Telluride, CO - 2/03/08

[ChrisC]

More snow in Telluride - about 8". Snowed all day.

Today I skied a lot of favorite lines and some tree areas.

Telluride has some great tree skiing. Probably the best in Colorado. Most areas above 10,500 are thin enough for turns. And areas where mother nature is too dense, locals help prune.


Mammoth from top of Chari 9. Generally this area is VERY bumped up. However, 100" of snow per month has tamed the bumps.

East Drain. A creek bed. I used to love this area, now less so - I've moved on.

Spiral Stairs. A classic. Steep, Bumps with freefall turns. Multiple lines, multiple choices.

Local's Glade. Or LogPile. Essentially everything between Plunge and Lookout is gladed. So much terrain, so long to get tracked out. My favorite trees anywhere. 2000 vert of trees? Try staying together. Many runs in here.

Some Chair 6 terrain. I went into the trees. But this is Alias Alley/Old 6 Lifline. My favorites in this area are Apex, Chongos and Sulley's Remote.

The exit of Buzz's Glade and Trommer's. Killer Slide is a nice steep pitch, but I ALWAYS cliff out a bit.

Town with a lot of snow.

Kant-Mak-M. No bumps. Just fluffiness.

North Chute. Or East finger of North Chute. A sexy fun area open with big snow.

North Chute. All filled.

 

[Tony Crocker]

great tree skiing. Probably the best in Colorado

Steamboat? With 350+ inches of snow to ski in them.

 

[ChrisC]

great tree skiing. Probably the best in Colorado

Steamboat? With 350+ inches of snow to ski in them.

Since Steamboat decided that their aspens were the best in the 80/90s....Telluride thinned almost all of Chair 9, everything in Chair 6, everthing off of Gold Hill and lots of areas in Prospect Bowl.

While perception is too hard to change, I just do not think the west-facing aspen strands off of Storm/etc at Steamboat are better anymore.
Telluride has lots of nice north and west --- and some south -- trees that are quality zones.

Utah and Wyoming are not that great either for woods.

 

[Tony Crocker]

All of the above pale in comparison to the Kootenays (Red, Fernie, Whitewater, Big Mountain, Schweitzer) for tree skiing IMHO.

My impression from Telluride was that chair 6 looked well spaced but chair 9 did not. But if management has done something about that, I yield to local knowledge. But there still must be more when the spacing is natural, as in the Kootenays. Or in SoCal, the once in a blue moon there is enough snow to take advantage of it.

 

[ChrisC]

All of the above pale in comparison to the Kootenays (Red, Fernie, Whitewater, Big Mountain, Schweitzer) for tree skiing IMHO.

My impression from Telluride was that chair 6 looked well spaced but chair 9 did not. But if management has done something about that, I yield to local knowledge. But there still must be more when the spacing is natural, as in the Kootenays. Or in SoCal, the once in a blue moon there is enough snow to take advantage of it.

Agreed that the Kootenays are the best. I find the trees a little too widely space in California and a little too confining/dense in the East/Colorado.

Re: Telluride. Given battles with US Forest Service/growth, mgt is not responsible for much of the glading. Mostly it has been done by locals cutting dead lower branches off.

There is good-spacing from Chair 6 (the entire bowl), everything off the ridge of Gold Hill and the 2,000 vert shots off Chair 9. Just look at all the skier tracks exiting the See Forever ridge into the woods.