Telluride 2/20/11 - 2/25/11

[speden]

We've settled in for a week here in Telluride. Monday was our first day on the slopes so we took it easy while we acclimate to the thin air. The scenery here is something special, and my little camera can't capture the amazing panoramas.

They are having a low snow year, but luckily they got ten inches over the weekend, so we should be good for the week. Most of the trails are packed powder/loose powder, with some fresh along the trail edges.

A few pics from Monday:

We skied a half day on Monday, mostly off the Sunshine express which has some great long beginner terrain that was ideal for my wife. We also did a few runs in the Prospect Bowl.

Here's some terrain on the other side we might try today.

This is from the Prospect bowl looking back towards the big chutes. I don't think I'll be trying those on this trip...

We went out to a nice ranch and did some horseback riding in the afternoon with a famous cowboy here named Roudy. He's got a million stories to tell. Great scenery and very relaxing.

 

[speden]

We're back from our Telluride trip. I'll throw up a few more photos to wrap up this report.

Overall a nice resort, with good terrain options for all levels, but especially for the expert and extreme level skier. I've never seen steeps like these, and with long sustained vertical. I won't go back to Telluride until I've taken my game to a much higher level, so I can try some of the nastier stuff.

As it was I was only skiing up to the double blues, which are like single blacks, and I got totally exhausted by the end of the trip. Elevation is a factor. We stayed at the Mountain Lodge which is a little above the mountain village at over 9500 feet. Everyone in the family felt some effects from the elevation such a getting winded easily, mild headache, and even some nausea in the early part of the trip.

One of the best things about Telluride is that it does not get very crowded. During the week the lifts were almost always ski on. About the only area that seemed a little congested at peak times was the Village Express pod, which has some of the best intermediate terrain.

Southwest Colorado is interesting in itself. At lower elevations it's like a desert out of some old western movie. As you make the climb into the mountains, you see a lot of changes in the flora.

Lots of exposed reddish rock in the mountains, a little reminiscent of the grand canyon.

Many of the mountain roads seem to have been cut out of the hillside, so there's a lot of unstable rock along these roads. In many places I saw small chucks of rock that had fallen into the road.

In the distance here you can see the top of the Gold Hill Express on the left and the Revelation Lift on the right. In the foreground is the mellow terrain off the Sunshine Express, which has some nice long cruisers. We also had lots of fun in the Enchanted Forest glades off of this lift.

This is at the top of the Apex lift along the ridge line. Trail options galore off the ridge if you're an expert, or you can take the somewhat iconic See Forever blue trail that runs along the ridge. It's like skiing along the top of the world, and the first time we did it the pucker factor was high. The trail itself is pretty mild, but you feel exposed and that one mistake might send you tumbling down the backside.

Here's looking back the ridge line with the Revelation lift near the top of the picture. People do ski off the backside as you can see, but I'm not sure where they come out and how much hiking out is involved. Maybe there is a way to wind back over to the Telluride town or something.

Riding up the Gold Hill Express is rather impressive. This is the Millions trail, a double black EX (extreme terrain). The picture doesn't capture the steepness of this trail and there are some nice cliffs thrown in along the way.

This picture is looking over into the Revelation bowl, which is the only lift served area on the backside.

Here we are out in the backcountry. There are impressive mountain ranges all over the place around there. We took a day off skiing to go snowmobiling to the Dunton hot springs. It's a nice side trip, but a little pricey and harder work to drive the snowmobiles than I expected. The hot springs are pretty relaxing though and they say the minerals in the water have magic healing powers. Beware the lunch at the Dunton lodge though. It's high end gourmet type stuff and will leave you hungry for the ride home. The wine however was local and very satisfying.

We laid down some fresh tracks out there on the snowmobiles. The guide cut us loose in this safe field to do as we pleased. The snowmobiles maxed out at a little over 40 mph in the deep powder in case you're interested.

We also did some dog sledding one day in the National Forest. It was fun, but kind of tiring. I had this bright idea that these side excursions would give us rest from skiing, but in retrospect it just burned more energy. Probably would have been better to actually rest in the room watching a movie or something. During the trip I felt like I couldn't take in enough calories even though I was constantly eating, and waking up during the night for midnight snacks. Probably I should consider eating some high fat dog food to fuel my next multi-day ski trip. The dogs were full of energy and loved to run for miles.

Here's kind of the typical ski surface we had for the week. Packed powder with some loose, and occasionally some untouched couple of inches along the trail edges. I really would have liked about a six inch powder dump during the week, but we didn't get it. The most we got was about two inches one night.

Here's a shot of people hiking up Bald Mountain. I did a lot of skiing in the Prospect bowl and Bald was always hovering above, laughing and mocking me, since it knew I wanted to ski it, but didn't want to kill myself.

Here's the front of Bald. Looks pretty do-able, so maybe someday I'll get back there.

 

[deadheadskier]

looks like an awesome vacation. I'd love to check out Telluride someday.

 

[speden]

DHS, I think you'd love it out there judging by the stuff you like in the east. It takes things to a whole different level.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Nice report Speden and some great shots of BIG country !!

 

[Puck it]

This is on my list for next year. Or Big Sky.

Did you fly in and to which airport? How pricey was your hotel?

 

[speden]

Nice report Speden and some great shots of BIG country !!

Thanks Warp. Big is right. Around here I can see about one block away of houses. Up there I could see all the way to Utah!

And I forgot to mention how friendly the people were there too. Every local we met was like that, so there must be something strange in the air or water out there.

If you get out that way, I recommend a nice restaurant we found in Telluride. It's a place called the "Floradora Saloon" on the main street in town. It doesn't look like much from the street, but the food was delicious. I went with the Crab Legs and they were fantastic.

 

[speden]

This is on my list for next year. Or Big Sky.

Did you fly in and to which airport? How pricey was your hotel?

We flew in to Montrose, which is about an hour an a half drive away from the mountain. Telluride has an airstrip, but usually it's a lot more expensive to fly in there. We rented an SUV for the week since the car rental rates are fairly cheap there. They also have shuttle services to the mountain, but if you have more than a couple of people it's probably cheaper to rent a car.

We stayed slope side and got a two bedroom condo, so it was about $450 a night. Not cheap, but the room was very nice with lots of space, three bathrooms, three flatscreen TV's, two gas fireplaces, and full kitchen. If you have kids, the extra space saves your sanity. And with the kitchen you save a lot since you don't have to eat out. We also had to pony up $20 a night for parking and something for ski lockers in the lobby.

I think you can stay a lot cheaper down in Telluride. They have a free Galloping Goose shuttle that circles around town to get you to the lifts in town. There's a free Gondola that runs all day up until about midnight to move people between Telluride and Mountain village. It's a nice setup and once you hit town you don't need a car to get around.

 

[RISkier]

Looks like a great trip. Telluride is on my short list of places I'd really like to visit.

 

[snoseek]

Nice pics. I love that place.