Our honeymoon includes two days of skiing at Silverton Mountain, one day of snowcat skiing, then three days of skiing at Telluride. We are also scheduled to go heli-skiing one day, weather permitting.
* Update: Weather permitting is going to take on special meaning!
We both had our adventures getting here. Katie will tell her adventures in the next post, for reasons which will become obvious. For me personally, I had to be in Silverton for a film festival nossaTV was sponsoring. Unfortunately my ski bag didn't arrive with at Montrose Airport with the rest of my bags. At least I had my clothes!
As luck would have it, Avis upgraded me to a nice, shiny Ford Mustang. The rental counter agent assured Mike that the car would do fine on the snowy mountain roads because it has "traction control." And ski racks. Real helpful when you don't have skis!
So I drove down to Silverton. If you've never driven Colorado Route 550, you haven't lived. At the very top is Red Mountain Pass, elevation 11,000+. You can probably imagine the road getting to that ridiculous elevation. Now imagine doing that in a Ford Mustang in a snowstorm. Yeah.
It actually cleared up a little at the top of the pass. I noticed a car stopped on the side of the road, and two guys holding cameras. I naturally assumed they were headed to Silverton for the film festival, so I stopped to talk with them and take some photos of a snowboarder dropping off a cliff. Turns out we had some mutual friends in the snowsports industry. Crazily they didn't know about the film festival taking place just ten miles to the south. They were all headed back to Aspen that night. Probably a good thing they got going if they wanted to make it any time soon.
Finally arrived in Silverton, just ahead of the "major winter storm" that was enveloping the West Coast. Like most towns in the West, Silverton is a former mining town. While I don't think it ever officially qualified as a ghost town, it's certainly a shadow of its former self. Apparently it's a hopping place in the summers, but in the winter almost everything is closed. Here's a shot looking west down Main Street.
Mike checked into the hotel, the Bent Elbow. It's a charming little place. But it was all locked up when he got there. After calling the number on the door, the hotel staff person drive over to let him in. The hotel women turned out to be very kind. Here's a photo of the honeymoon suite.
I headed over to the Miner's Theater (in the photo of Main Street) for the film festival. It's amazing how many people came out for the show. Jenny from Silverton, the organizer, was nice enough to get me and the two judges some pizzas for dinner. Unfortunately the keg didn't quite last. But with the altitude, that was probably best.
So as my adventures were winding down, Katie's were just beginning. The rental car people decided to call it a night early, and when Katie arrived, there was no one there to give her a car. Stranded in Montrose, she had to stay there Friday night. But at least she was able to pick up Mike's skis!
More from Katie tomorrow!
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