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Hammer Time

White-hot backcountry skiing without sweat-heavy climbing to get to it.

By Dan Steaves

Accessing fresh backcountry powder on foot is never easy but that's not to say it always requires an epic effort. Anvil Mountain, located near the Million Dollar Highway in the heart of the San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado, is such a place where the skiing, not the effort to get to it, yields the memory. We routinely reach the summit in less than two hours of skinning up on skis.
Overlooking the quiet mountain town of Silverton from the northwest, Anvil Mountain (12,526 feet) and its slopes can be accessed at various points, from either Cement Creek or Highway 550 - cars may be parked at various locations along these routes. On an initial visit, skiers at a loss for where to start climbing can look for tracks of skiers who have already skinned up the mountain. Cars and skin tracks are commonly found at the Ophir Pass pulloff and up Cement Creek below the large, obvious slide path.
Anvil Mountain serves a variety of skiable terrain: wide open bowls above timberline, narrow avalanche chutes, tight trees, widely spaced trees and cliffs. Name your desired terrain and Anvil's likely to have it. Be forewarned though; skiing open bowls in the middle of winter can be risky business. I witnessed the biggest avalanche of my life on the north slope of Anvil: a 1,500-foot slab of snow let loose that was six feet deep and hundreds of feet across. The gully at the bottom of the slide filled 20 feet deep with car-sized chunks of super-hard snow and ice.
Be aware of weather and snow conditions prior to your arrival at the mountain. Travel smart and carry the proper equipment, including an avalanche beacon. Be equipped further with knowledge of the proper use of the beacon as well as the full array of snow-avalanche rescue skills. The San Juan backcountry is no place to roll the dice in avalanche terrain. Be smart, and hammer fresh lines on Anvil Mountain.

Firefighter, writer and photographer DAN STEAVES takes it any way he can get it in Durango, Colo.