We left for Colorado earlly in the morning on January 29 and experienced a day full of uneventful travel. We stopped over in Houston to catch our flight to Gunnison and my parents were stopping over around the same time to catch their flight to Montrose. We grabbed a quick drink with them and then said, "see ya later" before we each boarded our respective flights.
When we arrived in Gunnison we went to pick up our rental car-you know the cheapest car we could find, likely a small red egg shaped vehicle that will slip and slide on the snow. Except we got an upgrade to a Chevy Traverse. Oh yeah. Lisa and Andy got the little red egg. HAAA! We paid for an egg and got a giant SUV. The trip was starting out great already. When we got in the car, we got out the camera, the Flip vid, the directions to the wrong Condo and some gummy candies mom and dad brought us from their recent trip to Sweden. Once we found the right directions, we hit the road and settled in for a long trek. Only thing is-30 minutes later, we had arrived in Crested Butte. Sweeet. We did make one important stop for two cases of Coors so we could take advantage of their buy one, get one lift ticket deal.
When we arrived in Gunnison we went to pick up our rental car-you know the cheapest car we could find, likely a small red egg shaped vehicle that will slip and slide on the snow. Except we got an upgrade to a Chevy Traverse. Oh yeah. Lisa and Andy got the little red egg. HAAA! We paid for an egg and got a giant SUV. The trip was starting out great already. When we got in the car, we got out the camera, the Flip vid, the directions to the wrong Condo and some gummy candies mom and dad brought us from their recent trip to Sweden. Once we found the right directions, we hit the road and settled in for a long trek. Only thing is-30 minutes later, we had arrived in Crested Butte. Sweeet. We did make one important stop for two cases of Coors so we could take advantage of their buy one, get one lift ticket deal.
We found our VRBO condo, checked in and then took off to find the local grocery store. We stocked up on breakfast and lunch items, didn't need beer, and ingredients for a dinner or two. We explored the little town of Crested Butte and then headed back up to the Three Seasons to unpack, drink some Coors and study the trail map. When mom and dad arrived, we met them at their hotel and set off for town for homebrews at The Eldo and then dinner at the Wooden Nickel. We made sure to drink two glasses of water for every cocktail because we were now at 9,000+ feet.
After dinner, we went back to our condo and mom and dad went back to their luxury lodge to sleep before our first full day of skiing. Day one was great-sunny and beautiful. We skiied and skiied, stopped at Uley's ice bar for drinks, skiied some more, ate some buffalo flavored tator tots (so good) and then called it a day. Mom and Dad came over to our condo that night for dinner and wine and a quick phone call to Ashley, Jason and Claire who couldn't make the trip this year.
On Monday we were up early again for a full day of skiing. Jeff and I decided to spend the afternoon of this day exploring the north face full of double black diamond glade skiing. Normally double black diamonds don't phase us and provide for a nice challenge. The north face is a unique double black area full of unmarked areas and let's just say we ended up where we didn't mean to end up. I had a minor panic attack but ended up leading us down one of the steepest slopes with some of the most giant moguls we have ever been on. We felt such a sense of accomplishment at the end.
At the end of ski day 2 we met mom at dad at Butte 66 for some beers and some buffalo tots and made plans to do a pizza dinner at the Secret Stache in town. We had heard great things about it and were excited to test it out. SO GOOD. If you are ever in Crested Butte, eat at the Secret Stache. Mom-we forgive you for eating your wings with a fork and knife.
On day 3, Jeff and I woke up and decided to go into town to try out Izze's-a breakfast spot Cortney Allen said was fun. On our way into town, there was a guy hitchhiking on the side of the road. We decided that if there is anywhere ok to pick up a hitchhiker, it is Crested Butte. So we pulled over and he hopped in. Turns out he was hitchhiking to work at an office park just outside of town. I regret not asking him if this was his normal mode of work transportation. Seems pretty unreliable to me. Izze's turned out to be clsoed so we ended up at Camp 4 Coffee instead. We knew it was way colder outside but we didn't know how cold until later. Side note: basically if our boogers froze when we stopped outside, the temperature was negative. Our boogers were DEFINITELY frozen on Tuesday morning.
We ate breakfast, met mom and dad and headed up the mountain. We skiied a run, mayyybe two before having to go in to warm up. Turns out it was -19 outside. Wha??? The rest of the day went like this: ski two runs-one comfortable, one painful from the cold-then go in and warm up. We radioed mom and dad at around 2 and asked if they were ready to go. Thankfully they were one step ahead of us having a hot totty in a bar at the base of the mountain. We joined them for one more and then we piled into the Traverse and made our way to our next destination-Telluride.
Overall we really liked the little Crested Butte town but the ski area wasn't as large as the ones we are used to.
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