Q: I’m a novice skier from Texas. Should I try The Minturn Mile?

Answer: No. Nope. Don’t do it.

Why? The first thing you need to know about Vail Mountain’s notorious “side-country” off-piste route from Ptarmigan Point (a promontory where resort founders Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton famously first spied the Back Bowls) to the Town of Minturn is that The Mile is actually more than three miles long. Its name references just the start: a milelong sloping meadow gently descending from the summit of Ptarmigan Point to Game Creek. That part is heavenly. Excepting for a few hours on the most epic of powder days, the next two miles, which corkscrew down the creek drainage, typically devolve into hard-packed ice that skis more like an Olympic luge than a ski run. So, unless you slalom on an injected course like Ted Ligety or Lindsey Vonn, steer clear of The Mile. 

Instead, when your Vail Mountain ski day is done, head down the highway to Dowd Junction and spend happy hour at the Minturn Saloon, the historic watering hole where those who dare run The Mile traditionally have gathered for a celebratory pint or three after clomping in ski boots over backstreets for a half mile from the run’s exit. After a nearly two-year closure, the Saloon, which dates back to 1901, recently reopened under new ownership (Village Bagel proprietors Anthony and Connie Mazza, who lovingly restored the property to its former glory, revamping even the menu). Sidle up to the bar (built in Missouri in the 1830s), toast the Mazzas and their fortitude, and that reading this may have saved you from a trip to the emergency room.