Busy holiday period fills buses, shops and coffers

It seemed busy because it was busy

From the ski area to local shops and restaurants, business was hopping in Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte during the holiday season.
Crested Butte Mountain Resort reported an increase of 14 percent from last year in both lodging and ticket sales in the period between just before Christmas and just after New Years.

“We were up in all departments, from culinary to adult and kids ski school,” said Erica Mueller, communications and public relations manager for CBMR. “For how busy we were, everything went very smoothly. The weather was incredible for our guests and we were able to open new terrain to keep the stoke high with both locals and visitors.”
CBMR opened more than half of the mountain’s renowned extreme terrain in time for the holidays, and it proudly used the opening announcements as carrots to attract skiers from the Front Range and elsewhere.
“We pushed our message of snow fall and terrain openings hard,” said Mueller, who notes that the local snowpack is on pace with, or better than, many other ski areas in the nation. “We have four digital billboards in the Front Range and we used them to make announcements about powder days, the opening of the Headwall and our overall conditions.”
According to the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority, those messages and others touting flight and lodging deals were likely well received. Scott Truex, executive director of the RTA, said that despite slightly fewer seats being available this year, the number of filled seats on flights from both Houston and Dallas was up from last year, with the overall inbound load factor on all flights combined at 82 percent versus 68 percent last year.
Once they were off the planes, it didn’t take long for visitors to flood to local shops and restaurants in search of the entire Crested Butte experience.
“Starting right around Christmas we were very busy,” said Andy Eflin, manager of Peak Sports. “We brought in extra help and we worked some very long hours to make sure we were able to serve both our guests with reservations and those looking for day rentals. We rented everything down to the nubbins, but we were able to serve everyone.”
Roman Kolodziej, owner of Black Tie Ski Rentals, also said things were exceptionally busy, adding, “You couldn’t swing a pair of snowblades around without hitting someone.”
Like Mueller, Kolodziej said the early season snowfall, more people discovering Crested Butte, the winning of Powder Magazine’s Ski Town Throwdown, and the rebound of the economy all likely contributed to the uptick in, and overall optimism of, visitors.
“Visitors seemed really excited about being here. How could they not? We had a bunch of snow, town looked like a living Hallmark card, and tourists had nothing but happy, powder-skiing locals to interact with,” Kolodziej said. “Plus, we had more terrain open for everyone to ski compared to last year. Ski patrol and the boot packers deserve a big pat on the back for that.”
Also deserving a pat on the back are the local Mountain Express bus drivers who had their hands full shuttling visitors and locals alike up and down the mountain. Mountain Express reported off-the-charts ridership on both Saturday, December 28 when rides were given to 7,200 people, and on Tuesday, December 31, when 8,300 people used the free bus.
“The buses were full, but we got everybody to where they needed to be going,” said Mountain Express’s transit manager, Chris Larsen. “It was great to see people here and all the visitors seemed to be having a great time.”
Some of that great time may be attributed to the local food and drink offerings, of which there are many. Todd Barnes, owner of the Avalanche Restaurant in Mt. Crested Butte, saw lots of families and friends coming together to celebrate the holidays and the snow.
“We were noticeably busier in the period between Christmas and January 5,” said Barnes. “I saw plate numbers I haven’t seen in the last two years.”
Michael Marchitelli, owner of Marchitelli’s Gourmet Noodle in downtown Crested Butte, agreed that the prime holiday period was busy with families and large parties, but said business needed to remain steady in order for many establishments, his included, to break even.
“This is a great trend to see,” said Marchitelli. However, he cautioned, businesses need to “be careful of taking it all for granted and treating the people who come here shabbily because we are all so busy.”
“The first-timers love us. The regulars love us. The locals love us,” he said. “It really is a wonderful place for us all to be.”
Kolodziej summed up the busyness of the holidays. “If you didn’t make money over the last couple of weeks, you may want to consider a new line of business,” he said.  “Let’s hope this is the new normal.”