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The Best Snowboarding in North America Crested Butte, Colorado
Crested
Butte, Colorado, kicks
butt. It's steep, it's ungroomed, and it's packed tight
with cliff jumps and radical tree runs. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid
out in downtown Crested Butte
in 1902, and not much has changed since then except the color scheme — think of
a black-and-white Western in psychedelic pastel. Pubs go crazy at nights with
hard-hitting drinking sessions to match a hard day's riding. The base area is
a cluster of condos, up-market hotels, bars, and eateries called Mount Crested
Butte. It's functional but hasn't got the history and vibe of the downtown area
three miles away. For the total non-tourist option, Gunnison
is a college town 28 miles from Crested Butte. This is where you'll find cheap
basic accommodation and food, and you'll be rubbing elbows with the many students
who've managed to convince their parents that they're working hard towards a future
career in marketing. Crested Butte will soon be the best-marketed mountain
on the planet.
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Chill time in
Crested Butte
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Butte is the site of the U.S. Extremes for
both skiing and boarding, and is unreal after a dump. The local riders are hot
and don't give a damn what you ride on so long as you go big. Dominating the base
area is the Banana Funnel, a striking pyramid peak. Looking up the mountain
you can see the steep tree runs below the alpine slopes of the funnel; to the
left are the easier-to-cruise groomed trails of the mid-mountain area. On the
eastern side of the ski area is the notorious North Face terrain. The bowls,
glades and avalanche run-outs on this side are just a shade off vertical and boost
Crested Butte into the elite stratosphere. Crested
Butte attracts storms from differing directions
and stores snow by virtue of having such a high altitude. The most challenging
areas (North Face, Headwall and Banana Funnel) face north-east and stay ungroomed
due to 40-degree-plus gradients. |