The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Less fly fishing, more mountain biking
Crested Butte Mountain Resort will take over for the town of Mt. Crested Butte in operating the Mountain Adventures program this summer, making the mountain’s lifts, trails and Adventure Park a central part of the 10-week outdoor recreation program for kids.
The cost of the program, which had been a partnership between the town and CBMR, could go up slightly from the current $45 a day. But CBMR director of resort services Nick Herrin told the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council that the mountain would become the kids’ playground and parents would get a previously unavailable option to have kids taken care of until 5 p.m.
Herrin told the council that one of the biggest advantages of the new arrangement would be the participants’ access to more amenities at the base area, like the Adventure Park and the lifts. “We think that’s going to enhance the Mountain Shredders [mountain bike] team that was created last year,” he said.
Herrin said the addition of child care services came after people asked during registration if that option would be available from the time camp ends at 3:30 p.m. until 5:15 p.m., when many parents can get to the mountain after work.
With a licensed daycare at Camp CB, the Adventure Park and lifts leading to trails on the mountain, the resort will be able to look after kids from two years old to teenagers.
“We didn’t see why we wouldn’t want to offer a new program,” Herrin said, “so we have an after-camp program that we’re offering as well.”
Under the agreement, the town will hand over the canoes, climbing gear and other equipment maintained for the program and continue to pay the permit fees to the Bureau of Land Management as well as the Permanent Child Care License fee for 2013.
For its part, CBMR takes all the revenue, other than a 4 percent admissions tax on program participation, and assumes responsibility for all of the costs to third parties that help in the adventures, which are staged across the Gunnison Valley. The resort also agrees to take all the necessary steps to be insured and operate to the standards set by the town.
And while the agreement doesn’t directly limit the cost of the program, it allows for a price increase of 10 percent a year, not accounting for any additional cost from third parties such as guide or shuttle services.
The “preferred pricing” extended to locals and Mt. Crested Butte second-home owners will be continued by the resort, although the agreement says that discount will be set “as determined by CBMR in its sole discretion.”
The agreement does say CBMR would operate the program as the town did in the summer of 2012, with the exclusion of fly-fishing and the Girls Only program
Registration for the newly labeled Mountain Adventures at Crested Butte Mountain Resort program opened April 29. For more information, visit mtcbmountainadventures.com or call 349-2211.
