Experts Only: Building a Steep and Deep Silverton Ski Trip

In a remote, no-man’s-land section of Southern Colorado, tucked up in the imposing San Juan Mountains, lies one of the youngest public ski resorts in the US. You may have heard whispers of it on a tram in Big Sky or that Shaun White once had a “secret” training halfpipe somewhere within its boundaries to prepare for the 2014 Olympics.

Only about 100 people a day ski Silverton Ski Area and there’s a single old-school double chairlift. From there you hike to access most of the 1800+ acres of expert skiing. The slope angles, snow totals, and mountains are big, as are the days. The ski area’s logo is a skier tumbling off a cliff.

Helicopters buzz back and forth overhead all day, taking the well-heeled and heli-curious further afield to an additional 20,000 acres of undeveloped terrain. Many extreme ski and snowboard legends have passed through Silverton at least once, and some, including Chris Davenport, Seth Morrison, and Ingrid Backstrom, are regular visitors. Aspen-grade celebs are rare, but I once saw singer Seal in the morning lineups.

Despite the allure of extreme skiing, the former mining town of Silverton hasn’t exactly exploded with tourism, in part because of the low daily number of skiers. That’s part of the small mountain town charm, but don’t expect fine dining and spa treatments (or even many hot tubs). Luckily, nearby Durango provides the perfect hub for an expert-level ski trip with great food, hot springs, and plenty of lodging options. You’re also surrounded by incredible backcountry skiing terrain and within reasonable driving distance of several uncrowded, powder-rich ski resorts, giving you plenty of options for building out a Southern CO ski vacation beyond just Silverton Ski Area.

Terrain: Do You Need to Be an Expert Skier to Ski Silverton?

I’ve established the mythology of Silverton, but is that the reality? Do you need to be an expert? Pass a test? Have your name in the credits of a ski film?

When I first visited Silverton in 2009-ish I was nervous. I was there with friends from ski towns who had all skied Silverton before and I lived at the beach at the time. I was prepared to die that day.

Fabio Grasso, longtime guide and current Director of Snow Safety at Silverton, says first-timers often assume they’ll be required to jump off cliffs or otherwise ski outside their comfort zone, but the reality is that the guides carefully build groups of eight at the start of the day. The guides try to match ski ability levels and goals for the day (once we were paired with some Boulder triathletes who said they wanted “to log as much vert as possible”). They also start sizing up ability levels as early as the parking lot and won’t take you anywhere they don’t think you can handle.

“It’s not really any gnarlier than Telluride or Jackson Hole,” says IFMGA guide Josh Kling who works with the Outdoor Pursuits program at nearby Fort Lewis College and guided backcountry tours near Silverton for decades. “They do a phenomenal job of marketing how extreme it is, but that’s all condition- and ability-dependent. But you should be an expert-level skier to get the most out of it. Skiing a black run at your home resort is not the same thing.”

This advice tracks with my experience skiing Silverton 10+ times over the past 14 years. Intermediates can survive and even have fun, but guides will carefully direct them (and as a result, their entire group) to only the mildest terrain and they can slow the pace to the point where that group may only get three or four runs in a day. Silverton says to expect three to six runs per day. I’ve been in expert groups that pulled off seven, but any more is unrealistic.

Silverton Lift Tickets

The ski season runs from December 28 to March 10 for guided skiing only. Unguided skiing opens to the public from March 14 to April 14, if you're traveling to sample Silverton, guided skiing is recommended as the unguided season gets busier and tracks out quickly without the guides managing the terrain.

The ski area mostly closes Monday through Wednesday during the guided season, but if you can put together a group, you can still book a private heli-ski day for those days and get the mountain mostly to yourself.

• Early Season (December 28-Jan 24): $229
• Peak Season Weekdays (January 25- March 10): $249
• Peak Weekends: $269
• Single Heli Run: $184
• 6-Run Heli Day: $1,290
• Private Heli: $12,990

What to Expect on an Average Day at Silverton

Silverton is not your average ski area and is closer to a hybrid of traditional resort skiing and a guided backcountry day. You’ll need an avalanche beacon, shovel, and probe but you won’t be skinning uphill and you can rent most anything you’ll be required to have at the small base area tent. And since the staff mitigates avalanche risk through control work and terrain selection, you’re not required to have avalanche safety training.

The pace is slowed compared to a resort ski day. You’ll start at 8:00 a.m. but burn at least an hour checking in, signing waivers, dividing into groups, and having a safety talk with your guide. From there, you’re off and running and lunch breaks are optional, but hikes from the top of the lift can add up to an hour to the 10-minute lift ride and you often need to catch the circling buses back to the base after you finish each run. Keep in mind also that this is guided skiing and each of the eight of you, plus one or two guides, will ski most pitches one at a time. Budget an hour or more for each run and you can see how a modest three to six runs per day could be accurate.

This is quality over quantity. If you simply want to pack in as many long, steep runs as you can, just go to Telluride which has similar San Juan Mountain terrain in a traditional resort format, plus in-bounds hiking if you want it. However, for about $30 more than the cost of a Telluride walk-up lift ticket, you can have a fully guided ski day at Silverton and share the mountain with 100 other skiers instead of thousands.

Silverton is also only open for normal guided skiing (you can book certain heli-trips on off days) Wednesday through Sunday, so they’re able to “farm” snow around the mountain to reserve at least a few untouched runs for each operating day of the week.

Still, it’s wise to set your expectations low. The San Juans get plenty of double-digit dumps each season but there’s no option to select guaranteed blower pow. Even if you try and storm chase for the “perfect” Silverton day, you may not hit it just right. Storms can keep the helicopters grounded and limit terrain options because of avalanche danger, so it’s nearly impossible to line up your “best day ever” in advance.

What you are guaranteed is a unique ski area experience far from the mega-resorts' long lift lines in a beautiful, imposing mountain range that doesn’t get many fly-in skier visitors. Whistler’s 32 lifts can move 69,939 skiers per hour. Silverton might host an eighth of that number in an entire guided season.

New Ownership, Few Changes

New owners took over from founders Aaron and Jen Brill after the 2022-'23 ski season, but nothing significant about the experience changed for the 2023-'24 season. On my lone visit in 2024, I recognized most of the guides and didn’t see any obvious tweaks to pricing or operations.

I met Andy Culp and Brock Strausberger, the 30-something Aspen/NYC-based entrepreneurs who bought the place, for a few runs and they echoed what I had read in a Colorado Sun profile . Business as usual for the first season, expect some tweaks around the edges in 2024-'25. They emphasized no plans are in motion, but potential projects mentioned included bringing in a food truck for apres and thinning some of the frontside treed terrain to provide more skiable acreage within the footprint of the ski area. For now, they’ve axed the previous ownership’s plan to add a second chairlift serving the Grassy Bowl terrain accessed by helicopter.

If you’re setting aside a week or more for a Southern Colorado ski trip, you may want to ski other places than only Silverton. Purgatory, Wolf Creek, and Telluride are all reasonable drives away, and there are multiple cat skiing operations nearby plus backcountry huts and backcountry skiing guide outfits if you want to take a break from lift service. There’s also plenty to do outside of skiing, from relaxing in hot springs to snowmobiling to ice fishing.

Silverton Ski Area

Let’s assume the focus of your trip is skiing Silverton and start there. Because you want to ensure you can ski your preferred days, you should book in advance, especially if you want one of the limited spots on a helicopter for a single run or all day.

How many days should you plan on skiing Silverton? Say you only have three back-to-back ski days on your trip. Should you book all three days at the ski area and rest when you’re dead?

My opinion is that you shouldn’t do more than one guided day in a row, though plenty do. Skiing Silverton for a full day potentially involves a lot of hiking with a pack and skis/board on your back, something even most die-hard resort and backcountry skiers aren’t used to.

The exception is if you’re planning on booking a 6-run heli-served guided day ($1290). While it’s still a full day of skiing and runs are long, it cuts out the hiking and the terrain is mostly mellower than the hike-to areas, so you can have a great day even if you’re not at 100% of your powers.

Purgatory and Purgatory Snowcat Adventures

Between Durango and Silverton along Highway 550 is Purgatory Ski Resort, an affordable gem of a ski resort with big San Juan Mountain views and benchy terrain that offers plenty of opportunities to work on your cliff-dropping skills or mellow groomers and glades if you just want to knock the dust off your legs.

Like Silverton, lift lines aren’t really a thing at Purgatory. My most recent Purgatory visit was a 15-inch powder day in February that never got tracked out and though I checked everywhere on the mountain, I couldn’t seem to find a lift line.

While the resort gets plenty of snow, you can up your odds of untouched lines by booking a day with their in-house cat-skiing operation Purgatory Snowcat Adventures , which boasts 35,000 acres of terrain adjacent to the resort—the most of any cat-skiing operation in the state. With only 12 skiers a day and a variety of terrain from steep, open glades to mellow bowls above treeline, PSA has a lot of options for getting you into soft snow (or whatever your group’s goals are for the day). Purgatory doesn’t have a reputation for extreme skiing, but the snowcat terrain was targeted for Travis Rice’s Natural Selection competition in 2024 (it was ultimately held inbounds).

You need to be a strong intermediate skier comfortable with tree-skiing, but most runs aren’t as long or steep as what you’ll find at Silverton, so a day with PSA can be a nice warm-up to get ready for Silverton. The peak months of February and March can book up early, so if you want your preferred dates, call PSA as early as you can. You can’t book online because PSA staff will need to call and assess your ability level and goals to match you with a suitable group, but you can start with a phone call or online inquiry on their website.

Wolf Creek

An hour-and-a-half drive from Durango is Wolf Creek, a no-frills ski area that gets more snowfall than any other spot in Colorado (430 inches on average). The ski area isn’t massive and has similar terrain to Purgatory with lots of benches rather than sustained pitches. There are plenty of optional hikes, so it can also serve as a good warm-up for Silverton and you don’t need to buy lift tickets in advance, so you can storm chase for deep turns if you keep some flexibility in your itinerary. You’ll pass through Pagosa Springs on the way back to Durango, and I recommend stopping at one of the many hot springs options in the area. The Overlook Hot Springs are inconspicuously stashed in a Victorian building right on the main drag and are an affordable quick recovery stop.

Backcountry Skiing

If you’re interested in mixing in some backcountry touring to your trip, nearby Red Mountain Pass and the surrounding area is home to many backcountry huts for overnights, as well as guide services. You can simplify your packing by renting backcountry gear in Durango from Pine Needle Mountaineering.

The OPUS Hut near Ophir Pass offers a European-style hut experience with meals included, which simplifies packing for an overnight for out-of-towners. It also provides access to a ton of expert backcountry terrain, though high avalanche danger can limit your options. The Thelma Hut offers relatively mellower terrain closer to Red Mountain Pass and has a short approach, as well as some meals provided by an in-house hut-keeper/chef.

Red Mountain Alpine Lodge is a pricier hut stay but has the advantage of being all-inclusive up to adding guide service from the excellent San Juan Mountain Guides . (You can book them independent of a stay at Red Mountain Alpine Lodge if you just want someone to show you around for a day. Private guiding costs between $249 and $599 per person depending on group size).

If you’re an experienced backcountry traveler and feel confident DIYing a day around Red Mountain Pass, grab a copy of Beacon Guidebooks’ Backcountry Skiing Silverton Colorado . This spiral-bound field guide is packed with maps and imagery of popular zones and routes. If you download OnX Backcountry, you can get the routes right in the app paired with your GPS location for added confidence in wayfinding.

Rest Days

Southern Colorado is hot springs country, which pairs perfectly with hammered ski legs. There are hot springs dotting the region, especially in Pagosa Springs and Ouray, but your closest and best option is the newly renovated Durango Hot Springs which is conveniently between Durango and Purgatory/Silverton.

The sprawling outdoor campus is set into a hillside and dotted with 34 different pools in a range of temperatures from cold plunges to 110-degree boiling pots. There’s also a mini food court with three food trucks mixed in and I had one of the best gyros of my life in between soaks at the Mountain High Catering Diner. If you’re there on a Tuesday or Thursday evening you might catch the central lawn area hosting local live music acts. This is the perfect way to cap a ski day on your way back to Durango or while away a rest day, and if you plan ahead, you can book a massage as well.

Sample Weeklong Itinerary

Most of the locals I spoke with strongly suggested building in a cushion day at the start of your trip that gives lowlanders a chance to acclimate to the elevation and provides wiggle room in case your airline can’t manage to get your bags there at the same time as you.

• Day 1: Travel day. Fly into Durango, stay in Durango.
• Day 2: Ski with Purgatory Snowcat Adventures or optional acclimation day. Stay in Silverton.
• Day 3: Guided ski day at Silverton. Stay in Silverton.
• Day 4: 6-Run Heli Day at Silverton. Stay in Durango.

• Day 5: Rest day. Visit Durango Hot Springs.

• Day 6: Optional additional ski day at Purgatory or Wolf Creek. Stay in Durango.

• Day 7: Travel home.

This itinerary builds in some flexibility to account for travel delays, weather, exhausted legs, et cetera, but assumes you’ll book Silverton days and Purgatory Snowcat in advance. It also tries to minimize lodging changes by blocking together your Silverton days and using Durango as your base camp for the remainder.

Logistics

Despite the ski area being in operation for decades, arranging a Silverton ski trip from afar can feel very DIY. The ski area webpage has great resources here , but the owners of the Wyman Hotel in Silverton told me they end up fielding lots of questions from guests about everything from conditions to transportation to when to visit. The aim of this guide is to put answers to those common questions in one place so you can confidently book your first ski trip to the area.

Getting There

Because of Silverton’s remote location (6.5 hours from Denver, and 5 hours from Albuquerque), most visitors will fly in. Both Durango and Montrose airports are a little over an hour away, but every local I spoke to recommended flying into Durango for a number of key reasons, but most importantly ease of access. While you’ll need to drive over mountain passes from either airport, the drive from Montrose includes the sometimes-harrowing Million Dollar Highway and Red Mountain Pass, which closes for weather more often than the Coal Bank and Molas Passes that lie between Durango and Silverton.

Getting Around

From the airport, renting a car is a must. While you may be able to arrange a ride to the town of Silverton, there are no shuttles from the Town of Silverton to the ski area, so you’ll need your own ride for the 20-minute drive from town to the base area. If none of the major rental car companies based out of the airport can guarantee you a 4WD vehicle, consider checking Turo .

Where to Stay

While you can base out of Durango for your entire trip, I recommend spending at least one night in Silverton to make your ski day morning more relaxed and to get a taste of this high-elevation mountain town with a classic Main Street (technically Greene Street) and small-town vibes.

Silverton’s fairly new Wyman Hotel is your most (only?) upscale option with 17 rooms above a beautifully restored bar that doubles as your check-in and source for mixologist-worthy cocktails. The rooms have wifi, luxury linens, and modern amenities, but the restoration preserved the long history and character of the building. The prices don’t reach Aspen heights, but budget travelers can save by staying in one of the 10 affordable beds in the Bunk Room.

If you’re traveling with a group, there are plenty of options on VRBO and Airbnb and a kitchen can come in handy if you tire of the limited restaurant options. For groups on a budget, the White Wolf Haus sleeps 12 in classic ski town flop house style with a cozy, capable kitchen and main hang-out area.

In Durango, there are plentiful options from budget motels to vacation rental homes to big chain hotels. For a boutique hotel experience, the owners of Silverton’s Wyman recently opened the Rochester Hotel in a historic building a couple of blocks from the heart of downtown Durango. Enjoy cocktails at the six-seat bar at night and house-made pastries and complimentary house-made pastries and coffee on the garden patio in the mornings.

Eats and Aprés

One of the best reasons to base at least partly out of Durango, is there is no shortage of options for food and drink. Plenty of excellent Mexican food spots, high-end dining, food trucks, food courts, pizza, brewpubs, and bars. Switchback Tacos has a great happy hour from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and is perfect for fast, relatively affordable food and solid margs. For a chef-grade, sit-down meal to celebrate a successful ski trip, check out Primus which specializes in wild game entrees from elk to kangaroo and specialty cocktails. Reservations are recommended, but since Durango isn’t exactly slammed with ski tourists, you should be able to walk into most restaurants, especially on weeknights.

Silverton is far more limited and the Eureka Station has been one of the few reliably open and interesting options in town for years. Entrees aren’t especially cheap, but everything is made from fresh ingredients and you’ll likely recognize some of your ski guides working their second jobs here at night. Friends swear by the meatloaf, but I order the same thing every visit: an order of buffalo wings and fish and chips. Hours are subject to change and Eureka gets busy in the winter with few other options, so don’t wait too late and don’t expect lightning-fast service.

Kendall Mountain Cafe is the best breakfast spot in Silverton and they’ll provide your lunch if you order something at the ski area in the morning. This tiny diner-style greasy spoon looks and feels like someone’s living room and it’s a cozy spot for an endless cup of black coffee and a traditional breakfast. If you want specialty coffee and a pastry, Coffee Bear is your best bet and will be abuzz with everyone else heading up to ski for the day.

If you get a place in Silverton with a kitchen or just want snacks to fill in, I recommend doing your grocery shopping in Durango at City Market, Albertson’s, or Natural Grocers. The stores in Silverton are pricey and limited, and hours listed online are not to be trusted.

Silverton isn’t known for its late-night scene, but the two breweries and the Lacey Rose (inside the Grand Imperial Hotel) purportedly stay open until 10:00 p.m., but like anything in Silverton, that’s subject to change.

Durango is a decently large city and a college town, so there’s a lively bar scene and plenty of live music most nights of the week. The delightfully divey Starlight Lounge offers up cheap beer and a chance to mingle with colorful locals alongside comedy acts, live music, and anything-goes open mic nights.

Not Your Average Ski Area

Silverton isn’t your average ski area and booking a trip to ski there won’t be average either. If you’re willing to do a little grunt work in planning (hopefully made easier by this guide), you’ll be rewarded with a one-a-kind trip off the beaten-cat-track and, if the weather gods cooperate, deep, steep, fluffy powder skiing.

The area doesn’t have the services you expect from a well-worn ski destination, but that’s part of the charm. Grady James, lead guide at Purgatory Snowcat Adventures, advises visitors to stay flexible, treat their ski trip like an adventure, and appreciate the utter lack of crowding no matter the conditions. “There’s a reason a certain type of person is willing to go to the middle of nowhere in the Southwest to ski. Part of it is that even when it’s “busy” around here, it isn’t that busy.”

Related: Insider's Guide to Skiing Breckenridge, Colorado