Poised to drop into Banana Chute via the high traverse at Crested Butte, CO.

Erika came out to visit me for a 4 day weekend, and we hauled ass down to Crested Butte for 2 days of high pressure and a “heat wave” (37 degrees!) in Crested Butte. It was in the 40s near Vail that weekend, to give you idea of how warm it was in Colorado that week.

The Skiing
People told me CB has the toughest lift access ski terrain in North America. Damn, well, they might just be right. Or at least, they’re up there with Silverton. Double Black Extreme after double black extreme, CB definitely has fucking steep terrain. “Rambo” might be the steepest, I think it’s actually a cliff with a couple of moguls in it. Apparently it was closed, otherwise I might have broken something trying to get an edge in on it. With the incredible sunshine and rising daily temps, conditions were spring-like soft. Banana Chute has to be one of the best inbounds runs I’ve ever done. 3,000 ft of avalanche chute off of the west side of Mt. Crested Butte, awesome.

The Town

• A cheap hostel (30/night)
• A bus that leaves every 15 minutes and takes you straight to the mountain (sorry Vail, you free bus is slow as hell)
• The Secret Stash — Home of the greatest pizza I have ever eaten.

I also hear there’s some great backcountry around Crested Butte as well.  Seriously though, this place fucking rocks.  I hate to sound like an advertisement, but if you love steep and tough skiing you gotta go here.  Oh yeah, I think you can do para-skiing here (that is skiing from a paraglider).

Tuesday was an unbelievable day here in Colorado. 31″ of the good stuff fell on the slops of Breckenridge. I battled my way through the I-70 closure to get the goods with about 400 other people at Breck that day. The turns were great, the crowds were not, but what do you expect on one of the biggest pow days in the front range?