Sign Up for Free | Sign In

Join our Backcountry Skiing & Riding Community. Contribute to the Ski Atlas and Keep a Journal of your vert.

More than just a Mining Town | Silverton Mountain, CO United States | 04/03/09, by The Boundary Hunter

With blue skies, a couple feet of fresh powder and a guide nicknamed "Bruce Lee", it was bound to be an epic day.  Against all good financial sense, I spent $135 for a day of lift-access to powder.  I had to- there was 3 feet of fresh!  Aside from low-angle tree runs, the backcountry was too dangerous.  The season is nearly over and I've missed every big day so far for one stupid reason or another.  This would be my last chance before summer.

Ascending the lift I heard an unfamiliar sound that caught me off guard. Thwap, thwap, thwap and the tempo was picking up.  Just left of the lift I spotted a bright yellow Red Bull helicopter winding up and getting ready to take a group up and beyond the normal hiking terrain for a Heli-Run.  Lucky bastards, I thought.  But then again, I was at Silverton.  There would be no tracks to cross.  So why the hell would anyone spend an extra $150 on a heli-ride?

Finally reaching the warm sunny summit we regrouped and began our first hike. Off in the distance we could hear bombs exploding and echoing through the shear mountain cliffs. I couldn't tell if it was the incredible view that made me breathless or the fact that I was at 12,300 ft. Either way, a fifteen minute hike for a 2,000+ ft descent seemed reasonable enough to me.  

On the top of our first run, Bruce explained that hikes range from nill, to well over an hour. "You can reach Billboard summit at 13,487 if you're willing to put the time in." Bruce skied first to set a boundary line and watched intently as we came down towards him.  Waiving his pole for each of us to go, we took our first fresh turns down Cabin Bowl. The snow was the incredible knee-deep Colorado champagne powder that snow snobs dream about.  Aw-yeah!

At the end of the day, my friends and I drove nearly an hour to Durango before we noticed that we had the radio off in the car. We were still so excited about the epic five runs we got in that we couldn't stop reminiscing.   

Although paying for a lift ticket is always a bummer, I picked a good day and I felt plenty worked at the end of the day.  Silverton's got a good thing going- safe, lift-accessed, farmed powder skiing.