property, but the mountain above it or adjacent to it was perfectly public. In those cases I’ve sent you nearby. And in an equally small number of cases, I’ve included significant ski areas that were proposed but never built.
The remainder—the vast majority—are exactly what you’d expect; lost ski areas where you’ll backcountry ski the same runs that were once served by lifts. In some instances, those areas are old enough to have become overgrown almost beyond the point of recognition. In other instances, the lost ski area remains so intact—with buildings and lifts and chairs hanging from those lifts—that the feeling is almost spooky. They genuinely feel like “powder ghost towns.”
In the end, though, the areas selected for inclusion in this book all guide you to my original goal: good skiing blended with good history. And in so doing, they offer a new world of backcountry possibilities to satisfy your powder dreams.
CHAPTER SECTIONS
Every chapter in this book includes the following information for each lost ski area:
| The Essentials | Basic statistics that summarize the area. | |
| The History | Just what it sounds like. | |
| The Trailhead | Where to start. | |
| The Approach | How to get there. | |
| The Descents | How to get back down. | |
| The “Buzz” | What other backcountry skiers have to say about it. | |
| The Après Ski | Where to get food and drink when you’re done on the slopes. |
While most of those sections are largely self-explanatory, the first section—The Essentials—requires greater elaboration. Every chapter begins with a basic summary of statistics that summarize the ski area. Those statistics include:
Nearest Town
The closest town where you can expect to find basic services like gas and dining. This may not necessarily be the closest town as listed on a map, which might not provide those services.
Distance
The one-way distance from the trailhead to the highest point from which you’d start your ski descent.
Vertical
The amount of vertical gain you can expect from the trailhead en route to the high point. Typically, this is listed as the net vertical gain. However, if there is a significant difference between the net gain and the cumulative gain, the overall (cumulative) vertical gain will be listed parenthetically.
Season
The best time to ski the area.
Elevation Range
The highest and lowest elevations you’ll encounter during your outing.
Difficulty Rating
An overall measure of the effort required to ski the area, listed as easy, moderate, or strenuous. Keep in mind that this is an overall estimate. Routes that have significantly shorter mileage but are off-trail through deep snow may be listed as more difficult than routes that have much longer mileage, but are on packed trails. This is not a measure of the difficulty of the skiing.
Skiing Rating
How good is the quality of the skiing? Indicated by one, two, or three
SNOTEL Station
SNOTEL is a program of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and is an acronym for Snowpack Telemetry. The system is made up of a network of automated stations throughout the western United States that collect snowpack and climate data. The daily readings from those stations can be invaluable in deciding where to ski on a particular day. Each ski area lists the nearest SNOTEL station by both name and number. In order to view the data for a given station, select the SNOTEL site from the map or the drop-down menu on the following websites: www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/Colorado/colorado.html and www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/Wyoming/wyoming.html.
Forest Zone
Lists the jurisdiction in which the lost ski area is located. Full contact information, including street addresses and telephone numbers, are listed alphabetically for all forest zones in the Resources section. These are typically national forest ranger districts, although they may also be state parks, city or county open space programs, or other landowners.
CAIC Zone
Lists the zone in which the lost ski area is located. CAIC stands for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. CAIC evaluates the stability of the snowpack regularly throughout the state, and posts daily updates on its website—http://avalanche.state.co.us—including an assessment of the avalanche hazard.
USGS Quad
The appropriate topographic map published by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Weather
Lists the code for the latest Zone Area Forecast, a mountain range-specific weather forecast provided by the National Weather Service. In order to review the forecast for your zone, visit the following website (in place of the “XXXXXX” at the end of the web address, type the six-digit letter and number code listed for the ski area): http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=XXXXXX
The author digs a snow pit to assess avalanche hazard in Montezuma Basin, near Aspen.
Waypoints
Select GPS waypoints are given in the text for trailheads and topographic features of ski run approaches and descents. The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) system of map coordinates was used to establish the waypoints. The UTM system is based on lines of latitude and longitude, dividing the world into zones, and then subdividing those zones into a network of grids. UTM coordinates allow you to locate the correct grid, and then plot an “easting” and a “northing” to pinpoint a particular waypoint. For
