We’ve been skiing here in Crested Butte, Co. since early November, that’s the good news… bad news is, it’s at 10,000’+! Not enough snow at the nordic center here in town, so we bike or drive 4 miles to the trailhead, then ski UP 2km to 10,100′. Once there we find beautiful tracks, set in lightly rolling terrain around a high mountain lake, nestled among 12,000′ peaks. I would enjoy the stunning view more if my eyes weren’t glazed over from oxygen depletion.
While the altitude is an issue for breathing, it is a bonus for waxing… it dries out the snow. Despite warm sunshine, we are using Carbon Blue kick wax most of the time; only once have I waxed up to Carbon Red and that was mid-day with intense sunshine. The range of the Carbon Blue has been great as the variation between dry squeaky snow in the shade & slightly wet snow on south facing hills could be problematic. While a bit slow in shade & a bit slick in the warm sun, it works superbly 90% of the way around. Early Saturday morning temps were 10F climbing to 30F+, so we covered the blue with Carbon White to speed it up until the sun warmed things up and it got us nicely through a two hour ski.
It has been a superb November of warm, brilliant sunshine and nicely groomed tracks by the CB Nordic Center. Plenty of snow, so we are using our good skis and with so many people using the same 10km of trails, stopping to talk to friends allows us to catch our breath… it takes 3 hours to ski 2 hours!
Murray
