Four decades of ice and rocks: Ice Mountain Jewelry

by Dawne Belloise

Inside Ice Mountain Jewelry, there are still a few cabinets sparkling with gems, jewels and artifacts, while some of the glass cases are empty, their contents either sold or stored as Carol and Brian Dale prepare to close their business of more  than 40 years.

Through the years, Ice Mountain Jewelry evolved and expanded, growing more specialized, changing names and locations that involved sharing space with other local artists and craftspeople.

The couple’s love affair with Crested Butte, and consequently each other, started back in 1969, when Brian attended Western State College (WSC) as a way to explore the west and a reason to live in the valley where he could ski. He arrived from Michigan, just north of the Motor City, where he learned to ski under the night lights, where, as he recalls, “It was cold as hell, especially with those leather ski boots.” One of his WSC professors (Harry Dodge) schlepped a group of his students up to meet the old-timers in Crested Butte, where Brian fondly remembers meeting some now long-gone characters.

The ski area was in its infancy at that time, having cranked up the first lifts in 1962 and Brian observed the early metamorphosis from mining town to ski resort as the remaining old-timers took jobs at the new resort. “There was a transition. Some of those who were working in the mines were now running the gondola. The gondola was pretty cool and people thought it was beautiful. They [the lift ops] had to stabilize the thing when it swung into a metal shed and you got out. Back then, the ski area was like Nordic skiing is now—every now and then you’d run into someone on the runs,” Brian says as he recalls the sparsely populated slopes.

Carol was passing through Crested Butte in 1971 on a camping trip with friends. Coming in from San Francisco, but hailing from Maryland, she was on her way to Santa Fe, just taking some time off after graduating from college before starting her real life. “We were camped out on the other side of Kebler, and we’d come to town to drink beer at the Grubstake,” she says. After spending a few days enjoying the town, Carol decided she wouldn’t go on to Santa Fe with her friends.

She smiles about her decision to stay in Crested Butte. “I don’t know what I saw. I wasn’t even a skier. But I thought everybody was real. These were real people here and I felt very fortunate to have discovered this place. You could be who you were—you are your own person here.”

Brian met Carol in town and, when she eventually decided to head to Santa Fe to take a metal working class, he went along to help pay the rent, working construction jobs. When Brian met Carol’s metal teacher he became intrigued with silver working, which was going through a popularity renaissance in America at the time.

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They spent a spring, summer and fall studying and working in Santa Fe before asking the ultimate question: “What are we gonna do now?”

They chose to return to Crested Butte, “specifically because it was a better climate for what we wanted to do, which was skiing and hanging out.” Brian laughs that the year that he should have graduated from WSC, he and Carol decided instead to open their first business. He was already doing what everyone else in the sleepy town was doing to survive, fighting fires, working construction and anything and everything else.

They opened Coal Creek Cabin in Eric Roemer’s cabin behind Penelope’s, a cooperative shop where several artists came together to sell their craft—silver worker Diane Johnson; Sharon Nelson, who tailored high-end custom cowboy shirts; leather worker Rob Wolfe; and Wally White, who imported rugs from Middle East.

They both recall the dirt street days of Crested Butte, dilapidated Elk Avenue buildings, many of them empty, and cheap rent in un-insulated houses where the snow and winter winds would blow through the walls.

Carol thinks back to their first house at First Street and Elk Avenue, where they loaded coal into a stove for heat. “Behind our house there was a shed that we turned into a shop we called Open Air Lapidary. It was basically a porch with a little overhanging roof and a couple of posts for support.”

Brian chimes in, “This was the second coming of Coal Creek Cabin, and it was only for one summer. Then we moved to the Four-way Stop in 1977 and renamed the business the Crested Butte Gem and Mineral Society.” They worked out of a garage-turned-shop for five years, hauling their water since there was no plumbing to the old building.

They built their current space in 1984, moving the old garage-shop off of the property, and hammering every nail of their new store. Jim Gebhart built the matching separate space at the same time. Back when Carol and Brian were in Santa Fe, Carol was working in a restaurant where the owners were Jim Gebhart and Jerry Deverall. When Gebhart and Deverall came to visit the two in Crested Butte in 1973, they unanimously declared, “Holy crap, we’re moving here!” which they eventually did after they sold their restaurant.

Meanwhile, after the Dales built their shop, they began to help populate town. Their daughter, Taylor, was born in 1978, and their son, Hunter, came along in 1982.

At the time of Taylor’s birth, the two were living out at Wildbird. “We had to hike in with a new baby,” since no cars were allowed past the parking area back then, nor are they now.

Brian felt he wanted to take his craft further and started the process of becoming a certified gemologist. “Becoming a gemologist is a long, murderous process. There was no Internet back then so I’d have to study and study and then go take a test. In the meantime you’d have all these correspondences through the mail for studying and taking tests. But education is the foundation for a healthy business.” Brian explains that the gem and mineral business is international. “If we’re at a show, we’re dealing with people from all over the world. And if you’re into getting the best for your customers, that’s the way business is conducted.”

Brian also did some prospecting in these local hills. “Back in the ‘70s, I worked for a geologist here, Henry Truebe, who was part of our original Gem and Mineral Society. We had a business with Denis Hall and Henry called Far Out Mines.”

He jokes that he and Denis were basically the grunts of the high-altitude miners (Denis Hall is now utilizing his geologist degree though, in addition to being one of the Crested Butte News’ regular column writers). “That’s how we originally got into the mineral thing, Henry was a tremendous researcher who scouted for mineral locations. Back then, the theory was that these mountains had been prospected for gold and silver but not minerals and gems. We were grubstaked [financed] by Tommy Jacobs, who owned the Grubstake bar, to go dig Italian Mountain. We dug prospect pits all over the side of that mountain, basically camping out and living on the mountain.

“At one point we had a prospect operation for orthoclase [a mineral], for the study of crystal structure on this side of Maroon Pass.” Brian pulls out a beige-colored piece of rock naturally angled into perfect triangular and 90-degree square cuts by millions of years of formation.

For several years in the ‘90s they operated two stores—one in the basement of the Treasury Center on the mountain in addition to Ice Mountain, and after closing the slopeside shop, they opened on Elk Avenue in the Grubstake building for three years.

The Ice Mountain store was higher end, with the Grubstake shop offering more sterling and less fancy gemstones. For decades, the duo has made many of the wedding rings that grace the hands of locals and visitors alike.

Carol feels that Brian’s custom jewelry work was the backbone of the business. “I did the counseling and he did the metalwork,” she laughs about helping couples’ decision-making and adds, “We could get them married. It’s nice to be in a small town where a bunch of our work is still circulating.”

And getting a design that’s going to last in this brutal Crested Butte lifestyle is a challenge, Brian says. “We’ve worked with three generations of families, kids of kids of kids coming in to get their wedding rings.”

So, after 40 years of watching town change, kids grow up and working practically nonstop, Carol and Brian have decided it’s time to be less serious, although Brian will still be dabbling in the art. “I plan to keep my workshop open in the back of the building. I’ll still be making something, probably just melting down the same piece of gold and remaking it into another piece of jewelry,” he chortles.

Carol adds, “We have a lot of expertise, having been in this business for so long and it’s sort of hard to walk away from being involved in some way.”

One of the many facets of their work is building mineral collections for other enthusiasts, and they’ll continue to do that for interested clients. On a wall is a case with a collection in progress for a private client: Spiked multi-colored crystals, rocks whose hidden contents have been cracked open to reveal deep reds, oranges or purples, rare polished stones from all over the globe—a treasury to be cherished and repeatedly admired.

There will be life after Ice Mountain for Brian and Carol, who have already applied for multiple river runs. “If we get any of the permits, we’ll be gone during the summer prime time, just like normal people are able to do. We’ll be able to hike during the weekdays instead of just the weekends around here,” Brian says. He’s counting on doing a lot more biking and kayaking as well.

Carol has plans for her pet projects, too. “I want to work on my vegetable garden and make it perfect this year…. there’s always hope in the spring. And we have grandkids in New Mexico,” she says, adding that they’ll be visiting the grandchildren a lot. “We have no plans to go anyplace else except to travel more in the winter.”

Both agree that working less and recreating more is not going to be too hard, and Carol sums it all up with, “We’re staying. We love it here, we love the land, and this valley. Our friends are here. It’s home.”

Contact Carol and Brian Dale, and the continuing journey of Ice Mountain Jewelry through icemountainjewelry.net.

Dara the Explorer

by Dawne Belloise

Because her parents were into learning different disciplines for careers, in her young childhood Dara Buchele-Collins was shuttled between Montana, New Mexico and a gated community in California (which she says was probably exclusive simply to keep the DEA out—it was a super funky, hippie community). Between them, Dara’s parents studied forestry, nursing, preschool education and jointly, massage therapy. Dara laughs, “Can’t you tell by my name that I was raised by hippie parents?”

The family settled down in Ft. Collins when Dara was six, and that’s where she grew up from that point forward. “All that moving would have been harder if I had been older. At that young age you don’t get attached enough to people outside of the family. I think this is why I like to travel around so much and have been to so many places,” Dara concludes.

Dara graduated from Poudre High School in 2000 and admits, “I had no clue what I wanted to do. I debated going to school but I wasn’t really sure if that’s what I wanted to do. I particularly didn’t like high school. I was bored with it. I didn’t really want to do more school at that point so I moved to Estes Park and lived and worked at the Stanley Hotel.”

Dara attended the front desk of the inspiration for The Shining. Living in the dorms, she gained some worldly experience through the international staff that also lived and worked at the hotel. “A whole bunch of Scottish and Irish guys, a couple of Russians and a girl from Bangladesh,” she recalls. “It made me think about traveling, leaving and going somewhere else.”

After a year and a half, Dara went looking for National Park jobs and determined, “Alaska seemed different and fun and far away. I worked in Denali at a hotel front desk, again living in the dorms with tons of people from all over the country, mostly Americans. There was no real plan, it was all about just going, seeing something different, not being in Ft. Collins. I knew I didn’t want to stay in Alaska for the winter, I like sun way too much to live somewhere without sunlight.”

Researching other resort areas, it became a toss-up between Tahoe and Big Sky. Dara says, “I ended up at Big Sky. It was a good winter skiing and playing. That was the winter I figured I needed a plan and not wander around working random jobs.”

Dara somewhat reluctantly moved back to Ft. Collins to come up with a plan, attending school part time and working, but that was short-lived. “After a year I felt stuck and I knew I needed to leave. I knew I needed to do something but I was totally lost. I had a friend who was moving to Gunnison to go to WSC.”

I came up with him a couple of times and decided that I’d go for it. It was mostly just for the change and I knew Crested Butte was right down the road and I could ski and get jobs at hotels… not that that’s what I wanted to do but just that I could do that while I figured out other things.”

It was 2003 and Dara found herself behind the front desk at the Grand Lodge when she had the revelation that Crested Butte felt like it should be home base for a while. “It took me two years to get moved up to Crested Butte from Gunnison. I took a retail job at Peak Sports for four winters and loved it. During the summers I worked at Rocky Mountain Trees, later moving to the Alpengardener in Crested Butte South for three years.”

Dara also earned her Master Gardener certificate, a program through CSU extension services. “I loved gardening. My mom gardened heavily so I grew up with it even though I ignored it as a kid. It’s hard to make a living in the garden centers, though, because it’s such a short growing season here. I was looking for something else that would be more consistent and year-round.”

In 2012, the year that the earth and everything ever known was supposed to come to an end, Dara took a job at the paint store Mountain Colors. The owner, Kim Raines, was looking for a dependable employee and so Dara became the paint store manager.

Three years later, she’s still helping people decide the best colors for their homes, fences and lighting situations. She can expertly pick out specific shades that many don’t have the experienced eye for but can make all the difference in subtlety. “I love my job and I love helping people with color. I like having a job where I’m constantly learning something new and that’s what so great about Mountain Colors, I’m always learning something and I get to disseminate that info to others.”

A ski injury a year ago brought about a realization, the sense of being trapped and immobile, which triggered in Dara a desire to travel. She had gotten a taste of enjoying a vastly different culture as a high school exchange student in Japan and she wanted to experience that again. “I did a lot of traveling in the southwest—Moab, Escalante, Grand Gulch, southern Utah stuff, for mountain biking and hiking,” but it was a last-minute, spur of the moment itch that made her take that leap.

Dara booked a flight and packed her bags for a two-week discovery trek through Ecuador last month. As most travelers understand, that sort of spontaneity can be addictive and oh so liberating.

A friend of a friend had moved to Ecuador so she tagged onto that friend and went. “We started in Quito. It’s a big city,” she says of the world’s highest capital (at least in altitude). “It’s a little overwhelming, as any city is. I had to take a step back. We stayed at a hostel in the old town, surrounded by huge mountains and active volcanoes. From there we went to Mindo for a day trip to do a chocolate tour,” where they show how the delectable treat is grown and processed from tree and pod to candy.

From the town of Tena, the gateway to the Amazon, Dara rafted the river after hiking through the thick, lush jungle with a guide. She then continued on to Banos, where she quenched her thirst with the sweet juice of fresh-squeezed sugar cane and tasted taffy made from it. “I really related to Banos because the overarching feel is a lot like Crested Butte. It’s also a tourist town and they’re independent with cute little shops that sell native goods.” She was especially taken by the local peoples. “Everyone’s so friendly and open throughout the country, so open to meeting new people—they’re not dismissive.”

Perhaps more important to Dara is what travel represents and can do for personal growth. “Part of travel is always about changing and growing. All travel is about an evolution of self. Sometimes the changes are big and sometimes the changes are subtle. Traveling gets you out of your comfort zone. It reminds me that there are friendly people all over the world and getting out and meeting them should be part of life. It should remind us to be more open and inclusive. I want to meet the people and understand why they live where they do. Meeting other cultures and people shows us how similar we all are.”

Although exploring and traveling is on the top of Dara’s list, she’s enamored of her chosen home in Crested Butte. “I want to keep trying to figure out how to travel more but still be here. I love it here. It’s a great community and a good feel. And snow has always been a part of my life. Snow and sagebrush are two things I’d have a really hard time living without. I like the community and having my home base here. From the start, this felt like home. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do… I’m not sure I’ll ever finish figuring out what I want to do. I always want to be learning something and there’s always something new to learn and new to do.”

Part three:  Industrial Manufacturing

By Adam Broderick

Editor’s note: It’s not easy making ends meet in mountain communities that rely heavily on cooperative weather and seasonal tourism. In this winter series, reporter Adam Broderick explores different experiences of business owners who live and work in the Gunnison Valley, yet whose work is mostly seen and sold elsewhere.

The pristine backcountry, the stillness in the valley, and the family-oriented community. These are the underlying reasons most people choose to live here. So when a local company grows and the opportunity to leave this place for somewhere more conducive to expansion arises, what stops motivated businesspeople from hitting the road? It seems those same factors apply.

In discussing outbound business with local professionals, some ups and downs of operating a company locally have been revealed. This week we speak with two manufacturers who fabricate industrial products before shipping them out of the valley. As with anyone featured in this series, they live here because this is where their hearts are and they’ve chosen to deal with any issues that come as part of that package deal.

Andris Zobs, ID Sculpture

Some people never let go of their obsessions with playgrounds. These recreational areas are fun when we’re kids and can still be captivating as we age, as long as they get progressively more technical or subjective.

Take a climbing wall, for example. It’s essentially a playground for both adults and kids. As the guys at ID Sculpture (IDS) know, it takes being a parent or somebody who watches kids play to really know how to make the ultimate playground. Most of the staff at IDS have kids and want to create playground sculptures that inspire imagination and leave the canvas, if you will, open as to how kids can play on them.

Along with the creation of new safety regulations in past years, the team at IDS feels the playground industry has become standardized. A slide is just a slide, and activities have become programmed. ID Sculpture is trying to break away from that paradigm. They believe conventional playgrounds are too easy to navigate and that art and playgrounds should coexist so that a piece of art can also be something to play on.

Andris Zobs is director of operations and business development at IDS, formerly known as Integrated Design Solutions and founded by cutting-edge rock climber Ian Glas. In 2009, Glas was focused on climbing the world’s toughest routes and in the off-seasons he molded climbing holds for various clients. He founded IDS in 2009. In 2012 he partnered with Zobs, who was an architectural designer before he was director at the Office for Resource Efficiency (ORE). Zobs is still on the ORE board of directors but his full-time gig involves creating art with a playful purpose, and vice versa.

IDS began as a climbing feature fabrication company with just a few climbers and designers, but soon evolved into a major manufacturer of sculptural concrete playground equipment, public art and exhibits. When Glas started the business, climbing walls were mostly made of steel and plywood and cement coatings were rare. He wanted to add a new level of realism and creativity to artificial rocks, so along came IDS.

The company now has 13 employees and does everything from designing to manufacturing to shipping from a Gunnison warehouse. Glas is CEO and lives in Gunnison. Zobs and several employees live in Crested Butte and make the daily commute.

Zobs’ work in sustainability has encouraged him to use 100 percent recyclable materials and to recycle all waste. All steel fabrication is done in-house. The concrete mix IDS incorporates into playgrounds and climbing structures to “a sculptable cementitious coating that can be applied to a contoured structural armature” was an expensive investment to develop but is now ideal for playing and climbing.

Together the team digitized the process of designing projects with computer aided drafting and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), “and now we have really cool digital sculpting tools,” Zobs says. They use 3D scanners and printers.

Zobs feels they really excel when they get to work with landscape architects to make custom sculptures. IDS operates on the belief that every project should be designed with place in mind and that everything they build should be timeless, in terms of both design and durability.

They designed and built the climbing boulder you’ve probably seen at Rainbow Park, but Zobs says that’s an old project and not a great example of their best work. IDS has constantly invested in the quality of their product, working with concrete mix design consultants and engineers.

Their ability to do custom work lets them localize projects, like the flour silo sculpture they just designed for a place in Utah that is known for a historic flour mill. Or if they were asked to build a 10-foot-tall, 20-foot-long climbable Brontosaurus and ship it to a school in Missouri, they could make that happen. If they were asked to replicate a natural climbing wall in Utah with identical holds, cracks, and overhangs, and set it up in Chattanooga, Tenn., they could do that, too.

IDS recently built a playground at a large public park in Salt Lake City. It’s over 350 feet long and features climbable caves and waterfalls, and utilizes more than 600 unique, prefabricated parts. Shipping the parts from Gunnison and installing it had IDS employees in Utah for almost three months. Zobs says they send a lot of oversized loads out of town, often as a caravan of flatbed trailers loaded with freshly carved sculptures.

Some local businesses might argue that shipping costs hinder business around these parts, but Zobs says that when your products are as unique as IDS makes them, the shipping costs are a small part of the equation.

The company continues to grow because of their ability to customize sculptures and deliver them, as well as the quality of products they export. Currently, about 80 percent of projects are playground-related and 20 percent are exhibits and public art sculptures.

If you were to travel the world in search of awesome playgrounds, you would find IDS products in 22 U.S. states, Canada, and beyond. They’re even in Dubai. Locally, the climbing wall at the Gunnison Community Center was an IDS project. So were the playground at the Gunnison Middle School and the boulder at Legion Park in Crested Butte South. IDS recently donated a piece to Stepping Stones Children’s Center here in town.

Zobs hopes to see IDS grow in size and efficiency in the near future, and to be able to manage growth while maintaining the quality of products and the company’s creative niche in the market.

But he finds some obstacles to doing business in the Gunnison Valley, like finding and retaining skilled, dependable employees. He also thinks improving affordable housing options and diversifying the economy to incorporate more people actually making products in the area to will help improve business here. “Better flights and Internet would be great as well,” he adds. “But while there are challenges to locating our business here, they are not insurmountable, so why wouldn’t we live here?”

Zobs explains that Glas started the business here because he wanted to be here. “We want to be here,” he says. “We don’t feel constrained by the region. We like the Gunnison Valley because it’s quiet and family oriented. [The Gunnison Valley] needs to make its way through economic developments.”

The Sciortinos, LetterFab 

Trea Sciortino found a new love through his involvement with LetterFab, the wholesale manufacturer of aluminum-fabricated, LED illuminated channel letters (three dimensional letters you see on many building exteriors, especially in big cities) based in the Riverland Industrial Park a few miles south of Crested Butte. He fell in love with metalworking, metal art, and blacksmithing, and says he’ll live the rest of his life thanking his company for introducing him to a diverse platform for art. Prior to starting LetterFab from scratch in 2007, he was in construction and carpentry and has always had a passion for arts and crafts.

Warren Sciortino, Trea’s father and the man behind the LetterFab idea, was selling signs in Louisiana for a different sign company before pitching the business idea to his son. Channel letters have been a staple to American signage since the ‘50s, and since LED entered the industry in 2005, prices have dropped significantly. Now LetterFab has endless opportunities in the sign industry. They’ve done 100-foot tall pylon signs; they made a large sign for the basketball stadium in Madison Square Garden; they did the Capital One letters for the Orange Bowl; they work in every state, including Hawaii, and have signs in Canada, the Caribbean, and the Cayman Islands.

LetterFab creates custom illuminated metal signs and other custom sign projects, but Trea says LED illuminated channel letters are their bread and butter. They’ll occasionally consider a local project, like the sign for Montanya Distillers, but LetterFab caters best to big businesses and franchises that need the same sign multiple times.

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LetterFab has 15 people on staff, including Trea and Warren. Trea manages operations while Warren is in charge of sales. The two use their combined knowledge of the sign industry to put projects together. Once Warren sells a project, their crew uses large bending machines to make the letters A-Z out of aluminum. Then they chemically weld what’s called a trim cap, which is basically like a Tupperware lid for the letter bases. Finally, LEDs are installed in the letters, which illuminate the letters against a night sky. The letters are then shipped across, or out of, the country on freight trucks.

Trea says freight options have improved the past eight years he and his father have been in business, which has made it easier to get products out of the valley. He explained that it used to be just FedEx and sporadically other companies, but companies like SAIA and Conway have stepped up their game to compete with FedEx and he’s now happy with all three of those freight providers.

“We’re doing this in the middle of nowhere specifically so we can live in the mountains. We deal with deep snow, a remote location, and everything ships out of here.

“That has been our biggest challenge, along with finding good employees. You know as well as I do that nobody moves out here to work 40-hour weeks,” Trea tells me. “I’m here to not be involved in the rat race. It’s mountains and our lifestyle up here long before channel letters and success in business.”

It’s more expensive for LetterFab to operate here than it would be in a city like Grand Junction or Denver, so the Sciortinos must focus on being efficient and streamlining production. Since all sign materials are incoming and outgoing, getting them in and out of the valley is a major hurdle. Manufacturing in the middle of nowhere is difficult, but Trea says they do it because when they finally get some time off they can enjoy the surrounding mountains and push the reset button. The mountains are precious to the Sciortinos. According to Trea, “This place is gorgeous, with gravity.”

Trea moved here in 1997 to pursue big-mountain snowboarding. He built his home on one of the first deed-restricted lots on the Verzuh Annexation in 2002 and has made all the money he can account for in the Upper Gunnison Valley. He says it’s been a long journey since his 20s, and it hasn’t been easy.

Warren moved here after his son. He was living vicariously through Trea, always asking about his snowboarding and mountain biking adventures. Warren fell in love with Aspen in the 1970s and had always dreamed of living in Colorado, and starting LetterFab enabled him to finally move away from New Orleans, where he’d spent almost 60 years. It was the only way he could move to a place like this and make a living. Warren came up with the idea and Trea took the bull by the horns, as he puts it, and set up fabrication in Riverland.

Warren also works with Guest Services and guides snowshoe tours for Crested Butte Mountain Resort. He rides an electric mountain bike during summer, the only way he can climb the trails here and enjoy the downhills without having a heart attack on the way up.

And that’s no joke. He’s had two massive heart attacks, one from which he died and was brought back to life, and has returned to become an Ironman triathlete. He loves talking to people and will spend the better part of a day teaching the ins and outs he’s learned to a person new to signage.

When they think about all the times they’ve put in extra-long hours and wished they could have crawled into an old mine shaft to get away, thinking about playing in the mountains and appreciating real life (which Trea believes lives in the wilderness surrounding Crested Butte) keeps them going strong. Then again, when business slows from time to time, they’re reminded how it feels to barely squeeze by. But they’re aware many local business owners are in similar situations.

“Sometimes there’s a hole to crawl out of if the phone doesn’t ring enough, but we’ve managed to weather the storms. Literally,” Trea jokes.

LetterFab has a fairly new facility in New Orleans, an effort to grow the company through easier means of shipping. But you won’t find either Sciortino moving there to help out. They’ll be busy expanding in Riverland, where fire suppression resources are now up to code with county requirements so LetterFab’s 1,800-square-foot weatherport will be replaced with a 3,250-square-foot building. Trea says this should greatly improve efficiency. He also says keeping the same employees will boost efficiency as each crewmember further masters their trade.

“I have my dream crew right now,” he says. “I have the guys I’ve been looking for for eight years, and I’d like to have the same crew years from now. Then we’ll be even more of a well-oiled machine.”

Thank you for absorbing this three-part feature story on local entrepreneurs working out of this little slice of heaven. After all, it’s the people who bring all the wonderful features of this place together that make it worth sharing. So as we continue on the trail toward each of our own definitions of success, remember to support local business and the people who work hard to stay here. Like each person interviewed for this series knows, it’s not all about the money. It’s about how we earn it and what we do when we focus on the real prize: the place we call home.

A Peace of Crested Butte

by Dawne Belloise

When I was born, my parents stopped going to church and stopped eating meat,” Peace Wheeler says, smiling with a glint in her eyes. Her father, Bill, was born and raised in Gunnison. Her mother, Joey, was a Boulderite, and they lived in Crested Butte from the late 1970s through the early ‘80s before moving to Paonia.

“I’m the youngest of five kids. They couldn’t afford Crested Butte back then so they moved to Paonia,” says Peace, but Paonia was a pretty rough place to grow up. “It’s always been conservative and my parents and our family weren‘t. All my brothers had long hair. The kids weren’t very friendly.”

In fact, Peace had such a bad experience in first grade that her mother bused her to the Hotchkiss schools where, Peace says, the kids were far nicer. Even though school was socially easier for her in Hotchkiss, the family missed Crested Butte and finally returned in 1996 when Peace was eight. “They loved [Crested Butte] and wanted to raise their kids here. I’m forever grateful they made that choice,” Peace says. Her fourth-grade class was the last to be taught in the old school (where the town offices are now) and the following year the kids moved into the brand new Crested Butte Community School. Peace graduated in 2005.

Peace enrolled at Western State College but left after a year, unsure of her direction. “I didn’t want to go back simply because it’s the socially expected thing to do, and,” she determined, “it’s not required to make you fulfilled in life.”

Following in her older brother Justin’s footsteps, she volunteered with the Crested Butte Fire Department, having already earned her Firefighter 1 certification at the age of 18, and then getting certification as a S-130/S-190 Wildland Firefighter via a nationally standardized test that allows her to fight forest fires both here and out of state. She went on for even more extensive training as an EMT-B with an IV certification.

“It wasn’t until both Justin and I joined the fire department that we learned our parents actually started the fire department in Marble. Dad was the fire chief and mom was the assistant fire chief when they lived there for a stint before we were born.”

After 12 years, Peace is taking a break from her firefighting work with the local department to enable her to pursue other things.

During her fire department years, Peace was also working for Crested Butte Mountain Resort as a lift op and ticket checker initially, and also as a ski instructor for a couple of seasons. But when a spot on the snowcat grooming team opened up in 2010, Peace went for it.

“I had bugged Mark Voegeli about it for years and he knew I had experience with hydraulics and heavy equipment operation through our family business of the rental center. I started as a Uley’s sleigh ride dinner driver, hauling the diners up with the sled. It was good to get a full season of experience just learning about the snowcat before learning to do the grooming.”

The next season, Peace graduated to grooming, but her very first night up was challenging.

“There’s a specific tree up there now named Peace Tree,” she cringes with a giggle. “There’s a big chunk out of it. It was my first shift, and on the graveyard shift, and it was a crazy white-out storm where we got 12 inches that night. I couldn’t see. I was following the shift supervisor, Chad Kaiser, who was showing me the route, turnaround spots and better ways to efficiently groom the slopes,” Peace says with a big sigh. “We were going down one of the cat tracks through the trees. He was in one of the smaller cats and I was in one of the bigger cats and he didn’t realize that the bigger cat wasn’t gonna fit…” Peace trails off, leaving the visuals and the grinding, scraping bang of a cat slamming into a tree to your imagination.

But there’s so much more to operating a cat than merely navigating through blizzards on scary vertical slopes and laying down the corduroy. Cat drivers also have to be knowledgeable in maintenance and basic repairs and in extreme conditions. “We end up doing a lot of maintenance on the cats on the slopes. In a blizzard, it’s not fun at all. If a hydraulic hose line breaks, you have to know how to swap it out. You have to know how to diagnose what’s going on with the cat. It can be tricky because there are a lot of hoses, electronics and mechanicals, nuts and bolts—there are so many things that can be wrong with a cat. We have to at least have an idea of how to solve the problem. It can be nerve-wracking when anything goes wrong and you hope you can get it up and running so you’re not scrambling to finish your work.”

Currently Peace is a fill-in groomer with CBMR because she also works at Irwin Guides for the Eleven company. It’s her second season with the latter, driving the Tucker, the big white beast, from Irwin’s office on Belleview up to the Irwin slopes on Scarp Ridge. “I drive to the movie cabin, drop everyone off and hop into the alpine cats to take them up to various locations on Scarp Ridge,” says Peace. Unknowing tourists and visitors don’t understand the training and expertise it takes to be one of the elite fleet who can qualify as a cat operator.

“My friend overheard a tourist on the chairlift say that all the girl cat drivers for Irwin were hired strictly because they were pretty,” Peace smirks—despite the fact that she just happens to be gorgeous, she also has more training and experience in not only snowcats, heavy machinery and maintenance but in firefighting, emergency service and safety than most. “So there’s a big misconception that we don’t have heavy equipment experience—and that made my blood boil, for obvious reasons.”

Not only does Peace groom the snow, she makes it. “I’ve been a snow maker for CBMR for three seasons now,” claims the Snow Queen proudly. “It’s the most dangerous and rewarding job. You’re working around hazardous conditions with a highly pressurized system with air and water. Then we’re creating giant mounds of snow with snow guns that we have to snowmobile to multiple times in a shift and even though we have chain brakes, it’s still scary slick, so you slide. It can be really terrifying.”

In 2007, back when she was a youngster of 19, Peace and her brothers Justin and John bought the Forest Queen bar and restaurant business. “Dunno why,” she says. “We kind of wanted to secure something as a family business.” Shortly after, her parents bought the building to secure the business location for them. As even loving siblings do, Peace admits, “We fought a lot because of the business and here I was only 19 and not sure what I was doing as a bar and restaurant owner. We ran it for a year, but it came to a screeching halt with my brother John’s sudden death,” she tells of the heartbreaking loss of her big bro on January 7, 2008.

“He was my roommate at the time. I was out shoveling the snow in our walkway. It was that epic year where it never stopped snowing, it was the year we had to tunnel to our houses.

“John was getting ready to go to the Queen for his bartending shift. He was the best bartender, he was such a social guy, and it was the highlight of his day to get to talk to people,” Peace describes.

“My brother Justin went into the house to pick him up for work and found him unresponsive. We called 911. Because we’re all really close in the fire department they knew it was my house. My friend Cory Tibljas who was on the department but wasn’t even on duty was the first one to arrive. He knew it had to be John. They tried, and almost revived him, but they couldn’t maintain it. Officially he had a heart attack. My life changed a lot. It made me realize that you can’t take things for granted, especially relationships and friendships. We, as a family, have struggled a lot with it but it’s made us stronger, and weaker, at times, but we’re constantly reminded that we have to stick together. It’s made my bond with Justin stronger. It was hard being back in that building. It’s still hard.” They closed the Forest Queen business following the loss of their brother.

Peace is still involved as a co-owner of her family’s business, Crested Butte Rental Center in Riverland. “We all do everything. It’s kind of a nutty operation. We have construction equipment, everything from small hand tools to big boom lifts and bobcats and the other side of the business is weddings and special occasions, renting everything from tables and tents to PA systems and lights—everything except the wedding dress,” she laughs.

High on her list of life adventures is to be a world traveler and Peace is finally getting around to doing that. “I made the decision to go to New Zealand because I needed a break,” she says, explaining her love for summer here but choosing to follow winter for a change. “I was at Mount Hutt ski field. It’s just what they call them,” she says referring to calling the slopes a field. “I was living in the town of Methven, an hour west of Christchurch, an interesting little town. Size-wise, it’s a lot like here without the character. It’s barely above sea level, but the peak was about 6,000 feet.”

Peace spent five months there during the New Zealand ski season, running their grooming cats. “I’m going back again this year but I’ll leave it open-ended as to whether I go back after this because it’ll be five consecutive winters with no summer.” Peace explains that all of South Island of New Zealand is exactly like Colorado but more drastic with its sea level to soaring heights mountains. “It made me really homesick when I got out to travel there. I made a lot of friends but it was hard not being around my family and close friends here. Although in general it was positive for me, once I bought the plane ticket it challenged me personally to get out of my comfort zone,” and as a bonus, there are no trees to run into with her snowcat down there.

Peace enthusiastically professes her love for her home, which will always be Crested Butte. “Sometimes I forget to remember that we’ve got it so good here. Getting out and traveling makes me realize that this is absolutely where I want to live but I know that I still want to travel a lot. I’m going to Japan in March to go skiing, because I’ve always wanted to ski there. I want to go back to Cambodia,” where she went just before leaving for New Zealand.

Peace feels that Crested Butte calls to a specific type. “It gets its hooks in the right people because it weeds people out. You either fit the character of this town perfectly, and that’s why we’re all here, or it pushes you out. We don’t chose Crested Butte, Crested Butte chooses us. But the biggest reason why Crested Butte will always be my home is because of the community. They rallied when my brother died, and they’re still so supportive. People remind me of John all the time and it means the world to me to be reminded that it’s not just us who miss him. Crested Butte and the people who make it what it is have my heart for life.”

By Adam Broderick

Editor’s Note: It’s not easy making ends meet in mountain communities that rely heavily on cooperative weather and seasonal tourism. In this winter series, reporter Adam Broderick explores experiences of business owners who live and work in the Gunnison Valley, yet whose work is mostly seen and sold elsewhere.

Some people just can’t shake off Crested Butte no matter how long they stay away. This place affects the soul in ways most elsewhere couldn’t imagine—the jaw-dropping landscape, the caring community, even the fact that we have to work a little harder to stay warm, visit loved ones, and make ends meet. It may not be apparent at first, but once it sets in it becomes a part of life. And it’s a life worth living. A life worth taking pride in.

This week we speak with two professionals who found creative ways to return to the place they’re most passionate about and make a living of it. As with anyone featured in this series, they live here because this is where their hearts are and they’ve chosen to deal with any issues that come as part of that package deal.

Jeff Scott, Re-Think and The Idea Launch Lab

“You’d be surprised that the guy who tunes your skis has a Ph.D. or your server at The Last Steep has a master’s degree,” says inventor-designer-tech guru and all-around fun guy Jeff Scott. And right he is. Interviewing him at his Fourth and Belleview shop in Crested Butte was like teleporting to a mini-Silicone Valley, an unusual feeling in a remote mountain town full of overeducated ski bums. I was impressed with his knowledge of ecommerce sales and search engine optimization (SEO), but his resourceful, inventive side is what really caught my attention.

Scott is the board president of the local KBUT radio station, but those airwaves don’t get as much play outside the valley as the products he’s developed. At some point you’ve probably seen dog collars, townie bikes, or flying discs glowing in vibrant colors against a night sky. Those are Scott’s doing, and they’ve become the foundation of his new creative space, The Idea Launch Lab.

It all started with some friendly competition in the dark. Scott and friends enjoyed playing Ultimate Frisbee after work, so he designed a light-up disc for their night games.

When friends suggested he bring the disc to market, he opposed the idea; it was made strictly for their night game amusement.

A few years later Scott was fired from his job in software development and was curious what to do next. He reached out to a friend in Boulder and the two joined forces to produce more light-up discs. The prototype was improved and an e-commerce website built, and soon afterwards they both refinanced their houses and started making the improved products out of Boulder. One day the owner of NiteIze (innovative LED tools, toys and accessories) walked in with a business proposal. The FlashFlight light-up disc has now been on the market for 14 years. It is made in Denver because that’s where injection-molding needs are met, but Scott lives in Crested Butte.

Scott hails from Dallas, Texas. His brother came to Crested Butte for a college ski trip decades ago and returned to tell his dad how awesome skiing was, and that skis were much more fun than motorcycles. Then in 1974, Scott learned to ski here. The next year, his dad moved the family to Aspen and that’s where he graduated from high school in 1983. “Aspen became the place where the rich went to watch the rich,” he told me from across a table piled with product plans and prototypes. “But dad raised us outside and the wilderness became our church, and I knew I wanted to provide the same for my own kids. My brother and family friends are still on the Aspen side, but the glam factor is too much for me.”

Twelve years ago, he, his wife and two children, now 19 and 21, evaluated their passions and began shopping ski towns. Everywhere they looked they compared to Crested Butte. After building a business and securing royalties from FlashFlight products, they were able to move here. They love skiing and being involved in the wide range of unique, small-town events, and the tight-knit community provides great value for his family.

Scott recently moved the Boulder warehouse to Fourth and Belleview, where 3D printers, laser engravers and other high-tech machines are going in to improve and expedite more local design and development. He built the 3D printer, and even uses it to print additional parts for the same printer. He also handles the e-commerce side of things for NiteIze, and is constantly rethinking ways to add more benefit to the community and the environment.

Scott has a lot going on, so read this next paragraph carefully. The Idea Launch Lab is a part of his company called Re-Think, which he uses to throttle up ideas he’s been sitting on. His original business partner is in the process of retiring, so now Re-Think is picking up where PlayHard, the partnership’s company that developed the FlashFlight disc, is leaving off. Now, Re-Think is essentially the design and development business that builds and pushes products. The Idea Launch Lab formed after the number of NiteIze products, combined with Scott’s other endeavors, began enticing more people to learn how he develops products and brings them to market. Scott has been consulting others for a long time, and The Idea Launch Lab is working on a process to streamline peoples’ ideas and determine if they’re short-term or have real long-term potential.

The SpokeLit, an LED bike-spoke light, was developed on Elk Avenue when Scott wanted better lights on his kids’ bikes. It, as well as the SpotLit, a light-up dog collar accessory, both saw 40 percent growth in the past five years.

He now manufactures LEDs himself, and recently put a parabolic curve in a disc called the Hole-In-One, so the removable LED at the center of the plastic disc sends light out to the edges for greater illumination.

His light-up dog ball was getting better feedback as a light-up lacrosse ball, so he remarketed it for lacrosse and saw 4,000 percent growth the last two months.

He’s currently developing a line of LED camping products for another Colorado-based outdoor products company that incorporate better function, atmosphere, and mood using Bluetooth technology that can be controlled by a smartphone.

His Fat Tire Cruiser Bike is in the works, and will soon allow riders to travel both on and off snow-covered roads.

Outdoor sports and family time take priority over work, but recreation can be considered work for Scott since so many ideas come from playing outside. He just released a new product called the GripLit, which goes on bike handlebars to create a better depth perception for oncoming cars. “I like being able to make an item that provides a safety mechanism and if it’s groovy, all the better,” he says.

Scott is a big proponent of repurposing and recycling materials. Re-Think is a B-Corp company, meaning it’s a for-profit corporation that strives to positively impact the local community and the environment. He also wants to help employ people here, and sees having The Idea Launch Lab incubator space in Crested Butte as a great way to bring new business and create jobs. The main goal is to eventually make everything in the United States, using 90 percent to 95 percent recycled materials, and to retain inventory here in the Gunnison Valley so all order fulfillment and shipping can be done from Crested Butte.

A firm believer in helping other local businesses as well as his own, Scott pushed hard to get the broadband initiative on last November’s ballot. Internet speed at this end of the valley isn’t always reliable and having more options for broadband service is seen as a necessary to many professionals who live and work here. Scott sees Internet speeds as one of, if not the largest obstacle to running a smooth business predominantly online.

“Solving product problems and pains, that’s what we’re doing. We have so much going on right now. I’m spending a lot of time raising money, and I want to improve the manufacturing business so we’re producing in a more conscious way,” Scott says. “How can I offset my carbon footprint? Can we improve by 50 percent post-consumer materials on a product? We’re trying to do everything in Crested Butte the best we can.”

Kris Murray, Child Care Marketing Solutions

Kris Murray never owned a day care or a preschool, so it’s a little unusual for her to have created a business out of something she’s never actually done. “At the end of the day it’s about adding value to the customer experience, no matter what kind of business you’re in,” she says. She saw a niche and she filled it, and doing so allowed her to move back to Crested Butte, the place she prefers to call home.

Her office at the Four-way Stop is undergoing somewhat of a makeover to clear space for a growing business, which in six years has been built into a seven-figure company. Child Care Marketing Solutions is the largest provider of coaching and business improvement services for child care centers and preschools across the world. There are only a couple of other companies or consultants that do what her company does.

Murray has five employees total, with three in Crested Butte, one in Iowa, and one in Denver. Clients are mostly in North America, with a few in Australia and the United Kingdom. Only one current client is local, and that’s Paradise Place Preschool.

Murray says the biggest benefit to basing business in Crested Butte and working remotely is the lifestyle it offers. By her working remotely, the company is not limited. “Truly any of us could live anywhere and still be a cohesive team,” she says. “For me, lifestyle-wise, I’m living my dream by being here in Crested Butte. If I wanted to move to Park City, I could. But I don’t.”

Murray spent her whole life in marketing and advertising. Prior to starting Child Care Marketing Solutions in 2009 she was working with her brother’s manufacturing business in Cleveland, Ohio, where she grew up. She ran the marketing side of his company but wanted a way to do her own thing. In 2008 she noticed that none of the child care services she was considering for her own children, ages three and five at the time, marketed themselves well. During the recession the owner of one place she was considering lost a bunch of clients, so she made a deal to help get enrollment back up in exchange for free tuition. She about doubled the business in 11 months.

Since nobody else was helping the business side of child care services, Murray thought a new service was desperately needed. She spent a lot of time in day cares and preschools, watching from both a mom’s and a businesswoman’s perspective, and understood the customer experience.

It didn’t take long for her to realize how to add more value to that experience. “I found what worked for others and basically modeled that,” she explained. “There are other people who do these types of things for other businesses; real estate, dentistry, trainers in various niches. I determined the key drivers that would help child care services versus a dentist or chiropractor. I started out with webinars and books, and the coaching came later.”

Murray’s first book, The Ultimate Child Care Marketing Guide, has sold more than 2,000 copies in the four years it’s been on shelves. The 77 Best Strategies for Growing Your Child Care Business recently joined her first book for sale on Amazon. Her company now runs what’s called the Child Care Success Academy, with a curriculum and events where people get together and share business insights. She acts as the facilitator at those meetings, offering child care providers proven methods for growing business, attracting clients, increasing profits, expanding to more locations, and improving practices with staff and leadership.

She explains that what her company teaches could apply to any small business. “Really, you could take my Ultimate Child Care Marketing Guide and cross out the words child care and put any other business in and the principles would still apply. I’ve used those same principles to grow this business.”

Murray recently expanded into the non-child care area, adding one client who runs a yoga business. She says it’s fun and fresh to start looking at other niches and also to help other businesswomen. She’s acted as a coach for a handful of local entrepreneurs here in Crested Butte. “I’m proud to add jobs to the valley,” she says. “In 2014 we had two employees and now I’m employing five, and I’m seeking to add another one or two positions in 2016. It means a lot to me to be able to add jobs to the valley.”

Murray has been a fill-in DJ at KBUT radio the past several months. She was a full-time DJ between 1992 and 1997 while also marketing for Crested Butte Mountain Resort, and one of her dreams was to come back and DJ again. Of course, she also missed the skiing, biking, and proximity to nature Crested Butte provides.

“Having lived here in the 90s I was always thinking of how to return some day. In 2008 I visited and started thinking harder about how to move back. In 2012 I made it a reality. I feel blessed to be probably one of the few who is able to live their dream lifestyle.”

Child Care Marketing Solutions is growing about 35 percent to 40 percent annually, but the company still struggles in certain ways, as any company does. Murray says Internet speed isn’t quite the issue it used to be because more options have come into the valley, but air travel in and out of Gunnison can be quite the hurdle. She is gone about one week per month on average, and when visiting important clients she needs travel to be reliable.

“Every time I fly I have to look at Gunnison, Montrose, Grand Junction, and Denver, and I drive to Denver often to catch flights. I’m happy about the Alaska Air thing because I fly to LA quarterly [Alaskan Airlines now flies direct from Gunnison to Los Angeles], but not having anything coming here from April to June [the Gunnison airport will be flightless this spring]…that’s not ideal,” she says. “I wanted to do some client visits here and bring more conferences to the valley, but because air service from Hartford, Connecticut, for example, is not reliable…I could be bringing thousands of dollars to the valley if air service were more reliable.”

Despite questionable flight service, business should continue improving. Murray has made a commitment to dedicate the rest of her professional life to helping as many child care business owners, directors, and managers as possible with enrollment, revenue, staff issues, time management, goal-setting, mindset, and more. She’s proud that her two books have helped thousands of owners and leaders become more effective. She’s also proud to live in Crested Butte, and wouldn’t let that go for…well, just about anything.

Check back next week for the final installment of Locals Making Waves in an Entrepreneurial Age. We’ll speak with more businesses in the Gunnison Valley, specifically manufacturers, about the ups and downs of exporting their expertise outside of the community they call home.

By Adam Broderick

Editor’s Note: It’s not easy making ends meet in mountain communities that rely heavily on cooperative weather and seasonal tourism. In this winter series, reporter Adam Broderick will explore different experiences of business owners who live and work in the Gunnison Valley, yet whose work is mostly seen and sold elsewhere.

Some obstacles seem consistent for business professionals who choose to live in such a remote location, like inconvenient transportation options in and out of the area or unreliable Internet speeds. But the benefits tend to far outweigh the compromises and make it worth the extra effort in the long run. Say, when a midweek powder day hits unexpectedly or when quality time with loved ones takes priority over work.

In discussing outbound business with local professionals, some ups and downs of operating a company locally have been revealed. This week we speak with two professionals who market web content and consult others in promoting business, especially online. As with anyone featured in this series, they live here because this is where their hearts are and they’ve chosen to deal with any issues that come as part of that package deal.

Buttery Agency

“We just call it Buttery,” says Mike Horn, editorial director at Buttery Agency, a multimedia agency that specializes in content development and experiential marketing.

Buttery, Horn says, is in a constant state of evolution. One second they’re working on print ads and custom publications, and the next they’re developing social media campaigns and producing video documentaries. Connecting all the projects is a common thread.

Horn knows it sounds like a cliché but explains that the company’s approach to marketing is all about living the client’s story. “Buttery’s style of advertising is unobtrusive; we do our best to tell a story, not just sling advertising in your face. We explore people’s stories and places’ stories and bring those experiences to others. Things are always changing but we’re always thinking ahead, asking ourselves and each other what we’re going to do next, which new perspectives we can explore, and how to keep things fresh.”

Horn lives in Crested Butte and he and his (equal) business partners—two in Vermont and one north of Boston—depend heavily on the Internet for communications.

All partners bring a different skillset to the table. Galin Foley is director of videography. Justin Cash is director of photography. Joe Polevy is art director and does all the design work, and Horn works more on the writing and editorial/communications side. Before Buttery, Horn worked in publishing for nearly a decade, primarily in outdoor and action sports. He says it has been interesting working on both sides of publications, from the editorial side and publishing to working with the companies that typically place ads in those publications.

In the past, he worked as managing editor at Backcountry Magazine and did a lot of freelance writing, and says that part of his transition into Buttery was aimed at making the virtual work existence work for himself. He didn’t want to go to Denver or Southern California or New York City to work as an editor for a magazine, or as a freelance writer chasing stories for Men’s Journal or other large market publications. He wanted to live in Crested Butte.

Although Crested Butte is where he wants to be, transportation can be a big hurdle for Horn and Buttery. He is the farthest of all his business partners from a major airport but says that’s part of what makes the Butte what it is. “You’re willing to work a little harder and travel further to be able to live here.”

Horn’s cell phone interrupts our conversation in his office, just two doors down from his home downtown. His wife called to ask when he would be back to give their 10-month-old daughter a bath.

“I’m a dad, too,” he says, laughing, as he ends the call. “The virtual agency allows me to be around my family a lot. My work is my time and I can be super-efficient, but I can also be home for lunch in zero time and chase the kid around, or whatever. I’m not commuting to work and adding time to my workday. I feel like I gain some time there and there’s a lot of value in that.”

Horn says Internet and frequency of flights in and out of Gunnison are the biggest challenges from an infrastructure standpoint. Although he thinks Internet speeds in Crested Butte are pretty good for such a remote location, the other Buttery teammates like to tease him about the hamster-wheel that’s powering the connection. “We use programs like Google+ to communicate and do a lot of video conferencing. We also transfer large files over the interwebs and mail hard drives back and forth. It works pretty well most of the time.”

Buttery travels often to meet with clients across the country, including Killington/Pico Ski Resort in Vermont, a.k.a. The Beast of the East, and also Stevens Pass Resort in Washington. The crew first came together while working on Killington’s print magazine but eventually took over its entire marketing program.

For Stevens Pass, Buttery does everything from print and banner ads to bus wraps, billboards and TV commercials.

Horn loves working with clients in different geographic areas but also takes pride in Buttery’s local projects. You may have seen one of the Never-Never Land videos the agency recently produced for the Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association, one featuring snowboarder Mary Boddington and another with freeskier Tom Runcie. “We get to tell cool stories about people who live here in the valley and that’s really gratifying,” he says.

Regardless where work might take the Buttery guys, what they like doing the most is coming together in person to collaborate. That’s when Horn feels they really shine, and have the most fun.

“It’s all about perpetual motion. Being virtual works really well for us. It keeps us nimble, and we have contacts and collaborators around the country. The plan is to continually improve and evolve as a company, and to continue working with good people.”

Deborah Tutnauer, LLC

Deborah Tutnauer has been a self-employed coach and consultant for over 25 years. She began as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist but has spent the past seven years as a business coach. You may recognize her from the Social Media for Business events at Old Rock Library, but social media and online promotions only scrape the surface of Tutnauer’s work. She helps businesses in and out of the Gunnison Valley transform from the ground up, from determining core values to aligning business goals and strategies with those values and eventually creating (or recreating) products and promoting them to best represent the businesses’ overarching objectives.

Tutnauer transitioned from the mental health field to the business field after a stint of Internet marketing and online sales.

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She learned to be an Internet marketer and a direct response marketer (generating immediate responses from consumers) in addition to teaching herself how to build businesses.

“The learning curve was so steep, way harder than my two master’s degrees,” Tutnauer says. “After my daughter was born, I just couldn’t be a good mom and a good therapist, so the computer screen became super appealing. That was the forefront of Twitter days. I learned to write some html code, got involved with network marketing, made and lost a bunch of money, then made a lot—and I did it all through the Internet.”

Although she did well in that field, she wanted to get back into coaching people to be their best selves, as she did as a therapist. For 20 years she helped people and found that was what she liked best. She reflects on her career transition: “I made the decision to ramp back up into this helping profession, as I call it. I created a coaching business, and now here we are. I still collect income from the network marketing, just because the funnels are set up, but I don’t deal with it anymore.”

She lives in Crested Butte South when she’s not traveling for her consulting business or commercial events, as her career choice does not tie her down to a location or a time schedule. Before moving here in 1995 from Maine, every winter weekend she drove four hours each direction to ski at Sugarloaf Mountain. So she made a list of 10 things she wanted to find in a town and hit the road to explore ski towns across the West. Three requirements from her list included not having to drive to ski, a small town with a great sense of community, and a highly educated liberal population.

“Crested Butte was the first place I went and I knew I was coming back but I continued on my trip because I felt like I needed to finish what I had started. I’ve literally lived all over the world and since I got here it’s never crossed my mind to live anywhere else,” she said with a smile.

In addition to coaching people to think bigger and step outside their boxes, in 2014 Tutnauer began expanding into more public speaking roles where she trains and motivates large groups of people. One example: last spring she was the keynote speaker for a semester course called Lectures in Entrepreneurship at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. In her words, she helps frustrated entrepreneurs get real about money, marketing, and meaning. She’s also been consulting with corporations and larger businesses, helping them improve company performance and boost employee motivation and morale by bringing new ideas and even games into the workplace.

“Many who benefit from my services feel as if they are bumping up against an invisible bubble. They know that something is in their way but they are challenged to discern what it is or how to shift,” Tutnauer says. “Together we create their business foundation and framework with clarity and authenticity. Until you are clear about who you are, you will continue to operate a business that is financially unsustainable.”

Tutnauer says her diverse methods are based on a vast cornucopia of knowledge, both empirical and spiritual. She’s been called an “Architect of Magical Structure,” she says, “for indeed what I show you how to do is to take the essence of your deepest truth and align it with an organized structure for your business success.”

Her 12-session Foundation and Framework Intensive program helps determine clients’ passions, values, and areas of expertise in order to help reassess why they’re in the business and what their business does for the end user. Then she helps them determine how to better attract customers by improving marketing techniques and web presence. She also offers a three-session Micro-Coaching program in which she provides the same directional recommendations she would for the 12-session program, but instead she and the client focus on one goal from beginning to end over the course of three sessions.

In direct correlation with running a business that aligns with what one believes in, Tutnauer emphasizes that people should live a life that’s in alignment with who they are. She says a lot of people don’t do that because they’ve never really taken the time to say, “Who am I really?”

“If you take the time to do the work to understand yourself and what gifts you really bring to the world, there could be a lot of options. A lot of people won’t even step to the edge of the cliff and look down. It’s not a judgment, I just hear so many people complaining. One of my core values is freedom and independence. I worked a job for one year in 1982 that I didn’t like after the first nine months, and I quit. When I coach people, I coach them to live a life and develop a business based on their interests, values and expertise.”

Check back next week for the second installment of Locals Making Waves in an Entrepreneurial Age. We’ll speak with more businesses in the Gunnison Valley, specifically designers and engineers, about the ups and downs of exporting their expertise outside of the community they call home.

Let the holidays begin!

Hanukah in Crested Butte starts this weekend. B’nai Butte would like to invite the community to join us as we light the Hanukiah (Menora) nightly at 5:45 p.m. at the Brick Oven starting Sunday, December 6 and continuing for the Eight days of Hanukah till December 13. Sunday, December 13 we will have our nightly lighting at 5:45 followed by a pizza party to celebrate the last day of Hanukah. All are invited!

Coloring and Conversations at the Old Rock

Have the holidays got you hustling around like a wild person? Stressed out at work? Come to the Old Rock Library on Wednesday, December 9 at 6:30 p.m. for a free evening of Coloring and Conversation. Snacks and soft music will be available for this event, sponsored by the Crested Butte Friends of the Library. Come to relax, perhaps meet new people or have a chat with old friends while you do some coloring on beautiful adult coloring pages. Coloring and Conversation will give you some “Zen” time to color and relax. We will have a variety of adult coloring pages and pencils for you to use, or bring your own.

Seats opening on Mountain Roots board of directors

Mountain Roots has three seats opening on the board of directors, one for a Gunnison resident and two for a Crested Butte or Almont resident. Appointments begin January 1. The organization runs the Farm to School program for the school district, models and teaches sustainable agriculture through a network of urban, youth, and community gardens and a new community farm, and builds food security and economic development through access strategies, education, and outreach targeted to meet the needs of low-income, Latino, and senior residents. For more details please contact director Holly Conn, (970) 417-7848 or go to director@mountainrootsfoodproject.org.

Awareness Night/Beacon Brush Up 2.0

The Crested Butte Avalanche Center (CBAC) is hosting its’ annual Avalanche Awareness Night on Friday, December 4 at Mountaineer Square. Doors open at 5, show starts at 6. There will be presentations, a video and even a game show in addition to the Haffle and Faffle, slices of Brick Oven pizza, Avery beer and plenty of schwag for sale. $5 gets you in the door. On Saturday, December 5 Irwin Guides, the CBAC and the Alpineer team up to host the new and improved Beacon Brush Up 2.0 at the Crested Butte Community School from 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. There will be clinics for all levels from beginners to experienced backcountry users and a gathering afterwards at the Alpineer. Best of all, it’s free!

Honor a loved one at the Tree of Life Celebration Saturday

Gunnison Valley Health Hospice & Palliative Care invites you to honor a loved one this holiday season at the annual Tree of Life Celebration on Saturday, December 5, at 10 a.m. at the Almont Resort. Each year, the Tree of Life is dedicated to loved ones and adorned with dove ornaments created especially for hospice. This year’s dove ornaments were designed by local artist Elise Meier and lovingly assembled by GVH Hospice & Palliative Care volunteers. Each ornament is uniquely designed and no two are alike. Call (970) 641-4254 to order your dove ornament by phone. A bell will be tolled as each loved one’s name is read out loud. Light refreshments will be served.

Birthdays

December 3- Kristen Van Hoesen, Emerson Wohlers, Ben Debnam, Bryan Wickenhauser

December 4- John Cowell, Hallie Weischsel

December 5- Murphy Sloan, Heejohng Chae, Ezra Paden

December 6- Laci Wright, Linda Crouse, Jack Crumpton, Stacee Schultz, Reilly & Logan Walter, Jenny Birnie

December 7- Sydney Loyed, Tony Campana, Ray DelTufo, Matt Kuehlhorn, Hanna Weichsel, Jeff Deutsch

December 8- Amanda Knoll

December 9- Fred Garing, Beth  Carter, Lucille Lucas, Colton Schnailter, Dan Jones

Cameos: what is your favorite run on the mountain?

The Edge

Otto Billingsley

Twister

Grace Haverkampf

Big Chute

Jacob Bernholtz

Headwall

Finn Veit

International

Anika Jobson

FOOD FOR FINES:  Baby Ruby and Sierra Fairfield-Smith paid off fines at the Old Rock Library by donating food to librarian Debra Reich for the food bank.  photo by Lydia Stern

NEW LOCATION:  Watchdog Property Management & Real Estate has a new permanent home! The team is proud to announce the new location at the “Pink Building” at the 4-way stop. 309 6th Street, Unit A. Watchdog offers full real estate services, vacation rentals, care taking, and HOA management.  photo by Lydia Stern

LOCAL AUTHOR:  David Rothman read from his book Living the Life: Tales from America’s Mountains and Ski Towns at the Alpineer on Saturday, November 28.  photo by Lydia Stern

Events & Entertainment 

thursday 26
Old Rock Library is closed.
• 9-11:30 a.m. Crested Butte Nordic holds The Round Robin Refresher Clinic.
• 10 a.m.-noon Bliss Chiropractic open as a donation event for Oh Be Dogful Pet Rescue. 349-7474.
• 10 p.m. Karoke upstairs in the Sky Bar at the Talk of the Town.

friday 27
Old Rock Library is closed.
• 9-11:30 a.m. Crested Butte Nordic  holds 1/2 day Introductory Lessons for Skate and Classic skiing.
• 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Crested Butte Nordic  holds Full Day Skate and Classic Ski Clinics.
• noon Crested Butte Nordic offers Performance Nutrition presented by Kristen Osborn at the CB Nordic Center.
• 6 p.m. Justin Howard plays at Kochevar’s.

saturday 28
• 9-11:30 a.m. Crested Butte Nordic  holds 1/2 day Introductory Lessons for Skate and Classic skiing.
• 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Crested Butte Nordic  holds Full Day Skate and Classic Ski Clinics.
• noon Crested Butte Nordic offers Fast Wax Clinic with rep Brian Smith at the CB Nordic Center.
• 4 p.m. Allen Smith’s “Story Time” at Rumors Coffee Shop with original songs, photos and stories.
• 6:30 p.m. David J. Rothman will give a reading from his book Living the Life: Tales from America’s Mountains & Ski Towns at the Alpineer.
• 6 p.m. CB Nordic hosts a Winter Kickoff Celebration with the Gypsy Jazz Social Club at the Mallardi Cabaret Theatre.
• 10 p.m. Medic plays at the Eldo.

sunday 29
• 10 a.m. The Alley Loop Points Series (Race #1) – 5k Skate at the CB Nordic Center.
• 3-7 p.m. Happy Hour Sundays with Chuck Grossman at the Eldo.
• 4-5:30 p.m. Santa Night at Crested Butte Heritage Museum.

monday 30
• 8 p.m. Shannon Stichter hosts Open Mic Night at Pitas in Paradise.

tuesday 1
• 6-9 p.m. Spirits & Ceramics with The Art Studio at the Center for the Arts at Montanya Distillers. 349-7044.
• 6-9 p.m. Butte Bucks on sale at the 4-way Visitor Center to locals who work in the Gunnison Valley.

wednesday 2
• 5-8 p.m. PAWS will host their annual Sips, Dips and Microchips with Santa available for pet photos at the PAWS facility, 26651 Hwy 135. 209-3656.
• 6-9 p.m. Butte Bucks on sale at the 4-way Visitor Center to locals who work in the Gunnison Valley.
• 7:30 p.m. Pool Tournament upstairs at the Talk of the Town.

KIDS calendar

THURSDAY 26
• 9 a.m. Munchkin’s Music & Dance Class in the High Attitude Dance Academy in Gunnison.
• 9:30 a.m. Tumblebugs in Jerry’s Gym.
• 3-8 p.m. Youth Gymnastics, Jerry’s Gym at Town Hall 349-5338.

FRIDAY 27
• 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Crested Butte Nordic  offers a Free Thanksgiving Kids Camp.
• 11 a.m. Big Kids Storytime for ages 3 and up and Old Rock Library.

SATURDAY 28
• 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Crested Butte Nordic  offers a Free Thanksgiving Kids Camp.

MONDAY 30
• 4 p.m. Soo Bahk Do classes for kids at Town Hall. 349-7752.
• 4:45 p.m. Soo Bahk Do classes for juniors at Town Hall. 349-7752.

TUESDAY 1
• 11 a.m. Romp & Rhyme Storytime for families and kids of all ages at Old Rock Library.
• 3-8 p.m. Youth Gymnastics, Jerry’s Gym at Town Hall 349-5338.

WEDNESDAY 2
• 9 a.m. Munchkin’s Music & Dance Class in the Fitness Room at Old Town Hall.
• 10 a.m. Munchkin’s Music & Dance Class in the Fitness Room at Old Town Hall.
• 11 a.m. Babies and Toddlers Storytime at Old Rock Library.
• 3:45 p.m. Tween Scene at the Old Rock Library.
• 4-8 p.m. Soo Bahk Do classes for kids at Town Hall. 349-7752.

THURSDAY 26
• 6-6:45 a.m. Meditation at Yoga for the Peaceful, by donation.
• 7 a.m. The Whatever Class at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 8-8:45 a.m. Aerial Conditioning with the Crested Butte Dance Collective at the Center for the Arts. 349-7487.
• 8 a.m. Ecumenical Meditation at UCC.
• 8:30 a.m. Women’s book discussion group at UCC.
• 8:30-9:30 a.m. Worship Service at Oh-Be-Joyful Church.
• 8:30-9:45 a.m. Vinyasa Flow Yoga – All Levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 8:45 a.m. All levels yoga class at The Gym (no class on 11/26). 349-2588.
• 8:45-9:30 a.m. Open Aerial Dance with the Crested Butte Dance Collective at the Center for the Arts. 349-7487.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Vinyasa at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Gunnison County Branch Office is open at the Crested Butte Town Offices.
• 10 a.m. Mothering Support Group at Oh Be Joyful Church. (Last Thursday of every month.)
• 10-11:15 a.m. Ayuryoga – Yoga Rejuvination. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 10:30-11:45 a.m. Yoga Basics at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Lunch Break Yoga. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• noon All Saints in the Mountain Episcopal Church Community Healing Service at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church. 349-9371.
• noon CORE Stability. 970-901-4413.
• noon-1:15 p.m. Prana Vinyasa at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 12:30 p.m. ACBL Sanctioned Open Bridge Game. 349-5535.
• 4-5:30 p.m. St. Mary’s Garage. Closed for Thanksgiving. 300 Belleview, Unit 2. Free clothing and bedding. 970-275-5285.
• 4:30-6 p.m. Crested Butte Community Food Bank open at Oh Be Joyful Church (First Thursday of every month.)
• 5:30 p.m. Communion Services at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church.
• 5:30-6:45 p.m. Slow Flow at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 5:30-6:45 p.m. Vinyasa Flow Yoga. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 5:45 p.m. World Dance Class at The Gym (no class on 11/26). 349-2588.
• 6:30 p.m. AA Open Meditation at UCC.
• 7 p.m. Women Supporting Women Group Discussion at the Nordic Inn.
• 7:30 p.m. Narcotics Anonymous meets at 114 N. Wisconsin St. in Gunnison.

FRIDAY 27
• 6:30 a.m. All Levels Iyengar Yoga Class at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 8:30 a.m. Alanon at UCC Parlour (in back). 349-6482.
• 8:30-9:30 a.m. Worship Service at Oh-Be-Joyful Church.
• 8:30-9:45 a.m. Vinyasa Flow Yoga. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 8:45 a.m. Core Power Yoga Class at the Pump Room.
• 9 a.m. Juliette’s Balance Barre at Western Pilates Studio in Crested Butte. 596-1714.
• 9-10:30 a.m. Prana Vinyasa at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 10-11 a.m. Kundalini Yoga. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• noon-1:15 p.m. Restorative Yoga at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• noon Closed AA at UCC.
• noon Metabolic Blast at CORE. 970-901-4413.
• 4:30-5:45 p.m. Community Flow Yoga at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 5:30 p.m. Communion service at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church.
• 5:30-7:30 p.m. Pick-Up adult Karate, Fitness Room at Town Hall.
• 6-7 p.m. Poi Playshop at the Pump Room.

SATURDAY 28
• 7:30 a.m. Open AA at UCC.
• 8 a.m. Indoor Biking Class at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 8:30-9:30 a.m. Worship Service at Oh-Be-Joyful Church.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Prana Vinyasa at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 9-10:15 a.m. Vinyasa Flow Yoga. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 9-10:30 a.m. Community Yoga at the Sanctuary Yoga & Pilates Studio, Gunnison.
• 9:15 a.m. All Levels Yoga Class at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 10:30 a.m. Hip Hop Community Dance Class at the Pump Room (above Fire House on 3rd & Maroon). 415-225-5300.
• 10:30-11:45 a.m. Slow Flow at Yoga For The Peaceful.

SUNDAY 29
• 7-8 a.m. Meditation at Yoga For The Peaceful, by donation.
• 8:30 a.m. Mass at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church.
• 9 a.m. Worship Service at Oh-Be-Joyful Church.
• 9 a.m. Worship Service at UCC Church.
• 9-10:15 a.m. Easy flow at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 9:30-11 a.m. Community Yoga. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 5-6 p.m. All Saints in the Mountain Episcopal Eucharist at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church. 349-9371.
• 5-7 p.m. Pick-Up Adult Basketball. HS Gym, CBCS.
• 5:30-7 p.m. Restorative Yoga at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 6 p.m. AA meets at UCC.
• 6:30 p.m. Duplicate Bridge at UCC. Call 349-9296.
• 6:30-7:30 p.m. Hatha Yoga. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 7 p.m. Gamblers Anonymous meets at the Last Resort.
• 7:30-8:15 p.m. Pranayama & Meditation. Town Hall Fitness Room.

MONDAY 30
• 6:30 a.m. Strength and Conditioning with Janae or Pip at CORE. 901-4413.
• 8:30-9:30 a.m. Worship Service at Oh-Be-Joyful Church.
• 8:30-9:45 a.m. Vinyasa Flow Yoga – All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 8:45 a.m. Core Power Yoga Class at the Pump Room.
• 8:45 a.m. Pilates at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 9-10:30 a.m. Prana Vinyasa at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 10-11:15 a.m. Ayuryoga – Yoga Rejuvination. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Lunch Break Yoga. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• noon-1 p.m. Yoga Therapeutics at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 12:30 p.m. ACBL Sanctioned Open Bridge Game. 349-5535.
• 4-8 p.m. Soo Bahk Do classes for kids and adults. 349-7752.
• 5 p.m. Mothering Support Group at the GVH Education House, 300 East Denver St. (First Monday of every month.)
• 5:30 p.m. Communion Service at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church.
• 5:30 p.m. Yin/Yang Circuit with Ginny and Jess at CORE. 901-4413.
• 5:30-6:45 p.m. Gentle Restorative. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 5:30-7 p.m. Moms in Motion class at the GVH rehab gym.
• 5:45 p.m. Boot Camp Class at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 7:30 p.m. Open AA at UCC. 349-5711.
• 7:30 p.m. Narcotics Anonymous meets at 114 N. Wisconsin St. in Gunnison.

TUESDAY 1
• 7 a.m. The Whatever Class at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 7-8 a.m. Hatha Yoga. All Levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 7:30 a.m. AA/Alanon Open at UCC. 349-5711.
• 8-8:45 a.m. Pranayama & Meditation. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 8:30-9:30 a.m. Worship Service at Oh-Be-Joyful Church.
• 8:45-10 a.m. Vinyasa at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Gunnison County branch office is open at the Crested Butte Town Offices, 507 Maroon Ave.
• 10:30-11:45 a.m. Yoga Basics at Yoga for the Peaceful.
• 11:30 a.m. League of Women Voters meeting at 210 W. Spencer in Gunnison.
• 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Lunch Break Yoga – All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• noon AA Closed at UCC.
• 2-4 p.m. Tech Tuesdays at Old Rock Library. 349-6535.
• 4-5:30 p.m. St. Mary’s Garage. 300 Belleview, Unit 2. Free clothing & bedding. 275-5285.
• 5:15 p.m. RedCord suspension class at Western Pilates Studio in Crested Butte. 596-1714.
• 5:30 p.m. Communion Service at Queen of All Saints Church.
• 5:30-6:45 p.m. Slow Flow at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 5:30-6:45 p.m. Vinyasa Flow. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 5:45 p.m. All Levels Iyengar Yoga Class at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 6-7 p.m. Community Connection Night at UCC Parlour.
• 7 p.m. Alanon meeting at the Last Resort.
• 7-8:30 p.m. Blessing Way Circle support group at Sopris Women’s Clinic. 720-217-3843.
• 7-9 p.m. Pick-up adult Karate, Fitness Room at Town Hall.
• 7:45-9:45 p.m. Drop-In Adult Volleyball, CBCS MS Gym.

WEDNESDAY 2
• 6:30 a.m. All Levels Iyengar Yoga Class at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 7:30 a.m. Rotary meeting at the Grand Lodge.
• 7:30-8:30 a.m. Prana Vinyasa at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 8:30-9:30 a.m. Worship Service at Oh-Be-Joyful Church.
• 8:45 a.m. Mat Mix at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 9-10:30 a.m. Prana Vinyasa at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Two Buttes Senior Citizens van transportation. Roundtrip to Gunnison. 275-4768.
• noon Closed AA at UCC.
• noon-1 p.m. Slow Flow at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 4 p.m. Water Warriors – Coal Creek Watershed Coalition at the Old Rock Library.
• 4-8 p.m. Soo Bahk Do classes for kids and adults. 349-7752.
• 5 p.m. Mass at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church.
• 5:30 p.m. Prenatal Yoga class in Crested Butte South. 349-1209.
• 5:30-6:30 p.m. Ayurvedic Lecture series. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 5:45 p.m. Boot Camp Class at The Gym. 349-2588.
• 6 p.m. Celebrate Recovery Meetings: 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month, Oh Be Joyful Church, Crested Butte. 970-596-3846.
• 6-7:15 p.m. Kaiut Yoga at Yoga For The Peaceful.
• 6:30 p.m. Alanon at UCC Parlour (in back). 349-6482.
• 6:30-7:45 p.m. Restorative Yin Yoga Nidra. All levels. Town Hall Fitness Room.
• 7-9 p.m. “GriefShare,” a grief recovery seminar and support group, meets at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, 711 N. Main St., Gunnison. 970-349-7769.

Spending 17 hours in a tree has to be no fun

by Mark Reaman

A large 450-pound bear was the main attraction in Crested Butte last Thursday, July 23, as he spent 17 hours in a tree, drawing constant crowds at the corner of Second and Elk. The bear went up the tree about five in the morning and didn’t come down until about 9:45 p.m. after the sun and the crowds had disappeared.

“We used that incident as an educational opportunity for people and a learning experience for the bear,” explained Chris Parmeter, district wildlife manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) in the Gunnison Basin. “It probably worked for everyone.”

Parmeter said the CPW had interaction with nearly 1,000 people and passed out hundreds of “bear brochures” throughout the day.

As for the bear, “The fact that a bear that big was spooked and stayed up there that long tells me he was a wild bear and not one used to the town. That is very unusual,” Parmeter explained. “He was definitely thirsty and hungry that day and we hope he was uncomfortable enough to learn not to come into town and do that again. Having a miserable experience could be a good learning lesson for the bear.”

Crested Butte chief marshal Tom Martin said that particular bear might actually be a somewhat regular visitor to town but overall, this has been a relatively quiet bear season.

“A bear that big probably dominates other bears so they tend to stay away,” Martin said. “That bear might be the only guy coming into town. We think he got into a garage at First and Maroon Sunday night by breaking a few windows. The garage door was open when he left so it looks like he maybe hit the button to open the door. But for the most part, we haven’t had many problems compared to, say, four or five years ago when bears were a regular nuisance.”

Martin said that when the town passed an ordinance requiring “bear-resistant” garbage cans, the bear problem dissipated. The easy food supply dried up and the bruins went back into the wild. Martin thinks some of those trash cans are getting older and might be “compromised.”

“He’s found a few food sources in town,” said Martin. “Some of the garbage cans are easier to get into now. Some of the dumpsters are being left open. We have written some tickets for unsecured trash and dumpsters. The ordinance is clear that a property owner is responsible to make sure garbage is not accessible to bears.”

Parmeter said CPW research shows bears prefer to stay in the wild and find food in the backcountry, but every once in a while an individual bear will feel it is easier to get food in a town. “The food in the backcountry this year is pretty plentiful, given the rain and conditions this summer,” he said. “It is excellent.”

Parmeter and Martin said the goal is to do everything possible to avoid having to trap and put down a bear. “We live in bear country and having a bear in a tree in Crested Butte is not that unusual,” said Parmeter. “Last year we only trapped one bear and we haven’t brought the trap out this summer at all. That guy in the tree wasn’t a problem bear or a nuisance bear. He was just a plain ‘ol bear.”

Parmeter said there have been a few reports of bears up Taylor Canyon getting into bird feeders and trash. The restaurant in Crested Butte South has also apparently attracted a few bruins. “It hasn’t been a bad summer at all,” said Parmeter.

That’s the feeling up in Mt. Crested Butte as well. Marjorie Trautman of the Mt. Crested Butte police department said there have been no major or consistent bear issues in the town this summer. “Officers contacted one bear earlier this season that was scared off from his picnic,” she said. “And a homeowner was ticketed a few weeks ago for putting out trash too early for pick-up.”

“Basically if a bear gets trapped it is a death sentence,” added Martin. “We don’t want to do that except as a last resort. That’s why we want to remind everyone to keep their garbage locked up and in the garage. Don’t give bears any opportunity. Bears are smart. Four or five years ago we had some that figured out that food was in cars and they figured out how to open the car doors. We feel that the incident last week was a good reminder for everyone, a good educational opportunity for a lot of people and a lesson for the bear.”

Trautman concurred. “The message is especially important as we head into the fall season when bears become far more opportunistic in order to pack on the necessary calories for their long winter’s nap,” she said. “Local residents and visitors alike need to understand how to keep our wildlife dependent on the wild and not on easy handouts from trashcans and bird feeders.”

The big bear finally climbed down from the tree before 10 o’clock at night after spending an entire day on the tree branch, being photographed by hundreds of people. “He hit the ground and bolted up the alley behind the Forest Queen,” said Parmeter. “He headed west out of town pretty fast. Hopefully he learned to not do that again, hopefully people learned about living and visiting bear country and the need to not make food available to bears in town.”

“Keep moving.”

That was the sage advice from former Chronicle and Pilot editor Lee H. Ervin during the wedding reception of former Crested Butte News editor Eddie Stern last weekend in Denver. Lee lives in New Mexico now and as part of his job he interviews older people.

He said women tend to be healthier than men as they age but the key to healthy aging for both genders is to “keep moving.” That sounds like pretty good advice and all you have to do is look around at the people aging here and those growing older in say, Ohio. There is a difference between the 82-year-old who walks, bikes or skis in Crested Butte and the 72-year-old who waddles into the Columbus Golden Corral for the early bird buffet.

Lee was talking about individuals but since it is Tuesday and I can’t write about the Elk Avenue slurry seal debacle without continually shaking my head, laughing or crying, I’ll make the cheap and easy editorial move and build on Lee’s advice for Crested Butte.

“Keep moving.” There is really no such thing as a healthy community that never changes. Being stagnant leads to being boring and sluggish. It is good to move.

Our tourism-based economy is about to go off for about two months. No one will describe the coming summer as stagnant in the short term. But that is part of our problem. Crested Butte depends on giant economic peaks that strain our infrastructure and are then followed by giant dips that make it precarious for local businesses to make it. In the long-term, that template can be stressful.

So in an effort to “keep moving,” Crested Butte is adding to its traditional outdoorsy image and attractions. A new organic focus on arts and education is helping to keep us moving beyond the Old Faithfuls of mountain biking and skiing. That is healthy.

Right now there is an effort to look at the big picture here through the One Valley Prosperity Project (OVPP). That effort is gathering information and is actively promoting a community dialogue to perhaps help this community to keep moving.

Unlike some, I don’t anticipate a panacea to come out of the OVPP. So far the OVPP indicates that those living here like it here. We all wish we made more money here. We all don’t want to become just another stereotypical tourist town in the mountains.

Of course, the details of any final plan are where there might be real tension. Some will lobby for more, more, more, while others will argue for a return to the slower paced “good old days.” I have always said the OVPP could save a lot of time and money by having someone from each side of the divide, say an Eric Roemer and a Sue Navy, sit down and come up with a plan. If they can agree on a direction, then odds are pretty good that everyone could.

Some organizers in the OVPP claim that the final plan will result in a common core baseline upon which every decision in the valley between now and infinity can be based. That won’t happen. Healthy communities need good representatives and leaders for the times to step up and set a direction. That usually happens in elections when the people decide who gets to sit down and map out the next leg of the road trip. Chances are if someone goes too far afield, they won’t get put back into local office. That usually keeps everything moving in manageable doses.

Crested Butte is constantly changing and that is part of the dynamic of a healthy community. It “keeps moving.” People come and go. Those relocating here now are doing so for reasons different from those who came here 20 years ago. I’ll go out on a limb and say the biggest game changer has been the Crested Butte Community School. Having a quality K-12 school in a wonderful place with a ski resort is a major draw to those who can afford it. And more and more people are figuring that out.

I do think the OVPP can end up being a valuable tool. While healthy communities need to “keep moving,” they also need solid foundations and the OVPP might be able to provide some of that foundational focus. A continued good community needs both young and old people living in it. Rich and poor should be able to rub shoulders. It needs workers either living near or having easy access to their jobs. They need good schools, good opportunities for community dialogue and good opportunities for local businesses to succeed. It needs to actively protect its special attributes. The OVPP might help reinforce those community elements.

Decisions in the future won’t be based entirely on an OVPP study from 2015. They will be based on those who step up to help keep a community moving in a direction that is healthy at the time. That requires thoughtfulness and an ability to stay nimble. The OVPP can provide a snapshot of needs and wants at this particular time and that is useful, but not a miracle cure for the few things that ail us.

“Keep moving.” Good advice. How we move is up to those living here at any given time and have the most influence on where we end up.

Lee must be moving a lot. He still looks good in his grandfather years. And a quick shout out to Eddie Stern and his new wife, Ellen. They chose last Friday to “keep moving” and take a major life step. It seems a good, healthy choice. That is all any individual, couple or community can really ask for—healthy choices based on the decision to keep moving.

—Mark Reaman