Colorado Gets New Ski Area

The state is getting its 25th full-scale ski area high in the San Juan Mountains .

Silverton Mountain has received a permit from the Bureau of Land Management to operate over 1,300 acres — all expert-level terrain — with up to 475 skiers a day. The area has been open for four winters but only for guided skiing.

“It’s still going to feel, even with unguided skiers, uncrowded and vast,” said owner Aaron Brill.“Five hundred skiers a day is smaller than the smallest days at other ski areas.”

The BLM, after three years of review, granted Brill a permit Tuesday for 40 years. The public has 30 days to appeal the decision. It has one lift, but almost nothing in the way of amenities at its base. There’s no grooming and no snowmaking. The area receives an average of 400 inches of snow a year. With its steepest runs approaching 55 degrees, there’s typically no turning back.

The first unguided skiing will have to wait until April because the mountain’s terrain crosses snowpacks particularly vulnerable to slides. Brill wants to make sure his avalanche-clearing work is satisfactory before allowing snowriders out on their own.