



We went to Telluride Thursday March 3rd thru Friday March 11th. The weird dates were due to flights and availability of lodging but ended up working out.



This was my first time to Tellruide along with my wife and another couple. We figured this was going to be the last trip we took with out the kids so we wanted to go somewhere we probably wouldn't take the kids. We decided on Telluride. But the kid thing would change...more on that later.



It was a rough year for Telluride for snow. While summit county was getting pounded Telluride was about average. Not a bad year but not stellar. Here is a link to the Snow Plot for reference:

ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/CO/Snow/s ... adsm11.gif



We flew into Montrose direct on Delta from the ATL and rented a car.



First Stop:





The drive was super easy and took just over an hour. Mostly driving on a flat road by famous people's ranches. No pass to go over, no city traffic, great. Here is what it looked like on the drive:





Finally made it to our lodging for the week. the Mountain Lodge up in the Mountain village at Telluride. It's the newer part of Telluride. The other option is to stay down in the main town. The main town is a classic CO old mining town. The Mountain Village is more ritzy vail type feel. Without the crowds. Being up in the Village makes it easier to get up on the mountain first thing in the AM.



View from our balcony:





This shot was taken from the condo. There are a bunch of these runs that weave through the condos/homes for easy ski in/out. Really long, easy, and no crowds. They call them double greens and would be great for someone who is just learning. And it was fun to just cruise on them at the end of the day.





Even though the snow was a little bit of a challenge we got refills all through the week and the skiing ended up being great. Here are just some shots through out the week in no particular order.



This is revelation bowl and it was a great place to make a bunch of laps.

















Here is a shot of the main base area and the main restaurant on Saturday...the most crowded time. Not so much:









Shot looking down into the main town:





Here are a few shots from Gold hill Chutes:













This is also from the top of Gold Hill 1 looking across the way at Black Iron Bowl and the top of Prospect Express:





So about half way through the week we decided we would have to bring the kids back and we were going to come back. The skiing was great, the town was cool, and the best part...NO CROWDS!! You could ski as much as you could as fast as you could.



As a side trip I ran over to Silverton for a day of skiing on Sunday March 6th.

If you are in the area and don't mind working for your turns you have to go!



The "lodge":





The start of the first hike (you can see other groups up the ridge line:





This shot was taken towards the end of the hike. We hiked up to just shy of the "Billboard". (Big square on the top of the ridge). It was real sketchy from this point to where we stopped:





The resting between skiing:









The transpo back to the lift:





Apres:





Sorry for the lack of action shots. I will have to do a better job with that next year. Thanks for reading

[swamphox]

Looks nice...I almost had a trip out there til my cousin's buddy broke up with his gf (gf's family had 8 bedroom house, she was apparently loaded)

[davidski]

Helll Yes!! A summer time trip report.



Telluride looks amazing -- did you make it over to the Black Iron Bowl?



And Silverton clearly has serious steeps. What ski were you on? Did you make multiple laps and how long was a round trip?



now I really must go -- Apparently there are some pretty cheap lodgings in silverton itself, not ski-in but it looks fairly accessible

[LakesideChutes]

Get your Diamox and be ready to hike, above 12,300 feet at the top of the lift. As the guides say, Silverton is all about the hike! Great Skiing plus a great vibe! You can sign up for a single heli-ride for $159.00 - the easy way to get to 14,000 feet.

[theKENDOG]

Moved it to Trip Reports Section. Very nice by the way.