Gold Hill 5 - PERMANENTLY CLOSED

Gold Hill Chutes #3-5 are closed permanently—with the one exception being they may occasionally open Chute 3 in the event of very generous snowfall. The reason why Telluride decided to close the chutes was because these lines attracted visitors who’d done other Telluride double blacks and thought they could handle the demanding terrain, but ended up getting stuck or lost on it. While they weren’t any more difficult than some in-bounds Palmyra Peak lines, their shorter hike attracted less experienced visitors. This created a major pain for ski patrollers, who needed to hike any time there was an issue there. The terrain was windy, rocky, and narrow, making rescue operations even more difficult. In the end, the resort didn’t have enough manpower to devote the required resources to this area while also catering to the rest of the mountain, and patrolling this area became more tiring than it was worth.