Imag­ine hav­ing an entire ski moun­tain to your­self and your friends, fam­i­ly or co-work­ers in the heart of the rugged San Juan Moun­tains of south­west Col­orado, the most dra­mat­ic moun­tain range in the state.

At Sil­ver­ton Moun­tain, that expe­ri­ence can be yours for as lit­tle as $9,900 for a group of 40. But you’d bet­ter be an advanced or expert skier.

Sil­ver­ton isn’t for every­body. It has only one lift, which serves lots of hike-to ter­rain, and it’s steep. Its slopes are avalanche con­trolled but ungroomed. There’s a rea­son its logo depicts a ski­er in a yel­low tri­an­gle cau­tion sign, upside down in the mid­dle of an epic crash, head­ing for a face plant.

Co-founder Jen Brill says you need to feel “com­fort­able” on any sort of slope, in any sort of snow con­di­tions, to ski or ride there.

“I tell peo­ple you don’t have to look good going down this steep chute, you can side­step it,” Brill said. “You just have to be ABLE to side­step it. You can’t just freeze in those sit­u­a­tions. You have to be able to get down it.”

RELATED: Opt out­side this Fri­day with these acces­si­ble hikes per­fect for the whole family

A descrip­tion on Silverton’s web­site describes the mountain’s grandeur and chal­lenge quite colorfully:

“There are loads of bowls, chutes, cliffs and won­der­ful nat­ur­al ter­rain fea­tures … It is the high­est ski area in North Amer­i­ca with a peak of 13,487 feet, and it is also the steep­est with no easy way down. The moun­tain is left in its nat­ur­al state, with the excep­tion of the avalanche reduc­tion work. The chair­lift unloads at the top of a beau­ti­ful cirque which pro­vides easy hik­ing along a ridge to access up to 1,819 acres of snow fields.”

No one is allowed on the chair­lift with­out avalanche gear.

Sil­ver­ton is typ­i­cal­ly open for nor­mal oper­a­tions Thurs­days through Sun­days but can be rent­ed for pri­vate groups Mon­day through Wednes­day. Each par­ty of up to 40 peo­ple gets a moun­tain guide — one for every eight ski­er or rid­ers in the group — to show you around the moun­tain and help you find the best snow and ter­rain for your group.

Ear­ly sea­son prices are $9,900 but go up in Feb­ru­ary and March — prices will vary then — when demand is high­er along with the snow­pack. Silverton’s snow­pack is cur­rent­ly at 118% of nor­mal for this time of year, Brill said.

Brill said typ­i­cal groups opt­ing to rent the moun­tain are com­pa­nies seek­ing team-build­ing expe­ri­ences, hol­i­day par­ties and ski com­pa­nies test­ing new equipment.

“Now we’re get­ting a whole bunch of new peo­ple that haven’t rent­ed the moun­tain before who are doing it because they love ski­ing with their fam­i­ly and as a fam­i­ly,” Brill said, adding that the pro­lif­er­a­tion of rel­a­tive­ly inex­pen­sive resort sea­son pass­es such as Epic and Ikon are dri­ving skiers Silverton’s way.

“Ski resorts are much more crowd­ed than they were,” Brill said, “so peo­ple are look­ing for a dif­fer­ent experience.”

Sil­ver­ton is locat­ed 330 miles south­west of Den­ver between Ouray and Durango.

Sub­scribe to our week­ly newslet­ter, The Adven­tur­ist, to get out­doors news sent straight to your inbox.