Ralph Walton III

Ralph Walton III is well-known around Crested Butte by his nickname, “Scout,” since he first moved to the Gunnison Country in 1970 when his father and uncle purchased the ski area from seven Kansas banks. In 1993, he moved back to work for Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR), where he served as CFO, SVP of resort operations, and president of CBMR Real Estate. In late 2019, Scout brought a 25-year background in mountain town real estate back to Crested Butte as a managing broker for LIV Sotheby’s International Realty.

Recently, he stepped down as manager to focus on brokerage representations and new development opportunities. Scout began his career as a CPA in New York City and then as a strategy consultant in Paris, France. He jumped into the resort industry at CBMR and then was recruited by two start-up successive developments in Montana beginning in late 2002. In 2009, he co-founded Cedar House Partners, which provides advisory and investment services to owners of resort-based real estate.

Scout’s project experience includes three large-scale master-planned communities: Prospect at Mt. Crested Butte, the Club at Spanish Peaks, and Saddle Horn. Scout moved back to Crested Butte from Steamboat Springs, where he operated as a broker with the local SIR affiliate and served as project manager for the Steamboat Springs Redevelopment Authority.

From his roots growing up on a Georgia sod farm, Scout became an accomplished junior ski racer winning the state championship in 1976. After completing his undergraduate studies at Duke University and earning his MBA from New York University and the Stockholm School of Economics, Scout married Martina, a commercial lender and former member of the Czech national ski team, and they started their family in Crested Butte. The Waltons have a rescue lab, Layla, and two twenty-something kids, Veronica and Brittain, who both live and work in Denver.