Stories Archives - Colorado Mountain College

Dave & Christine Ayers: It All Began at CMC

I was one of Christine’s outdoor leaders on the Mountain O trip. She had just moved out from Connecticut to begin college at CMC. I am from the Roaring Fork Valley and was a “multi-year” student at CMC when we met. We both felt a friendship connection on that trip as we did with most of our trip members. It was a few months into the school year that our friendship began to deepen.

In addition to her other studies, Christine also became an outdoor leader. For the next two years, CMC became the foundation to not only our relationship but it fostered our love and understanding of our natural and wild places.

Bob Kelley, Gary Zabel, Jay Zarr, and Len Trusedale were all incredibly influential and highly talented teachers and mentors to both of us. These staff members showed they were at CMC because they LOVED what they taught and it showed in their classes and actions. It is because of these individuals, educational stewards, that Christine and myself developed such an intrinsic passion for science and wild places.

We finish our studies at CMC and both enrolled and began classes at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Christine began her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology, and I embarked on a path that would lead to a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sport science with an emphasis on sports medicine.

During the summer break, Christine became involved with the Student Conservation Association (SCA) and she landed a summer internship with the Ranger Naturalists of Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana. This became a regular summer gig for her except it mutated into a paid seasonal position with the National Park Service as a Ranger Naturalist.

I remained in Fort Collins for the most part, except for the occasional 2,000 mile round trip to visit her in Glacier! But during one of my summertime rambles around Fort Collins, I came upon a home brew supply store and wandered in. The home brewing bug bit me, hard! Soon I was home brewing almost every weekend. In Christine’s words “stinking up the entire apartment!”

I was fortunate enough to land a job at a small microbrewery in Fort Collins, the H.C. Berger Brewing Company. I started as the weekend keg washer and, a few years later, left as their gold-medal winning head brewer. Christine, all the while was continuing her career with the Park Service at Glacier National Park as well as being a Ranger Naturalist in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

We married in 1996, moved to Windsor, Colorado, and had our first daughter. I was taking a break from the brewing world and working with an old brewing buddy at his residential and commercial remodeling company while Christine was a stay-at-home mom. The remodeling work was financially rewarding, but we both began to feel more and more like strangers in a flat land. We knew we had to get back into the mountains.

An opportunity dropped from the skies in the form of a job offer to brew for a small brewpub in Telluride, Colorado. We jumped at the chance and, a handful of weeks later, we had our town home on the market, moving van loaded up and we headed to our new home, Norwood, west of Telluride.

The three of us settled into a happy life in our 110-year-old miner’s house above 7,000 feet, feeling very much like the characters from the novel “Tom Boy Bride”. I was brewing away and Christine was working as an executive assistant to a high-end property developer. We both, however, continued to feel the pull northward from Montana.

Years before, during one of those road trips to Glacier when I would drive Christine up for the summer, I experienced an epiphany in broad daylight between Rock Springs and Pinedale, Wyoming. “The Glacier Brewing Company”.

In a flash, I knew the brewery’s look, the beer names, location, everything! I filed this away until one fateful day in Telluride when Christine and I were having lunch with her brother Bob. Bob was stopping by on his way out of Colorado to move to Flathead Lake, Montana. He knew about the “Glacier Brewing Idea” from previous discussions and we began to talk about it again at this lunch. One of us finally said “We should either build this brewery or never speak about it again!”. A hush fell over our table; we all knew we were going to build this brewery.

That was in 2002. Since, we have had a second daughter and have moved to Polson, Montana, on the southern shores of Flathead Lake. It was also in late 2002 that we did, in fact, open the Glacier Brewing Company.

Christine has become a well-respected, much-loved, fourth-grade teacher at our local elementary school. I am currently guiding our brewing company through its 15^th year in operation. Our oldest daughter is heading off to Washington State University in the fall (we pushed HARD for CMC with her!) and our youngest will be rocking her high school as a sophomore.

From our formative years at CMC to the present, the two of us had sought out the wild lands to explore and have raised our daughters to recognize and appreciate the beauty and importance of these places. The four of us roaming over, around, and through enchanted places like Zion, Arches, Hunter/Fryingpan Wilderness, Glacier National Park, Arcadia National Park, and hundreds and hundreds of similar places. Including just last week when the four of us awoke at 12:30am to climb the glacial moraine behind our house so we could watch the Aurora Borealis dance across Flathead Lake!

It truly has been our experiences at CMC that have shaped our life decisions and directions as well as forged us into the people we are today. Our love for the wild places, our respect for our natural world, and our commitment to one another all began with our lives at Colorado Mountain College.

Kristen Wells: Prepared at CMC for Stanford

Leadville native Kristen Wells misses her hometown and the Rocky Mountains. The Lake County High School graduate and former CMC student is now pursuing her Ph.D. in genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine. Though she yearns for views of the Collegiate Range, the allure of being on the cutting edge of medical research is more compelling.

“The coolest thing about Stanford is that all the top research is happening right here,” Kristen said. “We’re the first to implement many of the latest innovations in the science world, then a year later everyone hears about it and is talking about it in the public sector. It’s really fun to be a part of that.” For example, Kristen is using CRISPR, the revolutionary new gene editing technology, in her daily work. Her thesis, in layman’s terms, is about looking at gene expression that’s involved in preventing autoimmune disorders. Using CRISPR “really speeds up the research because we can manipulate an individual gene and see what it does,” she explained. The research may eventually lead to improved treatments for devastating autoimmune diseases like MS and lupus.

Wells credits her experience at Colorado Mountain College Leadville with setting her up for success in college. By the time she was a high school junior, she had maxed out on all the science and English courses available at her school. A counselor suggested that she take some college-level courses “up the hill” at CMC. So she did, taking Spanish with former Professor Mary Ebuna, and English with Associate Professor Jeff Runyon. “CMC was an incredible experience for me, especially Mr. Runyon who made English really fun. He pushed me, and made English exciting.” She learned early the rigors of college-level study, including increased homework and higher expectations from her instructors. “It made the transition to college much easier for me.”

Upon graduation from high school, Wells won a Boettcher scholarship and a full ride to Colorado College where she earned her bachelor’s in biology. She then was accepted into the doctoral program at Stanford where her education is completely paid for by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. “I use the writing skills I learned at CMC in my work now”, she said. “There’s a lot more creativity in science than you would expect, as writing and communication are a big part of the process. We write and publish papers, and orally present our work to our peers.”

For now, Kristen’s return to her home state will have to wait. She estimates it will take 4 more years of study to complete her doctorate. After that, she would like to continue advancing the study of genetics, wherever that pursuit takes her.

Mary Ballou: Get a Little Class in Your Night Life

I arrived in the Aspen area in August 1972, having just graduated from college, married, and back from our honeymoon. A frat brother of my husband spent the previous winter in Aspen and he advised us, "You have to spend one winter in Aspen before you go somewhere to get serious about life."

So, that WAS our plan. But by November, we bought a bar. In January, we bought a house...a real "fixer upper." Six months in, we weren't planning to leave.

In January, I also signed up for a clay class through CMC. It was held at Anderson Ranch. I had started "playing with clay" at age 14 and majored in fine arts and art education in college. I was very anxious to find a place to continue.

Over the years, I have taken many, many clay classes with extraordinary teachers. I have also taken watercolor and drawing classes, education classes, science classes, music appreciation, film classes, language classes and probably some I have forgotten about. I just know that when I need to request a transcript, it seems like they have to cut down a tree!

I love the concept of being a "life-long learner." In the 1970's, there was a banner that CMC would hang over Main Street at registration time that said, "GET A LITTLE CLASS IN YOUR NIGHT LIFE." I love that!

CMC has been a life enhancing institution in my 45 years in Aspen. And during difficult times, knowing that I could escape to my "happy place" (the pottery studio) was lifesaving. And I have made the most wonderful friends in the ceramics community. I think of CMC as my second home and my family.

Krystal Baucum: Finding Academic Courage

Fear can come in many forms, but what sent Krystal Baucum running for the hills was math class.

Luckily, she found the academic courage she was searching for here at Colorado Mountain College.

“CMC provided me with the perfect opportunity to take classes at my own pace,” says Krystal, a CMC Aspen student. “If you put in the hard work, CMC is there for you.”

Professors at CMC pride themselves on the personal connections they make with students. This individualized teaching fuels success by helping students focus on their unique goals.

“I knew the possibilities were endless with CMC,” Krystal says. “It was the perfect outlet.”

Originally from the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska, Krystal went to college in California and then started a career in the hospitality industry in Houston, Texas. However, she quickly realized this was not the right career path for her.

When she moved to Aspen with her husband in 2012, she easily could have landed a job in the hospitality industry but she used the move as a fresh start. Krystal was offered a full-time job at CMC and then began taking classes at night.

“It was a momentous decision,” she says of enrolling at CMC. “It was tough but I knew I wanted something different for myself.”

With help from faculty and staff, Krystal took small steps toward her goal of pursuing a career in math and science. She started with basic algebra classes and worked up to advanced calculus. In the fall, she will transfer to Colorado School of the Mines to pursue a degree in chemical & biological engineering.

“The professors at CMC are incredible,” says Krystal. “Everyone has an open-door policy and I took advantage of every office hour.”

“No words can express how thankful I am to CMC.”

Noelle Brigden: Fulbright Scholar

Looking for direction, Noelle Brigden found it at Colorado Mountain College.

Noelle was recently out of the army and recovering from a severe back injury. She hadn’t done well in high school but received a California Proficiency Exam Diploma, so she decided to give college a try with her veteran’s benefits.

“CMC helped me find my way by giving me confidence,” explains Noelle, who went on from Colorado Mountain College Steamboat to earn a Ph.D. from Cornell, Postdoctoral Fellowship at Brown University and a Fulbright Award.

Noelle says that CMC helped her “find direction through the advising and support of professors that encouraged me to reach for higher goals.”

But more importantly, the California native stresses, CMC helped make learning fun again. She describes CMC as a supportive environment where “I was never turned away from a professor’s office.”

“And the fact that the professors were so enthusiastic really inspired me,” she says.

Noelle now brings that same type of enthusiasm to the students in her classroom at Marquette University.

“It was the right decision for me,” Noelle says of attending CMC. “And I would encourage others to choose CMC, particularly for non-traditional students that might be a little apprehensive about returning to the classroom.”

Noelle adds that CMC provided an excellent foundation for future study by allowing her to take a wide range of courses like economics and Spanish. She even got to reflect on her time in the military during speech class.

“All of these things opened up a lot of different worlds to me that I wasn’t aware of,” she recalls.

That eagerness to learn new ideas continued throughout her academic career. Noelle’s doctoral research focused on the violence and uncertainty that confronts Central American migrants. She conducted two years of fieldwork at a Catholic migrant shelter, and rode a train along illegal migrant routes in El Salvador, Mexico and the United States.

Her research has led to countless journal articles and she is in the process of writing a book. Noelle was also recently awarded a highly competitive invitation to be Visiting Associate Research Scholar at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS).

“Where would I be without CMC? I don’t know,” says Noelle. All of this might not have been possible if she had not found Colorado Mountain College.

Powder Guild: Lifelong Connections

In the early 1980s a lifelong bond was formed among the students and instructors of the Colorado Mountain College Ski Area Operations program. They called themselves the Powder Guild. It was their desire to turn a passion for skiing into a career that brought them together in Leadville, but it was their never-ending quest for powder, camaraderie, and playful antics that have kept the Powder Guild in touch to this day.

“Back in the day, our motto was ‘We’re young, good looking and do what we want’,” says Powder Guild member John ‘Staatzy’ Staats, who currently lives in Tucson, Arizona, “Now it’s ‘old, out of shape and do what our wives tell us’… just kidding, we’ll never grow up!”

The twelve members of the infamous Powder Guild came from all over the U.S., Canada, and Japan, ranging in age from 18 – 32. After graduating from the Ski Area Operations program, many Powder Guild members went on to enjoy successful careers in the ski industry at resorts around the world.

Over the past few decades, members have coordinated trips to Jackson Hole, Hawaii, Colorado, and even Japan to appease Japanese member Yoichi Amano, who has traveled to numerous state-side Powder Guild gatherings. In 2015, Yoichi hosted members, Jim Oberriter and John Staats, showing them around Tokyo on separate trips.

“I meet with the Powder Guild whenever I can find an opportunity to do so,” says Yoichi, “We exchange emails and find every opportunity to get together. Even 30 years after graduation, we are still united.”

Inevitably, celebratory milestones like weddings and births have been replaced by funerals for fallen brothers. Founding member, Kent ‘Kento’ Bridges and Phil Sande, have since passed. Their spirits are celebrated with every Powder Guild gathering and through many cherished memories.

Though it has been decades since their college years, the fun-loving, carefree attitude of the Powder Guild is still very much intact. However, the group is more than the chronicles of college students and ski resort shenanigans – though the anecdotes are undoubtedly entertaining. It’s about exploring a passion while discovering genuine friendships, and investing in those connections for life.

“It was a chance gathering of guys from all over the globe that loved to ski and be free,” says Staats, “We bonded as no other group of people that I’ve ever met or heard of.”