TR: Silverton / Monarch

[James]

I had pretty good timing again this year. I skied Monarch, Monarch Pass and Silverton. It snowed around 8"-10 for Monarch and close to 20" for Silverton.

There were a few young snowboarders in our group that were pretty solid.




A great view of the Grand Couloir





The last little bit of the hike up to the "billboard". There are still a lot of the old army radio relays on top of these mountains. This is the highest point at Silverton for hiking at 13,050 and a solid one hour scramble up. Not the easiest boot pack but well worth the effort.

[James]

A couple from today at Monarch Pass. The snow was settled and very easy to ski. It was a short day for some tired legs.






I have has some really good luck with the snow lately and hope it continues.

[Baetis]

Are you serious? 20 minutes from me? You don't call, you don't write........

[James]

I really would like to come over some time and get the real tour from you and or Matt. This time other then Silverton we were winging everything based on snow. We did not plan to hit Monarch ski area but I am glad we did. 8"-10" is not super deep but it skied better then any other 8"-10" snow I have ever skied. I will be repeating some version of this trip with my son next week. Another 2 days at Silverton plus something on the way.

[Danno]

I can attest that Jeff is a good tour guide.

[MattB]

Looks nice! I'm a terrible tour guide. I just take people to the most scraped off stuff and save the goods for myself.

[MattB]

CB (Teo Bowl) on Friday:

[James]

Heading back to Silverton with my son. Did a little meadow skipping with my son up on Loveland Pass. We were lucky to find some soft wind buff. The temps have sky rocketed and everything is going solar.






We are headed to Red Mountain Pass today. I doubt there is any powder left but may be some mellow corn snow. It was close to 70 degrees in Ouray at 6:30 last night.

[Matt J]

Have fun.

I miss Silverton. Last place it was worthwhile to break out the Pontoons.

[James]

There is a lot of mining heritage up on Red Mountain Pass.







About half way up.

[MattB]

Ooh, Red Mtn looks nice. What TH did you take?

[James]

This is as high as we got. It was very warm again today and it was time to head down. This is the sub summit a few hundred feet below and SE of Red Mountain #3. We skied the SE shoulder down about a 1,000 feet climbed back up and skied the SW shoulder.





There is no shortage of incredible views from up there.



You get a great view of Silverton from Red #3. The lift is in the bottom middle and the highest hike to point is the billboard on the far right horizon.

[James]

Matt my son lost the map so I am not sure. We started at the closed county road on the South side of the top of the pass headed South and swung around on the road to the North and then climbed (scrambled) up the SE side of what I am pretty sure is Red #3.

[climbhoser]

This is an excellent TR.

[DonnyBilkinson2]

CB (Teo Bowl) on Friday:

Wow, nice pic!
It looks like it's coated in plastic.What an interesting effect.
Photoshop ? I am guessing it's just super sharpened ?