All the pieces present for public facility near Snodgrass trailhead

Bathrooms, education, Nordic?

They may only be parts of a dream, but a few vague ideas about a public building at the Snodgrass Trailhead were floated at a Mt. Crested Butte Town Council meeting. Together, they could be a unique collaboration and a major improvement to one of the area’s most-loved recreation amenities. 

At the meeting on Tuesday, May 6, Crested Butte Nordic Center executive director Keith Bauer gave the council a review of last winter’s activity, after receiving an admissions tax grant from the town that went toward the purchase of a new snowcat.
Bauer mentioned that Crested Butte Nordic had trademarked the tagline “Nordic ski capital of Colorado” for the area. He said he had heard some frustrated comments about the unkempt Nordic trails in Mt. Crested Butte last winter.
“You know, I was a little aggravated over Christmas seeing trails open everywhere but up here, when homeowners were coming in hoping to ski Nordic,” Councilman Danny D’Aquila said. “I was ready to borrow a snowcat and groom it for you.”
But instead of the issue causing a fissure between them, D’Aquila saw an opportunity to invite the Crested Butte Nordic Center to expand its offerings in town, even suggesting the idea of a physical Nordic outpost in Mt. Crested Butte. “You think about all the potential for adding more terrain, especially with the bus coming up there, and all we have to offer in Mt. Crested Butte,” he said. “We would surely like to take some of your après ski and bring it into our village.”
Bauer said Crested Butte Nordic is working a strategic plan and had a good winter, with overall revenues up 20.5 percent and Nordic Center rental activity up almost 30 percent.
He also said the Crested Butte Nordic Center board had been hoping to expand the current facility in Crested Butte and hadn’t considered a second location. “I don’t think it’s ever been brought up, but I can certainly mention that to the board,” he said.
D’Aquila pressed, “It might be a better direction to look at expanding into a second area instead of expanding what you’ve got there,” he said.
Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick later said that it was probably time to upgrade the restroom facilities at the Snodgrass Trailhead. “Those are the most heavily used facilities in town in certain parts of the year,” he said.
Then he said there was still land available that had been set aside in the annexation of the North Village Reserve subdivision to accommodate an educational facility of some kind. That land is roughly in the vicinity of the Promontory parcel currently under contract with the Crested Butte Land Trust for protection under a conservation easement.
Fitzpatrick said space in the facility could be set aside for informational displays provided by Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory or the U.S. Forest Service to tell visitors about the local flora and fauna. There could possibly be space for a public meeting room, he said.
“The popularity of that area has grown tremendously in recent years and we need facilities there that can accommodate those people,” Fitzpatrick said.
A collaborative educational facility was part of the original idea when the North Village Reserve was still in the concept phase and the real estate business was booming in Mt. Crested Butte. At the time of the subdivision, Crested Butte Mountain Resort development executives had suggested reserving some land for a bus turn-around, a parking area and some type of visitor center. But that was “when everything was turning up roses,” CBMR vice president of real estate and development Michael Kraatz said.
Now the North Village is up for sale and the future of the property is uncertain.