Crested Butte Mountain Resort is a ski resort located at Mount Crested Butte in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States.HistoryCrested Butte Mountain Resort opened in 1960 when two men - Fred Rice and Dick Eflin - purchased a ranch on Mt. Crested Butte. An operating permit enabling the resort to be built was approved by the United States Forest Service the following year. The resort struggled on for its first ten years. Some of the first lifts included a t-bar at the base area.In 1963, Crested Butte constructed a top-to-bottom gondola from the base area to near where the bottom of the High Lift is today. The resort was the second resort to open a gondola in Colorado, after Vail Ski Resort opened theirs in 1962. Constructed by Carlevaro-Savio, the three-person Silver Queen Gondola was notorious for being cramped and the cabins were known to have frequent collisions. The gondola lasted until 1972, when a bubble double chairlift replaced it. Other opening lifts included a Doppelmayr T-Bar that serviced the training hill on Buckley.Riblet constructed a double chairlift called Twister in 1969 to supplement the Silver Queen Gondola. The lift services expert and advanced trails on the west slope of the mountain, but with the upgrading of other lifts now operates sporadically.In 1972, a bubble double replaced the old gondola, and provided main access out of the base area for the next twenty years. Another double chairlift, Peachtree, was built at the base area to service a set of learning trails between Silver Queen and the T-Bar area. Peachtree still operates today.
