Days one and two of the 2009/2010 season for my wife and I after taking all of 2008/2009 off while I wrapped up my degree and relocated from New York to Arizona. For the record, also the first two days of western skiing either of us have ever done! Drive up from Mesa, AZ got pretty hair brained with snow almost all of the way from Holbrook, AZ through Durango, CO. Road care was basically non-existent on I40 and then through the Navajo Reservation; thankfully the roads are straight (but that didn't stop some people from finding their way off the road).
Drive ultimately took a bit over 8 hours and after a quick dinner at Carver Brewing in Durango (decent beer, forgettable food), we got to sleep. We were staying in Durango for the duration of the trip, thus we decided to hit Purgatory on 12/31 with hopes of finding something to do that night in town for New Year's Eve. We arrived up at DMR around 9 AM, got a decent parking spot in the upper lot, but noticed that people were coming in truly fast and furious. My wife has had consistent issues with her boots and having not put them on in over a year, by the time we were ready to go it was around 10:15 AM. Crowds were down right horrid, and the generally crappy lift setup (at least in my opinion) at Purgatory did nothing to help things out. This was the view that greeted us at around 10 AM trying to get out of the base area on the high speed six lift (the other lift that was redundant to this one was not running).
This setup a general theme of the day of long (15 to 30 minute) lift lines. Purgatory is a weird place in this regard since the trails were rarely crowded, especially once you got away from the high speed lifts. We found ourselves cramping up pretty badly in these lines and it really contributed to the general negative vibe of the day. The snow was actually pretty good, but coverage was sketchy on a lot of the steeper trails with rocks and dirt poking out from below despite the recent snow. This made us shy away from trying out the glades on the mountain (plus lift access was really slow in these areas). No specific trails really stuck out to me, and we were generally just trying to find the least crowded way down the mountain and spent most of our day doing reasonably buttery mogul runs.
Overall, Purgatory seemed horribly equiped to handle the holiday crowds. Lift lines were just a massive free for-all with a lot of the Texas snow-boarder kids just blatently pushing their way in front of anyone who wouldn't fight like hell to keep them back. Staff and ski patrol were sparse, and a lot of people just generally seemed to have their head up their ass. We needed food around 1 PM and decided to eat mid-mountain in the bar (the cafes were truly hellish). Same theme of just being a poorly ran place carried through here with clearly not enough wait staff present for the crowds and we were left waiting for about 20 minutes while an open table we could of sat at just sat there waiting to be cleared off. The waitress we had apoligized to us over and over, and we honestly just felt bad for everyone working there given what a mess the place was.
To make a long story short, we don't plan on going back there any time soon, and I don't think I'd ever consider skiing there during a peak weekend again, at least until they seriously pump some cash into renovating their lifts. It just was not worth the $70 a ticket in my opinion and we found the terrain to quite frankly be very eastern (I kept thinking I was just skiing at VT on a day with fresh snow and cold temps).
After a late night out at Steamworks in Durango (fun place with pretty good beer and quite decent food), we decided to take it easy on 1/1/2010 and give our legs a chance to recover from the moguls (and the liftlines!). Got a late start that morning and drove up to Silverton, CO for the scenery. We gained a new found appreciation for just how easy it is to back country ski in the San Juans seeing all of the places you can just park a car along US550 and hike to earn some crazy turns. Grabbed lunch in Silverton and decided we'll definitely have to head up to check out the ski resort once we are up for it. Stopped at Durango Mountain Resort on the way back to check out their nordic center, and actually had quite a bit of fun on their trails for 2 hours or so that afternoon. In some ways I felt like the Nordic center had less flat areas than the ski area ](*,) . Returned back to Durango and had a great dinner at Ken & Sues'; check it out if you are a foodie!
Next morning we set the alarm for 5 AM to get an early start for heading up to Wolf Creek. Season to date snowfall for them stood at 189 inches. We got a bit later start than desired as usual, but still made it up US160 to the ski area, arriving at about 8:45 AM. Had a close encounter with an elk out by Pagosa Springs, followed by meeting a family of big horn sheep at the bottom of Wolf Creek Pass. The adventure came to a climax when I did my best impression of Sega Rally with our Silverado at about 60 MPH on black ice a few miles down the pass from the ski area. I'm still not sure how I didn't go off, but heard from some people who came up after us that a few people hit the same patch and did end up in the snow banks. We were pleasantly surprised by Pagosa Springs and would definitely consider staying there in the future to ski Wolf Creek. Yes, you have to beware of the pass being closed, but if you're not hell bent on down hill skiing and like other winter recreation like we do, Pagosa still has plenty to keep yourself occupied. We were pleasantly surprised to get a parking spot literally next to the ski lodge at 8:45 AM, and also were amused by how much more attentive the staff of Wolf Creek just generally seemed as soon as we got there (wow, friendly, happy people to actually answer any questions you may have, what a concept). Lift tickets were just downright awesome at $52 a piece.
Initial positive vibes continued as we met some nice people in the base camp lodge getting our gear on (including an awesome teleskier who gave us some tips on terrain and chatted with my wife about switching from alpine to tele, even offering to let her try some skis if she wanted to rent boots). People just seemed happy and chilled out here in general. We laughed when someone told us how busy it was since it was so much less crowded and hectic than Purgatory had been two days prior. We skied all over the mountain, starting on the Raven lift side and then working all the way across to the Alberta lift. Snow was fantastic with fresh stashes still to be had all over. Mogul fields were incredibly soft with lots of "sloppy second" type snow to be had everywhere. Being used to skiing icey, hard bumps in the east, we had the time of our life. Great mountain, great snow, great deal, and good people.
Thanks Wolf Creek for saving our trip that Purgatory tried to ruin :-D . I think we may have to make this a yearly visit, and knowing we have this just 7 to 8 hours from Phoenix makes it that much easier to tolerate living in the desert! Day 3 right now will likely be Arizona Snowbowl on January 16 unless their conditions really tank. I'll make sure to post a report up with some pictures as we continue to explore ski areas of the Southwest since I know these aren't the most common places for people to visit on this forum by any means.
-Craig
Drive ultimately took a bit over 8 hours and after a quick dinner at Carver Brewing in Durango (decent beer, forgettable food), we got to sleep. We were staying in Durango for the duration of the trip, thus we decided to hit Purgatory on 12/31 with hopes of finding something to do that night in town for New Year's Eve. We arrived up at DMR around 9 AM, got a decent parking spot in the upper lot, but noticed that people were coming in truly fast and furious. My wife has had consistent issues with her boots and having not put them on in over a year, by the time we were ready to go it was around 10:15 AM. Crowds were down right horrid, and the generally crappy lift setup (at least in my opinion) at Purgatory did nothing to help things out. This was the view that greeted us at around 10 AM trying to get out of the base area on the high speed six lift (the other lift that was redundant to this one was not running).
This setup a general theme of the day of long (15 to 30 minute) lift lines. Purgatory is a weird place in this regard since the trails were rarely crowded, especially once you got away from the high speed lifts. We found ourselves cramping up pretty badly in these lines and it really contributed to the general negative vibe of the day. The snow was actually pretty good, but coverage was sketchy on a lot of the steeper trails with rocks and dirt poking out from below despite the recent snow. This made us shy away from trying out the glades on the mountain (plus lift access was really slow in these areas). No specific trails really stuck out to me, and we were generally just trying to find the least crowded way down the mountain and spent most of our day doing reasonably buttery mogul runs.
Overall, Purgatory seemed horribly equiped to handle the holiday crowds. Lift lines were just a massive free for-all with a lot of the Texas snow-boarder kids just blatently pushing their way in front of anyone who wouldn't fight like hell to keep them back. Staff and ski patrol were sparse, and a lot of people just generally seemed to have their head up their ass. We needed food around 1 PM and decided to eat mid-mountain in the bar (the cafes were truly hellish). Same theme of just being a poorly ran place carried through here with clearly not enough wait staff present for the crowds and we were left waiting for about 20 minutes while an open table we could of sat at just sat there waiting to be cleared off. The waitress we had apoligized to us over and over, and we honestly just felt bad for everyone working there given what a mess the place was.
To make a long story short, we don't plan on going back there any time soon, and I don't think I'd ever consider skiing there during a peak weekend again, at least until they seriously pump some cash into renovating their lifts. It just was not worth the $70 a ticket in my opinion and we found the terrain to quite frankly be very eastern (I kept thinking I was just skiing at VT on a day with fresh snow and cold temps).
After a late night out at Steamworks in Durango (fun place with pretty good beer and quite decent food), we decided to take it easy on 1/1/2010 and give our legs a chance to recover from the moguls (and the liftlines!). Got a late start that morning and drove up to Silverton, CO for the scenery. We gained a new found appreciation for just how easy it is to back country ski in the San Juans seeing all of the places you can just park a car along US550 and hike to earn some crazy turns. Grabbed lunch in Silverton and decided we'll definitely have to head up to check out the ski resort once we are up for it. Stopped at Durango Mountain Resort on the way back to check out their nordic center, and actually had quite a bit of fun on their trails for 2 hours or so that afternoon. In some ways I felt like the Nordic center had less flat areas than the ski area ](*,) . Returned back to Durango and had a great dinner at Ken & Sues'; check it out if you are a foodie!
Next morning we set the alarm for 5 AM to get an early start for heading up to Wolf Creek. Season to date snowfall for them stood at 189 inches. We got a bit later start than desired as usual, but still made it up US160 to the ski area, arriving at about 8:45 AM. Had a close encounter with an elk out by Pagosa Springs, followed by meeting a family of big horn sheep at the bottom of Wolf Creek Pass. The adventure came to a climax when I did my best impression of Sega Rally with our Silverado at about 60 MPH on black ice a few miles down the pass from the ski area. I'm still not sure how I didn't go off, but heard from some people who came up after us that a few people hit the same patch and did end up in the snow banks. We were pleasantly surprised by Pagosa Springs and would definitely consider staying there in the future to ski Wolf Creek. Yes, you have to beware of the pass being closed, but if you're not hell bent on down hill skiing and like other winter recreation like we do, Pagosa still has plenty to keep yourself occupied. We were pleasantly surprised to get a parking spot literally next to the ski lodge at 8:45 AM, and also were amused by how much more attentive the staff of Wolf Creek just generally seemed as soon as we got there (wow, friendly, happy people to actually answer any questions you may have, what a concept). Lift tickets were just downright awesome at $52 a piece.
Initial positive vibes continued as we met some nice people in the base camp lodge getting our gear on (including an awesome teleskier who gave us some tips on terrain and chatted with my wife about switching from alpine to tele, even offering to let her try some skis if she wanted to rent boots). People just seemed happy and chilled out here in general. We laughed when someone told us how busy it was since it was so much less crowded and hectic than Purgatory had been two days prior. We skied all over the mountain, starting on the Raven lift side and then working all the way across to the Alberta lift. Snow was fantastic with fresh stashes still to be had all over. Mogul fields were incredibly soft with lots of "sloppy second" type snow to be had everywhere. Being used to skiing icey, hard bumps in the east, we had the time of our life. Great mountain, great snow, great deal, and good people.
Thanks Wolf Creek for saving our trip that Purgatory tried to ruin :-D . I think we may have to make this a yearly visit, and knowing we have this just 7 to 8 hours from Phoenix makes it that much easier to tolerate living in the desert! Day 3 right now will likely be Arizona Snowbowl on January 16 unless their conditions really tank. I'll make sure to post a report up with some pictures as we continue to explore ski areas of the Southwest since I know these aren't the most common places for people to visit on this forum by any means.
-Craig
. I almost landed a position in SLC which would have been a dream come true, but Phoenix was still better than somewhere like Texas, the midwest, or quite frankly, most of the Mid Atlantic/Southeast.