I first visited Crested Butte, Colorado during the summer of 2014. It's now my favorite summer destination due to its phenomenal camping, hiking, and most importantly, the world-class mountain biking. But when it came to the winter months, I had yet to make the trip.

That all changed when we rolled into town during the afternoon of Thursday, January 12th, after the resort received 5 FEET of fresh Rocky Mountain powder over the previous week. 

The entire mountain, including the town itself, was buried with snow! The snow piled up along the streets reminded me specifically of my time in Hokkaido, Japan. 

We then woke up early on Friday morning (1/13/2017) and jumped onto the Silver Queen lift at 9:00am sharp, followed by the North Face lift to access the upper mountain. The photos below are from "The Glades" and yes, the snow was phenomenal!

We spent the rest of the day exploring every nook and cranny of the resort, including multiple laps up the High Lift and down the "Headwall".

The sun then peeked out for our last few runs of the day, which provided a beautiful scene of the entire mountain and surrounding valleys. 

We finally finished our day at 3:00pm, after skiing for six straight hours. The snow was just too good to ever take a break!

Crested Butte refers to itself as "the last great Colorado ski town" and I couldn't agree more. I'll continue to visit Crested Butte for their world-class mountain biking during the summer months but I now know that the winter experience is just as great. 

SAM COLLENTINE