Crested Butte is Home Podcast
(Last Updated On: October 23, 2018)
This past spring, I released a podcast called “Crested Butte is Home“. I enjoy the podcast genre quite a bit- whether it’s about the mountain sports I love, business, or more pure entertainment, like the show Serial that so many people got hooked on. Brittany and I have even been interviewed a few times- once with the guys at Cripple Creek and their Totally Deep podcast, and multiple times with our friends at the Adventure Sports Podcast. As much as I love music, sometimes it’s nice to mix it up and listen to a podcast.
In any case, the seed was planted and I thought it would be fun to do my own Crested Butte podcast. Crested Butte is an amazing place, but as anyone who has been here for a while will tell you, it’s the people that really make it what it is. So my thought was (and is) to interview some of those interesting people. But really, the podcast should appeal to anyone who is interested in what could generically be called “the mountain town lifestyle”. Not everyone who lives here is hooked on biking and skiing like we are. But they all have stories to tell, and they’re great stories.
My latest episode is one that would be of great interest to our 14erskiers readers as it features long-time local skier Johnny Biggers, who grew up skiing in the Snowy Mountains of Australia. In the 70’s, he picked up a Skiing magazine at the local newsstand, and it had an article on Crested Butte (starting at page 85 of this archived copy.) A little more research on his part revealed that Crested Butte had a college just 30 miles away, so the teen-aged Johnny Biggers packed up his skis and a suitcase and enrolled at Western State College after high school. He quickly realized that the ski patrollers were having all the fun and skiing all the good stuff, so he began patrolling, a career that lasted decades. Summers were spent pounding nails, just as so many ski bums do today. Winters were spent skiing as much as possible with the “hot doggers” of the day, on the pro mogul tour, and some of the early “extreme” comps that were pioneered in Crested Butte. He also discusses the “hot skis” of the day, including the Rossignol Haute Route pictured here (which he didn’t like all that much compared to some others).
Check out this old promo video that Johnny talks about in his interview:
Also, check out 23:15 and 43:10 from the 1993 US Extreme Skiing Championships, which feature Johnny’s rock-solid skiing:
If you’d like to listen to Episode 19 with Johnny Biggers, you can listen here (and look through all the episodes using the button in the middle).
Other episodes that might be particularly interesting for 14erskiers fans include:
Access all the episodes by subscribing for free on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player:
I’m always interested in feedback! If you listen to my Crested Butte podcast, please let me know what you think. If you like it, please give me a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts/ iTunes- that really helps the show’s visibility! Hopefully the sound quality is getting better as the show goes on- that’s something I’m still working on! And thanks for listening.
Frank Konsella
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