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)

CB Mountain Guides

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008 at 3:15 pm and is filed under 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.