There still isn’t a lot of detail about last week’s tragedy on the hill.
When I got off the Silver Queen late Friday afternoon, someone told me they saw ski patrol performing CPR on someone as a sled was heading down the slope toward the clinic. My thought was that every year or two some old guy has a heart attack on the hill while skiing and dies. As much as I love skiing on the mountain, I’ve thought that might not be a bad way to go.
But as it turned out, the patrol was trying to save the life of a kid. An eighth-grade kid from Olathe came over on a school trip to ski. He died on the hill. That is tragic. I cannot imagine getting that phone call as a parent. Local police are still conducting an investigation and we don’t know exactly the cause of the accident. But it is very sad to know that a teenager passed away on the slopes of the local ski runs.

Thursday night the local arts community held a meeting. It wasn’t a normal meeting that I’m used to attending. Instead of Huck calling the meeting to order with a gavel, local dancers showed off their moves. Town planner Michael Yerman did not pull out the PowerPoint but instead made an appearance as a penguin. Yup. Award-winning thespians Paul Merck and Andrew Hadley contributed to the show—I mean, meeting. Hadley looks good in a mustache (who doesn’t?) and Merck put on his best TV game show face and plied the audience with questions that relayed information about the contribution of the arts to the local economy and community in general.
There was some art, some inspiration and some information. The idea was to get the community stoked about Crested Butte being designated as a Creative District. There is a group of people who feel the valley is shifting to embrace the arts as economy. It already is a driving force for the town and the idea is to make it more substantial and visible than it already is. If we can get all meetings to include some dance, some humor and some art, I’m all for it. Would love to see Huck and Deli begin every Town Council meeting and annexation discussion with a little hip-hop instead of the normal developer tap dance (kidding!).

Chatting with county community development director Russ Forest last week about the new “One Valley Prosperity Project,” I learned he is stoked. He really wants to see the valley work toward a common vision. Now, as I told him, I am somewhat cynical about the idea, given what I’ve seen here the last couple of decades. For one thing, prosperity means very different things to different people. Settling on a “common vision” is hard enough but he is confident that some goals can be coagulated and accomplished from Gothic to Gunnison. He has the skill set and enthusiasm to move it forward so it is worth the effort, but as I mentioned to Russ, the window isn’t very big to pick at least some low-hanging fruit.

Man, I miss the snow and the cold right now. But I do appreciate the warmth of a real January thaw. I remember when the January thaw was when temps hit 20 after a week of –30. Spring skiing in January is almost comically tragic—or is it tragically comical? Aside from the entrance, Flatiron skied great Sunday afternoon. Monday afternoon was a lot more sketchy and it felt like April snow at 3 o’clock in the Hockey Rink. I just don’t want to get the January weather in April and May.
The North Face Lift will open Friday. I will again say that I like it when the resort doesn’t wait until optimal conditions to open the Extremes. That terrain is special and is the signature of the mountain. It is good for the soul just being back there. I understand safety concerns and the need for good exits to evac people when necessary. While skiing those runs after a two-foot storm is the absolute best for lift-served terrain, just getting back in there is pretty good and helps make this mountain what it is.

And we can expect some fireworks in the future over how the towns and valley will be handling the Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO) issue. It is on the radar of local government officials. Some are seeing it as the tragedy that will ultimately ruin the Crested Butte community, as homeowners use VRBO instead of renting long-term to working locals. The property owners see VRBO as a chance to help pay the rising costs of living here. I don’t anticipate much comedy coming from those discussions. And the CB discussion starts Monday night with a work session.

In the meantime, what can we do? We send our condolences to the family that lost a child to the mountains. That puts some things in perspective. While skiing is one of the best things a human can do in his or her life, it is not without risk. Respect the mountains whether backcountry on the resort. Take a breath over the debate that will come with a shared vision. Enjoy the sunshine and be glad we had a few good storms early in the season. Appreciate the art in this community for what it brings to the heart and apparently the pocketbook. In other words, be grateful…

Long and lean, sporting an enviably substantial head of hair well past his shoulders, his broad smile beaming out from under a baseball cap, Pete Curvin says, “I’m not a jock.”
Pete runs the parks of the Crested Butte Parks and Recreation Department. “I love every sport that I’ve tried,” he says, despite his disclaimer. “The only thing I don’t like is fishing because I’m too high strung for fishing.” Read More »

Here’s a secret—sort of: Communities like Crested Butte, Mt. Crested Butte and Gunnison are above the average when it comes to hosting a population that is transient. Between the resort and university aspects of the three municipalities in Gunnison County, lots of people come to the valley, participate in their new community and then leave. Some move down the road to maybe Riverbend, Meridian or Crested Butte South, while others leave the state. Sometimes they don’t take care of all the life details when they move.
One of those details might be changing their address on their voter registration. My friends at the Gunnison Country Times reported in a lengthy story last week that some people who no longer reside in the town of Crested Butte have remained on the voter rolls. The insinuation was that because the town’s proposed sales tax increase initiative lost by just three votes last November, some who shouldn’t have voted did and they might have swayed the end result of that election. It appears councilman Glenn Michel was raising the alarm behind the scenes with some of the staff about the issue.
Now, again, there are a ton of people who don’t take the time or responsibility to remove themselves from voter rolls when they change locations. So with new mail ballot laws from the state, some could indeed be sent a town ballot when they are not eligible. But let’s be clear—that it is not at all unique to Crested Butte.
Mt. Crested Butte town manager Joe Fitzpatrick said the issue of having people who no longer live in Mt. Crested Butte on the town voting rolls “is huge. The rolls are filled with names of people not living here. We have so many seasonal residents like any transient resort town. Mail ballots exacerbate the problem. It’s the system that is the issue.”
Gunnison city clerk Gail Davidson said it is very possible and even likely that some people are sent ballots when they shouldn’t get them. “It could happen,” she said. “As clerks we all want people who have the ability to vote to vote. But with Western and the transient nature of the population, there are people who move and are still on the voter rolls. With the help of the county and the state we try to cross-check names and addresses. We do what we can. Do things happen? Yes. Everyone is fallible and human.”
Crested Butte town manager Todd Crossett said it appears some ineligible voters may well be on the Crested Butte list and if that turns out to be the case, the town will work with the county to rectify the issue. But, he said, contrary to some perceptions of last week’s story, the town isn’t going to “go after” people if they turned in a town ballot when they don’t live in town anymore. The town’s sole objective would be to ensure voter rolls are as accurate as possible in the next election.

While mail ballots tend to have a much higher voter participation rate than the old standard elections, I dislike the mail ballot. I miss “Election Day” and the sort of small town celebration it brought. People really did treat it as a sort of holiday around here. The town of Mt. Crested Butte closed the town hall on general election days. People would stand in line together at the polling places and reconnect. The lapel flags of “I voted” were worn with a certain small town pride.
Election Day was a culmination of an election season. That doesn’t happen anymore. The ballots are mailed and many people vote weeks before the first Tuesday in November. They might not wait to attend a candidate’s forum or read the letters in the local newspapers expressing the pros and cons of various candidates or issues. The election season drags out and ends with a whimper except for the counting of mail ballots, which as we saw last time, can be a bit of a cluster.
I’d love to see the county and the towns able to hold an election where people have to take the responsibility to show up. As it worked in the past, the voting judges would ask those at the polls for their address and confirm their voter information. If they had moved and not changed the info, they wouldn’t get a wrong ballot. It actually works pretty well in a small town.

So is it a good idea to use the checks and balances to try to keep the voter rolls as clean as possible? Of course. But as Gunnison clerk Davidson said, “If someone really, truly wanted to commit voter fraud, they could.” And like Gail, I do not believe most people here want to commit voter fraud.
I do think most people would find comfort and enjoy celebrating another pseudo-holiday in the fall … and that is done better with a small town “Election Day” as opposed to getting another piece of paper in the mail.

Final funds raised days before closing. Mt. Crested Butte doubles pledge

The Gunnison Valley community came together in recent weeks to help the Crested Butte Land Trust secure funding for the conservation of 108 acres of land at the base of Snodgrass Mountain. Read More »

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro…”
—Hunter S. Thompson

Weird: Forty degrees in January. We all appreciate a January thaw but this last week was weird.
Rancher Lee Spann told me Monday that the weather has been decent from his perspective so far this winter. He said December was pretty warm. He said there’s only been perhaps one –20 degree day so far this winter and in the past there’d be a good stretch about now. “I understand winter in winter and I appreciate warmer days but one thing I don’t like is winter in spring,” he said. Fair enough.
As a skier as opposed to a rancher, I might add to that I’m not a big fan of spring in winter, which is what we’ve experienced this week in a literal January thaw that is melting snow and making it harder to get the Extremes open. I like cold and snowy in January. These temperatures and “Global Weirding” are weird.

Not Weird: A mountain lion at Hartman Rocks. I talked to a woman at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife office this week about the mountain lion encounter with a local dog at Hartman Rocks. No one, including the dog, was seriously hurt. The Parks and Wildlife woman reminded me that pretty much the entire county is mountain lion territory. There have been sightings near Gunnison, near Crested Butte, near Powderhorn. Lions like the wild and they eat a lot of deer. There are plenty of both in this county.
So while I’ve yet to set eyes on a wild mountain lion, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they are out there setting eyes on us. We live in a wild place. We share our homes. That is wonderful. Just be aware.

Weird: Charging hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a family of four to ski a day in the Rockies. Vail increased the price of a one-day holiday ski lift ticket to $159 last week. Breckenridge, also owned by Vail, upped its lift ticket price to $145. Aspen was about $130. Now, the common wisdom is that no one pays that retail rack rate. Part of the motivation apparently is to get people to buy tickets early for a discount or buy the $729 Epic Season Pass that allows access to a plethora of resorts owned by Vail.
CBMR was charging $106 for walk-up one-day holiday lift tickets. This week they are $103. I’m not saying it’s not worth the three-figure prices, given costs for things like going to a Broncos game or Disneyland, but this sport isn’t for those light in the wallet. I know my kids would be great bowlers instead of great skiers if we didn’t live here.
It just seems weird that it costs so much to ski. Let me say now, I’m glad CBMR is pricing its season passes competitively. I think we all appreciate that. But while Vail might cater to the world’s 1 percent, most of the other resorts in Colorado might think about making sure middle-class families can afford to get hooked on the sport. You want numbers coming 10 and 20 years from now.
Not Weird: The variable avalanche danger in the backcountry. Early snow and some very windy days have made it weird out in the backcountry. And that’s not weird. So be careful and observant and cautious on the hills surrounding our valleys.

Weird: The council thinks it’s a bit weird, and I agree, that there hasn’t been much comment about the proposed annexation in Crested Butte. Part of that might be that the developers appear to be working very well with the town staff and appear open to suggestions at this early stage in the game. But as the council made clear Monday, now is the time to throw out your opinions if you are fundamentally opposed to any annexation to the town. The council doesn’t want to be riding the train and have a “Gang of No” show up and derail the process just as they’re getting close to the final destination. There will be lots of time between now and a final decision to speak your mind over details, but now would be a good time to express your feelings on the general idea of adding to the town. Actually, now that I think about it, it might not be weird that those opposed to any annexation have stayed quiet and might try to derail any plan at the last minute.

Not Weird: It was busy, really busy in town and on the mountain over the holidays. It used to be pretty much like this every Christmas and New Year’s. But then several things came into play. There was uncertainty in the general economy. The difficulty in getting here compared to other resorts seemed to be worse than usual. What I would characterize as some shaky decisions to focus the resort away from “fun” and toward real estate I believe pushed people away from coming back. That balance seems to be shifting back.
As I spoke with a few local business owners recently, they said that many guests here in the past few weeks said it was time to check out the Crested Butte they’ve been hearing about. And many seemingly heard about it, according to the business owners, from the Bud Light Whatever promotion. Lord knows, Whatever got the Crested Butte name out and it seems to have spurred some movement to check this place out. Apparently, Crested Butte came across as fun last September. Now it is up to the community to see if they come back.

Weird: Many could argue that much of the original weirdness has disappeared from the town. There are still flashes, but flashing now would likely get you arrested whereas 30 years ago it might have gotten you married. In that vein, Connor Hagen is in town to film a documentary about the early ski days. He wants to document the transition from mining town to ski town. That included some weirdness. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with. Hopefully, it will be a little weird.

When I moved to Crested Butte a few years ago, it didn’t take long for me to wrap my head around the idea of winter biking as a way to get around town. I put studded tires on my townie and pedaled carefully, quickly realizing that it was indeed safer than walking (I prefer to keep the stats to myself, but let’s just say I’ve fallen on-foot more than I’ve fallen off my townie). Read More »

If it weren’t for his ever-present smile and warm demeanor, Todd Riceman’s six feet seven inches would be an intimidating presence behind the bar. As it is, you feel very much welcomed as he slides you a perfectly mixed cocktail.
He’s been a career mixologist in resort towns for 20 years, working to support his ideal living of skiing, biking and general outdoor bliss. “Bartending is fun and pays well. When I first started working, I realized that I could make a lot of money working in bars instead of spending money in them, which is why I’ve stayed with it all these years,” grins the man who was officially voted Best Bartender in Crested Butte a couple of seasons ago. Read More »

It’s Best of the Butte season and as always, some of the random answers were the best. See the results on page 25. While glancing over the submissions, it got me thinking—about the community’s colors.

Blue
“The Blue Light Pole.”
That was one suggestion we received in Best of the Butte for Most Important Local Issue. Yessss! Yes it is. That sort of sums up the place. Embodied in that answer is some humor, some underlying conflict and some reflections of tensions that come with every resort town—growth, change and the idea of selling of a soul or just having a good time.
Briefly, the blue light pole was located at Third and Elk for about two weeks. After the Bud Light Whatever event this past September, the Town Council chose to leave that one pole painted blue as a sort of tribute to the weekend event that came in and “took over the town” for a Bud Light promotion. While the lead-up to the event was one of the most divisive things I’ve seen in the community, the actual party weekend was spectacular and the council wanted to leave the pole blue as a totem to the event.
But the earlier divisiveness made it too much to keep a sly reminder of a good party that came with a lot of flaws as the event approached. Some still go ballistic at the word “Whatever.” Others would bring it all back in a heartbeat. Some saw the event as a town literally selling its soul to cheap beer, while the other side saw it as a new way to bring in revenue and have a party. The blue light pole was a symbol of change that some embraced and others reviled.
But that’s what how we sometimes argue here: Over painted light poles. There are worse places to live.

Red
So, while Whatever and its spin-offs were voted heavily as one of the most important local issues, the winner as usual, was Red Lady. Red Lady is the mountain overlooking town to the west. It holds within her womb a stash of molybdenum. Various mining companies have coveted the idea of extracting the high-grade moly over the last many decades. The Crested Butte community has persistently, and in a much more unified manner than Whatever, successfully come together and fought that idea. The thought of an industrial mine mixing with a growing tourism economy doesn’t make sense to most of those at the upper end of the valley.
Currently U.S. Energy holds the rights to the moly and as usual they are quacking about taking the steps to pursue their moly dream. I have been contending for a while that it is a dream—a pipe dream. Here is why: The price of moly is low. It sits at about $9.50 a pound. That really doesn’t make it feasible to open a new molybdenum mine. There is no shortage of the mineral on the market. Moly tends to be found alongside copper and there is plenty of the stuff being extracted all over the world. The cost of just starting a new mine is in the billions of dollars. The infrastructure of roads and electricity and mine equipment is staggering. New mines in the United States have to go through a rigorous permitting process and these types of mines are more likely to open in Indonesia than in Colorado.
Now add to the big picture the fact that U.S. Energy is getting pounded financially. The company shifted gears over the last few years to look less at hard rock mining and more at natural gas and shale oil. While that was a boon to the company originally, its fortunes began to turn when the price of oil started to tank. The stock price of the company touched $5 last April. This week it is closer to $1.40.
All these things add up to an unlikely mine anytime soon, if ever. But it also provides opportunity. While I see very little potential of a mine up there in my lifetime, there is value in getting rid of the dark mining dream that has hovered over the town for decades. So perhaps now is the time to again pursue a deal that ends the uncertainty. U.S. Energy must legally operate the wastewater treatment plant on Red Lady and that comes at a cost of seven figures a year. That has to hurt its bottom line.
The reality is that U.S. Energy has a liability and not an asset and given current financial realities, the company leaders might finally understand that and be willing to give up the mineral rights and leave a trust to operate that wastewater treatment plant to get this liability off its books.

Green
I’m not talking legal pot since that is a whole other editorial. I’m talking money. Another real issue that struck people in Best of the Butte was affordable housing in the valley. People are being priced out of the community. Providing opportunity for affordable housing is important but takes money and/or land. The greenbacks needed to provide a chance for young middle class workers to stay in town are significant. The towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte have some projects and some land that help ease some of the pressure, but more is needed. As some of the respondents of Best of the Butte noted, the VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner) phenomenon is a factor. Homeowners have discovered they can short-term rent some of their property to make it easier for them to live here instead of renting long-term to seasonal or year-round residents. This pushes people down or out of the valley. This moves the waiters and snow shovelers and volunteers out of town. It makes it more difficult for those who don’t want or need a lot of money to live here. It makes it harder for middle class families to find a home. It changes the community.
Let’s be clear. No one deserves a house in Crested Butte. I really hate the sense of entitlement that some have. But a community should look at its overall make-up and provide opportunities for those who work and contribute to the community to have a chance to live here. That takes focus and, frankly, money. There is an opportunity with the current Crested Butte annexation proposal to provide both focus and money. The council should not be afraid to require both in this affordable housing realm. It seems the developers have an understanding of the need.

Grey
And there you have it—all sorts of colors and viewpoints. As usual, Crested Butte is a vibrant place made up of shades of grey as opposed to clear-cut black-and-white (or blue and red and green) answers. Change is constant but it is how we change that is the underlying question and really the foundation of the most important local issue in the coming year.
Happy 2015, everyone.

Local ski & board companies borrow expertise

There are very few custom ski builders in the world. Romp Skis is one of them, and they’re right here in Crested Butte. Romp builds skis specifically for you and how you ski. Local business has been doing increasingly well since they began shaping in 2010, and their reach outside town is growing—slowly but surely. Read More »

The  Family  Way

Her pregnant belly is as round and as glorious as a Christmas ornament, prominently nested in her lap as she sits, which is something Dana Starcevich doesn’t get to do often.
Dana’s the co-owner and manager of two restaurants on opposite ends of the valley, and at eight months pregnant with her second child, and with a chef-husband and a rambunctious four-year-old son, Ryder, it’s hard to imagine how a mere 24 hours in her day is sufficient, especially during the busiest of holidays. But Dana smiles as she puts her feet up and sips her tea. “The core is always about the family first,” Dana says in a very grounded tone.

Read More »