Silverton Mountain - Skiing the Steepest Resort in Colorado

Silverton Mountain is a hidden gem in Colorado - an "experts only" single lift ski resort with some of the most extreme terrain in the country!

Welcome to another episode of Tips Up. We are actually still in the San Juan Mountains. We are just coming off our OPUS Hut trip, which was the previous week's episode, and we are now in Silverton, Colorado. Silverton is a totally unique place. If you've never heard of it, that's probably for good reason. It's a bit of an underground ski resort. I think even using the ski resort term isn't totally accurate. It's essentially, a lift service, back country ski area, so in terms of the type of skiing and the type of training you have here, it's really like nothing else in the U.S.
It's really steep terrain. They actually market it as an expert only resort. I think you could probably get away with being an intermediate skier here. However, the terrain is completely unpatrolled. It's completely ungroomed. You actually need a full set of Abbey gear to even get on the lift. They will do a beacon check for you before you get on the lift, because really, there's no facilities here. It's really a special place. If you're a hardcore skier and you really like an untamed ski experience, then Silverton is the place for you. They do get a ton of snowfall. I think they get about 400 inches a year, which is far more than we get in Bracken, more than most of Colorado, actually.
If I was to summarize Silverton and summarize the experience of this mountain, it is super rad. The snow here is amazing. The terrain is some of the most challenging in the whole state, probably, and I think if you're a real expert skier, looking for some really good ski conditions, Silverton is 100% the place that you should come to. That said, the conditions suck right now, so we're in the parking lot drinking a beer.
What does the snow quality feel like under your feet?
Chalky, not quite spring-like, I would say. On the precipice.
Then on the other side?
Re-frozen chunder bullshit.
The ski area is unique, in the sense that it's actually only one lift. It's one fixed grip, double lift that was actually hand dug by the founder of the mountain. The guy who started this back in 2002, I believe it was, it was 20 years ago now, he basically had a vision for a back country oriented ski resort. This Silverton resort is what has come of that. There is no running water here. There is no lodge facility. There is basically nothing here. There's zero facilities, so it's certainly not a place to take families. It's certainly not a place to have a full on resort-like experience.
They might have a good place, because I think would not many people have hit it, so it was really .
You can see the shuttle bus pulling up behind me right now, but that's another cool thing about the mountain, is that there's a full suite of transportation options to get you to and from places on the mountain. Once you do get up to the lift, most of the time, you'll be hiking anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. Most of the fun terrain you want to ski is a hike away. Then, you'll ski into another basin and the shuttle bus will pick you up and bring you back to the base.
Another cool thing about Silverton, and perhaps the most unique and most special, is the fact that it is a heli-operated mountain as well. It's the only place in the USA you can buy a single heli drop, like an ad hoc, to add onto your ski day, so if you wanted to, you could come here, ski two or three runs and then take a lift to the top. The helicopter will actually pick you up. You can hear it and see it coming over right now. It will take you from the top, across the base and access some newer terrain.
It's really Plains, Trains & Automobiles up here.
Yeah.
Oh, my god.
Putting my skis on my back, so we can go on a nice, long hike and find some fun terrain, but this pack actually has a shitty ski carry.
Yeah. The sound of the heli's pretty smooth.