Silverton Mountain, Colorado Silverton Mountain, Colorado
Silverton must have been the warmest town in the country with all the reports we were hearing. Normally a pretty cold place, we had spring-like conditions that baked the sourthern snow but left plenty of base. Above is a 180 degree panorama as we hike southwest along the ridge from the chairlift.
Click on any picture below to step through the pics.
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The town of Silverton basically goes to sleep in the winter. With only 10% or so occupancy it seemed, you will not find many people here. |
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The Triangle Motel was nice, and cheap at $25/room. I would imagine it might be a bit cold on a really cold windy night. (Bruno pic) |
| Six miles from town, a small parking lot, one recycled chairlift, and a few small structures are the key to the jewels. |
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Chateau de Silverton Mountain. And Bruno. |
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The safety briefing with the hordes of people who will be sharing the mountain. They are closed Mon-Wed so Thursdays like this are the ticket. We had 11 skiers Thursday and 40 on Friday. |
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Approaching the top. This is looking cool. |
| The lift drops you in a saddle with skiing in all directions (this view is looking north). Note figures on the shadow line. More on that later. |
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Our guide Garrett checks out something over the ridge to the south. |
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Mike K shares his opinion. |
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Bruno stands in front of our first run "The Colorado" on the front side of the mountain. Collapsing snow in tight trees dropping into a firm chute. Not exactly powder but we are excited with the terrain. |
| Next ride up, we start hiking. A lot of their terrain requires some hiking and they sort the groups out accordingly. |
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Coming along the ridge to "Ropey Dope" |
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Our guide Garrett is telling us this is the easiest route into this bowl. |
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"Easiest!?!?!?!?" Yikes! (Bruno pic) |
| I (overly) cautiously work my way in and think about that first turn. (Bruno pic) |
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After we clear the chute, we await our turn at skiing the long shot visible below. We did lots of one-at-a-time to minimize risk exposure. We were the first (and second) group into this area for the year. |
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Those poles are handy when attached to snowboarders - you can turn them upside down and stick them in the snow. |
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From this viewpoint, I see buds Pat, Rick, and Mike out to toss bombs in the big "Velocity Chute" just left of center. They did not get anything to move. Dad writes after seeing this picture,"your mother does not want you to ski there - it looks too dangerous". |
| Smiles were the order of the day(s) as Aspen instructor Mike shows us. |
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Sorry Bruno - I had to cut your legs off to get the scenery in the shot. He's smiling because it is almost his turn. |
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Bruno approaches the bottom of the long shot in Ropey Dope. I believe he is enjoying himself. This run had the best snow and made each day worth it. The chute entrance was the white area just left of the rock point in the right half of the pic. |
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I am enjoying it, too! (Bruno pic) |
| What does Mikey think about that run? (Bruno pic) |
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But wait! That was not the end. Another nice shot down to the valley floor. |
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Enjoying your own lunch at the rustic slope-side cafe while the locals look for handouts. |
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The man with the dream. And the water. (Bruno pic) |
| Another hike in the afternoon. |
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Bruno likes the looks of this! Everything you see in this shot is within their permit area. |
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Looking down, we see some powder, some crusty tracks, and some sunbake on this shot. Kind of a "variety" pack fun for the whole family. |
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Skiing those drainages often meant having to negotiate a pretty hairy crunch point to get around things like icefalls in the cliffs. This was extra-hairy on the Mike scale. (Bruno pic) |
| Bruno grabs a little more at the bottom of the run. I suppose you could talk your guide into any one of those shots in the distance. |
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Bruno negotiating some of the nice trees on the front of the mountain. These would have been better with deeper snow since it was old and collapsing and there were logs not yet covered adequately. Fat skis help with this stuff, for sure. |
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Bruno captures me in the trees as I am about to poach his line. |
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Bruno made a wrong turn at the bottom of the mountain and we ended up having to ski this. Our guide did not get mad, though. (Bruno pic) |
| Braving the massive stream crossing was a minor price to pay for Bruno's mistake. |
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Hanging foul at the porta-bar after a great day's worth of skiing. I believe we did 4 runs Thursday and 3 runs Friday. This depends on the runs and the amount of hiking. And, skiing one at a time in the open was slower than being able to mass ski the trees. |
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