Summertastic Turns @ Telluride – Summer 2015

Casey Cane |

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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…

Road warrior, highway 50

You drive through a few small towns like Eureka and Austin on the way to Ely…

The Wild West, Nevada

Hello Telluride…you’re looking fantastic!

Sunset on Main Street, Telluride

A good way to acclimatize is to head up the trail to Bear Creek Falls…

Bear Creek Falls, Telluride

The kids made cairns…as all kids do regardless of age am I right?

Parker using natural Legos

Sunsets can be a bit more than adequate here…

Sunset on Ingram Basin, Telluride

Telluride is a place with perfect cocktail hour visuals…

Sunset in Mountain Village, CO

On July 21st, Ashton and I headed up to Imogene Pass via Tomboy Road which takes around 45 mins from the Town of Telluride…

Imogene Pass at 13,114 ft

We decided to park the car at the bottom of Savage Basin and hike up the road…

Snowbanks on July 21st, 2015

The sun was only out for a sort time, but Savage Basin was about to get SLAYED…

Savage Basin, CO – July 21st, 2015

Ashton dropped in first with snow quality akin to the exact opposite of Japanese pow…

Telluride Summer skiing

I followed and just pretended it was groomed…

Savage Basin, July 21st, 2015

We ended up skiing around four runs on different zones as we headed in the direction of the car…

Smooth summer skiing – Imogene Pass, CO

For those brief moments, one can imagine it is still ski season…

Casey cleans his bases – Imogen Pass, CO

Telluride is one of the most scenic places in all of the United States…

Imogene Pass, CO

Bridal Veil Falls makes an appearance across the valley as we head back into town…

Bridal Veil Falls from Tomboy Road

Almost every morning after we dropped the kids off at camp, we hiked up one of the hundreds of accessible trails in the area…

Ballard Mountain trail – Telluride, CO

The wildflowers were peaking for the duration of our trip…

Wildflowers on Ballard Mountain

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.

Silver Mountain, Alta Lake, CO

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…

Alta Lake from Silver Mountain, CO

The snow started off great inside the chute but then turned into frozen suncupped rockfall until I hit the sun…

Telluride skiing – July 23rd, 2015

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.

Palmyra Peak – July 25th, 2015

San Joaquin Ridge and the San Joaquin Couloir still holding onto winter into lare July…

San Joaquin Couloir – July 25th, 2015

Every Wednesday evening gave us the free concert series in the Village…

Summer jams – Mountain Village, CO

With the trails starting all around town, it’s easy to burn off that grilled cheese lunch…

Jud Weibe Trail – Telluride, CO

Summer view of some the steepest groomer and bump runs around…

Summer in Telluride, CO

Heading up the Wasatch Trail on a cloudy day could yield mixed results…

Wasatch trail to Upper Bear Creek

As August rolled on, and with our bodies more acclimatized to the altitude, we continued the uphill adventures…

Upper Bridal Veil Basin, CO

I even had some deep political conversations with the wildlife…

Marmots are very wise

It goes without saying but kids will hike anywhere if you bribe them with ice cream…

Summer on See Forever Trail – Telluride, CO

Telluride is a nice place to walk around and enjoy an iced coffee…

Flowers on Main Street – Telluride, CO

There were a few more sunsets…

Sunset in Telluride, CO

On August 12th, I headed up to Savage Basin for one more look…

Still holding onto winter, Telluride, CO

With the sun out, and using tank top as a ski jacket, I slayed some August corn…

Savage Basin, CO – August 12th, 2015

Chuting the slivers of snow never gets boring…in August

Fun August chuting in Telluride, CO

Yep, I have proof for August 12th first tracks…

Step and Deep Patch skiing

Last Jeep road of the summer for this mountain nerd…

Tomboy Road – Telluride, CO

And just like that I am back on Hwy 50 headed toward Hawaii…

Loneliest Road in America – Hwy 50

Next time we’ll tow an ATV and a rope for some laps up Sand Mountain…

Sand Mountain, NV

Its funny how my route home just happened to pass by the Moment Skis factory in Sparks, Nevada…

Moment Manufacturing – Sparks, NV

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I’m feeling a New Zealand report coming really soon…


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