Guided skiing, but our guide was from a back east big city, so not very inspiring with any local provenance. He was too bro brah, and not a great skier either. So paid the high price for a lift ticket
which includes the guide, but not his expected tip, but only got in four runs, the guide made you spoon your turns plus you had to stop every hundred yards for everybody to get back into the group. Felt like I was in a kindergarten nature class. So, no not impressed unless you can get deep snow during UNguided but then its super crowded.
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First of all, let me say I like the concept of Silverton as an extreme backcountry resort.

However, after having worked at Jackson and skiing frequently at Alta and Taos, I did not find the terrain was particularly extreme. Even long hikes did not necessarily yield more extreme terrain or better snow. Yes, there are some cliff lines, but I don't plan to ski those anyway and I didn't see ANYONE dropping mandatory air.

Secondly, I went the first full weekend of unguided skiing and found the snow to be sub-par. Maybe I am spoiled by Utah snow, but the snow at Silverton was pure coral reef piled very high in big chunks - GIANT chunks in some places. No one, and I mean no one, was skiing it proficiently. I saw many upper intermediate and advanced skiers falling on a regular basis.

Thirdly, you may expect no waits due to the small crowd sizes. That is not the case. You will still have to wait for the bus because only a couple run at a time.

I do plan to give Silverton one more shot on a day when the snow is better. I went 48 hours after a big storm expecting powder pockets and tracks - the website says powder lays around for up to two weeks after a storm. But there was no powder anywhere - everything had melted and re-frozen into impenetrable chunks of broken coral reef! At 13,000 feet, I mistakenly assumed that wasn't possible.

For now, I will be back at Alta skiing powder. Yes, it gets tracked, but I don't have to hike 2+ hours a day and - even when it skied over, I've still got some powder bumps and softer areas in trees to find. Oh, I also don't have to drive six hours and spend 100+ a night at a hotel.
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Unweighted Pros:
Incredible scenery - the San Juans are stunning!
Incredible terrain - I'd argue it's the best in the southern Rockies. Consistently steep and challenging, but not so steep and challenging that you can't open it up and let it rip!
Knowledgeable guides committed to "Best Day Ever" mantra
Helicopter at the ready
Excellent safety record
Minimal crowds - on a guided afternoon, you'll feel like you have the place to yourself.
Very relaxed, carefree vibe. Even on a 18" day, there's no rush. Everyone is going to get good lines!

Unweighted Cons:
No running water
Portajohns
1-2 heli runs takes you to zones with many tracks
Occasional "over the top" instruction - just let great skiers/riders rip the slope.
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Had an epic day doing lift accessed guided runs. We had a great group of 8 with similarly decent fitness levels and were able to get in 6 runs and a bunch of fresh tracks. Our guide, Dustin, was awesome all around. I'll definitely do this again!
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Reading the comments on Silverton mtn. are laughable.
No they don't have running water or flush toilets, but the scenery and quality of big mountain skiing is undeniable.
I'll pick the Silverton double chair over most high speed lifts in the state of Colorado for terrain alone.
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A very special and unique mountain experience, steep and deep! All expert or above terrain. Guides that know their sh+t. Great staff. No frills. Adrenaline mountain! Loved the all day Heli, was a ski day I will never forget. Skied knee to waist deep powder ALL DAY, and with runs that were about 250 turns long. Just an incredible place. The town of Silverton is also great to stay the night and have fun. Loved it. Definitely will be back soon. Totally worth every penny.
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Had a great day. The guides were professional the terrain was insane. I even got my first heli drop. I am not a backcountry skier, i am a strong resort skier who has been in the backcountry a few times a year and I loved it.
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Amazing mountain. Great terrain. Passionate guides.
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Four Runs. First two totally pristine with 15 inches of untracked snow. Last two runs less than 50% pristine with a long runout in a tracked out gully choked with avy debris. Less than 10k vertical for the day.
Because avalanche control is minimal at Silverton, we spent a good amount of time waiting as one skier at a time descended. The consensus among the locals in my group, was that we would have skied much more untracked snow had we gone to another nearby resort that day. On a powder day at my local Tahoe resort, I can score more untracked turns than at Silverton along with 30k of vertical before my legs give out.
Cost $179. I can't say the price was worth it. Perhaps the heli-skiing, which I did not try, is worth the money?
The spectacular San Juan scenery is very cool. Silverton will give resort skiers a taste of back-country skiing. Hiking is mandatory. If you are coming from sea level, wait a few days to acclimate before you go.
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I'm a 17 year resident of Silverton, and of Telluride and Durango before that. I've also lived in Aspen, Jackson, and Alaska. I only moved to Silverton because of the promise of a New Zealand-style minimal infrastructure advanced/expert ski area in North America. I was Silverton Mountain's most vocal supporter and volunteered as a patroller/guide there the first few years it was open. Now that they've cancelled all early season unguided days, leaving we locals with 3 to 4 unguided days in April which I'm sure will be gone by the 2017-2018 season, I'm feeling that there's nothing left to lose by giving my honest assessment as a hardcore sleep-in-your-car powder chaser of my so-called home mountain:

When UNGUIDED and when not plagued by an ever-growing number of private property disputes that have made several of my favorite runs unskiable, Silverton Mountain on a good day deserves 4 stars. Why not 5 stars? It certainly has nothing to do with the crappy slow lift, the crappy dangerous shuttle vehicles, or all the hiking involved. It's mostly due to poor glading, especially of small saplings in the major chutes. And because there are no bumps. When there's no powder, bumps are my refuge. Couldn't care less about groomers. Both issues would be very easy to solve if the mountain was run unguided every day of the winter as their current permit is written. Running Silverton Mountain as regular albeit challenging ski area (did you know their permit does not require a beacon/shovel/probe?) would create some great bump skiing/riding that would provide loads of fun during the few times there is no powder. Likewise, more skiers on the lift means more money for glading. And for gosh sake, no one complains about the hiking, but buy another used double-chair for the backside and eliminate the cheesy shuttle vehicles. Then I'd give it 5 stars by North American standards. But after becoming famous in the ski media for creating the ultimate ski area for dirtbags, they are just using this place to sell heli-trips in Alaska and to impress ski magazine reporters.

Which brings me to the guided skiing. True core skiers and riders - the type of people that Silverton Mountain was built for hence their name Core Enterprises, Inc - will mostly hate Silverton Mountain unless they bring seven of their equally fit buddies and score a really cool guide. There are always good and bad days, of course. But nothing sucks like being force-marched up a mountain ridge past fields of untouched powder which you're being told is reserved for "someone else" (i.e. ski reporters, film makers, friends of the owners, and some winter sports celebrities who can't afford all-day heli service like Sean White, Jonny Moseley, and Justin Timberlake types). Or being mixed-in with a bunch of strangers of very uneven fitness and skill levels. Or getting a guide that's either not as experienced as yourself, or who may be experienced but lacking in people skills. If you're less fit than others in your group, you probably won't get more than a run or two in before exhaustion and peer pressure force you to quit. And if you're super-fit, you'll experience a lot of waiting around for people you've never met. How do I know these things when I've never paid for a day of guided skiing there? Well, besides having actually been there in the early years when we thought we were building the next Mountain Baker or Bridger Bowl, I own a small ski lodge and talk to Silverton Mountain skiers every weekend. And I hear the same complaints over and over again. Because I recently started criticizing how the so-called ski area is managed, I'm banned from advertising on their website anymore. That's not why I've written this extremely accurate review. I've wanted to do it for years. But banning me from advertising has finally set me free to give my honest assessment.

Guided skiing was a temporary program the federal government created in 2002 to allow Silverton Mountain time to go through their environmental, safety, and permitting process. They erected their lift on private land before receiving their permit to allow skiers on the public land surrounding the lift. It's a wonder the government allowed them to operate at all. But once the full permit was issued in 2006, guided skiing was no longer required. I and others were led on for years by the owners, telling us that they were going to spend several years easing their way into winter-long unguided skiing. But all they were easing their way into during that time was heli-skiing, the exact opposite of a dirtbag New Zealand-style clubfield. Now they've gone from a high of 23 unguided days each winter to 4. The lift is open less and less days each winter because all they care about is heli.

And it's not even the Silverton heliskiing they care about. They've opened four Silverton Heli Guides basecamps in Alaska. That never would have been possible without the ridiculous amount of attention they received from bedazzled ski reporters who keep suggesting that Silverton Mountain is a real ski area for guys like me. Well let me assure you, there is no ski area in Silverton for guys like me. Nearby Purgatory is strictly for intermediates. All there is in Silverton for guys like me is the backcountry. I reluctantly agreed as a lifelong wilderness advocate to give up some prime backcountry terrain in Silverton in order to have a minimal infrastructure advanced/expert hill that would bring 475 skiers a day, six months a year to the poorest town in Colorado. I did not agree to give up public land for a private playground that brings 80 skiers a day, 4 days a week, for 3 months of the year. They should use their permit as written, or lose it.

A quick word about heliskiing in Silverton: There's a reason why pay-per-run heliskiing is somewhat affordable at Silverton Mountain. There are two tiers of heliskiing: budget and elite. Budget heli drops are within the boundaries of the ski area on terrain that is more easily controlled. Just as with the guided lift-served skiing, you will be powder farming, laying your lines side-by-side on heavily tracked-out runs. The elite all-day heliskiers get taken outside the ski area into real backcountry. Budget level heli drops also require the purchase of a so-called lift ticket (for guided-only skiing) in addition to the cost of each heli drop. Elite heliskiers, don't forget that there's a reason why heliskiing is practically non-existent in Colorado's dangerous snowpack. You'll see lots of runs that look as hardcore as those you see in Alaska and BC. You probably won't be skiing them, no matter how good you are.
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