Today I had the ability to take the morning off from guiding / office duties and get out to backcountry ski a few quick laps in the Colorado sunshine with local ripper Maeve Nevins.

We found some fun steep pitches in the vicinity of the East River Valley that were still holding some cold powder skiing despite the third day of nearly 40 degree spring-like temps. As we dropped into the pitch, we were greeted by surprise from one of the locals at this stash. He (or she) happily guided us down through some great tree skiing, and then brought us back around to the skin-track from a previous Crested Butte Mountain Guides group out the day before.

This fox, seemed happy to chill on a sunny log and watch us get some great backcountry skiing in, and then hang with us for a while on the uphill, just to make sure we treated his favorite local spot with kindness and respect.

A great morning with some great powder turns, and some new friends along the way..

—Jayson Simons-Jones (CBMG Owner / Guide)

While it’s far more likely to find any of the guides of CBMG out enjoying the backcountry on skis…many of us enjoy the feeling of riding the steep and deep on a snowboard. Having decided long ago that I would never use snowshoes to access a descent of any type, I turned my backcountry focus to skiing. In the meantime, backcountry snowboarding technology has come a long, long way. Gone are the days of having your resort board strapped to your pack as you wallow in the deep continental snowpack. These days we utilize split-boards for our backcountry snowboarding tools of choice… Just like it sounds, a split board is the best of both worlds. Skis for the up and a board for the down.

Check out the vlog post below for a recap of a phenomenal two days spent with some great riders from San Diego.

Backcountry Snowboarding in Crested Butte from mikebromberg on Vimeo.

It was truly a treat to be out with a splitboard specific group, and reconnect with my snow-surfing roots. Thanks for a great time out there guys.

CBMG Snowboard Guide Mike Bromberg

Jason Leonard and I went backcountry skiing again today, and tried to access some of the deeper powder stashes in the Crested Butte backcountry via snowmachines. Well…we were in for a bit of a surprise, as the ususally broken track out there, hadn’t had any sign of traffic since our last big storm cycle, so we were left with the task of breaking trail on the sleds through sometimes 5′ wind drifts of fresh snow.

My Yamaha 700 did alright, as did the old trusty Arctic Cat 580 Jason was on, until things got real thick around the bend a little over a mile from the trailhead. Over an hour later and multiple holes dug out of with stiff backs, we opted to retreat with our tail between our legs and find some closer more easily human powered accessible backcountry ski terrain.

In a great salvation to the day, we found some great open gladed skiing amongst the aspen groves 1000′ above the trailhead and a quick 30 min skin away. The abundant sunshine and warm temps (mid-30′s) let us enjoy multiple laps on a perfect pitch between the aspen groves of moderate angled terrain and sun softened thick powder skiing that we were able to milk right back to the useless snowmachines and the car.

Next time, we’ll let someone else breaks trail for us.

—Jayson Simons-Jones (Guide)

The skies finally broke this weekend in Crested Butte, CO, after a continuous storm cycle lasting almost 2 weeks, that dropped over 5′ of snow. The last punch from this relentless storm cycle came on Christmas Day, dropping 18″ of the white fluffy stuff on Crested Butte, assuring that everyone had a ‘White Room Christmas.’

Saturday brought classic Colorado bluebird skies, and cold temperatures (5*F), and was a perfect day for earning some turns backcountry skiing. Norman, OK resident and steady Crested Butte Mountain Guides ski guest, Jason Leonard and I, headed NW of town to sample the previous storm’s goods.

We were greeted with some wind thickened powder that turned the nearly 2′ of bottomless Colorado powder into a supportive base that was easily skiable. Despite the cold temps we opted for multiple laps up high at treeline on a beautiful 30 degree bowl, therefore avoiding the current avalanche danger on steeper slopes, and enjoying some long awaited Colorado sunshine and fresh powder, Crested Butte backcountry skiing style.

We will be out together again more this week finding other untouched powder stashes among the Elk Mountains out our backdoor, so check back soon for more smile sand stories, as the weather looks like it may give us  a few more days of sun and weak high pressure to enjoy, before more snow arrives to bring in the New Year !

—Jayson Simons-Jones (CBMG Owner / Guide)