Posts Tagged ‘Alumni’
Barbara & Crissi Boe: Fewer Doubts and More Options
Barbara Boe was a ranch wife and mother when the bottom dropped out of her life. “All I had known was taking care of five children,” says Boe, recalling how she felt when she and her husband separated in 2005, leaving her with their children, aged 4 to 14, and a ranch on Silt Mesa…
Read MoreMary 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…
Read MoreDarryl Grob: Bigger and Better Life
It was 1969. Darryl Grob emerged from the Vietnam War and headed back home to central Los Angeles. Before long he, like many former soldiers of the time, went down the rabbit hole of what Darryl called “dysfunctional distractions.” But a short visit to Aspen changed all that. Darryl left “all things LA” and moved…
Read MoreKrystal 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…
Read MoreNoelle 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…
Read MoreMark Mueller: Powder Chaser to Avalanche Forecaster
Like most mountain folks, Mark Mueller fell in love with snow culture at a young age. But after a few years of working as a cook and in the rental/ repair shops, he recognized he needed knowledge and skills to grow his passion for powder into a rewarding career. It was in the early 1970’s when Mark…
Read MoreGeoff and Allison Marriner: Olympic Experience
South Korea is over 6,000 miles away from Colorado, but when it comes to the ski industry, it’s surprisingly close. Nobody knows that better than Allison Kohn Marriner and her husband, Geoff “Salty” Marriner, both alumni of Colorado Mountain College Leadville’s ski area operations program. The couple was hired to join an international team of…
Read MorePowder 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…
Read MoreGil Cisneros: The Right Place at the Right Time
In 1967, Gil Cisneros was newly married and feeling the pressure to get started on a career. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t see myself working underground for the rest of my life”, says Cisneros, who was working as a miner at Climax Molybdenum Mine in Leadville. He started taking…
Read MoreLorene Martinez: From Unsure to a PhD
Leadville local Lorene Martinez was unsure about college. But she took one class at Colorado Mountain College. Then another. With encouragement from faculty, this single mom realized she could succeed. And she did, all the way to a PhD in microbiology from Colorado State University. “CMC is one of the best choices I ever made,”…
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