The Colorado winter began slowly, evoking a nervous vibe among the powder hounds. We’d seen this before though. We knew it would come but we just were not sure when. It was late December when the white fluff finally arrived, falling in copious amount; the San Juan’s were pummeled with snow totals into the nineties to hundreds of inches.
The destination was Monarch Snow Cat Tours, which are located right on Highway 50 just west of Salida Colorado. Monarch is located in the Sawatch Range just north and east of the San Juan’s. Being shaped like a catchers mitt, they too had been blessed with a 90+ inch base by mid January.
Pops, Jeff and I made our way to Monarch Mountain for a day of cat skiing. Little did we know it would end up being one of the best times as well as one of the strangest. Pops and I skied Monarch on Friday and Jeff made it up later that night. That afternoon a small little storm rolled over the Mountain and blessed us with a solid inch. I was thinking, perfect, just a little more soft stuff on top of a few feet of blower would make the backcountry just right.
After Pops and I finished skiing and enjoying a few Barley pops, we headed into Salida. We were directed to a Ski shop on F Street called Head Waters to get some bindings mounted where we met Ray, Avery and MacGyver. They took great care of us and we dropped them a few Cat and Heli guides and a six pack for their troubles. Avery sent us to Bentleys about a block a way from the shop for happy hour. What a great bar! Good appetizers, great beer prices, and good people! Once we had enough to drink we rumbled over to Laughing Ladies Restaurant where I had one of the best meals I can remember in a long time. The owners are originally from Napa and thank god they made it to Salida! Their signature dish is the Pork Chop. Which I hear is excellent. I however have been on a duck kick and went that route, while Pops went for the beef tri tip. The orange roasted half duck with sweet onion relish on crispy polenta is absolutely out of this world. Laughing Ladies was definitely the second best part of our trip, the first being the skiing of course.
The next day started with a six am wake up that I really didn’t want to be a part of, mostly due the libations. We all managed to rally as soon as we realized what was awaiting us in a few short hours. At Monarch skiers gather up at about eight o’clock in the lodge, meet their guides and the rest of the people on the cat for the day.
It appeared to be a pretty strong group. We head up the lift to meet the cat and head out of bounds for our adventure. It was a short ride to our first drop off point. Our first run was an open face with severe wind affected snow at the top of the ridge. Once we dropped in, the snow turned to a cream wind blown butter. We made a couple more warm up runs and headed to a different area of their terrain and started skiing some steeper trees. This is where we got the goods! There was great soft snow, excellent pitch and a few small rock drops to make everything a little more interesting. We ended up riding this area for quite some time and in my opinion skied it out. I felt bad for the people coming in tomorrow…well, not really. We eventually made our way over to the large open bowl just slightly above tree line. The cornice was pretty large but there were many easy entrance with little drop. We skied it one at a time for avalanche safety. This is a common practice in Cat and Heli adventures in the States. We dropped into a nice little chute that happened to be holding some nice buttery turns. Jeff on the other hand decided to go a bit bigger. We didn’t see the fall but did watch from 1200 feet below as he worked back up to his ski that he had left about fifty feet above him. We made our break for lunch around 1pm and headed back to the lodge where they had grub waiting. The group enjoyed a lunch of Brisket, fresh rolls and some of the hottest green chili this gringo has ever tasted. The Brisket isn’t going to win any awards, but to a hungry group of skiers it was gone in minutes. Once we all finished up with lunch it was back to the lift to meet the cat at the top of the mountain. We ended up heading back to the steep trees. No one was complaining about it since they were the longest and best runs of the day so far. It was about knee deep in there with a 35-40 degree pitch, which made for some great skiing and riding. As the day started to draw to a close our last few runs were on the out of bounds side of the Mirkwood bowl area. The snow was the deepest here and softest but the runs were short, three to five hundred vertical feet, however for any powder hound like myself it really didn’t matter. Fresh deep tracks are fresh deep tracks!
By the time we all got back down to the resort lodge the ski area had closed and most of the people had left the parking lot. So the three of us headed to the bar there and hung out with a few locals, bought our guide a beer, and shot the breeze for a bit before heading back to the “Shining,” other wise known as the Monarch Lodge.
Recommendations: If you were headed to Monarch for a day or longer, I’d stay in Salida. I’d visit Laughing Ladies, and Bentleys for drinks and food, plus I’d talk to the locals to get any more info on where to eat or drink. Since I didn’t have a lot of time to check out every restaurant and bar in town I can only tell you what I know. The locals in Salida are very helpful and some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met in a ski town, and that’s pretty hard to do. The Arkansas river also passes right through here so there is also some great rafting and river kayaking available. Check out Head Waters next to the bridge on F street to get all your river and white water information and rentals. It’s also a great ski shop. If you’re staying over night, pass on the Monarch Lodge located about three miles from the resort. Stay in Salida. Find something there like a B&B or a smaller well known motel.
Words by Tim Engel
