Our History

Crested Butte Ski area was founded in the 1960‘s. Coincidentally Corky studied Business and Engineering (rather successfully) at Western State shortly thereafter. From 1979-82 Corky the book worm not only studied hard but skied harder and showed his passion for skiing by majoring in Ski Area management.

As a young man Corky raced road bikes until the cool kids started racing mountain bikes in 1984. He earned a pro license almost immediately. Since then Cork has gone on to win Colorado State Championships in many cycling categories! While Corky was building such a successful cycling resume he moved to the East coast then back to the Rocky Mountains. He called Winter Park home in 1984 & ‘85 then moved to Vail in ’86 where he and dabbled in real estate between bike races.

In 1989 Cork started his exciting bicycle career in Boulder managing Excell as their 1st employee! After two “wholesome” years in Boulder he started Crank & Plank-his first store. Even at Crank & Plank Corky had the same dog friendly atmosphere that is found at the shop today. His dog Cork, also known as Junior, was given to him by a friend and spent the next 14 years in Cork’s stores. Another fun fact – Crank & Plank was also the first NeverSummer snowboard and Ibis bicycle dealer. Corky mastered snow sports, skateboards, bicycles and of course customer service during his 4 years with Crank & Plank.

Fast forward 3 years to Corky driving down Morrison Road when he noticed a great new neighborhood and knew that it was the spot for his next bike shop! In 1997 Green Mountain Sports was founded with the help of his dogs Tug and Digger. GMS operated at that location for three more years until he moved a few doors down to a bigger unit. 7 years of awesomeness and 1 new dog later, along with the incredible support from their customers, allowed Corky to steadily grow GMS. Through the years GMS has sold dozens of bike brands such as Specialized, Bianchi, Colnogo, Lemond, Gary Fisher, Klein, Fuji, Redline, McCargy, Titus, Phat Cycles, Transition, & Torelli. Corky has always supported local companies by selling Colorado based manufacturers such as Yeti, Spot, Maverick & Niner.

Snow sports have also played a roll in GMS’s recent success. Sales and service have grown exponentially and like bicycles many manufacturers have had a presence in the shop. Rossignol has been a long time face on the ski wall along with 4front, Burton, LTD, Lamar, Salomon, Knuckle Bone, Volkl, Blizzard Technica, Marker, & Hart.

Over 150 people have worked at GMS selling more than 30 brands, servicing well over 45,000 bikes and skis and (conservatively) selling 6,000 bikes. GMS has certainly made their mark on the industry! Corky has sponsored and supported many race teams and athletes as well. Green Mountain Sports Velo has had great success racing in all disciplines and hosting a very popular Cross series every fall. GMS logos can be found on Team Evergreen, COBRAS, Fuentes Design, M3 Multisport, Columbine, Green Mountain/Bear Creek, & Evergreen High Schools, Co-Motion, Golden Wheelmen, and Tri Yoga jerseys.

In 2010 GMS made a seamless transition to their newest location on Alameda. GMS doubled their square footage to provide a truly professional back shop with year round ski & bike service as well as more selection to their customers.

GMS has been proud to support the Lakewood and Green Mountain communities for more than a decade and looks forward to doing the same in our new location for many years to come!