The New Girl

Being the new girl in a town like Crested Butte is a lot like moving to a new school at 12 years old.
Your teacher introduces you to the class..

Tell us your name. 
      (Oh god this is embarrassing.)Megan Collins.
Where are you from?
      (Suddenly it feels like there is a right and a wrong   answer.)Alta, Utah.
How old are you? 
      Well that never actually came up, but she's 23.

Being the new girl means-cultural immersion, questions for days, the lime light until someone new comes along, how am I gonna remember all of these names, and my goodness these people are friendly. But Megan never missed a beat, she admittedly has missed some names, but in a town like this...who could blame her. When I told my friends I was interviewing the new girl to town, they immediately asked if they could tag along and if not, where and when would this interview be taking place. "Can we just "happen" to show up?" Here's what I got from covert operation: Interview Megan. 

Growing up in Alta, Megan grew up skiing and in ski culture. She knew what she was in for when coming to CB. After college at CU Boulder, she was ready to get back to the mountains. She'd always wanted to work in the ski industry but until applying to CBMR, she wasn't sure a career (in) skiing was possible. She applied on a whim, had an interview and got the phone call she'd been waiting for. 

Despite a background in mountain living, Megan needed some reassurance before making the jump. When I asked her what she'd heard about CB, she responded without a second thought.

"It's a great ski town you know? It's the town with the bars AND the skiing. And it's a community where the skiing is just as extreme as the people. That's about it, that's all I ever needed to know."

She admits that the drive to Gunni to do a weeks worth of grocery shopping is annoying and driving to Boulder to shop is just part of the lifestyle, but she loves how outdoorsy everyone is and the fact that jeans are the norm even at her "real job" as we all call it. I asked Megan to explain CB to a stranger, she says the way she justifies it to all of her friends back home, who keep asking why would move somewhere where people have closer relationships to their space heaters than their hair dressers, is:

"It's a small ski town that's away from the population and it's quaint and friendly and welcoming. You feel at home when you walk in. It's one in a million."

After comparing new girl to town stories and hearing the best Craziest CB Story yet (you can ask her about her first night to town...sorry Megan) we got to the good stuff:

Dating in a ski town is never great, not even with the skewed ratio. But when you grow up with a dad in Lift Ops. the probability of finding a winner is dismal. Ski patrol knew to keep their distance and until after college, Megan was just (as she puts it) Jail Bait. Not only did they know better, they had their eyes out for her dad. CB on the other hand? A whole new can of you can fill in the blank.

Speaking of that fill in the blank...I asked Megan what her worst fear about living in Crested Butte was, her response was golden:

"Mullet March."

Here's to March being a few months away, that this winter is as steep and deep as Megan hopes, and the new girl. 

The Last Great Ski Town

It's 9 P.M. and Craig Andersen is already saying that if we are going to do this interview, we'd better get to it before another drink. Only three other people sit at the bar of the Dogwood and the bartender is making jokes with Craig about being interviewed for boyfriend material.

In "interview pregame", I've already discovered one major commonality (and the most important element for boyfriend material...just kidding), Powder Magazine. I can specifically remember the February 2008 issue that got me, years later, to transfer to Western. Already going to Western, he remembers it too, but in a different light. After 3 years in Gunni as a Rec major, with a three day a week schedule/skiing five days a week, it just made more sense, Andersen decided it was time to be closer to what he moved here for, skiing, and took the 30 minute leap to CB.

Like most students that come to Western, he applied over the phone 3 weeks before the first week of class, got accepted a week later, and moved without ever having been to Colorado.

"I moved here to ski. I knew that the skiing was good, what else did I really need?" Within the first few years in the valley Craig experienced as much self-exploration as he did exploring the back country and started losing the East Coast-ness and the mountain spirit began to cement inside him. Growing up skiing, he'd envisioned making a life for himself in the mountains since he was a kid, but CB was a whole different animal. "The Last Great Ski Town", as Powder claimed.

Talking to other people about other ski towns and doing his own travels, Craig found that everything that he loved about CB, just couldn't be found anywhere else. From his own experiences elsewhere, he couldn't experience the same sense of community as he did here.

"Roots, Rock, Reggae" played perfectly in the background when Craig said, "I moved out here for skiing. Finished college, and never left."

Growing up in North Jersey, he came to appreciate the community feel here, but is the first to admit, small town life.....has it's pros and cons. "Walking down the street you know most people and if you are a real ass, everyone is gonna know and you are gonna get run out. You kinda have an idea of who people are and most people are genuine here, i dig that alot."

"The people are what makes this place for me. Our kinda local, we are CB, not fuck off, but we are who we are, either like our town for what it is or go somewhere else. everyone is really passionate about staying true to themselves or what this town was or is." 

What are some of the Pros and Cons? Everyone knows your business, and that can be a pro or a con depending on how you want to carry yourself and what you want to do. If you are a pretty honest and straight forward person you know it's easy, everyone knows you are a good person that makes life easier. The con would be if you do something shiesty or let someone see a side of you you aren't proud of or didn't want to reveal everyone instantly knows. I think that's a cool thing personally, but its not cool for everyone.

Cons? Dating is a con...for sure. Small town like this, not just everyone knows your business, just the populous, your dating pool/selection. Everyone wants the cool chick that can hang out and ride, but on the same token isn't a total tomboy, not physically attractive, just attractive the way she carries herself...can do more than jeans and a t shirt at times. you want a girl who is comfortable in both realms. Finding a girl who is a balance of both, i mean, they are here, but there's 20 guys chasing every one of them. That's what makes dating suck here.

What about the ratio? It's skewed, but its not that bad. I can go back to jersey and find more attractive women than I can shake a stick at but once they start talking.....the overall quality of girls as far as I'm concerned, there's more here. It all depends on if you are going for quality or quantity.
Other cons? grocery shopping....that's a pain in the ass.

I grew up in the Vail Valley, what would you think if they bought out CB?  The culture the mountain produces isn't what I think of when I think of ski culture, ski culture to me isn't big money and furs and 2nd and 3rd homes, ski culture to me is people out there for the passion of being outdoors and a single lodge at the base of the mountain where you can bring a bag lunch or eat the cafeteria food and you ride the lifts. that's what skiing to me was growing up and what it is in my mind. That just makes it exclusive, skiing is way to cool of a thing to just have for the elite, I want to share it with everyone.

What's a ski bum??? Someone who is passionate enough about skiing that is the primary priority in their life at the expense of other priorities or needs. Someone who is willing to do whatever it takes to be on that mountain, seven days a week if they can, no matter the weather or conditions or what their bank account looks like, their priority is to ski on the mountain and be out there in that culture and enjoying the outdoors, they don't need or they are not doing it to boast at the bar, they are doing it because its their true passion and what they need for their soul. Most people only fantasize of living a lifestyle like this, most people just don't actually make the sacrifice to do it. because it is a sacrifice, whether its your career...you just make sacrifices to live here and money is definitely one of them.

What, if anything, would take you away? At this point a job. Is there a dollar amount? No. It's a job not a financial thing. I want to work in the ski industry because that's what I'm passionate about. I want something I can grow in that isn't a glass ceiling. I can work in a ski shop or restaurant in town, but I'm not going anywhere, that's not a career path for me anyways. I want to be a rep or put on ski industry events, so I can stay involved in what I'm passionate about, but still actually have a career path. I would move for an opportunity. It's not a dollar amount, it's not a job just to make money, it's the direction I want to take my life in.

I want to come back here, I don't want to be stuck here.

The February 2008 edition of Powder didn't bring Andersen here, but what the article said about CB is what kept him. It's not they money, it's obviously not the dating scene. It' s the skiing, it's the people that ski and live here, it's just the way it is. It really is the last great ski town and there isn't any place out there like it.

A Case of The Campers

There are people in every place that everyone just seems to know. They stand out in a crowd, wave hello from down the street and know at least a little something about every person that they come across. Here in CB we have a few of those, but one sticks out in my mind more than any of the others. Jesse Banks will walk through town, tall and scruffy as can be, if you didn't know the guy you'd be intimidated. Maybe it's his size, or the tough mountain man walk that only comes from being a rancher, maybe it's the way he holds onto the strap of the backpack that's only slung over one shoulder. But as soon as he speaks or throws you a wave, fingers coming all the way up to the brim of his hat, smile up to his ears, you know better. Jesse is a bear alright, the only teddy bear walking around town looking for a beer and a light.

The weekend of his life, as he puts it, was the weekend Jesse escaped jail to run away with a girl he had met just days earlier. They made it a few towns and two days before getting caught and taken in again, but even talking about her now, he smiles. So it was no shocker to hear that 13 years ago he had followed his heart yet again, to Crested Butte. After only a few short years and one engagement, the couple fell out of love, but Jesse's heart was already in CB. Jesse worked remodeling cabins for a few years after the split, but when the work ran dry at the beginning of the Summer and his lease was up...fate took over. Everything fell out of place (or into, depending on how you look at it), and the choice was obvious.

No cell phone. No home. No responsibilities.

Morning in the mountains. 6 AM or 10 AM, all depends on the weather. But what never changes is the sound of the unzipping of a tent, the crack of one of the nearby campers cracking fires ready to heat up a pot of coffee before heading to work in town, or the feel of the sunshine as it first hits his face. A stretch. A yawn. A morning hello even if it's just to a passing deer.

Living in the woods, as Jesse says, there is no need for money, there's not a whole lot to pay for...and for what there is, the odd job in town pays cash. This is freedom.

Thirteen years ago, he'd been in love with a woman, but the things that make a man fall in love with a place? Well they are simple. It's the feeling that not a single person minds much about what you do. It's being Peter Pan. It's never not having something to do. When you are surrounded by these kind of people, in this kind of place, the mountains become sort of engraved in you...there's no forgetting that feeling and no going back to who you were before.

Sounds like a dream right? Who better for a first interview!

What do you love about CB?

I think the thing is...here...no one is any better than the next guy, or gal for that matter. It's a pretty equal playing field all around. From the high school kid working as a dishwasher, to my buddy who is scrubbin next to him, we are all just here for the same reason of being in the mountains. It's something that really brings the town together, when it's forgotten though, it won't be what it is now.

The other great thing is that I'm never alone, all my friends are here like I said. I don't even have a phone, which seems to work fine, because all I do is walk up Elk and drop in places, eventually I find them all between one bar or another.

Most interesting CB story?

I took a shit off a chairlift once.
(I quickly stopped him and asked a more narrow question wary of the next response.)

Most interesting ROOMMATE situation?

I have lived with a lot of crazy people in Crested Butte, I'm warning you right now, look into who you live with. But this one girl...oh god....(Jesse takes a gulp of Bloody Mary and kinda looks around to see who is close by) SHE WAS NUTS! Everyone decided we just couldn't live with her anymore and we had to just kick her out. Took all the toilet paper! Few months later I saw a buddy of mine she had lived with...he kicked her out and she took all of the light bulbs straight out of the sockets!

How do you conquer the girl/guy ratio?

It's not a big deal if you know what you're doing. There are a lot of not that great guys in town, it's not hard to be better than that. I'm not the picture perfect guy living in a tent right now and it's still not so bad. Don't be a punk or a (I cut him off right there and finished his sentence to say Peter Pan) yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I always say

"The odds are good, but the goods are odd."

There are some great girls here, it takes something special to be a mountain girl, and you all kinda radiate it, but every decent girl here is taken or they are crazy.


My last question was a bit harder for Jesse to answer. Having known him awhile, I kinda already knew the answer...I asked him why, even though he can talk about Crested Butte like it's the only place worth living, he would leave...

I have a bunch of land in Wyoming, it's just sitting there. I want to make it self sufficient and have people be able to come and enjoy it with me, bring a tent and some food. It seems like a waste to have it just there, waiting for me. But really, there come's a time when everything just isn't everything anymore. I'm taking it for granted. This place doesn't have the same magic for me now as it does for you. I've waited a long time for me to be done with this place, I began to think the day would never come. But it's here...and it's time I get to someplace new.

-I think we take the kind of people that know everything about us, waving at us everyday, sitting with us answering questions for some silly blog, for granted. One day they shoot us a smile, ask about the dog, and then head off for their own magic. Maybe they are the most important people, maybe they are complete strangers, but maybe behind that smile they have every story you wish you had to tell.