jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
My first time at CB and I was impressed. The map doesn’t do the area justice.
After three hours of bluebird skies, clouds blew in at noon with high winds, so they shut down the Silver Queen chair. That’s why the only double-blacks I tried were the overrated ones off the North Face t-bar. I had no problem with them, meaning they only deserved a single black rating. But the others, and there are lots, are way beyond my skillz.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, the Muellers have definitely Okemo-ized the non-extreme terrain. The grooming is extensive and wall-to-wall, part of their campaign to convince non-hardcores that they should visit CB too. There’s plenty of everything, including bumps, but if you like long groomers, you’ll really like it there.
Interesting story: this morning, while waiting for the free shuttle at my hotel, some older guy walks up to me and starts talking. We sit near each other on the bus, and he’s giving me a blow-by-blow description of everything outside the window, the fish hatchery, the local ski hill, the villages, the Gunnison River. I think he was on a first-name basis with some of the elk. I figured he was some longtime local.
When we got to the base area, he asks if I’d like a tour. We start skiing and he tells me about every terrain feature, every lift, every building. I’m like “who is this guy?” When he goes on about how he decided on trail names, I realized that he must be a BMOC here. Turns out he’s Dick Eflin, one of the original owners of Crested Butte. He and his business partner built the first lifts back in the early 60s, and he used to hike the ridge before the Poma was installed. Dick had a good story about how they used to groom the terrain in the old days… three bicycle wheels without inner tubes with wood slats to flatten the snow.
Sorry for so few photos, I was so busy listening to Dick’s stories that I forgot to pull out the camera.
Me Under the Prospect Lift
Dick along the East River Express
I was stunned by how much new infrastructure is being built at CB (and, of course, knowing what the Muellers have done at Okemo, I shouldn’t have been surprised). They’re pouring TONS of money into new base buildings, a conference center, etc. They’re also building 10,000-sf slopeside mansions similar to “The Colony” at The Canyons.
My unscientific polling of locals that day (about 12 ) found them pretty conflicted about all the new development. Most were happy that the mountain is finally getting attention and that skier visits have increased, but concerned that’s its turning into another Vail: a typical chain of events in the resort world. The place looks prosperous, and this year’s big snowfall certainly hasn’t hurt.
Dick Eflin went on at length about Snodgrass Mountain. Locals stopped development there, preventing Crested Butte North with more intermediate/upper intermediate terrain. Too bad, as it would’ve filled in the blank on the one perceived terrain shortcoming there.
Reportedly, the anti-growth crowd spent so much time defending the old town like crazy, that it has only pushed the development to Mt CB and to CB South creating far more effective sprawl and local traffic than if they had allowed, but regulated, that growth to the town area itself. The growth was/is going to come in a resort situation like CB. It’s how you go about it that matters most.
After three hours of bluebird skies, clouds blew in at noon with high winds, so they shut down the Silver Queen chair. That’s why the only double-blacks I tried were the overrated ones off the North Face t-bar. I had no problem with them, meaning they only deserved a single black rating. But the others, and there are lots, are way beyond my skillz.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, the Muellers have definitely Okemo-ized the non-extreme terrain. The grooming is extensive and wall-to-wall, part of their campaign to convince non-hardcores that they should visit CB too. There’s plenty of everything, including bumps, but if you like long groomers, you’ll really like it there.
Interesting story: this morning, while waiting for the free shuttle at my hotel, some older guy walks up to me and starts talking. We sit near each other on the bus, and he’s giving me a blow-by-blow description of everything outside the window, the fish hatchery, the local ski hill, the villages, the Gunnison River. I think he was on a first-name basis with some of the elk. I figured he was some longtime local.
When we got to the base area, he asks if I’d like a tour. We start skiing and he tells me about every terrain feature, every lift, every building. I’m like “who is this guy?” When he goes on about how he decided on trail names, I realized that he must be a BMOC here. Turns out he’s Dick Eflin, one of the original owners of Crested Butte. He and his business partner built the first lifts back in the early 60s, and he used to hike the ridge before the Poma was installed. Dick had a good story about how they used to groom the terrain in the old days… three bicycle wheels without inner tubes with wood slats to flatten the snow.
Sorry for so few photos, I was so busy listening to Dick’s stories that I forgot to pull out the camera.
Me Under the Prospect Lift
Dick along the East River Express
I was stunned by how much new infrastructure is being built at CB (and, of course, knowing what the Muellers have done at Okemo, I shouldn’t have been surprised). They’re pouring TONS of money into new base buildings, a conference center, etc. They’re also building 10,000-sf slopeside mansions similar to “The Colony” at The Canyons.
My unscientific polling of locals that day (about 12 ) found them pretty conflicted about all the new development. Most were happy that the mountain is finally getting attention and that skier visits have increased, but concerned that’s its turning into another Vail: a typical chain of events in the resort world. The place looks prosperous, and this year’s big snowfall certainly hasn’t hurt.
Dick Eflin went on at length about Snodgrass Mountain. Locals stopped development there, preventing Crested Butte North with more intermediate/upper intermediate terrain. Too bad, as it would’ve filled in the blank on the one perceived terrain shortcoming there.
Reportedly, the anti-growth crowd spent so much time defending the old town like crazy, that it has only pushed the development to Mt CB and to CB South creating far more effective sprawl and local traffic than if they had allowed, but regulated, that growth to the town area itself. The growth was/is going to come in a resort situation like CB. It’s how you go about it that matters most.
Last edited:
