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Breckenridge business rebuilds after explosion

Robert Allen
Summit County correspondent
Aspen, CO Colorado
Mark Fox/Summit DailyNate Crawford, a guide with Good Times Adventures in Breckenridge, glides through fresh powder at the top of Georgia Pass while leading a tour last week.
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BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. ” Pieces of the former Good Times Adventures headquarters in Breckenridge remain visible in treetops above its replacement ” nearly nine months after an explosion crippled a man and buried his dog.

The new building is planned to open Tuesday, and at 7,400 square feet is the same size and floor plan as its predecessor.

“It’s a little awkward, strange at times … but I can live with it,” Brian Mislansky, 32, said of the structure.



On April 19, Mislansky was getting into the shower when he was blasted into the air by an explosion that left him pinned under a pile of debris. Rescuers dug tunnels five feet deep before removing him with axes and saws.

Lulu, his springer spaniel, was discovered eight days later.




“The dog is good ” she’s doing really well,” Mislansky said Tuesday.

He said he wanted to return to the snowmobiling and dogsledding business off Tiger Road in Breckenridge for his friends and because “the good people here have treated me well.”

The former van driver now works in the office. He walks with a cane as he rehabilitates after three hip surgeries and an amputation above his left knee.

He said a friend took care of Lulu during the summer while he recovered, but he got her back a couple months ago. Rehab and physical therapy continue.

“It’s a slow process, but I’m getting there ” slowly, surely,” he said.

He hasn’t driven a snowmobile since the accident but “down the road maybe I’ll play around,” Mislansky said.

Good Times owner Brian Holt said one change made in constructing the new building is the absence of a crawlspace.

He said that though the exact cause of the explosion hasn’t been confirmed, it’s suspected that snow sliding off the building’s roof broke a propane regulator, causing a crawlspace to fill with propane.

“It reached a pilot light. That’s when it went,” Holt said. “Investigators said the building went 800 to 1,000 feet in the air ” that’s how big the blast was.”

Good Times is functioning out of an event tent while “finishing touches” are put on the new structure. Business, meanwhile, has been good.

“The economy hasn’t touched us at all over the holidays,” Holt said.

He said that for December, revenue was off 1.2 percent compared with the same month last year.

Good Times typically operates from about Thanksgiving to Easter but didn’t open this winter until Dec. 20 because of the construction.

The business added a new shop last summer, allowing indoor snowcat storage.

Holt is working with the U.S. Forest Service and Summit County Open Space to gain access to some 6 to 10 miles of Golden Horseshoe trails formerly used by another snowmobile operator, he said.

His tour business uses about 40 miles of trails, including the Georgia Pass area.

Mislansky said that regarding his personal future, his immediate concern is “just getting well.”

“At this point, my future plans are to just get to the point where I’m completely healed up and walking comfortably,” he said. “See what the future holds.”

rallen@summitdaily.com