My DH and 2 oldest sons (12 & 14) traveled to Colorado for the first time, and had an amazing time at Telluride. To set the stage, we are from the East Coast, and primarily ski in New England. The only other Western resort we have been to is Big Sky.
We stayed in Mountain Village, which is at ~10,000' elevation. After the first night I had a minor headache, but my DH and 12YO were feeling pretty crummy. They bought some canned oxygen which seemed to help.
Day 1 dumped about ~11" of snow. We started the day with some awesome blue/double blue runs off of Lift 5, and then moved over to Lift 9 (all upper mountain lifts; 6, 12, 14, 15) were closed. Lift 9 had been recently upgraded to a HSQ and got us ~1900' of elevation gain in 7 minutes. We started with the Mammoth trail, which was quite a work out with big powdery bumps (at 12,000'!), but also a ton of fun. We skied all the trails over there (not the glades) before we made our way back to the base. The mountain closed early due to the road conditions, so we finished out the day on Lift 4 before they shut down.
Once we got acclimated to the elevation and the powder, we started exploring other parts of the mountain. We stuck to mostly black, double black, and double black extreme terrain, but enjoyed lapping some blues when our legs were tired at the end of the day. We loved some of the trails off Lift 14 (my favorite was Little Rose, but also enjoyed Millions, Dynamo, and Electra), and once Revelation Bowl opened on Day 4 we skied everything over there as well. The 14YO explored all the hike-to terrain off Lift 12, as well as Gold Hill Chute 1 off Lift 14, but I was only brave enough to ski Genevieve. We didn't ski much on Lift 10, but did do 1 run on Galloping Goose, and spent a little time in the UTE park at the top of it as well.
DH is snowboarder, and got pretty frustrated with Lift 12, as there are some great drops at the top, but then things flatten out and are difficult for snowboarders to get back to the lift...I did a lot of pulling him.
We skied open to close every day, usually finishing out the day on Lift 4 with some laps to the terrain park for the kids. Getting around the mountain was pretty straightforward, and we split up almost every day when DH and 12YO wanted a break, and 14YO and I wanted to keep skiing. It was easy to reconnect with each other after "break time." Our lodging had a shuttle bus that would take us to the Market Village, where we could take a quick gondola ride to the mountain base (gondola and Lift 4). We ate breakfast in our condo, and did dinner 2x in Mountain Village and 2x in Telluride, using the gondola to get there. It was easy to get around, and nice not having to rent a car (we used a shuttle service to get from Montrose to Mountain Village).
Overall, we had a great time, skied some awesome terrain in great conditions, and almost never had to wait in a lift line. Saturday was the only "busy" day, and we still never waited more than 5-10 minutes. After 6 days of skiing we felt like we got to see everything, skied everything we wanted to, and did multiple runs on the trails we loved. Comparing it to Big Sky, the trees seemed tighter (didn't love that), and area was considerably smaller, but still plenty big to keep us entertained the whole time we were there.
Happy to answer any questions folks might have!
View to the hike-to terrain off Lift 12
Little Rose (view from Lift 14)
Looking down on Mammoth (Lift 9) Day 1
Revelation Bowl (from the bottom looking up)
Revelation Bowl (from the top of Lift 14)
Beautiful views all around
We stayed in Mountain Village, which is at ~10,000' elevation. After the first night I had a minor headache, but my DH and 12YO were feeling pretty crummy. They bought some canned oxygen which seemed to help.
Day 1 dumped about ~11" of snow. We started the day with some awesome blue/double blue runs off of Lift 5, and then moved over to Lift 9 (all upper mountain lifts; 6, 12, 14, 15) were closed. Lift 9 had been recently upgraded to a HSQ and got us ~1900' of elevation gain in 7 minutes. We started with the Mammoth trail, which was quite a work out with big powdery bumps (at 12,000'!), but also a ton of fun. We skied all the trails over there (not the glades) before we made our way back to the base. The mountain closed early due to the road conditions, so we finished out the day on Lift 4 before they shut down.
Once we got acclimated to the elevation and the powder, we started exploring other parts of the mountain. We stuck to mostly black, double black, and double black extreme terrain, but enjoyed lapping some blues when our legs were tired at the end of the day. We loved some of the trails off Lift 14 (my favorite was Little Rose, but also enjoyed Millions, Dynamo, and Electra), and once Revelation Bowl opened on Day 4 we skied everything over there as well. The 14YO explored all the hike-to terrain off Lift 12, as well as Gold Hill Chute 1 off Lift 14, but I was only brave enough to ski Genevieve. We didn't ski much on Lift 10, but did do 1 run on Galloping Goose, and spent a little time in the UTE park at the top of it as well.
DH is snowboarder, and got pretty frustrated with Lift 12, as there are some great drops at the top, but then things flatten out and are difficult for snowboarders to get back to the lift...I did a lot of pulling him.
We skied open to close every day, usually finishing out the day on Lift 4 with some laps to the terrain park for the kids. Getting around the mountain was pretty straightforward, and we split up almost every day when DH and 12YO wanted a break, and 14YO and I wanted to keep skiing. It was easy to reconnect with each other after "break time." Our lodging had a shuttle bus that would take us to the Market Village, where we could take a quick gondola ride to the mountain base (gondola and Lift 4). We ate breakfast in our condo, and did dinner 2x in Mountain Village and 2x in Telluride, using the gondola to get there. It was easy to get around, and nice not having to rent a car (we used a shuttle service to get from Montrose to Mountain Village).
Overall, we had a great time, skied some awesome terrain in great conditions, and almost never had to wait in a lift line. Saturday was the only "busy" day, and we still never waited more than 5-10 minutes. After 6 days of skiing we felt like we got to see everything, skied everything we wanted to, and did multiple runs on the trails we loved. Comparing it to Big Sky, the trees seemed tighter (didn't love that), and area was considerably smaller, but still plenty big to keep us entertained the whole time we were there.
Happy to answer any questions folks might have!
View to the hike-to terrain off Lift 12
Little Rose (view from Lift 14)
Looking down on Mammoth (Lift 9) Day 1
Revelation Bowl (from the bottom looking up)
Revelation Bowl (from the top of Lift 14)
Beautiful views all around
