February 23, 2006,  Silverton Mountain, CO

Silverton Mountain is a very different kind of experience and well worth trying. You arrive, check in, and pick either slow skiing and no hiking, or fast skiing and lots of hiking (nothing in between). Then they team you up into a group of 8 and a guide.<br><br>The snow in the San Juan Mountains was somewhat lacking with little real snow in over a month they were way below their typical base with only 74 inches (our guide complained that the Cascades got all of the San Juan's snow). With the low snow conditions we found ourselves hiking on rocks and grass above 13,000'. However the guide (John) did a good job of finding us some untracked corn and a bit of powder in the trees.<br><br>One of the interesting parts was having the guide yell back to us to "cover your ears" right before their ski patrol set of 28 pound charges a couple hundred feet away off the ridge we are climbing. This went on throughout the day as they did control work went on up until around noon.<br><br>Having a guide to take you around a unique ski area like this and working hard to find you a spot to make first tracks really made the trip worth the while. You ski with your group of 8 but rarely see any of the other groups on the mountain. It is something well worth trying out if you find yourself in that part of Colorado; if you go, hopefully you'll be there after some big snow storm.