Crested Butte, as a steep mountain with modest average snowfall, has little margin for adverse deviation. Snowfall has in fact been close to average, but one of the locals said a lot of it has been in small storms with high winds that blew it away. So when the March heat wave hit here, they lost 2 feet of base and many areas went to isothermic (rotten) snow. Thus only about 1/4 of the North Face terrain is open.
The storm that has pounded some other CO areas has just been 3 inches here, so off-piste conditions can be difficult. Fortunately there was a little sun Thursday morning to start the snow softening, and the 3 inches last night has helped some at higher elevation. The high and perfectly exposed Headwall has the best snow, with only a slight melt/freeze during the heat. The North Face was quite crunchy, and the one mogul run there Thursday was a lot of work. Today I followed a local guide out there, and he traversed into some less obvious lines that had a smooth rather than bumpy subsurface. This was more enjoyable skiing, and would be excellent with just a few more inches new snow, which we may get this afternoon and evening.
Under the new Mueller ownership (Okemo, Sunapee) they do a good job of grooming, which is fortunate given recent weather. But you do realize that CB is a fairly small area if you're restricted to the beginner/intermediate runs. My previous 2 visits were at exactly this same time of year, and on those trips the snow surfaces were good and there was lots of interesting North Face terrain to explore.
The storm that has pounded some other CO areas has just been 3 inches here, so off-piste conditions can be difficult. Fortunately there was a little sun Thursday morning to start the snow softening, and the 3 inches last night has helped some at higher elevation. The high and perfectly exposed Headwall has the best snow, with only a slight melt/freeze during the heat. The North Face was quite crunchy, and the one mogul run there Thursday was a lot of work. Today I followed a local guide out there, and he traversed into some less obvious lines that had a smooth rather than bumpy subsurface. This was more enjoyable skiing, and would be excellent with just a few more inches new snow, which we may get this afternoon and evening.
Under the new Mueller ownership (Okemo, Sunapee) they do a good job of grooming, which is fortunate given recent weather. But you do realize that CB is a fairly small area if you're restricted to the beginner/intermediate runs. My previous 2 visits were at exactly this same time of year, and on those trips the snow surfaces were good and there was lots of interesting North Face terrain to explore.
