Telluride

Been entertained by a few reports so figured I would share telluride.  

Family vacation: Sister/ brother In-law / Dad/ wife.

Flew out of Boston/Denver/Montrose Shuttle up the hill.   Signed on with a ski club from Sugarloaf. 3 bedroom condo Bear Village Lodge.

Been paying attention to the weather out here most of the year.  Up until the end of December Whiteface and telluride were running neck and neck in the snow total about 80 inches.   From January till now it snowed out here pretty much on and off all month.  Those storms that hit Cali came across and dropped a good bit of snow.  205 YTD here, 45 inches in the past 10 days.  Its going to be blue bird while we are here getting warmer every day.

The ride up is pretty boring until you take a left and head up into the canyon.  Then things just go WOW.  Got in and went out on the balcony to see what was up.



Yesterday we got up and went out with wife BOL and sister.  It was pretty cold -10 or so all morning and I had warm weather wax on so things were slow.  Skied lift 4 for a while waiting for a mountain tour meeting leaving from Gorronos.  That was pretty OK getting going gave us a decent idea of the mountain.  It lasted 3.5 hours and we toured most of the mountain with narrative in between.  When that was finished the altitude was kicking in and everyone went in.  Hooked up with a buddy from LP who moved to Durango and is a part time patroller out he.  We spent some time on chair 14 and skied the chutes right off the lift.   I started to get gased so we headed down via see forever trail taking a left into apex and slid out. Finished up around two.  No pictures it was cold.




Decided today to follow the sun.  We headed up to the revelation bowl first thing and it was you know a bowl.  I took a shot from all sights of view.  Took a couple runs off of that and headed over to chair five.  





chair five we got off and went skiers left.  Spent 6 runs here hitting the trails that dropped down the ridge line.  Nice pitch and the sun was on it so the snow softened up and there was powder to be found all over.  I eat bark I can find powder.  It was steeped pitched you could slam around pretty good with a big smile on your face.  Henry was a bump run you could see from the chair and its was fun showing off a little.  The lift line had a lot of snow in it making a good straight-line.   Stayed way skier right and rode the powder all the way down.  Lots of air and a fair amount of gaping but it was a hoot.  


Gorrono is a cool scene.   Been eating lunch there the past two days.  Band smoke house.  Some of the structure used to be an old sheep farm.  Why you would raise sheep at 10k feet is beyond me but pretty cool.

Looks beautiful. I also liked that Garrano place when I was out there. Cool concept.

Very nice. Looks like the place has a lot of character

Looks awesome.  Wish we had some of that snow up in the Canadian Rockies... dry as a bone up here for the past 3 weeks.

Day started out at 915.  Headed over to the plunge lift to take a peak.  It looked stiff so I headed up to revelation bowl.  Took six runs in there all across the bowl.  Snow was soft in spots and the bumps are getting big.  Its never hard to find steep out here.





took two runs from gold mill.  Dynamo and the lift line.  steep bump runs with a few tight spots

From there we took off to the prospect lift took a groomer and dropped into roll.  Didn't realize where we were and it went over a roller into steep soft cut up into some trees.  Its incredible were the steep shit just pops up out of no where.  Took the lift up and  went over toward crystal. Steep and bumpy, got to the bottom and saw what we will ski tomorrow.

That is off the gold hill and you skiers left over to the goat path.

It was getting close to one and was meeting the better half at Alpino Vino for lunch.  FUFU cheese and meat along with a beer.  View from our table


after lunch my knees were a little mushy so I decided to head in and hang with my dad.

Very awesome

Nice report, that place looks great.

Too bad you had flat light.  Wow.

sweet!

Hello from to hell you ride.   Today started off with a change of plans.  The guy that was showing me around tweeted his knee yesterday and went home to rub medicine on his Vagigi. He was fun to ski with.  No real talking just skiing! To bad he will be better.  Saw them off and hung out for a bit.
 Went into the village with the Mrs. and my dad and looked around for some trinkets.  Booted up at 11:00 and was meeting a few sugarloaf women at 1 to do a little ski around.


That is my mode of transportation down to the lifts.  Not very fast but its part of the experience.  
Jumped on the lift went over the shoulder and zipped over to the plunge lift.  It faces north and its some of the steepest lift serviced.  Took the lift line all the way down.

Big Bumps super steep and tight spots.  

At one I met the ladies and we skied around.  One of the ladies won the iron man award at the loaf. Pretty cool way people are selected. Lots of people have input including the lifties.  She skied 170 days that year.  I thought I do OK at about 50 per year.  This a  shot from the lower galloping goose.


  Lost them around 2:30 and headed over to the coonskin lift. North Shoot to lower coonskin.  The snow was pretty soft and the area does not see a lot of traffic.  Still had to be on your toes.  

Took one more run off the coonskin lift and did the milk run.  Coming down into the lift is the steepest part.  Its fun just setting hard edges and making turns in the air.



Pulled into the Gorrono Ranch at 3:45 met up with my BOL and had a beer or three and watched the show.

 

Good stuff. I love Telluride. I spent the season of 06 there and had a very fun time. My buddy Chris is doing some really silly stuff in Bear Creek Canyon lately. I hope to get up there to ride with him. I think he is pioneering a bunch of new stuff but I can't say for sure. Check out his other vids, a lot of them give me sweaty palms. :)

VROOM VROOM



We took off down in Barlow.  They are at the 300 mark for the year.  My dad, I and the guide.  Ungroomed backcountry.  
Took some switchbacks up 1500 feet or so and cruised the meadows all day in 6 feet of untouched.
 
 
From there we were hill climbing and meadow skipping for the next couple of hours.
 

That pitch is around turn 2 turn 3 pitch.  I rode up a Niagara in untouched.  Those things could really climb.  

Got back around 4 and headed down the gondola system to telluride proper to the museum, the patrol with avi dogs were speaking.  Pretty cool story's and got to hang out with dogs.  As we walked up main street there were 50/60 elk at the edge of town.




One more day.

raisingarizona wrote

Good stuff. I love Telluride. I spent the season of 06 there and had a very fun time.

My buddy Chris is doing some really silly stuff in Bear Creek Canyon lately. I hope to get up there to ride with him.

I think he is pioneering a bunch of new stuff but I can't say for sure. Check out his other vids, a lot of them give me sweaty palms. :)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NW1u00zjdKI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That dude is nuts...I really dig that sketchy rap anchor.. 

Nice work TJ

Looks like a blast

Good Afternoon.

Made it home from Telluride.  Awesome trip.  The last day I started off with the family crew.  We did a few laps in the revelation bowl and headed over to the plunge lift.
The plunge lift services 2100 vert of sustained pitch and most of it pretty steep.  Bushwacker was first up.  really steep no fall groomed trail. 43 degrees I think by BOL said from fatmap.  It was long sustained and fun.  Best skiing Ive seen my sister and BOL do.  Then over to Lookout for a run.  It makes Vicky look like a green and that's no joke.  At the end of the day my legs were tired, caught an edge and went into a death Slide.  So glad it was me and not my sister.  A telluride host patrol grabbed my stuff for me and all was good.

They went in for a coffee and I decided it was time.  Spend the next 5 hours over on the plunge lift, no water no breaks. The medicine and tunes made for a spectacular day.

First up kant-make into the east drain.  East drain below



The next three shots are off of the see forever trail.  You jump over the ridge pretty much wherever you want and down the trees you go.  These are west drain, captain jacks, and log jam.  This side had much less traffic and the snow was holding up well.  Soft, good bumps, steep and easy to ski





Got all the other trails in between, steep bump runs in pictures all look the same.  

This is a spot that you could only see from one spot...that I found.  Anyone have a guess?

Spent two runs on the oak chair and one off the Gondi.  Saw that Gondi line on the way up and.




Best chair on the mountain!!


All good things must come to an end.  Last run up plunge and the slide over to milk run.



Got back to the room around 4:30 with a sixer in hand.  Had to be out the door in 15 minutes for dinner.  Took care of three  and off we went.
View from out dinner table.


BAM!! Telluride is one hell of a mountain and town.  

Came home picked up my new right hand man.
 

tjf1967 wrote

 

Came home picked up my new right hand man.
 

Sounds like you guys had a blast!

Good lookin' pup --- what's his name?

Action Jackson

Those groomers off of Chair 9 are scary! For real, you get going so fast and watch those trees go by and it's like...if I crash right now I'm going to die sliding off the trail. That G-out at the bottom of Lower Lookout is such a hoot, as long as your edges are holding.

Cute pup!

JasonWx wrote

That dude is nuts...I really dig that sketchy rap anchor..

I know! Right!?! Check out some of his other vids, he pins it Jeremy Jones style through couloirs we couldn't fit our skis through.  

Tons of big lines or there. I looked and day dreamed. May be when I retire. The day I set up the sled trip for my dad I was selfishly thinking I should skip it and grab a chopper.  The old man could not get to the destination we were aiming for so we audibled  to the meadows. I've been watching videos of sleds in powder. It is as much fun as It looks. Playing around the crick beds and jumps into 6 feet of powder is fun.