The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“We haven’t gotten out with the snow blowers or anything crazy… yet”
Copious amounts of snow made for one prolific winter season at Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) but may set trail crews back for the coming summer.
The big winter followed by a snowy April has stalled the spring melt on Crested Butte Mountain. Furthermore, as of press time, Ullr continues to throw snow at the valley in May.
While skiers and snowboarders are reaping the rewards of the extended winter and mountain bikers can head 30 miles south to ride at Hartman Rocks, CBMR has a busy summer biking schedule and Mother Nature is putting the resort’s early season plans in a state of flux.
Currently, the CBMR snowcat crew has been out working to aid in the melting process.
“We’ve been working on some zones that have a lot of manmade snow,” says CBMR Mountain Sports director Drew Cesati, “plowing out intersections and areas where there is slow snow melt on top of our bike trails. We haven’t gotten out with the snowblowers or anything crazy… yet.”
Assistant Mountain Sports director and “lead digger” Christian Robertson was out on the mountain Tuesday afternoon with shovel in hand, getting some early dirt/drainage work done on whatever sections of trail have melted out.
“We’re picking away at it with a combination of cat work and shovel work,” says Robertson. “Today’s the first day I’ve gotten down to dirt.”
The lifts are set to start spinning for summer on June 18. Cesati is not so much worried about the trails being clear by then, but more, he wants the trails in quality shape.
“Chances are, by then, things are going to be dry,” says Cesati. “We might not be able to open everything. We’d like to open with some improvements but we’ll just have to chip away at that as the season progresses.”
Another problem arises when considering events—for instance, the Wildflower Rush set for June 24-26.
Wildflower Rush is the fifth stop on the Mountain States Cup circuit, a regional mountain bike racing circuit, and brings in hundreds of riders.
To ensure a quality event, Cesati says they looked at moving the date but it gets complicated.
“We’ve talked about looking at revised dates for the Wildflower Rush but the schedule is full across the mountain bike racing season,” explains Cesati.
The plan is to get the trails for Wildflower Rush, trails such as Avery, ready for the event as scheduled.
“Being prepared for Wildflower Rush is our top priority,” says Cesati.
“Obviously we want to continue to improve on our race track,” adds Robertson.
Furthermore, the Wildflower Rush works in conjunction with Crested Butte Bike Week June 23-26 and Cesati and the resort would like to keep the two connected. With that in mind, the dates for Wildflower Rush will remain in place.
“We don’t want to interrupt any synergy we’ve built with the Crested Butte Bike Week,” says Cesati.
The crews will hit the trails in June as opening day approaches to see what the next plan of action will be.
“The first week in June we’ll get out on the trails,” says Cesati. “I’m still confidant we’ll open on the 18th.”
“We’re picking away at it but ultimately we need the sun,” adds Robertson. “We’ll get as many hands as we can committed to the trails that first week of June. We’ll be in full attack mode to make it good.”
