It sure is tough to come back to work and sit at a desk after the best powder days I believe I have ever had in my life. Now I’m no hard core ski fanatic, but I’ve done my fair share of powder skiing and this past weekend at Silverton Mountain was at the top of the list for myself as well as for about everyone in our Silverton crew. The guides down in Silverton even said it was the best weekend at Silverton Mountain in 3 years. I know the previous two years definitely were not high snow years, but still 3 years is 3 years. We just hit it right. Our good friend Gavin Chapman who works for Rocky Mountain Trane company in Denver takes a crew of our small engineering office every year to Silverton for some great camaraderie and good skiing. We even planned this weekend months in advance and boy did we luck out with the conditions. I believe the mountain got somewhere between 3 feet of snow between Thursday night and Sunday morning. At least it felt like that much! It was an extremely solid crew and Gavin is a true superstar for loving backcountry skiing and powder skiing as much as we all do (and skiing it better than most of us) and for treating us to an awesome weekend in Silverton. All of our thanks, Gavin! It sure would be tough to top this past weekend, but I know we are all so looking forward to next year! Also, thanks to Shockley, our guide, for an outstanding 2 days of guided skiing and good laughs. Shockley also understood my desire to photo document our crew in these powder conditions and he really helped me out in advising me on good positions for photo opportunities. Instead of trying to be so specific in labeling all of the Silverton Mountain runs we skied (I have no idea what runs are what), Im just going to post a photo report of our weekend in Silverton. Hope you enjoy the pics!
Saturday late afternoon tele crew. Left to right: Shockley, Gavin, Jake, Zac, & myself
Zac on his teles
Gavin dropping the knee
Jake in the trenches
Sunday morning. Left to right: Jake, Mike, Eric, & Nick
Shockley explaining the route
Nick
Eric
“Zac attack!”
Mikey
Gavin
Jake
Jake
Jake & Zac brawl waiting for the bus back to the lift
Eric cruising
Nick in good form
Jake
Nick and clearing skies
The lone boarder, Mikey
Taylor
Gorgeous terrain
Strapping in for run #3 on Sunday, I believe
Mikey walking the ridge
Shockley laying down tracks
Shockley
Gavin
Zac
Zac and a view
Nick
Taylor
Mike
Mike with a heck of a spray
Mikey
Jake can telemark
Zac
Zac coming out of his spray
Eric
Jake in deep
Hiking to run #5 on Sunday
Looking down run #5
Zac targeting the cliff
He launched it, didn’t land it, and Gavin was $20 richer
Shockley
Gavin
Jake
Jake harvesting his turns
Jake is a tele machine
Views
Finally, some pics of me on run #6 on Sunday courtesy of Zac
Just the best snow
I love my jump turns on the teles
And out…
The last men standing (& Bella) before the long drive home
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Ha, Brandon, you are indeed great at documenting the runs! And it really nice that your guide was cool with that – normally they seem to be in a rush to get everybody pumped through the runs. Sunday was truly unreal. Parting clouds made for a really beautiful scenery. Nice running into you! Conditions were really some of the best out there.
Hi Natalie! Thanks for checking in! Awesome to literally “run” into you on all of our final 6th run this past Sunday. It was a truly unreal day, like you say. Yes, our guide, Shockley, was so very cool and understanding. Glad you bailed on that hut trip and made the drive south! Hope to run into you again!
I can’t recognize all the runs in the photos but it looks like you did Tiger Claw, some variation of Mandatory air, probably Riff/Ruff and possibly Cabin. I can’t recognize any of the tree runs with any degree of certainty, sorry 🙂 I actually tried to document the name and locations of the 6 runs we did so I can hit them all again when I go back unguided. Pretty sweet terrain, huh?
Well, you certainly know the runs and terrain much better than I, Natalie! Yes, I do remember Tiger Claw, but as for the others I have no idea. The terrain can’t get much sweeter. So good.
If you are curious, here is the link to the photos I took on that same Sunday. Lots of snow 🙂
https://picasaweb.google.com/102104988315108330098/Silverton030214#
Awesome, Natalie! Loved seeing your pics. Gosh, what a day. We did not do the Mandatory Air run, but looks pretty dicey and sweet at the same time. Yes, we did do those Tiger Claw runs. So cool.
Awesome, Natalie! Loved seeing your pics. Gosh, what a day. We did not do the Mandatory Air run, but looks pretty dicey and sweet at the same time.