An Old Croatian Dance Hall Turned Dreamy Ski Lodge

Scarp Ridge Lodge sits just off the main drag in downtown Crested Butte, as it has since 1902. Of course, at the turn of the century, the lodge didn’t host backcountry skiers and fly fishermen. It was a Croatian Dance Hall, serving a community of transplanted miners who held dances and parties that lasted days on end.

These days, it serves a different crowd: folks who can spring for a well turned out lodge in one of the most beloved ski towns in North America. Laid out more like a home, the lodge invites guests to pad around in their stocking feet, grab a drink at the bar in their bathrobe, and splay out on one of their massive couches to catch a movie or read a book in front of the fire.

It sleeps 20 people, with several master suites and a bunkroom for the kids that most grown-ups would be happy to call home for a week or two. There’s also a rooftop hot tub and an indoor sauna, hot tub, and saltwater pool.

Guests at the lodge can head out for a day of backcountry cat skiing with Eleven Experience’s in-house guide company. The cat picks guests up just out the front door, and drives up Keblar Pass (closed to everything but snowmobiles and the guide company in the winter) and past the old Irwin Lodge, into miles of backcountry terrain that regularly gets twice as much snowfall as Crested Butte Mountain.

Once in the backcountry, the old movie cabin and a newer lodge, below, offer shelter from the elements and a dope place to aprés.

Photos courtesy of Eleven Experience

Source: https://www.adventure-journal.com/2018/03/old-croatian-dance-hall-turned-dreamy-ski-lodge/