Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort:

Purgatory ain’t what it used to be.  Not Dante’s purgatory, the place where sinners who prayed for forgiveness before they died abandon hope and labour to cleanse their sins so they don’t wind up in Hell.  That probably hasn’t changed.

But Purgatory, the fun-for-all ski hill in southwestern Colorado has changed… a lot.  For starters, it’s now Durango Mountain Resort.  The rebranding exercise didn’t take with locals who stubbornly refused to adopt the too-slick moniker.  So Purgatory hasn’t entirely left the building, it’s somewhere in the name, I just can’t remember whether it’s first or last. 

More importantly, changes of a more substantive nature are taking place at Purgatory.  The resort has recently launched a 20-year, $100 million makeover that’ll result in a new base lodge to bring together all the disparate bits of mountain operation — guest services, ski school, rental, tickets and such — that seem to be spread all over the base area, and, of course, more and better lodging and dining. 

Right now, it has mostly yielded a lot of construction and a bit of confusion, especially if you arrive after dark… in a snowstorm… without a clue where your hotel is... with a GPS unit that keeps telling you to turn left… onto a ski run. 

Purgatory packs more skiing into 1,200 acres than most places seem to squeeze out of twice that much terrain.  With 74% of the mountain rated beginner and intermediate — and a fair bit of the remaining ‘expert’ slopes leaning more toward high self-esteem blacks — the mountain is very user-friendly. 

What gives it a special sense of place is the breadth of its spread.  Bookended by zones containing most of the expert runs, the vast middle of the mountain sprawls over several aspects and takes the better part of a pleasant morning to traverse. 

After a start at the Village Express, a high-speed six-pack, my guide Cissy Anderson, an engaging, compact dynamo who retired to the area nine years ago because she and her husband loved the mountain, toured me on the paths less traveled.  That, on a busy day is part of Purgatory’s magic.  Narrow, meandering, heavily tree-bordered runs wind through beautiful corridors of perfectly groomed snow.  Every now and then, the viewscape opens up into the flat, expansive valley below where snowmobilers seemed to be playing an improvised game of tag with each other.

The treat, for a guy more or less addicted to bumps, was that while much of the middle of the mountain is taken up with green roads and spirited blue cruisers — check out Dead Spike, a long, fall-line run named Boogie and Harris Hill — black bumpy runs seem to be sprinkled across the long traverses and pop up just in time to make the final dash to the next lift a heart-thumping finale.

At the far end of the mountain Lift 8, Legends Lift, is an easy zone to chew up both terrain and a good part of the day.  There’s nothing but blue and black runs and, as Aaron, the exuberant desk clerk described to me, “The best cliff drops on the mountain.”  Aaron, meet Max’s knees; they don’t drop cliffs. 

Youthful excess aside, lift 8 has the best glade skiing on the mountain, in the trees through Paul’s Park and off Chet’s.  Blackburn Bash is a “Hey, look at me,” bump run from the top of the lift, past the midpoint load to the bottom where the liftie is happy to see customers, so few seem to make it all the way.  It also has some of the best side-hill blue cruisers, Chet’s and Sally’s.

The don’t miss run at Purgatory though is the furthest run skier’s right.  In the Fifth Circle of Hell, Phlegyas rowed Dante and Virgil across the river Styx.  Off the Village Express, the run named Styx is its own terrain park.  Notionally a black run, it meanders around and over high rollers, losing elevation in fits and starts over medium size bumps, kickers and hits that cascade down to a choice of terminal runs: Gelande Dead End swings around the boundary and slips past the tube hill while Lower Hades skirts the swish Elkpoint townhomes.  Either choice offers a helluva good finish to the day.

Purgatory is one of those often overlooked gems.  It’s a family mountain that’s also a skier’s mountain.  It won’t thrill extreme skiers — nothing does for very long — but it’ll remind you why skiing’s such an addictive sport.

Check it out : durangomountainresort.com
Stay : Purgatory Village Hotel, right at the base of the Village Express
Eat : Dante’s, at the mid offload of lift 5.  Cafeteria downstairs or table service at the Backside Bistro upstairs.
Après : Purgy’s.  An ancient A-frame après spot that has to be experienced before it’s torn down. 
Dine : Until things get built up, either head back to Durango or check out the Hamilton Chop House at Tamarron, a few miles south.