The 12 Greatest Things about Crested Butte in the Summer
Most of us come to Crested Butte in the winter to ski or snowboard. The winter is incredible and that’s why a majority of us live here, but in the summer there is an endless list of things to do and you can go anywhere to do them. The two million acres of public land surrounding us opens up and becomes the biggest playground to which you’ve ever been. Summer is for exploring by means of whatever recreation you’d like! Here are the top 12 things about Crested Butte in the summer:
Friends and Family you really should consider a visit to Crested Butte. It is a special place and I am trying hard to get after it this summer and I still feel like I won't have enough time. If I live here long enough I might be one of those people who swaps their favorite season. I heard the myth when I moved here and it might be true. "You come for winter, manage to stay for summer and suddenly you are here for winter, but stay for summer." Shocking! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!
Last night’s event was off the charts! The ColoradoFreeskier.com #BigAironElk 2014 was one for the books. We had the biggest jump in the history of the event, the first female competitor ever, and the largest crowd I have seen in years. Thanks to all the sponsors and fans that came out to support this truly unique event! See full gallery here: http://trentbona.photoshelter.com/gallery/2013-Big-Air-on-Elk/G00002vy2BqHqq7o
These photos are way better than mine could ever turn out! Plus follow Trent in general because he takes awesome photos year around and they are something you would want to see!
Everyone loves an awesome ski vacation but have you ever wanted to do something that makes that vacation stand out? At Crested Butte not only is there awesome terrain and great snow but we have very unique activities off the slopes too!
One of the most unique and memorable activities on this...
January has just flown by and seems like that is how the season is going now! Since New Year's I have been very busy and to top it off we have hit the half way mark this month of the ski season!!!! Holy Moly!!!
We had a little break so we could all recover from the holiday crowds, but that ended with Martin Luther King Weekend... That weekend brought lots of fun on and off the mountain. The mountain hosted a snowmobiling event known as Roost the Butte, a Country Songwriters Festival highlighting people like Dean Dillion and Jesse Rice, and had an 80's party. To top it off Cantor Robbi was back in town. I was unable to fit it all in, so the Songwiters Festival took the hit, but I managed to do everything else. I guess I just have to spend another winter here so I can see it next year.
Friday night I enjoyed my first Tubishvat Seder with Bnai Butte. There was lots of good food and good times to be had by all!
Prior to Roost the Butte we had professional snowmobilers training on the courses to prepare for the X-Games. Throughout Roost the Butte they did the amateur events and Pro trials. It was crazy to see the 10 years olds driving and jumping off the jumps on a snowmobile! I am really looking forward to the end of the season when the Ultimate Snowmobiler happens here, which will be 8 events rather than 4.
The 80's party was a great time. My friends and I helped decorate the ballroom earlier in the day and then went home to get all dressed up and ready. In between setting up and getting ready I managed to watch the Broncos win with my roommates! The decorations looked great, all the costumes were great and everyone had a good time. I really enjoyed the Six Million Dollar band, a rad 80's cover band! Some of my friends ventured into town after the party, but Cody and I decided not to go into town. Good Decision made :-) haha.
The following weekend my family came to visit. Laurie even flew in from DC! I was so excited for the family to come visit, I just couldn't stop talking about it prior to them getting here. Laurie flew in the night before the rest of the family. I surprised her with having the rest of the day off when she got here. So we checked into the hotel and went into town. Showed her Elk Ave., grabbed dinner and then took her to Women's Arm Wrestling at one of the bars, then ended the night at my other favorite bar. We had a really good time together and ended up back at the hotel with a king bed for us. Saturday Laurie went skiing and I went to work. My parents and sister got here mid afternoon just in time for some lunch. The five of us all stayed at the hotel on the mountain skiing all day, hot tubbing at night and going out and about in town. One afternoon Jen and I took a break from skiing and I showed her around the shops on Elk and we went on a little shopping spree. It was an awesome weekend, it was amazing to see the family, and so cool that Laurie flew out too! I am so happy I got to share this place and my new life with my sister (for the first time ever), my parents (for the first time in the winter) and Laurie (for the first time ever too). I can't wait for them all to come back and visit again!
It was sad to see my parents leave, but I had to get back to work again. :-P
However, I did manage to find some free time to ski all the awesome powder we have received since my parents left! Even better- there is more snow on the way!!
With so many events going on throughout the season and Annie back from maternity leave I have started a new aspect of my job- helping Patti with her events. So this weekend was my first big experience with events. Crested Butte hosted IFSA Regional competition. Kids from 10-18 came from all over our region to ski the extreme and compete to win first place. I got to help with registration, be on venue for the competition, and help with the awards ceremony. It was really fun. Both days I sat with the judges and did score cards. So I typed in all the scores the judges gave. The second day I got a surprise job and was the announcer for the competition for the first 5 competitors. That was really fun and I think it would be cool to do that again, but I had to get back to scorekeeping once the announcer got there.
Then I ended the weekend with watching the Super Bowl. Sadly, the game did not turn out how I wanted but I still had a good time with my friends and we sure dressed the part for the Broncos to win!
Hope everyone else has had a good January! Hopefully, next month I won't write one blog for the whole month. Things just get busy. I hope you all enjoy the update! Thanks for taking the time to read it!
Once we got to the top we were able to watch the sunset and it was quite a miraculous sunset.
As the sun set we gathered at the top of Monument to get the lecture of how it all works.
Will, Eliza and I managed to stay together and were more towards the front and we ran into Dustin, which was awesome. He was very helpful with some pointers for me to survive my first torchlight at Crested Butte and walk away with no burns.
This is what torchlight looks like and I was one of those red lights. This photo was taken by Trent Bona.
The torchlight was so much fun and think it will be a new tradition to always participate. I made it down without any burns!
After the torchlight Eliza, Will and I grabbed a drink on the mountain then ventured home to get ready for our new year's eve party. Among all the roommates we had a pretty awesome turnout and I ended up leaving the party early to go to the bars to meet up with my friends who left my party a little earlier. I found them at the Dogwood Cocktail cabin and we rang in the new year there. Then we ventured to Kochevars and met up with the rest of our friends managing to stay out until the bar lights turned on. New Year's Eve was a wonderful time! Work was not so awesome the next day but everyone was on the same page pretty much....
Then a day later my friends and I went to a concert at the Center for the Arts. We may live in this small town, but I learned we have over 40 non-profits in this small town and one is the Center for the Arts. They are responsible for bringing concerts, movies and other artsy things to Crested Butte. On Thursday they hosted the Shook Twins. I had never really heard of them, but sounded like it would be a good time plus it was only $15. The concert scene was awesome, they even had one of the Elephant Revival members with them too. The music was great and their commentary was priceless. I have a new band to jam to now. Elin, Eliza, Patti and I had such a great time and even turned it into a little girls night with dinner before the concert.
All and all it has been a great start to the new year and there are just more events to be had this week and the rest of the season. I may live in a small town, but there is always something going on! Hope you all had a great start to the new year too!
My roommates and I are all getting along quite nicely. We decided to start the holiday season with a Full Moon party at our house. We shoveled our deck and made a few dished and invited our friends over for a good time. We built a fire in the grill for smore's and we had a heater, so for the most of the night we could hang on the deck and admire the full moon.
To decorate the house for the holiday we all agreed a real Christmas Tree was a must. We finally found a day that all worked and we headed off into the woods on a snowmobile to find a tree. Will had two snowmobiles for us to use, we just had to get them to the trailhead. That is where our mishaps started. Peace's truck's hitch was a tiny bit big so we managed to get the hitch and ball stuck together. After some teamwork maneuvering we were able to get them apart again. Then we had to go get Will's brother's truck. We switched out cars and then it took all four of us to get the trailer hitched. Then we headed out Kebler Pass parked the trailer undid the snowmobiles and headed out to Splain's Gulch. We found an awesome tree. We dug out around it then started sawing. The four of us took turns sawing to the point that we could push and pull it; til it finally hit the ground.
Once on the ground we nailed the tarp to the tree and loaded up the snowmobiles to head back. Of course driving back we might have had a few little mishaps as well, but made it back to the trailhead and loaded everything up to head home.
After we got it home we kept it outside because Will and I were both late for a work function. That night it snowed 7'' and we finally were all able to help get the tree in the house on Christmas Eve. We decided the easiest way was to pull it up our second story deck. To start everyone was downstairs clearing the snow off the tree and raising it straight up so I could grab it from the deck. Once that was accomplished everyone but one ran up the stairs to pull the tree up the deck.
The tree was too tall so we cut about another 5'' off the base. Next step was to get it through the house.
Christmas Eve was nothing special but spent some quality time with my roommates. We watched the torchlight Parade from the Butte 66 deck, then went home to cook and eat dinner. Then we did some tree decorating to finish the night all venturing out to the bars. Christmas Eve night is a pretty good time out and about in Crested Butte. Christmas Day I went to work and then a whole bunch of us went up to Cody's for a delicious Christmas dinner. Similar to Thanksgiving everyone brought a dish and we ate like kings and queens, but we had more company. After we stuffed our faces we participated in a grab bag filled with fun goodies everything from crayons to nibs to ice scrapers.
To end the night we all curled up on the couches in the home theater and watched Home Alone. All and all it was an excellent Christmas filled with lots of joy and friends.
Now that it is post Christmas the ski resort is the busiest it has been all season. To prepare for the busy season I got to ski around the resort to all the restaurants and drop off trail maps. Then I got to walk around the resort and deliver them to all who needed them. We are estimating 5,000- 6,000 skiers for the next few days! It is great to see the ski resort so busy, but I will be excited when the ski resort empties out again.
With the all the hustle and bustle this past weekend was another visit from Cantor Robbi. So Friday night after work I went to an Oneg Shabbat service and dinner at one of the congregants houses. It was a lovely time and so great to see all the second home owners back again.
Now New Year's is just around the corner and so far there are no plans but to either be in the torchlight parade or watch it and watch the fireworks. Among my roommates and my friends I am sure we will figure something out before Tuesday night. Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season! Until next time!
It sure has been a while since I personally have posted. I still can't believe that it is now the end of November! The month has just flown by. I have been super busy with my life in general (nothing new), but now I have a second to breathe. For being such a small town, there is always something fun to do and never a dull moment. Even if there isn't something going on in town- there is always fun to be had at my house since all my roomies have moved in. We all work on the mountain some way and our schedules are a little all over the place, but we are having fun getting to know each other, going out on the town, taking ski laps, and chilling at home. It sure is going to be a great winter!
Last Friday the local radio station held their regular BINGO night. This BINGO night is a bit different due to the fact of how rowdy it gets. The special event is held a few times a year and the location is changed every time. This time it was held the Eldo (one of the bars in town). It is ten games and a bonus round for $11 bucks. Everyone has dotters and you just play each round. If you get BINGO you win some awesome prizes, like gif cards, bar tabs, and cash! If for some reason there is a tie there is usually a competition to see who actually wins- something like wall sits (we do live in a ski town), shot gunning beer racings, and the best of all dance offs. This was my first BINGO and I will never miss another one. You can see from the photos that the dotters don't only dot the paper but the people around you.
Friday night was such a blast that we all kind of chilled Saturday and into the night. I was fine with that because I made plans to go to Monarch Ski Resort with one of my co-workers and her fiance on Sunday. Monarch opened last Saturday and we were all getting the itch for some lift access skiing. It seemed if you didn't go to Monarch on Saturday, you went Sunday, which my friends and I were happy we did. Sunday they had more terrain open and it was less crowded. It was a fun first day on the slopes and best part it only cost $10! Working at Crested Butte, we have a deal with all the ski resorts in Colorado (minus Vail resorts) that we can ski there for free as long as we bring our employee pass and the paperwork. Since we weren't open yet it was $10, that is pretty much free.
After the busy weekend, we just went back to work plugging away for opening day! We had costumes to get ready, scripts to write, lollipop holders to make and many other fun activities. My office looks like a glitter bomb exploded and will for quite sometime. The night before opening we held a FREE showing of Greg Stump's classic ski movie The Blizzard of Aahhh's on the mountain to get everyone excited. We had two screens set up in the ballroom and had about 150 people show up. It was the perfect movie to get everyone excited for opening day.
Wednesday was not only Opening Day, but it was also the first night of Hanukkah. I decided after the busy day at work to host a bunch of friends for an amazing Hanukkah dinner filled with brisket, laktes, matzah ball soup, challah, and so much more. To be successful with work and dinner, I woke up a little early on Wednesday morning to start cooking the brisket. It took two crock pots, filled them up, turned them on and headed off to work. At work we got there early, because we were there to celebrate First Chair and the start of the season. We all got dressed up for the "Blizzard of Oz" and the majority of our crew headed up the lift to ski down right before the chairs opened. Cody, Jenny and I stayed down below to hand out lollipops to all. The first chair is a coveted chair for opening season and this year there really was no competition, because 3 kids started camping out on Saturday!!! They were there for 5 days so they could be on that chair. It was a fun morning and thank God it was a sunny day and not bitter cold. Right before the lift started running there was champagne toast and then everyone started their day!
After the busy morning we went back to our normal routine, except we all tried to get one run in! Now the ski resort is open it is strongly encouraged to get out and take a few runs for your lunch break! So exciting. Knowing I had 15 people coming over I dipped out of work a little early and headed home to prep. The house smelled lovely and the everything was pretty much ready to go. So as it got closer to dinner I started pulling together everything for the laktes. Dinner was at about 7 and everyone came ready to eat and enjoy. The dinner was just fabulous and we all had a grand time. I lit the the candles and we watched them burn all night while a bunch of us played dreidel, then drinking dreidel, and lastly ending the night with Battle Dreidel (also a drinking game). The latkes were a huge success and I am even debating making one more batch before Hanukkah ends. ( we will see) Took the left overs to work, since a few of my co-workers couldn't make it to the dinner.
Thursday was Thanksgiving and the first Thanksgiving I have spent away from my family. It was a little weird but in the end the dinner just felt like a larger version of our family dinners. I worked all day, but was able to get in two hours of skiing. Since we had the dinner at Cody's house, I waited for Dustin to get off work and then Eliza, Dustin and I drove up together. Pretty much everyone brought a dish and the food was amazing again! We had so many leftovers we could have done dinner twice. Two nights in a row. We won't know what to do after this week. lol At the end of dinner Patti brought out a cake and we sang happy birthday to Dustin and he opened some presents. Post all the food we all curled up with our food comas to watch a movie. We watched "We're the Millers." It was very funny. Some were unable to make it through the movie and curbed to the food coma, but for the most part we all watched it. The movie ended some geared up to drive home, others crawled into bed for a massive sleepover. It was a huge celebration- Thanks-akkah-day (Thanksgiving-Hanukkah-Birthday) all in one!
With all those crazy things going on, we are now just getting back to work and getting excited for more terrain to open. Wednesday we had the most terrain open for opening day in a while and there was no white ribbon to be found. Yesterday we managed to open one more lift with a few more trails and the snow was awesome and soft in a few places. Some people even got first tracks ( I had work, so that wasn't me) Soon I will get my AT set up so I skin up before work and get some fresh cord. even if I have to work. Now it seems there is a storm looming for the middle of this week and with the cold weather and this storm two more lifts are going to be opening next weekend!
If you couldn't tell I am really loving life here and never knew I could be this happy! I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with family and friends and are enjoying the many nights of Hanukkah! Remember if you ever want to come visit this wonderful slice of heaven- guests are always welcome!
It’s amazing that something so small can inspire us to climb huge mountains because we love it so much. #snowflake #snow #powder #ski #skiing #snowboard #snowboarding #skibums #lgbt #gay
Everyone’s got a favorite. The Cow is vibrant with a tail hanging off the rear end. The Fish has unexpected scenes if you look up close. Me? I like the new Happily Ever After, with the whimsical fairy tale characters. Tomorrow, it might be the Zodiac. It changes with my mood.
Check out this write up about me being the New Girl in the town of Crested Butte. My friend Jess is majoring in sociology at Western and is interviewing different people around town for her senior capstone project. Pretty fun!
Powder Magazine is hosting the second annual Ski Town Throwdown, a voting competition among ski towns across North America. Each day 2 ski resorts are paired up to compete for the most votes in a 24 hour period on Powder Magazine’s Facebook Page; the winner goes on to the next round. Tomorrow is our first round of voting and thought we would share why we think we are the #1 Ski Town in North America.
Last weekend my parents came to Crested Butte for a visit. It was really fun because they had never been here before either. Here are a variety of pictures from the visit.
Thursday I still had to go to work, so we ate breakfast in our room and I walked over to work. I had meetings all morning so mom and dad did some exploring on the mountain hiking around. After all my meetings they met me and we headed in to town for lunch. Dad was in the mood for a burger, so we went to the Last Steep. After lunch I had to do some work in town so that was really nice. We ate such a late lunch that we decided to skip dinner and just hang out and relax at the hotel.
Friday was pretty nice because I didn't have to go to work. We slept in and went into town to eat at Paradise Cafe. Post breakfast we walked around town and did some shopping. It was really fun to show my parents around town and share the fun facts I have learned so far. For example, before indoor plumbing people had to build two story outhouses because of all the snow they received in the winter. The one below is no longer used as an outhouse, but has been restored for a storage space.
Crested Butte started out as a mining town, like most ski resorts. Crested Butte was known for it's coal, which didn't provide much money for the miners. So when the tin roofs became worn out the miners would cover the patches with license plates. To keep the tradition alive a local coffee place called Camp 4 Coffee, which many people claim is the best coffee in the world, covers their building with license plates.
Last fun fact, Crested Butte is still very rich in rocks and minerals. Just outside of Crested Butte is a mountain that mines a stone that can only be found 3 places in the whole entire world. The stone is called Lapis and can be found in Afghanistan, Chile and here. One of the jewelry stores has the monopoly on the stone because their owner bought the mining rights and have a specific logo that is similar in significance to a Wasatch Bracelet. I have decided if I at least last two seasons here, I will treat myself to it. Apparently it is common gift for students at Western who graduate.
Next we went back up to the mountain to take my dad to the shop of Crested Butte. My friends in the office reached out to the Mountain Ops guys to set up a time for my dad ( a mountain ops guy from Alta) to meet them. Dad was able to talk with the "best snowmaker of the year" then the Assistant to Mountain Ops who helps run snowmaking and the cat crew. It was really fun to watch them talk about all the different products, and procedures. Plus my mom got to see some of the snowcats that Alta doesn't use. I really enjoyed going up there too, because it reminded me of what I am used to at Alta. The shop is a bit smaller, but it was really cool and good to know where it is; especially if I am ever homesick :-) haha. Since we were already on the back side of the mountain, my mom and dad wanted to show me this crazy house on the mountain that looks like a ship, so we were driving up the mountain on all these different streets, while we looked for it. Eventually found it. It was cool looking, didn't take a photo but while we were out searching we saw some wildlife. We saw some deer and a fox.
With such a busy Friday, by the time we were done with the town, visiting the shop and driving around to see all the houses, we only had a short time back at the hotel before we went to the premier of this season's MSP (Matchstick Productions) ski movie. This year their movie was more documentary based and was highlighting the life of Shane McConkey, since he was one of the founding fathers of MSP. It was a really good movie, and all of us really enjoyed it. I recommend anyone to watch it!
Since the movie was at 6 pm we had dinner after at Maxwells. It was a nice dinner, but sadly I had a wicked head ache so it was short lived. We got back to the hotel and I passed out!
Saturday we spent most of the day outside. Most of the photos from the collage came from Saturday. Started the morning eating in the room and then headed up Kebler Pass, home to the largest Aspen grove in Colorado and the pass you take to go to Aspen in the summer. I guess that is another fun fact Aspen is really close to us in distance. It is only 13 miles, but because there are no roads that way, it takes a lot longer to drive. Only if we could fly! Many of the leaves were gone due the recent temperatures and snow, but we still managed to get some cool photos and enjoyed the drive. Since we were already up that way I decided to take them up to Lake Irwin, where I camped earlier this year with Jackie and Brian. It was pretty fun to see the area all covered in snow. Even saw another kid I knew showing his parents the area too. Apparently it was the weekend for parents to visit. From there we headed back down and got to the bottom of the Lake Irwin road to find a car flipped. None of us recalled it being there when we drove up. So we stopped and found tracks leading away from the car and no one was in it. Hope they are okay. Once we got back to town, we headed up another dirt road out towards the little town of Gothic then onto Judd Falls. I thought Judd Falls would be a nice nature walk and it was in the sun. It was a little muddy due to snow melting, but we didn't care. The trail was pretty empty except for one other family. Ironically enough we ended up knowing that family. On dad's cat crew last winter one of the new guys came from Crested Butte. However, in the summer he works for the forest service outside if Gunnison. We got to the parking lot and dad mentioned that car looked familiar and it looked like Tad's car, but it didn't have an Alta sticker. As we were hiking, this guy asked me to take a family photo since I was walking in front of my parents. I said sure, and then Tad looked up and saw my dad. Dad apparently called it, and it just shows how small of world it can be. We all talked for a bit and then each went our separate directions. It was such a pretty day, with the sun shining and as long as the wind wasn't blowing it was quite warm. Since the hotel was on the way back to town, we dropped off Dad so he could watch football and mom and I went into town to run some errands- fix my bike, do a little more shopping, and buy some groceries. It was a very productive afternoon and with skipping lunch we had an early dinner at the Wooden Nickel. It was probably the best dinner I have had out in Crested Butte. We were all so content with our meals. Since we had an early dinner we were able to go to Montanya's, a local rum distillery just a few shops over. It was a must and is a must when you come to Crested Butte, and Saturday was their last night for awhile, because they are moving locations. While at Montanya's we ran into Tad and his family again and learned that they were all staying at LMS too, because his brother works there. Once we finished our drinks we headed back up to the hotel to some hot tubbing and swimming. A whole group checked in Saturday so the hot tub was a little crowded, but that didn't bother us. We had lovely conversations with everyone.
Sunday morning we all woke up and packed up the car. We drove into town to eat breakfast at McGill's. From there, my parents dropped me off at home picked up my mountain bike and they hit the road. It was an amazing few days with my parents and we all had a great time. I can't wait until they come back this winter!
I moved to Crested Butte in the middle of August. One thing I learned quite quickly was Crested Butte has some of the best mountain biking in the west and an awesome bike park for lift accessed mountain biking. Every day at work I would be mesmerized by the bikers flying off the jumps on the downhill courses. I was extremely intrigued and after encouragement from my friends and their offers to take me, I decided it was time to change the fact I had never been “downhilling”.
