Hike Crested Butte Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest, CO

Sep 15, 2021 — Crested Butte is a big hunk of mountain just outside the cute Crested Butte mountain town. In the winter the peak is covered in skiiers, and in the summer you can ride the gondola up to the Crested Butte Trail. However, I wasn't thrilled about paying >$20 to ride a tram, but that option ended up being moot since the tram was closed for the year anyway. Instead I drove to the free parking lot at the mountain base and followed a winding dirt road all the way up to the start of the official trail (which I marked on my attached map). Nothing evenful occurred on the hike up, just wide dirt road switchbacks through forest that passed over ski slopes.

Eventually I reached the start of the official hiking trail, which was quite nice. A few switchbacks through pretty forest lead to the talus slope on the northeastern side of Crested Butte. The trail then gains some elevation as it heads up to a minor saddle as it gets more rocky. It then wraps around to the southeast side of Crested Butte and loses a small amount of vertical gain before starting to ascend via the peak's southeast ridge. Initially the trail is hikable enough to be Class 1, but as I progressed up the ridge the trail becomes less obvious and Class 2 talus-hopping leads the last few hundred feet to the summit. At the start of the ridge ascent, there was even a newly-installed fixed rope to aid in a part of the trail that certainly didn't need a rope. I wonder if they're going to be adding more ropes higher up where the terrain is more rugged, and they just started down low?

On my way down, I cut a bunch of the dirt road switchbacks by taking efficient ski slope options, reducing the hike by a few miles. The hike stats assume you just hike the road up and back down, but the purple lines on my attached map give you an idea of the options for how to reduce the hike length if a long road walk sounds boring.