Skiing Palmyra Peak
I HAVE BEEN WANTING to write up a feature on Telluride for a long time now, and this year the timing seemed perfect, thanks to the opening of Palmyra Peak.
What I didn’t really expect was how much I had to say on the subject. My apologies for what blossomed into a rather long article.
Originally, I was just going to focus on Palmyra (which is stunning!), but then I started drifting into the whole history and magic of the place, and it was a lost cause at that point. For all my babbling, I do think that Telluride’s Palmyra Peak, which is now open as part of the resort’s controlled terrain, offers an experience unlike anything else any North American resorts have to offer.
High praise, I know. Time will tell as to how Telluride and Palmyra come to be viewed by the ski industry—and whether or not Telluride is even successful at keeping this radical terrain open. For now, if you can’t get there in person, you’ll just have to read about it.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Nice TR. But to say that this is the only place in America with a mountain like Palmyra open for skiing is incorrect. Literally one ridge over is Silverton. I noticed that as you dropped into Palmyra the mountain was already tracked. At Silverton, you would be skiing the same type of terrain, but dropping into fresh untracked powder. In my opinion, Silverton has more of the backcountry experience and deserves its proper credit in your story.
March 17th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Gary,
Obviously anytime I start making big sweeping statements like this there’s going to be lots of room for argument. I thought specifically about mentioning Silverton when I was writing about Palmyra peak, but decided that Silverton (in my opinion) does not qualify as ‘resort’ skiing.
Silverton strikes me as more of a La Grave type experience: bare-bones, lift-served backcountry. Unlike Palmyra, you’ll almost certainly need a guide to access the wilder parts of Silverton. Beyond that, whether or not Silverton’s terrain is comparable in scale, pitch, and altitude to Palmyra is a question I can’t answer, as I haven’t had the pleasure of skiing there yet.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!