Gunnison Senior Center member Jane Knight, 79, participates in the SilverSneakers “Muscle Boom” class taught by retired physical therapist and instructor Gwen Pettit on Jan. 15, 2025, in Gunnison, Colo. Photo by John McEvoy / Special to The Colorado Trust
On a freezing minus-12-degree morning when the town of Gunnison’s streets are slick from a December snowstorm, two dozen seniors are warming up in a gym at the Gunnison Senior Center.
As Dolly Parton warbles “Jolene” on the sound system, they stretch resistance bands over their heads and bend and bob into leg-strengthening exercises. They all appear fit from decades of skiing, mountain biking and working in this outdoorsy community. Every one of them seems glad to be there. Some even sing along to the music.
But there is a sobering motivation behind this class offering.
Aging generates struggles for people everywhere, but in Gunnison County, in particular, the data point to serious mental health struggles—including a high suicide rate—among the older population.
Gunnison County lacks some services that could make life easier for the older population, including affordable in-person mental health care, and availability of in-home caregivers, medical specialists, memory care facilities and housing options for older adults who need to sell their primary homes.
Those problems were highlighted when the Gunnison Senior Center teamed up with Western Colorado University in 2023 to study the county’s aging population and some of the challenges the residents faced. The study coincided with an increase in suicides among adults over age 55 in the county—seven such suicides in 2024, after four or fewer annually in the preceding decade—confirming the study’s findings that this demographic was struggling with mental health.
While the county tackles some of the more onerous problems to address those needs, the senior center stepped in to serve as an immediate connection point and a resource for older adults. The center helps with everything from phone and computer struggles to assisting older adults in making end-of-life decisions. It has become a place for older Gunnison residents to gather daily.
“We do get isolated here,” said Pam Hatcher, 72, as she bundled up after her twice-weekly fitness class on a December morning. “This has been life-changing for me. It has really helped me mentally.”
Sally Thode, 74, another regular at the classes, said exercising with other older adults has made her feel less challenged by her age.
“I have been very active all my life. I was a weightlifter. I worked an outdoor job for the BLM [Bureau of Land Management], but the older I get, the less I’ve been able to do,” Thode said. “This has been a great way to transition into things I can still do, like swimming and hiking.”
Gwen Pettit, a retired physical therapist, leads the SilverSneakers “Muscle Boom” class at the Gunnison Senior Center in Gunnison, Colo. Pettit called it the most fun job she’s ever had. The class on Jan. 15, 2025, was smaller than most, with 18 people attending, as the temperature dipped below minus-18 degrees with a wind chill of minus-40 degrees. Photo by John McEvoy / Special to The Colorado Trust
Nearly a third of Gunnison County’s population is over 50 and half of that demographic is over 65, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Some older adults have lived in Gunnison County their entire lives. Some grew up on ranches in the area, while others moved there after vacationing in Gunnison or Crested Butte and deciding the county would be a good place for an active retirement, with its small-town vibe, snowy slopes and plethora of mountain bike and hiking trails. Some moved to what once was considered an affordable location to live close to kids or grandkids.
Those same older adults are now dealing with the flip side. Gunnison County encompasses remote mountainous territory where the legendary cold, rising costs of living and inevitable infirmities of life’s later years can make it a tough home as people age.
Not all community members have completely rebounded from the isolating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit Gunnison County particularly hard. Then there was the strain of a Highway 50 bridge closure that choked off the area for half of 2024. The bridge shutdown meant many older residents were unable to reach health care appointments in Montrose, and care for the most serious emergencies was cut off.
“These are tough people who maybe can’t do what they always did in an area geared towards outdoor activities,” said Elizabeth Gillis, Gunnison Senior Center coordinator. “They built this valley, but now they are shunted aside. They have become a lower priority than the younger generation.”
Elizabeth Gillis, Gunnison Senior Center coordinator, poses for a photo on Jan. 15, 2025, as she takes a short break with a warm beverage in between directing activities at the center. That day, the temperature was minus-20 degrees in Gunnison, Colo. Photo by John McEvoy / Special to The Colorado Trust
The county has tried to alleviate those problems by carving out and adding space for older adults at the Gunnison Community Center. There is now a kitchen, dining room, cozy activity room and gym dedicated at designated times to this population. The senior center also offers arts and crafts classes, Bridge and Mah Jong games, book clubs and workshops on topics like elder law and end-of-life decisions.
A board is displayed at the entrance of the Gunnison Senior Center welcoming guests to the facility and listing upcoming activities and services, as seen in this photo from Jan. 15, 2025, in Gunnison, Colo. Photo by John McEvoy / Special to The Colorado Trust
But Gunnison County’s reality is that much of life is geared toward younger people. Western Colorado University in Gunnison and Crested Butte Mountain Resort, half an hour north, put an emphasis on youth.
The county doesn’t have options for memory care and few resources for assisted living. There are not many resources for older residents who might be caretaking partners. The 59 beds at the Gunnison Valley Health Senior Living Center are the only ones available at a local facility for older adults who can no longer live at home.
Most affordable housing efforts in the county have focused on the working class and those raising families. The average home price as of the end of last year was about $587,000, according to a housing report from Zillow. Housing costs in Gunnison are 13% higher than the national average.
Residents looking to downsize their homes (even if they own million-dollar houses) or buy homes that are more suitable for them as they age must contend with market dynamics of a low volume of available homes and surging prices.
That misunderstood housing dichotomy has created some hard feelings between generations.
“There is not much empathy for older people,” said Madison Gregurek, a former Western Colorado University graduate student who, over the past two years, devoted her master’s degree project to exploring the mental health of older adults in Gunnison County.
Gregurek’s study, completed in July 2024 with help from the Gunnison Senior Center and overseen by the Behavioral Science-Rural Community Health Graduate Program at Western Colorado University, found that among 76 study respondents ages 55 to 96, many suffered from untreated mental health problems.
When Gregurek initially queried older adults about how they viewed their mental health in the wake of the pandemic, the most common answer (60% of respondents) was “excellent” or “very good.” Yet many also admitted in interviews that they believed poor mental health to just be a consequence of aging.
Gregurek knew she needed to delve into the subject more, revamping her questions to focus specifically on mental health indicators. Those included problems with sleeping, loneliness, sadness and anxiety. More than a third of the respondents admitted problems in those areas, compared with 20% of older adults nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite those difficulties, a majority expressed hesitancy about seeking mental health services.
County coroner’s office data show that seven of 12 deaths by suicide in Gunnison County in 2024 were among people age 55 and older. Last year was the worst year Gunnison County Coroner Michael Barnes had documented since 2012.
“Things get kind of magnified here,” Barnes said. “People coming here to live this never-ending vacation find that it is really not all that it is cracked up to be.”
Jessica Eckhardt, director of the Behavioral Science-Rural Community Health Graduate Program at Western Colorado University, noted that the mental health study showed that among the study respondents who admitted to dealing with mental health challenges, 35% said they were uncomfortable bringing them up with others.
“I think it’s a generational kind of thing,” Eckhardt said. “They are not wanting to burden others with negative things.”
That’s why the Gunnison Senior Center offers activities to connect the older population. Besides the popular fitness classes that include winter-time Nordic skiing and snowshoeing geared for older adults, the center offers three-days-a-week meals either on-site or delivered to homes.
The week’s senior meals menu is displayed on a table in the dining room at the Gunnison Senior Center on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Gunnison, Colo. Photo by John McEvoy / Special to The Colorado Trust
Gillis said the home meals, voluntarily prepared and delivered by fellow older adults, have become a way for some older residents to have some reliable interaction with others. For some, it is their only social connection.
At a December luncheon for older adults, Joy and George Besse, who live on a family ranch in the area, dined on baked chicken and biscuits as they chatted with friends about the merits of grocery store mergers and the difference between store-bought and fresh-ground hamburger meat.
The closed Highway 50 bridge last year was “terrible—worse than COVID,” Joy, 86, said. “It made you feel very isolated. You lost your independence.”
Joy and George, 85, couldn’t get workers from Montrose to service their water well, and they couldn’t get to George Besse’s appointments at the Montrose hospital to have his nighttime breathing apparatus calibrated.
Commiserating with others at the senior center helped, Joy said. Many were in similar situations.
Vicki Somrak, 76, and her husband of 59 years, Shammy, 84, were born and raised in Crested Butte and grew up on skis. They have always thought of themselves as tough mountain people, Vicki said.
“I don’t know what I’d do without this center. I was in the hospital two weeks ago for a broken hip,” she said.
Now, instead of tackling the slopes, she makes laps around the gym with a walker and a group of friends to chat with.
Gillis, the center’s coordinator, said she works every day to keep that opportunity going and hopes that Gunnison’s focus on older adult well-being will be taken up by other mountain towns. She said older adults should be valued wherever they are—something that has been driven home to her since she took over at the senior center. The programs devoted to seniors’ mental health started at the Gunnison Community Center three years ago.
The center has been funded by grants from private foundations and from membership dues for the Gunnison Recreation Center and the senior center. Medicare supplement plans pay for many of the memberships. The center also charges small fees for some of the classes and for the meals. The Gunnison County Metropolitan Recreation District also contributes to the outdoor programs.
Folks in the north part of the valley are also working to spread the effort to Crested Butte. A push is underway to locate another senior center there, 28 miles from the Gunnison Senior Center.
“My perspective is completely changed,” Gillis said. “I’ve learned that what we really need is to help people age in place—and age in joy.”
Joy Besse agrees that older adults shouldn’t have to leave a beautiful place like the Gunnison Valley because they can’t afford to stay or can no longer cut firewood, ski moguls, hike the peaks or ride the range like they once did. She said she and George are committed to staying at their ranch house east of Gunnison with the help of the senior center’s programs.
“At this stage in life, I’m not going anywhere except out east,” Joy said.
That’s where she and George have purchased a cemetery plot and already have a headstone carved with both their names. They are prepared, but they plan to continue living in Gunnison County until then.
