A fat bike is one of the many ways to get outside and be surrounded by white as we reach the halfway point of the season. A man was spotted getting in some morning laps at the Town Ranch area of the Nordic trails on Saturday, January 21.  photo by Robby Lloyd

Poop is still an issue out there

[  By Mark Reaman  ]

While some camera issues over the course of last winter decreased the amount of data collected, there was enough information gathered to again determine that the Kebler Pass trailhead was the most visited winter trailhead in the North Valley. With 27,280 recreational visits counted at the eight trailhead monitoring sites in the 2021-22 winter season, Kebler accounted for 9,241 or about a third of the activity. Snodgrass was second and tallied more than 5,000 users while Brush Creek Road was the quietest with a mere 762 visits recorded.

Organized through Western Colorado University, the trailhead monitoring has been going on since 2017 and records activity through cameras located at Kebler, Snodgrass, Brush Creek Trailhead, Brush Creek Road, Cement Creek, Gothic Road, Washington Gulch, and Slate River trailheads. Former lead researcher for the Winter Data Collection Initiative Alex Stach reported the latest finding to the Crested Butte town council at the September 19 meeting. 

“Outdoor recreation peaked with COVID and this area saw a similar trend,” he told the council. “The numbers recorded last season decreased dramatically but a few places, like Kebler and Cement Creek continue to see busy use.”

 He said Kebler activity is centered on mechanized use like snowmobiles while with Cement Creek there has been a rise in non-motorized users like cross country skiers. His report indicated there was a noted decrease in total numbers of recreation use observed from the previous season. “Every trailhead that was monitored dropped in terms of number of overall observed users compared to the record high 20/21 counts,” he said. But even with the decreased counts, Stach said last season was still the third busiest season in terms of overall average.

Stach said he had battery issues that impacted the overall data count. He also dealt with rising snowbanks blocking the cameras during last season’s 99-inch storm. “Last season (2020-21), I was able to collect around 96% of possible data without failure, while this year that percentage fell to around 82%,” he reported. “I think we would have obviously seen higher totals and averages with more accurate data collection, but I’m not entirely sure we would have matched the record high results from last year.” The previous winter’s count of trailhead users came in at more than 44,000 people.

He noted that winter came late last year so recording users didn’t start until around December 10, “simply because there wasn’t any snow on the trails.” He said mid-winter weather plays a major role in backcountry use as well. When there is high avalanche danger, fewer people head out into the backcountry and there were several days of such situations last winter.

“Data collection wasn’t as good this past season with  a couple of large snows blocking cameras, some camera issues and a shorter, warmer ‘spring skiing season’ compared to 2020/21,” he emphasized. “Also, the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased interest in outdoor recreation most certainly played a part in the 44,051 users recorded in 2020/21 (the highest number of users we’ve seen in the five-season duration of the WDCI).”

The data is divided among four types of users: non-motorized like cross country skiers, backcountry skiers and snowshoers; motorized users on snowmobiles; hybrid users who utilize more than one category and for example might be using a snowmobile carrying skis or pulling skiers; and mechanized users on things like fat bikes.

On an average day, Snodgrass and Kebler trailheads tallied the most use with between 50 and 90 users per day respectively. The Brush Creek trailhead and Brush Creek Road average less than 15 people per day while the remaining four trailheads averaged between 20 and 35 users a day. Gothic saw about 500 fewer people using the trailhead this year compared to the season before.

The overwhelming majority of users at Kebler were snowmobilers which accounted for 85% or 7,855 of the recorded users. Fat bikers gravitated to Snodgrass where 375 such riders were counted. Slate River tallied a higher percentage of hybrid use than any of the other trailheads.

Stach said a community survey was distributed to some of the trailhead users and he reported that most indicated the biggest problem was “congestion” at the trailheads. “General congestion and parking issues were the biggest issues along with pet waste,” he said. 

The Winter Data Collection Initiative is a collaborative effort between WCU’s Master of Environmental Management program, the Center for Public Lands, Silent Tracks and the town of Crested Butte.

“It’s a jungle out there. They’re like stink on a monkey”

[  by Ivan Inkling  ]

To say Crested Butte’s non-profit landscape has become saturated is an understatement. If there’s a cause, there’s a non-profit for it. If there’s someone who believes in that non-profit but thinks they can do better, there’s a redundant non-profit for that one. It’s no secret, non-profit directors are hungry, and affluent new Crested Butte homeowners are what’s for dinner.

Recognizing the challenges that new locals are facing, and seeing an opportunity to break from his existing non-profit job to start another 501c3, former fundraising director Chip Sewell has announced the creation of CB’s newest non-profit, “The Non-Profit, Profit, Non-Profit” or NOPPNOP or NoPeePee for short.

“I’ve lived here for two years, so I know what makes this town tick,” said Sewell. “But I haven’t lost my Front Range edge and can still seamlessly interact with new wealthy locals. I can sympathize with the challenges they face moving to a small town with a war chest of money and not knowing what to do with it. I was in that same place when I moved here, but I toughed it out, bought a $2M house before the market got REALLY crazy, remodeled and redecorated it twice and went to work, sort of. Now I’ve found my calling.”

Creation of NoPeePee couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. New wealthy CB locals have flooded the valley and non-profits are getting aggressive in courting potential donors.

“It’s like the dating scene in the ‘70s,” said long-time resident Stan Lumb. “Back in the day, you had to bring your A-game or else you were going home to spend the night with Rosy.”

CB’s newest wealthy local Brit Hume, fresh in from the Front Range, was the first to contact NoPeePee for their services.

“I had just bought a spec house sight unseen, so I was excited to get here to start being local. We finally got here, plugged in the electric Volvo, and immediately immersed ourselves in all things CB,” explained Hume. “However, I knew I had a problem when I was on my way to buy some Romps and someone from the Nordic Center stopped me to ask if I’d donated yet. Before I could answer, CBMBA ran them over with an E-Fat bike and asked me if I’d like to have a Legacy Trail named after me for $50k. I literally had to run away on foot because I was so new to town and hadn’t had enough time to buy a vintage townie bike with just the right patina.”

Sewell set up a series of meet and greets for Hume where CB’s non-profits could flop it on the table to show Hume what they were working with.

“It brings me joy to see a new local cut a fat check to a non-profit so they can continue doing whatever it is they do. However, facilitating those meaningful exchanges are only a small part of what we do at NoPeePee,” says Sewell. “We also help CB’s new locals integrate into the local culture. From yelling at people to slow down to bitching about Vail ruining our town to complaining about all of the new people moving here wanting to change it. We’re full service. We even teach them everyone’s nicknames and help them identify all three brothers from Ace Hardware. When we part ways, we give them an “I Brake for Al Maunz” bumper sticker, not that they know what that means. I’m still not sure what it means but I get the knowing nod from others so I figure it’s cool.”

At press time, Hume had gone broke by donating to every non-profit in the valley and finally buying a pair of Romps. After all of their effort to integrate, they still had not been able to figure out the prison riot-like chaos of a CB lift line on a powder day. To help them navigate that challenge, CB’s newest, newest non-profit, “Lord of the Flies for Dummies” has just started up in a Sprinter Van on Butte Ave. by two influencers that were lured here by a Travel Crested Butte Instagram post.

Cement Creek, Snodgrass and Kebler keep seeing big jumps

[ by Mark Reaman ]

Last winter, more people than ever took advantage of using backcountry trailheads in the North Valley. More than 358 people a day on average hit the trails, a huge jump from 2019-20 when the average daily use was 236 people and the next highest year of 2017-18 when 313 people hit the winter trailheads. The trailheads have been monitored the last four years by Western Colorado University graduate students.

“The drainages around Crested Butte are used a lot,” said Alex Stach, who led last year’s monitoring project. “There was quite a huge increase last season at the trailheads. The majority of the people are locals but there are some, such as people
on snowmobile tours, that are visitors.”

Last year’s data showed that 44,293 recreational visits took place on winter trails in the Upper Gunnison Valley. Kebler Pass was the busiest trailhead with a count of close to 12,000 recreational users. Brush Creek Trail was the least busy area with a count of just 1,542 people.

The Upper Gunnison Valley winter use study was first undertaken in 2017-18. The goal was to gather “quantitative data regarding backcountry travel and use” to help the U.S. Forest Service make decisions in its winter travel management planning that is now more than 20 years old. The study is partially funded by the local Silent Tracks group, the town of Crested Butte and the Crested Butte Land Trust.

The baseline dataset concerning the recreational use of winter trailheads in the upper valley can shed light on what people are already doing in the winter and where. Western’s Center for Public Lands is in charge of conducting the winter data collection initiative and Stach is the lead researcher from both last season and the one coming up.

The initial study installed trail cameras at eight trailhead locations in the North Valley and recorded use between December and April. Last year the season went from December 3 to April 15 and data was collected at eight separate trails: Kebler Pass, Cement Creek, Slate River, Washington Gulch, Snodgrass, Gothic Road and both the Brush Creek Trail and Brush Creek Road.

“Most trailheads have fluctuated in their averages, but a few like Cement Creek and Snodgrass have shown a yearly increase in daily users so are getting busier and busier,” explained Stach. “Snodgrass saw more than 80 users per day last winter (10,100 for the season including 375 fat bikers).

“Kebler Pass trailhead saw over 100 users per day with an average of 102 people per day,” Stach continued. “Around 90 percent of the observed use at Kebler Pass falls into the “motorized” category of our study. And a large number of those motorized users are guided snowmobile trips.

Meanwhile the Slate River and Washington Gulch trailheads recorded less people each year in the “motorized” category, but around the same number of people in the “hybrid” users each year. Stach said hybrid users are people using a motorized form of transportation to access non-motorized access. In other words, they are backcountry skiers/riders using snowmobiles to get out to the goods. “To me this seems like less and less people “just snowmobiling” at these trailheads, and instead most people there are using sleds at these trailheads to backcountry ski and ride.”

Parking at the Slate River trailhead was also monitored and as you might expect, it was at times a cluster. More than 1,000 vehicles were observed over the study’s duration with more than a dozen vehicles clogging the road and parking lot at times. The busiest time of day was 11 a.m.

Stach’s final report concludes that one reason for the increase in winter trail use is the COVID-19 pandemic. “One must consider the increased interest in outdoor recreation following the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing popularity of Crested Butte Mountain Resort as potential factors,” it states.

Surveys were also collected and those indicated that people using the trailheads were primarily local, frequent and experienced backcountry users. With 93 percent of those surveyed said they lived in the county and 60 percent said they had completed at least a level 1 Avalanche Safety Course.

Surveys indicate people take their personal vehicles for convenience and are neutral or in favor of the current winter travel management plans, although most indicated there was room for improvement.

Maureen Hall of Silent Tracks said that, “Silent Tracks is pleased to continue funding Western Colorado University Master of Environmental Management Winter Visitor Use Data Collection. This is an ongoing project and an invaluable un-biased data collection and analysis of the areas around Crested Butte. This data will be instrumental when the GMUG starts the Winter Travel Management process.”

Pursuing solutions for historic public/private land use interfaces 

By Katherine Nettles

Last week we looked at two areas, the Middle Upper Loop trail and the new GB Trail, both of which involved the interface of private and public land ownership and uses. This week, we focus on the changes to Moonridge Ranch and how the new owners want to protect Nordic trails for future users. Land use agreements like this have taken work and understanding among parties, but when successful, these agreements can protect the interests of all who use our vast acres of public and private lands in Gunnison County.

Sunflower Ranch: Long-time component of Nordic Center trails changes hands, but maintains public access

John Kiltz of Austin, Texas, purchased the Moon Ridge Ranch (newly dubbed Sunflower Ranch) on March 10 in partnership with his sons. Kiltz has expressed his intention to keep Nordic Center access on the property. His real estate agent, Diane Aronovick, told the Crested Butte News, “I know there has been some fear within the community about development and potentially losing access for recreation. That isn’t going to happen.”

Kiltz says he cares about public access and adding to, rather than limiting, his impact on the community.

“We started coming to Crested Butte because of Adaptive Sports. We had a daughter named Gracie who was a very active participant in both summer and winter sports,” Kiltz says of his connection to the area. Gracie was born with Down syndrome and also suffered from childhood leukemia, which required extensive chemotherapy and subsequent neurological damage.

“I think the point of why we are in Crested Butte is because of our daughter, Gracie, and what the community was able to do to make her feel comfortable being a part of Adaptive and all the activities each year. The community was the glue that allowed us to vacation together as a family and participate together in all the things we are able to enjoy,” Kiltz says.

Gracie passed away unexpectedly about 18 months ago, and Kiltz has renamed the ranch in her memory.

“That is a tribute to our daughter,” he says. “Sunflowers were her favorite flower. And we don’t know how or if we can make sunflowers grow up here at altitude, but we are sure going to try,” he laughs.

Christie Hicks, Crested Butte Nordic executive director, reached out to Kiltz once she learned he was under contract for the property, and Kiltz quickly met with her and the Nordic Center’s board of directors.

“I wanted to understand more about what they did and how they did it,” he says.

The county holds a conservation covenant of more than 90 acres on the property. The parcel also borders Crested Butte Land Trust, U.S. Forest Service land and McCormick Ranch property. Hicks explains that the Nordic Center grooms within that area. “The Maze, Old Ditch Trail and Gulch Connector are all trails contained within this parcel. This property provides many of the connectors and loops that folks think of when they think of our Eastside trails,” she says.

Kiltz and Crested Butte Nordic have drafted a long-term agreement to maintain user access, and Kiltz made it clear that he wants to be inclusive of many users, including fat bikes and dogs. Any trail-use changes to that effect will require additional formalities, and Kiltz defers to the Nordic Center’s ultimate discretion on its trail use guidelines.

“We will announce any changes once there’s snow on the ground again and/or we have all agreements in place. We always have to work with adjacent landowners and land use agencies before making changes to our trail system,” says Hicks. She feels all agreements in place so far are very positive, as does Kiltz.

“I hike all over the valley and all over Colorado, and every time I do it I am going across somebody else’s property … The least I can do is offer the same to others,” he says.

Kiltz says he has been disheartened by some of the tension between locals and vacation homeowners in recent months and wants to overcome any stereotypes.

“I’m going to do everything I can to be the best non-resident, second homeowner I can be. Whether it’s letting people use my land, contributing to the organizations that do so much for this place, working as a volunteer with them … I’m going to go out of my way to be a person in the community. That is the plan.”

Furthermore, Crested Butte Nordic has made a new fan out of him. “I’d never Nordic skied before, and was up there when the ski area closed early,” Kiltz recalls. A friend offered to take him out to try skinny skis, and he got to sample the tracks on his new property.

“I feel super privileged to own a piece of property like this. I’ve never had a chance to own something so amazing. The absorption of all the beauty is hard to describe … Crested Butte is an amazing place for all of our sons and their families, and all of our grandkids,” Kiltz says. “I just look forward to many, many years like this with my family and many others in Crested Butte.”

You said “wood”

by Than Acuff

Thanks to our current administration I can make insipid comments such as the subhead and no one seems to care. Good God, we’ve been dumbed down, myself included, into eff-it mode. And while saying “wood” provides a chuckle, it’s a slippery slope to inappropriate jokes, inappropriate jokes towards women, misogyny, racism and xenophobia. Oh wait, we’re already there.

That’s okay, I’m sure Mike Bloomberg’s billions will make everything better. Shoot, he even took an ad out in the Crested Butte News and was rumored to have asked for placement next to town league hockey coverage.

Of course I’m kidding.

Bloomberg will not make things better and is … not the best person for the job. Who is? Hell if I know, but I know who isn’t. Name starts with D, rhymes with moronald.

As for ad placement next to town league hockey, he’d be an idiot not to demand said placement because town league hockey is where it’s at: “I got two turntables and a microphone.”

It’s also “at” Big Mine Ice Arena Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights and on Thursday, February 20 Alpine Lumber hammered Lacy’s Construction for four goals in the second period to dig their way out of a hole and build a two-goal lead, eventually paving the way to a 5-3 win.

“Nothing hones your mind and instincts like necessity.”

Alpine Lumber did open the game hot with Mark Goldberg rattling the cage with a shot off the post and several other chances at close range early on, but Lacy’s goalie Roan Perschke did what needed to be done to keep the puck out of the net.

Meanwhile, Lacy’s relied on one-player efforts to generate their offense and the singular attack idea paid off four minutes into the game when Nathan Lacy skated onto goal for a solo strike only to get denied by Lucas McMullan but then score on the ensuing rebound.

Jukin’ Joe Hayes created similar isolated chaos with his go-for-broke style of play but Alpine defenseman Drew Layman provided some composure to turn away the attacks.

Ultimately though, when Tim “Mahanimal” Mahan took a page from Hayes and company to produce his own show, Hayes joined in and Mahan slipped the puck to Hayes and Hayes found the five-hole in the final second of the first for a 2-0 Lacy’s lead. 

Team play, profound mental presence and a lack of panic would prevail in the second period for Alpine Lumber though, as they proceeded to pick apart Lacy’s precarious lead with precision.

Alpine Lumber cracked the seal on Perschke’s net in the second minute of the second period as Cody Scott, one half of the Fat Bike Polo champions of the world squad, set up Phil Dujardin for Alpine’s first goal. Four minutes later, Scott, crowned prince of Fat Bike Polo, skated coast-to-coast for a second Alpine Lumber goal. Two minutes later James Brennan fired a shot on frame and Dujardin continued his MVP performance to poke the rebound in. Then, in the final minute of the second period, the two switched roles as Dujardin assisted Brennan for Alpine’s fourth goal of the period and a 4-2 lead.

Thanks to some big defense from Thomas McClean and some smash-mouth skating from Carlee Drobnick, Lacy’s slowed the Alpine Lumber attack down enough to pull back the momentum in their favor and pull back to within one when Nathan Lacy scored his second goal of the game.

Down 4-3 with a minute left, Lacy’s pulled their goalie in search of the game-tying goal but their efforts backfired when Layman  slipped the puck into the open net to ice the 5-3 Alpine Lumber win, handing Lacy’s just their second loss of the season.

“The field mouse is fast, but the owl sees at night.” 

Finding home

by Dawne Belloise

Paul Mack’s walls reflect the culture of the generation of love and peace, represented by an impressive collection of late 1960s psychedelic concert posters. With swirling designs, balloon fonts and contrasting colors, they weren’t meant so much to be read, but as concert promoter Billy Graham said long ago—they were meant to be stared at for long periods of contemplation.

Rockett, the stocky black mini-panther, rolls around on his back in front of the stove, licking his paws clean of a proper catnip dosing. Paul smiles in his stuffed chair, shifts a bit and folds his hands. All is right in his mango-colored, cozy home on Maroon—cat purring in front of the fire, snow dumping a solid white curtain outside, his girlfriend of more than a decade upstairs in their office, and he is exactly where he’s meant to be and where he worked hard to get to.

He bought the “Mango House” in 2000. As an avid bike racer, after competing in the Durango to Silverton race, Paul was drawn to Crested Butte by its mountain biking. “I had always heard wonderful things about this magical place in the mountains,” he says. Paul was living in Boulder, where, he says, “You can ride bikes all winter long because it’s dry.” He traveled up to his Crested Butte home practically every weekend, trying to figure out a way to work from here or at least eventually retire here. Having been raised in a small town, he knew he wanted that type of community.

Paul as born in Carlinville, Ill., where generations of his family lived. “It’s one of those places that, sadly, the population of about 5,000 hasn’t changed for 60 years,” he says of the agricultural town that looks like a Norman Rockwell painting. “Walmart came in and killed all the mom and pop businesses.”

His parents decided to move for work, to Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, Mo. Dad was a CPA after WWII, in which he was a Navy flyer. Mom ran the house taking care of Paul and his two younger sisters. “I’m a Boomer so I had tons of friends my age all through the neighborhood,” he recalls. “We had huge woods to play in because it was still pretty rural. Our parents never worried about us. I remember in first grade, the crowd of kids walking to school would grow as we walked,” he said of the parade as it picked up kids from the houses it passed. “I was very lucky to grow up in a time of innocence. There was a lot of playing in the streets and parks, and building dams in the creek. We’d build these clay structures and dams, kneeling in the water all summer.” When Paul was nine he began swimming lessons and competitions.

As a successful architectural designer and artist, Paul’s talent for drawing started early in kindergarten. “We were supposed to draw a merry-go-round. I drew it as a spiral of motion lines and got a bad grade. My mom was really proud of my bad grade. It’s funny now, traumatizing but typical because art is considered an elective as opposed to a fully integrated part of the human experience. In fifth grade, I’d be drawing flip books on the pages of our textbooks.” He explains that he’d draw stick figures that would tumble across the bottom of the pages and the borders of the book, and the tumbling figure would come to life as you quickly flipped the pages, like film frames of a movie.

One day his best friend Doug arrived at his house with a Time magazine story about the San Francisco art rock poster scene. “The whole rock art movement was starting to get media attention. It was really beautiful.” The two buddies taught themselves silk screening and began designing and printing posters for friends’ bands. “We didn’t get paid but got free concert tickets, which,” he laughs, “were probably worth about 50 cents.” Doug’s father was an architect and the two boys would hang out in his office on weekends. “We became really interested in the world of architectural design. They were doing what I love to do, cutting up paper and building balsa wood models.”

Paul graduated from high school in 1968 with several options for colleges with scholarships. However, after a ride up Flagstaff Mountain above Boulder he was enamored by the mountains and chose CU with a swimming scholarship. “I knew I wanted to be an architect, so my college experience was art, architecture, music, LSD, politics and protesting the Vietnam war.” His draft lottery number was low, 48, and he was sure to be called. “I was in my second year of college when Nixon invaded Cambodia. We took over the Regents building on the CU campus and the National Guard removed us. Somehow I didn’t get arrested. So for me, the experience of college was the culture, all wound together. It still really resonates and triggers other parts— when I hear Neil Young’s song Ohio, I’m brought to tears.”

Paul quit the swim team when the architecture courses and war protests intensified. Forfeiting his scholarship, he now had to pay for his tuition but he joined a water polo team. “It was like a beer league, and I could hold my breath a long time and was a good swimmer. It’s a rough sport—it’s like rugby in the water.”

He graduated in 1974 with a degree in architecture and decided to stay in Boulder. “I loved it. I was living up Fourmile Canyon. I had worked as a carpenter during summers prior to graduation.” With his drawing skills and architectural knowledge, Paul was hired by a small group doing solar research, primarily, the architectural implications of solar.

“I helped illustrate some early books and because of the popularity of the books, they started a small firm called Joint Venture, Inc.” Paul was a full-time employee from 1974 through 1978 and became licensed as an architect at the end of his apprenticeship. “To use the word ‘architect,’ you must have three years of apprenticeship and then pass the state board exam,” he explained.

He struck out on his own for a while but the economy back then wasn’t great. “I did okay but ended up doing mostly presentation work for other architects. I found out that my buddy Doug’s father was opening a firm in Denver,” he says, and they hired him. Paul worked for them for five years, until 1985 when they closed their Denver office. He was traveling a lot, to Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis. Although there was opportunity, it wasn’t economically feasible, he felt. “There was never a viable job offer with the cash to make me want to leave Boulder.”

He hooked up with a growing design firm in Boulder called Communication Arts, which had designed the Pearl Street pedestrian mall. “It was the age of themed environments where retail and shopping malls would have sculptural and entertainment themes. There was a lot of really exciting speciality fabrications and that was my forte. I’d travel all over to meet with these incredible creatives who would build nearly impossible designs for our projects. It was really fun for a long time.” He later became one of the vice presidents of the firm.

When he quit his job with Doug’s father’s firm, eliminating his commute to Denver, Paul suddenly gained an extra three hours in his day. “I always loved cycling. I raced for fun in college. I decided with the extra time I now had I was going to train and bike race.” He began racing in 1985 with a clan of like-minded guys who were also Masters racing.

“I raced for years and got involved with different teams.” Joining a really good group that started out as the Celestial Seasonings team, Paul began racing with them in 1989. “It went through a lot of literations—Le Peep, Subway, Vic’s Coffee and for the last eight years, it’s been BoulderCentry for Orthopedics.” Although he’s not on their racing team any longer, he’s on the board for the team and still wears their jersey when he rides, trains and races.

In the 1990s Paul took up track racing on the velodrome. “It’s beautiful to watch. Good track racing is like ballet.” He won a national championship in 2006 in the points race. The velodrome, Paul explains, is a closed, banked track, either indoor or outdoor, and bikes are fixed gear with no brakes. He won half a dozen national championships and began to do really well with the team pursuit. “We decided to go to the world championships in Manchester, England in October 2016, and we won it.” So, Paul is a World Champion racer. This year, he also raced in the Fat Bike World Championships in Crested Butte a few weeks ago.

Paul left Communication Arts in 2003 to do his own thing as Paul L. Mack Architecture, LLC (PLMarchitecture.com), art director for specialties, signage and graphics. He then created Rockettoonz, an illustration and card design business, separate from his architecture design. “I designed some letterpress cards and had Eidolon Press in Crested Butte print my first set. I was inspired by Cindi Lang’s work—it’s such a beautiful, tactile and elegant process.”

These days Paul does a lot of consulting for designers, architects and city governments and developers. He’s still avidly into cycling, enjoying the incredible Crested Butte mountain biking. He’s done the West Elk Classic and says, “I’m kind of retired from racing every weekend because I’m having too much fun hiking, biking and skiing up here.”

Paul met Karen Fienberg in 2009 through a friend who had created an all-women’s cycling event in Boulder County. “Karen was working on the post-ride festival and I helped with mapping and course development.”

Although they didn’t meet at the festival, they were both told they should meet. Paul sent an unsolicited email to Karen, who almost deleted it. They met for a blind coffee date and now, 11 years later, they say they never looked back. In December 2018 they moved from Boulder to be full-time Buttians, and Paul says, “More than half our time was spent up here the last two years. It’s been a matter of both of us being able to do our work remotely.”

“Moving up here is something I’ve wanted to do for so, so long and trying to figure out how to make it happen took a while. It’s a community I want to be part of and a small town that I feel is my town. It’s full circle—I was born in a town where we walked everywhere. Here, I can walk to the dentist or the hardware store. I walk everywhere. We have our challenges of course but it’s so meaningful to be to be part of a small town. We’ve always rented our back house to locals. It’s important to us because community is the community that lives here.”

There’s a big ol’ world out there beyond Highways 135 and 50. I popped in there last week and it’s sort of different. There are a lot of people in that world: sophisticated business types walking downtown London, a dozen languages being spoken at the Munich airport, everyone carrying skis around Kitzbühel. After a quick trip across the pond filled with hiccups (Travel Alert: Make sure your passport doesn’t expire in less than three months if you go to Continental Europe), I realized most of those people are pretty nice and willing to help out a country bumpkin from a small mountain town in Colorado. The quick trip reminded me of how mountain people are different from the main. I remembered too that for Austrians in Tyrol, the mountains and skiing aren’t just a part of their lives; they are part of their culture. It reminded me of home.

The day after I got back to Crested Butte I took a few late afternoon turns off the High Lift and caught the bus downtown. I was watching a girl probably four or five years old in earmuffs with a unicorn horn sitting next to me on the right. She was gazing out the bus windows mesmerized by the late afternoon alpenglow. On my left was a young kid here to try a season as a ski bum. Next to him was another young 20s kid with a backpack who appeared to be living that life already.

The dad of the unicorn sounded from Texas and was recounting to his friend in the seat across from him that the Van Halen song on the bus was the same one he listened to while getting pumped to ski down Morning Glory. He was also answering questions from the younger daughter, probably three years old, about the mountain scene outside the bus windows. She was fascinated by Paradise Divide.

We live in a mountain town. Some ski, some hike, some fat bike or sled. But the mountains are an every-minute part of our lives. In Austria the ski area seemed more about embracing the leisure and technique of the ski world. The instructors put on a couple of shows a week, complete with fireworks and music to psyche up the guests. Here, there is less Show and more Go. Edges are less important here than in Tyrol. Hanging out on the sun lounger with friends listening to the oom-pah-pah of live accordion between bier and schnitzel is common over there. Adhering to the slogan that there are “No friends on a powder day” or “Go big or go home” is not uncommon in line at the Silver Queen.

Another reminder of the potential risks that come with mountains occurred the same Sunday I rode the bus with the unicorn. A guy skiing alone on Red Lady Sunday morning set off a snow slide that could have been tragic. But he was no stranger to backcountry skiing and had an airbag that very likely kept him from serious injury or even death. And people need to remember that despite the perception that Red Lady is the second Crested Butte ski area with so many people hitting the bowl all the time, it is actually a big backcountry run. Sunday’s slide was at least the third significant slide in the bowl in three years.

The solo skier who had skied the bowl dozens of times before admitted he got a bit complacent and skipped some safety measures, which resulted in his situation. He ultimately skied back to the bottom on one ski and counted his blessings.

Mountains are powerful things. They call a certain type of individual. Mountains guard the valleys and hold the waters of spring. They shelter wildlife and can get you that much closer to heaven. Whether in Crested Butte or Austria, mountain people are different from city people. If you are reading this, you are probably mountain people. Your spirit is slightly different from those satisfied at Applebees on a Friday night.

It is the energy of the mountain that is the common thread between skiers of Painter Boy or Red Lady Bowl or the skiers who will attack the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel, Austria next weekend. To attach boards to some boots and decide that’s a good way to get down a mountain makes you different from most people.

Even if you don’t ski but enjoy the mountains, that is enough. The air is thinner in the mountains. The sun is brighter, the sky is bluer. There aren’t a lot of obese people in mountain towns. Mountains attract like-minded people who want to live or visit a place not inside the mainstream world. Mountains present danger, challenge and joy. Mountains demand a certain independence from those who find their way there.

If you live or visit the mountains—whether in the Rockies or the Tyrol—you are one of the special ones. One must be aware when playing in the mountains. That is part of the draw. There’s an experienced backcountry skier who received a serious life lesson Sunday. There’s the family of Austrians living a happy life centered completely in the energy of the Alps. There’s the young unicorn on the dog bus being drawn to the enchantment of the high mountain valley. All are tied to the energy of the mountains. All are fortunate.

There are a lot of really nice and wonderful people in this big ol’ world. I love getting out there and touching base with the mainstream. But it is not unusual in these parts to ride a bus with a little unicorn or find yourself downing a schnapps with strangers in a mountain alm before clicking back into the skis. Mountain people are different…and different is good. Different is home.

—Mark Reaman

Borealis Fat Bike Worlds

Fat bikers roll into town this week for the Borealis Fat Bike Worlds Friday through Sunday, January 24-26. The weekend includes fat bike polo on Elk Avenue Friday evening and the premier event, the Fat Bike World Championships, on Saturday on the CB Nordic trails east of town with the racing starting at 11 a.m. Swing by Fat Bike Worlds headquarters behind the community school to check out all things fat bike and all information and event registration can be found at cbfatbikeworlds.com.

Jokerville Mine disaster tribute

Local historian Larry McDonald has uncovered many mysteries about the 1884 disaster and intimate details about many of the victims and their lives and will give a presentation about it at the Crested Butte Library Thursday, January 23 at 7 p.m. Come take in some rich local history and pay tribute to the “Forgotten 59.”

Center happenings

This week at the Center starts off in a thirsty Thursday theme with a Watercolor & Wine workshop, followed by the Tequila & Mezcal tasting session of the Spirits Series, all leading into a note for note perfectly rendered execution of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Damn the Torpedoes performed by Classic Albums Live. If that’s not enough to wet your whistle the Literary Arts program’s Scottish Burns Supper Fundraiser (Saturday, January 25) should do the trick with whisky tasting, bagpies, haggis, Scottish dancing and more. After all that you might be in for something a little more subdued, and you can have it in the cozy Winter Great Book Series discussing Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (Monday, January 27). Then poet Peter Anderson lights up the free Literary Salon Series (Tuesday, January 28) with mystics, misfits and mountain dwellers. Don’t forget the Superbowl is coming! Get ready with the Appetizing Appetizers workshop (Wednesday, January 29) to cook up a charcuterie board that will put the half-time show to shame. Writers pay attention! The spanking new Mountain Writers Cooperative is gearing up with their first Sunday Sprint (Sunday, January 26) – check out www.crestedbuttearts.org for membership details you’re definitely going to want to be a part of!

Monthly Film Series at the GAC: Maiden

Maiden will screen at the Gunnison Arts Center on Friday, January 24. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the movie will begin at 7 p.m. Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook in charter boats, became the skipper of the first-ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World in 1989, despite their male counterparts. The film is rated PG. Admission is $10.

Town picking up the green tab for citizens

For 2020, the town of Crested Butte will pay to provide renewable energy credits for 100 percent of town residences and businesses through GCEA’s green power program. This is a first step in working towards Crested Butte’s renewable energy future. By being a part of the green power program, together, we’re showing our community’s commitment to renewable energy, while the town works with GCEA on planning local renewable energy generation projects.

Birthdays:

January 23- Jim Talbot, Joni Clark, Stacey Roman, Bonnie Nigro, Veronica Jarolimek

January 24- Pete Nichols, Tyler Largo, Guthrie Moore, Mike Horn, Taylor Norton

January 25- Tucker Roberts, John Napier, Camden Scales, Chloe Hillman

January 26- Ken Cloud, Sophie Tetler

January 27- John “Smalls” Lumadue, Crista Shaffer, Blake Courtney

January 28- Nancy Vogel, Jim Truettner, Katie Kupcinski, Ofra Reynolds, Dave Dlugasch

January 29- Julia Kortz, Siena Truex, Anika Jobson, Paul Andersen, DJ Brown

Cameos: What is your opinion about fat bikes?

“We are much stronger”

By Katherine Nettles

As Gunnison county prepares its budget for 2020, the Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP) gave a report last month of its past year’s performance and requested next year’s funding.

The TAPP team painted a picture for commissioners of the stabilizing effect the organization has had on the ICELab programming, on its new charge for fostering economic development within the valley, and how it plans to focus increasingly on existing businesses and opportunities within the Gunnison Valley.

TAPP’s overall budget is estimated at $2,577,735, and 83 percent of that budget comes from the Local Marketing District funds through the county. Another 8.7 percent comes from ICELab (economic development) income, and the remaining 7.9 percent comes from tourism grants.

TAPP executive director John Norton said tourism marketing and economic development are the biggest expenses, accounting for 68 percent and 22.4 percent, respectively. He reported that TAPP took on the ICELab as the county had requested, and a lot of TAPP energy has also gone into improving and marketing local trail maps. 

TAPP has leveraged a lot of public relations wins, from a full-page feature in The Wall Street Journal, to the Blister Speaker Series, to Teton Gravity Research video footage.

Norton addressed TAPP’s controversial $350,000 award to Blister (offered for two consecutive years and totaling $600,000) for relocating team members to the Gunnison Valley.

“We left last year with the mis-impression that we paid $350,000 and they moved here. I didn’t make a point of it as an ad buy-in,” said Norton. “Besides the economic development, we got real value out of that. We are working with Blister to do more social media marketing, and we are doing more data collection… They are getting outreach from major outdoor companies,” he said.

ICELab progress

Last year was tumultuous for the ICELab, said Norton. When TAPP took it under its wing, “Catapult was in jeopardy. They had some communication issues and had 100 percent turnover.” The café there had also lost its vendor, and “Laurel [Runcie]’s departure paused branding work internally.”

With a new director and other personnel, that enterprise has now stabilized and even expanded. This fall, the ICELab’s accelerator program has three local, established companies (Internet Colorado, Camp4Coffee and Third Bowl Ice Cream) paying for the curriculum in order to expand their markets—a first in the ICELab’s history.

“What I see happening at the ICELab is a lot of people coming down to see David [Assad, ICELab director] and Darci [Perkins, assistant director] because of their intellectual value… The ICELab is a real resource. We’ve got more revenues than we’ve ever had in the co-working space, and it will be the end of the free deals at the end of this year,” said Norton.

The Coffee Lab is located in the café space now, and when the Western Colorado University dorms flooded recently, the ICELab temporarily housed displaced students.

Assad said the longer-term focus is on fall accelerators for existing businesses, and the spring incubator program’s growing reputation within the accelerator industry. They will also try to grow the co-working space. “It’s still our base, and the other three pillars come from that,” said Assad.

All three of the current accelerator participants are looking to export products out of the valley, said Assad. “So they would be bringing in money, instead of just circulating money within the valley.”

Airline marketing is back on, and more may come

“We’ve been pretty nervous about air, and we turned on our air program full throttle,” said Norton. That marketing is concentrated in Dallas and Houston.

Crested Butte Mountain Resort had formerly given $250,000 to the marketing program, but Vail Resorts has determined it will not do so anymore, using it for its own independent marketing instead.

“We didn’t squawk about it because we figured they were going to be better at ski marketing than we were. But as we’ve seen, our marketing still works,” said Norton.

The relationship between Vail Resorts and TAPP concerning air service is uncertain, said Norton, with a little disconnect coming into this winter.

“I think the assumption was that Vail’s got winter. We’re going to focus on something else… but if we get to mid-December, we are going to jump in. We’ve got our support for Nordic, for Fat Bike Worlds [a winter event], and then, if we need to do alpine skiing, we will,” said Norton. He said the biggest winter booking day is typically the Monday after Christmas, so that decision would come in advance of the rush.

Expanding markets and telling new stories

Norton said that wrestling camps are a big thing to market for the valley, as is a new concept called gravel grinding. “It’s the migration of people leaving road biking because of the danger of getting hit by cars,” explained Norton of the gravel road bicyclists. It appeals to a lot of Midwesterners and Texans, he said, and TAPP plans to host a gravel grinding event in and around Gunnison next September.

TAPP’s public relations manager Andrew Sandstrom also discussed going after Bureau of Land Management conferences, and other large public-funded organizations to host their events in the valley.

County Commissioner John Messner asked about marketing tactics. “What are some of the stories we are telling?”

Sandstrom described the “Never Never Land” campaign, which includes ten videos. “Generally it follows local characters and why they moved here, why they stay here. Why these people are choosing to be here,” he said.

Sandstrom said they are also recycling some former campaigns on the Crested Butte Creative District sites.

Messner and County commissioner Jonathan Houck asked how to market more mountain sports and Western Colorado University connections. Houck pointed to the number of business owners on Elk Avenue in Crested Butte or Main Street in Gunnison who are Western grads. “A lot of people have built their lives here walking out the door of Western,” he said.

Houck said he appreciates the organization taking the direction from the Board of County Commissioners about adding economic development to the former Tourism Association entity, including its role in participating with the Sustainable Tourism and Recreation (STOR) committee. He asked several general questions of the group as a whole about “how to determine what paths we have as a community,” and “being thoughtful about the opportunities we are choosing.”

“This is definitely a good ongoing conversation to have,” replied Norton.

County commissioner Roland Mason also addressed an often-heard reprise from constituents who question why these entities are still marketing with busy seasons getting busier and more crowds showing up on weekends “I think there’s a lot of misinformation and a lot of questions,” said Mason.

Finally, Messner addressed the budget. TAPP’s budget has been eating away at reserves, he pointed out, so he and county manager Matthew Birnie asked about putting some money aside “for the inevitable recession.”

Norton responded that he doesn’t think the spending this year will eat away at reserves (projections from TAPP show a $26,000 surplus), and Assad said he thinks the ICELab will actually spend less this year. Messner suggested there might be some benefit to adding more spending to the ICELab, and less on marketing.

Tourism spending is basically flat year-to-year, said Marketing manager Daniel Kreykes.

“This is a conversation I’d love to have at the end of winter,” said Norton.

Messner said de-funding  some things in order to balance other budget items out might be necessary.

“We’re going to have our rainy day,” agreed Norton. “It just happens.”

“We wouldn’t want to plan forever on having the best revenues we’ve ever had. So that’s certainly a consideration,” added Birnie.

In closing, the commissioners expressed their appreciation for what the TAPP is doing. Messner said the curveballs they’ve thrown have been a lot, to include STOR, ICELab and integrate economic development.

“You guys have adapted and moved quickly,” agreed Houck.

“We are much stronger,” concluded Norton.