Mt. Crested Butte business a mixed bag this summer

“It’s a little melancholy”

By Kendra Walker

A stroll along Elk Avenue versus a stroll around Mountaineer Square is quite the stark contrast right now, but since Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) opened up limited services this summer, the results for Mt. Crested Butte businesses have been quite mixed.

Some businesses are experiencing some of their busiest summer numbers, while others are feeling the effects of an empty base area and uncertain times of the pandemic.

CBMR began summer operations on June 26, including scenic chairlift rides on the Silver Queen, limited hiking and biking trails, grab-and-go food service at Butte 66 and shopping at Crested Butte Mountain Outfitters.

“Things are going well and the vast majority of our guests are understanding and complying with our new policies,” said CBMR communications specialist Will Shoemaker, although he was unable to share specific numbers on guest traffic.

No decisions have been made about opening up additional trails or services later this summer, but Shoemaker says CBMR is continuing to evaluate operations. “With summer operations under way, more of our furloughed employees have returned to work,” he said. “We do not have a definitive timeline for when we will be able to return all of our  furloughed  employees back to work. To ensure we reopen safely, we cannot reopen all of our operations and businesses at once. For our furloughed employees, this means that not everyone will return to work at the same time.”

Crested Butte Sports has felt the limited services on the mountain this summer. “We cancelled half of our bikes because the lifts were closed for bike hauling,” said owner Jim Rehberg. As for the pace of the mountain and base area, “It’s slow up there. It’s different,” he said. But the bike repair shop has been busy. “It’s been steady. It’s probably two-thirds of the business we had last year.”

Looking ahead, Jim doesn’t know what winter will bring for CB Sports’ ski rental side, but he’s not too worried, as he’s prepared the business financially for a couple of slow years if needed. “I’m not going to be real surprised if the ski area is shut down for the winter. If the virus spikes, I’m pretty set for that.”

Dewey Overholser of the Coffee Lab says June was slow but things have really picked up since the Fourth of July weekend. “Since the mountain has opened and the hotel has started running, the tourist activity here has started picking up,” he said. “We’re pretty much back to pre-COVID numbers.”

Currently, both the Gothic and Western Colorado University Coffee Lab locations are closed. “Gothic will remain closed for the remainder of the summer, as RMBL is trying to keep the scientists safe,” said Overholser. However, he plans to open up the Western location in the fall as long as school returns to in-person classes.

David Wilkins of The Divvy, one of the only restaurants open on the mountain for dinner this summer, said business is good right now. “It almost feels like it’s the busiest we’ve ever been,” he said. “The take-away program has boosted quite a bit—ordering to-go is definitely more popular than it’s ever been.”

Wilkins also does catering for the Elevation Hotel, and says the catering orders have picked up for meetings and groups that have still been able to meet under the county’s size requirements for gatherings.

The Elevation Hotel itself has been experiencing business pretty comparable to past summers, said resort project manager Deanna Payne. “Surprisingly with everything going on, we have been ridiculously busy,” she said. “All of our weekends are nearly sold out. We’re just barely pacing behind last year.”

Payne says they’re seeing a lot more business coming from the Front Range and Colorado in general, in addition to the typical markets including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, California and Florida. She’s also noticed that the booking windows have been very short. “Usually in the summer you have people planning their vacations well in advance,” she said, but now guests are booking only a couple of days in advance and even extending their stay once they’re here because they can work remotely.

“We’ve had a lot of good feedback from guests on how we’ve handled COVID,” continued Payne, noting that the hotel has hand sanitizers throughout the hotel and masks available to guests who do not have them. The hotel is also limiting three people to the pool and hot tub.

“We’re climbing toward 50 percent occupancy for September,” said Payne. “We anticipate staying high in occupancy through the rest of the summer.”

Retail is perhaps feeling the slow pace more than other businesses. “One would have to come up here to see it first-hand,” said Butte & Company owner Stephanie Allen. “Without the Base Area activities that we usually have, there’s really not a big draw to come up here now. But we’re here and we’re open and we’re doing okay. I’m really grateful that we’re open, period,” she said of the atypical pandemic summer.

Allen also owns the Elevate bike shop at the Elevation Hotel and said bike rentals have been up quite a bit this summer, since Elevate is one of the only bike shops open in Mt. Crested Butte. “I think there’s been an increased level of interest with people wanting to be outside. I’m really happy that we’ve had our bikes.”

Overall, Allen said, customers have been pretty good about following health protocols, and her shops have sanitary stations at all the entrances. “Because out-of-state visitors are such an important piece of our business, I hope they can continue to visit and I hope they can do that in a safe way for us.”

Todd Barnes of the Avalanche Bar & Grill is also experiencing the effects of a quiet mountain, especially the lack of the bike park, Adventure Park, Wednesday night music concerts, weddings and other activities typically taking place at the Base Area. “With nothing going on up here it just shows the frailty of the business environment up here on Mt. Crested Butte,” said Barnes. “There is no one even milling around the base area at 4 o’clock—it’s just dead.”

The Avalanche is currently open for just lunch Tuesday through Saturday. “I’m probably down 50 percent over last year for the month of July,” said Barnes. “But it isn’t too far off from what I expected.” Barnes currently has three employees, down from 50 to 60 employees in past summers, and his wife and teenage kids have also been chipping in at the restaurant. “I certainly appreciate everyone working and putting themselves and others at risk to work and sell food,” he said.

Barnes plans to remain open until August 8 and close for the season when families and visitors are headed back to school schedules. “There’s a lot of uncertainty in the business, and we’re just making the best of it.”

Allen notices how different Mt. Crested Butte’s summer looks compared to the town of Crested Butte’s. “There’s such a drastic separation between the two economies,” she said. “Historically, summer in Crested Butte has always been busier. But over the years we have built a business for summer here. And with the changes Vail has made in bringing more people up here it’s been great to have summer business on the mountain. I think it’s also important to remind people that there are longtime locals and business owners up here.”

Wilkins is also working with David Van Atta of Air Sense Creative Lab on a potential marketing strategy for the Base Area, with the goal to create content that would help Mt. Crested Butte businesses collaborate and bring more people to the mountain. “We’ve had to evolve and adapt. One thing that’s come from COVID is there were a lot of businesses up here I’d never talked to before,” said Wilkins. “But especially now we all need to work together and be more strategic in how we bring folks up to the mountain.”