The man of many cloths
At the Crested Butte Ski School, instructor Rick Barton is exchanging warm, comical banter with a fellow skier, “We really enjoy him because he sets the bar so low,” he jokes and elicits a big grin from the guy. There’s a sincere and compassionate tone in Rick’s voice, a joyous sense of humor, and an undeniable sparkle in his eyes that says he is happy with his world.
I have hired people.
I have fired people.
I have worked jobs that I was bad at (wine waiter and bar bouncer come to mind).
I have been fired by people. (see above).
I have been a boss, an owner and a grunt. I’ve washed dishes in the kitchen at a ski resort and worked three days straight without sleep because I owned the business.
And with all the talk of “work ethic” in this town I must say that I’ve seen some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met doing it here. Some own the business. Others just work at a business. But certain people around here take obvious pride in their product. I’ve also seen some of the biggest slackers ever. Welcome to life in a resort town.
The bottom line that might be remembered by everyone in the CB working climate—no one in recent memory moved here just to work. People work in Crested Butte to live in Crested Butte. To ride their bikes, to hike the mountains, to run the rivers and ski the slopes.
Most of us could probably make more money spending eight hours a day in a cubicle or owning a shop in a metropolitan downtown. But we’d be in a cubicle or a metro. We all choose to live in a small mountain community and take the fruits and trade offs of that. If the choice is a powder morning or picking up another shift, 99 out of 100 will choose pow. It’s the high mountain culture.
Whether you are a grunt in the background or the big kahuna at the front of the house, don’t forget why it is we are here. Look up from the computer or kitchen line or spread sheet and check out the mountains, the rainbows and rivers.
Very few people move to 9,000 feet in paradise to build their resume or climb a corporate ladder. It is to live. And living here is different than living in a city. For that we should find gratitude every day…whether you are the owner or the dishwasher.
If nothing else, the recent community discussion might be a reminder to the workers and the bosses—that through it all, respect and hard work make it possible for all of us to live…and (more importantly) play here.
Here’s to a summer of fun, respect and prosperity for all. Work hard. Play harder.
BORN TO BE WILD
Me? I’m not worthy,” laughs the Royal Has-Been Flauschink Queen Paula Dietrich when asked to be this week’s profile. She had the dubious honor of being crowned in the 35th year of the distinctly Crested Butte event in 2003.
He was hired out of Hiram College in Ohio because of the well-known Midwestern work ethic, which was presumably better than the Colorado ski bum’s powder-day-religion principles—at least that’s what the Crested Butte ski resort owners at the time thought when they hired on a gaggle of them for their student employment program. Dano Marshall was one of those who gleefully took a semester off to work as a lift op.
There’s more than one way to be a ski bum(mette)!
When Danica Baker moved to Crested Butte during the fall of 2010, her recent ski experience was admittedly limited. She wore three-buckle, rear-entry ski boots from the 1990s, a hand-me-down from her uncle after he quit the sport in a fit of frustration. But they were free, and she strapped those boots on as tightly as she could and took to the mountain with her boyfriend, photographer Trent Bona.
“I’m not a preacher’s daughter… but I kind of am,” smiles Stephanie Stephenson, the child of a music pastor in Fort Collins. “It was my main influence. We all grew up singing and harmonizing together in church,” Stephanie says of her family.
She and her four siblings were weaned on gospel feel and sound and she admittedly prefers it, saying, “If I could listen to anything it would be a gospel choir.” So it stands to reason that between her soulful childhood environment and a genetic predisposition to music, Stephanie was definitely born to sing, and to sing well. “My first solo was in front of the whole church. I was four years old and it felt natural,” she says. Read More »
Diversity proves profitable for the valley
This is the final installment of our series looking at the ways people are making it work in the Gunnison Valley. Some have been here for decades and others are hoping to be here that long. Many have a connection to Western State College. Most made it here from somewhere else. But, as far as we can tell, everyone, in some fashion, relies on a connection between the Gunnison Valley and the outside world, whether it’s a physical connection or a virtual one, especially now. Without them, can people of the Gunnison Valley compete in a 21st century economy? If we don’t compete, can we survive? Read More »
Finding work in the Gunnison Valley isn’t always easy, but find someone with one job and you’re likely to find someone with two. As economist Paul Holden points out in a 2009 report on The Economy of Gunnison County, low wages and a high cost of living often make multiple sources of income necessary. This week we’ll look at a few people who have managed to make it here by dividing their time without losing sight of what’s important. Read More »
Last week we looked at people who divide their time between home, here in the Valley, and work somewhere else. This week we’re staying closer to town with people who are finding ways to adapt in a unique mountain economy. Read More »
Collaboration keeps coming up
Trying to figure out how to bring together individual pieces of a potential economic jigsaw puzzle was the topic of discussion last week at the Crested Butte Center for the Arts. Some of the valley’s most influential non-political leaders gathered Friday, December 16 at the request of former Crested Butte Academy headmaster David Rothman to discuss how to build on the area’s art and education infrastructure.
The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
