Ep. 52 Ian Billick | Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
Release Date: 02/12/2020
Ep. 70 Caleb and Morgan Weinberg | ROMP Skis
Crested Butte Is Home
If you spend any time skiing Crested Butte Mountain Resort at all, you've almost certainly seen ROMP skis, and probably a lot of them, in the lift lines. Brothers Morgan and Caleb Weinberg grew up in the mountains of New Hampshire doing all the things we love to do here in the Gunnison valley, like mountain biking and skiing. Both of them attended Western Colorado University, and like many Western alum, decided to stay and make a home in Crested Butte. During and shortly after the 2008 recession, they found themselves with a bit more time on their hands and Morgan, a self-described tinkerer,...
info_outline
Ep. 69 Aaron Blunck | 2X Olympics, Gold Medal X Games
Crested Butte Is Home
Aaron Blunck was born to ski. His grandfather started the ski school here in Crested Butte, his mom was a longtime instructor, his dad loves to ski, and Aaron had to keep up with his big brother somehow, too. By 8 he and his brother were skiing on their own, equipped with cheap radios to call home in case they needed to. Aaron was always into jumps and he pretty quickly started to excel at it, especially in the halfpipe discipline. Before he knew it he was competing in the X Games and Olympics before he'd even gotten out of high school. He went on to win an X Games gold...
info_outline
Ep. 68 Corey Tibljas | Film Production and Firefighting
Crested Butte Is Home
Corey Tibljas spent most of his childhood growing up right here in Crested Butte, as one of the first graduating classes at what was then the new Community School. It was there, at the school, that he and his friend Ben Somrak decided to make a ski movie and start their company, Two Plank Productions. Thanks to the help of local film makers Matchstick Productions (see episode 26 Murray Wais), and the local TV station (see episode 46 Noah Wight), they were able to release their film to a packed house at the Center For the Arts. The duo released several more ski movies, before...
info_outline
Ep. 67 Joe and Shamai Buckel | High Country Wine Making
Crested Butte Is Home
Shamai Buckel grew up in Southern Colorado as well as Santa Fe, New Mexico and went to Western Colorado University after a powder-filled ski trip to Crested Butte convinced her that this was the place to be. Joe Buckel's journey to the Gunnison valley from Indiana took a little longer, with a short stint in Denver. But they found each other and eventually moved to California wine country to learn more about wine making. There, they discovered "warehouse wineries", and decided that they could do the same thing here. They get their grapes in Palisade (near Grand Junction), but...
info_outline
Ep. 66 Lucille Lucas | Dali, Art, Moroccan Craziness and more
Crested Butte Is Home
Lucille Lucas grew up in New York City, with parents that were deeply immersed in the art world. That meant that she was able to meet artists like Salvador Dali and others, and Lucille began practicing her own art at a young age as well. But a trip across the country proved to her that NYC wasn't her place- the smaller and slower life in the rural West was more her speed. She learned how to ski and backcountry ski when few people were doing it, and also lived in a teepee above Aspen, CO for a winter. Another adventure started at the farmhouse she was living at in...
info_outline
Ep. 65 Craig Hall | Crested Butte Heliskiing and Flying to Fight Forest Fires
Crested Butte Is Home
Craig Hall grew up in the Southeast Colorado town of La Junta, but often visited the Gunnison and Crested Butte area to ski and fish. After graduating with a forestry degree from Colorado State University, Craig headed to Crested Butte to ski. He was part of a small group of skiers that were heading out into the backcountry and started to learn the newly re-discovered telemark turn as the best way to access the mountains surrounding Crested Butte with the gear that was available at the time. A heliskiing company was starting, and Craig was recommended as someone who knew the...
info_outline
Ep. 64 Jay Prentiss | Mountaineering, Mentoring, and Long-haul Covid
Crested Butte Is Home
Jay Prentiss grew up on the East coast, and like many of the other people I've interviewed, his first visit to the Gunnison Valley was as a freshman at Western Colorado University. Already an outdoor athlete, he's taken advantage of all the Crested Butte area offers- climbing, kayaking, skiing, mountain biking and more. One of those passions is mountaineering, which included a trip to North America's highest peak, Denali. It didn't get off to a particularly auspicious start, with the pilot saying "sorry" seconds before hitting the glacier. Another mountaineering trip...
info_outline
Ep. 63 Jake O'Connor | Building a Better Handcycle
Crested Butte Is Home
Jake O Connor grew up in Colorado, enjoying the outdoor lifestyle and building houses as he grew older. In his final year at CSU in Fort Collins, Jake suffered a spinal cord injury at a jobsite, but mere months later, he returned and earned his construction management degree. He went on to a successful career, even building a "floating casino" in Kansas City, which we talk about in this episode. Eventually he decided to move to Crested Butte, and not only that, he thought he could improve upon the handcycle designs of the time and build something better. After...
info_outline
Ep. 62 Stevie Kremer | Trailrunning Champion Across the World
Crested Butte Is Home
Stevie Kremer was born in Germany, but moved to Connecticut with her family before she was 1 year old. Her life on the CT shore, not far from New York City, was typical- golf, tennis, etc, before heading to Colorado College in Colorado Springs. It was while attending CC that she was introduced to Crested Butte and fell in love with the place, as so many of us do. Once she arrived in Crested Butte after college, she began hiking and realized she could run instead of hiking half the time, so why not run? So she kept running and even ran her first race, Crested Butte's "Cart to Cart"....
info_outline
Ep. 61 Kyleena Falzone | Secret Stash, Travel, Philanthropy
Crested Butte Is Home
Kyleena Falzone is originally from Buffalo, New York. From a young age, she knew she wanted to work in the restaurant business, and that only intensified after a visit with relatives in Sicily, Italy, who owned a restaurant there. For several years, Kyleena would work in restaurants from Vail to the Hamptons, learning as much as she could about the business, and spending off seasons pursuing her other love- traveling to far-off locales like India. So far, she's visited roughly 90 countries across the world. When the time was right, she opened a coffee shop in Western New...
info_outlineIan Billick grew up in Kansas, but he was also lucky enough to be exposed to the mountains as well. While pursuing a degree in math and science, he received some great career advice and that led him to a profession that would help him spend time outside. And thanks to that, he found Gothic and the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), where he is the executive director.
Ian tells a great story about how RMBL started (you'd never guess the KKK was indirectly involved), and talks about some of the science that is currently happening in Gothic. Another question I asked is "How does RMBL fit in with competing interests like recreation as Crested Butte grows?" His answer makes complete sense. We also talked about the potential involvement that RMBL may have with the "North Parcel", a large plot of land near the Snodgrass trailhead- how it's developed may shape Crested Butte for decades to come.
Crested Butte Real Estate Minute:
Mount Crested Butte recently enacted new rules and taxes for short term rentals. Interested in knowing more about them? Contact me here.
Learn More:
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
Quotes:
...And then all of the miners started swarming in the 1870s, so Gothic incorporated as a mining town in 1879. And it filled up to five or 10,000 people, it was one of the main ways in and out of Aspen. Aspen didn't have a train and so they would send mill trains up over East Maroon Pass.