January 10, 2006: Another day in Crested Butte.

Yesterday was Monday. That meant (a) uncrowded slopes got even more uncrowded and (b) the local Radio Shack was open. As a result, we overvacationed on Monday. That is, we (a) skied really hard until the lifts closed and (b) went to the Radio Shack and got the device that would let us connect the Xbox to those ancient TVs in the hotel. Xbox meant extra beer, which is not a good idea when you don't have time to sleep.

So...today was hard. We barely survived four hours of skiing and went back to the hotel. The good thing about it was I had the time to get some pictures before the sunset.

I started from the hotel and proceeded to the base of the ski area. The first picture is the view of our hotel from the exit closest to our room:

The next thing we see when leaving the hotel in the morning is the mountain:

This is the main entrance of our hotel: (the steam comes from the outdoor pool):

The Avalanche is the local sports bar where we watched the Patriots game on Saturday. (The bar is okay, but in hindsight we should have watched the game in Butte 66...if you ever ski Crested Butte, don't miss this place: fabulous food and many TVs. The Avalanche, though, has probably a better drink selection.)

Base area central: rentals, tickets, ski repair, a couple stores:

Another view of the base area:

Two base area lifts at the end of the day:

The view from the bigger of the two lifts (Silver Queen):

Trailmap at the Silver Queen:

This slope is not on the trailmap. I'm not sure what the gradient of the top part is, but whenever I look at it from the Paradise Lift and try to estimate it based on trees, their shadows and the sun, it always comes out at about 70 degrees. My favorite skiing book says anything above 60 degrees is unskiable. Well, it might be 60 degrees then. Whatever the case, extreme terrain is Crested Butte's hallmark, and this does attract a lot of skiers who would ski this. (There are two skiers on the slope on this picture, but at this resolution you can't probably see them.)

Just in case this slope doesn't look impressive, try the zoomed in version:

The next picture was, as Oleg said, "a good idea" (but poor execution, I might add). Sigh. Whatever the case, here is the idea: it's subzero temperature outside (minus 20 Celsius for those outside of the U.S.), the snow pile reaches the window, but here inside we are having hot sake while waiting for the sushi:

And this is the sushi place from the outside ("Lil's Land and Sea" is their name):

And this is a no-flash version (I don't have an SLR or a tripod on me, so that's the best I could get):