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

 Jump To Top

Part Two:
Champagne on New Years Eve,
Utah Style

01.27.04 - Now that we had settled into the groove, and slowly began coming to grips with our powder situation: 17” at Park City followed by a foot or so at the Canyons in two glorious days, it was time to ring in the New Year, Utah styles. Which turned out to be, well, a minor letdown given the high we were coming off of from the skiing. We cruised Main St in Old Town, Park City, and met up with the drunkards, shared our New Year’s hats with some ladies, and then crashed out after giving a hollah out to our New York City brethren who had just watched the ball drop.

Freedom

1.20.04 - Snow is an incredibly pleasing component of the winter season. It whitens our Christmas morning, closes school for hopeful youngsters, and opens the doors of a winter sports world that flourishes in its existence. Jay Peak 2003/2004 has taught me something else about snow. It seldom comes alone. There exists an evil so great that even Billy S, the leader of the Northeast Kingdom, has no weapon powerful enough to combat this force. Not a triple, nor a quad (not even a high-speed one), nor the almighty tram, could overcome this great threat to skiing...

Champagne On New Year's Eve - Utah Style

01.12.04 - One of the first indications that we had made the best decision for being in the right place for New YearԳ since the ӹ5 MSG show was when we were on Park CityԳ Town lift, heading up the Western side of this classic Utah Ski Resort, and my brother and I looked down beneath our freshly waxed dangling skis and heardǠnothing. Below us, hotshots floated down the black diamond trail, Widowmaker, kicking up nothing but the purest champagne powder I had ever laid eyes on and they were not making a sound. The snow was too deep!

A.P.B. - Jay Needs Snow

01.05.04 - The FC staff (equipped with new digital cameras, wide-angle lenses, printers, snowboards, two-way radios, etc.) charged up to Jay Peak to ring in the New Year. We had everything from Grandma’s Lasagna to Theo’s Spanakopita and enough beer to wash down anything in between. Only one problem: no snow. The warming trend over the last week saw periods of fog, rain, and freezing rain effectively ruining the mountain for any off-piste travelers.

Big Jay

12.28.03 - It was 9pm Saturday night when Chaz first brought up the idea of an unprecedented December Big Jay run. But with 200” of snowfall this season and the best December in Jay Peak history, the quintessential back-country experience in the Jay area at least warranted an investigation. By 10am Sunday morning we were in line for the tram and highly enthusiastic about the adventure ahead. Temperatures in the mid to high 30’s, gear on our backs, and thoughts of previous Big Jay mistakes and triumphs clouded our minds while the tram brought us to “Elevation 4000”.

6th Chair, 1st Chair, 1st Tram...
A Great Day

12.27.03 - Kamm, Stu, and I loaded onto the Jay Peak Jet Triple at 8:00am under clear blue skies. We spent the next ten minutes debating whether the new 6”-12” beneath the chair was deep fluffy powder or frozen hard pack ice. It snowed heavily two days earlier and the lifts had been shut down ever since due to high winds. As we entered the trees of Timbuktu, I was elated to see the formerly bumped-out glade had been wiped clean. The intense wind from the day before had left a perfectly flat surface on which a marble would likely have rolled back to the chairlift had I dropped it from the top.

Older Archives

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

 Jump To Top