Join Crested Butte Mountain Guides and Alison Gannett’s Rippin Chix Ski Clinic Series for a women’s only 1-day AIARE Avalanche Refresher Course. This course is almost entirely field based and is perfect for those that have taken a Level1 Course previously, and/or looking to prepare for a Level 2 Course.

Course will be taught by AMGA Trained & Certified Guides, and will take place in the Crested Butte backcountry on January 6th, 2010. Spots are limited so call CBMG to register today.

Once again over this past week Crested Butte was blessed with another heavy snowfall of 3+ feet, which was also again followed by beautiful cloudless Colorado blue skies and mild temperatures. This meant more fresh Crested Butte backcountry skiing with sunglasses and smiles.

Oklahoma native, and Crested Butte transplant in the making, Jason Leonard once again showed his impeccable timing for good skiing, and got in on the meat of the storm (see previous ‘White Room’ post ) and the first bluebird sunny day at the end as well. As the storm cleared and I had wrapped up my required mid-week AIARE Level 2 Instructor Training Course, we got after it on the steep gladed powder skiing on the North side of Snodgrass Mountain.

As is usually the case with Jason, once at the bottom we opted for a second lap, and took off breaking trail under the shadow of mighty Gothic Mountain. An hour later, we were farther out the ridge and away from the typical lines, in our own secret stash. Another 1500′ run to the road grade out, and another day of great skiing together.

Then on Saturday, Andy Herb, from Denver joined us for our NEW and popular Avalanche Refresher Course. Other course participants ended up with logistical complications and we opted to go out as a 1:1 ratio as a course/ski tour and were able to cover the course curriculum and get in about 2500′ of backcountry skiing as well.

Andy is a great skier, and thus we had fun ‘refreshing’ his previous Berthoud Pass Ski Patrol avalanche course training, and got in some excellent blue-sky powder skiing in the Crested Butte backcountry as well. The small nature of these courses allow us to integrate the field curriculum and skills into a real backcountry tour (nothing contrived here) and then supplement this with trailhead and classroom teaching time as well, to make this course as realistic and useful as possible to the participant.

Thanks guys for a great couple of days in the Crested Butte backcountry. Looking forward to many more turns in the future.

—Jayson Simons-Jones (Guide / Instructor)