County to plow Kebler Pass Road to ‘Y’ until Thanksgiving

Extra effort to aid early season Nordic skiing

Gunnison County will plow Kebler Pass Road from Crested Butte to the turn-off to the Irwin town site through Thanksgiving weekend to accommodate early-season Nordic skiing in the valley.

In the past, Kebler Pass Road has been closed at the winter trailhead, about five miles closer to Crested Butte, beginning between November 12 and November 26, depending on snowfall.
Members of the Crested Butte Nordic Council made a bid at a regular meeting of the Gunnison County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, August 18 for the county’s department of public works to set a date for a final guaranteed plowing of the road to give access to some of the winter’s earliest snow.
The council hopes that the guaranteed access to skiing opportunities in the area will boost the number of participants in the Nordic Council’s Thanksgiving skiing camp, which is held during the last week of November. It could also benefit other people looking for fresh early season snow.
Last fall, the Nordic Council board approached Crested Butte Nordic Center director Keith Bauer about ways to increase participation in the camp. Bauer said, “The single biggest thing would be to guarantee early season skiing.”
Bauer said a similar camp held in Yellowstone every year often gets thousands of skiers. While smaller crowds could be expected in Crested Butte, they would still provide a boost to the economy in an otherwise slow season.
And the Nordic Center’s camp might have an advantage over other early-season skiing camps that often get canceled for lack of snow. That’s rarely a problem in the higher elevations surrounding Crested Butte, but access to the best skiing has been limited in the past.
“Last year was an unusual situation where we got snow at the last minute and we were able to have the camp up at Lily Lake and it continued to snow, but we couldn’t get the snow plowed. So for about three weeks we literally didn’t have any skiing,” Bauer told the commissioners, adding that the council had to hold a race on the man-made snow at Crested Butte Mountain Resort last year, despite favorable conditions in the backcountry.
The Slate River Valley is another area where the council would like to take participants in the skiing camp. The problem, according to Bauer, is that when there are “marginal conditions,” meaning enough snow for skiers but not enough to stop a car, people continue to drive on the road and make the snow less favorable for skiers.
One solution, suggested by director of public works Marlene Crosby, would be to close Slate River road with a gate before there is enough snow to close the road officially and build a snow berm at the entrance of the road to discourage vehicle traffic.
“We don’t want to make this difficult for anybody, we’re just trying to figure out how to get more consistency,” Bauer said. “If we did, we could really advertise and promote the Thanksgiving camp.”
The extra effort is being considered to accommodate the Nordic Council’s request, but it will also accommodate local commerce by, it is hoped, bringing in people to stay overnight, eat in local restaurants and shop.
“I’ve got an economic impact focus group report from 2003 that has as an objective to support, organize improve, expand and publicize Nordic skiing opportunities to support tourism,” Bauer said. “There is also a Gunnison County comprehensive plan that is in favor of cross-country ski trails.”
To give the Nordic Council the support it was asking for, Crosby said there were several things that the county could do, but cautioned that guarantees are hard to come by when dealing with Mother Nature.
“It’s difficult to guarantee plowing because everyone would have to accept that it might be a late day plowing,” Crosby said. “It’s one thing to plow to the [winter] trailhead but if you’re going to plow to the forks of Irwin, that piece of equipment has to plow the school bus route first and there are other priorities.”
County manager Matthew Birnie pointed out, “School bus routes are still where people live so they would take priority, even on days when the buses aren’t running.”
Bauer said having the road plowed early in the morning wasn’t a concern and, “If there’s snow in the valley, there’s no reason to plow Kebler. Plowing would be for just one or two storms.”
John Biro, a resident of the Irwin town site, said he was glad to be party to the discussion, since residents of the small community west of Crested Butte would also like “some consideration in this matter… Irwin has become a town and we would like a cut and dried plowing schedule.”
It was a request that Crosby had heard before. Without rehashing all of her concerns, she told the commissioners, “Best intentions aside guys, you may get the storm that causes avalanche danger or something like that. I think you can target a date and we can all try to live with it, but I’m not willing to say, ‘No matter what, it will be plowed.’”
Biro said the concern for Irwin residents is “waking up one morning to three feet of snow and finding out we’re screwed.” He asked when the town of 20 to 30 year-round residents would get plowing consideration from the county.
The problem with plowing to the Irwin turnoff throughout the winter, or at the least in the fall and spring, is money, Birnie said. The public works budget is tight this year and plow drivers are already filling their day clearing the existing routes. Anything extra would earn them overtime pay in addition to the cost of fuel for the plows.
Biro pressed the issue, asking, “Why do you plow the roads to other places where people live? When did the county start plowing up to Mt. Crested Butte?”
Birnie responded, saying, “The county started plowing to Mt. Crested Butte when they started paying for it. There are communities all over this state that have seasonal access and that’s what Irwin is. It’s just a reality of where you choose to live.”
Commissioner Jim Starr refocused the conversation on the Nordic Council’s request. “The Nordic Council brings money into the valley and we’re going to try to work things out. So if [Irwin residents] can drive to the Y and sled from there, that’s just the reality of it,” he said.
Based on Crosby’s recommendation, the commissioners voted to allow the county to plow Kebler Pass Road to the Irwin turn-off, on a trial basis, through November 29. Crosby also said the county would look at options for limiting vehicle access to Slate River road so conditions can be better preserved for the skiers.