This past Wednesday marked the start of Fat Tire Bike Week, a Crested Butte tradition, and also saw the arrival of the Bicycle Tour of Colorado as well for 1-day, resulting in a massive start to the summer season here in CB with 2,000+ bikers, bike companies, and festival goers all in tow.

With the summer kick-off we’ve been busy guiding once again, with multiple trips going out daily….guiding rockclimbing, hiking, mountain biking and mountaineering trips this week.

Friday also marked the start of our NEW  ‘Peak Of The Week’ series, in which we offer a weekly guided climb of a  different and local peak every week for 6 weeks at the ridiculously low rate of $45/person.

This week, CBMG Guide Dan Escalante led our inaugural ‘Peak of the Week’ trip by successfully getting Judy & Andrew Holder to the summit of local Mount Baldy (12,610′) under tropical monsoon like rain conditions….way to go Dan.

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Well I don’t think work can get much better….The past 3 days I have had the privilege of taking some guest up some of the finest routes in the valley. On Wednesday morning I met long time CBMG client Karen Fontenot for a day of multipitch rock climbing in Taylor canyon. We had an excellent day climbing classic routes in the sunshine with no one else around only the roar of the nearby Taylor River. On Thursday I met Jeff bright and early at the guide shack for an Intro to trad climbing seminar. Jeff has been climbing for many years inside and has recently moved to Portland, OR and wanted to begin climbing more outside, and work on some good basic and intermediate skills.  We had a stellar day working on gear placements, anchors and of course climbing! We had a stellar day and were able to get in 9 pitches of quality Taylor Canyon Rock climbing in. Friday morning brought Karen back for an ascent of my favorite routes we do here at CBMG, Guides Ridge on Mt. Crested Butte. We made extremely quick time with a total of only 3 hrs lift to lift. We both admired the views and the breathtaking scenery and could not believe how green CB is! (I guess we like the rain after all?) With amazing trips like this who could ask for more? This weekend all CBMG guides will be involved in guide training, and on Monday I leave with CBMG owner and lead guide Jayson Simons-Jones for a guided ascent of Little Bear. Stay tuned for more blogs and adventures from CBMG. Thanks again Karen and Jeff I hope to see you guys again real soon. Summer in definitely in full effect!

See you out there.

Guide – Kyle Mattingly

Despite some quite rainy and stormy spring weather in the mountains, we at Crested Butte Mountain Guides have begun daily guiding of our usual summer activity schedule. Last week was the first week of the summer season of guided rockclimbing in the Crested Butte area, as a few different brave souls gambled with the weather and ventured out with some of our guides for a day on the rock.

One of these trips involved longtime CBMG guest Karen Fontenot and her friend Amy Cansler who joined me for a few days of guided rockclimbing both in a local gym and out at Taylor Canyon for some fine afternoon climbing in the warm sun. Karen is now a seasoned climbing veteran having completed her first Black Canyon climb with me last Fall, and was able to help give Amy her first climbing experience, that I think she may now have become hooked on as well.

Looking forward to seeing you both again soon.

—Guide, Jayson Simons-Jones

It’s the “off season” hear in Crested Butte, which means things slow down. But that’s why I love it hear at the end of the road. With many CBMG Guides off working and climbing in Red Rocks, NV or out in the high desert of Bend, Oregon or in the mountains of Alaska. I have been able to explore some areas both new and old for me. In the last few weeks I have been able to do some pretty sweet ski descents, climb pitch after pitch of warm granite in Taylor Canyon, and start the spring mountaineering season with some great peaks with friends. Now is the time to take advantage of cheap flights, hotels, and restaurant deals in and around CB. Call, email or swing by the guide shack today for a trip of a lifetime! There is always a guide around to take you on an unforgettable spring ski tour, a multipitch climb of a lifetime or to introduce you to the art of mountaineering.
See you soon.

Kyle Mattingly
CBMG Mountain Guide

This Fall at CBMG, many of us have had the opportunity to partake in some local (and not-so local) AMGA Rock Instructor & Rock Guide training courses, to help us better hone our guiding skills, improve upon our climbing, check out some new climbing areas, meet some guides from other parts of the world, and overall help us be able to offer our climbing clientele a better and safer climbing experience with us at CBMG.

Many of the CBMG staff have been busy….as previously noted, senior guide Steve Banks completed his final AMGA exam, the Rock Guide Exam, in Red Rocks, Nevada…earning him complete AMGA/IFMGA status. CBMG Guide Mike Bromberg also travelled to Red Rocks to take part in his AMGA Rock Guide Course & Aspirant Exam. Mike’s first trip to Red Rocks proved a successful one as he enjoyed his course and did well passing the necessary technical skills and guiding skills on his Aspirant Exam.

 Closer to home, CBMG Guides Laura Chase, Johnny MacKinnon, & Jayson Simons-Jones completed a privately run AMGA Rock Instructor Course here on our local stomping grounds of Taylor Canyon & the Black Canyon. The course was run by outgoing AMGA Board of Directors President & Colorado Mountain School Owner, John Bicknell. A longtime Outward Bound instructor, John was familiar with the climbing in the Crested Butte area, but we all gave him a thorough tour of our local crags, and we’re pretty sure he left having gained a full appreciation for the ‘Taylor Canyon sandbag’ as well as getting to experience the awe and wonder of climbing in the incredible Black Canyon. It was great to run a professional guides training course on our local turf, allowing our guides to immediatley put to use skills in a relevant and familiar setting….we look forward to more courses like this running under the CBMG umbrella again in the future.

Next up…..look for our first officially sanctioned AMGA Ski Guides Course to take place in Crested Butte from Feb 23 – March 6, 2009 ! Details and enrollment will be up on the CBMG & AMGA websites soon…

And lastly, as Fall winds down and Winter begins to make it’s presence known in the mountains above town, we are all out still enjoying the last days of sunshine on the warm rock of Taylor & the Black Canyons. And soon we will all be hanging up the rock climbing shoes and mountain bikes for skis, boots, ice climbing tools, and avalanche beacons. We look forward to another healthy dose of Old Man Winter again this year, and hope to share many more days of deep, deep powder skiing, warm evenings around the woodstove on a hut trip, and days on skis or on ice with everyone again under the bright Colorado sunshine this winter!!!

—- CBMG Staff