CBMR open wall-to-wall for MLK Weekend

“Floor to ceiling” not far off

When the ski area is open wall to wall, from Sunset Ridge to Third Bowl, it’s a whole different game. No matter how busy it is at the base area, you can get “out there” and experience puckering inbounds terrain that’s unmatched in the ski industry. Period. And it’s still only January—gotta love it.

Crested Butte Mountain Resort marketing specialist Erica Reiter says the Peak is next on tap. “We have begun control work on the Peak, so we should be seeing that open soon. When exactly, we are still not sure, but know that we’re working hard to get open ‘wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling.’”
How is the snowpack holding up in the steeps? According to Snow Safety Manager Frank Coffey, “Things are holding up well in the Extremes. There are areas where the snowpack is thin and variable due to early season avalanches, so we’re waiting on more snowfall to fill in those gaps. Otherwise, Ski Patrol is very happy with the conditions so early in the season.”
“We have been blessed with great snow, a solid snowpack, and safe conditions thus far in-bounds.”
Meanwhile, the superpipe opened Monday and is getting buffed out for a USASA-sanctioned freestyle event this weekend. Ken Stone, CBMR chief operating officer, has spent some time scoping out the park in recent days. He says, “The superpipe is 50 feet longer than what we have had in the past and is in great shape. The park features are all finished with the exception of two more big jumps at the bottom that will be ready for this weekend.”
Combining the park and pipe’s new location on Gold Link, with the beginner’s park on Painter Boy, provides freestyle riders multi-tiered options for upping their game and working on new tricks. As terrain park manager Christian Robertson explained, now skiers and riders can go try new tricks on smaller features in the Painter Boy Park and then drop off the Gold Link side and hit the full-size features.
Stone added, “The ability to get on the Gold Link chair and hit the park and pipe in one run is much faster to lap than riding Paradise in the past.”
As for the rest of the season—fingers crossed—the numbers appear to be in our favor, as Reiter explained. “There have only been two other years [since 1989-1990 season] where we hit the 200-inch mark in January: 1996-1997—season snowfall total was 322.5 inches. And 2007-2008—season snowfall total was 414 inches.”
Either way, we’re already in better shape than last year, with more than 200 inches of snowfall and the opening of Third Bowl, which never opened for 2009-10. It’s a whole new ski area out there.