CBMR rocking a banner year in both sales and snowfall

Mountain is open wall-to-wall, bookings are solid

For the first time since the winter of 2010-2011, Crested Butte Mountain Resort is open from rope to rope. With Third Bowl opening January 15 and the Front Side to Sunset Ridge opening Tuesday, January 21, CBMR is proud to announce a total skiable terrain of 1,163 acres.

“We’re currently open wall-to-wall, but not yet floor-to-ceiling,” said CBMR communications manager Erica Mueller. “The Peak is still closed, but with some more snow we will be looking to get it open.”
In celebration of the great season so far, and the season to come, the Crested Butte Ski Patrol will hold its Wall-to-Wall fundraiser party on February 7 from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Butte 66.
Along with the Peak, accessed from the High Lift, the only other official runs not yet open on the mountain are Panion’s and Cascade off of Goldlink, and Rambo off of the North Face Lift.
“The 2010/11 season was the last time we had this much terrain open,” said Mueller. “This is all related to snowfall, and hopefully the storms will just keep coming as we head into the next few months of winter.”
Regardless of what the future weather does, CBMR reports that the bookings for February and March seem to have responded to the past storms.
The year-to-date numbers for February show a 21 percent increase from last year in booked room nights, and March is at a 36 percent increase.
This year’s Texas spring break starts on Saturday, March 8, with Oklahoma having its break a week later, and Mueller said many people wishing to visit from these locales have already booked their vacations.
“Things are looking great,” said Mueller. “Things still could change but with the current pace of bookings we’re trending super well, and within the travel industry we’re seeing a movement toward a lot more last-minute bookings.”
Many of those last-minute bookings may likely come from regional markets, like the Front Range and New Mexico, and many of those people will likely be driving into the valley.
“We are down in overall airline seats from last year, but our bookings are up,” said Mueller. “The indication is that we have more people using more diverse ways of travel to get here.”
Along with big snowfall, Mueller attributes people’s interest in visiting the resort to an increase in awareness of Crested Butte as not only a great place to ski, but also a great ski town.