Dear Crested Butte Nordic Community,
As we head into the next phase of living with COVID-19, we are adapting our rental system from day-rentals to weekend/weekday rentals. This will hopefully enable you to get outside more with less hassle! It will also keep our staff safer and allow for more limited staffing of the Nordic Center. Grooming continues!
First, off, please return any rental equipment you already have in your possession. Our rental fleet is limited, and we want to provide access to skiing and snowshoeing for as many people as possible. This means we need to share the love!
This is an unprecedented time; it calls for unprecedented measures. As such, we have decided to make season passes and rental equipment pay-what-you-can*. We want you to be able to get outside, get exercise, and get fresh air with your family, no matter what. We are also striving to be fiscally responsible so that the Nordic Center can continue to provide our trails, programs, services, and events at affordable rates in the future. Thank you for doing what you can to support our trails and sustain our rental fleet.
The new rental program:
You will rent skis for a multi-day “block”.
Weekend Block: Friday, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. (scheduled pick-up) – Monday, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. (open drop-off)
Weekday Block: Monday, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. (scheduled pick-up) – Friday, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. (open drop-off)
Thursday, March 19 will be the last day of daily rentals. The first weekend block rentals will begin on Friday, March 20. The first weekday block will begin on Monday, March 23.
The reservation form will go live at 4 p.m. on Thursday. Equipment will be rented on a first-come, first-served basis. You MUST have a season pass to take advantage of this offer; this includes seniors and children. If you don’t have a season pass, you can purchase season passes online now at pay-what-you-can rates. Please spread the word to your neighbors and folks who might not otherwise get this message, especially our elderly friends. We will not be issuing passes, but we do need you to sign our waiver before using our paid trails and/or checking out rental equipment.
How It Works:
- Starting at 4 p.m. today, Thursday, March 19, you can reserve your rental equipment online for a block of days. (We will only be allowing reservations one block at a time. Given the times, we just can’t plan further ahead than that.)
- You will receive an email from the Nordic Center confirming if we CAN or CANNOT fill your order. Please read this email. Please do not assume your order will be filled. We will do the best we can, but our rental fleet is limited.
- Your email will tell you what time to pick up your gear on Friday or Monday afternoon. You must pick up gear as close to this time as possible; one staff person will be at the Nordic Center for a limited time.
- You must return your equipment between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Monday (Weekend Block) or Friday (Weekday Block). This will give our staff time to clean and prepare the equipment for the next client.
If you reserve equipment for a block, but we are unable to fill your order, you will be first in line for the next block. For example, if you tried to rent equipment this Friday, but we weren’t able to fill your order, you would be first in line for the requested equipment on Monday. You do not have to take the equipment Monday, but you’d have first right of refusal.
In order to provide as many people as possible access to this service, you cannot just keep your equipment from one block to the next. Please email [email protected] if you’d like to keep your equipment. If it is not otherwise needed, we will allow you to do so.
Our mission continues to be to provide everyone, of all ages and abilities, the opportunity to get outside and recreate in winter. We have worked to fulfill our mission for over 30 years because of our core belief that outdoor recreation is a key pillar of mental and physical health; that by helping you get more out of winter, you will be able to get more out of life. We never predicted these turbulent times. But now that we find ourselves in them, we are doing everything in our capacity to live even more fully into this mission. We are proud and humbled to be able to continue to serve our community.
Thank you for your continued patience and understanding as we roll out (yet another) new system. As we know you are, we are doing our best to adapt to our new reality. We will keep you as updated as often as possible. Please stay up-to-date with trail conditions and operations at our website, cbnordic.org.
*We will require a $1 donation for rental equipment; if this equipment is not returned we will charge you the full retail value.
A quick catch-up for those that haven’t seen our earlier updates:
- All programs (lessons, yurt dinners, events, etc.) are cancelled.
- The ice rink is closed.
- The Nordic Center is closed to the public.
The trails are open! We will keep grooming as long as we can.
- Town Ranch, Riverbend Trail, and the Rec Path are FREE and open for walking, dogs, bikes, skiing, and snowshoeing.
- The rest of our trail system requires a trail pass. Some trails allow dogs; all trails allow skis and snowshoes. Walking and fat bikes are not permitted on our other trails. While snow is free, grooming simply isn’t. Thank you for supporting our grooming.
- Even though it’s spring and a global pandemic, please download the CBGTrails app and know where you are before heading off-trail. Our relationships with our private landowners are still critical to our success.
- Off-trail (crust) skiing is permitted on public lands.
Please DO NOT crust ski off the Maze Trails between the Rec Path and Middle Earth (all up and down the Rec Path), or off the Riverbend Connector past Town Ranch. These are private lands. Going off-trail could threaten the existence of these trails in the future.