Crested butte ski report

WOW! .....more to follow

Ok. First day was awesome. About 12 inches in fresh powder. We hit teocacci bowl which is on backside of mountain. Runs through trees with a few wide open spots. I came upon a young lady at the top of a rock drop, she was hesitating and I said I think you can get down a few feet back easier and she said this is more fun and pushed off. She made the landing and 90 degree turn required into the open bowl area. Well I was motivated and decided to go for it as well I made the landing but was not so good at the turn, but was pleasently surprised at how a couple feet of powder can soften the blow of a making a mistake. we hit many runs, but the only one that puckered me up was one that when I went back to the map, I found it was not a specific trail. It was steep steep with trees. I ended up sliding much of it just to control speed. This was late in day with legs getting a little rubbery, but not sure I could handle that one at speed on fresh legs. Today we went out to sunshine, but i started out feeling a little queasy and felt real tired on first run which was an amazing powder bump run. I took another run but lost my cookies just after starting down. I am not sure if it is mild altitude sickness or a bug, but decided to call it early in hopes of more time tomorrow. the cool part is just a few runs, still took us two hours! Another thing I find is I have a hard time accepting that the bump is powder and not a big ice ball covered with a dusting of snow. I tend to be way more timid then I need to be because I am expecting hard bumps vs. these nice soft mounds! I have a few pics and will try and post a little later.

Top of teocalli bowl


Going down the top of the bowl above the trees


Top of monument


Monument



Town of crested butte in distance

Nice and white out there Bumps. Keep the cards and letters coming.

Ok, I think we picked up a bug, my son was down hard today and I was feeling better. I left him in room and went for a few runs. After hitting a few we had already done I hit the north face which we had only hit a run or two on. We had another 5-6 inches of powder overnight and it snowed all day.
This first pic is just down nortface area, I had just come through a gladed area an broke out into open.


This second pic is at same spot looking back the way I came down.


The entire mountain has a lot of fire road type trails that goes across the main fall line this is on just before a bump run called pinball.


This is pinball about halfway down north side of mountain. It was fun but tiring.


The altitude is something to deal with. I have to stop often to catch my breath. If I make a lot of quick turns I am gasping within a few hundred yards. It is over 12k ft at highest point. Getting this bug didn't help, but it is work just to walk around regardless. As I mentioned before I spend a lot of time at the 7k range, but the difference going to 9-12k ft is amazing. Of course the quality of snow is just as amazing. We got lucky and hit it at the best time of the year to date. We are coming back, maybe with a little more altitude preparation, but it is worth the challenges!

I can see from the angle of the trees and size of bumps that Pinball must have been STEEP. I guess the whole north side of CB is like that I agree, the altitude, the challenging terrain, and lots of loose snow can whip flatlanders pretty good. Plus, you were barely there long enough to adjust. I was at Copper Mtn (similar elevation as CB) a few years ago and even on my 4th & 5th day at elevation was sucking wind when the going got tough. I did better on recent trip to NM and CO, but most nights slept at around 7000 feet and only skied at the higher elevations and did not have to blast through deep fresh snow.

I found if we opened the door to paio and let in fresh air we slept better. If we left door closed we were gasping by 3 or 4 in morning. Today, the day we are leaving, is the best I have felt. I no longer feel the constant pressure in my lungs. Next year I will see if we can't squeeze in a few more days and maybe do something a little lower and move higher. I also need to get more time locally before I go. It took me a couple days to get my form back as well. Doing a few little things wrong can make a big difference in how hard you have to work to get down the mountain. I took a few pics of the resort area this AM that I'll post when I get home.

Here are some shots of the base area. I was in a slop side hotel called elevation. It is the building with a clock. The had complementary ski valet.

@Suggs?

Zing!

I'm surprised that is the only misspelling . As I tell my kid, my favorite English teacher was the one that allowed us to order pizza and sneak it throught the classroom window! BTW Suggs had 2 more inches on its slops today!

CB is a great summer town, too. GREAT mountain biking trails there.