Profile: Conrad Kaul

“I got here and I felt like I made it, that I hit the lottery. It’s a place that makes you think about what you want to contribute to it.”

By Dawne Belloise

Conrad Kaul grew up in Lakewood, Colorado, just outside Denver, where his love of the outdoors first took root. His parents had moved there from Minnesota after his dad moved to Steamboat to pursue his ski bum dreams and eventually settled in Lakewood. The family spent weekends at their property near Grand Lake building a cabin, where Conrad learned hands-on skills that would come in handy later in his life. He developed what he calls “a self-starter attitude” through all those construction projects with his dad.

“Every single weekend we were up at the cabin,” he recalls. “We did a lot of fishing, hiking and skiing and we were active all the time.” As a kid, he competed in the Winter Park freestyle ski program. After graduating high school in 2013, Conrad wasn’t sure what should come next, but his parents encouraged him to check out Western State College (now Western Colorado University). He had only been through Crested Butte once before while on a trip to Ouray in 2010, but he applied to Western, was accepted, and moved to Gunnison that fall.

At Western, he found his place and his path. “It was awesome and it is a big reason I’m still here in the valley today,” he says. He earned his B.A. in Environmental Sustainability and Outdoor Recreation and Education in 2017 and made lifelong friends who, he says, “shared the same admiration for the outdoors.”

While in college, Conrad worked a variety of local jobs, but the most memorable he tells was when he was hired at The Last Steep as a dishwasher. From the moment he was hired to the team, Conrad felt “like I had hit the jackpot and I was important. It was like being accepted into this club or something,” he laughs. “I got to stay in Crested Butte, ski every day and see my friends.” He was also hired for other jobs like supervising and route-setting at the climbing wall at Western, and transfered to the new fieldhouse when it opened. “I still have some of my best friends in life from those college days. It led me to a lot of the other things I do with my life.”

Conrad spent weekends climbing in Taylor Canyon or heading to Indian Creek in Moab, although he no longer climbs and says his priorities shifted. “I’ve developed a soft spot for rafting. I spend a lot of time on the rivers, as much as we can get out.” With wilderness pursuits at Western, he was allowed to rent equipment, and he took a raft course with Scenic River Tours of Gunnison. He didn’t feel he was cut out to be a river guide, “but I learned the skills it takes to navigate the river.” 

Between his sophomore and junior years, Conrad worked in Alaska, fishing commercially in Bristol Bay and taking odd jobs around Seward. “I always had the idea that I wanted to get up to Alaska,” he says. For a few summers, he’d hang out with his friends in Seward, working a bunch of odd jobs until it was time to go fishing for a month or so and then return to Seward for a few weeks until it was time to return to college. “Fishing for sockeye salmon, which is the best of the salmon in my opinion. It’s the red salmon,” he describes of those days. He also felt that Seward has a lot of interesting similarities to Crested Butte. “It’s right on the ocean but with big peaks surrounding it. It’s one of the best places in the world in the summer, but I could never imagine being there in the winter.”

Back in Colorado, after his senior year summer, Conrad started getting into Geographical Information System (GIS), a mapping software for sciences. He was very much into the environmental side of his studies and was asked to be a research assistant for wildfire ecology research by Dr. Jonathan Coop, a professor of biology and ecology who was also Conrad’s advisor through college. They went all over the Southwest, visiting 10-year-old firescapes, post burns throughout Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Colorado. At these historical burns, Conrad explains, “We would survey the new forest regrowth, what was growing and noting what survived and seeing why that happened. Refugia, that’s the term for the surviving ecology. We’d study that and see how it contributed to the growth of the new system. It was one of my favorite jobs of all time.” He spent three years after graduation in this research.

In the winter of 2018, Conrad spotted a job posting in the paper for the Majestic Theatre. “I was still doing some work for the college, but I wanted a job and to go skiing,” he says. He interviewed with Ali and Mark Drucker, then owners of the Majestic, got hired and began working Tuesday shifts alongside Carrie, who was the manager. He and Carrie quickly became friends and Conrad grins that, “the rest is history.” They started dating in 2019, navigated the challenges of Covid together, and married in 2023. When the time came to reopen the Majestic after the pandemic, Conrad and Carrie took the reins with Ali and Mark’s blessing. “The energy that Mark and Ali brought to the Majestic Theatre was really important to us to carry on,” Conrad says. “It’s a Crested Butte funky energy that the Majestic provides.”

They officially reopened the Majestic Theatre as a nonprofit organization in 2022 after fundraising began in 2020. Three years later, the effort is going strong. “It’s going pretty good, three years into it now, and we’re starting to look at long-term, permanent solutions for the theatre. We really want to work with the town to figure out what that may look like,” Conrad says. “We’re in the early stages of starting a capital campaign and applying for grants that would set that in motion.”

The building, however, has been for sale for about six years and the landlord continues to look for a buyer. A recent community planning meeting gave them hope. “The town definitely seems to recognize the importance of a place like the Majestic,” he says. As a nonprofit, they’ve looked to examples where, “an amenity like this is either owned or maintained by a municipality and that’s kind of where we got the idea from.” The building is currently listed for $3.1 million, and with rent running over $15,000 a month, ownership would be a major step toward financial stability. The Majestic currently has a three-year lease. “We’re committed to pursuing a solution,” Conrad says. “We have these three years to figure out a permanent solution for the theatre, and we have every intention of figuring out what that looks like.”

Conrad also works part-time for his dad’s company, Kaul Corporation, which has been in environmental construction for the last 30 years. “Since 2019, we have taken on a few jobs a year helping with environmental closures of coal fired power and landfills across the United States. At the Majestic I handle all the maintenance and upkeep of the building and my background in construction has helped with all that immensely,” he says. “Both aspects of construction and environmental impact really scratch an itch for me and the additional income has helped keep us afloat financially. As you can imagine with our current situation with the Majestic, we aren’t able to pay ourselves all that much.”

Conrad and Carrie now live in Gunnison, having bought a home in 2021 after five years in Crested Butte. “Housing security became a concern,” he admits, “but Gunnison still has that neighborhood feel. It’s still a real place.” Their family also includes Suki, the Majestic’s unofficial mascot and “resident popcorn vacuum,” a small terrier-schnauzer mix they adopted right at the theatre when a friend showed up with the pooch, looking for a home.

Conrad’s commitment to this valley began early, as a mountain sports coach for CBMR from 2016 to 2020 and he says, “I got to coach the same crew of kids for my first three years and that also really grew my connection with the community. I have multiple families that I am still super close with and a bunch of my kids, who are now 16, which is crazy, come to the Majestic and see movies or pop in and just say hey, which I love.”

He also got one of the coolest jobs in town the winter of 2021, grooming the ice and driving the town’s Zamboni. “It was a dream of mine,” he grins. Conrad shares that he’s an avid Telemark skier. “I really love the history of telemark that is associated with CB,” and he confesses to being a serious collector of old tele gear, competing in the Al Johnson Uphill Downhill Race every year. He helps run the 8 Ball Rally too, and took a branch to the face this year that required seven stitches but he earned justified bragging rights. He does the Snowblade Extremes as well. “The past few summers I have taken part in the Pearl Pass Klunker Tour and am super excited for the upcoming 50th this year,” he says.

And as for most who hear the calling of this valley, Conrad says, “I think it’s the first place that really felt like home to me. I love the community and the kind of people this valley attracts. I haven’t experienced any place like this. I got here and I felt like I made it, that I hit the lottery. It’s a place that makes you think about what you want to contribute to it. If I had my choice, I’d be here for the rest of my life.”

For more information or to support the Majestic Theatre’s work, visit CBMajestic.org