The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Silver Queen by the weekend
Starting the week with 20 inches of snow in two days is a good way to begin ensuring that terrain will open on Crested Butte Mountain. And that is exactly what is happening.
The goal of CBMR is to get the Silver Queen lift running by Thursday or Friday and opening runs in that area.
On Wednesday, the mountain opened Mineral Point, Poverty Gulch, Upper Smith Hill, Lower Smith Hill, Lower Roller Coaster, Kubler and Tulsa. Teocalli lift is closed until this Saturday.
Crested Butte Mountain Resort Chief Operating Officer Ken Stone is excited about the natural snow. “We are holding nothing back to get as much terrain and lifts open as quickly as possible,” he said. “We still need proper coverage on steep terrain and control work to ensure safety. It is going to be a big job the next few days to open as much terrain as possible, but with safety our number one concern.”
According to CBMR Mountain Manager Chris Corliss, snowmaking continues to push the ball forward and “We have moved back into the base area, making snow under the WestWall, Peachtree and Painterboy lifts. Snowmaking continues to pump around three million gallons a day or 17 acre-feet of snow.
Suffice to say,” he continued, “with this help from Mother Nature we will be expanding terrain exponentially in the next few days and we should be positioned for a strong weekend.”
