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Crested Butte

Home / Ski Resorts / Crested Butte Ski Resort

Crested Butte Mountain Ski Resort is a popular ski destination located in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, in the town of Crested Butte. The resort is located approximately 4 hours from the city of Denver and about 2 hours from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Crested Butte is known for its high annual snowfall, averaging about 300 inches per season, and the snow at the resort is typically dry and powdery. The ski season at Crested Butte typically runs from mid-November to mid-April, and the resort offers around 1,600 acres of skiable terrain for all levels of skiers and snowboarders to enjoy. Crested Butte also has a number of terrain parks for freestyle skiers and snowboarders, featuring a variety of jumps, rails, and other features.

We recently ranked all of Colorado's ski resorts, so you can see where Crested Butte stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Season Passes

Crested Butte is a part of the Epic Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one season pass, and ski at most of the Vail owned and operated slopes with it throughout the year. There are a handful of types of Epic lift ticket passes available, ranging from 3-7 days, to season-long.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Crested Butte around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Crested Butte Mountain Resort Terrain Overview

Crested Butte has a total of 121 ski trails, which are serviced by 15 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 1,547 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 626 hectares, 2.4 square miles, or 6.3 square kilometers.

Crested Butte's slopes see on average 236 inches (6.0 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 19 feet every year!

Trails
Total Runs
121
Ski Lift
Lifts
15
Skier
Skiable Acres
1,547(6 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
236"(599 cm)

Crested Butte Ski Resort Elevation

Crested Butte Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 12,162 feet, or 3,707 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 9,375 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 2,787 feet (849 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

The summit of 12,162 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
12,162'(3,707 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
2,787'(849 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
9,375'(2,857 m)

Crested Butte Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
76.7out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Crested Butte is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, with a difficulty score of 76.7. This mountain ranks in the top 10% of most-difficult ski resorts in all of North America, mostly due to the fact that it has 61% of its trails rated as expert-level, and a vertical drop of 2,787 feet.
 DID YOU KNOW?

At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.

Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.

Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level

Crested Butte has 1,547 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Seeing as Crested Butte is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, it's no surprise that over 86% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level. This leaves only 14% of its skiable acres as beginner terrain.
Green Circle
Beginner
14%(217 acres)

Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.

Blue Square
Intermediate
25%(387 acres)

Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.

Black Diamond
Expert
61%(944 acres)

Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.

Is Crested Butte Ski Resort good for beginners?

This is one of the hardest ski areas in the country to ski at, so it is not great for beginners. Crested Butte Ski Resort ranks in the top 10% of the most-difficult ski resorts in the country. It has 61% of its trails rated as expert, or black-diamond level.

Crested Butte Ski Resort Location

Crested Butte Ski Resort is located in the state of Colorado, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Crested Butte, CO.

Address:
Crested Butte, CO 81224 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
skicb.com

GPS Coordinates:
38.87000, -106.99000

Getting to Crested Butte Mountain Resort

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Crested Butte Ski Resort), its coordinates of 38.87000, -106.99000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Crested Butte, CO to get close.

By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.

A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Crested Butte Ski Resort.

NameCodeCityDistance
Denver International AirportDENDenver, CO141 mi

A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Crested Butte.

NameCodeCityDistance
Aspen-Pitkin Co/Sardy FieldASEAspen, CO25 mi
Eagle County Regional AirportEGEEagle, CO53 mi
Grand Junction Regional AirportGJTGrand Junction, CO84 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Crested Butte Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.

Other Nearby Ski Resorts

Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Crested Butte Ski Resort.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Cranor Hill Ski AreaGunnison, CO7,000 ft0%20 mi
Aspen Ski ResortsSnowmass Village, CO12,510 ft70%22 mi
Aspen SnowmassSnowmass Village, CO12,510 ft68%22 mi
Aspen Highlands Ski ResortAspen, CO11,675 ft78%23 mi
Aspen Mountain Ski ResortAspen, CO11,212 ft82%24 mi
Sunlight MountainGlenwood Springs, CO9,895 ft66%41 mi
Powderhorn Ski ResortPowderhorn, CO9,850 ft60%41 mi
MonarchSalida, CO11,952 ft53%42 mi
Ski CooperLeadville, CO11,700 ft56%50 mi
Beaver CreekBeaver Creek, CO11,440 ft64%57 mi
Copper MountainFrisco, CO12,441 ft69%60 mi
Lake City Ski HillLake City, CO8,847 ft0%62 mi
VailVail, CO11,570 ft79%63 mi
BreckenridgeBreckenridge, CO12,998 ft83%67 mi
Lee's Ski HillOuray, CO0 ft0%69 mi
KeystoneDillon, CO12,408 ft76%75 mi
TellurideTelluride, CO13,150 ft90%78 mi
Loveland Ski AreaDillon, CO13,010 ft65%81 mi
SilvertonSilverton, CO13,487 ft100%81 mi
Kendall Mountain Ski AreaSilverton, CO9,596 ft20%82 mi
Winter Park ResortWinter Park, CO12,060 ft86%96 mi
Ski Granby RanchGranby, CO9,202 ft32%97 mi
Wolf CreekPagosa Springs, CO11,904 ft52%97 mi

Crested Butte Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation12,162 ft
Base Elevation9,375 ft
Vertical Drop2,787 ft
Trails121
(14% Beginner,  25% Intermediate,  61% Expert)
Lifts15
Skiable Acres1,547
Avg. Annual Snowfall236 inches
Crested Butte Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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