Comments (0) Best Mountain Smoke Shack - 2011
Topher's Trees
Exit 232 from I-70 onto Highway 40
Winter Park, CO 80482
800-979-0332
The Forest Service isn't fond of smoke shacks, those hideaways constructed of wood, cardboard, tree limbs and what-have-you that lurk just beyond many ski runs in this state. But while the Forest Service isn't fond of them, skiers and boarders sure are, and for every smoke shack that comes down, another one goes up. The best is located in Topher's Trees, a patch of woods on the Mary Jane side of Winter Park that also has some of the best tree skiing in Colorado. The area is named after Christopher "Topher" Sendroy, who died in a tree well here back in 1995, when he was 26; he's commemorated by his old Head skis on that tree and a bronze memorial plaque on a nearby catwalk. But tokers give thanks to Topher as the namesake of the best smoke shack in Colorado. A new makeshift hut replaced the old makeshift hut this season, but the spirit remains the same.
