“My main goal is taking neighbors to my home”

by Crystal Kotowski

Tibetan natives call Mount Everest Chomolungma, meaning “Goddess Mother of the Earth.” In Nepalese, her name is Sagarmatha, or “Mother of the Sky.” And in Crested Butte, perhaps our Everest, Mount Emmons, is the Red Lady. Buttian adoration of mountains mirrors those who have laid eyes upon Everest—just as the quest to go higher is shared in both parts of the world.

Last fall, three Buttians, Kayla Goodyear, Greg Hunt, and Nathan Bilow, heeded the challenge of the ultimate Everest trek to the base camp, seeking also to assist in earthquake reconstruction when possible. They were guided by “our local Sherpa,” Pemba Sherpa. The route has the reputation of being the grandest walk in the Himalayas.

With his hearty laugh and palpably warm heart, Sherpa—and his family—has allowed Buttians the opportunity to attain a glimpse into the Nepali ethos. Through sharing native cuisine at the Sherpa Café and offering treks throughout the Himalayas with his company, Alpine Adventures, the Sherpas are further cultivating the connections between the communities.

Through high alpine valleys below the Himalayas’ towering peaks, sporadically visible through the fog, the motley crew, Goodyear, a 23-year-old student, Hunt, a 68-year-old retired AT&T employee, and Bilow, a 59-year-old photojournalist, trekked to their destination of Everest’s Base Camp (17,590 feet) with Sherpa.

Distilling the documentation of the journey from 6,500 photos and 860 video takes into a 30-minute film to be debuted at the Crested Butte Film Festival is no easy task. But the crew hopes to do just that, sharing the beauty of Nepal with the Colorado community, and to inspire others to travel and find shared commonalities with fellow mountain people.

“With the snail pace of the government involved in helping rebuild from the earthquake, it’s up to the people to create their own way of rebuilding. So that’s why I am going again, to complete a dream as a mountain adventurer, to help our neighbors on the other side of the world,” shared Bilow.

Sherpa became a porter at 11 years old, beginning his lifelong career in the trekking business—learning how to cook in the lodge kitchens along the trekking routes. In 1996, Nepalese civil war began, lasting 10 years. Throughout the war, the government controlled the main cities and towns while the Maoists dominated the countryside. More than 19,000 people were killed and an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people were internally displaced. Nepal’s greatest source of foreign currency—its tourism industry—greatly suffered. Near the beginning of the war, Sherpa decided that he wanted to move to the U.S.

Sherpa’s brother cultivated the first connection to Crested Butte through a trekking organization in which he was a guide. His employer wrote to sponsor him, inviting him to Crested Butte. After he moved to Crested Butte, and in the midst of political turmoil and lack of opportunities in Nepal, the Sherpas soon followed. Sherpa has continued to share the Himalayas through Alpine Adventures.

“My main goal is taking neighbors to my home,” shared Sherpa, who cannot remember or quantify how many treks he has led throughout his life. He has climbed Mount Everest twice and was trekking Makalu, the world’s fifth highest peak, when the 2015 earthquake hit. Living in Gunnison County, Sherpa has found another mountain-loving community eager to climb new heights.

From October 5 to October 25, the Gunnison County crew traveled past monasteries, teahouses, and swing bridges, and alongside yaks, glaciers, prayer wheels, and trails lined with mani stones, engraved with Tibetan Buddhist prayers—experiencing not only the magnificence of the mountains, but the warmth of Sherpa culture. The trek climbs through the Khumbu Valley and follows the footsteps of the Everest summiteers.

One of the objectives was to assist in reconstruction from the earthquake where possible, offer about a dozen winter coats donated by Western State Colorado University and Adaptive Sports, and deliver funds raised in Gunnison to local monasteries.

“It was so nice seeing Pemba be so happy where he comes from. Pemba saw family in every teahouse,” said Goodyear, noting their ritual teahouse visits several times a day.

“There’s a teahouse every five seconds,” Sherpa echoed.

“Of course there’s dealing with the yaks—you have to go on the inside of the trail so they wouldn’t push you off the cliff. They don’t really bother you, but you don’t want to take any chances,” added Hunt.

There are two trekking seasons, the spring and the fall. As the mountains create their own environment of beauty and safety, it’s a fine balance of being on a ridge knowing the weather is coming in and having to take shelter. So Pemba brings his clients to places where he is welcomed and so are his guests.

“During a trekking day of four to seven hours, Pemba makes a call to the town where we can stay the night. It’s all about connecting with the people of the country as he translates everything that is necessary—though most accommodation owners speak different languages, French, German and English, besides Nepalese and Sherpa,” said Bilow.

“Some of the porters are almost super-human,” said Hunt, noting how porters are paid by the weight carried each day.

The legendary Khumbu Ice Fall and summit Kala Patar, at over 18,000 feet in elevation, greeted the trekkers as they reached base camp, as well as unobstructed views of Everest.

From the Himalayas to the Rockies, the transition home for the Buttians might not have been as difficult as for others. But the trek had apparent impacts on them all—from challenging their values, inciting reevaluation of priorities and instilling a deeper sentiment of interconnection.

“What I get from traveling is that we’re all quite similar. People all around the world are dealing with the same things… there’s a real link between this community and Nepal because of similar lifestyles and beliefs,” said Hunt.

“I think it’s important for young people to travel—for me, traveling has created different pathways in my brain. It’s important for human development. We were lucky to go with someone who is native in both Nepal and Colorado,” said Goodyear.

Pemba is organizing a mission volunteer trek April 9-30 to help rebuild the Khumbu Valley, devastated in the earthquake. Pemba also plans to start offering treks throughout the Rocky Mountains this year. Contact Alpine Adventures at (720) 273-7158 for more information. Start working out and book a trip.

by Dawne Belloise

Kirsten Atkins has been on skis since she was four years old and shussing down Killington’s slopes in Vermont, where she got her first season pass in 1972 at the age of seven.

The family lived in Connecticut but had a small place at the resort. “We had a tiny ski chalet at Killington, with brown and orange furniture, thick shag carpet and bunks for you and all your cousins,” Kirsten remembers. “We’d drive up on weekends and it didn’t matter what the weather was like.” Her parents would load up the car and the three kids and drive up Friday night. “We were always a ski family and involved in kids’ ski programs. I was on the Killington freestyle team from the time I was nine to when I was 13 years old,” but Kirsten confesses that she wasn’t that competitive and by the time she was 13, like any teenager, “I just wanted to ski with my friends.”

Kirsten graduated from high school in 1983 and moved to Killington so she could ski more and take advantage of the drinking age, which was 18 back then. To support her ski habit, she worked as a cocktail waitress at a dance club for a couple of years.

“My poor mother,” Kirsten shakes her head. “I look at 18 year olds now and they’re so young to be in an environment like that,” she says, but adds that she’s glad to have had that experience in her life. “Everything you do prepares you for the next thing in life, right?”

After her two “gap” years, Kirsten enrolled at the University of Denver and moved to the Mile High City. Her first thought was that she wanted a career in hotel and restaurant management.

“But then, I was taking all these anthropology and psychology classes and realized I was more passionate about those studies than my business classes.” In her freshman year, she opted out of skiing in order to get serious about studying.

She quickly realized that was a mistake, which she corrected the following year by taking the winter semester off and moving to Steamboat. When she returned to her classes in 1987, her friends decided that taking the winter semester off to hit the slopes was a brilliant idea; however, Steamboat didn’t allow snowboarders and her buddies were riders.

“Telluride housing was too expensive so we checked out Crested Butte on the way back to school. I came to Crested Butte, with my little clan of friends, where housing was affordable but super tight. We moved into a house next to the tennis courts… three bedrooms for seven people. And here begins my story with the Adaptive Sports Center [ASC].”

Kirsten responded to an ad in the paper for volunteers for the Crested Butte Physically Challenged Ski Program, which was the precursor of the Adaptive Sports Center. The program was born in February 1987 and Kirsten joined up with the fledging organization that November.

“It was their first full season and we were all volunteers at that point. Mary Cain and Robin Norton were the founding mothers of the program. I got involved because my older brother Keith is on the autism spectrum. Autism is a broad category of people, from quite high functioning to people who are nonverbal. My brother is pretty high functioning. I grew up as the sibling of a person with a cognitive disorder and I grew up skiing, so they were two big important parts of who I am. I got excited about volunteering for the program. We did 33 lessons that winter. Luckily, I had another job—working at the China Garden in the Elk Mountain Lodge as a waitress. I also worked at the Eldo and the Gourmet Noodle.”

When she started her volunteer work at ASC, the world of adaptive skiing was new as a sport and Kirsten has seen many changes and its evolution. “One of the biggest things that I see throughout the years is the technology advancements. It’s been an incredible thing to watch. The other part is, over the years we were experimenting with ideas, we’d look at a student and try to figure out how to make skiing happen for them.”

Kirsten and the team of volunteers used their innovation and lots of duct tape, pieces of foam and bits of everything. “I don’t have an engineering mind but luckily there were people who did and were developing this equipment. A lot of the designing was driven by people with disabilities who wanted to ski and had engineering minds.”

Some of those first pieces of equipment are conserved in the Crested Butte Museum. “I’m the program pack rat,” Kirsten laughs and explains that the history and development of the Adaptive program, its origins and how it evolved, are extremely important to her, and it’s important to educate the public.

This year, the ASC celebrates its 30th anniversary of improving the quality of life for people with disabilities through outdoor adventures. They’ve developed policies and guidelines born out of the experience of its three decades.

Kirsten recalls that in the ASC’s embryonic start, she didn’t have a lot of mentors and they had no trainers, yet the mentors who were there taught her well. New employees and volunteers at Adaptive now go through rigorous training in a variety of skills before they are allowed to take out a lesson.

“Look at the growth and development of this community,” Kirsten points out. “Thirty years ago, the streets were dirt, and people still talk about what it was like back in the day. The Adaptive program has grown up with the community and with the huge support of this community. Our program is incredibly blessed to have had that sort of support. Even when the economy crashed in 2008, we were a little nervous about how our fundraising efforts were going to go but we were able to raise what we needed.”

Kirsten’s role at Adaptive has been in training and as a snow sports supervisor. “Over the years, I developed into the then-undefined leadership role, and I wasn’t the only one in that role. I started giving training clinics for the newbies coming in. In the mid-1990s, I went to Scotland and Austria, working for the Uphill Ski Club of Great Britain, which is now the Disabled Sports UK. I trained instructors and volunteer trainings for four winters, and also taught British people with disabilities. I had only four or five instructors for 12 to 15 clients, whereas at Adaptive we had one-on-one.”

Kirsten would drive “a big ol’ van loaded with a bunch of equipment from Scotland to Austria. We’d have four or five weeks of ‘holiday makers,’ as the clients were called. I got to live in Austria and teach and meet all kinds of interesting people. I’d work part of the season there and part here in Crested Butte. We were sort of celebrities over in Scotland because not a lot of instructors were going over there at that time. We were really well treated and we were invited to all the Highland dances. I got to experience awesome culture in both Scotland and Austria.”

In the late 1990s, Adaptive took their programming to Argentina and Kirsten started teaching training clinics down there in late August 1997. They’d schlep tons of equipment because, in those early days, United Airlines would give Adaptive an unlimited baggage waiver. Kirsten tells of one year when four instructors took 19 pieces of luggage. “We would take sit skis and wrap them in shrink wrap. Some of the equipment would stay and some we brought back with us.”

She spent a couple of winter months in Argentina for 10 consecutive years, focusing on teaching the instructors and volunteers and helping them groom their own programs. “I was focusing on an education curriculum for the instructors there and we developed an instructor certification program and helped facilitate the Argentine Ski Instructor Association,” Kirsten explains.

ASC began to take its own USA clients to Argentina as part of their Adaptive Adventure Travel program in early 2000.

Overall, Adaptive Sports currently conducts about 6,000 lessons a year of both winter and summer programs. Kirsten notes that things have changed a bit. “We now have highly trained, certified and qualified staff, and lots of volunteers. In the winter, we have about 28 pass volunteers [those who are given season ski passes] and we have upwards of 100 in the winter programs.”

The group program has expanded and the groups are now the backbone of their program. There are various disabled veterans’ groups, like Operation Rise and Conquer, which is one of the veteran programs funded through ASC and through generous donors.

There is the Roger Pepper Camp for teenage burn survivors, one of the long-running camps of Adaptive. From the teen burn survivor camp comes the DC Burn Foundation, a firefighters’ group of survivors.

“We have groups that come from rehab hospitals with spinal cord and head injuries and also various research hospitals that work with MS and multiple disabilities. We have tons of different kids’ groups. A couple of weekends ago we had a group called Joy School in Texas—they’re children with learning disabilities. A lot of the groups come both summer and winter,” Kirsten says.

Summer programs offer biking, water sports, like canoeing on Irwin Lake, or camping, hiking, and rock climbing (they have ice climbing in the winter).

Adaptive recently moved into their new home office in town on Belleview, where they now have a fleet of vehicles. ASC is in the process of building a new facility on the mountain, moving their offices from the Treasury Building, where they’ve been for 28 years. “It’s a far cry from our first winter in the Emmons building in essentially a closet,” Kirsten laughs, adding that they’ve been there so long that, “We’ve circumnavigated the entire lower level of the Treasury Building, basically taking over, so, it’s time to get out of there. There are innovative and progressive spaces being designed into the new building.”

Last winter, Kirsten made a big decision: “So, here we are, it’s my 30th winter here. I had been in the leadership role since Adaptive’s early days, and now, I’ve decided to take a step back. I didn’t want to leave the program because it’s part of my heart and soul, part of my fabric and community here. I’ve been passionate about it my whole life, especially growing up with a brother with a disability. I still work for the Professional Ski Instructors Association–RM [Rocky Mountain], the certification and education for snow sports, and I’ve been working for them for 10 years.”

Although she’s not leaving the program she loves, Kirsten and her hubby, Heath, are working on an exciting new venture. “We’ve bought 73 acres across from Crested Butte South and we’re working to develop the Crested Butte Horse Park. Our vision is to create a safe facility for horse and rider, with the expectation for it to be of high quality, aesthetically pleasing, as green as possible and promote equine lessons and services.”

This past December, Kirsten was honored with an induction into the Disabled Sports USA Hall of Fame. It’s an online national recognition that acknowledges the efforts of both athletes and instructors throughout the entire country, inducting one athlete and one instructor each year. Kirsten feels that there are many more sports that can be expanded to enrich the lives of the disabled. And after 30 years, she’s still there to help create that.

Looking for most efficient way to accomplish the common goals

By Mark Reaman

As was not unexpected, the deal to withdraw mining claims on Mt. Emmons from the possibility of industrial-scale mining in the future and return them to the public domain has been neither quick nor without a few hiccups.

The original hope was that a mineral withdrawal could have been accomplished in the last U.S. Congressional session, but like many things, the election of Donald Trump threw a wrench in that plan when the lame-duck Congress was not open to such legislation.

Owner of the molybdenum mining rights on Mt. Emmons, the Mt. Emmons Mining Company (MEMCO), a subsidiary of global mining giant Freeport McMoRan, is negotiating with the feds, the state of Colorado, the town of Crested Butte and Gunnison County to facilitate the withdrawal and find the most efficient ways to clean up the current mine sites on Red Lady.

According to Crested Butte town attorney John Belkin, there are several potential pathways being explored to achieve the stated community goals of withdrawal, improvement of the water quality in Coal Creek, and mine site remediation on Red Lady. Belkin explained that with so many relevant parties involved there has been a lot of discussion about how best to achieve the goals and supervision.

Options that have been discussed include continuing the process under U.S. Forest Service oversight, possible utilization of the voluntary cleanup program, and potential privatization of a portion of the most affected mine site areas, among other ideas.

If privatization of a portion of the land were an eventual outcome, the land used by Freeport would be held in a conservation easement to ensure the property would never be commercially developed.

While the group is actively investigating all options to quickly and efficiently clean up the mine sites on Red Lady as part of the mineral withdrawal, no consensus has yet been reached on how to proceed.

Belkin said while everyone involved with the discussions continues to be on the same page and have a good relationship during negotiations, the details have produced a few bumps in the road. “This is a very unusual deal in that we are working very cooperatively with a mining company and a lot of different government entities to not mine a mountain. That doesn’t happen very often,” Belkin said. “So we expected it would take some time to work through all the necessary details, and it is.”

Belkin said several meetings are scheduled in the next few weeks for the various entities involved with the deal to continue working out details, but he does not have any timeline of when it might be concluded.

Hundreds of truckloads a week

by Mark Reaman

There is some snow out there in the valley. Everywhere. And if it isn’t moved, everything shuts down. The towns, the ski area, your life would all grind to a halt if the snow wasn’t hauled away from the driveways and the streets.

Every plow and snowblower that can has been working hard for two weeks. But what happens to the feet and feet of snow that is moved?

As one reader asked, “Where oh where does all the snow go?” One hint: You know that volcano that spews water on the Strip in Vegas? You probably skied this week on what could eventually be part of that Vegas spew.

The valley has seen larger overall amounts of snowfall in the past but this recent storm was consistent and wet. The moisture content was big. According to Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District general manager Frank Kugel, probably no one is surprised that this January storm has had a real impact on the basin’s water stock.

“January has been a particularly good month for our water supply,” Kugel confirmed. “We began the month with a projection of only 85 percent of normal Blue Mesa Reservoir inflows for April through July. This below-average inflow projection, despite heavy snow in December, was due to our very dry late summer and fall. Since January 1, the inflow projection has increased from 85 percent to 134 percent of normal. This year’s early bounty stacks up quite well compared to the big snow years in recent history—2008 and 2011.”

The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center tracks water content in the basins, and looking at the Butte and Schofield SNOTELS (the sites that measure area snowpack), this storm was not small. Kugel pointed out that based on the forecast center numbers, the pace of the current snowpack is ahead of the record snowpack year of 1995, which didn’t really begin its above-normal accumulation until mid-February.

When the snow comes so quickly, it has to be moved somewhere so people can get around. The town of Crested Butte’s main snow storage area is in the gravel pit south of the community school and at the big lot next to Rainbow Park. The town, along with six private contractors, hauls snow from the streets, alleys and driveways to the gravel pit.

“The last two weeks have been wild,” said Crested Butte Public Works director Rodney Due. “Everybody is scrambling. Our priority is the streets. We want to pull the snowpack and widen the streets. It was a ridiculous storm. We had crews working 24/7.”

Due said the town has hauled about 350 dump trucks full of snow just from Elk Avenue. Each truck carries about 12 cubic yards.

“Rainbow Park is almost full to capacity,” Due explained. “It’s really early in the season to be full over there. As for the gravel pit, we have had to hire private snowcats to push the snow back and enlarge the pit to make more room for snow.”

Due and town manager Dara MacDonald said they have appreciated everyone’s help when it comes to assisting the snow crews. People are trying to park on the correct side of the street at night and are understanding of the overall situation.

“We will be pulling up the snowpack on the streets this week at night and we know it is loud, but we hope people understand that once we pull the pack they get their street back,” said Due.

Snow is also keeping Mt. Crested Butte busy. Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick said that seven staff members have put in 169 hours of overtime in two weeks to deal with all the snow. The town typically has to haul snow out of Pitchfork at the entrance to town and sometimes from parts of Emmons Road, which it stores in the parking lot to the north of the Grand Lodge and parking structure, which will eventually become the home of the Biery-Witt Center.

“We have the advantage here of having more room to put snow, but have hauled 175 loads out of Pitchfork so far, not including today,” Fitzpatrick said on Tuesday. The limits of that area are being tested with this recent storm cycle.

“We suffer from not having another snow dump site right now,” Fitzpatrick said. He said the town used to store snow on land owned by the town next to Town Hall, but it created too many issues with debris, garbage and even noxious weeds.

Crested Butte Mountain Resort also deals in snow. While resort executives like keeping the snow on their trails, the company too has to haul a bunch away during these big storms. The parking areas by the Grand Lodge and the parking structure along with the walkways to the base of the ski lifts all accumulate so much snow that it could hamper customers getting to the skiable powder on Jokerville or Cesspool.

CBMR general manager Michael Kraatz said the resort hauls away just a fraction of the snow that is dealt with by Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, but it is one thing the resort must deal with.

“Like everyone, we’ve had a hard time getting trucks to haul the snow away,” Kraatz said Monday. “But this is a good problem to have. Frankly, if we were in the opposite situation with no snow, that would be a much bigger problem.

“We finally have some trucks lined up for this week,” Kraatz continued. “Right now we are stockpiling the snow from the parking lot and the parking structure north of the buildings. To get the snow out of the area by the Treasury Center we can load it only between 5 and 8 a.m. It will probably take a few days to move it all and historically we have it hauled up to the North Village at the base of Snodgrass.”

Kraatz said the snow that is plowed in the main parking lot stays there. It is piled up on the edges of the lot.

Kugel points out that snow at a ski resort is compacted and can act as a reservoir of sorts. “The snowpack does act like a huge reservoir. Now, if only we had more control over that release valve,” he said. “CBMR has the added storage component of the snowmaking, which enhances the runoff season on the lower portions of Washington Gulch and the Slate River.”

So it appears we can expect a decent wildflower season up here this coming summer. Wet winters feed the colorful summers. Spring will bring an interesting runoff so homeowners might think flood insurance and sandbags now before it’s too late. And the boating in the rivers and on the lakes should be pretty decent throughout the valley.

Eventually most of this sweet winter snowpack will end up west and downstream of here. It will melt into the Slate and the East Rivers and flow into the Gunnison and Blue Mesa Reservoir. From there, it will head toward Montrose, where some of it will be used to raise crops. Some will wind up in Nevada, where you might drink it between Cirque du Soleil shows or dice rolls in Vegas. Some of the stuff you are skiing on this week could be used to water a golf course for Tommy Martin in Scottsdale, Arizona or could make the spring houseboat experience a bit higher at Lake Powell.

As for the short-term, “I don’t think we have any worries about having enough snow for the Alley Loop,” noted MacDonald.

Attending the annual Crested Butte-Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce Winter Economic and Tourism Forecast meeting last Thursday, I hung out for a bit but not for the whole thing. Believe it or not, everyone in the room was pretty optimistic about the upcoming ski season—no news there, really—and it wasn’t just because of the free beer and wine. You couldn’t expect this gathering to have the same vibe as the day after a Trump victory in the HCCA office, for example.

No, no, no. Marketing is cranking and should help fill those now-empty seats on the planes from Chicago and L.A. The buses are better and plusher and there are more trips running in the valley. The towns are in great shape and feeling more flush than recent years. The fat bikes are phatter, and the ski resort is ready. Big snow is in the weather forecast. It was a chamber gathering, after all.

Now, I believe all the reports, but being a bit more cynical, I was not shocked by any of them. I left the room when I saw a PowerPoint coming on the One Valley Prosperity Project. Seeing Gunnison County’s new community and economic development director and OVPP leader Cathie Pagano the next morning, I promised to give her and the project another kumbaya shout-out because she appreciates it so much. It is a holiday, so—OVPP gets the strongest kumbaya acknowledgement in a meeting filled with kumbaya! Pagano did tell me the project has actually led to more than just talk and good action has evolved from the hours and hours of OVPP discussion. While not always a cheerleader for OVPP, I believe the process has helped open up constructive dialogue and helped coordinate actionable goals for the broad community. Thanks.

A few other quick takeaways from the meeting. The Tourism Association will aim its healthy financial marketing guns on promoting the mountain’s steeps to millennials. Sort of like the mountain biking trail focus in the summer, they will focus on steep ski trails in the winter. The TA believes it is the Extreme Limits terrain that sets Crested Butte apart from the rest of the state ski areas so they want to let good skiers in their 20s and 30s know it is out there. They will especially be targeting the Los Angeles and Chicago ski markets since there are direct flights originating from those metropolises to Gunnison and those flights need some help.

The TA also reported that a survey of summer visitors showed no “detractors.” None, nada, zip, zilch. That’s unheard of and a compliment to us all. Visitors really liked it here this summer. Laurel Runcie explained that the survey results basically showed that those surveyed would likely recommend a trip to the valley to a friend. That’s a good marker. The TA will do a similar survey with visitors this winter to see how we measure up in the colder months.

The buses from the RTA will be bigger, more comfortable and easier to track this winter. There will be more daily round trips (17 total) zipping up and down the valley between Mt. Crested Butte and Gunnison and everywhere in between all winter. That should mean no one should (hopefully) get left behind because of a full bus.

Flights are looking about the same as last year in terms of booked passengers, with December up a bit and March off a tad.

Both towns, Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, are seeing record sales tax revenues in the summer. Property valuations are increasing and both communities understand that it is now the June through September period that is dominating this ski resort community. In fact, Crested Butte mayor Glenn Michel said September is now the third-busiest month according to sales tax numbers in Crested Butte. He said the recent passage of 2A to help permanently end the threat of a mine on Mt. Emmons would bring some certainty to the valley for residents, visitors and investors.

CBMR’s Erica Mueller said they are “optimistic about another great winter in Crested Butte.” She said they are tracking about 4 percent up in individual skier tickets but are tracking down about 7 percent in group business at this point. “However, we feel that we can easily make up the group shortfall,” she said. “The phones have been a little slower lately with the lack of snowfall nationwide, but we anticipate the upcoming weather pattern to turn that around.”

Mueller said the Rocky Mountain Super Pass has been a boon the last two years and this third year is expected to give CBMR another great bump. Plus, she said this season is the first year of a new three-year deal with the group. “In addition, we anticipate seeing quite a few MAX Pass holders wanting to check out Crested Butte now that we are on that product as well. And last but not least, THINK SNOW: lots and lots of snow!”

Amen. There is nothing wrong with lots and lots of snow during the ski season.

So—and I’m honestly not being cynical—one of the things I love about the start of any ski season is the energy and optimism that bubble up right now. That gets me and most people living here stoked for the beginning of a new chapter in an always-interesting book. You never know how this chapter will turn out but it feels great to get it going. I love the buzz and there is always reason for optimism. Hey, the Cubs started every baseball season since the early 1900s with an optimistic buzz and they won the World Series this year. It could dump 450 inches this year!

So here is a Thanksgiving toast to some of that optimism going beyond expectations. Here’s to a record snowfall season and an early opening of Phoenix, Third Bowl and the West Side. Here’s to great sales tax numbers with no lines at the ever-running chairlifts that never break down. Here’s to warm, comfortable buses, fatter tires on the fat bikes, no core shots, and a chance for everyone living here to get out and have one of the runs of their life this year.

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend, everyone. I hear it’s looking pretty good.

—Mark Reaman

Looking for best way to move forward with Congress

By Mark Reaman

Last week’s national election results could have produced a hiccup in the effort and timing to obtain a congressional mineral withdrawal on Mt. Emmons, but there is still optimism that perhaps the action can be taken before the end of the year.

A bill has been crafted and U.S. senator Michael Bennet’s office is ready to move it forward in Washington. Crested Butte town attorney John Belkin told the town council on Monday that the election results in the U.S. senate could make it more of a challenge to get something through Congress in its last days of the session.

“Senator Bennet has been diligent in trying to look at ways to move this through but right now he is not sure of how to do it yet,” Belkin told the council at a November 14 meeting.

The Bennet bill has the support of the town, county, state agencies and Mt. Emmons mine owner Freeport McMoRan. It would withdraw all of the previous unpatented mining claims controlled by U.S. Energy on the mountain. Without those thousands of acres of claims, a mine could never realistically be developed on Mt. Emmons, also known as Red Lady, because there would be no place to construct infrastructure or place tailings.

Belkin said conversations have not yet taken place with Colorado’s other senator, Republican Corey Gardner, or the district’s congressman, Republican Scott Tipton. “But if this is to go anywhere, we will probably require their help,” said Belkin.

“I feel like we should continue to explore every opportunity and try to advance it soon,” said Belkin. “Things can change overnight. We will be looking at the next three or four weeks.”

He again emphasized “that getting anything through Congress is always a challenge, as we all know, and the election clearly could impact that. But our partners at Senator Bennet’s office, Freeport, the state of Colorado, and the county are all shooting to get this done. We will see what Congress will do and are hopeful this can happen this year. But we are realistic. It is a big uphill push.”

Belkin reassured the council that the bond issue for $2 million overwhelmingly passed by town voters last week will not change hands to the mining company until a mineral withdrawal is complete on the unpatented claims. He said the bill has to be passed by Congress, and signed into law by the president; Freeport then has to send a letter disposing of the claims. Only then would the town hand over the $2 million. He also reiterated that Freeport will be the entity in charge of running the water treatment plant on Red Lady. The town will not have any responsibility for the plant.

“Senator Bennet’s office has been a great champion of this avenue,” Belkin said. “Freeport has been great. The Forest Service has been great along with the state and the county. We just need a little help now with the congressional situation.

“We want to try to finish this in the lame duck session,” Belkin continued. “The bill could well be reduced to two sentences. Can we get two sentences in the federal budget amendment? That is the question.”

Water quality update

Ashley Bembenek of the Coal Creek Watershed Coalition gave a report to the council at the same meeting on the process to revise water quality standards for Coal Creek, which is a collaborative process with the Mt. Emmons Mining Company, the town, Gunnison County, the High Country Conservation Advocates and several state agencies. She was very positive and encouraged by the process.

Bembenek went over the manmade and natural sources that contribute to metals like cadmium, copper and zinc in Coal Creek. She said the Mt. Emmons Mining Company has been a very cooperative partner in dealing with improving the water quality and revising the water quality standards

“The latest plan for site characterization and eventual cleanup is excellent news for the people in town because in time it will decrease metal concentrations in Coal Creek,” she said. “When Mt. Emmons Mining Company announced its plans to reclaim the tailings impoundments, which are large piles of mine waste left over from historic operations at the site, that was going above and beyond even what was expected. I wanted to do cartwheels when I heard that. I am impressed with the steps they’ve proposed. So far they have done a great job communicating with us. It is all very different from a year ago.”

“This is all very encouraging,” added High Country Conservation Advocates Red Lady Program director Alli Melton. “These latest developments are all really positive.”

Trump presidency could impact local issues as well…

by Mark Reaman

Aside from the stunning presidential and national election outcome that could impact us locally through issues like public lands management, there were local political races that mattered as well, from county commissioner seats to ballot issue 2A, which sought to set aside open space revenues to help pay mining company Freeport McMoRan to take some unpatented mining claims off the Mt. Emmons table.

Ballot issue 2A passed overwhelmingly in Crested Butte. With unofficial results in at the county elections office, Crested Butte citizens passed the issue 903 to 137.

The two Democrats won the Gunnison County commissioner seats. In the District 2 race, incumbent Jonathan Houck defeated unaffiliated challenger Paul Wayne Foreman. And John Messner will replace Paula Swenson in District 1. His Republican challenger was Brad Tutor.

Houck received 6,012 votes or 73 percent of the ballots cast over challenger Foreman. Messner tallied 5,179 votes to Tutor’s 3,609. That was about a 59 percentage rate for Messner.

“I really appreciate the confidence the voters of Gunnison County have placed in me through this election result. The message seems to be, ‘Keep working on the things we have been working on,’” Houck stated Tuesday.

“And I understand that the community wants action and not just more meetings and plans. All four of us running this time agreed on the important issues of looking to provide more housing, not allowing mining on Mt. Emmons, keeping public lands public. We differed on how to accomplish those things, but overall we were all in agreement on the important issues. For me, I’m going to keep working on the direction that the county has been going the last four years,” Houck continued.

Messner will be sworn in as a commissioner on January 10. He understands that as much as he has been involved with county process, there is still a lot to learn.

“I am excited and humbled that the citizens of Gunnison County trust me to represent them,” he said. “It is a big responsibility and I don’t take it lightly. I am glad that they share the vision we developed. Now I have a lot to learn over the next few months.

“I am certainly ready to move forward,” he continued. “The people of Gunnison County remain optimistic about the future and I am excited to be part of that. I think people want to see action in things like the OVPP outcomes, broadband and connectivity, and sustainable tourism. I intend to move forward with everything we talked about during the campaign.”

Both Houck and Messner were surprised at the presidential outcome. Houck said it will matter locally, but the key is for the local populace to keep control of local decisions.

“It is hard with Trump to take what he says and figure out how that will translate as far as policies,” he said. “For example, who will be his secretary of the Interior? How will decisions from Washington impact the management of public lands? What will it mean for oil and gas leases? What will it mean for the Gunnison sage-grouse?

“The community has been very clear that it believes public lands should remain in public hands so it is up to us here to protect them. Our positions won’t change. We want a transition from the coal economy in the North Fork to a more sustainable energy program. We don’t want mining on Mt. Emmons. We want to protect the sage grouse but also protect the ranching community and our water. I mean if the Gunnison sage-grouse gets delisted, this community has said that we want to protect that species in partnership with ranching and recreation. That hasn’t changed. We will remain stewards of the community.”

Messner said he was proud that the state and county did not vote with the national trend. “I feel like we did well as a state and we voted our values in Colorado and Gunnison County,” he said. “I, like most people, was surprised that Trump won, but the sun will still rise in the east. Still, it is pretty unprecedented that we have an individual like Trump along with a majority of Republicans in both the Senate and the House. It will be interesting.”

Record turnout in Gunnison County

Speaking of interesting, it was another interesting night in the Gunnison County elections office but not as interesting as some past years. Gunnison County director of elections Diane Folowell said the office handled 9,243 ballots over the last month with a big surge coming this past Monday and Tuesday. That was a record. Crested Butte citizens cast 1,148 ballots. She said the office handled a lot of new voter registrations over the course of the election as well.

A “small glitch” left about 340 ballots to be counted Wednesday morning but that number did not change the result of any race from the Tuesday night preliminary outcomes. Folowell said the glitch was essentially working the bugs out of the new voting equipment.

“The judges love the new machines,” she reported. “We’re very pleased with the efficiency and accuracy of them. They are a blessing.

“Overall, it went pretty smoothly with the mail ballots,” she continued. “The only real difficulty we experienced was when the ballots were mailed October 17. It took longer than anticipated for some people out of state to get their mail ballots. But eventually they got them and it all seemed to have worked out.”

Other races

In Gunnison County, 62 percent of the voters went with incumbent Millie Hamner for State Representative in state house district 61 over Republican Bob Schutt. She took the district wide vote as well.

While Crested Butte’s Gail Schwartz won Gunnison County in the race for the Third U.S. Congressional District, she ultimately lost district wide by 14 percentage points. She pulled in 60 percent of the Gunnison County vote over incumbent Scott Tipton, but throughout the district she received 137,285 votes to Tipton’s 184,957.

“I congratulate Scott Tipton, and hope that this campaign season has helped him appreciate the importance of bridging the political divide and bringing the residents of the 3rd Congressional District together on the many issues and values that unite us,” she stated in a press release Wednesday morning.

Ballot issues

When it came to the ballot initiatives, Gunnison County voters went with the state and turned down Amendment 69 that would have brought the state its own universal healthcare system. Almost 69 percent of Gunnison County voters said no to the proposal.

Sixty-one percent of those voting in Gunnison County approved the proposal to increase the state minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2020. That issue passed statewide.

Gunnison county voters also overwhelmingly voted for Proposition 106 with 77 percent of the vote to allow access to medicine for terminally ill patients to speed up the death process. That too passed statewide.

Official timeline

Remember, these results are all unofficial for a few more weeks. Election results from votes cast will be officially certified November 16. November 22 is the last day for counting provisional ballots. November 25 is the deadline for Gunnison County to complete an election audit. And November 28 is when the final canvas results have to be submitted to the Colorado Secretary of State. Given the number of outstanding ballots, no race results will be changed by these remaining votes.

Gunnison County clerk Kathy Simillion said the work of the election team is incredible.  “We have a great election team. The staff, the election judges, everyone involved here works very hard for the citizens,” she related. “And we should acknowledge the Board of County Commissioners and the county manager. They deserve credit for getting us modern equipment. Without that we might still be counting ballots. They’ve been very supportive and everyone should appreciate that.”

Working with senator’s office

By Mark Reaman

Meetings and negotiations are continuing to take place between Mt. Emmons mine owner Freeport McMoRan and the town of Crested Butte. Town attorney John Belkin and Crested Butte planner Michael Yerman travelled to Denver Tuesday, November 8, for a meeting with the Forest Service, the mine company and U.S. Senator Michael Bennet’s office.

They spent the meeting going over a draft bill that Bennet would bring to the U.S. Congress. The bill would provide for a congressional withdrawal of mineral rights on Mt. Emmons. Obtaining that withdrawal would prohibit any future mining on Mt. Emmons.

“We met yesterday for several hours in Denver,” said Belkin. “We will continue to do so until the bill gets adopted, if at all. Freeport is committed to the withdrawal and is a great team member in this. We owe them a great deal of thanks. Senator Bennet’s office is working hard on it as well with all the stakeholders. Ideally, the senator can get this through an act of Congress with the president signing it into law. The vibe from his office has been super positive and they are doing everything they can but they are realistic. This requires an act of congress and that’s never easy. They have been great to work with and are doing everything they can to make this happen.”

The staff will give an update on the Mt. Emmons developments at the special November 14 Town Council meeting that was to be focused on the short-term rental issues in town.

More jobs, more vehicles, more legal fees, no Butte Bucks, less reserves

By Mark Reaman

The Crested Butte budget process that sets the priorities for the coming year is coming to a close. The council is moving ahead with adding some new town staff employee positions in 2017; they will tap into reserves for projects that include the Mt. Emmons and Cypress annexation issues, and will add pavement and bathrooms to the Four-way Stop area. Service grant funding was also expanded out of reserves to allocate money for drug awareness and youth education programs.

The new employees will include: a new human resources technician; a planning department employee who will take on the Creative District management, open space/trails duties and some general planning responsibilities; and a full-time employee to help in the facilities maintenance department.

Overall, town employees will see a 4 percent raise. The council was somewhat amazed that health insurance rates would increase only 3.5 percent.

On the capital side of the budget, the council gave the nod to spend money this year on costs associated with the potential Cypress Foothills annexation; constructing a new transit and bathroom center at the Four-way Stop by the current Visitors Center; and performing some significant upgrades to town-owned buildings. Citizens will also see some new town vehicles buzzing around, including a new hybrid and electrical vehicle.

The capital budget dipped into reserves to the tune of about $1,045,000. That will still leave almost $2.3 million in reserves. Still, agreeing to those spending decisions will mean holding off on some projects that have recently been discussed, including getting Avalanche Campground south of town ready for tents, doing any major improvements to the skate park, or adding locker room improvements at Big Mine Ice Arena.

“I just want to make it clear you are dipping pretty significantly into the reserves,” town finance director Lois Rozman told the council at a work session on November 7. “I want to make sure you are okay with this. Once that money is spent, it is gone and won’t be there for anything else.”

Rozman said the reserves would remain very strong, even with the proposed 2017 spending.

“We have had some good savings,” said mayor Glenn Michel. “And now we have opportunities in front of us. I’m comfortable with the spending decisions.”

The Crested Butte legal budget expanded significantly with the upcoming Mt. Emmons mining negotiations taking place with Freeport McMoRan, the upcoming Cypress Foothills annexation process and some water law issues. The town’s legal budget is set at $442,100 for 2017.

“The town has waited 39 years for a possible resolution on Red Lady so I think if it works, it will be money well spent,” said Michel.

One of the longer discussions at the work session centered on a Gunnison County Substance Abuse Protection Project (GCSAPP) request to have an annual $25,000 line-item donation to the organization included in this and future budgets.

Michel noted that former town manager Susan Parker had weaned the local non-profit organizations off the line-item section of the budget and into a service grant process.

While the council members were generally in favor of finding a way to use some sales tax revenues from recreational marijuana sales to fund drug awareness programs for youth, they did not want to put GCSAPP back into the annual budget.

“I’m against specific non-profits being a line item in the budget,” said councilman Roland Mason. “I think we should encourage them to apply for grants. But I am in favor of some mechanism to have some of the marijuana money collected by the town go to drug education and awareness.”

The council had budgeted $90,000 for non-profit grants. Rozman suggested they could specifically allocate a certain amount from that area to such drug-related programs. She noted that many communities that had voted for allowing marijuana sales had also included a specific excise tax on the product for such purposes. Crested Butte did not do that. And sales tax revenues generated from legal marijuana in Crested Butte have been declining pretty dramatically since Gunnison allowed dispensaries to open and more states are legalizing marijuana. In September 2016, councilman Jim Schmidt pointed out, weed sales were down 65 percent compared to 2015. Marijuana sales tax revenue is down 20 percent for the year.

Still, the council wanted to have staff come up with a mechanism that would tie some of the marijuana sales tax revenue to education programs. For the upcoming year, they anticipated there would be about $10,000 set aside in the grant process for potential awareness programs.

In the fall granting process, the council declined to fund the chamber of commerce’s Butte Bucks program. Councilman Chris Ladoulis explained that while the idea might have been great during the recession to help generate some local spending, “Butte Bucks may not have the same reach as before. It did a great thing back then, but is it what we need today?”

They were surprised to not receive any grants requests from entities like Vinotok, Six Points or the Gunnison Valley Mentors programs.

The council will review a final version of the draft of the budget with the expectation to have the first reading at the November 21 meeting.

More jobs, more vehicles, more legal fees, no Butte Bucks, less reserves

By Mark Reaman

The Crested Butte budget process that sets the priorities for the coming year is coming to a close. The council is moving ahead with adding some new town staff employee positions in 2017; they will tap into reserves for projects that include the Mt. Emmons and Cypress annexation issues, and will add pavement and bathrooms to the Four-way Stop area. Service grant funding was also expanded out of reserves to allocate money for drug awareness and youth education programs.

The new employees will include: a new human resources technician; a planning department employee who will take on the Creative District management, open space/trails duties and some general planning responsibilities; and a full-time employee to help in the facilities maintenance department.

Overall, town employees will see a 4 percent raise. The council was somewhat amazed that health insurance rates would increase only 3.5 percent.

On the capital side of the budget, the council gave the nod to spend money this year on costs associated with the potential Cypress Foothills annexation; constructing a new transit and bathroom center at the Four-way Stop by the current Visitors Center; and performing some significant upgrades to town-owned buildings. Citizens will also see some new town vehicles buzzing around, including a new hybrid and electrical vehicle.

The capital budget dipped into reserves to the tune of about $1,045,000. That will still leave almost $2.3 million in reserves. Still, agreeing to those spending decisions will mean holding off on some projects that have recently been discussed, including getting Avalanche Campground south of town ready for tents, doing any major improvements to the skate park, or adding locker room improvements at Big Mine Ice Arena.

“I just want to make it clear you are dipping pretty significantly into the reserves,” town finance director Lois Rozman told the council at a work session on November 7. “I want to make sure you are okay with this. Once that money is spent, it is gone and won’t be there for anything else.”

Rozman said the reserves would remain very strong, even with the proposed 2017 spending.

“We have had some good savings,” said mayor Glenn Michel. “And now we have opportunities in front of us. I’m comfortable with the spending decisions.”

The Crested Butte legal budget expanded significantly with the upcoming Mt. Emmons mining negotiations taking place with Freeport McMoRan, the upcoming Cypress Foothills annexation process and some water law issues. The town’s legal budget is set at $442,100 for 2017.

“The town has waited 39 years for a possible resolution on Red Lady so I think if it works, it will be money well spent,” said Michel.

One of the longer discussions at the work session centered on a Gunnison County Substance Abuse Protection Project (GCSAPP) request to have an annual $25,000 line-item donation to the organization included in this and future budgets.

Michel noted that former town manager Susan Parker had weaned the local non-profit organizations off the line-item section of the budget and into a service grant process.

While the council members were generally in favor of finding a way to use some sales tax revenues from recreational marijuana sales to fund drug awareness programs for youth, they did not want to put GCSAPP back into the annual budget.

“I’m against specific non-profits being a line item in the budget,” said councilman Roland Mason. “I think we should encourage them to apply for grants. But I am in favor of some mechanism to have some of the marijuana money collected by the town go to drug education and awareness.”

The council had budgeted $90,000 for non-profit grants. Rozman suggested they could specifically allocate a certain amount from that area to such drug-related programs. She noted that many communities that had voted for allowing marijuana sales had also included a specific excise tax on the product for such purposes. Crested Butte did not do that. And sales tax revenues generated from legal marijuana in Crested Butte have been declining pretty dramatically since Gunnison allowed dispensaries to open and more states are legalizing marijuana. In September 2016, councilman Jim Schmidt pointed out, weed sales were down 65 percent compared to 2015. Marijuana sales tax revenue is down 20 percent for the year.

Still, the council wanted to have staff come up with a mechanism that would tie some of the marijuana sales tax revenue to education programs. For the upcoming year, they anticipated there would be about $10,000 set aside in the grant process for potential awareness programs.

In the fall granting process, the council declined to fund the chamber of commerce’s Butte Bucks program. Councilman Chris Ladoulis explained that while the idea might have been great during the recession to help generate some local spending, “Butte Bucks may not have the same reach as before. It did a great thing back then, but is it what we need today?”

They were surprised to not receive any grants requests from entities like Vinotok, Six Points or the Gunnison Valley Mentors programs.

The council will review a final version of the draft of the budget with the expectation to have the first reading at the November 21 meeting.