Two Sided Owen Tour 4.4.15

On closing weekend, I normally like to ride the lifts, rather than ski the backcountry. It only makes sense to get the last “free” vertical of the year. But with the ski area limping to the finish line this year, good snow in the backcountry seemed like a much better choice for Crested Butte spring skiing. We headed up towards Mount Owen with designs on the South side, something that Brittany had never skied and I hadn’t skied since the 205cm skinny ski days of the late 90’s.

Joining us were Tom Runcie, exactly one year removed from a bad ankle injury, and Alex Reidman. Despite a minor mishap along the way, we made good time towards the summit.

For those of you who have never been up this ridge, here’s a quick piece of advice- stay off the snow. The cornices here grow into massive blocks of snow, and they start literally inches away from solid ground. In any case, Tom and I continued to the actual summit and quickly decided that we would head down the North side instead. The unexpectedly good powder conditions on the summit spine just looked too good:

I won the ro-sham-bo and got to drop in first:

Without question, those were my best/ most fun turns of the year. That speaks mostly to the average conditions we had this year. Tom was next:

Meanwhile, the ladies were gearing up for a perfect corn descent on the South side. So far, this season has featured some of the best corn skiing we’ve had in CO in quite a few seasons. Alex:

Alex, with the North side of Ruby behind:

I got one photo of Brittany as she finished out this long run:

I guess I’ll have to wait for another day to ski the South side of Owen. It’s a good run- a more consistent pitch than the North side, that’s for sure. The skiing has been excellent this month, so don’t hesitate to keep the bikes in the garage and keep skiing. More snow on the way this week!

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Frank Konsella

Frank loves snow more than anything... except his wife.  He ensures his food is digested properly by chewing it 32 times before swallowing.He is a full-time real estate agent serving Crested Butte and Gunnison and would be honored to send you his monthly newsletter.

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Summary

Article Name

Two Sided Owen Tour 4.4.15

Description

Crested Butte spring skiing has it all- in this case steep sloughy spine skiing on the North side of Mt. Owen, and perfectly smooth corn skiing on the South.

Author

Brittany Walker Konsella