Crested Butte Beginner Skiing

In addition to ski patrollers enforcing slow skiing areas, skier numbers tend to be so low that beginners can turn and stop as they please, or as their skis dictate, without fear of being mowed down.

The main area for novice skiers is off the Red Lady Express Lift. There are a seemingly limitless number of green routes down from the top of the chair, all of which wind their way back down to the base area in a criss-cross mesh of gently tilted runs. In fact, we found that on a powder day the runs were so gentle that we struggled to get down them. In soft snow, the skier’s right runs that take the more circuitous routes back to the base are borderline unskiable and certainly unsuitable for snowboarders.

Beyond the Red Lady, however, beginners will find a number of other outstanding areas. We particularly recommend the green trails off the Painter Boy lift. Here skiers will find gentle, wide slopes interspersed with beautiful birch trees. A great mini-circuit for beginners is to take the Painter Boy lift up and ski over the backside of the hill down the Twin Bridges run to the Prospect Lift. From there, take the lift to the top and ski down Gunsight Pass to the Teocalli Lift, which returns to the main pod of green terrain off the Red Lady lift.

For a resort with as much expert terrain as Crested Butte, outstanding beginner terrain comes as a bit of a surprise. It makes Crested Butte an excellent choice for mixed ability groups or couples where one is significantly more proficient.