TRAVEL - ROCKIES: The Inside Line: Crested Butte, CO

At Crested Butte, they say expert means "knowing where you’re going." Local Scottie Ewing is heading for the cliffs intentionally.

The Inside Line: Crested Butte, CO

By Helen Olsson

An inside guide to skiing Crested Butte, CO.

Elevation: 11,875 feet Vertical Drop: 2,775 feet Acres: 1,058 Snowfall: 240 inches (at 10,150 feet) Getting There: Crested Butte is 230 miles southwest of Denver. Take Highway 285 south to Poncha Springs, Highway 50 west to Gunnison, and then Highway 135 north to the resort. Or fly into Gunnison, half an hour to the south. Info: 888-816-7829, skicb.com

Beta: Whether you’re skiing through a hole in Rabbit Ears Rock called the ear canal or using an old snag nicknamed the "bat pole" to rappel into Funnel, Crested Butte is raw, unadulterated ski adventure. Cycle through The North Face a few times and you’ll know why the place attracts freeskiers and filmmakers like a plunge in the Dow attracts short sellers. The 448-acre playground is an encyclopedia of technical terrain features—cliffs, rocks, gullies, trees, steeps, chutes, bowls—and yet in characteristic understatement, white boards around the mountain are scrawled with nonchalant warnings like: Fredo’s Open! 20’–80’ Cliffs. Ski with Caution. (Hello, 80-foot cliffs?) ¶ The vibe of this out-of-the-way mining camp turned ski town is summed up by another sign, the one on the door to the area’s management headquarters that reads, Not So Corporate Office. While development at the base has brought some 50 lodging properties to the mix, the mountain is still independently owned, and the town of Crested Butte, three miles down the road, has changed little over the years. On Elk Avenue, the main drag, you’ll find miner shacks and 1800s saloons mixed in with pottery shops and yoga studios, and townie bikes buried to their fenders in snowbanks.

POWDER DAY On weekends, the lineup at the Silver Queen forms at 8 a.m. If patrol opens the Headwall, an above-tree-line, rock- strewn canvas, head for The High Lift (the T-Bar). Take a lap, then beeline to the poma, gateway to The North Face and Spellbound and Phoenix bowls. If the poma line is packed, make the five-minute hump out to The Glades, and pick a 35-degree fall line through the fir and pine.

3 DAYS LATER Unload midway off The High Lift, then take Big Chute, scanning skier’s left for tracks leading into the trees, to Paradise Cliffs. There, you’ll uncover about 500 vertical feet of trees, chutes, and rocky drop-offs. Next run: From the poma, hit the rope line between The North Face and Spellbound, skier’s right of Hawk’s Nest, a wide-open, steep pitch.

THE RIDING There’s a park here but not much of a scene to go with it; most CB riders are about big-mountain turns. Toward the end of a cycle through The North Face, make sure to catch the Ruby Road traverse to the steeper runs under Silver Queen. The lower Yellow Brick Road traverse is a skateboard-style, one-foot pusher.

PROVING GROUNDS Marquee route: The North Face is a rumpled sheet of steeps and trees. It’s also a potential sucker magnet, with areas that entice with open powder fields—only to pinch down to hourglass chokes. A guide can show you the best lines on a two-hour, $20 Extreme Limits tour (sign up at the ski school desk).

Off-Broadway: Have a local point you to the tree-lined ledge off the Million Dollar highway called The Edge, a short elevator-shaft plunge over boulders and through trees. Be prepared to air or scrape rock. At the next pocket of trees, drop into Staircase. You’ll have to point it or hop the rocks to get in, but a broad, 800-foot chute awaits.

BACKCOUNTRY ACCESS The Butte has a closed boundary policy. How closed? Duck a rope, they call the cops. Instead, locals jump on their snowmobiles and gun it 10 miles from the Kebler Road trailhead west of town to The Anthracites. They park, skin up 45 minutes through the trees, then do laps in the chutes above.

LOCAL’S TAKE "It’s a very technical mountain. You may need to slither through some rocks, straightline a crux, hop a rock. It sounds a little heinous, I guess, but that’s what makes it Crested Butte." —Wendy Fisher, former U.S. Ski Teamer and five-time extreme skiing champion.

WEATHER Late March, early April is the sweet spot, when a season of accumulation has covered the rocks and the north-facing exposure preserves the snow.

DON’T MISS In the 13th annual Extreme Freeskiing Championships, slated for February 24–28, 2004, skiing’s elite big mountain athletes will billygoat down cliff-lined runs with inauspicious names like Body Bag Glades and Dead Bob’s Chute.

UNDERGROUND

SCENE: The Pimp and Ho party, the Red Lady Ball, Mardi Gras Mania—throw a dart at your calendar and you’ll spike a party in Crested Butte.

APRÉ`S Tourists opt for the swank new Hall of Fame, a bar with views of its namesake run, a big outdoor deck, and signed posters of CB’s rock-star skiers—most of whom are over at the Avalanche, a ratty old A-frame at the base. Join them for an Avalanche Warning, a fruity concoction with four types of booze that makes a Long Island iced tea seem like a cup of chamomile. On mountain, swill a martini served by an "ice babe" in a magenta fur–trimmed vest at the new Ice Bar.

FUEL Grease your engine with a latte at the Camp 4 Coffee Cart at the bus station or tuck into a hubcap-sized pancake (one will do, linebackers excepted) at the Avalanche. For lunch, the on-mountain white-tablecloth Ice Bar and restaurant serves up gourmet dishes like bouillabaisse with wild mushroom risotto. For dinner downtown, opium den meets Pizza Hut at the Secret Stash, a hip new joint on Elk Avenue.

UP ALL NIGHT When national acts like G. Love & Special Sauce come to town, they play at Rafters (now called the Mt. Crested Butte Conference Center) at the base. Downtown, the Eldo (where Phish jammed in 1990) brings in live bands playing hippy, funk, and Cajun, while DJs at The Black Whale spin hip-hop, trance, and disco in a Marlboro-free atmosphere. Barflies head for Talk of the Town, a smoky, sticky-floored dive with Foosball, Golden Tee, and cheap drinks that’ll knock your footbeds off.

DIGS There are 5,100 beds in Crested Butte, including the Sheraton ($89–$275; cbmr.com) 200 yards from the lifts. At the funky log-cabin Claim Jumper ($99–$139; visitcrestedbutte.com/claimjumper) downtown, you and your dog can stay in the Ethyl’s room, complete with the only traffic light in town, or Jack’s Cabin, which has a secret bookcase entrance, log interior, and rock fireplace.