Six decades of ups and downs by Sandy Fails

ups and downs

Then and now: Crested Butte’s ski area in the fall of 1970, and a current skier’s view of the base area.

Sandra Cortner

The Crested Butte Ski Area debuted in the winter of 1961-62. It has launched countless skiers and countless stories in its 60 years.

In early winter 1961, a borrowed rope tow pulled the first official skiers up the slope of the new Crested Butte Ski Area. It’s been a rich and sometimes bumpy ride since then.

In 1960, Kansas-born ski enthusiast Dick Eflin and college buddy Fred Rice had big dreams when they purchased the Malensek Ranch on Crested Butte Mountain and applied to develop skiing there. The U.S. Forest Service issued a special-use permit the following year, and the new resort opened to lift-served skiing for the winter of 196162 with a generator, a T-bar and a rope tow borrowed from the old Rozman Hill ski area. A J-bar soon replaced the rope tow.

In what now seems like an ironic pairing, an early-1960s issue of Vogue Magazine described Crested Butte and Vail (which opened in December 1962) as two new “in resorts where everybody who’s anybody is going.” The accompanying photos showed svelte skiers in fashionable stretch pants.

The two “in” resorts went very different directions because

Dusty Demerson

they came from very different roots. By the time Vail Village was built to support the new Vail ski area, Crested Butte had been a strong, feisty community for 80 years and multiple generations. The people who had settled here in the mining days, many from the Old Country, weathered tough circumstances through strength of character and community, and they passed on that legacy. Dick Eflin spent many hours around kitchen tables getting to know the people,

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THERAPY

Physical Therapy · Dry Needling · Cold Laser · Massage · Personal Training and a handful of oldtimers went to work for the new ski area, like Rudy Sedmak, John Krizmanich and Tony Gallowich. Locals referred to the Keystone chairlift as “Rudy’s lift.” The ski area drew more flannel and denim than haute couture and was hardly a magnet for “everybody who’s anybody.”

The Crested Butte Ski Area wobbled into bankruptcy in the mid 1960s. In 1970, the Callaway and Walton families brought fresh enthusiasm and capital, expanding the ski terrain and lift system and renaming it Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR). Three decades later, as the ski area once again needed refurbishing, Tim and Diane Mueller purchased it in 2004, bringing needed capital improvements. In 2018, Vail Resorts acquired the ski area as part of a multi-resort deal.

That announcement stunned a community that touted itself as the antonym to Vail. For a small, non-cookie-cutter town, being interdependent with a huge corporate entity didn’t sit well. But most nightmares failed to materialize. Being part of Vail Resorts’ international Epic Pass drew skiers to Crested Butte from distant points, but not the stampeding hordes people feared. Vail Resorts focused on ski area improvements and didn’t try to gentrify the town; the more Crested Butte maintained its character, the more it added something unique to the constellation of Epic Pass offerings. For the most part, the town kept its community, personality and scale.

The resort and town are still inextricably tied: an internationally notable ski area, and a charming and authentic, old but young-spirited town three miles down the road. Neither would be the same without the other. Most people who arrived in the last six decades wouldn’t be here without the ski area, though some no longer hit the slopes that initially drew them here. This landmark 60th birthday is worthy of our celebration.

Vail Resorts will honor the anniversary “and the grit of our founders” with events throughout the season, said Will Shoemaker, CBMR communications manager. As of press time, the resort had not yet announced specific plans.

It’s been quite a journey from Dick Eflin’s first visit with the Malenseks to discuss the purchase of their ranchland at the base of Crested Butte Mountain. Now 15 lifts serve 121 trails across 1,547 acres of ski terrain. And the mountain of stories born on those slopes just keeps getting bigger. b