At first glance, it might seem like the math is off. It’s like someone made a mistake somewhere. A ski hill with an average of 430 inches of snowfall? In the desiccated, drought-pounded middle of southern Colorado? It just doesn’t seem right.
Most other mountains in the state get somewhere in the 200-inch range. And they’re the big names you hear about — Aspen, Telluride and Vail. Something must be off down at Wolf Creek, the low-key, down home resort deep in the San Juan mountains of Southern Colorado. Those snowfall numbers can’t be accurate.
But they are, and there’s even more to the mountain than that.
Some particular orographic principle keeps the flow through the 13,000-foot peaks (3,900-metre). The south side of the San Juans, which gets hit by weather coming from the south and west, is a sneaky pocket of winter, and Wolf Creek is the beneficiary of massive dumps of snow. The ridge stops storms and then wrings them out. Local rumours say the resort even under-reports its snowfall numbers to hold onto the secret.
The snow starts early in the season when the ski area gets hammered. Wolf Creek opens earlier in the winter than most other resorts. Skiers from the Front Range of Colorado and those other illustrious ski towns migrate toward the southern part of the state to get their early season powder fix.
But after Vail and Telluride open, the crowds taper off, and the snow keeps coming. Wolf Creek doesn’t tend to be too crowded, except for the usual holiday hoards that descend on nearly every ski hill between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Part of it is because the mountain is sneaky — the good stuff isn’t obvious — and you must work for it. Part of it is because it’s missing so many of the trappings of a fancy resort town. The ski area is on top of Wolf Creek Pass, 18 miles (29 km) from the tiny hamlet of South Fork, and 23 miles (37 km) from the slightly bigger town of Pagosa Springs, which is your best bet for food and drinks (check out Riff Raff Brewing), lodging and post-ski soak at beautiful Pagosa Hot Springs.
When it comes to skiing, snow is one thing, but slope is another. Syracuse, New York, also gets a ton of snow each winter, but you don’t hear much about people skiing there. Wolf Creek, where the summit elevation tops at 11,904 feet (3,628 meters), is full of steep pitches. And part of the magic of Wolf Creek — one of the things that keeps the snow solid and means that there are usually good skiable pockets days after a storm — is that you must hike to most of the best terrain. You access the steeps of Alberta Peak or the knife ridge by short walks — long and steep enough to weed people out, but not so long they’re a drag.
For instance, some locals call the steep pitch at the top of the Alberta Lift above the patrol hut the “Texan filter.” The short, steep hike turns off fair-weather boot packers, but if you push past it and then make your way across the rocky Knife Ridge staircase, you’ll be rewarded with a sprawling ridge line of steep gullies and chutes. Hike out a way, and you can pick up the free snowcat at the top of the Dog Chutes, which will take you all the way out to Horseshoe Bowl on far skier’s right. It’s another under-the-radar benefit of the mountain.
You will have to traverse back from Horseshoe Bowl, a terrain feature known to turn off snowboarders, but after you do, you can hike to Alberta Peak, the area’s highest point, and ski steep Montezuma Bowl or the Peak Chutes. If you don’t like hiking, you can head to the Waterfall area, where you can find minigolf-like terrain like the series of short, steep, pillowy tree pitches at Squeeze Box or Snake Gully. The mountain is full of little sneak lines and tree shots, and if you follow the patrol’s closures, you can usually stay out of trouble.
For a small-ish ski area — with 1,600 skiable acres, 1,604 feet of vertical, and ten lifts — it’s packed with terrain. We haven’t even talked about skiing off the main lift yet. From the Treasure Stoke Chairlift, you can ski wide Bonanza Bowl and steep Alberta Face in the treed zones of Patina. There are so many options.
That’s the other secret — Wolf Creek has depth. You must work to find the best skiing, which makes it worth it — and what causes it to be uncrowded and rare. Let other people think the snowfall numbers are off or that a ski area on a slow road at the bottom of the state is too far away. We’ll be skiing the deep stuff alone.
