Silverton

Silverton is the bes...

• By: Chester Tartsnatcher (Guest)
• 20/07/2011

Silverton is the best powder turn per dollar in the USA.

It's different, really different in that during the height of the season, it's guided only at 130 US$ per day. You're required to carry an avalanche tranceiver, shovel and probe (available for rent there) and typically ski in groups of 8, unless you pay for a private guide. Then there's heli drops for around $150 US a pop.

You ski where the guide says and while that rankles some people, the guides will take you to the best snow on the mountain. But the best part of this is that you don't have to get tweaked out about the local hard chargers shredding up all the pow. You can relax and take in the experience like no where else. It's high altitude where the snow stays soft and even in the absence of recent snowfall, the wind resets bring in beautiful soft snow. But they do average around 400 inches of snowfall a year and all but the due South exposure of the mountain is skiable. The lift is around 1900 vertical feet, starting at 10,400 feet and ending at 12,300 feet, but one can ask to join groups that will hike an additional 900 vertical feet to access runs with around 1000 meters of vertical.

Another crazy attribute is the town where you can still get dinner with a drink for less than $15US. And a decent room for less than $60US a night. So even though the lift ticket is expensive, when you average the cost over all factors of skiing, drinking, eating and sleeping, Silverton is one of the least expensive destination ski areas in the USA.

The area is open for regular skiing Thursday through Sunday. With Telluride 2 hours away, Crested Butte or Taos 3.5 hours away or Aspen 5 hours away, there's some really choice options for a week long trip.

Lately, the best time to go seems to be either February or late March.
The terrain r00lz, the snow r00lz and the people r00l.
Try it.