NOTES: In southwestern Colorado in the San Juan Mountains, the Telluride ski area has 85 runs open to snowboarding with a maximum vertical of 3,500 feet spread over 1,700 acres. The area offers untracked and groomed trails, open bowls and narrow chutes, as well as plunges and glades.
Telluride is a remote outpost town high in the mystical San Juans. Home to the Ute Indians, it’s also home to brilliant blue skies, clear rivers and diverse wildlife. Majestic peaks form a narrow box canyon that cradles this old mining town filled with great local culture.
Founded in the late 1800’s, the town has been restored to its historic beauty. The small 8 by 12 block town is peppered with colorful Victorian homes and clapboard storefronts. And most importantly, the locals are down-to-earth artists and athletes who visited for a weekend a decade ago and stayed for the natural beauty and camaraderie.
Okay, enough fluff. Down to the boarding. Telluride is a mix of cruisers, steeps and glades that meet everyone’s shredding desires. It’s spread out over 1,700 acres serviced by 16 lifts. Get it? There’s no lift lines. However, the layout makes for lots of traversing, which takes awhile to get used to, and for short runs with a typical vertical drop of less than 1,500’. If big vertical is your bag, you’ll need to combine two slow lifts, like #8 and #9 for 3,100’. But it’s an awesome run down Bushwacker or the infamous Plunge. If you’re not into vertical, the Air Garden Terrain Park is the largest in the southwest with 8 acres of berms, banks, rails and pipes.
If it’s been awhile since you’ve been to Telluride, get ready for some big changes. New in 2001, Prospect Bowl is a 700 acre expansion with the addition of two high speed lifts, Gold Hill and Prospect Bowl, to above 11,000’. Previously, the popular Gold Hill’s extreme double black diamond runs were only accessible by hiking. Now, expert boarders can quickly shred the steeps, glades, open bowls and chutes of natural avalanche paths like Andy’s Gold, Little Rose and Dynamo.
Off the Prospect Bowl lift are easy and intermediate cruisers for the most part. The exceptions are a few short hikable double-black diamond runs east of the lift, such as La Rosa and Crystal, and west, such as the 30 minute hike up Bald Mountain for vistas of Mount Wilson and then drop into Jackpot powder stash.
For the backcountry hounds, off the top of both new Prospect Bowl lifts are new backcountry access gates for experts only experienced with appropriate backcountry rescue gear.
My favorites are off the Plunge Lift. Try Log Pile, West Drain, East Drain and of course, the Plunge.
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