Winter's Here, We're Glad It Comes with Skiing

Yes, we have this much snow and more already

I had to go to a conference in Denver last week.  While driving into the city on I-25 at about 6:30pm on a Wednesday night, in stalled traffic backed up for miles, I wondered why the heck anyone still lives like that.  I mean, shouldn't we all be abandoning the chaos and congestion of places like that now that we can literally work anywhere, well some of us anyway.  We've had several clients over the last ten years who have done just that, abandoned the over-stimulating environs of the big city and moved to Durango to take advantage of life at a different pace.  We've reached that critical mass for a community like ours where air service is relatively reasonable and available, arts and culture flourish, and our community is strengthened by a diversity of shops, restaurants and activities.  In other words, there's no reason to live anyplace else anymore.  In fact, I used to enjoy going to the big city because it offered opportunities that simply weren't present in a small community.  Last month I was in San Francisco, and, honestly, the things that used to excite me about San Francisco left me feeling nonplussed and marginally disappointed.  The restaurants are now as good or better at home.  Shopping, well, frankly I've lost my taste for it.  I can't wear anything that smacks of style in my town, so I'm pretty set with the LL Bean and Patagonia catalogues.  In fact, I had to go to some swanky event while I was in Denver, and I realized how uncomplicatd fashion is for me, except when I'm in the city.  Flip flops are pretty much acceptable anywhere (with socks in winter).  We make your average office casual look like a Cotillion.  Durango has been among the top ranked communities in our country for some time for people who can truly telecommute.

There's my stump speach for the month.  

As of December 20th, the resort here has almost a 50 inch base, over four feet of fresh snow has fallen in just a few days, and it's only really begun to fall according to the forecast.  This may very well be the best early season skiing I can ever remember in the last twenty-three years.  If you are considering where to ski this year, consider no more.

I moved into an acreage up in the mountains near the resort last summer, and this is my first winter caring for it.  I'm learning to use a snowblower and a plow to clear the decks and the roughly quarter-mile driveway to the residence.  This storm is testing my resolve, and my ingenuity for snow storage.  If I thought I knew before what it took to care for mountain property, well, let's just say I had an idea, but no real working knowledge. 

Here's a photo of what our office looked like today in the snow.  Come visit us at the Needles Country Square next time you're in the area.  If that time is in the next couple of days, bring a shovel.



Wells Group Mountain Resort Office at Needles


In that spirit, we thought we'd offer you another top ten list.  It's been odd, but apparently some of you are paying attention to our lists, as we've found people with them printed and folded up in their pockets, checking items off as they experience the things we've made claim are top-ten worthy.  Here's our list of top ten ski runs in or near Durango. 

1.  Styx - This river Styx is the frozen kind at the very border of Purgatory's front side.  I've been skiing it since I was a teenager, and I have never, not once, grown tired of it.  The reason might be that it's so undulating, so topographically multifarious, from top to bottom, that one never grows tired of the diversity of terrain it offers.  And I do mean top to bottom.  It's one of the longest runs on the mountain, and many of its sections are deserving of its black diamond rating.  There are even a couple cliff-sized drop-offs for the more spirited and adventurous among us.  In fact, this was the sight of my one and only attempt at the new-fangled style of grabbing a ski in the air.  I launched, I grabbed, I rotated sideways and landed that way from about fifteen feet in the air.  I'm going to stick tothe good old spread eagle or backscratcher from now on. 

2. Boudreaux's - This is also at Purgatory and is a short little black run from the top of lift 8.  This one gets mentioned for two reasons - 1.  Purgatory has a long history of naming runs after people who have either worked at or been associated with the mountain.  Boudreaux was known only by his last name to most, and is recollected by this writer as being one of the most colorful characters in the resort's history.  He used to come into a restaurant where I bartended and order cheese enchiladas every day, every single day.  He was tough as nails on the exterior, but those who knew him knew a kind man with a great love for the mountains.  2. His run is tough as nails, perfectly on-camber (a rarety on Purgatory's backside) and often has a nice kicker at the end that this writer has embarrased himself on many occassions trying (it's right under the lift).  It also has the benefit of not being skiied as much as most of the other runs in this lift pod, so the powder stays longer. 

3. Paul's Park - This is also black, also on Purgatory's backside in the lift 8 pod.  It's the original tree skiing run at Purgatory.  It's the run that my childhood friends used to take me down to scare the pants off me in the deep powder because I frankly was never much of a good skier in deep powder.  Add tight trees to that problem, and walla, it always gets my heart going.  The neat thing about it is that it never seems to run out of powder, or out of ways to wind its way down to the bottom.  It's a little adventure, and you always feel like you may be the only person to discover the particular path you're on.  Beware of tree wells, and go with a friend.

4. Wapiti - The first time you take lift 5 up from the bottom of the middle of Purgatory's backside you think, "Man, this sure is an old, slow lift.  They need to replace it with something high-speed."  And then you take the run that the lift follows back down to the bottom and the lift speed takes on a new meaning.  "Man, I'm glad I have this much time to rest my legs."  This is a great black run.   It starts mellow, just enough to let you get used to the run, has a nice big mogul field in the middle of it (this is where freestyle competitions are often held on the mountain), and finishes with some interesting narrow steeps that offer a great mix of moguls and just plain steep skiing.  It's a bit of a vanity run, as it follows the lift all the way down.  In years past, when I used to ski instruct, I had to take my instructor jacket off on this run so as not to embarrass the entire ski school by flailing down it in uniform. 

5. Tiger Claw - This isn't really a run.  It's the face of a mountain peak at Silverton Mountain.  This is the most afraid I've ever been on skis, or otherwise for that matter.  The lift at Silveron Mountain stops at 12,500 feet and this peak is another 1,000 feet up.  Here's me near the top of it with Aaron Brill, Silverton Mountain's founder.  You can't tell with my back turned, but I'm about to pass out from being out of breath from climbing.  Aaron is saying, "You okay buddy?  You sure you want to do this?":

It's not for everybody.  It wasn't for me.  It made me realize I'm more of a recreationally advanced skier.  That said, if you really want to know what it's like to ski an extreme back country mountain, without needing a helicopter, or being one of the skiers or crew on a Warren Miller film, or climbing it from the bottom, this is your chance.  I chronicled my experience skiing at Silverton Mountain in the following article:

http://www.insideoutsidemag.com/issues/2006/May_June/Unguided_and_Unhinged/

Tiger Claw makes the list because we're not sure there's any place like it North America, and its in our back yard.

6. The Plunge to Spiral Stairs - This probably needs no description.  These two runs are perfectly named under Telluride's lift 9.   If you want to ski bump lines carved by true expert skiers in incredibly steep terrain that somehow improbably holds snow, here's your place.  In fact, the entire lift 9 pod at Telluride is first rate for expert (or recreationally advanced) skiers.  Ten runs on this in a day and your legs will look like Eric Heiden's (just showing my age). 

7.  The Waterfall Area - Wolf Creek measures snow in feet, not inches.  They already have an 80 inch (6.5 feet) base, and it's the first day of winter.  When I was a kid growing up in Denver we used to look at the ski reports in the paper daily (pre-internet) and I didn't even know where Wolf Creek was, but I knew that ten feet of snow was not that uncommon and that the place made other Colorado areas envious.  The Waterfall area is a big expanse, bowl like glade skiing where you choose your own path.  It's a place where you'll come to understand the idea of "powder snow" in a way that may make other areas seem kind of pathetic.  It makes the list for that reason alone.

8. Highline Ridge - Taos can be the opposite of Wolf Creek on the snow scale sometimes, so you have to watch the reports.  They also get hammered.  And when they do, this ridge line and all of it's accompanying runs, shoots, and bowls make Alta look like too far of a drive.  Taos offers Purgatory pass holders three free days of skiing.  That alone is almost worth the pass price if the snow is good. 

9. Sally's - Finally a blue run.  This run on the backside of Purgatory is long, meticulously groomed to a fine grade of carpet, and faster than we should go on skis.  You'll find yourself uncontrollably yelling, "whoooooo hoooooooo."  It's that fun. 

10. Upper and Lower Hades - Upper Hades is a blue run at Purgatory that offers a taste of what it might feel like to be a Downhiller in competition.  It's rolling and fast, a perfect compliment for a tuck and some bravado.   Be careful or you'll fly right off the head wall of the Lower Hades if you don't stop in time (not recommended in the slightest).  Lower Hades is a nice steep, diverse, bumpy, roller coaster ride of a black with the nicest little pitch of bumps beneath its last headwall, perfect for working on your bump skiing without wearing yourself out too much, and probably more importantly - without an audience because it's a little remote.  This is run combination is also great for intermediate skiers to share with their more expert companions.  It's easy to separate half-way down and meet at the bottom a few minutes later. 

There you have it.  This, along with the increasing mortgage interest rates, should get your blood pumping.  Did we mention that mortgage rates are going up.  We've been telling you how devastating a 1% increase in mortgage rates is, generally equivalent to a 10% increase in the cost of the home being leveraged.  If a mortgage will be part of your real estate purchase in Durango, Colorado, or anywhere else, it's time to start paying less attention to the national news about prices (Durango's continue to go up), and pay more attention to the inevitable increase in mortgage rates from their historic lows. 
Happy Holidays to all!  We wish you the best this holiday season and beyond.  I started writing this yesterday, and since then we've received another 19 inches of snow.  Thank you Santa!  Speaking of Santa, this is the cutest video we've seen about Santa, perfect for your children: