Old School January…

January 2025 is going old school on us. Right now, it’s focused on old school negative – as in negative temperatures. It’s becoming a regular pattern to wake up and hear Kate on KBUT tell us that it’s minus a lot in Crested Butte and minus more in Gunnison. 

High temps have been in the teens. Brrr. And that’s before the Arctic Polar Vortex Siberian Express is scheduled to arrive this coming weekend when the lows will be about -20 or more and the high temp on Monday at both ends of the valley is forecast to be about a balmy 5 degrees.

Remember when the old school locals said we just needed a return to the old days with a few straight days or weeks of double-digit negative lows and single digit highs to weed out the soft posers moving here? Well, here you go. And I’ve already been sent an overheard from a long-time local talking about wishing they were on a beach in Sayulita instead of bundled up and dodging rocks in Peel. I can’t say I really disagree with that as I write this in a hoodie on a chilly Tuesday morning. It’s rough getting soft but I look forward to lows in the 20s with more snow.

In the meantime, I was sent a request to print a reminder during these cold days to have working carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in your homes (ideally, in the vicinity of gas appliances – boilers and fireplaces in particular). That’s a good old school reminder for January in the mountains.

Next Monday might feel like old school 2016 and a rerun of ‘American Carnage’ in Washington DC. For the most part, I’ve stayed away from Donald and his mean chaos but in old school January it’s probably worth mentioning — here we go again. When the priority is to come up with a clever nickname for someone you don’t like (Gavin NewScum) while fellow Americans are dealing with literal hell, it’s an indicator of what lies ahead. Sigh.

In that vein, the Congressional toadies sucking up to Donald are making noise about how important it is to tie conditions to any emergency aid to those Americans dealing with the aftermath of the Southern California inferno. Good for the GOP senators from those states devastated last year from hurricanes. They want their fellow California citizens to receive the same benefits their constituents did. Republican senators from North Carolina and Florida both expressed unease at the unethicalness of kicking fellow citizens when they were down. Donald won’t care.

Speaking of old school, the January crud seems to be making the rounds in the valley. Lots of people are sick — from bus drivers to teachers, to restaurant workers to me. It’s been a week of coughing and sniffling. Ahh, the crud. As part of the process, I went more new school and watched and waited for the dreaded line to appear on the COVID test. It didn’t, and there was the same relief felt in 2020. But the old school crud is continuing to linger and hang on in all corners of the valley and that’s really no fun for anyone.

In the list of things mentioned in my editorial last week I didn’t specifically note the working ranches in the valley and their contribution to our energy and soul. My focus was more on the old school ‘ski town’ mentioned in the 5280 article. But talk about old school values. This valley remains unique in Colorado resort communities that there are working cattle ranches along the main corridor leading to the resort. They provide space, views, lessons in hard work, examples of community roots in a quickly changing community. They deserve a huge shoutout for being a large part of what continues to make this place special. It’s easy for some to take for granted but they shouldn’t. That cow sh*t on the trails in the summer? That’s soul.

You know what else is old school? The CBMR ski patrol union leader explaining why this local patrol is a team that counts on both management and line workers to work together and be a well-oiled machine. In our article last week, Crested Butte Professional Ski Patrol president Adam Reymann didn’t name names and showed empathy to the local manager that was apparently strong-armed into going and crossing a Park City ski patrol picket line. He pointed blame where it belonged, on the corporation, for putting a valued team member in an uncomfortable position. I appreciated the old school team concept that has resulted in getting our unique terrain open early and that happens through a team effort. Another shoutout to our professional CBMR patrol.

Anyway, next Monday will be a cold one…negative in so many ways. I’ll take a breath, suck down another zinc lozenge and hope it gets warmer and positive soon. Man, I am looking forward to old school February…one of the best months of the year.

—Mark Reaman