The place
A lone peak at the head of the Gunnison valley, its upper slopes all cliffs, chutes and steep bowls: the Extreme Limits, opened to skiers in the late 1980s. The US Extreme Skiing Championships began here in 1992, the first in the country, and the Extremes have come back nearly every year since.
Off-piste Past the resort's boundary nothing is controlled or patrolled: avalanche terrain, your own risk.
- 18lines to start
The lines
Every line here, with how hard it is.
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The Headwall
■■■■■The High Lift's headline: a corniced, rock-studded bowl under the ridge, a rollover whose landing you can't see, and no-fall zones.
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The Staircase
■■■■■Crested Butte's contest face: a staircase of pillows and rock steps under Phoenix Bowl, a technical entrance and a mogul field at the bottom.
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Body Bag
■■■■■A steep, unforgiving chute beside the Staircase that ends in a 15 ft cliff band, so the whole run is a no-fall zone.
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The Big Hourglass
■■■■■The forbidden finals face: a permanently closed hourglass of pillows and cliffs under Third Bowl, with the Bermuda Triangle inside it.
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Sock-It-To-Me
■■■■■A rock-jump entrance, then a ridge of sheer chutes and hourglasses with mandatory airs, among the mountain's hardest terrain.
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The Phoenix Chutes
■■■■■Steep chutes along the far east side of Phoenix Bowl, one through the trees and one through rock: among the resort's five steepest, and a 2011 Extremes venue.
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Dead Bob's
■■■■■A long, shaded chute parallel to the Staircase: the tamest way down the contest face, with no mandatory airs.
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Third Bowl
■■■■■The far bowl on the boundary: a hike, a gate, a technical first turn off the ridge, then boulder fields and pillows that fill in only in big winters.
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The North Face
■■■■■The face that started it: in 1987 a second-hand platter lift turned a hike-to north face into the Extreme Limits.
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Rambo
■■■■■A 300 m slash cut straight down the fall line through the trees beside the Paradise lift, reputedly 55° at its steepest: the steepest lift-served cut run in the country, the resort says.
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The Peak
■■■■■From the summit of Crested Butte, 12,162 ft, after the High Lift, a traverse to a saddle and a short hike with your skis off: a rocky, treeless face down toward the High Lift's midway.
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Hall of Fame
■■■■■Off the summit's north-west side over rock and very exposed chutes into Upper Banana, then down Banana's gully.
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Banana
■■■■■From under the summit, a long avalanche gully between the trees aimed at the town of Crested Butte: not steep, but long.
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Funnel
■■■■■Banana's sister chute, between huge rock walls, with jump turns among the rocks at its entrance.
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Big Chute
■■■■■Let go of the T-bar halfway up the High Lift, at the sign, and drop: a short, steep, rock-walled slot into Paradise Bowl.
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Teocalli Bowl
■■■■■Over the ridge from the Headwall: a sheltered, east-facing bowl of named rock bands and glades off the High Lift's top, paid for with a 10–15 minute walk back to Paradise.
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Peak to Treasury
■■■■■The resort's longest run, 2.6 miles: from the summit down the Peak, then the groomed blues of Forest Queen, Fallaway and Treasury to the bottom of the East River lift.
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Twister to the Base
■■■■■The front side's way home: from the top of Paradise down Ruby Road, Twister and Lower Twister to the base area, under the old Twister lift's line.
