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Mountainous Summer Paradise
Now that Fall is here and the mountains are getting dusted with their first snowfall, I thought it would be the perfect time to recap our summer in Telluride.
It was the summer of 2015 where the family spent a solid five weeks in Telluride from mid-July to mid-August hiking, eating Baked in Telluride treats, summer camp enrolling, and of course, skiing. I began the journey by driving from San Francisco through Reno and onward to Ely via highway 50. From Ely it was an easy drive through Moab to Telluride and only managed to destroy one iPhone.
After a fairly decent year of snowfall in the Telluride area, northern aspects at around 13,000 feet held snow until we departed for home in August. Luckily, I easily convinced a Telluride local, Ashton, to join in for some radical summer turns. Imogene Pass was first on the list, and on July 21st we drove our trusty SUV up the infamous Tomboy Road. Upon arrival, we found much better conditions then expected. From a few narrow chutes to wide open corn skiing fields, we had a blast making our July turns.
With that under the belt, on July 23rd, I decided to search for an alternative zone and ended up hiking the basin of Silver Mountain from Alta Lakes. From a few turns in a chute down into a sunny corned ‘groomer,’ given the time of the year, the skiing was ridiculously fun.
After taking a few weeks off from skiing and concentrating on family fun at the pool and hikes up the likes of Gold Hill, Bear Creek, Ballard Mountain, Upper Bear Creek, and the Wasatch Trail, I returned to Imogen Pass on August 12th by renting a Jeep through Colorado 145. Believe it or not, there was some tasty lines still to be had up there and it was almost mid-August! The snow was actually skied pretty smoothly in the 70F temps, especially if you stayed near the warm scree on the edge of the run. I was grinning all the way back to the Jeep.
Thank you Telluride, you sure are a special place!
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Nothing like driving the middle of Nevada, solo, and without a cell phone…
You drive through a few small towns like Eureka and Austin on the way to Ely…
Hello Telluride…you’re looking fantastic!
A good way to acclimatize is to head up the trail to Bear Creek Falls…
The kids made cairns…as all kids do regardless of age am I right?
Sunsets can be a bit more than adequate here…
Telluride is a place with perfect cocktail hour visuals…
On July 21st, Ashton and I headed up to Imogene Pass via Tomboy Road which takes around 45 mins from the Town of Telluride…
We decided to park the car at the bottom of Savage Basin and hike up the road…
The sun was only out for a sort time, but Savage Basin was about to get SLAYED…
Ashton dropped in first with snow quality akin to the exact opposite of Japanese pow…
I followed and just pretended it was groomed…
We ended up skiing around four runs on different zones as we headed in the direction of the car…
For those brief moments, one can imagine it is still ski season…
Telluride is one of the most scenic places in all of the United States…
Bridal Veil Falls makes an appearance across the valley as we head back into town…
Almost every morning after we dropped the kids off at camp, we hiked up one of the hundreds of accessible trails in the area…
The wildflowers were peaking for the duration of our trip…
On July 23rd, I headed up solo to Silver Mountain from Alta Lakes…as it looked like it would keep me entertained for a few hours.
I walked up the center chute until it ran out of snow to provide the best view of my car parked next to the lakes…
The snow started off great inside the chute but then turned into frozen suncupped rockfall until I hit the sun…
Once in the sun, it was summer skiing bliss…
A few days later, we climbed up from the resort to the top of Gold Hill for some nice views of Palmyra Peak. The peak boast the steepest inbounds skiing Telluride has to offer.
San Joaquin Ridge and the San Joaquin Couloir still holding onto winter into lare July…
Every Wednesday evening gave us the free concert series in the Village…
With the trails starting all around town, it’s easy to burn off that grilled cheese lunch…
Summer view of some the steepest groomer and bump runs around…
Heading up the Wasatch Trail on a cloudy day could yield mixed results…
As August rolled on, and with our bodies more acclimatized to the altitude, we continued the uphill adventures…
I even had some deep political conversations with the wildlife…
It goes without saying but kids will hike anywhere if you bribe them with ice cream…
Telluride is a nice place to walk around and enjoy an iced coffee…
There were a few more sunsets…
On August 12th, I headed up to Savage Basin for one more look…
With the sun out, and using tank top as a ski jacket, I slayed some August corn…
Chuting the slivers of snow never gets boring…in August
Yep, I have proof for August 12th first tracks…
Last Jeep road of the summer for this mountain nerd…
And just like that I am back on Hwy 50 headed toward Hawaii…
Next time we’ll tow an ATV and a rope for some laps up Sand Mountain…
Its funny how my route home just happened to pass by the Moment Skis factory in Sparks, Nevada…
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I’m feeling a New Zealand report coming really soon…
That’s my cup of tea,