The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
We give thanks for another season sliding on snow
By Aimee Eaton
The official opening day of the 2017-2018 ski season at Crested Butte Mountain Resort is this Thursday, November 23. Donation Day was held Wednesday, November 22 and 713 tickets were sold by noon.
While coverage remains thin, the resort has been busy making snow and capitalizing on natural snow fall and anticipates opening four lifts and nine trails on Thanksgiving.
The details are subject to change, but according to CBMR senior marketing manager Erica Rasmussen, the present plan includes spinning the Red Lady Express, Peachtree Lift, Pine Carpet and Spruce Carpet. Anticipated trail openings are: Houston, Peanut, Keystone, Warming House Hill, Bubba’s Short Cut, Augusta, High Tide and the Pine/Spruce beginner areas. There will also be a small Keystone Jib Park that will grow as winter progresses.
While it may not seem like a lot of terrain, Rasmussen said the snowmaking crew is working hard to get more areas open.
“Our snowmaking team was hard at work and logged about 160 hours of snowmaking operations this month,” Rasmussen said. “Typically, we like to have even more snowmaking under way by this time, but unfortunately the unseasonably warm temperatures caused us to alter snowmaking plans. Nonetheless, this last weekend saw nine inches of new snow and strong snowmaking temps, so we were able to run the snow guns from 8 o’clock Friday night through 11 o’clock Monday morning.
“Snowmaking operations are progressing over to Lower Paradise and we look forward to cold weather in the extended forecast,” Rasmussen continued. “Snowmaking manager Tucker Roberts and his team have done a phenomenal job with the cards they’ve been given from a weather standpoint, and should be commended. As we always say, be sure to hug a snowmaker! They’ll be working hard making snow into December as weather permits.”
Along with the skiing and riding, CBMR’s opening day will focus on a theme of “Gratitude,” and guests are encouraged to dress as what they are thankful for on opening day and to take part in the resort’s efforts to further express gratitude.
“We are thankful for a multitude of reasons this year—including our employees, our guests, our families, Mother Nature, and much, much more,” said Rasmussen. “On opening day guests are welcomed to stop by Coal Breaker Coffee in the Treasury Center and write postcards to someone they are thankful for and CBMR will mail them out.”
Other gratitude-specific happenings will include an opening day banner for first chair, in which guests on Donation Day will have the chance to write why they are thankful, and free cookies for guests in the Lodge at Mountaineer Square courtyard from 9 to 11 a.m. Stickers will also be handed out as the first lifts begin spinning.
For full opening day details, visit www.skicb.com/snow on Thursday morning.
