Durango

So we started getting some precip last week while I was down in the canyon doing hazard tree work with my buddies company. I called it in October when I committed to the job, things always seem to happen that way. Those adventure jobs pay good though and I wanted to make some extra coin to take Cody on a weekend ski trip and with the best conditions of the season we didn’t hesitate and packed our bags for Durango.

Here’s a couple photos from the Canyon last week.







We left on Friday and drove north across the Rez. With the storm system moving across the west the scenery was incredible. The sky’s were moody and the landscape was electrified.



This is the actual Four Corners.


Our plan was to ski Hesperus on our way in. Hesperus is a funky little ski hill with 600 vertical, night skiing and some cool looking terrain in the oak trees. They open on Fridays at four and we ended up being a couple hours early so we hung out in the parking lot and I snapped some photos.



The lodge.








At four the lift still wasn’t spinning. No one was sure what the issue was so we waited around in our gear for another hour until we got the word that the brake was busted. We didn’t mind, these things happen at funky little mom and pop ski hills and we were cold and ready to get to our hotel room in Durango.

Durango is a really fun town with lots of dining options, nightlife and plenty of weed shops. Why smoke on the chair when there's edibles? :D



Cody made me pull over to check out this hot spring on our way up to the mountain. It's not exactly natural. I guess it used to emerge on the other side of the highway but having tourists walking across the highway right there was super dangerous so the city put in a pipe system to the other side of the highway next to the pull out. I guess there was a concrete structure that since has been buried under mineral deposits and now you have this....a tit shaped earth turd. Cody thought it was really cool.



I’ve never been interested in skiing Purgatory but I figured it was probably a good fit for Cody and since it’s free for us it was an easy choice. It’s definitely a more intermediate ski area but I was totally stoked to find some steep and funky terrain here and there. It also has lots of natural rollers perfect for carving turns on or catching air from.





The views from every run are outstanding.



I didn’t take any pics of the expert terrain or any actual ski shots, we were way to busy ripping around on the new snow. It's there though. The steeps are short but have fun run outs with lots of opportunity for airtime.

I really enjoyed their beach for apres cocktails. The place was bumpin with live dj music and happy locals.





We had a ton of fun and I got to see a bunch of old friends. We will be going back for sure.

Sweet bro!  Loved the weather pics. Really conveyed a southwestern feel.

Your daughter looks older than I would have expected as I believed you to be decade or so younger than I....  

Nice Job buddy.

Thanks man. She’s 11 in May. I’m 42 now.

great report..
heading to NM on friday..

Awesome.  Are those taken with your cell phone?

Beautiful shots RA! Every time you post, I want to check out the southwest more and more

JasonWx wrote

great report..
heading to NM on friday..

Good timing. It's still thin down here but this week might be the peak for the season. I guess another system comes through tomorrow.

nepa wrote

Awesome.  Are those taken with your cell phone?

Ya, a lot of those were edited with Instagram filters.

Brownski wrote

Beautiful shots RA! Every time you post, I want to check out the southwest more and more

You should, it's a special place for sure.

Good stuff!

Looks really fun, Cody seems game for all.

Go bigger on the pics they would look even better!

Funny how infrequently (never?) anyone posts a Purgatory TR.

How far were you from Wolfcreek?

Fun TR!  Quite a girl you have there.

My ski buddy and I drove from Telluride to Albuquerque the long way via Silverton and Purgatory last week.  Was very scenic and there was still snow on the road in the passes from the 9+ inch storm a couple days before.  Didn't have time to do more than drive thru Silverton and around the Purgatory parking lot.  He's skiing Purgatory with an ABQ ski club in a week or two.

My buddy's favorite place to eat in Durango is Steamworks so we stopped there for lunch.  Food was pretty good.  It's a microbrewery.

My other friends stopped for lunch in Durango on the way to Telluride from Taos.  They liked the crepe food truck.

raisingarizona wrote

....a tit shaped earth turd.

Both funny and aptly described.

Nice pictures.

Nice TR AZ --- thanks for sharing