I met Dean Kurth at the Guide Shack on a classically cold and clear Crested Butte winter morning. It was sunny and calm with the temperature hovering around a balmy -7. I assured Dean it would warm up and it sure did! We shed layers immediately as we began our skin out Washington Gulch towards Coney’s Ridge. 

Dean is both a nordic and an alpine skier. Backcountry skiing was the next logical step for him so he could combine the best of both ski worlds. Backcountry skiing on AT gear allowed us the freedom to explore the mountains outside Crested Butte but also provided us with the security and FUN of ripping down powder-filled backcountry bowls. (That’s kind of hard on the skinny skis!) 

We eventually left the valley bottom and steadily climbed and worked our way up to the top of Coney’s Ridge. 

Our summit greeted us with incredible panorama views of the Elk Mountains. At the top we re-fueled and prepared for our ski descent of Coney’s Bowl.

Colorado powder and Colorado sunshine all lived up to their name today. The light powder snow was the perfect introduction to backcountry skiing.

As we worked our way down the bowl, Dean learned the nuances of powder skiing and began linking beautiful turns. In fact, we both enjoyed it so much, we decided to do another lap and ski the whole bowl again! By the time we returned to the car, the sun had almost disappeared behind the mountains and the temperatures were returning to their early morning lows. Thanks for a great day!

John MacKinnon

CBMG Guide

cbguides

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Skiing, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.