Last week Rob & Liane joined us all the way from the great north-country of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, for an overnight hut trip in the beautiful townsite of Gothic, CO just outside of Crested Butte.

The morning of our departure for the hut we were greeted with 14″ of fresh snow, that held an incredible atypical for Colorado,  2.5″ of water! This led to some thick, yet consistent and fun, wet powder skiing and made Rob & Liane feel somewhat at home, as conditions were more reminiscent of an East Coast storm then a Crested Butte backcountry storm.

We headed out to the hut with a tour up and over local backcountry skiing spot, Snodgrass Mountain, dropping down to Gothic and the East River Valley via the 1400′ vertical shot known as ’3rd Bowl’.

Rob & Liane got a true taste of steep and deep Colorado backcountry skiing, as we sat on the Gothic roadgrade admiring our tracks from below. Then off to the hut where we spent the evening relaxing on the couches by the woodstove, enjoying a fresh cooked hearty winter meal of shrimp tortellini in a parmesan-basil cream sauce, and trading stories of past adventures in the Adirondack mountains by foot, ski, rope, and boat.

Our next and last day dawned clear, sunny, and warm and although it was an incredible day for ski touring, cold overnight temps following the previous warm and sunny day resulted in some early morning crust conditions, that allowed us a mellow start to the morning as we waited for things to soften up on our tour out.

On our way back out the beautiful East River Valley, we enjoyed a short tour back up to the Gothic / Snodgrass saddle, where we enjoyed another 1,000′ or so of good and soft powder skiing up high, coupled with a few sets of challenging, character building turns down low. We arrived back at the trailhead by mid-afternoon under increasingly cloudy skies and put a fitting end to a great trip filled with a short 2-day window of fresh snow, sunny skies, and warm weather.

—Thanks for a fun trip.

Jayson Simons-Jones (Your Guide &  fellow ‘Dacks lover)

This past Saturday my good friend and backcountry partner Hutch Dubosque and I decided to break-away from the crowds at the US Extreme Freeskiing Championships going on at Crested Butte Mountain Resort, and head for the hills. We were able to get in a great ski mountaineering tour in the Slate River Drainage and spent the day up high in the alpine under bluebird skies getting in a mid-winter descent of two area classics: Augusta Mountain’s South Face & “The Nose” on Mineral Point’s Southeast Face.

The Crested Butte backcountry has received almost 2′ of new snow over the past 10 days, but warm and mild temps to start off the weekend have brought some pretty stable conditions and opened up some big and steep ski mountaineering lines on many of the local peaks.

“The Nose” line on Mineral Pt. is arguably one of the most aesthetic ski descents in the Crested Butte zone of the Elk Mountains. It is an immediately compelling line that draws one’s eye, and is steep, exposed, and committing. It is also a fantastic spring snow climb as well.

I’ve been eyeing this line on and off for almost 10 years, and on Saturday the conditions seemed good to give ‘er. With both of us training for a trip to Chamonix and the Swiss Alps, we headed out on a ski tour that took us up into Baxter Basin and around Cascade Mountain before heading up to the summit of Augusta Mountain (12,559′).

From here, we descended Augusta’s South Face in some fine wind-stiffened powder conditions. We then toured back up to the saddle and on up to the summit of Mineral Point (12,509′), where we dropped the direct and ever steepening “Nose” line for 3,000′ all the way back to the snowmachines.

A great day out in the mounatins with a great friend.

—Jayson Simons-Jones (Owner / Guide)

The Gunnison Valley is often second to none when it comes to mountain conditions. Great powder skiing (actually, “quit your job great” as Jayson puts it) and even better ice climbing this week has the guide team absolutely psyched. Jayson and I are headed out skiing for the day, but for now check out this video of yesterday’s Introduction to Ice Climbing day down in the Lake City Ice Park. I am confident in saying that Lake City is the best place in the state to learn to ice climb!

Bill. Brian, Ron and I had a great day in the sunshine learning about the intricacies of ice climbing. We started the day off with an introduction to the equipment, followed by basic crampon footwork, ice tool usage, then spent the rest of the day refining our steep ice technique. This crew had a strong rock climbing background and all three demonstrated great ice technique by the end of the day. Check out the vid from yesterday at the Ice Park

There is still plenty of winter left to learn the fun and exciting sport of Ice Climbing with Crested Butte Mountain Guides. Drop us a line and we’ll get you climbing in no time!

Lake City Ice Park Fan and Crested Butte Mountain Guide,

Mike Bromberg