Off-piste cowboys

We pause at the top of a deep, north-facing bowl, which has only just caught the sun. Speed talks us through his planned route and the hazards to watch for.

He pushes off first, carving a score of carefully wound turns through the ankle-deep powder to a ridge halfway down. We are to keep to his right. The others follow.

Now it is just me and the vast Rocky Mountains, snow-capped and glistening in the brilliant late-season sun. Breathtaking doesn't begin to describe it.

Speed, a tiny figurine at the bottom of the mountain, is waving his ski poles, indicating that I am to come down. But I remain on the peak a little longer, taking in a view that is mine alone.

I breathe in and turn the skis downhill.

Speed runs Telluride Helitrax, a company he started 27 years ago with a couple of backcountry buddies. It is Colorado's only heli-skiing operation and is based at Mountain Village at Telluride. Telluride resort has 115 trails across more than 810 hectares of skiable terrain, recently extended with new lifts in the black-run-only Revelation Bowl. This has opened up more hike-to terrain, for those enthusiasts who are prepared to "earn their turns".

Beginner terrain accounts for 23 per cent of the resort, 36 per cent is for intermediates and 41 per cent is black and above.

It's a resort designed to be enjoyed by skiers of all abilities; a clever division of the mountain means a skier can ride any lift and find a groomed blue run to come down.

But for those who want to extend their skiing and want fresh tracks all day, heli-skiing can almost always guarantee both.

My boots disappear under my clumsy first turn, which sends a spray of powder down the hill. But I find my rhythm and my course, a wide face of untouched powder begging to be carved up. The turns are coming easier now, as I lean forward into the steepest pitch of the hill.

I finish with a wide sweeping carve that deposits me, short of breath (we're at more than 3500 metres), with my colleagues. Speed grins as my juvenile whoops bounce off the mountains.

"We don't take people out unless they are pretty strong, pretty confident skiers," he explains. "But beyond that, we can find whatever people want.

"As steep as they want, as tricky as they want, these hills have it. We just have so much terrain, there's something for everyone."

It's a four-hour drive (a great road trip, in fact, through flag-waving, hand-on-heart middle America) from Telluride to the mountain of Crested Butte. Its reputation for steep terrain is well known in North America.

While green and blue runs comprise about 80 per cent of its 472 hectares of inbound terrain, it is the other 20 per cent that's steep. Crested Butte has the most lift-accessible extreme terrain in North America. It hosts the annual Extreme Freeskiing Championships and the Extreme Telemark Championships. Last year, the bloke who won skied off a 15-metre cliff into a forward somersault – and landed.

"Just," says Todd Walton, a new Crested Butte staff member.

"I don't want to say that sort of thing happens all the time at Crested Butte but it's not that uncommon. That's the sort of thing you can do on this mountain."

The pitch is serious. Rambo, at 58 degrees, is one of the steepest inbound runs in the world. A tree-lined, moguled and rocky chute that drops at a consistent 55 degrees is known as Body Bag for a reason.

And there are double-black diamonds all around. The traverses – perilously ducking beneath fir branches with one elbow scraping against the hill beside you and seemingly nothing underneath your skis below – are well worth the price of admission alone.

Eric "Sully" Sullivan is a member of Team Crested Butte, the mountain's adventure racing team. He loves the Butte because he can ski in winter, ride mountain bikes in summer and attempt every extreme physical pursuit in between.

But the hill is not only for the expert (Sully) or the mad (everyone considering competing in the extreme competitions).

There are well-maintained terrain parks, a fun border-cross course and the Ice Bar and Restaurant (exactly as the name suggests), with a divine view for an afternoon tipple.

North-west of Crested Butte and just two hours (on a dry road) from Denver International Airport is Copper Mountain, one of Colorado's biggest resorts. The greatest feature of this mountain is its natural division into beginner, intermediate and advanced terrain.

The gentle western slopes are perfect for long, cruisy greens, while the middle of the hill has rolling blue runs. The eastern flank is steep – black-only and plenty of off-piste country.

Until 2.30pm daily, a snowcat offers skiers and boarders free rides to Copper Bowl and Tucker Mountain. It takes skiers and riders up to the saddle of the bowl, from where it's a 20-minute hike to expert-only terrain.

At Copper Mountain, try the Taco, a cute little chute, or the Nacho. The Spaulding Bowl is lifted by a poma and on almost any day is a reliable source for an unskied powder line, usually in the lee of prevailing winds.

For those still not satisfied, there is the opportunity at Copper Mountain to extend one's skiing or boarding into truly "gnarly" territory at a Woodward camp.

The camps initially specialised in gymnastics but after the US boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980, the flood of girls into that sport diminished and Woodward expanded into the growing sports of skateboarding and BMX.

Its latest incarnation at Copper Mountain is focused on snowsports and it is the training base for scores of professional, Olympic and extreme games skiers and boarders. But it also takes humble neophytes and makes something approaching ski jumpers of them.

The camp's day course progresses from simple rolls and gymnastic manoeuvres to a couple of hours practising flips, rolls and landings on trampolines. But think trampolines on steroids, with giant foam-filled pits in which to jump or fall. Trainees progress to a steep (43 degrees) man-made hill with three kickers into a giant foam pit. This is where you practise those jumps usually seen only on Warren Miller movies.

In the afternoon, it's into the snow – Copper Mountain has four terrain parks, accessible in succession with a single lift ride – to repeat what has been learnt at camp.

The atmosphere is one of encouragement. Participants feel like professional athletes fine-tuning complicated manoeuvres, rather than amateurs grasping for the basics. "Progression is inevitable" is the Woodward slogan and it is surprising just what can be learnt in a day.

The movie-star elan of recent decades has softened Colorado's image but the state's cowboy history is everywhere. A 19-year-old Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank in the main street of Telluride in 1889. A few years later, he got shot at (but escaped) in a Crested Butte pub.

They display a different kind of extreme behaviour on the San Juan ranges' these days but they're still cowboys and this will always be wild country.

Ben Doherty travelled courtesy of Ski Colorado and United Airlines.

FAST FACTS

United Airlines has a low-season return fare from Sydney to Denver, flying via Los Angeles, for about $906; Melbourne passengers transit in Sydney. Great Lakes Aviation flies from Denver to Telluride return for about $549. United flies from Denver to Gunnison, the closest airport to Crested Butte, for about $314 return. (All fares include tax.)

Australians must apply for authorisation before travelling to the US on the secure website https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov.

Staying there

Mountain Lodge, Telluride, has rooms from $283; mountainlodgetelluride.com.

Lumiere, Telluride, has rooms from $468; lumierehotels.com/telluride.

Elevation Hotel and Spa at Crested Butte has rooms from $393. It also has a package of five nights' accommodation for the price of four. See elevationhotelandspa.com.

(Conditions apply, phone Travelplan on 1300 754 754.)

For more information, see tellurideskiresort.com, skicb.com, coppercolorado.com, coloradoski.com.

Heli-skiing there Telluride Helitrax has one-day heli-skiing for $1061 a person, and multi-day packages from $810 a person a day. See helitrax.com.