Crested Butte - World Snowboard Guide

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Crested Butte is one of Colorado's ex-mining haunts and well worth a visit and has recently refurbished the entire base area of the mountain. It has gained a good reputation as a snowboard-friendly resort, but is best known for is its extreme and hard core terrain. Indeed, you could call this place the extreme freerider's heaven in the USA, as it has successfully staged several US Extreme Snowboarding Championships. Crested Butte easily offers some of the most challenging snowboarding in America. What you get is a serious mountain for serious riders, and not your typical dollar-hungry Colorado destination. If you like your mountain high with steeps, couloirs, trees, major off-piste in big bowls, then Crested Butte is for you. With 85 runs, spread over 1,160 acres, no-one needs to feel left out, on crowd-free slopes, with a good average snow record. DC Shoe Co recently funded their terrain park and it is improving every year, but if you don't fancy that, there are endless natural jibs, jumps and fun things to play on all over the mountain.

What's more, if you fancy riding during November (25th until 15th Dec), pre-Christmas, as well as the latter part of April, you can ride for nothing, or put another way, free of charge!

New for season

05/06: new quad chair replaces a t-bar. New base village and groomers, and various improvements to the resort in general.
04/05:Under new ownership (they also own Okemo resort). Prospect lift with 3 new trails with 15 acres of intermediate terrain. Magic carpet lengthened for beginers, much improved beginners park.

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Resort Statistics

Resort Type: Alpine
Winter: Nov to April
Summer: None

Lifts

Total Lifts: 15
Chair lifts: 11
Drag lifts: 2
Other lifts: 2 'Magic Carpet'
Max people per hour: 19,850
Board Leashes required: Yes

Mountain

Total pistes/trails: 121
Total ride area: 1125 acres
Longest run: 2.6miles (4.2km)

Top lift: 3707m
Vertical drop: 850m
First lift: 2857m

Piste suitability

Green runs: 23%
Red runs: 57%
Black runs: 20%

Lift Passes

Lift Passes:
Half-day $56
1 day $74
5 of 7 days $340
Season $1,199
Lift times:9:00 a.m. ? 4:00 p.m

Snowfall

Average annual snowfall: 6.1metres
Artificial snowmaking coverage: 80%

Facilities

Snowboard Schools: Private lesson $225for 2hrs. Varrious 2hr group workshops around $80 for beginners to advanced.
Beginners day package inc lift pass & 5hr lesson $115
Snowboard Hire: Board & boots $23.40 per day. Top demo kit available for $32.40 per day
Night Riding: : No

Other activities

Heliboarding: : Not available
Snowmobiles: Yes

Further information

www.skicb.com/
Email:info@cbmr.com

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Summary

The dog's balls for backcountry riding, steeps and cliffs, but also a piste-loving carver's destination and good for beginners. Free skiing from 25th Nov until the 15th of Dec. Good and friendly local services.

ON THE SLOPES: Excellent
OFF THE SLOPES: Great
MONEY WISE: Moderately expensive, on and off the slopes, but very good value.