Communication and relationships really do matter as much or more than the ends and the means of most communal problems. It is particularly evident in a small community like this one and sometimes takes an uncomfortable situation to facilitate a positive move forward. Some cases in point from just this week:

I attended a grievance hearing Monday afternoon being conducted about a resident of Anthracite Place whose lease was not going to be renewed next month. My interpretation is that communication between administrators and the tenant had gotten sideways. Because no definitive reason for the non-renewal was cited and one wasn’t given to me when asked, my gut tells me that the Gunnison Valley Rural Housing Authority staff seemed frustrated about the time, effort and attitude needed to deal with this particular resident, who happens to be a person with physical and cognitive disabilities. It appears that what had once been a good relationship soured and the hole kept getting deeper. The resident admitted that he at times had probably reacted too harshly in situations and he was apologetic. The administration admitted they weren’t trained to deal with his disability.

A three-member panel of the GVRHA board— Carlos Velado, John Messner and Chris Haver—made up the grievance hearing committee and they did a great job of listening to both sides with an open mind. It became evident early that they were interested in solutions instead of blame and defensiveness.

Ultimately an agreement was reached in concept to use an advocate to help with more sensitive communication from both sides. The broad outlines of a plan going forward were established, timelines were discussed and in theory, a final resolution will be accomplished soon. It was a good process that ended in a good understanding that respected the need for better communication and compromise.

The beginning of what could be a similar positive solution to an issue about the Old Rock Schoolhouse is germinating between the town of Crested Butte and the Gunnison County Library District. In an effort to get all of its rentals in order, the town recently asked the Library District for a proper lease that included a pretty good rent increase. The library board reacted negatively to the idea and then came back with a proposal for a new lease that included an option to buy the Old Rock. Both sides have probably gone a little far in their initial offer—the library wants the town to do or pay for about 95 percent of everything, including changing the light bulbs—but the seed of a good idea that could benefit both was planted.

Whether that seed sprouts depends in part if each side can get beyond perceived slights and misinterpretations of things communicated poorly. Perhaps the cleanest way to move forward is for a group of representatives from the staff and both boards to work out some of the broad details and then bring in everyone for a final deal.

Frankly, despite a tepid response from the town council, I think the big idea of a lease-purchase could be a good one. The town can sell the Library District the building and include in the contract that it has to be a library that is open six or seven days a week. If for some reason the district feels compelled to sell it in the future, the town should include a clause in the contract that they can buy back the Old Rock for what they paid. Instead of a 10-year process, it makes more sense as a one-year deal if the Library District gets its tax passed this November.

Seems to me both sides get what they want. The town maybe can’t say it owns one of the cooler structures in Crested Butte but it rids itself of an expense line item and can ensure that it remains a library in perpetuity. The library board can own its north valley building and be responsible for it. That makes it easy for them to explain to Library District taxpayers in Gunnison and Pitkin why they should invest in improvements for Crested Butte’s Old Rock that is an asset owned by them and not just the citizens of Crested Butte. It probably makes the upcoming November ballot issue an easier sell across the county.

The idea, which is far from being negotiated in any real detail, presents itself as another potential win-win compromise that moves things along instead of making people irritated. That’s where the relationship element comes in and the two sides need good, honest communication to make it happen. The current silo approach is counterproductive. Overcoming the friction developed earlier this summer shouldn’t be hard as long as both sides take a breath, speak their truth and move forward with sincere intention.

Which brings me to the Gatesco situation discussed Tuesday at the county commissioner meeting. I do like how Gary Gates has come down to the 156-unit cap required by the Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte councils. Based on his apartment size revisions, it appears to me he is probably shifting focus from long-term family or couple-type rentals to a more seasonal focus with more studios and one-bedroom units in the mix. I’m not sure about that move but it is certainly worth discussing. And that’s what will hopefully happen later this month as the commissioners basically allowed his extension, with the big caveat that he has to please one or both of the land partner holdouts, Crested Butte or Mt. Crested Butte.

The communication and relationship issues have been a consistent problem with this deal and I’ll go out on a limb and say that if that doesn’t change, there will be no deal. Gates’ attorney Kendall Burgemeister said as much late Tuesday night when he told the CB council that Gary wants to give “one last good faith effort to keep the project going” and indicated there was more “flexibility” to play with on the other two conditions. There is longstanding bad blood to overcome between the Gates development team and some members of both town councils. It was evident as recently as this last week. The Gatesco team decision to keep both councils in the dark about lowering the unit number until just before the county hearing on Tuesday was baffling. I’ll go out on another limb and say such a decision is antithetical to good communication and constructive partnerships.

Now Gary did say he’d been communicating with the other two partners in the property these last six months. That would be the new ski area owner Vail Resorts and the county. That too would tweak me if I were on either council. As a partner, I’d want to know what they’re talking about with our property and if say, Vail is snatching up all or most of the proposed units for their seasonal employees. That too might be fine and is worth discussing but I’d want to be part of the conversation as a partner in the deal.

So… In my opinion, this has been an issue with little positive relationship building. Gatesco attorney Burgemeister tacitly admitted as much on Tuesday morning when he said that while people can take issue with the way Gatesco has done some things in this process and the tone of the communication, you cannot assail Gates’ commitment to the project. You in fact can, because for the deal to come to fruition, that commitment takes a trusted relationship with several personalities and partners instead of an adversarial attitude based in righteousness from either party.

That said, the commissioners gave the parties until Halloween to come up with a deal. Scary stuff. Any deal will have to start by draining the pool of mistrust and negative politicking and refilling the pool with honesty and respect. It won’t take long to see if that is possible.

At the end of the Anthracite Place grievance hearing on Monday, some members of the audience thanked the three-person panel for being open to listening and compromise. They said they appreciated the compassion and fairness of the panel seeing the issue in human and community terms.

“Hey, we’re part of the community too,” assured chairperson Carlos Velado.

At the end of the Gatesco hearing, commission chairman Jonathan Houck said it was a good meeting and “despite differences we are able to have productive discussions and I appreciate that.”

Cheers to both those sentiments.

It is that attitude that makes most of this stuff really work in the small town life we are living. Speak your truth. Be honest and respectful. Work together and let the chips fall where they will.

—Mark Reaman

Town council fine-tunes ballot language

By Kendra Walker

In an effort to finalize November ballot issue language for a proposed lodging tax, Mt. Crested Butte Town Council addressed community feedback during a July 16 public work session. The proposed 2.9 percent tax would be directed at guests paying for Mt. Crested Butte short-term rentals and hotels, and the proceeds would help fund affordable housing projects.

Mt. Crested Butte resident Kathy Hooge gave her input. “I’m here to tell you it’s not going to make any difference one way or the other because when you go to a hotel, or when you plan a vacation, you don’t call up the person and say ‘So what’s your sales tax?’ You don’t. You say, ‘What’s your nightly rate? Do you have to pay for parking at your place?’ Those kinds of things, so it’s not going to make any difference.”

Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick clarified that group businesses and convention and meeting businesses do look closely at those additional taxes. “They are the ones it would impact the most,” he noted.

Additionally, Hooge expressed her concern to protect the life of the affordable housing projects initiated under the tax. She referenced the Marcellina Apartments, now called The Timbers, which were originally built by Crested Butte Mountain Resort to house employees but were later sold and turned into condominiums by the new owner. “So what will be the plan to make sure that in 20 years, they can’t just say ‘Oh, we’ve all changed our minds’?” she asked.

Community development director Carlos Velado explained that deed restrictions could be placed on affordable housing units. “If you deed-restrict a unit that’s attached to that property, that lasts, it survives,” he said.

“The challenge with deed-restricted units is that if they go into foreclosure, oftentimes there aren’t procedures in place for the deed restriction to survive,” Velado continued. “In the past the town hasn’t had enough funds in the coffers to buy a property at foreclosure.”

“Because everybody’s hurting at the same time,” chimed in councilman Nicholas Kempin.

“So that’s one of the things we discussed as a way to use some of these funds,” Velado continued. “In the case of a foreclosure on a deed-restricted property, those funds can be used to rescue that property out of foreclosure.”

Hooge also asked council if some of the money could be used for down payment assistance.

Councilman Dwayne Lehnertz responded, “We talked about keeping it overly broad so that we could do that. That avenue would not be closed off to us because our intent is to create something that supports any aspect of affordable workforce housing.”

Mayor Janet Farmer said, “While it’s out there as a possibility, it’s not a priority. We really want to get some funds built up so we can do something helpful with infrastructure for someone who is going to build workforce housing, some major expenditure assistance. And then as time goes on maybe we get to a point where we’ve got some of those things … then [down payment assistance] might be a direction that we go with some of the funding.”

Councilmember Lauren Daniel added, “There are some employers in the valley that offer that to their employees. Mt. Crested Butte Water and Sanitation offers some programs; our town offers some down payment assistance.”

Farmer brought up feedback she’s heard over the past several weeks outside of council meetings. Though not in attendance at the July 16 meeting and unavailable for comment before print, Crested Butte Mountain Resort director of lodging Heather Leonard had expressed her concern to Farmer.

Referring to the hotels, Farmer said, “They’re not too happy with the 2.9 percent” potential lodging tax. Because, she clarified, of a fee council had not originally taken into account. Hotels charge an additional 3 percent to their nightly rental fees to pay to the Mt. Crested Butte Town Center Community Association, which helps fund various maintenance projects such as landscaping, snow removal and asphalt repair. Farmer explained a 2.9 percent tax would take hotel taxes up to a total of 19.8 percent charged to their guests; however, council felt the 3 percent association fee falls under a category different from the proposed tax.

“That is not a direct expense because they’re getting paid back. So it’s not in addition to,” said Lehnertz.

“It’s an operating cost,” said councilman Steve Morris

“It would be like if you tacked on the $20 to your VRBO for landscaping and snow removal,” added Kempin.

“At Town Hall we are trying very hard to educate [the Town Center Community Association] and the public that it is not a tax, it’s a fee,” cautioned town clerk Tiffany O’Connell. “Government is the only one that can put a tax on something.”

Farmer concluded, “If you’re all okay that they’re going to have that high amount tacked on to their room costs—we may get some pushback at some point.”

Council also determined the proposed tax percentage should have the flexibility to lower in the future with voter approval. “As long as you don’t exceed the 2.9 percent, council has the opportunity to lower it,” explained town attorney Kathleen Fogo. “So if you have a pile of money, you could reduce it to 1 percent, for example.”

“It gives the public a voice,” agreed Morris.

Council debated the jurisdiction of the funds raised, whether the tax would support projects only in Mt. Crested Butte proper, or be extended to projects outside of town limits. They ultimately decided the funds would not be limited to Mt. Crested Butte, but council would prioritize Mt. Crested Butte projects first.

Hooge expressed her unhappiness with extending beyond Mt. Crested Butte limits, saying, “I don’t want the money going from here down to Gunnison. And it’s not because I’m against Gunnison, I shop there—it’s just that I feel like they already have enough things going on.”

“If we have the opportunity to contribute to something that benefits our community, whether or not it’s in our community or not, I would like to have the option to do that,” said Lehnertz.

Fitzpatrick added, “You can’t see all these things from this chair today [about] what may come up.”

Based on the evening’s discussion, Fogo will update the ballot issue draft for review at the August 6 Town Council meeting.

“Everybody knows me by ‘Ski.’ No one knows me by Dan and no one forgets my name,” grins Dan Zeroski. “There’re a lot of Dans in town.” In a snow resort town, you might think he got his moniker from being an outrageous skier and although he could be considered a senior über athlete, the name is a condensed version of Zeroski, which, he says, “I got before I learned how to ski.”

He grew up in the first town on the underground railroad stop in Ohio—it was on the border of West Virginia where slavery was legal and in Ohio it was not. His parents owned a bar and restaurant after his dad quit the coal mines. Ski has a fraternal twin brother. They were two of five kids. His early life was riddled with health issues. “I had pneumonia when I was two and because of that, hardening of the lungs.” He doesn’t actually remember that he had been pronounced dead as a toddler and the priest administered last rites, nor does he know how he miraculously survived. “I guess I came out of it. I survived it but I always had health and respiratory problems from the damage it caused to my lungs. Once I got into junior high school I got into sports and fitness and most of the health issues went away. I had been sick all the time, had hard breathing and allergies, anything that had to do with my respiratory system.” Ski attributes the healing and better health to staying fit and “keeping my lungs strong, with aerobic fitness.”

Ski’s four other siblings also kept him from slowing down and he says of his small town upbringing, “You did whatever you could come up with. We had a 10 p.m. curfew with a siren from the firehouse but the town didn’t enforce it because they didn’t have a police force. We just did what we wanted because our parents were working in the restaurant. Part of the culture of the area was that we could get alcohol whenever we wanted. I was bartending when I was 16.”

But Ski says the effect of allowing youngsters to have an alcoholic beverage was the opposite of what you might think. In fact, most European immigrants allowed their children to sample beer or wine because it was part of the culture and therefore the children learned to drink responsibly as adults.

“When you grow up with that, you don’t really drink because you were taught responsible drinking. I still only drink socially once in a while. The communities were ethnic because of the steel and coal mines so there were Polish, German, Italian, Czech, Irish and Scandinavians. All the communities were always tight. Softball competition was big.”

Ski recalls that, like Crested Butte, polka bands were the thing. “If you go back in the early days of Crested Butte, my community and Crested Butte were similar. You had the various ethnic social clubs.”

During junior high, Ski played football, basketball, baseball and in high school he focused on football and wrestling. He graduated from high school in 1975 and he says that, “At that time people thought I was crazy for wanting to go to college because you could make $80 a day with great benefits in the coal mines and steel mills. We had a guy who graduated with our class who couldn’t read or write and his first day in the coal mines he was making more than the teachers with their college degrees.”

Foregoing the mines and mills, Ski went off to Northeastern State University in Oklahoma in Tahlequah, capital of the Cherokee Nation. “Best three years of college was my freshman year,” he leans over and laughs. He earned his bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and safety with a double major in history in 1979, and stayed on to receive a master’s degree in junior college education, graduating in 1980.

He says, “I wanted to coach so I took a teaching job at a high school in Cleveland, Oklahoma,” where he taught history and coached wrestling, but when he was offered a position to teach health and PE and work with the Oklahoma State Wrestling Team at Oklahoma State in Stillwater, he jumped at the opportunity. While he was there for three years, he also earned a doctorate in education, “in higher education administration with emphasis in physiology of exercise in 1983. My dissertation revolved around developing a curriculum for martial arts so that universities could teach it. It had never been done before.”

Ski had studied Tae Kwon-Do in his freshman year at college. “It’s 65 percent feet and 35 percent hands. A lot of your contact is usually with your feet,” says the second degree blackbelt who fought professionally for two years on the Professional Karate Association circuit and was two-time national karate (in Tae Kwon-Do) and had Chuck Norris sign his trophy.

As part of his paid work- study program as a student at Northeastern, Ski ended up being the trainer for the football team, because he wasn’t big enough to actually play on the team. He remembers that the team would sign up for special boxing matches. “They’d have these boxing matches called Smokers, a one-day event. I didn’t know anything about boxing,” he grins, but he signed up. “I ended up boxing and became an Amateur Athletic Union [AAU]. My claim to fame in boxing AAU State Runner-up Champ was fighting for my club team and they wanted points to win state and I had to fight in the Open Advance division because I was over 21 years old. I got matched up against a USA Army champ and he was scared of me,” at least for the first round, he says, “because he heard I was a national karate champ, then the next four rounds he beat me like a drum because he realized I didn’t know anything about boxing.”

Post-doctorate, Ski was offered a job at a public school in Ardmore, Oklahoma. “I wanted to coach so I took the job: football, wrestling and track. It was an alternative school where we had fifth through 12th graders in the same room. These were children with a lot of issues but they functioned very well because they all had the same problems and couldn’t socially adjust to a normal environment. It was a unique situation.”

He was three years at Oklahoma State, one year at Ardmore and 31 years at Stillwater High School before retiring in 2015. “Work was cutting into my playtime so something had to give,” he says not quite seriously, “so I gave up work to play.”

He discovered Crested Butte in 1991, “When my friend brought me up. I’d live here during the summers, and bought a place in 1999. Some summers I’d be scraping ice off my windshield in August and then I’d pull back into Stillwater and it’d be 110 degrees with humidity. I’d miss the hottest part of the year there but still it’d be up in the 100s. Once you spend a summer in Crested Butte, you can never spend a summer in Oklahoma again.” Now that he’s retired, he’s a full-time Buttian.

“I’ve run to Aspen over West Maroon Pass, had lunch and run back. You tell people in Oklahoma that and they think you’re crazy but you tell people here and they ask if they can go with you. That’s the difference in attitude. Colorado is one of the top-ranking states for health.”

Ski’s done 68 marathons and ultra marathons including, he lists, “London; St. Petersburg, Russia; Zermatt, which was my favorite with 26.2 miles all uphill along the Matterhorn.” He continues, “Mt. Davos, Switzerland; Innsbruck, Austria, which started in Tirol, France over Brenner Pass into Innsbruck; Grindalwall, Switzerland; and my last marathon was Tulsa Route 66 on my 62nd birthday and was my 62nd marathon. My last ultra was the Grand Traverse from Crested Butte to Aspen.” He’s also climbed all 54 official Fourteeners, “and four unofficial Fourteeners,” he says.

Internationally, he’s climbed the Matterhorn, Mt. Blanc, the Eiger, Jungfrau Monk and enjoyed traveling to 43 countries. “Zermatt is my favorite city and Switzerland my favorite country but,” he confesses, “my all-time favorite place is Crested Butte.”

“My thing is running and skiing.” The last two years he’s taught ski school at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. “It was by default. I was with guest services, a volunteer service with CBMR, and we’d back up the ski patrol, everything concerning safety and guests.”

After a month of training this past season, he taught full-time. “Two years ago I worked for CBMR, now I work for Vail. I wasn’t planning on working, but I was doing it as a favor for some friends because they needed ski instructors.”

When the Public House, the newest Crested Butte brewery, opened two years ago, Ski was called upon. “The manager emailed me to do security because of my background. I did it one night and was asked again for the next concert.” He’s been there ever since. “In everything I do, if it’s not fun, I don’t do it. I get paid for skiing during the day and listening to music at night and it caused me to come out of retirement,” he says.

Of course, Ski plans on going to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. He worked the Olympic trials in Atlanta in 1996 for the USA Track and Field, filming for the trials. He also went to the 2012 games in London and got to see local runner Emma Coburn compete. He travels a lot with his longtime buddy, Duane Vandenbusche, who is also an Oklahoma State alum. “We met here. I worked with him in his running camps. I’m his technology advisor,” Ski says tongue-in-cheek, “because I know how to turn on a computer so he thinks I’m a genius.”

Ski’s life philosophy matches his warm sense of humor, which is in constant play. “I’d rather die while I’m living than live while I’m dead! It’s the atmosphere, the weather, the people here, everybody’s laid-back with no stress,” he says of Crested Butte. “You don’t have to deal with any stress or listen to the news,” he wisely surmises and jokes that he heard we have a new president since he retired. “Everybody’s into fitness here, and an active lifestyle is what I like.”

Late night was never so easy

By Kendra Walker

“You saved my life.” “You saved my weekend.” Nowadays, CB Babysitters co-founders Laura Gutierrez and Katie Lawn hear comments like these often.

Since 2015, CB Babysitters has been fulfilling sitter requests from locals and visiting families in need of childcare. The service works as an “Uber” of sorts for babysitting requests, where parents can reach out with their sitting needs—dates, times, number of kids, location, etc.—and CB Babysitters connects them with an available sitter.

“When clients are desperate, and if they’re not from here, they’re not familiar, our role is to help,” said Gutierrez. “For me, it’s a great satisfaction when parents are able to find something reliable where they can go out and their kids are safe.”

The idea originally spurred from Gutierrez’s husband, Anthony Perez, who worked as the concierge at the Grand Lodge in 2007. Families started requesting babysitting services, so he would go down a list of local sitters he put together until someone was available. Gutierrez, who moved here from Venezuela in 2014, took over a year later to coordinate everything. That’s when the referral service transformed into its own co-op group of local sitters promoting each other.

Lawn started babysitting through the co-op in 2017 and soon joined Gutierrez to help coordinate requests. The two have managed the service as a co-founding team ever since.

According to them, at least 65 percent of the families are repeat clients from season to season. The rest of the requests they receive are typically from visiting families coming to town for one-time events such as vacations and weddings. “One of the most satisfying things is when we can fulfill a last-minute request so the parents can go out to dinner for a few hours, or go mountain biking for the day or ski without the kids,” said Lawn.

Gutierrez and Lawn take pride in their reliable fleet of background-checked, local sitters, and stress that a CB Babysitter “is not a person who will just sit and watch TV with the kids all night.”

“We make it fun for the kids because they are also on vacation,” said Gutierrez. “Parents often feel guilty because they’re going out to have fun but their kids are going to have just as much, if not more, fun.” Lawn added, “Parents love us because our sitters have a local perspective of the town, we know what to do here, we know local events taking place here. We connect families with the town and community.”

Denver-based Greg Carlin and his wife found CB Babysitters last summer for their baby, who was three months old at the time. “I think it’s really convenient for people like us who have kids, especially young kids who aren’t old enough to go out and hike or ski, and we’re able to bring them on the trip but also do all the great things that Crested Butte has to offer,” Greg said. “And have someone we trust to leave with the baby and go and get a real vacation for a few hours” he added. “

During that first winter in 2015, Gutierrez received 80 sitter requests. Fast-forward to this most recent winter season—236 requests. Last summer, CB Babysitters received 288 requests and anticipate even more this summer.

Because of the steady growth and popularity of the service over the years, Gutierrez and Lawn realized they had an opportunity to reaffirm their commitment within the community and turn the co-op into a limited liability company, or LLC. They conducted market comparisons with other Colorado ski towns, including Telluride, Aspen, Vail and Breckenridge, and talked with other similar babysitting services. Based on input from these communities and repeat clients, they realized they could make some adjustments that would better align with their goals and help them become more competitive with other ski towns.

“My biggest motivation was all this change from the small Crested Butte Mountain Resort family into Vail Resorts,” said Gutierrez. “We still want to keep it local instead of getting drowned by some big corporate sitting service taking over from the outside.”

Changes they have made this summer include the formation of the LLC, a new website, higher competitive rates and higher wages for their sitters. “Being an LLC, we are growing and there are added expenses—taxes, marketing, hiring an attorney to help us with liability,” said Lawn. Gutierrez also noted their desire to be part of the chamber of commerce and participate in town events like the farmers market, where entry/membership fees will be much more feasible as an LLC.

The new website, cbbabysitters.com, is designed to be more efficient and user-friendly and includes an online request form for families. “We try to make the whole process as quick and easy for parents as possible so it’s one less stress, one less thing they’re doing while they’re planning their vacation,” said Lawn.

Gutierrez and Lawn also expressed how helpful the community has been—hotel services, event planners and businesses—in recommending CB Babysitters to their customers. In return, CB Babysitters makes recommendations to their clients and steers families toward specialized services available in the community, such as CBMR ski lessons, CB Devo mountain biking and Rocky Mountain Biological Lab activities, to name a few.

“We have a goal to work with other local companies and non-profits to help each other and spread the word about what draws families here,” said Lawn.

“We want to support our other local businesses and not step over them,” added Gutierrez. “I’m vey proud of the small town we have and this community, and I want to show families the best and how beautiful the community is. It’s kind of like being an ambassador for our town.”

To learn more about CB Babysitters or to request a sitter, visit cbbabysitters.com.

STOR priorities are improved parking, signage, bathrooms

By Katherine Nettles

The continued increase in tourism and recreation throughout Gunnison County has left a mark on certain well-travelled areas and is now the subject of focus among local land managers.

In order to curb the collateral damage of recreation, new signs and a parking area along the Slate River, more designated campgrounds to replace dispersed sites and inter-agency partnership on trail outreach at Taylor Park Canyon are among the improvements to local recreation areas that may be seen as early as this month, according to stakeholders who met in a Gunnison County Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation (STOR) committee meeting last week.

And more projects are to come, with the collaborative efforts of the STOR committee and new funding it received recently from a $350,000 GOCO grant for land stewardship, as reported by the Crested Butte News on June 21. A large part of the discussion at the June 27 meeting was brainstorming ideas for future projects to improve camping, parking and sanitation facilities in the Gunnison Valley.

While the committee reviewed that it had discussed Signal Creek, West Maroon and Judd Falls at its last meeting, its members proceeded to cover needs at Peanut Lake/Lower Loop, Gothic Campground, Rustler’s Gulch, the Almont river put-in, Nicholson Lake/Slate River and Taylor Canyon Park. The themes were, again and again, parking, signage and restrooms to reduce the misuse of and damage to the areas.

Taylor Park Canyon, which was regarded as a large problem area, took up a fair amount of discussion.

Gunnison Trails representative Gary Pierson said the organization is interested in helping the United States Forest Service (USFS) with a trails crew, to help manage some of that area. USFS Gunnison District ranger Matt McCombs said this could help immensely.

“The impacts there are extremely heavy. It’s important to have a field presence to tend to field contacts. And if you’re digging trail all day, you’re not out making contact with riders, and creating a new culture,” McCombs said.

Chris Parmeter with Colorado Parks and Wildlife said that in general, land managers have to draw a line and make it clear to recreationalists that they have limitations on use and availability.

“In order to be good stewards of the land, we just can’t allow everything, everywhere, all the time. We’re going to have to start saying no … and some people are going to just have to suffer. Some people are going to have to say, well, I guess I can’t do this here,” Parmeter said.

The committee did not make any final decisions on how or where to allocate the GOCO funds, but reviewed the STOR committee member survey results and discussed various needs at different locations (i.e., bathrooms at Slate River trailhead and parking at Rustlers Gulch) to help zero in on priorities. Several participating entities, such as Gunnison County and the USFS, also discussed their own ongoing efforts to minimize recreational impacts with projects that are already under way.

Gunnison County public works director Marlene Crosby explained her crew’s plans to sign the Slate River Road with “No ATV” signs this summer, to reduce the impact of unauthorized vehicle use in that area. ATV use on the Slate River Road is technically not permitted until past Pittsburg, since ATVs are not permitted on county roads. At Pittsburg, where the county road turns into a USFS road, a parking area has been discussed as a collaboration with the county and the USFS, said Crosby. “But we haven’t been able to get to it due to the late arrival of spring.

“The town and the land trust have been working on how to develop a trailhead there,” Crosby added. Crosby said the signs were a sure thing and were scheduled to arrive any day.

Aaron Drendal of the USFS presented the challenges and increasing burden of dispersed camping in various drainages, and the USFS’ work to restore some of the heavily damaged areas such as Musicians Camp in the Slate River Valley. He and McCombs talked about the need for additional designated campsites, which are more formal than dispersed sites, with signage, parking, permanent fire rings and delineation.

McCombs said the USFS has identified that dispersed camping both in and around Crested Butte is unsustainable. “Dispersed camping has been a problem that’s growing and growing, and we feel like we’re outside our forest plan guidance,” he said later in a separate interview with the Crested Butte News.

As part of a public review process, McCombs said the USFS took the opportunity to start the conversation with the STOR committee, because it is such a large group of local stakeholders. He explained how more designated campsites would help the situation, as would public outreach and education efforts about the changes.

“It would also arrest the unsustainable resource damage as visitation continues to increase,” McCombs said. “We wanted to brief the STOR committee on our work in case they decide to go forward with this,” he said. “I see the stewardship fund as well as the GOCO grant as great potential opportunities to invest in sustainable, high-quality experiences for visitors and residents alike in this area.”

The USFS’ next steps will be outreach to the public for further input.

Community and Economic Development director Cathie Pagano said that while the STOR committee’s project prioritization is initially related to the GOCO funding, she anticipates it will also inform future project funding discussions for the organization.

The STOR committee includes more than 20 representatives from Gunnison County; the city of Gunnison; the towns of Crested Butte, Mt. Crested Butte and Pitkin; Colorado Parks and Wildlife; the U.S. Forest Service (USFS); the Bureau of Land Management; the National Park Service; the Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association; the Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association; Crested Butte Mountain Resort; Western State Colorado University; the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District; and several additional public at-large representatives from the Crested Butte Land Trust, Nordic Center, Conservation Corps and others.

Finding community

By Dawne Belloise

Ashley UpChurch is all about community, which has been an ongoing theme throughout her life. She grew up in Raleigh, N.C., playing a lot of sports, from soccer and softball to basketball, volleyball and ultimate Frisbee. Horses were her fascination and she was able to get riding lessons in exchange for working at a barn and a veterinarian’s office. Her family would often go camping in West Virginia at a state park that rented cabins with electricity, a gas cook stove and a fireplace for heat. “I would spend all day at the barn where I’d groom and feed horses and they’d let me do trail rides for free,” Ashley recalls with a smile. She says she still loves horses.

Confessing that she felt awkward in school, Ashley joined the marching band because, “I liked the family that the marching band provided. We could all just go hang out in the band room instead of being awkward everywhere else in school where the cool kids were.” She played saxophone in the band throughout high school but laughs, “I was never very good and I could barely keep time.”

Ashley graduated from high school in 2005 and says that she had no idea what she wanted to do. “But I knew that I needed to figure out a way to pay for college so I got a scholarship at East Carolina University in Greenville to be a middle school language arts teacher in North Carolina. I didn’t want to be a teacher—that wasn’t the impetus to get that scholarship—I just wanted a way to pay for college,” which was a financially logical decision that allowed her to graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in middle school language arts and led her to her first teaching assignment in Colombia, South America.

“I wanted to travel and it’s really easy to get a teaching position outside of our country. It was amazing, and serious culture shock,” Ashley says. “I spoke no Spanish but I learned quickly. The school was bilingual and the kids are taught English from elementary school, but if a child transferred from another school, then they hadn’t been taught English. It’s hard enough being able to communicate with kids but additionally there was the language and cultural barrier and it was my first year teaching. I didn’t know what I was doing but I had a lot of fun,” she says, although as a 5’11” blonde woman, it was annoying when people continually called her “Barbie” in the streets.

While she was in college, Ashley studied abroad in Finland for six months, “from September through December, which is not the time to be in Finland,” she laughs. “It was so dark. But I got to go skinny-dipping under the Northern Lights, above the Arctic Circle, and it was magical. You do this after you take a sauna, so it’s a cold plunge.”

Back in North Carolina, she returned to her college job as a summer camp counselor, teaching horseback riding and guiding raft and backpacking trips in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She returned to her camp position every summer for eight years. During one spring, she hiked 500 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Virginia and in 2011, she took a teaching position in Raleigh for two years.

Ashley met Daniel Kreykes at a party in Brevard, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. “Prior to the party, I had a huge crush on him at camp where we both worked, but I got to camp late that summer and some other girl claimed him,” Ashley laughs. “Our first date was a local hike that I had done many times and Dan said he could do it from his house. He told me it was three miles to the top of this mountain, but it was actually six miles one way to the top, and our life has pretty much been like that ever since,” she says. They hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2014, starting in Maine and hiking south to North Carolina, completing the 1,700 miles and four months of trekking together. At the end of the trail, two days later, they were married.

“We had already quit our jobs, we didn’t have an apartment, and all our stuff was in storage. We knew that if we were going to move somewhere, this was the time. I had always wanted to live in Colorado for an embarrassingly silly reason— in fifth grade, when you learned what all the state mottos are, I remembered it was ‘Colorful Colorado’ and as a kid, I thought it was a state of rainbows. As an adult, I thought, I wanna go live in that place that as a kid I thought would be really cool. Dan was totally down to move there because he’s a hiker, skier, kayaker, mountain biker and climber.” Dan was looking for ski instructor jobs while they were still trekking.

The couple knew they didn’t want to live on the I-70 corridor or, Ashley smirks, “work for Vail. We’d heard of Aspen and Telluride, and Dan applied at those and a couple of other independent resorts.” Still on their trek, Dan had to run six miles to a town where he could get cell service for a phone interview with Crested Butte Mountain Resort, which offered him the job.

They arrived in Crested Butte in early December 2014. “We had to live in a motel in Gunnison for the first month because we couldn’t find housing up here,” Ashley recalls. But they finally found a home in Crested Butte South, where they’ve been ever since. Ashley took a job at Pooh’s Corner.

“I loved working at Pooh’s. The summers were a little tough, exhausting, as all retail in this town can be. I do love kids. I loved being a camp counselor and there were aspects of teaching that I just adored and were fantastic.” She “played” at Pooh’s for a year and a half before being hired at the Crested Butte-Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce as membership and marketing coordinator. She grins, admitting that the day she applied for the position, she had to ask Google what a chamber of commerce was. In May 2017, Ashley became the executive director of the chamber.

“I love it and working for these small businesses, especially when I walk into any of our stores and see that they’re succeeding. I love helping people succeed with their dreams. That’s really what a small business is, it’s your dream. The thing I like most about my job is the community. It’s been a theme in my life. I loved marching band and summer camp because it gave me a community. And teaching too, my kids were my community and we’d do all kinds of stuff together. My favorite thing on the Appalachian Trail was the trail community, the trail family.”

In their chosen community at the end of the road in Crested Butte, Ashley feels the draw of the mountains. “I love hiking with my husband and my dog, Jake. Learning to ski on this mountain as an adult is terrifying,” she admits. “I like skiing although it’s not my favorite sport but you gotta do something in the winter. I’m learning to Nordic ski. Mostly, I’m a hiker and I’m trying to complete all the trails in the Gunnison watershed. It’s called Trail Quest and it’s an app designed around mountain biking that the Tourism Association developed.

“The challenge is to ride all of the single track in the watershed. The perimeter is from our side of Monarch all the way over to Paonia and from Schofield Pass, 401, all the way to the Hartman’s. That’s what I’ve been focusing on since I’ve been here. I’m also learning to mountain bike. Before Trail Quest came out we were trying to hit every peak that you can see from town. We love to climb mountains and Teo and Whetstone are my favorites for views in the area.”

Ashley’s quest and the importance of community is a priority for her. “The community keeps me here. I love the people and how they embrace each other and it’s just so much fun here. And we still have so many mountains to climb,” she concludes.

Costumes galore at the Chainless and Bridges of the Butte

by Dawne Belloise

Summer is finally upon us, we hope, and to kick it off is one of Crested Butte’s favorite events: Crested Butte Bike Week.

The craziest and most anticipated race event of the weekend is the notorious Chainless World Championship Bike Race, which screams down from the top of Kebler Pass into the heart of town and is immediately followed by a celebratory party. Seven miles of gravitationally challenging dirt road that drops into the top of Elk Avenue takes place this Friday, June 28, with racers screaming down the dusty descent beginning at the traditional 4:20 p.m. This is the oldest mountain bike festival in the world and undeniably the best. Originally dubbed Fat Tire Bike Week before its name change several years ago, it highlights Crested Butte as the legendary home of not only mountain biking, but also of costuming.

Most Crested Butte competitions and events involve costuming up and Buttians take their costume creating seriously. In fact, many start creating their themes and get-ups months in advance, even as they cross the finish line they’ve got next year’s costumes already materializing in their heads. From teams to individuals, they are pros leaning to the theatrical extreme and they shine in the Chainless Race.

Through the years, the costumes have gotten more elaborate, complex and comical. Boat bikes, gorilla and chicken suits, Vikings, several Darth Vaders and Star Wars characters, pirates and disco glitterati, even real-life brides and grooms in their wedding garb, and on a variety of contraptions.

In past races, Mike Arbaney’s front end, loose pivot point bike named the Gambler that can bend itself in two was always amusing to watch. Racers do it for the prestige and the glory, the fun and of course, the bragging rights.

There are prizes for the best bike, best costume and an assortment of other funky awards in addition to the more tough first, second and third arriving at the bottom in one piece. The no guts/no-glory race is also famous for its carnage as racers descend the final hill trying to avoid the side slide right turn onto Elk Avenue from old Kebler Road into screaming throngs of fans.

The Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce now hosts the weekend event. Executive director Ashley UpChurch recalls her favorite costumes from years past, “There was the Beatles-themed Yellow Submarine,” a life-sized, bright yellow sub captained by Rick Murray and crew in full Sgt. Pepper garb, from the 1967 album and 1968 animated film. It was a 3-D sculpture on bike frames sailing down the pass and the subject of bar conversations for many months afterwards.

Another best-loved theme was the family team costumed up as the Mario Brothers video game, complete with a daring chariot that sported their toddler dressed up as the Toad character. “It was like a racing Mario game,” UpChurch laughs, “Not that I condone putting young children in the Chainless. The costumes are my favorite part of the Chainless, and the Chainless is the most fun.”

The Chainless race began when a gaggle of locals decided to pedal their klunkers up a mountain, disconnect their chains and fly down the pass just to see what would happen. If you go with a coaster brake bike you don’t have brakes when you take the chain off. In the old days, they were ballsy, using only their feet, so they’d wear heavy boots to brake. The participants use zip ties to bind up the chains now, which allows them to be able to brake but not pedal. It’s a true celebration of the townie klunker bike, although all bikes are welcome, and there is an eclectic assortment of handmade bikes, art bikes and all the crafty sculptures that people now take up Kebler Road.

Nod to Matty Robb

Crested Butte lost one of its own much loved locals recently, an avid Chainless contestant, Matty Robb, and in honor of Matty, his friends have also organized an after party at the Big Mine Ice Rink with live music, and the typical local fare and fun. Donations for the pig roast will be accepted and appreciated and the shindig celebration will go until the sky gets darkish.

There’s a big nod to the also celebrated and never forgotten Andy Bamberg, who was a huge inspiration to Matty. The teal-colored, three-person bike that Andy built, now called the Bamberg and bequeathed to Matty when Andy passed, was ridden by Matty and Andy in what was purportedly the first Chainless, which legend has it, was not on Kebler but off Baldy mountain and down to the Slate River in the late 1990s when a small band of local wahoos got together for Buttian craziness and decided they could ride without chains, and possibly without brakes. Matty rode that bike in every Chainless since. Watch for the Bamberg bike in the race this Friday.

UpChurch notes that only 300 racers are allowed in the Chainless because any more than that, she says, gets a little out of hand, although she adds, “It’s not a strict cap.”

Racers drop off their bikes Friday at the Four-Way Stop, behind the chamber of commerce, beginning at 9 a.m. until the deadline at noon, but the earlier the better, and UpChurch advises not to wait until the last minute.

The shuttle to schlep the racers to Kebler Pass summit starts hauling at 2:30 p.m. until the last bus up at 3:30 p.m. and if that last shuttle is full, you’re on your own to get to the summit. The chamber reminds participants to wear a helmet and sign the waiver.

The Chainless World Championship Bike Race official after-party is still at the First Street and Elk Avenue parking lot. Local brewers, Irwin Brewing is sponsoring so there’ll be beer (yay!) at all the weekend events.

Bridges!

The Chainless isn’t the only event that features insane costumes. The annual Bridges of the Butte 24-Hour Townie Tour starts Saturday, high noon at the Town Park, and is a benefit fundraiser for the Adaptive Sports Center.

Everyone shows up to loop through the streets of town and over every bridge, riding into the wee hours of the night for 24 solid hours—it’s an ongoing pedal party with lots of time to socialize. From ballerina faeries to aliens, psychedelic squid to super heroes, decked out cycles with bells and whistles that will go nuclear with disco mirror balls, flashing LEDs and glow in the dark spokes when the night falls because when the sun goes down, the aurora borealis of Crested Butte kicks in as the riders get to show off their snazzy bike lights. Some participants’ metal steeds are an all-out light show. It’s a tour, not a race, so everyone can participate and ride as much, or as little, as they feel—families, individuals, businesses who drum up their own teams, everyone from little kids to grandparents.

New this year is Adaptive’s goal to have 100 people raise $100 each and if you raise that, you’re entered to win one of the many donated awesome prizes that will be announced at the after party at noon Sunday at the Town Park base camp. If you raise over $250, you’ll get the chance to win a townie bike. Those who are ambitious and raise over $500 can win a Crested Butte Mountain Resort ski pass for the 2019-2010 season. Someone’s going to be real happy.

Last year saw the registration limit of 300 participants sign up. Registration is online at adaptivesports.org/events until 5 p.m. on Friday or until they sell out, whichever comes first, and it usually sells out, so get registered.

The tour was the brainchild of a couple of instructors, created specifically as a fundraiser for their Argentina program for training instructors and volunteers. Now, the money that’s raised from Bridges of the Butte goes for Adaptive’s general scholarship fund because all their activities are subsidized and accessible to as many people as possible. Bridges of the Butte Townie Tour helps to give hope to those who don’t have access to the same recreation others have, Adaptive helps those who have lost some of their abilities.

UpChurch says she’s really looking forward to the weekend’s events. “Bike Week is a favorite event and I just love any event that rings in the summer. I hope people come out and costume up, party, ride bikes and drink beer.”

Registration and a full schedule of events for Crested Butte Bike Week is online at cbbikeweek.com. You can also browse page 60 of this issue to see the schedule.

Adaptive Sports Center, a non-profit organization located in Crested Butte provides life-enhancing year-round recreation activities for people with disabilities and their families. Info and events can be found at adaptivesports.org.

“In this little bitty town of Crested Butte, we’ve got all these people working on this issue in Haiti”

By Kendra Walker

It started with Union Congregational Church (UCC) looking for an international organization to partner with that would align with their mission to do good works in the world.

They found Beyond Borders, an organization that is trying to help rural Haitians fight the practice of child domestic servitude, known as “restavek.”

Parents living in rural poverty in Haiti who are unable to provide for their children often send their children to live with an unknown family in the capital city, Port-au-Prince. The child will help perform household chores in return for food, a place to stay and the opportunity to go to school. The parents feel they have no other option and the intention is that the child will have a better life in the city; however, these children often end up abused, neglected and trapped in domestic servitude.

According to a study commissioned by UNICEF, an estimated one in four Haitian children between the ages of five and 17 live apart from their parents, and roughly half of these children end up trapped in domestic servitude. Despite being illegal, restavek is not regulated by the government.

“We were told that about 250,000 Haitian children currently live in restavek,” said UCC member Kate Vogel. “We kept hearing ‘I thought I was sending my child to something better than what I could provide,’ even though that was not the case.

“I was just horrified when I first started hearing and learning about this,” she said. “Haiti is so close to the U.S. and how can we not possibly become involved and try to help?”

Members of the UCC congregation first traveled to Haiti in 2012 to work with Beyond Borders, and made another trip in 2018. During these visits UCC members immersed themselves in remote Haitian villages to learn about the issues the communities face, live with local families, meet restavek survivors, visit school classrooms and help provide support.

“We really wanted them to understand it wasn’t about us being the rich white people trying to come in and do things our own way,” said UCC associate minister Rev. Kelly Jo Clark. “It was about respecting the Haitians, coming alongside them and helping them do what they want to do to improve their country.”

Beyond Borders’ goal is to help change the situations and the community attitudes that allow and encourage restavek, from the ground up. The organization works with the Haitian people to provide them with resources to build grassroots, community-based movements that support the following: creating work opportunities for parents, developing quality, local education for children, ending child slavery and preventing violence against women and girls.

Beyond Borders also focuses on empowering restavek survivors to come forward with their stories and become activists.

“It was so affecting to meet these women and learn about how they’re trying to rebuild their lives,” said Vogel. “They’re doing it the hard way, but a way that might actually work in the long run.”

UCC continues to support Beyond Borders through regular donations and fundraising, and hopes to organize another visit to Haiti in the future.

Artist Donna Rozman is another longtime Crested Butte community member involved in helping local Haitians. Coincidentally in line with UCC’s work with Beyond Borders, Rozman has been helping Haitian women learn skills that will lead to their getting jobs so they can afford to provide for their children, instead of sending them away.

Rozman, who lived in Crested Butte almost 40 years and now lives in Gunnison, first traveled to Haiti in 2013 with a small group of potters to teach local women how to make pottery to earn money. “I never thought my skills as a potter might be helpful to someone in a country like Haiti,” said Rozman.

Through the Haitian non-profit, The Apparent Project, Rozman works with Papillon Enterprise, which helps teach Haitians artisan skills, supports them with full-time jobs and assists in marketing and selling their hand-made goods through the website Papillon Marketplace.

Since her first visit, Rozman has visited Haiti twice more to help teach pottery to new beginners in the program, as well as help women she had previously worked with hone in their skills to make mugs, bowls and plates. The Papillon Enterprise now employs more than 300 local artisans who have all learned a craft to make a living and provide for their families.

“It was really great to see the progression,” said Rozman. “One woman who we taught has become the manager of the potters. She’s now a skilled potter and she can throw mugs faster than I ever could.”

Rozman also explained that the clay the women use in the pottery comes from the central plateau in Haiti and is often used as food by people suffering extreme poverty. They will resort to making clay cookies to feed their malnourished children as an antacid and source of calcium. But now, Rozman has helped some of these Haitians use the clay to feed their children through a more sustainable method.

“It was really wonderful to be involved with this and share my skills as a potter in that way, as opposed to teaching here in the United States,” she said. “When I teach here [in the U.S.], it might change someone’s life but not in the same way. It’s so crucial to them [Haitians] being able to make a living. I think it changed my life and has made an impact.”

When members from UCC learned about Rozman’s work with the Papillon Enterprise, they wanted to collectively share what’s happening in Haiti with the rest of the Crested Butte community. “We didn’t know each other, but we were dealing with the same problems, just in a different way. In this little bitty town of Crested Butte we’ve got all these people working on this issue in Haiti,” said Vogel.

On June 27, the UCC will host an educational event at 6 p.m. at Rumors Coffee and Tea House to inform the community about what’s happening to the people in Haiti. Rozman will speak about her experiences teaching pottery and members from the UCC congregation will share their stories about working with Beyond Borders.

“We would like more people who are interested to learn,” said Vogel. “We want to personalize it and let people know how they can help and work in Haiti.”

“There are huge problems not only in Haiti but around the world,” said Rozman. “I just did a tiny little bit. But if a lot of people do a little bit, it can actually do quite a lot.”

For more information on the June 27 event, contact Kate Vogel at kgvogel@unm.edu or (970) 349-1890.

Silver lining

By Dawne Belloise

As the hillsides have suddenly turned into a lush green in contrast to the seemingly never-ending snows and the leaves have finally exploded on the trees and town prepares for the onslaught of tourists, Meaghan Young is busy with the final touches for her new jewelry boutique’s grand opening this Saturday.

Learning the arts of platinum and goldsmithing, diamond setting, hand engraving and wax carving have, in essence, been a lifelong process for Meaghan. Her design studio and the jewelry school she’s created is a culmination of years of planning, hard work and sometimes a struggle, but it’s been a dream since the day she sold her first handmade necklace, right off her own neck, to a customer on the other side of the bar she was tending.

Meaghan started off her young life in Carthage, New York in a log cabin her parents built. “We had 400 acres that my parents bought with my dad’s brother and his wife. My parents were Catholic and I remember my dad thinking they wanted a Christian commune, but that never happened,” she mused.

As children, Meaghan and her older sister, Maura, enjoyed living life off the land. “We played outside all the time, running around barefoot, planting gardens. We had huge vegetable gardens.” As a little girl, she was an award-winning Irish step dancer but she was also a bit of a self-proclaimed tomboy. “We’d take the tractor into the woods to cut down trees since we heated the house with wood. We built forts. We didn’t have TV because Dad wanted us to use our imaginations. I had an awesome childhood. My dad would take me everywhere—skiing, camping, canoeing, mountain climbing in the Adirondacks,” Meaghan recalls fondly and adds, “He’s the reason I ski.

“The local ski hill was called Ski Ridge, which was basically one long ridge, and that was it. We used to ski in jeans,” Meaghan confesses with a grin. “I went to a Catholic school up until tenth grade. Dad was a basketball coach and I really wanted to go to college to play basketball, but we’re all short,” she laughs of her family genetics. “I was the point guard through high school and I could make three-point shots all day long.” In fact, she admits proudly, she won trophies for that talent.

Meaghan graduated from high school in 1994, and says, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I went to SUNY [State University of New York] Cortland.” That is, until her mom sent her a newspaper clipping of a job opportunity at the Adirondack Lodge as a joke. Meaghan applied and was hired for the front desk summer position.

“The lodge was in the High Peaks region. It was a backcountry lodge with a campground at the trailhead for the highest mountains in the New York Adirondacks. All the staff lived on the grounds. It was one of the best summers of my life.”

As often happens at summer camps, Meaghan fell in love. She quit college and hitchhiked across the country with her new romance. “We hiked 40 miles across Yellowstone wilderness and came out at Jackson Hole. It was the most challenging hike I’ve ever done. I had a 60-pound pack on my back.”

They headed to Gunnison to visit a friend who was attending Western State (now Western Colorado University). “We stayed in the dorm with him for a week. It was September 1995 when we arrived and my boyfriend decided we needed to settle for the winter so we got jobs at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. I was front desk at the Crested Butte Lodge in Crested Mountain Village. I had to be at work at 7 a.m. and we were living in Gunnison, so I’d get up, walk across town in the middle of winter and hitchhike from High Country Gas station but sometimes I could not get a ride. Then I’d have to call Deedra Bennett-Schnaitter from the pay phone and tell her I couldn’t get a ride so she’d have to open for me,” Meaghan says of that epic 1996 winter where she learned to ski powder. “The skiing was awesome. I had never powder skied, and it was deep.”

In the spring when the lifts closed, the couple bought an old Jeep and drove back to New York to work for Adirondack Mountain Club again. Two years later, when they decided to go their separate ways, Meaghan moved to the Green Mountain Club on the Long Trail as a backcountry caretaker on Mt. Mansfield.

“I carried an axe, cleared trees and helped hikers who were doing the Long Trail,” says the mountain woman. “The hikers would stay in my cabin with me, which was one room with a plank floor and they’d sleep on the floor for $5 a night. I had my own little plank area,” she laughs.

Every week, Meaghan would get a day-and-a-half break from the isolation of remote mountain-top living, but it was no easy trek out to her car. It was straight uphill and so steep that it entailed climbing ladders to get out. Once she reached her car, she could drive down to the ski dorms at Stowe to do laundry and head out to Burlington for socializing at pubs with some brews and music before heading back into her wilderness.

She decided to leave the position early, before the end of her May-through-October job was completed, because, she says, “I’d be alone for days on end and I couldn’t take it anymore. The isolation was too much. I called a friend in Gunnison and told her I was considering returning. I have a car, a pair of skis and $600,” she told her friend, who then offered a place to live. Meaghan packed up the car and drove west. It was 1998.

The following year she moved to Crested Butte from Gunnison and was employed at the Avalanche, where she stayed for eight years, working her way up from busing to bartender. She was also attending Western State College for political writing, identity politics and gender studies. “I took a year off to write my thesis and train for the Telemark Extreme Comps but I tore my ACL,” and that was the end of the Extreme training. She went on to graduate in 2003. She was planning to head to the University of Arizona to get a masters in Latin American politics. “I wanted to be fluent in Spanish and Portuguese but life had a different plan for me.”

During a weekend trip to Ouray, she happened to go into a bead shop and was enthralled with the many colors and beauty of the beads. She made herself a necklace of the beads she had bought and while she was tending bar at Timberline one of her customers offered to buy it. “I sold her my necklace, right off my neck. At the other end of the bar, another woman who had noticed my necklace also wanted one, and so did her friend and I’m thinking, I can make money selling jewelry?”

A phone call to the Ouray bead store informed Meaghan that the shop was closing up for good that very day. She jumped in her truck and raced to Ouray. “I bought that same bead in every color she had, and she gave me all her vendor information, where to buy the clasps and everything. And that’s how I got into jewelry making. I began making necklaces and decided to go to California with a friend who was doing designer clothes trunk shows. I sold out of all my necklaces. I was putting pendants on my beaded necklaces and decided I wanted to learn to be a silversmith.”

In 2006, Meaghan landed a job at local jewelry shop Zachariah Zipp, “Noel suggested I go to The New Approach School for Jewelers in Virginia Beach. I didn’t have the tuition money or a car to make it happen but I knew I was going somehow.” Her mom got her a car and a friend cosigned for her tuition loan. “I packed up my dog and drove across the country for the three-month program. It was a tech school, eight hours a day for three months. I learned diamond setting, gold and platinum smithing, hand engraving and wax carving. My plan was to return and be the jeweler at Zachariah Zipp.”

But when the owner of the school offered her a job to assist in running the school, Meaghan jumped at the opportunity, “I came back to Crested Butte and sold everything I owned.”

Meaghan stayed at the school in Virginia Beach for a few years, meeting the father of her now 10-year-old son, Jack. They married in 2008, while her husband was stationed in the Navy Special Forces there, and then transferred to San Diego.

It was an especially difficult time for Meaghan. “My father, who was in North Carolina, was dying of cancer, and I had a three-month-old baby. There were so many challenges—my father passed away, our Virginia Beach house wouldn’t sell because it was the market crash, so financially we were strapped. I had started my own jewelry company, My Om Designs. I also became a yoga teacher. My designs were yoga-oriented, lotus designs. I started traveling to go to Yoga Journal conferences and yoga festivals to sell my jewelry, mostly in California but from San Francisco to NYC. It was super promising with almost breakthrough moments, and then silver went from $15 an ounce to $50.”

With the many difficulties in their lives, Meaghan and her husband divorced and she was left on her own as a single mom to deal with the loss of her father.

“Everything came crashing down. I tried to make it on my own in California as a single mom but it was so expensive and I had very few friends. I decided to visit Crested Butte,” and that turned it for her. She moved back with her son in 2012. “It was a hard decision but I basically grew up here, spending all my twenties here and all my really good friends were here and they were all having children. I felt I needed support, especially as a single mom. It was the best decision I could have made for myself and my son.”

Starting out in property management for Crested Butte Property Management, she eventually branched out on her own after a few years. “At one point I was teaching yoga, teaching silversmithing, I was helping to run a property management company while doing some of my own on the side and trying to work on my jewelry, all while raising a three-year-old son. I was really stressed out! Luckily, my mom moved out here in December 2012 and helped me immensely. That changed everything for me.”

Fast-forward to the present and Meaghan has conquered her dreams, opening the Crested Butte Jewelry School above Marchitelli’s Gourmet Noodle. “The school is really important to me because I love teaching. It’s really cool that more and more women want to express themselves creatively and want to learn the art of silversmithing. Historically, jewelers are men, but when I went to school, half the class was women and 98 percent of students that I teach are women.”

And this week, Meaghan Young Jewelry Design, her new jewelry boutique design studio, opens on the corner of Elk and Third, just behind Lavish. “I’m giving away a $3,500 custom engagement ring at the opening. To be eligible you must sign up online www.meaghanyoungjewelry.com.”

Meaghan felt that it was important that both her school and studio were in the heart of Crested Butte’s Creative District, but she felt it equally important to be able to reach those creatives who aren’t in a position to attend in person, so her classes are now also online. “I wanted to reach more people. People who live in certain areas of the country who don’t have access to nearby classes can take my online course. When I wanted to become a silversmith, online resources weren’t available to me. This is a comprehensive course where you can successfully become a silversmith.”

Meaghan has found her place and feels fortunate. “I absolutely love and adore this community. I’m so grateful for all of the support I’ve received from friends and business people, too. Someday, I want to travel the world. I’ve worked ridiculously hard and have wanted to give up several times,” she says, but her encouragement to others who are struggling is, “Never give up on your dreams, your goals or yourself.”

THURSDAY 6
• 7-7:45 a.m. Guided Meditation (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 8:30 a.m. Women’s book discussion group at UCC.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Vinyasa (level 2/3) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Vinyasa Flow / CB Yoga Co-op at Town Hall.
• 9 a.m. Historic Walking Tour, meet at the Crested Butte Heritage Museum. 349-1880.
• 9-10:15 a.m. Heated Vinyasa (level 1/2) at Yoga for the Peaceful in CB South.
• 10:30-11:45 a.m. Yoga Basics (level 1) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 11 a.m. Weekly storytime at Townie Books. 349-7545.
• 11:30 a.m. Duplicate Bridge at UCC. 349-1008.
• noon SMART Recovery Meeting; a non-spiritual, science based alternative to AA in the Visitor’s Center Meeting Room upstairs. 970-596-6287.
• noon All Saints in the Mountain Episcopal Church Community Healing Service at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church. 349-9371.
• noon-1:15 p.m. Vinyasa (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 1-3 p.m. Tech Time at the Crested Butte Library. 349-6535.
• 4-5:30 p.m. St. Mary’s Garage, a free thrift store. 300 Belleview, Unit 2, on the south end of 3rd Street. 970-318-6826.
• 5:30-6:45 p.m. Yin Yoga (open) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 5:45-7 p.m. Hatha Yoga/ CB Co-op at Town Hall.
• 6 p.m. Talk to a Lawyer: Free legal information clinic sponsored by the Northwest Colorado Legal Services Project at the Queen of All Saints Catholic Church. 970-668-9612. (every third Thursday of the month)
• 6-7:15 p.m. Restorative & Sound Healing (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful in CB South.
• 6:30 p.m. AA Open Meditation at UCC.
• 7 p.m. Women Supporting Women Group Discussion at the Nordic Inn.
• 7:30 p.m. Narcotics Anonymous meets at 114 N. Wisconsin St. in Gunnison.

FRIDAY 7
• 6-7:15 a.m. Hip Hop Vinyasa at Yoga for the Peaceful in CB South.
• 8:45 a.m. Core Power Yoga Class at the Pump Room.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Yoga for the Flexibly Challenged / CB Yoga Co-op at Town Hall.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Prana Vinyasa (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 9-10:15 a.m. Vinyasa (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful in CB South.
• 10:30-11:45 a.m. Iyengar Yoga (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• noon Closed AA at UCC.
• noon-1:15 p.m. Gentle Yoga & Reiki (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 1 p.m. Art group meets at the Senior Center. 641-4529.
• 2-5 p.m. Paint Your Own Pottery in the Gunnison Arts Center Clay Studio.
• 3-5 p.m. Tech Time at the Crested Butte Library. 349-6535.
• 5:30 p.m. Communion Service at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church.
• 6-7 p.m. Poi Playshop at the Pump Room.
• 6:30-7:45 p.m. Restorative Yoga (open level) at Yoga For The Peaceful.

SATURDAY 8
• 7:30 a.m. Open AA at UCC.
• 8:15-9:30 a.m. Gentle Yoga (level 1) at Yoga For The Peaceful in CB South.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Vinyasa (level 1/2) at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 9-10 a.m. Mindful Flow / CB Yoga Co-op at Town Hall.
• 9-10:30 a.m. Community Yoga at the Sanctuary Yoga & Pilates Studio, Gunnison.
• 9 a.m.-noon Marimba Workshop in the Gunnison Arts Center Courtyard.
• 10-11 a.m. Hip Hop Community Dance Class at the Pump Room (above Fire House on 3rd & Maroon). 415-225-5300.
• 10:30-11:45 a.m. Slow Flow (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. St. Mary’s Garage, a free thrift store. 300 Belleview, Unit 2, on the south end of 3rd Street. 970-318-6826.
• 2-3:15 p.m. Restorative (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 3-6 p.m. Father’s Day Paint Your Own Pottery at the Center for the Arts.
• 6:30-7:30 p.m. Guided Sound Meditation at 405 4th Street.

SUNDAY 9
• 8:30 a.m. Mass at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church.
• 8:45 a.m. Slow Flow (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 9 a.m. Worship Service at Union Congregational Church. 349-6405.
• 9 a.m. Oh Be Joyful Church Worship Service at the Center for the Arts.
• 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Crested Butte Farmers Market on the 100 block of Elk Ave.
• 9:30-11 a.m. Free Community Yoga Class / CB Yoga Co-op at Town Hall.
• 10-11:15 a.m. Vin-Yin (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful in CB South.
• 10:30 a.m.-11:45 p.m. Vinyasa (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• noon Narcotics Anonymous Meeting at UCC, 403 Maroon Ave. Closed meeting for addicts only. (1st & 3rd Sundays)
• 2-3:30 p.m. Therapeutic Yoga (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful. (1st & 3rd Sundays)
• 5-6 p.m. All Saints in the Mountain Episcopal Eucharist at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church. 349-9371.
• 5-7 p.m. Pick-up Adult Basketball. HS Gym, CBCS.
• 5:30-6:45 p.m. Kundalini Yoga at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 6 p.m. AA meets at UCC.
• 6 p.m. Duplicate Bridge at UCC. 349-1008.
• 6 p.m. Evening Service at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, 711 N. Main St., Gunnison.
• 7 p.m. Gamblers Anonymous meets at the Last Resort.
• 7-8 p.m. Guided Meditation (all levels) at Yoga for the Peaceful.

MONDAY 10
• 6-7:15 a.m. Hip Hop Vinyasa at Yoga for the Peaceful in CB South.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Vinyasa Flow Yoga / CB Yoga Co-op at Town Hall.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Prana Vinyasa (level 1/2) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 10:15-11 a.m. Pre-pointe conditioning (ages 12+) with the School of Dance in the Pump Room Studio.
• 10:30-11:45 a.m. Iyengar (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 11-12:15 a.m. Ballet (ages 12+) with the School of Dance in the Pump Room Studio.
• noon Adult Children of Alcoholics open meeting at Union Congregational Church.
• 12:20-1:20 p.m. Pointe Training (ages 12+) with the School of Dance in the Pump Room Studio.
• 12:45 p.m. Bridge at the Senior Center. 641-4529.
• 4 p.m. Hard Hat Tours at the Center for the Arts. 349-7487.
• 4-7:30 p.m. Tang Soo Do classes for children and adults with West Elk Martial Arts, Jerry’s Gym at Town Hall. 901-7417.
• 5:30 p.m. Communion Service at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church.
• 5:30-6:45 p.m. Yin Yoga Nidra (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 5:30-7 p.m. Moms in Motion class at the GVH rehab gym.
• 6:30-8 p.m. Women’s Domestic Violence Support Group at Project Hope. Childcare available upon request. 641-2712.
• 7:30 p.m. Open AA at UCC. 349-5711.
• 7:30 p.m. Narcotics Anonymous meets at 114 N. Wisconsin St. in Gunnison.

TUESDAY 11
• 6-7 a.m. Sunrise Vinyasa (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful in CB South.
• 7-7:45 a.m. Zen Meditation (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 7:30 a.m. AA/Alanon Open at UCC. 349-5711.
• 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Free Co-Working Tuesdays at the ICELab at WSCU.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Vinyasa (level 2/3) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga/ CB Yoga Co-op at Town Hall.
• 9 a.m. Historic Walking Tour, meet at the Crested Butte Heritage Museum. 349-1880.
• 10 a.m.-noon Middle School Art Workshops: Mixed Media Collage with the Visual Arts Department of the Center for the Arts.
• 10:30-11:45 a.m. Yoga Basics (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 11:30 a.m. League of Women Voters meeting at 210 W. Spencer in Gunnison.
• noon AA Closed at UCC.
• noon-1 p.m. Open Practice (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• noon-5 p.m. gO girls summer program. 349-5103. (Tuesdays thru August 13)
• 2-3:15 p.m. Restorative Yoga (open level) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 3:30-5 p.m. Modern Dance (ages 13+) with the School of Dance in the Pump Room Studio.
• 4-5:30 p.m. St. Mary’s Garage, a free thrift store. 300 Belleview, Unit 2, on the south end of 3rd Street. 970-318-6826.
• 5:30-6:45 p.m. Slow Flow (level 1/2) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 6-8 p.m. Figure Drawing Sessions with live model in Downtown Crested Butte. 349-7228.
• 6-9 p.m. Whimsical Workshop in the Gunnison Arts Center Clay Studio.
• 6:30-8 p.m. Adult Modern Dance with the School of Dance in the Pump Room Studio.
• 7 p.m. Alanon meeting at the Last Resort.
• 7-8 p.m. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Sunset Hall, 349 Teocalli Ave. in CB South.
• 7-8:30 p.m. Blessing Way Circle support group at Sopris Women’s Clinic. 720-217-3843.

WEDNESDAY 12
• 7:30 a.m. The Crested Butte / Mt. Crested Butte Rotary Club breakfast meeting in the Shavano Conference Room at the Elevation Hotel.
• 8 a.m. T’ai Chi for advanced participants in the northeast corner of Rainbow Park.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Vinyasa Flow-Hatha Yoga / CB Yoga Co-op at Town Hall.
• 9 a.m. T’ai Chi for beginner participants in the northeast corner of Rainbow Park.
• 9-10:15 a.m. Vinyasa (level 1) at Yoga for the Peaceful in CB South.
• 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Two Buttes Senior Citizens van transportation roundtrip to Gunnison, weather permitting. Call first for schedule and availability. 275-4768.
• 10:30 a.m.-noon Prana Vinyasa (level 2/3) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• noon Closed AA at UCC.
• 3:30-5 p.m. ICELab tours at Western State College University with Patrick Rowley.
• 4:30-6:30 p.m. Parenting Support Group in the Gunnison Valley Health Conference Room, parentingingunni@gmail.com.
• 4-7:30 p.m. Tang Soo Do classes for children and adults with West Elk Martial Arts, Jerry’s Gym at Town Hall. 901-7417.
• 5:30 p.m. Mass at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church.
• 5-10 p.m. Game night at Tassinong Farms, CB South.
• 5:30-6 :30 p.m. Afro-Fusion (ages 14+) with the School of Dance in the Pump Room Studio.
• 5:30-6 :45 p.m. Vinyasa (level 1/2) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 6-7:15 p.m. Heated Vinyasa (level 2) at Yoga for the Peaceful in CB South.
• 6:30 p.m. Alanon at UCC Parlour (in back), 4th and Maroon. 349-6482.
• 7-9 p.m. “GriefShare,” a grief recovery seminar and support group, meets at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, 711 N. Main St., Gunnison. 970-349-7769.

Events & Entertainment

THURSDAY 6
• 8 a.m. Gunnison Valley Transportation Authority (RTA) at the Crested Butte Town Offices.
• 6:20 p.m. The Crested Butte Mountain Runners evening trail run on the Whetstone Vista and Upper Upper Loop Trails, meet at The Alpineer at 6 p.m. for carpool. 970-275-7763.
• 7 p.m. Britton Pietz presents “Anthrozoology, Pets & Natural Disasters” at the Crested Butte Library. 349-6535.
• 8 p.m. Ladies’ Night at the Red Room.

FRIDAY 7
• 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Town of Crested Butte Town Picnic at Rainbow Park with community photo at 1 p.m.
• 5-8 p.m. First Friday ArtWalk and Music at the Gunnison Arts Center and participating galleries of downtown Gunnison.
• 6 p.m. Shabbot Potluck Dinner, Service and Discussion with Rabbi Hillel Katzir and Nina at the Williams’ home, 796 Red Mountain Road, Red Mountain Ranch. 349-6766.

SATURDAY 8
• 9 a.m. Crested Butte Land Trust hosts Stewardship Education Day, meet at the Four-way stop. 349-1206.
• 9 a.m. CBMR Summer Opening Day.

• 5 p.m. Celebration of Life for Matty Robb with live music from Wiggy G Bowls and Gun Rack at Kochevars.
• 6 p.m. Reading and signing for The Book of Help: A Memoir in Remedies by Megan Griswold at Townie Books.
• 7:30 p.m. Havdallah and a Shavuot Celebration with potluck desserts at Ken and Marla Drucker’s home, 89 Coyote Circle, Skyland, 349-0355.

SUNDAY 9
• noon Community Picnic and a brief Yizkor (memorial) service at Rainbow Park. Please bring your own lunch. Ofra, 970-596-3164.
• 6-8 p.m. Sundays @ 6: Floodgate Operators in Legion Park in Gunnison.

MONDAY 10
• 6 p.m. Summer Reading Program Kickoff Party at the Crested Butte Library. 349-6535.

TUESDAY 11
• 4-7 p.m. Informational meeting for business owners to purchase homes in Paradise Park at Bonez. 349-5338.
• 5:30 p.m. Books-N-Bars at Ryce Asian Bistro. 349-6535.

WEDNESDAY 12
• 8 p.m. Ladies’ Night at The Talk of the Town.

Kids Calendar

FRIDAY 7
• 10-10:45 a.m. Storytime! For All Ages at the Crested Butte Library. 349-6535.
• 4-5 p.m. Tang Soo Do Martial Arts classes for youth with West Elk Martial Arts, Town Hall Fitness Room. 901-7417.

MONDAY 10
• 3:30-4:30 p.m. Ballet (ages 6-8) with the School of Dance in the Pump Room Studio.
• 4-7:30 p.m. Tang Soo Do classes for children and adults with West Elk Martial Arts, Jerry’s Gym at Town Hall. 901-7417.
• 4:15-5:15 p.m. Kids Yoga (ages 8 & under) at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 4:30-5:30 p.m. Musical Theater (ages 9+) with the School of Dance in the Pump Room Studio.
• 4:45 p.m. Tang Soo Do classes for juniors at Town Hall. 901-7417.

TUESDAY 11
• 9 a.m.-noon 3-5 Year Old Dance Camp with the School of Dance in the Pump Room Studio.

WEDNESDAY 12
• 9 a.m.-noon Aerial Arts & Ground Dance Camp (ages 6-8 and 9-11) with the School of Dance in the Pump Room Studio.
• 11-11:30 a.m. Baby & Toddler Storytime (ages birth-3) at the Crested Butte Library. 349-6535.
• 4-7:30 p.m. Tang Soo Do classes for children and adults with West Elk Martial Arts, Jerry’s Gym at Town Hall. 901-7417.
• 4:45 p.m. Tang Soo Do classes for juniors at Town Hall. 901-7417.