Winter recreation on Mt. Emmons officially legal!

“Access to Red Lady Bowl and the glades down to the gravel pit are unchanged” 

By Than Acuff 

When the deal to protect Mt. Emmons from ever being mined and free of residential, commercial and industrial development was finalized on August 29, 2024, it came with an additional agreement that directly impacts the winter backcountry recreation community.

Skiers, snowboarders, snowshoers and the occasional snowmobiler have been recreating on Mt. Emmons, specifically in Red Lady Bowl and the area known commonly as Red Lady Glades, for decades and that entire time it has been done illegally. Now, thanks to the recent agreement between the town of Crested Butte, the Crested Butte Land Trust and the Mt. Emmons Mining Company/Freeport-McMoRan regarding Mt. Emmons, a conservation easement was also set in place to ensure legal access to those areas, provided it is done responsibly.

“The common skin track and Red Lady Bowl are on private property,” says CB Land Trust executive director Jake Jones. “And now we have legal access for the first time in history.”

As the various partners involved in the historic agreement worked through numerous iterations of the exchange, recreational access was always in the mix and what resulted creates an opportunity for users to still enjoy winter recreation on Mt. Emmons.

The agreement breaks the private property into two zones. Zone 1 is where public access is allowed thanks to a Land Trust conservation easement and includes areas where backcountry users commonly travel. 

“Access to Red Lady Bowl and the glades down to the gravel pit are unchanged,” says Jones.

The area known as Zone 2 is the area around the Keystone Mine Water Treatment Plant and former mine tailings areas near the base of the mountain. As a result, Zone 2 is closed to the public to ensure public safety while the mining company continues its efforts with mitigating hazards left over from previous mining activity. 

“Zone 2 is the site of current and future mine remediation by Mt. Emmons Mining Company/Freeport-McMoRan,” says Jones. “It’s really important we stay out of their way, that was part of the deal.”

One last part of the agreement is motorized use. 

As part of the conservation agreement, motorized use is prohibited in Zone 2 as well as Zone 1.

 Now, with snow falling from the sky, lots of snow and backcountry users already getting out in the mountains, the final step of recreational use on Mt. Emmons is education. In an effort to show where folks can and cannot go, as well as backcountry safety, the Land Trust is partnering with the Crested Butte Avalanche Center (CBAC) and Mt Emmons Mining Company/Freeport-McMoRan to put a sign at the Kebler winter trailhead at the start of the skin track with a map, additional information regarding winter travel as well as basic backcountry travel safety protocols and a QR code to scan and get the current CBAC avalanche and weather forecast.

In addition to the map and information on the sign at the trailhead, there will be a map on the Land Trust website, landtrust.org, and info will be included on the onX Backcountry app as Andy Sovick, content manager at onX Backcountry, is working to get the property boundaries updated. He has redrawn the ski zone boundary around the “no public access” property so that users can see where they are, their blue dot, in relation to the property boundary. He has also redrawn the suggested approach routes and descent routes to ensure they stay clear of that property.

“Those new boundaries and routes are live in the app now,” says Sovick. “The boundaries are accurate, but these drawn routes are only conditional suggestions. Backcountry users need to pick their heads up from their phones and make smart route decisions.” 

“We want to ensure that not only are people travelling legally, but they are also travelling safely,” says Jones. “It is avalanche terrain.”