Whether you call it the San Joaquin Bowl or Revelation Bowl, the terrain off the back of Gold Hill looks like any skier’s dream. Nearly 800 vertical feet of wide-open turns. Soft and plentiful snow. Stunning views into Bear Creek.

And one day — perhaps as early as next winter — the Telluride Ski Resort hopes to build a fixed-grip chair lift to serve the bowl. Dave Riley, the CEO of Telski, called the project “my absolute number 1 priority for terrain and lifts.”

Right now, the resort is doing survey work and engineering studies to analyze the details of what a lift into Revelation Bowl would look like, where it would go, how it could be built. The U.S. Forest Service has already approved a lift into the bowl, but Telski would have to get construction approvals before it could start pouring concrete and erecting lift towers.

“We’ve been working on this for months,” Riley said.

This spring, the ski resort plans to examine its budget and capital projects to see whether it has the wherewithal to move ahead on the project. Telski is already planning to add footrests and safety bars to the Lift 9 chairs, and Riley has said the Lift Maintenance Department is drawing up a list of summer projects.

“Until all of that settles out and we understand what kind of season we’ve had and what capital expenditures are in front of us, I can’t guarantee that we can build the lift,” he said. “I can’t guarantee that the lift will be built this summer but I am working on it.”

Building a lift into Revelation Bowl would likely cost about $2 million, Riley said.

Despite the uncertainty, Telski shows strong inclinations toward moving forward. On Jan. 28, Riley wrote to the U.S. Forest Service, seeking construction approval for a “San Joaquin Lift.”

According to the letter, Telski wanted approval to construct Snocat access trails into the bowl, grade areas for the lift terminals, install electricity and pour concrete.

The Forest Service would only need to approve specifics of the construction plan. There would be no public hearings or further environmental assessments, said the Forest Service’s Corey Wong.

Riley said he’s been dreaming of a lift into the high powder bowl ever since he came to Telluride this summer and began looking at Telski’s master plan. The bowl has steep, consistent, wide-open pitches, and its position on the sheltered side of Gold Hill gives it incredibly deep snow.

“It’s not gigantic, and the acreage isn’t extraordinarily large, but it’s extraordinarily good,” Riley said. “It’s the last place in our master plan that calls for terrain expansion. Everything else is kind of infilling.”

The base of the lift would sit above the cliff band, and lift skiers to the Hillary Step, which is a flat notch that sits above the top terminal of Lift 14, near the backcountry access gate into Bear Creek. It would run about as fast as Chair 6, another fixed-grip lift.

The bowl would offer 782 vertical feet of skiing, 1,800 feet of turns from top to bottom, and an average pitch of 25 degrees.

For years, this ocean of off-limits powder has trilled a siren’s song to skiers. People skiing down from the top of Lift 14 duck the boundary ropes, get to exult in bottomless powder turns, and then discover why it’s called Revelation Bowl — a sudden and impassible band of 100-foot cliffs.

Skiers can either hike back out, navigate an exposed traverse or make the 100-foot rappel into Bear Creek.

In 2006, two neophyte skiers poached Revelation Bowl but had to hike out when they came to the unavoidable cliff band. They had to hike back up, where they were arrested for violating the Skier Safety Act.

Building a lift into the bowl raises some obvious questions about safety. With deep natural fractures clearly visible, could the mountain do avalanche control? How would skiers get out if the lift broke down?

Building a lift into Revelation Bowl would tame the terrain, Riley said.

Telski would build an access road into the bowl, and Riley said the ski area had already surveyed a route. He said that Telski would clearly mark the lower boundaries of the bowl, so skiers wouldn’t unwittingly stumble onto the cliff band.

And he said that skier compaction and avalanche control work would reduce the risk of slides and fractures in the bowl. Skiers revel in the steep and deep terrain on Gold Hill and the Prospect Basin hike-to’s, which is controlled by Telski.

“All safety and operational issues have been considered for this project,” Riley wrote in a blog post.

Riley said that the project won’t be a certainty until crews are actually raising the lift towers.

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.