The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
There are more than a few weird things with the end of this season, and I’ve noticed that some communication failures make it all the weirder. As readers sometime point out to me, I’m not always the best communicator (I can’t believe I still have a job) but geez. I have discovered that if you are willing to listen and to learn you can oftentimes pivot after communication errors and make things at least a little better, especially in the land of weird.
One sign of the weirdness exacerbated by communication issues is that one of the best ski seasons ever ended on April 2 with 25 feet of snow on the ground. I can’t confirm the original closing date was April 9 like some people claim, but I’ll admit that was my assumption with Easter falling on that date and Easter is a standard closing day for many ski resorts. When I tried to find the closing date in January, it was not easily found on the CBMR website. In fact, I never found it there. Not exactly easy communication. Unlike some on the interwebs, I doubt you’ll be pulling in bank suing Vail Resorts or demanding a refund for seven lost lift-served days but….
Speaking of — the resort’s “End-of-the-Season Letter” originally posted on the CBMR website blog was a bit of a mess. It has gotten more than a little attention on local social media, and was an example of communication, shall we say, challenges. The blowback didn’t go unnoticed up in the Axtel building as CBMR GM Tara Schoedinger sent a letter to us this week communicating that her original message missed the mark. She more clearly explains her reasoning with not extending the season but being open to possibly doing so in the future. She listened and learned a communications stumble was made and stood up to try again. Read it for yourself on page 3.
And not to freak people out, but next year’s Easter Sunday is…March 31! Anyway….
Crested Butte town officials are trying to help their constituents understand the weird form that people with PO boxes found in their boxes recently. There was initial jubilation that it was the start of a process to change the requirement that people in this neck of the woods must pay to inconveniently get mail that most everyone else gets delivered for free to their doorstep. But hey, the urban myth that sometime in the ‘60s (1860s?) CB citizens voted to not have mail delivered has been embraced by US Postal service officials who have probably never been here and cannot provide any proof that that was ever the case. Anyway, the town reps have been asking pretty much everyone about the mysterious form and they have not received any definitive response. We got a little info from our Denver USPS spokesperson but no real details. While saying there probably is not a ‘nefarious’ reason for the form, town officials can’t say what it will mean if you choose to fill it out or not fill it out. Is anyone at the US Postal Service listening? It shouldn’t be that hard…
How about the recent 5-2 decision by the Mt. Crested Butte council that fellow councilmembers must attend the meetings in person or stay silent. No voting, no opining, no contributing to the town discussion even as that unproven technology (to at least five people) known as Zoom has been upgraded to work in Mt CB. Weird. So, a dude from Mississippi can pop in to the Mt. CB council meeting online and give an opinion about a topic but not one of the seven councilors elected by the citizens can do the same. In fact, if say Roman is attending the meeting by Zoom (by attending I mean watching while perpetually on mute) and Janet moves to put him in charge of the dog poop collection committee that isn’t allowed to use bags, he can’t weigh in…he would probably just get appointed 6-0. Gag order implemented!
I understand that if all seven councilmembers decided to Zoom in from around the world for 20 of the 24 meetings it wouldn’t be good representative government, but putting some guardrails in place to occasionally allow council participation from somewhere other than the actual room where the meeting takes place is not really cutting edge anymore. Aren’t we supposed to learn and embrace some of the good things that came of out the pandemic? It is done efficiently by pretty much every other government entity in the region. Making it harder for elected representatives to represent isn’t good policy in 2023. It’s just weird.
Speaking of Mt. Crested Butte and weird – there’s the guy who had his finger bitten off at the ski area a couple weeks ago — allegedly during a fight. Pretty much everyone I have ridden the Mountain Express with in the last three weeks has talked about it, and while we asked representatives of both the resort and the Mt. Crested Butte police department about it, no one wants to communicate a lot information about it. We pushed pretty hard for info and this week got the basic facts about the incident that you can see on page 7. Weird. It’s not an April Fools story with the headline: “Tourist gives CBMR the finger.” It’s real! While we want more information and will eventually get it, I suppose the rumor mill will just keep churning. I can see it getting to the point where the story ends up being that a guy stalked people on chairlifts all winter and ended up going all Hannibal Lecter and hosting weekend buffets with his ski partners, if you know what I mean. Geez. We’ll let you know more when we know more.
Weirdness is part of the brand around here, but so is transparent, respectful communication for our fellow neighbors and friends. When the two go off the track and collide, it doesn’t always work well.
In the meantime, thank the Universe for a fantastic ski season that brought the snow that we needed when we needed it. The Universe also sent us some of the weird Utah dust Tuesday so expect a quicker spring snowmelt and probably some weird struggles skiing down the backcountry hills this spring. It’s all part of the end of the ski season weirdness. But you probably already knew that…Geez.
—Mark Reaman
