Crested Butte (12,162) by Brian Schultz  Tuesday July 24, 2018

Roundtrip mileage: 1.6 miles from tram drop-off
Elevation gain: 760'
Start to finish: 1 hour 20 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We spent some time trying to find a place to park in the town of Mt Crested Butte before heading over to the tram ticket office. We purchased tickets for the Silver Queen Tram, costing $24.00 each, which we didn't mind paying it because it allowed us to start late. We could've made it more sporting to hike the road up but neither of us felt guilty about taking the tram.

After getting off the tram, we began at 10:20 AM. The trail to the top from the tram drop-off is excellent and though starting at a high elevation, there is still 760 feet of elevation gain to reach the summit. The dirt trail ends at the summit ridge and becomes a talus hop to the top.

There were lots of hikers today, including a large group of young teens, some of whom we shared the small summit (photo 1, photo 2) with when we topped out at 11:00. The teens were ordered by their guides to descend after a brief time on top to allow others in their group waiting on the ridge below to ascend. They numbered around 50 total.

We descended at 11:15 and passed by a large group of folks from Canada on their way up. All told, there were easily between 150-200 people on the trail during our short outing today. It only took 30 minutes to hike back to the tram and after riding the tram back to Mt Crested Butte, we enjoyed an outdoor lunch under warm sunny skies.