The place
An old mining town at the end of a box canyon in the San Juans, with the ski area on the mountain above it and Mountain Village on the shoulder beyond, joined by a free gondola. Its expert terrain is hike-to: the Gold Hill chutes off the ridge, and Palmyra Peak at 13,320 ft.
Off-piste Past the resort's boundary nothing is controlled or patrolled: avalanche terrain, your own risk.
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The lines
Every line here, with how hard it is.
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Senior's, Palmyra Peak
■■■■■Telluride's summit line: a bootpack of an hour or more beyond Black Iron Bowl to the top of Palmyra Peak, then the couloir down the middle of its north-east face, about 45° at the top, into Palmyra Basin.
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Pee Wee's Big Adventure
■■■■■Between Mountain Quail and Dihedral Chute at the head of Black Iron Bowl: a cornice along the top, then spines and cliffs over rock outcrops.
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Dihedral Chute
■■■■■Off the gate on Prospect Ridge at the head of Black Iron Bowl, about 20 minutes' walk from Prospect's top: a steep chute through the cliff bands, a venue of the 2014 freeride qualifier.
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Dihedral Face
■■■■■The open face beside Dihedral Chute, from the same ridge gate down the bowl's steep upper pitch to its floor: a venue of the 2014 freeride qualifier.
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Mountain Quail
■■■■■The couloir at the far end of the Black Iron Bowl walk, 30–45 minutes from Prospect's top, named for an old mining claim.
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Review
■■■■■A 600-vertical-foot north-west face under Jello's Bowl: the 2010 qualifier's venue, and part of the 2014 contest's.
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Genevieve
■■■■■The nearest of Black Iron Bowl's drop-ins, 5–10 minutes' walk out Prospect Ridge from the chair: a short steep pitch past the rocky rib where the 2009 contest's riders inspected.
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Gold Hill 1
■■■■■Through the gate at the top of the Revelation lift: the first of Gold Hill's numbered chutes, west-facing, keeping skier's right of a cliff band.
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Gold Hill 6
■■■■■Off the Revelation lift, hard left and a half-hour walk up the Gold Hill road: the first of the far chutes, dropping below the ridge into Palmyra Basin.
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Gold Hill 9
■■■■■The far end of the Gold Hill walk, over a bridge and a steel staircase on the ridge: a rock-walled chute into Palmyra Basin, under the peak.
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Silvercloud, Revelation Bowl
■■■■■Off Telluride's highest lift, a quad to 12,515 ft: an open, east-facing bowl that ends at a rope above Bear Creek.
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Jackpot, Bald Mountain
■■■■■A 20–25 minute hike from Prospect's top up the knoll of Bald Mountain, then north-east powder from its summit back toward the lifts.
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The Plunge
■■■■■The face over the town: a kilometre and a half of moguls from the Plunge lift's top straight down toward the streets of Telluride.
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Spiral Stairs
■■■■■Off the middle of the Plunge, one of Telluride's signature steeps, cut through the trees by crews working on ropes.
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Kant-Mak-M
■■■■■Straight down the Plunge lift's line from top to bottom: a steep, ungroomed double black over the town.
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See Forever
■■■■■From Telluride's highest lift along the ridge crest, past the Alpino Vino hut at 11,966 ft and the Plunge's top, with the San Juans all round: the long blue from the top, nearly 4 km.
