New Adaptive facility on track in Mt. Crested Butte

Taking a tour of the newest Base Area building

By Mark Reaman

What is now a major construction site in the north end of the valley will in a few months be a hub of activity serving clients with disabilities at the Adaptive Sports Center (ASC).

The newest building in the Mt. Crested Butte Base Area at the ski resort is probably at about the 70 percent completion mark. Right now, the 25,000-square-foot Kelsey Wright Building is just a skeleton that is beginning to show its full form more every day through steel, aluminum, concrete and glass. You can begin to see the individual spaces that will soon cater to clients from around the world. The $14 million endeavor will be a shining star in Mt. Crested Butte and should be open for business by late May or early June.

“It will be cool for the people we serve to come through the tunnel at Mountaineer Square and see a purpose-built building just for them,” said Adaptive Sports executive director Chris Hensley after we took a tour of the building in late December. “We are so excited and every day you can see the potential of what this will be.”

And what it will be is a center of activity in the Mt. Crested Butte Base Area. Clients who use sit-skis will be able to ski in and ski out of the facility with easy access to the slopes from the building’s east side. It will be a place for friends in the ASC to gather and share a meal in the new dining area that comes with its own kitchen. It will be a place where small groups can come and not just get lessons focused on their particular ability but stay together overnight in a lodge experience with comfortable bedrooms and a common living room where experiences, goals and dreams can be shared.

It will be a place where family members can sit on the rooftop deck and take in the wonders of the surrounding mountains. It will be a place where locals can store their ski gear in one of the 240 new lockers as close to the slopes as one can get. It will be a spot where instructors have their space and administrators have their offices. It will be a place athletes with disabilities can climb a two-story rock wall or find a corner to read a book.

It will be a permanent home for one of the valley’s most respected non-profits that assists individuals and families from across the country and the world.

In December, it takes vision to see what that shell of a building will be. There are 45 workers bustling about the four floors, from the basement, where the new ski lockers will be located, to the roof, where a sweet deck will host clients and patrons of the Kelsey Wright Building. The beginning of drywall is evident. The final spray foam is going up on the ceilings. The two large elevators are still just long shafts in the west side of the building. Pipes weave along the open ceilings but wall forms are going up. You can see where the main entrance will open up into a lobby, with a large donor wall that will list the names of every person or group that has contributed money to the multi-million dollar project. It is a big construction site filled with men in hardhats and safety vests.

“The construction is on track and will essentially double the 10,000 square feet in space we use now,” explained Hensley. “The new building has a big programming space with room for multiple groups. It will allow us to handle two groups of 10 to 15 people at a time. Currently we are limited to just one at a time.”

While the ASC now provides more than 6,000 activities annually to people with disabilities from around the world, in recent years, Hensley said, the program has had to turn away groups that want to experience Crested Butte. It might be a group of veterans with disabilities or a group of teenage burn survivors. But the new building will open up opportunities to serve more people, more often.

“Pretty much everything we do with our participants is therapeutic,” Hensley explained. “And the building is designed with that in mind. We want the people staying overnight to come out to the main living area and share their experiences. We went with two elevators in case one went down. There is a quiet room. Access is easy for everyone. We want the building to be both comfortable and functional.”

Perhaps the most therapeutic place will be the rooftop deck and gallery. Meant as a relaxing place with spectacular views for clients, it can also be used to entertain and hold fundraising events. Hensley mentioned the board might even consider renting out the space to bring in money for the organization. The deck sits four stories above the bottom of the ski lifts and overlooks the buzzing activity in the main Base Area. Views of Crested Butte and Whetstone are spectacular. Even in December, the wind was blocked and on a sunny morning it was warm and inviting.

“We had raised the majority of the money for the building before we broke ground and then when we started we added things on and put another $1 million on the price tag. But we have pulled that back through holding tight on the budget and many new in-kind donations,” explained Hensley. “The local community has been amazing and the people who have used Adaptive in the past have also been extremely supportive. My job is to be able to look every donor in the eye and tell them that every dollar of their donation was well spent.”

And there are a few dollars left to come in to complete the project. Dorothy and Norman Eastwood and Glena and Jim Miller have issued a $350,000 matching challenge that will complete the fundraising for the facility. That match is in effect until January 31.

The fundraising for the new building was jumpstarted by a gift from the William Wright Family Foundation. W. Dan Wright is a member of the ASC’s board of directors, and his daughter, Kelsey, took part in ASC programming for more than 20 years. She passed away from complications related to a mitochondrial disease in 2015. The building will be named the Kelsey Wright Building in her honor.

ASC marketing manager Brian Barker said many local contractors and artists are involved in the project. He said Alpha Mechanical, ID Sculpture, Get Bent Blacksmith, Lacy Construction and Top Tier Construction have all contributed their expertise. “For example, Ben Eaton is creating a hand-crafted metal donor wall where every donation, regardless of size, will be permanently recognized in the building,” he said.

Barker said you too could see what is going on behind the curtain on the big building. The Adaptive Sports Center is offering daily tours of the Kelsey Wright Building Monday through Friday during the holidays at 12:15 p.m. from December 20 to January 4, excluding Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. RSVP to Allison Butcher at (970) 349-5075 or email her at allison@adaptivesports.org if you are interested in taking a tour.

If you are interested in contributing to the project, you can do so by going to adaptivesports.org or contacting development director Allison Butcher.