Quote:
Originally Posted by drengel
skiied unguided 4 times here. never had a bad time. i don't think they are snow-farming. they are keeping you safe. the mountain is only open 3 days a week and doesnt get ridden enough to need to do that. closing down slopes as av conditions worsen is what has to be done for this place to be open. yes there are gapers, and no we don't want them dying. hence what people are calling snow farming. i don't think half the people skiing there even know how to use the beacon/probe that is required.
the four times ive skiied there (twice in 06, twice in 07) there was maybe 40 people tops on the mountain. two days of face shots, one day of incredible corn skiing, and one day of kinda crappy conditions but i was working a beer fest and skiing for free so i was fine with it.
the one bad experience i had was when it had snowed like 2-3 feet the week before, and it was the year purgatory was giving season pass holders 2 free unguided days at silverton. i showed up to a line of like 300 people. waited in line for an hour and a half to get a lift ticket, moved about halfway up the line before freaking out that the lift line would be just as long, then bailed and skiied some backcountry. that was a shitty morning and i was glad i skiied where i did. probably had better coinditions anyways.
my advice- ski it, then spend a coupkle days in the backcountry around there if the conditions are right.
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Drengel, when we were there they were absolutely farming the snow. The guide would ski and tell us to stay right/left of his tracks. This is the common way guides work. The problem was he would give us about 30 yards between his track and the skied terrain and expect eight clients to spoon their turns in that space. I do not like being constrained like that. My turns alone could be 30 yards across. Conditions were stable and their were whole bowls of the same aspect left untracked while group after group sequentially tracked up turns in a few lines. I'd be ok with farming if a huge storm was not coming that same night.
Since that trip Silverton has opened their terrain to unguided skiing, which could be fun. I ski too much in the backcountry to need to go back to the Silverton resort when I have a sled for access to remote areas. I ride in, park it and start skinning.
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