Butte Bash may go unnoticed

College ski vacation still coming, but in smaller numbers

The streets of Crested Butte may be a little quieter in the middle of the night this December and January. Despite making extra efforts to keep last year’s Butte Bash college ski trips a more pleasant experience for local businesses and homeowners, the promoters have turned the volume down for this season’s events.

Lifestylez CEO Steve Smolinski says locals probably won’t even notice the college ski trips planned at Crested Butte Mountain Resort in January.
There’s no Coolio this year either. Or any special concerts, for that matter.
Crested Butte Marshal’s Office master deputy Jack Crumpton says the arrival of 100 to 150 kids “is a non-event for us.” Crumpton says tour buses come into town all the time with half that many people.
Smolinski says there are only 100 college students signed up for the Lifestylez ski trip to Crested Butte between January 4 and January 9. He says CBMR independently organized a few other college ski groups around the same time, but altogether there likely will not be more than 200 students in town this January.
The Lifestylez website has another college ski week listed between December 14 and December 19 in Crested Butte, but Smolinski says there won’t be any students coming for that trip.
Lifestylez is marketing the events as SnoDaze—Crested Butte ‘09.
Smolinski says CBMR and Lifestylez agreed to have a much smaller operation this season after hearing complaints following previous college ski trips. “We decided to take a couple steps back so it wasn’t such a big impact,” Smolinski says.
Butte Bash started in 2005, and drew only a few hundred college students in the first two years. In 2007, CBMR teamed up with California-based Lifestylez Productions to help promote the event and bring in more participants.
CBMR and some local businesses reported the event was a success that year, with attendance up eight-fold. Other businesses and local residents were not so happy with the loud and disruptive behavior of the student visitors, the trash and body waste that was left in town each night, and the overall nature of the event and its participants.
Smolinski admits the college ski trips promoted by Lifestylez in 2007 may have been too large for the community to handle. “The first year, between December and January, we had more than 3,000 travelers visit Crested Butte over a 30-day period,” he says. “There was an impact economically, but also an impact socially.”
Crumpton agrees that public response wasn’t entirely favorable. “I would guess some businesses like it and some don’t… I know a lot of second-home owners didn’t like it,” he says.
In response, CBMR and Lifestylez met with the local municipalities, law enforcement, and transportation officials in an attempt to prevent any problems during the events last season. Additional officers were scheduled during the special-event nights sponsored by Lifestylez and CBMR, as well as security chaperones for the late-night bus rides on the Mountain Express.
“We did what we needed to do and got through it,” Crumpton says.
Smolinski says he thinks the community needs a break from the droves of college students, but hopes that Lifestylez can continue to promote college ski weeks in Crested Butte.
“It’s my favorite place in Colorado. I love coming back there.”