Purgatory
Purgatory Ski Resort is a ski area located in the state of Colorado in USA. The resort is in the town of Durango, CO.
We recently ranked all of Colorado's ski resorts, so you can see where Purgatory stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Purgatory is not a part of any nationwide lift ticket system. Passes such as Epic, IKON, or Mountain Collective allow pass holders to ski at multiple mountians with a single purchase. Unfortunately, none of those passes work with Purgatory Ski Resort. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Purgatory's website.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Purgatory around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Purgatory Mountain Resort Terrain Overview
Purgatory has a total of 105 ski trails, which are serviced by 11 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 1,600 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 648 hectares, 2.5 square miles, or 6.5 square kilometers.
Purgatory's slopes see on average 260 inches (6.6 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 21 feet every year!
Total Runs
105
Lifts
11
Skiable Acres
1,600(6 km2)
Annual Snowfall
260"(660 cm)
Purgatory Ski Resort Elevation
Purgatory Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 10,822 feet, or 3,298 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 8,739 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 2,083 feet (635 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
The summit of 10,822 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.
Summit Elevation
10,822'(3,298 m)
Vertical Drop
2,083'(635 m)
Base Elevation
8,739'(2,664 m)
Purgatory Ski Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
52.6out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Purgatory has 1,600 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Purgatory is a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 23% of its trails as easy. However, it also has a fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 77%.
Beginner
23%(368 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
51%(816 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
26%(416 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Purgatory Ski Resort good for beginners?
Purgatory can be beginner-friendly, depending on the runs you take. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 77% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.
Purgatory Ski Resort Location
Purgatory Ski Resort is located in the state of Colorado, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Durango, CO.
Address:
Durango, CO 80424 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
purgatory.ski
GPS Coordinates:
37.46596, -107.98150
Getting to Purgatory Mountain Resort
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Purgatory Ski Resort), its coordinates of 37.46596, -107.98150 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Durango, CO to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Purgatory.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Durango-La Plata County Airport | DRO | Durango, CO | 25 mi |
| San Luis Valley Regional Airport/Bergman Field | ALS | Alamosa, CO | 116 mi |
| Grand Junction Regional Airport | GJT | Grand Junction, CO | 118 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Purgatory Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Purgatory Ski Resort.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hesperus Ski Area | Hesperus, CO | 8,888 ft | 49% | 12 mi |
| Chapman Hill Ski Area | Durango, CO | 6,555 ft | 51% | 14 mi |
| Kendall Mountain Ski Area | Silverton, CO | 9,596 ft | 20% | 30 mi |
| Silverton | Silverton, CO | 13,487 ft | 100% | 30 mi |
| Telluride | Telluride, CO | 13,150 ft | 90% | 34 mi |
| Lee's Ski Hill | Ouray, CO | 0 ft | 0% | 42 mi |
| Lake City Ski Hill | Lake City, CO | 8,847 ft | 0% | 52 mi |
| Wolf Creek | Pagosa Springs, CO | 11,904 ft | 52% | 65 mi |
| Powderhorn Ski Resort | Powderhorn, CO | 9,850 ft | 60% | 74 mi |
| Cranor Hill Ski Area | Gunnison, CO | 7,000 ft | 0% | 97 mi |
Purgatory Ski Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 10,822 ft |
| Base Elevation | 8,739 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 2,083 ft |
| Trails | 105 (23% Beginner, 51% Intermediate, 26% Expert) |
| Lifts | 11 |
| Skiable Acres | 1,600 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 260 inches |