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Mountain News: Frontier bankruptcy a sign of times?

DENVER, Colo. – Unprecedented oil prices were cited as a key factor in last week’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing by Denver-based discount airline Frontier.

DENVER, Colo. – Unprecedented oil prices were cited as a key factor in last week’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing by Denver-based discount airline Frontier.

While Frontier is continuing to operate under Chapter 11 protection, four other airlines declared bankruptcy in recent weeks. Aloha, ATA, Skybus and Hong Kong-based Oasis have ceased service.

Although Chapter 11 suggests cash flow problems that are fixable, there was understandable concern in ski towns of the Rocky Mountains. Frontier’s new Lynx Aviation division is to begin flights from Denver International to Durango and then Aspen next week, followed in May by Jackson Hole. Frontier representatives said the bankruptcy filing will not affect the ski town flights.

Frontier’s problems had been months, probably years in the making. There were some unprofitable routes to Mexico. More recently, oil prices surged to $110 a barrel, more than triple the cost of only two years ago.

Sean Mencke, the president and chief executive of Frontier, seemed to be alluding to these background problems when he announced the flights to the ski valleys in February.

"People have been asking if this is the right time to start a project like this," he said then. "To me, it's the perfect time. We can move into markets with less competition and have more opportunity to feed connecting traffic through our hub — all with a very fuel-efficient aircraft that burns 30 per cent less fuel than a comparably sized regional jet. We believe Lynx will be a critical component as we focus on the long-term profitability of this company."

What tripped the company into the bankruptcy was what seems like a panicky demand from a credit-card processor. The company, worried about getting stung, wanted more rapid payment of money from transactions. Ironically, the demand may have had the opposite effect of what was intended, resulting in the bankruptcy filing.

Just days before the filing, one of Frontier’s Bombardier Q400 turboprops flew a trial route from Denver to Aspen. The plane accommodates 74 passengers. The Aspen Times noted that the test plane passed a jet from United Express on the way to Aspen — an unintended symbolic act.

Certainly, higher fuel prices have not stopped tourism and investment in vacation homes in mountain towns. But even those resorts that cater to the most wealthy people have price thresholds. Some of the talk in Aspen in recent months had been about how the new Lynx flights could force competing airlines to drop their costs. Even rich people take note of “sale” signs.

Will higher oil prices eventually affect the tourism and real-estate development of mountain towns? That’s the $110-per-barrel question.

Randy Udall, an energy analyst in the Aspen area, last year returned from a conference about peak oil convinced that mountain towns will be soon hit by the impacts of higher oil prices — he says long before concerns about global climate change cause changes in energy use.

 

It was memorable snow year

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. – Snowfall records toppled as several Rocky Mountain resorts ended their seasons.

Crested Butte reported 418 inches for the season, surpassing the record set in the winter of 1979-80. Snow had fallen on more than 50 percent of the days, particularly during mid-winter. The ski area operator described it as a “powderlicious” winter.

Beaver Creek also set a new record, 426 inches, surpassing the previous high-snow mark set in the early 1990s. “Instead of powder days, we’re getting powder weeks,” ski shop worker Bruce Weichmann told the Vail Daily.

While some ski areas extended their seasons, the more common story is a familiar one: too little business other than season-pass holders to justify continued operations. Some years the timing of Easter lags into April, pushing vacations later into spring. Not so this year.

But Rocky Mountain resorts weren’t alone this year in getting good snow. Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, points out that even resorts in Minnesota, Vermont and New Hampshire closed this season with mid-winter conditions.

“It’s one of those ultimate ironies of the ski business that the crowds run out well before the snow runs out in a year like this,” Berry told the Vail Daily.

The ski areas at Park City reported packed bases of about 130 inches as they prepared to close amid new storms. It was, said The Park Record, “a winter that refuses to go quietly.”

 

Fatal accidents up

DENVER, Colo. – It was, as Dickens said, the best of times, and the worst of times. While snow conditions this winter were perhaps unparalleled in years, even decades, a record number of fatal accidents, 17, occurred on the slope. The old record of 16 was set in the drought winter of 2001-02.

Studying the accident reports, The Denver Post finds that nine of the 17 dead skiers hit trees adjacent to groomed slopes, and four more deaths followed bad falls on groomed runs.

From this correlation can be drawn the conclusion that grooming is causing more accidents. That’s not a particularly new theory. It’s been kicked around for at least a decade, probably more. Grooming of slopes, of course, has become much improved during the last 50 years, but particularly so during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

But maybe there is no causality, only coincidence. For example, have the circumstances of skier fatalities changed? Those conclusions remain to be teased out of the accident data. For now, the link between grooming and skier deaths seems to make sense, but remains highly anecdotal.

 

Bears emerging earlier

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. – The bears are out hither and thither. From Jackson Hole to Vail and on to Crested Butte come oso-many reports. And while it has always been common for bears to turn out in March and April, there are reports of grizzly bears emerging earlier, perhaps a response to the warming climate.

At the Crested Butte ski area, a sow and her two cubs pushed through the snow from their den, right in the middle of a popular if extremely steep ski run.

There was plenty of curiosity of the board-footed visitors — perhaps unwisely so. “We heard there were people poking their heads right in the hole,” said Randy Barrett, general manager of the ski area. That portion of the ski trail was closed.

In the Yellowstone area of Wyoming and adjacent states, scientists are studying how the changing climate may be affecting the 500 to 600 grizzly bears there.

The researchers have noticed that adult male bears have been entering their dens later. This is concurrent with a trend of warmer minimum temperatures during November from 1975 to 1999, notes the Rocky Mountain Outlook, a newspaper based in Canmore, Alberta.

“We’ve got some correlations with temperature and snowfall to suggest they’re probably staying out later in the fall because winter is coming later,” said grizzly bear expert Chuck Schwartz. “It appears they are also coming out a bit earlier in the spring as well.”

Schwartz, the leader of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, told the newspaper his group is seeking funding for a more thorough analysis. “We want to look at the potential impact of warming temperatures and snowmelt on the timing of grizzly den emergence and entry times,” he said.

In the Yellowstone area, 90 per cent of females are typically in the den by late November, while most males usually turn in by the second week of March.

The Outlook notes an interesting wrinkle in spring: females are typically out of their dens by the first week in March, while for males it’s the fourth week of April.

In Banff National Park, researchers have noticed bears out both later in winter and earlier in spring.

 

Too ‘hot’ in beds?

KETCHUM, Idaho – Well, last time we checked, Aspen — god forbid — doesn’t want to become like Vail, and now, we have James McElveen, writing in the Idaho Mountain Express, saying that god forbid that Ketchum should become like Aspen. His steam seems to come from a new comprehensive plan that would be more accommodating of a new generation of condo-hotels. To deliver the “hot” beds wanted by the resort community, developers want taller, bigger buildings. As is, there aren’t many rooms to rent in Ketchum, ironically the nation’s first destination ski resort. Ironically, perhaps, Aspen has been going through the same debate in recent years about how much is too much.

 

Jackson resorts extend ban on smoking

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Both of the ski areas in Jackson Hole are now officially smoke-free, except in designated areas. A lobbying group called Teton County Tobacco Prevention, got the resorts to ban smoking from all ski trails and parking lots. Smoking had previously been banned in lift lines and lifts at the Snow King and Jackson Hole Mountain resorts. The Jackson Hole News & Guide reported that Grand Targhee Resort, located on the west side of the Teton Range, is also banning smoking in all places, including the resort’s annual bluegrass festival.

 

Sun Valley schools thinking real estate

KETCHUM, Idaho – Sun Valley and the Wood River Valley are beginning to look, and sound, a lot more like Colorado’s larger resort valleys. While the Caucasian student population has remained constant, 28 per cent of public school students are Hispanic, a figure expected to grow to 50 per cent in the next eight years.

Meanwhile, school administrators are turning their attention to the task of attracting, and retaining, teachers. They already pay teachers wages that are 40 per cent higher than in Idaho Falls, about 80 miles south, but real estate costs 60 per cent more. In response, the school district is starting to offer rent subsidies, forgive loans for real estate purchases, and is thinking about how to buy their own real estate.

 

Hispanic principal has message

GYPSUM, Colo. – It’s an up-by-the-bootstraps story. Robert Cuevas came to the United States as a child, the son of illegal immigrants and, by extension, himself illegally a resident of the Eagle Valley. There, he became a football player, a leader, and even the prom king — the first Hispanic student at the school, located 37 miles downvalley from Vail, so-elected. He graduated in 1997.

Now, he has a master’s degree and is the principal of the mid-valley school, Berry Creek Middle School, located 10 miles west of Vail. He told Hispanic students at a recent gathering that it wasn’t easy.

“I didn’t want to be a construction worker. I needed to break that cycle of poverty,” he said. The Vail Daily says that he worked very hard, but became very afraid when he started applying to colleges. He was afraid he would be discovered.

Apparently, he wasn’t, but it still wasn’t over. He had little money, and his parents worked extra hard and borrowed money from everyone they knew. In addition, he cut all available corners. When his friends went fishing, he ate their trout for the next week.

A similar story was told by Esgar Acosta, who also got a college degree, which opened up the door to him: a police officer, teacher, and now a bank officer. “Take the risk — it doesn’t hurt,” he said.

But don’t let working for money get in the way of that college degree, both men said, as there will be plenty of time for work later on.

 

Highway sand removed from river

WINTER PARK, Colo. – In the late 1980s sand from the adjacent Interstate 70 on the west side of the Eisenhower Tunnel became an issue in Straight Creek. In the late 1990s, it similarly became an issue in Gore Creek, on the west side of Vail Pass.

That same practice of highway sanding has become a source of controversy in recent years on the west side of Berthoud Pass. Originating near the Winter Park ski area, the Fraser River was already an underwhelming river, owing to the diversion of much of its flows to Denver.

While half the sand spread on Highway 40 is retrieved, some of the rest ends up in the river. Now, with state grants totalling $247,000, some of that sand will be removed, to be deposited in a gravel pit.

The purpose, explained Kirk Klancke, a local water official and avid fisherman, is to improve the aquatic habitat. “You just can’t cover a habitat without killing everything in that habitat,” he told the Sky-Hi Daily news. “Trout won’t lay eggs in anything but gravel.”

Another local waterway, St. Louis Creek, where former President Dwight Eisenhower once fished, with a young Dick Nixon sometimes at his side, is a similar stream, but it has 10 times the fish. The difference: no traction sand.

 

Alternative energy farm pursued

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. – A new group has been formed in Summit County with the goal of promoting development of renewable energy. Called RISE, as in Renewables in the Summit Environment, the group is calling for study of a potential energy farm in conjunction with expansion of a small reservoir being planned by several local governments. The group, reports the Summit Daily News, foresees electricity being generated from water released at the reservoir, as well as from wind and solar sources.

 

Eagle airport may get solar collectors

GYPSUM, Colo. – Plans are afoot for a major array of photovoltaic collectors at Eagle County Regional Airport.

The solar collectors being considered would cost $6 million to $7 million and would provide up to one megawatt of electricity, or enough to power about 250 homes. In contrast, a solar farm able to produce two megawatts is being built at Denver International Airport. That airport does 1,000 times more passenger emplacements annually.

If the solar farm at Eagle County is completed, it would provide for the annual electrical needs of the airport — although not necessarily at the same time that the airport needs it.

 

Receding snow shows dogs’ doo

TELLURIDE, Colo. – It’s a dog-doo world in Telluride now that the snow has started melting, revealing the sins of a long, long winter. Town councillors were asked to take action by a group of second-graders who complained of their playground being thick with feces. They would prefer, said The Telluride Watch, to play dodge ball, not dodge doo.

The newspaper says that the town marshal plans to issue a form that will enable passersby to document occasions when they witness owners neglecting what the Watch calls “doodies.” As such, they could be used as witnesses if a case goes to trial.

 

Franchising not over

SILVERTHORNE, Colo. – The retail options in mountain valleys of the Interstate 70 corridor continue to expand.

In Silverthorne, The Home Depot is back with revised plans for a 100,000-square-foot building.

If there once was a hue and a cry about franchise stores that made mountain valleys seem more like everywhere-else places, that argument seems over. Most mountain valleys got McDonald’s decades ago, and more recently they have gained the big and bigger-yet boxes: Target, Wal-Mart, and Costco.

Nor is the franchising of mountain valleys over. “I think that’s an inevitability,” said Don Cohen, executive director of the Economic Council of Eagle County. “They blanketed America in the metro area, and now they’re moving into smaller areas.”

As the county’s full-time population grows, its retail landscape is moving from boutique stores and tourist-targeted retail to “everyday retail,” he told the Vail Daily.

But the expansion is not limited to low-cost, big-box goods. In Vail, developer Mark Masinter is looking at what to install in his 90,000 square feet of retail space near the base of the ski slopes.

“Women, especially, have told me when they have to do better-end shopping, they have to either drive to Cherry Creek Mall or Park Meadows Mall in Denver or drive to Aspen,” Masinter told the newspaper. He’s also looking at the potential for a high-end sushi and Asian-fusion restaurants.

 

Toll debate continues

I-70 CORRIDOR, Colo. – Mountain towns along Colorado’s Interstate 70 have said they don’t like it. And here and there from the Front Range urban corridor, people have been writing newspapers to complain: Why should I have to pay a toll to use Interstate 70 when I drive into the mountains?

After all, say some of these writers, they don’t create this congestion. It’s the other drivers who create the congestion.

Two bills were introduced this winter in the Legislature that would employ tolls to help raise money for capacity increases. Although the specific uses are not specified, the general grumbling has been that the highway needs to be expanded to three lanes through Clear Creek County, the area between metropolitan Denver and the ski communities.

But residents of those communities, Idaho Springs and Georgetown, have objected to a highway-widening scenario — at least without a long-term alternative plan that will result in mass transit.

One of the frequent critics of mass transit has been Vincent Carroll, the editorial page editor for the Rocky Mountain News, a Denver newspaper. He charges that Clear Creek County, with a population of 10,000, and Summit County, with 20,000 people, should not be able to veto I-70 plans.

But the broader problem is lack of money, whether for asphalt or for a monorails. Joe Blake, president of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, makes the argument that the tolling will create more than $1 billion in funding. Even the most minor of highway Band-Aids are estimated to cost nearly $1 billion.

This issue of funding and the broader transportation choices was the work of a task force appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter. Several ski town officials were on that task force, including Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland and Michael Penny, the Frisco town manager. They say that congestion pricing needs to be part of the answer for paying for transportation. However, mass application of tolls based on congestion likely remains some years away, they said.