EMSC
Well-known member
A complicated ski day in complex weather and snow. This years annual guys trip was officially headquartered in Durango with a different resort each day. The leader of the pack decided to do longest drive first ending with shortest (for he and just over half the crew who only did 3 days).
Most flew into Albuquerque, one into Durango itself. Some had flown in an skied Taos a couple of days pre-group portion of the trip. Anyway for me I drove through the Northern route staying at a friend of my wife's place in Montrose. That gave me only an hour and a half drive vs the 2:15 drive from Durango. I arrived first and ended up waiting about 20 minutes for them getting on the lift about 9:30-ish.
ChrisC gave me a DM with some good info including parking at lift 7 on a weekday which worked out great. Lots of sun and relative warmth to start at the base quickly became a short snow squall dropping perhaps half an inch. It was enough to kind of soften some areas, and enough to close down any hiking.
Once getting up to the upper mountain the intermediate group headed for Prospect while the fast group headed for Gold Hill lift and Electra getting cliffed out half way down and traversing out and around. Snow was mostly firm but chalky with a bit of soft. As the sun re-appeared we headed for Revelation to see if any of the gold hill hiking was open, but it was not. We hit Andy's Gold/Little Rose for 2 laps being careful to stay on the shaded side of the ridge since snow was icy and bad based on small changes in aspect. Then hitting gladed Happy Thoughts and Zulu Queen off Apex lift before heading to the recommended lunch spot at Gorrono.
Finishing up the day in the afternoon on Plunge for several laps once the predicted snow started coming in. After the first lap, it really didn't seem over 2K vertical to me for some reason. The snow was definitely somewhat thin-ish on the lower ~500 vertical of plunge and even a bit less on the lowest stuff into town. Skiable, but not desirable to avoid so many 'bones'.
At some point a snowboard binding broke in the group and despite everyone else at the bottom of lift 7, I had to 'rescue' two intrepid gondola riders who came down from the mountain village and interestingly were about to start walking the wrong direction.
The snow was moderate in the telluride valley but intense heading south back through Rico and toward Durango. Very white out conditions at times, slick and as we asked ourselves where the plows were, yep, just past Rico was a plow in the ditch. Too bad I was 2 white knuckle hands on the wheel. It would have made a great picture. We were glad we made the call to not stay for dinner. The snow finally petered out just past Delores, but it was a long drive at 20mph for so long turning into a 3+ hour slog overall.
Base of lift 7 early.
For some reason the leader always has a trail map in hand...
Closed Gold Hill chutes as squalls build in the distance...
On Andy's Gold
These next couple shots make the snow look better than it really was in this spot.
Gorrono
Heading to the frontside.
Dang near impossible to get good pics in the trees
Before things got bad on the roads
I used GPS for several chunks of the day, but far from all runs. I think the fast group ended up at ~21K vertical.
Most flew into Albuquerque, one into Durango itself. Some had flown in an skied Taos a couple of days pre-group portion of the trip. Anyway for me I drove through the Northern route staying at a friend of my wife's place in Montrose. That gave me only an hour and a half drive vs the 2:15 drive from Durango. I arrived first and ended up waiting about 20 minutes for them getting on the lift about 9:30-ish.
ChrisC gave me a DM with some good info including parking at lift 7 on a weekday which worked out great. Lots of sun and relative warmth to start at the base quickly became a short snow squall dropping perhaps half an inch. It was enough to kind of soften some areas, and enough to close down any hiking.
Once getting up to the upper mountain the intermediate group headed for Prospect while the fast group headed for Gold Hill lift and Electra getting cliffed out half way down and traversing out and around. Snow was mostly firm but chalky with a bit of soft. As the sun re-appeared we headed for Revelation to see if any of the gold hill hiking was open, but it was not. We hit Andy's Gold/Little Rose for 2 laps being careful to stay on the shaded side of the ridge since snow was icy and bad based on small changes in aspect. Then hitting gladed Happy Thoughts and Zulu Queen off Apex lift before heading to the recommended lunch spot at Gorrono.
Finishing up the day in the afternoon on Plunge for several laps once the predicted snow started coming in. After the first lap, it really didn't seem over 2K vertical to me for some reason. The snow was definitely somewhat thin-ish on the lower ~500 vertical of plunge and even a bit less on the lowest stuff into town. Skiable, but not desirable to avoid so many 'bones'.
At some point a snowboard binding broke in the group and despite everyone else at the bottom of lift 7, I had to 'rescue' two intrepid gondola riders who came down from the mountain village and interestingly were about to start walking the wrong direction.
The snow was moderate in the telluride valley but intense heading south back through Rico and toward Durango. Very white out conditions at times, slick and as we asked ourselves where the plows were, yep, just past Rico was a plow in the ditch. Too bad I was 2 white knuckle hands on the wheel. It would have made a great picture. We were glad we made the call to not stay for dinner. The snow finally petered out just past Delores, but it was a long drive at 20mph for so long turning into a 3+ hour slog overall.
Base of lift 7 early.
For some reason the leader always has a trail map in hand...
Closed Gold Hill chutes as squalls build in the distance...
On Andy's Gold
These next couple shots make the snow look better than it really was in this spot.
Gorrono
Heading to the frontside.
Dang near impossible to get good pics in the trees
Before things got bad on the roads
I used GPS for several chunks of the day, but far from all runs. I think the fast group ended up at ~21K vertical.
