Over the Xmas week, longtime backcountry ski guest of Crested Butte Mountain Guides, Jason Leonard & I went out and got in a few days of great fresh powder turns despite the lack of any new snow in a while now. Once again, coming straight from Oklahoma didn’t hinder him at all, as we went to some shorter ‘lap’ type places where we were able to get in between 3 and 5 laps for totals of about 3,000′ of vert each day.

Great powder skiing, clear but cold weather, and a lack of any other backcountry skiers on our terrain all 3 days made for a wonderful experience, and one that Scott Palk (another Okie) juumped in on to experience with us on the 3rd and final day.

The big news, was Jason’s new switch to a Dynafit set-up for his backcountry skis. A longtime user of the K2 Mount Baker ski, with Fritschi Freeride’s and Garmont Endoprhin’s for the ability to use this set-up both on and off-mountain, after many miles of ski touring with me on my Dynafit’s, he is now a convert.

Freshly outfitted with some Dynafit Manaslu’s, Dynafit F12 binders, and Garmont Radium AT boots, he is now even more stoked then ever to be out in the backcountry ski touring with me, and is now also skiing better then ever and now (unfortunately for me) hiking like a CB local jacked up on too much Camp 4 Coffee.

As always, thanks for spending some of the holidays out in the Crested Butte backcountry with me making some turns. Looking forward to doing it again this year, and to making some turns in Alaska as well this spring !   And over 2 feet of fresh snow in the Crested Butte backcountry this week, means there is plenty more powder skiing to be had out there for the rest of you also….

–Your Guide, JSJ

Mid-December brought us our first AIARE Level 2 Avalanche Course of the season, as 12 folks from here locally in Crested Butte, Gunnison, and as far as the Colorado Front Range and Vail, gathered for a sold out course over 4 days.

Course timing seemed perfect for learning how to analyze snow stability at a professional level, as the 10 days previous to the course, had brought us 2 seperate storms totalling almost 6 feet of snow in the Crested Butte backcountry. We were lucky enough to be blessed with some unseasonably mild and sunny weather for our course, perfect for spending time standing around in snowpits and analyzing snow grain formation and snowpack bonding characteristics.

The main format of the Level 2 Avalanche Course is learning about practicing expert recording and observation standards (weather, snowpack, and avalanche)as they relate to avalanches and assessing snow stability. It is also the course where professional level decision-making buidls upone the Level 1 basic Decision-making framework, and students are introduced to assessing snow stability and how and what data to gather for helping in this process.

The Level 2 Avalanche Course is the beginning step into the professional track of avalanche education and courses are ususally made up of guides, ski patrollers, and well-travelled and experienced recreational backcountry users looking to increase their knowledge base and improve upon their snow stability evaluation skills. It differs from the Level 1 ‘Foundation Course’ in that it is focused more on assessing stability and terrain choices based on field and remote data and how it all plays out in desicion-making, prior to entering avalanche terrain. Where as, the Level 1 Course tends to focus on desicion-making while in avalanche terrain.

This year we had a great group of enthusiatic and experienced folks, and great sunny weather, and enjoyed some good ski tours, some good turns, and some great learning experiences and environements, as the ease of access and travel in the Crested Butte backcountry is an ideal place for avalanche education.

Thanks all for your attention, enthusiasm, and desire to learn and imporve your avalanche decision making skills. Looking forward to seeing you all out in the mountains again, making some turns and staying safe

 — Your Instructors,

Jayson Simons-Jones & Steve Banks

Just wrapped up another AIARE Level 1 this past weekend. We had a great 3 days of learning and all under classic bluebird and sunny Colorado skies!

Check out the pit walls!

Which way should we go?

A quick lunch stop at my favorite spot, complete with amazing views of Mt. CB.

And of course some powder turns on the way down!

Practice practice practice!

Thanks Guys and Gals for all you hard work and attention this weekend. We hope to see you all out on the skin track soon.

Your Instructors Kyle and John

Crested Butte News published an article this week called  ’State of the Backcountry’ written by Mike Horn (frequent contributor to Backcountry Magazine) featuring some of CBMG’s local heroes (namely Alan and Jayson).  It emphasizes the delicate state of our backcountry conditions, something that’s pretty common for our Colorado snowpack.  It also suggests one of the best things you can do for you (and your friends) is educate yourself in the latest in backcountry travel techniques and avalanche rescue by taking an AIARE Avalanche Course.  If it’s been a while since you’ve taken a course, our Avalanche Refresher Course is a great way to get those skills brought back to the forefront of your mind in a concentrated one day format. Click here to see the whole article from the News and what Jayson keeps in his backcountry ski pack.

Winter has made an abrupt arrival in Crested Butte, with back-to-back winter storms hitting us over the past 2 weeks, leaving us with 5 feet of fresh snow to start off December. With the sudden arrival of all this snow, we have also been brought our first cycle of avalanche danger, and perfectly in time for the beginning of our avalanche course season, bringing us a very real-life learning and educational situation of which to teach from and experience in the Crested Butte back-country.

The first weekend in December saw Crested Butte Mountain Guides running two separate AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Classes to full capacity; one an open enrollment course and the other a college specific course targeted at the local Western State College back-country community in Gunnison. And just in time, as the first storm of the season arrived on the third day, the field-touring day of the course, in which we were able to see the beginnings of our first avalanche cycle of the 09/10 season first hand.

Then as another major winter storm slammed into Crested Butte again this past weekend we held two more AIARE Avalanche Courses, our super popular 1-day Avalanche Refresher Course & another sold-out Level 1 Hut Course in nearby Gothic, CO. Bluebird skies were overhead on Day 1 as we made our way to the hut on Friday, only to find ourselves breaking trail in nearly 2 feet of fresh snow and a raging blizzard on Sunday.

The local Maroon Cabin in Gothic, CO makes for an ideal retreat of which to learn the basics of avalanche education. Situated amidst some of the largest avalanche paths in Colorado, it is a state of the art, new age ‘hut’ with in-floor heat, electricity, running water (usually), and even wireless Internet of which to study weather and avalanche reports. All with the Elk Mountains just out the door, allowing for immediate immersion in the winter mountain environment from which to study snow stability, practice companion rescue, and plan and prep for the courses back-country tours.

This week CBMG will be running our first AIARE Level 2 Avalanche Course of the season, and another completely sold out course. With some clear weather on the way we should have some excellent snowpack dynamics to study in the wake of the past two storms, and enjoyable weather of which to go touring and stand around in snow pits looking at snow grains and performing snow stability evaluations.

Also, NEW this year is our classroom space located in the conference room at the Grand Lodge hotel at the base of the ski resort in Mount Crested Butte, CO. Having run one course out of here already it is turning out to be a fairly ideal classroom with easy access to local trailheads, gear shops at the base of the resort, and lots of good coffee and restaurants in walking distance. As well as offering available lodging discounts just down the hall from your classroom, it is as easy as it gets for visiting folks to learn about avalanches in the place that AIARE (American Institute For Avalanche Research & Education) got it’s founding from.

Unfortunately, the beginnings of the winter and avalanche season, have also brought it’s first casualty of the season, when world-renowned Canadian ice climber, Guy Lacelle, was killed in a small avalanche this past weekend outside of Bozeman, MT in Hyalite Canyon, while taking part in their seasonal Ice Festival.  Our thoughts go out to his wife, friends, and family. Read more….

Here’s looking forward to a great season of classes, guided ski and climbing day, and safe back-country travels all around…..

—JSJ