Sheldon skiing down Kendall Mt's 4,000 ft Idaho slide path.
Skiing is on the mind all day, every day, all winter here in Colorado’s San Juan mountains. Silverton, the town we’re proud to call home, is situated smack dab in the middle of a backcountry ski mecca. There are dozens of couliors everywhere you look, the snow is alway always always light and dry, and the entire range is dotted with sick ski huts on old mining claims. We’ve got snow cats, ski lifts, helicopters, skin tracks, boot packs, open gates and tight lips. It’s a backcountry mecca, yet you are guaranteed to have your slope du jour to yourself.
Tracks from the Kerr sisters on Red Mountain Pass
We at Southwest Adventure Guides offer a wide range of ski trips and supported hut trips to take advantage of this incredible location. For those looking to transfer their resort skiing skills to the backcountry, consider an introductory course in backcountry skiing. If you are more familiar with the backcountry, step up your skill level with a course in ski mountaineering. Or perhaps you aren’t as interested in learning as you are in just skiing; peak descents and catered hut trips are my personal favorites
Checking out facetted crystals on an avalanche course
The San Juans are indisputably one of the best locals in the world for avalanche courses. Our impressive snowfall each winter is gift-wrapped along with hurricane-force wind events, arctic temps that swing up to 40 degrees from night to day, apocalyptic dessert dustings, high-altitude sun crusts, and the most fertile facet gardens in North America. Southwest Adventure Guides AIARE Avalanche Safety Programs provide the industry standard in avalanche education coupled with the let’s-cover-some-terrain standard of SWAG guides; Instead of simply watching power points and digging snow pits, SWAG instructors emphasize decision making in the field with ski tours and on-the-go snow assessment techniques.
Please get in touch if you wish to include the San Juan backcountry in your winter plans. You can join a course or trip already in motion or book one of your own with your favorite ski pals.
Pat Ormond on his way up a San Juan couloir