Even for the US Postal Service, delivering mail to the end of the road at 9,000 feet is a challenge. Home delivery is out of the question: in Crested Butte, Colorado, you need a PO box, no matter who you are. As a consequence, a trip to pick up packages at the Post Office is something you make a day out of, and each member of the disparate factions that make up life in our...
“Skimo” will be the newest Olympic ski discipline when it premiers at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games. In 2022, those ready to represent the USA are bringing what they learned from their Nordic skiing background to higher peaks, steeper downhills, and techier technique. The details of ski mountaineering are dizzying. Take the little challenges unique to each discipline of skiing, amalgamate them together into one race, and you’re left with “Skimo,” which may or may not...
Tucked deep into snowy valleys, the tiny iconic Colorado mountain towns of Aspen and Crested Butte are separated by a mere 40 miles by foot, but roughly 200 miles by car in the winter. Separating the two is the expanse of the rugged Elk Mountain range, which features six of Colorado’s 14’ers, peaks that reach above 14,000’. Now meccas of outdoor recreation, the two towns were historically established as profitable coal and silver mining sites,...
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to inspire anyone to travel to Crested Butte at this time. The county’s public health office expressly asks you not to do so even if you are a second home owner. The aim here is to highlight the familiar therapeutic role cross country skiing has played in the community thus far during the COVID-19 crisis. Like many other small mountain towns, Crested Butte has been labeled a “coronavirus county...
Rounding the final turn off Butte Avenue toward the Slate River Valley at the start of the second and final lap, I had my eyes peeled for a ride. There: the man dressed in a Birkebeiner-esque sweater with suspenders fastened to his Swix pants just beyond the — is that the Jamaican bobsled team? This is Crested Butte’s Alley Loop, titled a “Birkie qualifier with a twist”, a moniker that falls far short of capturing...
Simply imagining striding along at just shy of 9,000 feet makes the heart rate drift upwards. So let’s get this up front: if you’re coming from significantly lower elevations to Crested Butte, Colorado, take it easy for a day and acclimate. If you’ve got the acclimation piece down, Crested Butte could very well be the most iconic of ski towns. Tucked into a dead end valley in winter, and with it’s downtown oozing rustic ski...
Crested Butte Nordic is looking for an operations manager/groomer who can oversee staff, trail and equipment maintenance, and manage our grooming operations. This is a full-time seasonal position mid-October to mid-April.
The 2015 Crested Butte Thanksgiving Camp took place last week, Nov. 26-29. Here are a collection of photos from this year's event.
A creature of team sports – first baseball, then soccer – Duncan Callahan remembered his reaction when his older brother started nordic skiing at Glens Falls High School in northeastern New York. “I thought he was the biggest nerd in the world,” he said. A year later, Callahan’s brother, Bill, convinced him to try it. In darkness, the two set out on the city’s illuminated trail system. Afterward, Bill suggested his little brother come out...