“USA 🇺🇸 ~Colorado at Purgatory Ski Resort”

• October 2, 2022
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

We should have gotten to this location, before the end of summer, but we didn’t. Our Bad. OR, was it? 🙃

We were waiting out the rain for a bit, by the fire pit, before asking for an afternoon session, instead

Our goal was to ride the “Alpine Slide,” at the Purgatory Ski Resort, but by the time we got around to it, it was only open on the weekends… and this was the LAST weekend at that! Ha! 

One can not buy tickets onsite, only online, so we did. Out of the Saturday/Sunday option, Saturday weather was only slightly better than Sunday was going to be, so we went for it. Half -Day ticketing at $54 pp gives you “unlimited” access; during a specific time frame of 3.5 hours to the: Scenic Ski Lift, the Inferno Coaster, and the Alpine Slide. EXCEPT during rain and pending thunderstorms. Such is life on the mountains!

https://www.purgatory.ski/

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The Scenic Ski Lift ⬇️


⬆️ My fun guy, always up for anything…

At least in the fall, the changing leaves give a glorious show!

During either half-day sessions, the Alpine Slide never did open, and the Scenic Ski Lift closed to us, 1/2 hour before our ticket timed out. (Rip Off) Lucky for us, we did get to ride it in the morning, once, in the rain ☔️ ⬆️
In total, what we did get to do was ride the Coaster three times, and Ski Lift once, making each run cost $13.50 per person.

Early on, in our morning session, we went back to the ticketing place and asked if we could change to an afternoon session, due to weather, and they agreed. We got new wrist bands and we went back home. (20-minute drive) Later, when the sun came out, we headed back to Purgatory to try again. Unfortunately, they never did open the Alpine Slide, though it was dry and sunny for the last hour of our session. (Rip Off) they most likely sent staff home, already.
We did enjoy the Coaster, but it’s not the adrenaline junkies dream the Alpine Slide is.

The Inferno Coaster ⬇️

After our Coaster time, we hustled over to the Scenic Ski Lift. The operators pretty much cater to the bmx bikers, who hang their bikes on the ski lift for the ride up, so they can ride back down the mountain.
Apparently on the last lift up, they wouldn’t cater to us at all, since we weren’t worth the return trip back down, as the bikers had their bikes and didn’t need a round trip. No, we did not want to walk down the muddy slope, so we didn’t get to ride in the sunshine, WHEN our ticket session was good till 4PM and the lift was operating within that time. (Rip OFF) I’m sure if there were more people without bikes, they would have done one more, full round-trip, but it was just us and a half a dozen bikers.
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All in all, it was an expensive day, with limited value for us. Even if we had gone earlier in the season, there would have been larger crowds with longer lines. With more people, how many times would we have gotten to do on all three options? I’m guessing one ride each, but all rides would not have had bad weather to contend with. Hey, its a ski resort. Nothing cheap about those, anywhere.

Lesson Learned. It’s Purgatory! 🤣