Silverton
Silverton Mountain Ski Resort is a unique and challenging ski and snowboard destination located in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. With only one chairlift and a small amount of actual trails, Silverton Mountain is known for its extreme and backcountry skiing and snowboarding.
The resort does not have any terrain parks or groomed trails, and skiers and snowboarders must hike or ride a snowcat to access the runs. Silverton Mountain Ski Resort receives an average of around 400 inches of snowfall per season, which allows for a long ski season that typically runs from December through April. In addition to downhill skiing and snowboarding, Silverton Mountain Ski Resort also offers guided backcountry skiing and snowboarding tours.
We recently ranked all of Colorado's ski resorts, so you can see where Silverton stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Silverton 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 Silverton Ski Resort. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Silverton's website.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Silverton around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Silverton Mountain Resort Terrain Overview
Silverton has a total of 69 ski trails, which are serviced by 1 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 1,819 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 736 hectares, 2.8 square miles, or 7.4 square kilometers.
Silverton's slopes see on average 400 inches (10.2 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 33 feet every year!
Total Runs
69
Lifts
1
Skiable Acres
1,819(7 km2)
Annual Snowfall
400"(1,016 cm)
Silverton Ski Resort Elevation
Silverton Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 13,487 feet, or 4,111 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 10,400 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 3,087 feet (941 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 13,487 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
13,487'(4,111 m)
Vertical Drop
3,087'(941 m)
Base Elevation
10,400'(3,170 m)
Silverton Ski Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
99.9out 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
Silverton has 1,819 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Seeing as Silverton is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, it's no surprise that over 100% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level. This leaves only 0% of its skiable acres as beginner terrain.
Beginner
0%(0 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
0%(0 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
100%(1,819 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 Silverton Ski Resort good for beginners?
This is one of the hardest ski areas in the country to ski at, so it is not great for beginners. Silverton Ski Resort ranks in the top 10% of the most-difficult ski resorts in the country. It has 100% of its trails rated as expert, or black-diamond level.
Silverton Ski Resort Location
Silverton Ski Resort is located in the state of Colorado, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Silverton, CO.
Address:
Silverton, CO 81433 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
silvertonmountain.com
GPS Coordinates:
37.82000, -107.66000
Getting to Silverton Mountain Resort
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Silverton Ski Resort), its coordinates of 37.82000, -107.66000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Silverton, 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 Silverton.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Durango-La Plata County Airport | DRO | Durango, CO | 46 mi |
| San Luis Valley Regional Airport/Bergman Field | ALS | Alamosa, CO | 102 mi |
| Grand Junction Regional Airport | GJT | Grand Junction, CO | 102 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Silverton 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 Silverton Ski Resort.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kendall Mountain Ski Area | Silverton, CO | 9,596 ft | 20% | 1 mi |
| Telluride | Telluride, CO | 13,150 ft | 90% | 12 mi |
| Lee's Ski Hill | Ouray, CO | 0 ft | 0% | 14 mi |
| Lake City Ski Hill | Lake City, CO | 8,847 ft | 0% | 23 mi |
| Purgatory | Durango, CO | 10,822 ft | 53% | 30 mi |
| Chapman Hill Ski Area | Durango, CO | 6,555 ft | 51% | 39 mi |
| Hesperus Ski Area | Hesperus, CO | 8,888 ft | 49% | 42 mi |
| Powderhorn Ski Resort | Powderhorn, CO | 9,850 ft | 60% | 44 mi |
| Wolf Creek | Pagosa Springs, CO | 11,904 ft | 52% | 53 mi |
| Cranor Hill Ski Area | Gunnison, CO | 7,000 ft | 0% | 67 mi |
| Crested Butte | Crested Butte, CO | 12,162 ft | 77% | 81 mi |
| Monarch | Salida, CO | 11,952 ft | 53% | 88 mi |
Silverton Ski Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 13,487 ft |
| Base Elevation | 10,400 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 3,087 ft |
| Trails | 69 (0% Beginner, 0% Intermediate, 100% Expert) |
| Lifts | 1 |
| Skiable Acres | 1,819 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 400 inches |