February 12th – 15th, 2014

Location: Telluride, Colorado

Weather: Sunny then a bit gray…

Riders: Slaythegnar, Dblatto, Parker & even Grandpa Pete

Photographers: Slaythegnar & Dblatto

POV VIDEO Tasting the Topography @Telluride – 02/15/14

Tasting the Topography @Telluride – 02/15/14 from SlayTheGnar on Vimeo.

Music: In Session: Amit

Java Porn: A 2 year old addicted to RedBull (not really)

Synopsis:

With Tahoe having a lackluster year (again), we decided to book another winter trip to our favorite place in all of Colorado. However, this time we rolled into town with a different crew. With my wife taking our 5 year old on a European tour, I decided to bring my 2 year old and old ski buddy Dan from St. Helena, who has never visited this region of Colorado. Meeting us there, after many years of back surgeries, knee and ankle replacements, Grandpa Pete was excited to give skiing a go for another round.

Telluride is known for its funky town, box canyon vistas, Chair 9 bumps, steep piste, and a superb Ski School for the youngsters. But over the years, they’ve added some gnarly hike-to terrain into the mix. Of course, hiking to Palmyra Peak is the pinnacle of this in-bounds adventure but there’s also shorter hikes, to the left and right of the Peak, that a sea-level mortal can perform multiple times in a day.

One of my favorite zones, Dihedral Face, provides some classic San Juan extreme skiing. After skiing Dihedral you can tap into the hidden gems of Black Iron Bowl. Gold Hill Chutes are the second major in-bounds hikes that send you over to the opposite side of Palmyra. From open bowls to narrow couloirs, you can definitely find a chute that matches your current mood. From Gold Hill 7-10, you can traverse either to the Fans area on the right or all the way to the left in to the Nice Chute zone.

When all of that is over, one can always run over to Bon Vivant for some French Onion soup or to Tomboy Tavern for a happy hour PBR….or like this video, run down and ski with your 2 year old until the lifts close. 🙂

Its time to begin…:

Headed from SFO to DEN we scored a perfect shot of Sonora Pass and the Sierra…

‘Hey Bro, that’s not regulation size’…

Miss Parker is pretty stoked…

Rockies looking good from the air…

She partied hard on two flights but crashed with only 5 mins until touchdown…

On the first morning, Mt. Wilson said hello…

San Sofia range didn’t look too shabby either…

Alright, finally on the hill…

Dan warms up in Prospect Bowl…

We heard all the hikes were on delayed opening, so we took some more acclimatization laps in Revelation Bowl…

Just a hint of moguls…

Dan is an Extreme Skier…

Gold Hill #1…

Coming out with some speed…

Slaythegnar finds a feature…

Time to run up Palmyra. My Mons Royale always in tow…

Did I mention its warm with no wind?…

Dan begins his journey from Mountain Quail…

Slaythegnar has done this many times…

Nice views of the backcountry lines of Silver Mountain…

Snow dusted Gold Hill #8-10…

Dan makes his final steps to the summit of 13,320 ft…

Here’s a view from Gold Hill that shows the length of the hike. It begins on the right from the Prospect Chair and you head up the ridge…

Backcountry accessible from a gate up here…

Gold Hill Chutes and beyond after some new snow…

Dan takes his first turn down Senior’s…

Slaythegnar does the same…

We headed skiers right into Roy Boy…

Dan had some fun tackling some high altitude vertical…

I may have heard some hoot and hollering…

Slaythegnar turns and burns…

We traversed across the basin to Nice Chute…

Where Dan finds some fluffy pow pow…

Slaythegnar eyes a familiar air…

The snow was oh so good in here…

Dan grabs some air…

We didn’t spend much time on the piste, but when we did, it didn’t dissapoint…

Naptime is over and its time to SLAY…

At 2.5 years, she’s doing pretty well…

Headed up Chair 10 for quite a long journey skiing like this 🙂 …

Day Two::

Dan is super excited to start exercising again…

The plan was to show Dan the many aspects of Dihedral zone…

Here is a view of the zone…

Slaythegnar makes his initial pow turn…

…and kept going. He doesn’t like to stop but he did to take pics for the lame blog…

Dan’s eyes something below…

Whoa there Dan! Looks like he had an itch for air…

Slaythegnar finds an exit…

Another round and Dan is ready to drop…

Some nice snow up here, too bad the light is so dark, oh well…

Slaythegnar heads to his favorite line in the area…

Skiing is fun…

Dan goes for some steep pow turns…

and turns up the speed in a non-moguled exit…

Dan earning more frequent flier miles…

LUNCHTIME AT BON VIVANT!…

Mandatory Croque Monsieur photo…

Time for Chondola laps with Miss Parker…

But also some gnarly magic carpet ones as well…

Practicing GS skills…

Day Three::

Skiing solo for the day, so I decided to spend an hour or so lapping the impecible steep groomers down into town…

Maybe nextime I should spend some time in town?…

The legendary Chair 9…

Headed up to take some Gold Hill hikes, but its not looking bluebird…

I spent most of the day lapping this zone…

Gold hill #8…

It was narrow with some surprisingly great snow…

Another traverse across over to Review to find some fun features…

Lets do this again shall we?…

At least the weather is improving a bit for my walk…

Gold Hill #7? Why not eh?…

There’s some hidden gems near Black Iron Bowl…

Its daddy-daughter time! Team Moment Represent!…

Even better, the sun decided to pop out…

Day Four::

Headed straight to Dihedral zone for some pow turns…yes, its still fresh up there.

Not a bad place to give my Exit Worlds a nice work through…

This looks familiar…

San Joaquin Couloir…

Found a nice air in Dihedral…

Boo is skiing with us today AGAIN!…

Getting a little cocky eh?…

Turn and burn…

All done for skiing today, now eat that Valentines candy!

Time to leave and its snows right on cue…

Until next time Montrose…

She’s still has skiing on her mind…

Bye bye Colorado…

Finished the trip with a rare sighting of Denim Man in Denver…TRIP COMPLETE!

Telluride transmission over….