FC Mag Goes Colorado Styles
Days 4 and 5: Crested Butte
Day 4: Crested Butte
02.17.04 - At 8pm on Wednesday February 4th, my Colorado ski companion Matt Barber and myself arrived at the crested butte hostel. We could see a fresh 3-4 inches of snow on top of a previous dumping of 8+ in the parking lot; as it turns out, a big storm had hit crested butte hard tuesday night through wednesday. The official "powder day" occurred one day too soon for our arrival, but nonetheless we could only imagine some great conditions for our first ever days at the butte. We unloaded barber's red toyata pickup with enough gear to move in for a month, and crashed early preparing ourselves for some great skiing.
We awakened a little after 7am and began gearing up for skiing a 20 degree bluebird apres pow day, day. After munching some bacon egg and cheese breakfasts, we lined up for the second chair at the silver queen lift. On the chair ride up we chatted with a female and male local in their mid twenties about some good spots to ski on our first visit to the butte. Once they confirmed our ski abilities, their openness made us feel at ease while they both encouraged us to focus our skiing off of the high lift and the north face lift.
When we reached the top of the silver queen we quickly skied down to the high lift t-bar accessing the headwall and with some hiking the "banana chutes." Glancing at the banana chutes from a distance, it appeared some technical rock climbing was required to access them, so we headed straight for the headwall.
Wasting no time, I began to ski excitedly down the very steep and wide open headwall for my first run. Initially, I had difficulty determining the snow pack's consistency with my eyes, but my legs adjusted within the first few turns. The crusty and wind blown looking snow skied like soft slightly wind buffed powder. After making some technical turns, I found a little pow patch, and made some nice half jump turns. A third of the way down the headwall, I stopped and looked up to see barber enjoying the snow on the headwall including a nice pow patch encompassing him as he slid to a stop slightly above me. We took our time leap frogging down the remainder of the headwall avoiding some rocky spots, and searching out the softest sections. It became obvious that the mountain offered great snow and terrain, so we excitedly skied down through the paradise bowl en route to the north face lift. The north face poma lift carried one passenger at a time, and accessed the most expert terrain at crested butte.
From the north face lift we entered Rachel's bowl with fresh and warm legs ready to tear into it like tigers into a fresh kill. Ripping turn after turn into the slightly cut up powder we raced down towards the north face bowl. We found a nice fresh section, and barber gave me the honors. I quickly started down it hop turning more out of excitement than necessity, and enjoyed a powder filled run down to the flat run out below. Making rookie mistakes, we skied too far down and had to take two lifts in order to get back to the poma.
Using the advice from another friendly local, we took a different route off the top of the poma to access more terrain. Skating straight down a short trail, veering left, side stepping up a hill, then traversing down a decline, and once again side stepping up a little hill we reached the entrance to spellbound bowl. This short traverse and hike would become the routine for the rest of the day.
From the top of spellbound we could see a vast amount of terrain to our right and directly below us. The makeup of the terrain consisted of several ridges allowing one to ride different faces or into different bowls. We traversed into the center of the small spellbound bowl, and skied the boot deep snow up to the warning fence. Skiing through the warning fence we could see the cliff formations it allowed easy access through while preventing an accidental drop off. There were some tracks off higher sections which one could only assumed were intentionally skied by some of crested butte's finest locals. We now found ourselves in the phoenix bowl which itself has a multitude of terrain separated by tree sections. We tore down the right side with confidence since the boot high snow kept our speeds in check. Seeing some rocks jutting up from the smooth snow surface, I paused to scope out the landing below, and then flew off it crashing twenty feet down the hill. Picking myself up, I brushed off some snow, and followed the bowl into a funneled narrow exit. As we paused to catch our breath, Barber enjoyed pointing out another large rock below us which looked like it would launch far down the hill below it. Once I crashed off the previous rock, I figured I had nothing to lose and pointed my skis straight off it without hesitation. Thankfully for me, there was plenty of room and snow below since I once again crash landed. However, since this would become our most repeated run of the day, I would get my revenge on those two rocks later.
Barber and myself spent the remainder of the day doing spellbound to various sections of the phoenix bowl. At times we skied wide open sections, extremely tight and very steep chutes, and glades of varying density. Most importantly, we skied steep runs with plenty of snow until the two of us cried for mercy. Looking forward to another day at the butte, we spent the night recounting the day over some bubble hockey and $1.25 bud bottles. We finished ourselves off with some delicious burgers at the crested butte brewery and headed back to the hostel to pass out early.
Day 5: Crested Butte
We arrived at the mountain early and lined up for first chair! Once again we headed straight for the high lift t-bar and the headwall to start the day. The headwall remained a fantastic run even two days after the storm. With sore muscles, we cruised down a bit leisurely as our legs warmed up to another fabulous day of skiing. We then quickly headed over to the poma lift where I took the third consecutive first chair up the mountain. When we reached the top of the lift, we decided to hold off on hiking to spellbound/phoenix and instead ski the north face glades for our second run.
Looking for some fresh snow, we veered left towards the north face bowl, and then ducked into some trees to our right. Our powder noses served us well as we discovered a jackpot! We saw some great lines through some tight trees with completely fresh snow. No one had skied in there since the big dump, so it became our hidden powder stash for the morning into the after noon. Barber took off disappearing into the trees making virtually no sound on the bottomless fresh snow. I quickly scouted out a line farther left and began making slalom turns between the tight trees while smirking uncontrollably. When I popped out of this tree section, I saw Barber up ahead to my right and traversed over to him. After a short discussion, we agreed to ski down and lap this hidden powder stash for several more runs. We did another 5 laps enjoying these deep and fresh bob and weaves through the trees before we decided to move on.
After enjoying the spellbound to phoenix runs the day before, we easily convinced ourselves to hike up to the entrance of spellbound. After the hike, we were once again rewarded with a soft run that was now skied pretty heavily and in great crud form. I ceremoniously hit my two rocks one last time on the way down knowing our crested butte adventure was coming to an end.
Near the final descent Barber pointed out a skier coming down the most cliff and rock infested "trail" we had seen at crested butte. Amazingly, the local showed incredible technique as he hopped from rock to rock knowing a mistake could mean death or serious injury. After watching him complete his run Barber pointed out how the skill level at crested butte could rival any mountain since we've spent the past two days surrounded by extremely good skiers and riders (definitely far more local skiers than boarders).
We did one last quad burning sprint through our private powder stash, and called it a fantastic two days! I can only hope this article does one tenth the justice of how great the two days we spent in crested butte felt to the two of us. Hands down, the best two days of the trip.
~CG
Related Articles:
- Day 1: Vail
- Day 2: A-Basin
- Day 3: Breckenridge
- Days 4 and 5: Crested Butte
- Day 6: The Other Vail
Termas de Chillan Chillan, Chile (August 21-23, 2005)
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06.16.05 - Last year Line's catalogue looked like an army recruitment brochure. This year, it resembles a romp through the Playboy mansion; the Line reactor binding spread out on a pimped out velvet background. After 10 years in this business, Line has released their best skis yet. From 3 different Prophets to 2 different Chronics to a couple of women's skis, Line is putting it all on the table this winter...
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Salomon Releases 2005/2006 Skis
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03.16.05 - After 4 years of hearing about great skiing in the Pacific Northwest, I finally chose this season to visit Dave Bell and find out what exactly is going on with the often underestimated resorts of Washington state. I got the call from Bell about a week before JR and I were set to leave. "I think you should fly in somewhere else, we just don't have any snow..."
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01.09.05 - Jay is in bad shape. Really bad. The worst I have seen it in 5 years. The recent warming trend and rain events have basically ruined what looked like a promising year. If you are looking for a cruel joke, refer to the article I wrote 370 days ago (A.P.B. - Jay Needs Snow) to see the same thing happened last year, it just wasn't this bad. Last year also had help from the 200" of snow we got in December. Out of 30 people I know who ski Jay Peak regularly, not one went up there this weekend. Half of us found deeper snow on Berardi's roof Friday night than we would have in Beaver Pond. And despite partying on his Boston roof top past 2am, we were a lot safer compared to skiing Jay's glades.
12.04.04 - "Could it have really snowed 5' in Tahoe?" I pondered as I read an email from this tele-skier Chiquita I know. It was October 22nd. I had no reason to believe there was 5' of fresh goodness out west. It was still 65 degrees in Boston. It was October in the western hemisphere. Nope. No reason to believe. So I did what any ski-geek-bum does these days: I checked the Squaw web cam.
11.28.04 - With a packed parking lot and a cold spell in the air, big things were in store for our first day of the year. None so big as my willingness to leave after 3 turns. As I navigated my way down the only open trail, I quickly realized that every type of skier was strutting their early season style. Race teams practicing race drills, beginners practicing sucking, and everyone in everyone else's way was the recipe for ski day # 1 for JR and me.
Older Archives
11.19.04 - Let's Get This Season Started
09.29.04 - 5 Tips to Skiing Better This Season
09.18.04 - Summer Meditation
07.27.04 - Pics of the PNW
07.14.04 - Line's New Line: 2004/2005
07.06.04 - Yesterday
06.15.04 - Cathedral
05.13.04 - Tech Tip#2: Post-Season Tune-Up
05.01.04 - Atomic Releases 2004/2005 Skis
04.13.04 - First Chair
04.07.04 - K2 Releases 2004/2005 Skis
03.25.04 - Redemption
02.29.04 - Big Jay on Leap Day
FC Mag Goes Colorado Styles:
02.11.04 - Day 1: Vail
02.12.04 - Day 2: A-Basin
02.13.04 - Day 3: Breckenridge
02.17.04 - Days 4 and 5: Crested Butte
02.22.04 - Day 6: The Other Vail
01.27.04 - Part 2: Champagne on New Year's Eve,
Utah Style
01.20.04 - Freedom
01.12.04 - Part 1: Champagne On New Year's Eve,
Utah Style
01.05.04 - A.P.B. - Jay Needs Snow
12.28.03 - Big Jay
12.27.03 - 6th Chair, 1st Chair, 1st Tram...A Great Day
12.08.03 - Big Monday
12.07.03 - Anticipation
12.05.03 - Opening Day
11.22.03 - 10 Ideas to Kick the Pre-Season Blues
11.01.03 - Tech Tip #1: Pre-Season Tune-Up
10.04.03 - Tenney Mountain Opens – October 4th
09.01.03 - FC Magazine Launches Online Winter Home