Bury the Butte: January 2017

I remember January 4-13, 2017 like it was yesterday. Over a roughly 10-day period the mountain town of Crested Butte received about 100″ of snow. That equated to about 10 inches of snow-water-equivalent. It was a one in 30-year storm cycle. It also included D4-scale avalanches.

Most of the major basins in Colorado benefited from this historic storm cycle.

SWE January 10, 2017.

I don’t anticipate the current storm cycle exceeding January 2017 in Crested Butte. But, over a roughly 8 day period i’m forecasting a grand total of 55-70 inches (~6-8 inches of snow-water-equivalent).

Let me take you back to January 2017. These photos were taken by the truly amazing photographer Xavier Fane who lives in Crested Butte.

Photo by Xavier Fane.
Photo by Xavier Fane.

Paul Bunyan of shoveling

Meet Rob Boyle – the Paul Bunyan of shoveling. I interviewed Boyle back in 2017.

“I’m in the property manager biz. Last year, I didn’t shovel at all, but this year I have 28 houses on my list,” Boyle said during the storm cycle of January 2017.

“I’ve got a couple hard working guys that are helping me and they are doing an amazing job,” he said. “All this shoveling has cut into my ski time, but my true passion is running rivers. I know it will be a great summer of rafting and kayaking,” Boyle said.

Rob Boyle clears the roofs of his Crested Butte properties, January 2017.
Photo courtesy Rob Boyle, January 2017.

4 thoughts on “Bury the Butte: January 2017”

  1. Randall

    Ah MVM, great post.

    Started going to CB 3 years ago and learned not to go before January. I’d love to see the data on when they opened the T-bars for the last 20 years or so. Maybe we need a bullet proof high every November? Merry Xmas!

  2. Bruno

    That year CB ski area had a tough time hanging onto lift operators. They were making substantially more money shoveling roofs.

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