I’ve wanted to go to Crested Butte since we moved to CO. There were rumors of really gnarly terrain I need to confirm. Anyway, I’ve been trying to go somewhere new every season. First year was Vail Resorts (they suck), second year was Taos (good enough to get a sticker on my helmet!), third year was Steamboat (generally stupid). We’ll see if CB is another Taos or Steamboat.
I found a bed and breakfast online for $100, which sounded like a great late season deal, given that just the motel was also $100, the Elizabeth Anne. Another bonus, right now we get 50% off the window rate with our season passes. Killer. We decided to stay Wednesday and Thursday night and ski Thursday and Friday.
We slept late, because, well, we’re on vacation. We got out of the house about 1250 or so. We decided to take 285 to 50, since it was 17 miles shorter than I-70 to 91 thru Leadville. Things went pretty well, though 285 is a magnet for cops. We took a short detour thru Buena Vista and a really weird antique shop. We got on 50W, went past Monarch, Monarch Crest and over Monarch pass. We drove thru Gunnison before turning north to CB. We got in about 515, so I’d say we could do it in four hours if we we’re trying with dry roads.
CB is very charming. Very charming. Its got the mountain Victorian style throughout almost the entire town. Its different than any other ski town we’ve been too. Plus, our place was well worth $100. Probably the classiest place we’ve stayed in awhile.
NOAA forecasted a bunch of snow for Thursday and we got up to find not very much. Not to despair, it was only supposed to snow 2-4 overnight anyway. We had some good breakfast at 830 and got some ski advice, rode the three mile shuttle to the resort and got on the mountain by 1015 or so. Due to high winds, Silver Queen was closed, so we rode Red Lady to Paradise. Eventually, we got over to North Face lift and took a warm up run down Rachel’s. Then, we went to North Face. Jennifer wasn’t feeling the drop-in so we traversed around. BTW, CB is freakin’ steep. Steep like Toas, but more steep above treeline. Anyway, we skiied down over some really sucky snow. 2″ of new over a bunch of crap.
After a light lunch and some warm up time in the lodge, we went back up North Face to Spellbound. The traverse over was a little more than we were expecting. The drop-in was a little dicey, with flat light, thin coverage and 60 degree pitches. We skiied down Spellbound Glade, into Phoenix Steps with a Traverse to Phoenix Bowl and then a short hike out. It was longer and steeper than we expected, but Jennifer was awesome about it. She’s my favorite.
After Spellbound, J was about done so she skiied International and I skiied Forest a couple of times. Overall, it was an OK day. It was always windy, and face blasty in the morning (and J wore my balaclava) and then sometimes snowy and sometimes sunny. Reminded me of Wolf Creek last April.
Its dumping right now, so hopefully tomorrow will be epic. Overall, the mountain looks good, but the weather and snow was kinda sucky. We’ll see how tomorrow turns out.
