Progressive Bonfire Dinner Offers Culinary Adventure on Skis or Snowshoes – March 22, 2008

Four-star, four-course, four-fire meal warms up winter in Crested Butte, Colorado
The Crested Butte Nordic Council’s annual Progressive Bonfire Dinner is a unique culinary journey that takes participants along a luminary-lit path for a four-star, four-course, four-fire meal. Snowshoes and Nordic skis are the mode of transportation, and the camaraderie of sitting around crackling fires and dining on good food and warm drinks along the way makes this event on March 22 one truly for the memory books.



Beginning at 5 p.m., diners will be greeted at the first fire at the Town Ranch trailhead with a cup of hot wine or cocoa to sip while sitting on straw bales. Skiers can leisurely follow a path of luminaries along 4 kilometers of local Nordic trails within the historic mining town of Crested Butte and enjoy appetizer, soup, entrée and dessert courses of fabulous Italian fare at the bonfires along the way.



Progressive Bonfire Dinner participants not only will feel warm in spirit and full in the belly, they will be supporting the Gunnison/Crested Butte Junior Nordic Ski Team.



Reservations are required, with seatings beginning at 5 p.m. and concluding at 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $35 for adults and $15 for children under age 12. For reservations, call the Crested Butte Nordic Center at (970) 349-1707.



Crested Butte Nordic Center Facts

The Crested Butte Nordic Center is a full-service cross-country ski center providing lessons and complete rental packages for skate and classical skiing, as well as ice skating, snowshoeing and sledding. The Nordic Center maintains more than 45 kilometers of groomed trails that meander around the outskirts Crested Butte and offers backcountry, moonlight and lunch tours and Nordic events and ski programs (e.g., Master Skiers, Gray Hares and Junior Nordic Team).



Located in the heart of town at Second Street and Whiterock, the Nordic Center is open for the 2007/2008 winter season from Nov. 17, 2007 – April 13, 2008, and is connected to Crested Butte Mountain Resort and various stops in Crested Butte by a free shuttle bus. For more information about the Crested Butte Nordic Center and its winter 2007/2008 calendar of events, visit www.cbnordic.org.



Gunnison County is home to a plethora of Nordic talent such as 2006 Olympian Rebecca Dussault; Ingrid Butts, former Olympian and 1991 American Birkebeiner champion; Kendall Butts, former Olympic coach; Ross Matlock, PSIA examiner and demo team member; and Western State College Nordic coaches and team members.