“It’s not like I can call it quits in the middle of nowhere”

by Than Acuff

Last week, Gunnison Valley resident Neil Beltchenko spent three days and one hour riding his fat bike for 314 miles across a portion of Alaska to win the Iditarod Trail Invitational.

It was cold, –25 degrees cold, it was snowing, it was blowing, there was a trail and then there wasn’t a trail. There were times that Beltchenko was riding his bike, times when he was pushing his bike, times when he was pulling his bike and times he had to pick up his bike over and over again. At one point, for a long stretch, Beltchenko averaged less than one mile per hour.

The Iditarod Trail Invitational is the zenith of fat bike ultra endurance riding, and quite possibly, any kind of ultra endurance riding.

“It’s the biggest fat bike race for an ultra endurance rider out there,” says Beltchenko, “and definitely the most competitive winter ultra in the world. It’s like the Tour de France of fat biking.”

Beltchenko first tested the Iditarod bike race waters last year, coming in third. This year, with some experience and an additional year of training, he was set to beat his previous time and perhaps even win.

It all started for Beltchenko on Sunday, February 25 at 2 p.m. in Knik Lake, Alaska and both the weather and trail were great.

“It wasn’t too cold, or too hot,” says Beltchenko. “The trail was soft but it’s not like we were hiking our bikes… yet.”

He spent the first 10 hours of the race riding along with the 2017 race winner but when they hit the second checkpoint at mile 100, Beltchenko pressed on, while his closest competition opted to get some sleep.

“I was feeling really strong and I decided I’m just going to go and see what happens,” explains Beltchenko.

Then the weather turned as a storm rolled through Alaska, bringing fresh snow and plenty of wind gusting, at times, to 75 miles per hour. But the toughest part, so far, didn’t hit until mile 140. After a 20-minute “power nap,” Beltchenko grabbed his bike. and headed up into the Alaskan range to ride up and over Rainy Pass.

But with the weather in full effect and nighttime approaching, Beltchenko found himself pushing his bike for most of the next 20 miles and having to dig out a spot to sleep during the slog.

“Nothing too crazy but it was super snowy, couldn’t see the trail and if you stepped off the trail you would sink up to your waist,” explains Beltchenko. “Definitely the most challenging winter fat bike experience I’ve ever had.”

It eventually wore on Beltchenko enough to force him to dig a hole in the snow at around midnight, somewhere on Rainy Pass with temperatures at zero, and bundle up for a two-hour sleep. But he remained race-savvy despite the conditions and woke up to good news.

“I slept right next to the trail and it was snowing so I knew I would see tracks if someone passed me when I woke up,” says Beltchenko. “I woke up and there were no tracks so I was like, all right, I’m still in the lead.”

He was able to ride some portions of the downhill off Rainy Pass but he had spent from 2 p.m. until 4 a.m. covering the 20-mile stretch. Then, it got worse.

He came into the next checkpoint at a spot called Roan, which was nothing more than a tent, really. He slept for an hour, dug into his supplies that were left there by race officials, and then at 6 a.m. headed into the longest 70 miles of his life, bound for the next checkpoint at Nikolai.

With the storm still raging, Beltchenko proceeded to ride and push his bike through the storm. He came across a bush pilot who was set down until the weather cleared, and got some info about the upcoming portion of the course.

“He just told me, there’s no trail ahead,” says Beltchenko. “About three miles after I saw him, the trail just turned to shit.”

Beltchenko was fighting through successive wind drifts and stretches of deep snow that had him doing everything to keep moving forward.

“I was pushing my bike, I was pulling my bike, I just had to take it one step at a time,” he explains. “But there was nothing else I could do. It’s not like I could call it quits out there in the middle of nowhere. There’s no cell service, there’s nothing. It was a pretty incredible feeling—you feel pretty small in those situations.”

Furthermore, sleep was not an option as he was determined to make it to Nikolai, where he could actually lay down inside.

“I pumped a bunch of caffeine in my body. I was struggling mightily to stay awake,” says Beltchenko.

Then, the storm subsided, only to give way to bitter cold temperatures hovering in the –20 to –25 degree range.

“I basically had all of my layers on because that’s when severe cases of frostbite are prominent,” says Beltchenko. “It’s very risky and not sweating too much is a big deal. From Roan to Nikolai was, hands down, one of the most difficult things I’ve done on my bike… or off my bike.”

But once he made it to Nikolai, he was met with incredible news, as the checkpoint had Wi-Fi with updates on the racers.

“That was one of the best feelings,” explains Beltchenko. “A woman there came up to me and said, ‘Neil, you’re killing it,’ and I found out I had a 30 or 40-mile lead.

With a huge gap and just 50 miles to go to the finish line, Beltchenko settled in for one last two-hour nap and then hopped back on his bike at 2:30 a.m., riding the final 50 miles to McGrath in just over 11 hours to cross the finish line in a time of three days and one hour for the win.

“Riding the last five miles into McGrath, knowing I had the win and that all the hard work and training I’ve done the past two years was worth it was a big highlight,” says Beltchenko.

He may return to the ultra endurance race circuit this spring as he is feeling better than ever before after a race like this. The Arizona Trail race is on the near horizon, another race he has won.

“I don’t know why I like to do this stuff, but I do,” says Beltchenko. “It’s just so much unknown and that’s kind of the draw.”

The third annual Fat Bike World Championships took place last weekend on the north end of the valley and included courses in both Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte.  photo by Petar Dopchev

Grooming in North Valley underway

By Toni Todd

There’s no denying the fun of sliding on snow in the mountains. For many, however, skiing and snowboarding are just pleasant diversions between cycling seasons. Given a choice, they’d ride over slide any day.

Enter: Fat bikes, beefy trail-riders equipped with grippy tires, perfect for packed snow. It’s tough to go fast on a fat bike, and with those plump tires, they’re not particularly agile, but many are finding that riding a bike on snow is a blast. Fat bikes have gone from cool idea to craze in no time. However, Gunnison Trails’ executive director Tim Kugler was not an early convert to the sport.

Kugler says he’s since ridden a fat bike on snow several times. “When you’re out on the trail, in the right conditions, it’s not quite like mountain biking, but it’s pretty darn similar and it’s super fun.

“It’ll be very much dependent on snow levels,” says Kugler of Gunnison Trails’ grooming efforts this winter. “Gunnison in particular—you can’t always count on great snow.”

The organization is slated to receive a fat bike groomer this Friday. The best case scenario, he says, with lots of snow, Gunnison Trails plans to groom two fat bike routes at Hartman Rocks, each a 13-mile loop. One will start from McCabe’s Lane trailhead, and another from the Gold Basin base area. Kugler says he envisions the grooming will be “experimental and adaptive.”

In addition to snowfall, grooming will also depend on how well the grooming device works on the terrain available. Kugler describes it as looking somewhat like a lawnmower. It is brand new, untested on the Hartman Rocks trails.

Groomers will monitor conditions and change routes as needed, based on how well the trails hold up. “Talking with Dave Ochs and the efforts that took place at the north end of the valley last year, I’m gearing up for many hours behind our grooming machine,” says Kugler.

That machine is called The Trail Tamer, a track sled made by Tracks USA. Kugler says he anticipates it creating a packed snow surface rather than perfect corduroy. “I don’t think the depth we pack makes the snow melt any slower,” he adds, addressing concerns some might have that the spring riding season could be delayed as a result of packing trails for fat biking in winter.

On the front side of Hartman’s, the tentative plan is to groom Jack’s Trail, Beck’s Trail, Buddy Bear, The Luge, a small portion of Graceland and the Sandy Wash Trail. “Parallel to all those trails are existing fire roads we’re going to groom so people can make a loop,” says Kugler.

Kugler praised Gunnison Nordic’s efforts and the quality grooming they do at Hartman Rocks, too. “We’re going to be next to them,” he says, creating space for skiers on one side of a trail and fat bikers on the other.

Gunnison Trails will also groom four to five miles for fat biking at Van Tuyl. “It’ll be the perfect lunch loop,” says Kugler, “or a great opportunity for beginners to rent from a local shop and go right out there.”

Gunnison Trails will provide fresh, daily updates on its website and via social media, both for the trails they’ve groomed for fat biking, and for the trails groomed by Gunnison Nordic. A great experience on a fat bike, says Kugler, is completely dependent on conditions. “We hope to educate riders on when to go and what we’ve groomed,” he adds, not only to ensure a good experience, but also to keep the trails in the best shape possible.

In the north valley, fat biking continues to gain momentum with groomers smoothing out trails in the Gothic, Brush Creek and Cement Creek corridors. Grooming will be conducted by the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association through a United States Forest Service permit, and the CBMBA crew will be maintaining the North Village area around Snodgrass, as well.

“We have some other ideas for areas in the future, and we’re looking to see the viability of adding them to the mix,” said CBMBA executive director Dave Ochs.

Ochs said the organization has been working closely with the Forest Service and both Crested Butte Nordic and the Crested Butte Land Trust to develop more opportunities for fat biking while ensuring land use regulations are followed.

Says Ochs, “We’ll have a hired hand this year as we’re looking to partner with SNOtrackers to do more and better grooming up Cement Creek, all the way up to Hunter Creek Trail using their machines, and we’re also looking to the Fat Bike Worlds demo for what machines can do and what type of grooming jobs can be done around here.”

Here’s a clue: Think singletrack…

Chainless, Fat Tire 40, kids races, beer, clinics, Bridges of the Butte

by Than Acuff

It’s go time, people: The 37th Annual Crested Butte Bike Week opens on Thursday, June 22 and continues through the weekend with races, films, parties, clinics, beer and everything else that goes along with mountain biking in Crested Butte.

“Things are looking good, we’re all geared up,” says Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce events director Scott Stewart. “We are up on registrations from last year.”

Crested Butte Bike Week is the oldest mountain bike festival in the country, if not the world, and provides an incredible backdrop for a sport that has made a comeback the past 10 years, thanks to a number of factors.

First, there’s the technology. Now with bigger wheels (for the record, former Crested Butte resident Wes Williams was touting the benefits of the 29-inch wheel more than 20 years ago), better suspension (thanks in part to our very own Doug Bradbury), wider bars, dropper posts, slack head tubes (whatever that is), etc. etc., bikes are riding better than ever.

Throw in the massive amount of work done to rehabilitate existing trails and build new trails by our very own Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association and volunteers and the newly formed Crested Butte Conservation Corps, and mountain biking is peaking once again.

Not to mention the latest rage of cold brew coffee in a can, making it possible to tack on a little more mileage mid-ride.

The Crested Butte Bike Week brings it all together for four days of fun on wheels, kicking off with a host of activities on Thursday including clinics, a free guided ride of Roaring Judy/Eccher Gulch and an historic Crested Butte mountain bike tour with the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum.

Friday, things really start to ramp up with activities from morning to night. First and foremost, there’s the Chainless World Championships, a gravity-fed race from the top of Kebler Pass into town starting at 4:20 p.m. and finishing at First and Elk, complete with a post-race party and live music from Gun Rack.

“Early registration is up from last year so that will help the day of the race,” says Stewart.

And while 90 percent of chainless participants are just that, participants, there is a race element for those looking for chainless world domination. Three-time champion Mark Cram explains his recipe for success.

“I believe it’s my weight to size ratio and the Le Mans start,” says Cram. “I run with my bike as long as possible and then taking a flying leap on it. The start is when it matters most. The race is generally won up high.”

In addition, there will be the slow race championships, a free guided ride on Snodgrass/Lupine/Lower Loop and movie fundraisers that evening.

Saturday is the truest test of stamina, both on and off the bike. Riders will line up early Saturday for the 8 a.m. start of the Fat Tire 40, a grueling 41-mile race linking several trails, including the refurbished sections on Deer Creek, together starting and finishing in the town of Crested Butte, with close to 75 percent of the course on single-track trails.

“It’s true cross-country mountain biking, it’s gorgeous out there,” says Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association executive director Dave Ochs. “There’s mad track.”

And while there will be a small contingent of riders gunning for the top five to get a piece of the $5,000 in prize money, Ochs has some advice for the rest of the field just looking to put in a solid personal time.

“Make sure you stop at the aid stations and fuel up,” says Ochs. “You get out on Deer Creek and you can blow up to the moon out there. Take the time to refuel.”

Meanwhile, there will be additional clinics for kids, another free guided group ride, the start of the Bridges of the Butte 24-hour townie tour at noon as well as a dance party that night at the Mirror Palace in Mt. Crested Butte.

Sunday, things close with more racing as the kids hit the trails for the second annual Jr. Wildflower Classic races starting that morning. There’s a Mountain Manners class touting the Leave No Trace mantra for recreation on our surrounding hills and one last free guided ride on Doctor Park.

“I’m excited about it—it’s going to be wild,” says Stewart.

He adds that volunteers are needed to help pull it all off. You can email him at events@cbchamber.com.

By Dawne Belloise

Summer is finally upon us and to kick it off is one of Crested Butte’s favorite events: Bike Week. The craziest and most anticipated race event of the weekend is the famed Chainless World Championship Bike Race, which screams down from the top of Kebler Pass into the heart of town and is immediately followed by a celebratory party.

Seven miles of gravitationally challenging dirt road that drops into the top of Elk Avenue takes place this Friday, June 23, with racers screaming down the dusty descent, beginning at the traditional 4:20 p.m.

It’s the oldest mountain bike festival in the world. Originally dubbed Fat Tire Bike Week before its name change several years ago, the race highlights Crested Butte as the legendary home of not only mountain biking, but of costuming.

Most Crested Butte competitions and events involve costuming up and Buttians take their costume creating seriously. In fact, many start creating their themes and get-ups months in advance—even as they cross the finish line they’ve got next year’s costumes already materializing in their heads. From teams to individuals, they are pros leaning to the theatrical extreme and they shine in the Chainless Race.

Through the years, the costumes have gotten more elaborate, complex and comical. Boat bikes, gorilla and chicken suits, Vikings, several Darth Vaders and Star Wars characters, pirates and disco glitterati, even real-life brides and grooms in their wedding garb, and on a variety of contraptions. Mike Arbaney’s front-end, loose-pivot point bike named the Gambler that can bend itself in two is always amusing to watch. They do it for the prestige and the glory, the fun, and of course, the bragging rights.

There are prizes for the best bike, best costume and an assortment of other funky awards in addition to the tougher first, second and third arriving at the bottom in one piece. The no guts-no glory race is also famous for its carnage as racers descend the final hill trying to avoid the side-slide right turn onto Elk Avenue from old Kebler Road into screaming throngs of fans.

The Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce now hosts the weekend event that originally started about 37 years ago. Executive director Ashley Upchurch recalls her favorite costumes from last year: “There was the Beatles-themed Yellow Submarine,” a life-sized, bright yellow sub captained by Rick Murray and crew in full Sgt. Pepper garb, from the 1967 album and 1968 animated film. It was a 3-D sculpture on bike frames sailing down the pass and the subject of bar conversations for many months afterwards.

Another best-loved theme was the family team costumed up as the Mario Brothers video game, complete with a daring chariot that sported their toddler dressed up as the Toad character. “It was like a racing Mario game,” Upchurch laughs, “Not that I condone putting young children in the Chainless. The costumes are my favorite part of the Chainless, and the Chainless is the most fun.”

The Chainless race began when a gaggle of locals decided to pedal their klunkers up Kebler Pass Road, disconnect their chains and fly down the pass just to see what would happen. If you go with a coaster brake bike you don’t have brakes when you take the chain off. In the old days, they were ballsy, using only their feet, so they’d wear heavy boots to brake. The participants use zip ties to bind up the chains now, which allows them to brake but not pedal.

It’s a true celebration of the townie klunker bike, although all bikes are welcome, and there is an eclectic assortment of handmade bikes, art bikes, and all the crafty sculptures that people take up there.

Upchurch notes that only 300 racers are allowed because any more than that, she says, gets a little out of hand, although she adds, “It’s not a strict cap.”

Racers drop off their bikes at the Four-way Stop, behind the chamber of commerce, beginning at 10 a.m., but the earlier the better, and Upchurch advises not waiting until the last minute. The shuttle to schlep the racers to Kebler Pass summit starts hauling at 2:30 p.m.

This year, all of Crested Butte Bike Week will take place behind the Crested Butte Center for the Arts, including vendors, but Chainless World Championship Bike Race after-party is still at the First Street and Elk Avenue parking lot. Bristol Brewing out of Colorado Springs is sponsoring so there’ll be beer (yay!) at all the weekend events.

Bridges of the Butte

The Chainless isn’t the only event that features insane costumes. The annual Bridges of the Butte 24-Hour Townie Tour starts Saturday, high noon at the Town Park, and is a benefit fundraiser for the Adaptive Sports Center. Everyone shows up to loop through the streets of town and over every bridge, riding into the wee hours of the night for 24 solid hours—it’s an ongoing pedal party with lots of time to socialize.

There are ballerina faeries to aliens, psychedelic squid to super-heroes, on decked-out cycles with bells and whistles that will go nuclear with disco mirror balls, flashing LEDs and glow-in-the-dark spokes when the night falls—because when the sun goes down, the aurora borealis of Crested Butte kicks in as the riders get to show off their snazzy bike lights. Some participants’ metal steeds are an all-out light show. It’s a tour, not a race, so everyone can participate and ride as much, or as little, as they want—families, individuals, businesses that drum up their own teams, everyone from little kids to grandparents. Last year saw the registration limit of 300 participants sign up.

The tour was the brainchild of a couple of instructors, created specifically as a fundraiser for the Adaptive Sports Center’s Argentina program for training instructors and volunteers. Now, the money that’s raised from Bridges of the Butte goes for Adaptive’s general scholarship fund because all the activities they do are subsidized and accessible to as many people as possible. Bridges of the Butte Townie Tour helps give inspiration to those who don’t have access to the same recreation others have. Adaptive helps those who have lost some of their abilities.

Upchurch says she’s really looking forward to the weekend’s events, in her role as the new chamber director. “I’m really excited to be in a larger role at the chamber and this is my first event as a director. Bike Week is a favorite event and I just love any event that rings in the summer. We recognize that changes need to be made to make Bike Week what it used to be and we want to ensure that it’s a community event. Revitalizing it is high on our priority list. I hope people come out and costume-up, party, ride bikes and drink beer.”

Registration and a full schedule of events for Crested Butte Bike Week is online at cbbikeweek.com.

Adaptive Sports Center, a non-profit organization located in Crested Butte, provides life-enhancing year-round recreation activities for people with disabilities and their families. Information and events can be found at adaptivesports.org.

There have been some changes to the logistics of next week’s Crested Butte Bike Week from what was reported in the print edition of the story in this week’s paper:

• The Thursday clinics will meet at the Four-way Stop in Crested Butte instead of the field by the Center for the Arts. All groups will meet in the Chamber of Commerce parking lot at 6th and Elk at 10 am on Thursday, June 22.
• The Fat Tire 40 will start from the Center for the Arts instead of the Visitor’s Center. The race starts officially with a neutral ride from the south side of the Center for the Arts.

Keep the rubber side down, volunteers needed

By Stan Cola

The Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce is at it again with their annual Crested Butte Bike Week Thursday through Sunday June 22-25.

Along with Marin and Cupertino in California, Crested Butte is one of the first places in the world where people started taking their bikes off roads and into the mountains for fun. And being Crested Butte, we came up with one of the most fun ways to get into the mountains: Crested Butte Bike Week.

Filled with races, shenanigans, and more, the history of bike week is one of a mountain community bringing the best mountain bikers in the world to the home of mountain biking.

Bike week is now a four-day celebration of all things mountain bike in the Gunnison Valley. We still have the big thigh burner of a single track race, the Fat Tire 40, but now Crested Butte Bike Week is more of a celebration of how mountain biking defines our community in the summer.

This year’s event kicks off on Thursday, June 22 with clinics to make sure everyone has the tools and right technique to ride. Crested Butte Bike Week has partnered up with the Griggs Orthopedics gO Ride Team to offer clinics for riders of all abilities on Thursday. Practice bike handling and get a preview of the Fat Tire 40 course with some of the best riders in the Gunnison Valley. Pick up some line tips and familiarize yourself with the trails before getting into the weekend.

All groups will meet at the Vendor Village, which will be set up in the field next to the Center for the Arts at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 22.

In addition to clinics, Crested Butte Bike Week will host a movie Friday night as well as a “masked rave” Saturday night. Amidst all the ancillary events associated with Crested Butte Bike Week, the festival would not be complete without racing and this year there’s plenty of it.

The racing kicks off Friday, June 23 with the Chainless World Championships as well as the Crested Butte Devo slow race championships testing riders’ ability to go … slow.

Following a night of revelry, riders will then line up in town Saturday, June 25 for the mother of all cross-country mountain bike races, the Fat Tire 40. The race starts with a neutral ride from the Chamber of Commerce/Visitors Center through town before heading up Gothic Road. From there it’s nothing but pain as riders will connect Upper and Upper Upper Loop trails, Strand Hill, Deer Creek, a couple of trails in the Evolution Bike Park before dropping down 2,000 vertical feet of trail from West Side to Happy Hour to Tony’s and finishing at Yelenik Pavilion behind the Center for the Arts.

Meanwhile, the Adaptive Sports Center will be setting up for the start of their annual Bridges of the Butte 24-hour townie race starting at high noon Saturday and continuing until high noon on Sunday. In addition, Crested Butte Devo will host clinics for kids and their parents at Tommy V Field and the school parking lot as well as some rides that afternoon to get a glimpse of the Junior Wildflower Classic race course slated for Sunday.

The festival wraps up Sunday, June 25 with the second annual Junior Wildflower Classic presented by Crested Butte Devo. There will be races for kids of all ages and abilities with a variety of courses that include Lupine I, Lupine II some of the Lower Loop trail system all starting at Tommy V Field behind the school.

Whether you’re looking to cruise down Kebler on a townie, mash single track miles on your XC bike, or experience the joy of lift-served downhill at Evolution Bike Park, we’ve got you covered with Bike Week. All information and registration can be found at cbbikeweek.com.

And, as always, to pull something of this magnitude off the chamber needs volunteers. Contact Scott at events@cbchamber.com to get involved.

Bryan Dillon, Brian Smith defend home trails

by Than Acuff

Yet another successful Growler is in the books with nearly 700 registered riders taking part in the two days of bike racing, all in an effort to raise money for local non-profit Gunnison Trails. The 10th annual Growler provided a few changes to the typical weekend of racing. The half-Growler (32 miles long) option was offered on both Saturday and Sunday once again, in addition to the full Growler race of 64 miles on Sunday.

This year though, race organizers also opened the weekend up to some new classes, with races for everyone from the Strider class to high school riders and on up to the Clydesdales. In the end, the additional options made for a big weekend for the local non-profit.

“The half Growler fills up the quickest and there’s folks who clearly want to ride but not do the full Growler because it’s just a daunting undertaking,” says Gunnison Trails executive director Tim Kugler. “We had the most registered we’ve ever had. Both days were basically sold out.”

Plus, thanks to the diligent work of Gunnison Trails and its large volunteer crew the past several years, race organizers were able to eliminate some of the road sections of the previous courses and replace them with additional single track in the newly built Graceland area, as well as a new section on the Skyline trail.

“It’s a cool way to showcase the new trails that the registration fees from the Growler helped pay for,” says Kugler.

That additional single track adds to the magic of the Growler weekend as most cross-country/endurance mountain bike racecourses have long sections of dirt road, whereas the Growler courses are known for extensive single track.

“It’s so popular because it’s early season and 80 percent single track,” says Kugler.

Being springtime in the Rockies, the Growler weekend can have a variety of weather patterns hitting racers over the two days with anything from sun’s out, guns out conditions, to sideways rain and even the occasional snow squall. This weekend riders on
Saturday got one brief blast from Mother Nature of hail, sleet and graupel but Sunday’s weather was splitter with little wind.

“It was actually quite nice, near-perfect weather and the trails were in perfect condition,” says Kugler.

By the time the rubber hit the trail Saturday it was game on and Gunnison Valley’s own Brian Smith of Team gO set the tone for the weekend, blazing his way around the 32-mile course in a time of 2:39:31 for the men’s title. Matt Steinwand of CB Devo/Brick Oven was next in line among the local men, placing sixth. Gunnison high school racer Benon Gattis placed seventh and Troy Hiatt cracked the top 10 as well.

Riders then lined up Sunday morning at 7 o’clock in downtown Gunnison for the start of the Big Daddy full Growler as well as the additional half-Growler Sunday option. This full Growler separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls, with 64 miles of riding—with athletes needing a top end, a low gear and everything in between.

Gunnison rider and Topeak/Ergon athlete Bryan Dillon won the full Growler last year by a mere 13 seconds and came into the Growler this season with three races under his belt and looking to defend his Growler title on his home trails.

“Knowing I won it before, I went into it with that hope of winning it again,” says Dillon. “But the Growler’s been all over the place and it depends on who shows up.”

This year Dillon had Kalan Beisel, who came in second to Dillon last year, and Taylor Lideen, a pro rider hailing from Phoenix, Ariz., who Dillon has raced several times over the years, offering legitimate threats to his repeat Growler title bid.

“He’s a very strong technical rider and coming into the weekend I knew Kalan and Taylor would be tough to beat,” says Dillon.

Dillon was in a lead pack with five other riders after the first lap but used his local knowledge to his advantage at the start of the second lap to make a move.

“The second lap started with a climb up the Notch and Rattlesnake and those are hard trails to navigate if you don’t know them so I used my local knowledge and put a hard punch in there,” explains Dillon.

The move left all but Lideen behind and the two spent the rest of the second lap with Dillon in front and Lideen right on his wheel. Lideen used a small opening on the Ridge Trail to get in front of Dillon but when they finished Tailpipe, Dillon knew he had one shot to jump back in front for the final downhill on Collarbone. He took the lead into Collarbone and held it to the finish line with Lideen right behind him and only a second between the two riders after 64 miles of racing.

“We pretty much rode together the entire time and a little move at the end was all it took,” says Dillon.

Brick Oven riders had a strong showing on Sunday as Brynne O’Connell carried the local torch in the women’s full Growler placing fifth, while Michele Preston placed fourth in the half Growler and Jafar Tabaian finished Sunday’s half Growler in third place among the men.

Dillon will continue on the big circuit as he wraps up the off-road endurance series at the final race in Carson City in mid-June. Meanwhile, the locals will keep on riding trails as the trails continue to open, with their sights set on the Chainless World Championships and the Fat Tire 40 at Crested Butte Bike Week June 22-25.

See results on page 28.

Town Ranch open to all, and free!

By Mark Reaman

Some of the local Nordic trails are opening to uses beyond skinny skis. Primarily, the Town Ranch trails system south of the Crested Butte Community School will be open and free to just about everyone, including dogs.

Crested Butte Nordic surveyed its members and the group indicated they were okay with walkers and dogs on specific locations. “There was interest, from several town residents, in walking on our trails. Our pass holders were okay with folks walking from Town Ranch to Riverbend, but did not want to see walkers on any additional Nordic trails,” explained Crested Butte Nordic executive director Keith Bauer. “The good news is, this winter folks can now walk on the Town Ranch Nordic trails all the way to Brush Creek Road.

“The big news is that the town of Crested Butte gave us a generous grant to help with grooming costs on the Town Ranch trails,” Bauer continued. “This will enable us to make trail use on the Town Ranch free for everybody: Nordic skiers, snowshoers, fat bikes, dogs, and walkers. This means that all users can use the Rec Path, Town Ranch, and Riverbend Connector for free.”

The town’s support also means Crested Butte Nordic will be grooming the recently completed Rec Path extension all the way to Elk Avenue from the Slate River bridge. This is another free trail section for all users, but due to town regulations, dogs must be on a leash on this trail and also on the Rec Path.

While there will be no charge at all for fat bikes this year on approved Nordic trails, including the Teocalli Connector, the connection to the Town Ranch trails and the Rec Path, will be closed to fat bikes as well as dogs and walkers. Bikers coming off the Rec Path will spill out on Elk and then have to navigate Ninth Street to the Town Ranch trail-head where they can jump on the Nordic trails all the way to Brush Creek Road.

“So, the Rec Path, Town Ranch, and Riverbend Nordic trails are all open to fat biking,” said Bauer. “The good news is other trails in our area may be groomed for fat bikes under a proposal from the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association to the Forest Service. The Nordic board has supported CBMBA’s fat bike grooming proposal on public lands.”

Bauer emphasized that these changes impact primarily the east side trails. But he said there are some changes to the west side as well. “Remember that dog and skier passes are required on the west side trails. Some of our pass holders requested opening up the Beaver Trail to dogs, so skiers could take their four-legged friends around Peanut Lake. The survey showed sufficient support, so the Beaver Trail will now be open to dogs on a one-year trial basis,” he explained. “Our landowners, while okay with this change, were concerned about dog waste and wildlife harassment, so please pick up after Fido, and keep your pets in voice command at all times. This will ensure the Beaver Trail will remain open to dogs going forward.”

As a community-supported organization, Bauer said Crested Butte Nordic strives to accommodate as many users as possible while still staying true to the mission and pass holders. “Sometimes that means skiing a fine line, but we do our best,” he said. “If you have any suggestions you can always reach me at director@cbnordic.org.”

Forest Service mapping discrepancies could delay agency review

By Alissa Johnson

A proposal to groom winter fat bike trails in area drainages is making its way through the Gunnison Valley for support.

The Board of County Commissioners is set to throw its support behind the project, which has been proposed by Crested Butte Mountain Biking Association (CBMBA). And though some mapping discrepancies may slow things down with the Forest Service, the agency’s review of the proposal is moving along.

“We’re a summer trails destination, so let’s be a winter trails destination,” Dave Ochs, CBMBA executive director, told the commissioners last week. “Besides Gothic, everything is already compacted areas, so instead of just leaving a snowmobile track, we’re leaving a trail so the person behind you has a better experience.”

The proposal is to groom 37 miles of winter trail in the Brush Creek, Cement Creek and Gothic Valley drainages as well as Snodgrass Mountain for multiple use. The Gothic corridor would not be opened to motorized use but an already well-used trail would be groomed.

Marlene Crosby, public works director for Gunnison County, told the commissioners that as far as the Forest Service is concerned, “They’re scoping and taking comments so they have not developed a position.”

John Murphy, district ranger, said that so far comments are generally supportive of moving forward. “It’s highly likely we would end up permitting it,” he told the commissioners, though he made the comment before some internal agency issues that could slow the process surfaced in the conversation.

In general, the commissioners and county were supportive of the proposal. Crosby did call attention to spring grooming in Brush Creek, where activity could force wildlife to higher elevations or impact agriculture. The proposal calls for grooming through the beginning of April. Aaron Drendel, Forest Service recreation staff officer, pointed out that the Grand Traverse takes place around the last weekend of March every year in that same area. The timing would be consistent.

Commissioner Phil Chamberland suggested that some attention be given to the Cement Creek winter trailhead, where snowmobilers have indicated that parking can already be an issue. He suggested signs to keep one section free of vehicles so there would be room to turn around if parking near the trailhead filled up.

Ochs pointed out that bikers would be unlikely to contribute to greater congestion. “For the most part, bikers bike to the trailheads. In theory, there’s less impact on the road and again, fat bikes can ride on the dirt and ride on the snow, so that hopefully alleviates a problem instead of exacerbating it.”

“That could be an economic amenity to Crested Butte South,” commissioner Paula Swenson said, to which Chamberland and commissioner Jonathan Houck pointed out that you can get coffee and beer there.

“[There could be] some kind of parking lot to start your biking there… Start with your coffee and end with your beer, so I think there’s a lot of opportunity,” Swenson continued.

Houck was happy to see so many letters of support for the project, and Chamberland pointed out that it was the first time he had seen Gunnison Valley Health comment on support for a trail project.

Drendel did remind the commissioners that the Forest Service is still collecting comments through November 18, and it would be premature to consider the proposal a done deal. There are also some internal discussions that need to happen regarding discrepancies between maps for the areas.

According to Drendel, the Gothic corridor, Brush Creek and Cement Creek are considered snow trails in the agency’s existing database and mapping, but they are not included in a snow compaction map, which is off in a variety of ways.

“Somehow in the snow compaction map that [the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)] keeps, that map is really off in general. It’s not even close to what’s going on out there,” he said.

The FWS may need to be consulted because some of the grooming takes place in lynx habitat, and that might require resolving the map issue. Murphy, who had not yet heard of the discrepancy, admitted that it could result in a significant delay.

Nevertheless, the county is moving forward with support for the project. A letter of support and county permitting for access to county roads were both adopted on November 2.

Riders rise above mechanicals and crashes

by Than Acuff

While the hope was that the CB Devo high school bike team would make its second trip in a row to the podium, crashes and mechanicals and the shorter course held the team back, leaving them in fourth place at the Granby Ranch Round Up on Sunday, September 25.

“I think, in general, longer races are better for our kids,” says coach Torrey Carroll. “It’s still a solid result, given all of the crashes and mechanicals.”

The Granby course has the most climbing of any of the courses, all front-loaded at the start and a nice long stretch of singletrack. As a result, race organizers knocked a lap off of every race, fearing the amount of climbing would be too much for riders in a race format. Furthermore, while the start was a nice wide path, the course turned onto singletrack relatively early in the race, making for issues as riders jockeyed for position.

“Singletrack makes it a little hard to pass and the bottleneck near the start forced people to click out,” says Carroll. “We talked about not going out too hard because the kids wouldn’t be able to recover on the climb, and I think our whole team handled that pretty well.”

James Bivens was one of the Crested Butte riders who suffered as a result of a mechanical. Bivens spent three laps of the race locked in ninth place, but when his seat post slipped down, he lost a couple of spots, finishing the varsity race in 13th.

“His goal was top 10 and he was right in there until that happened,” says Carroll.

Ian Eldridge had been sidelined during workouts leading up to the race and when he lined up for the JV race, temperatures were near freezing. Nevertheless, Eldridge shook off the chill and ill to punch his way into a fifth-place finish. JV teammate Tanner Perkins had his hands full with a tough start position after missing a race earlier in the season. Perkins moved his way up from 105th to a 13th-place finish but his effort to make up places early in the race may have kept him out of the top 10 when all was said and done.

“He passed everyone in the second wave within the first 50 yards but he kept on going and I think that he blew up a little bit,” says Carroll. “It was still a good result.”

Finn Wilson had a similar brutal start place, lining up in the second wave and in the 108th spot but managed to mash his way to 30th place by the finish.

Sophomore Marion Chater continues to rally each week despite her tough start position. Chater went into the first climb on the first lap in 12th place and then proceeded to pass riders the rest of the way to finish in fourth.

“That was a really strong result for her,” says Carroll.

JC Patterson led the sophomore boys and continues to climb the overall ranks, edging up one more spot from his previous race to place eighth. Liam Elliott wasn’t too far behind in 14th place; Ethan Carroll rallied after a brutal crash to finish in 24th; and Jesse Fulkerson and Elior Bilow placed 29th and 47th, respectively, out of 100 riders, while a mechanical ended Luke Shull’s race prematurely.

Dylan Alagna had the top result among the freshmen boys placing sixth, a huge improvement from his previous races.

“That was a breakthrough race for him,” says Carroll.

Dane Defrates crashed three times during his race but still managed a 14th-place finish, and Owen Berv suffered a similar fate but still placed 20th. Ruby Laemmel shook off a recent illness to finish her freshmen race in 10th place.

The team closes out the regular season on Saturday, October 8 in Nathrop and then has two weeks before the state championships.

Given that mechanicals and crashes were the root sources of keeping the team off of the podium in Granby, Carroll is looking for them to step up in Nathrop.

“As a team we’re hoping to make it back on the podium again,” says Carroll.