Where can you ski for free? Crested Butte in Colorado. No catches or extra accommodation charges just free lift tickets between November 27 and December 21 and from April 7 until April 20.

Why does a resort have free skiing? Is it because they need to get their numbers up to look good. On the contrary — Crested Butte has a reputation for being one of the best fields in the US. It has first class base facilities, 13 mostly high speed lifts, a variety of skiing and 85 marked runs in 1160 acres that gets eight meters of snow.

It’s famous for its terrain, 550 acres of hard core runs where do or die is the name of the game. The US extreme skiing and snowboarding championships, which they host every season, was invented in their body bag glades and towering chutes. Their extreme limits zone, The North Face, has one poma that doesn’t open until around Christmas and it takes three lifts to do a circuit on the North Face, which reduces the amount of time one has to dice with death.

This doesn’t explain why a ski field gives away lift tickets for a quarter of their season. “It confounds our competition, nobody can match it,” said Gina Kraft, Crested Butte PR director.

If free lifts aren’t enough, during the same period first time skiers can take ski lessons for $US10 and some of the hotels offer three night packages for $US96. During the rest of the season they sell two lift tickets for the price of one. Despite these deals, the resort isn’t crowded and it’s rare to have to wait in a lift line for more than five minutes, except the 15 minute line of adrenaline junkies on the North Face poma.

If you become sick of skiing there are things to do without planks of wood strapped to your feet. Mount a roaring two stroke machine and snow mobile into the beautiful back country. Or enter the forest by dog sledding or horse back riding. Definitely the most impressive way to see the wilderness is, wind permitting, by hot air balloon. With the Ticket Plus system a skier who buys a pass for five or more days can exchange one day of skiing for any of the other activities. Unfortunately it only gets you a discount on the balloon rides.

Just exploring the authentic Victorian town of Crested Butte is interesting. It has been preserved from the 1880’s when it was built as a mining town full of brothels and bars. The brothels may have disappeared but the night life lives on. It can be a bit quiet during the week although there is usually some action in the Talk of the Town or Kockevar’s. There are a number of good bars and restaurants on the ski field. Rafters have $US1 beer specials .

There are no night clubs or discos and it’s a long way from the serious party town of Aspen but its far more laid back and down to earth. CB is reputed to have the best selection of restaurants of any US ski town. A few worth checking out are; The Bacchanale on Elk Ave and Slocars, which is difficult to find, but well worth it.

If all you are interested in is good skiing then Crested Butte is hard to beat. The weather is fantastic with lots of sunny days. The choice of terrain is great, learners have plenty of easy slopes to fall over on and a good school to help keep you upright. Intermediates have some choice groomers, many of which are split groomed so skiers can venture into the bumps and off piste then quickly get back onto the smooth. One of the best runs is Peek to Treasury over two miles of liquid silk. Although the terrain for intermediates is excellent it is a common criticism that there is not enough of it.

Snowboarding is popular, CB spent thousands of dollars making a snowboard park that is hardly used as the natural terrain is so good for riding. The park has a gap jump, a big table top, a rail slide, two quarter-pipes and a couple of small hits for spinning. If you want to meet the local posse the jibbers track is off the Paradise Life. As a destination Crested Butte has pretty much everything but with a totally unpretentious attitude. As a resort it’s unbelievable generous. Don’t they want to make money?