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Mountain News: Disabled ski instructor dies in Iraq battle

The continuing war in Iraq is getting closer to the idyllic ski valleys of the West.

Compiled by Allen Best

WINTER PARK, Colo. — The continuing war in Iraq is getting closer to the idyllic ski valleys of the West. Quietly, in the small mountain towns, young men are wondering about the fate of their former high-school classmates who somehow are now in Iraq.

There’s good reason for fear, as was revealed in the death of Mike Bloss, a ski instructor for the disabled at Winter Park. Bloss had been in Iraq working for a firm that was providing security. Hours before his death he had e-mailed to friends, alerting them to the danger he was in.

"We are expecting to be overrun tonight, and we may have to fight our way to a safe haven," he wrote. "Unfortunately, all the safe havens are already under attack," he added.

Bloss, 38, had been in the Welsh special forces and had once served in battle-torn Northern Ireland, notes The Denver Post. Having suffered a debilitating foot injury while in the military, he showed great understanding of the needs of disabled skiers. Sources at Winter Park suggested that Bloss took the job as a way of helping subsidize his skiing lifestyle.

Ski jumps to be replaced

WINTER PARK, Colo. — It’s official. Instead of catering to a few dozen ski jumpers, a niche market of extreme skiers if there ever was one, Intrawest is putting its resources into beginners.

The old ski jumps at the mountain base are being dismantled this summer so that the beginner area, now consisting of one acre, can be expanded five-fold. Some of the jumps will be relocated elsewhere at Winter Park, but the larger jumps will not, as it would cost $1 million to do so.

Intrawest has also started grooming some hitherto notoriously difficult bump runs at Winter Park in the interests of making skiing easier for the masses. It gained a 50-year management contract to run the resort beginning last year.

Ski jumping fans say that Intrawest’s contract with the City of Denver, the ski area owner, specified that Intrawest would "continue in good faith to provide programs and special consideration that benefit the City’s and other youth to at least the same extent as was provided" before Intrawest took over. But Gary DeFrange, the ski area manager, said the wording does not mean that the resort has to continue exactly the same youth programs. The Forest Service, as the land manager, agrees with Intrawest’s position.

New signs of pollution in Rockies

ESTES PARK, Colo. — The word "pristine" gets used with monotonous regularity when describing Rocky Mountain National Park. But new evidence suggests it’s a relative word.

New studies, reports The Denver Post, reveal air currents swirling around the peaks are delivering a rain of mercury, pesticides, insecticides and other long-lasting chemicals that slowly build up in the park’s forests, lakes, soils, and fish.

For example, one study shows mercury accumulating in the trout of high lakes and streams. A small sampling showed mercury concentrations at about half the level required to trigger federal health advisories. Scientists speculate that the mercury is coming from the pollution of coal-fired power plants to both the east and west in Colorado. Another potentially serious threat to the park comes from deposition of nitrogen oxides from cars and other sources in the nearby heavily populated Front Range of Colorado.

Another study suggests pollutants coming from even other continents. Some of the chemicals found in the park’s snow and lake sediments show pesticides and herbicides. Among the chemicals found were PCBs, which have been banned for decades in the United States. That suggests that the chemicals are coming from Asia.

"The reason we’re looking at parks is basically they are indicators of what might be occurring in other places," said Donald Campbell, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. Similar pollution studies are also being conducted at Mount Rainier and Olympic national parks in Washington state, Glacier in Montana, and Sequoia in California.

Durango ain’t Aspen

DURANGO, Colo. — Returning from a trip into Utah’s canyon country, Durango Telegraph editor Will Sands says he found Durango almost glitzy by comparison. Yes – shudder here – nearly Aspenized.

Sands, who confides that he was born in Aspen, says he reached for a 1999 clipping from The Aspen Times, one that told about Ivana Trump and Kevin Costner and all the rest gathering with well-heeled Aspen locals for something called the Tibet Fund Party. Highlight of the evening was when Goldie Hawn was bestowed with the "Spirit of Freedom," for having adopted a Tibetan child but leaving him in Tibet to be raised in his own culture.

After much weeping, "apparently checkbooks flashed high numbers, Basso sold some ermine, caviar and cocaine were consumed, and the celebrities went home feeling a little more Buddhist than when they walked in," Sands explains.

Then slouching through downtown Durango, Sands saw a wrinkle-hooded 15-year-old work truck, stopped by an eatery where $16 was tops on the menu, and altogether was comforted to conclude that "Durango still has something that places like Aspen have been missing for more than 30 years."

Up there, he says, alluding to Aspen, they’re "striving for a little piece of paradise and a little taste of soul. They’re just having trouble finding it. In Durango, we don’t have to reach quite as far."

Ouch.

Old Steamboat seeking a brand

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — The old downtown area of Steamboat Springs, located about three miles from the ski area, is now seeking a "brand." Inasmuch as the town was a ranching headquarters before it became a ski resort, there’s something vaguely "Western" about the feel of the place. But what is it?

That’s part of an effort now underway after a survey last year confirmed that locals spend about half their money away from Steamboat. To help firm up the shopping district, proponents have turned to something called the Main Street Project, which is identified by The Steamboat Pilot as a "time-tested method of injecting historic downtown shopping districts with new energy and a clear focus."

50-year plan for development

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — As a ski area owner, Earl Holding has been an anomaly. He has done very little base-area development. Without a bed base that has evaporated, his Sun Valley ski area has become an amenity for locals and second-home owners. There aren’t all that many tourists at North America’s first destination ski resort.

Now, in his sunset years, Holding has released a proposed 50-year plan. But eve in the next year, reports the Idaho Mountain Express, Holding intends to begin some development.

In the short term, he has plans for at least two new hotels. In keeping with what has been happening at many other ski resorts in the West, one of them is a four-star hotel. The plan also calls for 1,500 to 2,000 parking spaces at the two hotels, plus about 350 housing units.

Altogether, Holding has 2,800 acres in Sun Valley and adjoining Ketchum. Wally Huffman, general manager of the Sun Valley Co., said that although Holding has not actively pursued real-estate development there, subsequent owners would certainly seek to squeeze profits from company lands.

"Resorts do not exist to develop ski areas," he said. "Ski areas exist so resorts can develop land. That’s the unfortunate era in which we live."

Outrage about land sold

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — A long-simmering case from Crested Butte has public lands watchdogs urging other mountain towns in the American West to watch out.

In the Crested Butte case, a mining company, beginning in 1977, tried to get rights to mine molybdenum on nearby Mount Emmons, known locally as the Red Lady for the alpenglow shades at dawn and dusk. The market for molybdenum plummeted within a few years, but not until after the company, which has since been swallowed by multinational mining corporation Phelps Dodge Inc., had poured several million dollars into the project.

And so, using the 1872 Mining Law, the U.S. Department of Interior has sold the 155 claimed lands to the mining company for $5 an acre, or $875 total. Although the mining company has no current plans to mine there, local officials as well as environmental groups are outraged. The Town of Crested Butte and Gunnison County have joined the High Country Citizens’ Alliance to protest the decision.

"The Bush administration just gave away hundreds of millions of dollars in public land,’ says Roger Flynn, managing attorney of the Western Mining Action Project. By one estimate, the land might be worth $15.5 million for development of housing – something not ignored by the local officials. The mining would threaten the tourism economy, County Commissioner Fred Field told the Crested Butte News. And housing would also have impacts, noted another commissioner, Jim Starr.

Congress has frozen applications for new mining patents, but this patent had been grandfathered in. Seemingly ignoring that freeze, The Denver Post loudly warned "similar giveaways could be made in other parts of the state." Just how this might occur, given the Congressional freeze, the newspaper did not explain.

Backcountry adventurer recalled

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — In 1929, Orland Bartholomew did what no one had done before and few have done since. During a 14-week trek he skied the 300-mile spine of the Sierra Nevada, following roughly the route of the yet-to-be-completed John Muir Trail.

Standing atop the peaks Bartholomew scaled gives the sensation of an endless labyrinth of soaring mountains and plummeting canyons, says the Associated Press. Yet, for all his daring, Bartholomew got little attention in his own time, and for a long time afterward.

Now, avid skiers and history buffs propose that a 11,099-foot mountain in the Ansel Adams Wilderness be named in his honour. As well, a book that chronicles the feat, High Odyssey, has been published.

Bartholomew’s feat came at a time when skiing was still in its infancy in North America and equipment still primitive. He and a companion spent the summer of 1928 storing provisions throughout the high country, using pack horses to haul 30-gallon garbage cans of food they hung from trees. But when it came time to set out, Bartholomew’s companion backed out.

Setting out by himself, Bartholomew carried a 70-pound backpack. His skis were made of hickory, without metal edges, and for poles he used customized rake handles. Still, he ascended three 14,000-foot peaks during his trip, including Mount Whitney, then the highest peak in the United States.

"He was the last of the pioneers and the first of a generation of recreational explorers," said Bill Weed, chief naturalist for Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. "In a way he’s the direct precursor to modern day extreme mountain sports. He wasn’t doing this to map anything; he was doing this for adventure."

Ski race becomes foot race

CRESTED BUTTE-ASPEN, Colo. — The annual late-March race from Crested Butte to Aspen was less of a ski race than an adventure race this year.

Leaving Crested Butte at midnight, racers found that mud prevailed on the Elk Mountains Grand Traverse. They also had to dodge cow patties and ford gushing creeks. By one estimate, about 30 per cent of the race occurred off-piste, meaning off snow.

This required some inventiveness on the part of racers, explains the Crested Butte News. Jimmy Faust, of the winning team from Crested Butte, drilled holes in his boots, so that they would drain after crossing creeks. (It wasn’t enough). His partner, Pat O’Neill, carried a tent stake to clear their boots and bindings of mud. The second-place team, Mike Kloser and Dan Weiland out of Vail, used ski poles to fight the mud (It wasn’t enough).

The winning team finished the 40-mile course in not quite eight hours. "It was tougher than a $2 steak," co-winner O’Neill told the Crested Butte News. The winning co-ed team came in about an hour and 50 minutes later, and the winning women’s team came in about two and a half hours later. Not least among the 111 pairs entered was a team of 61-year-old men, the first over-60 competitors.

A major consideration were the 50 mph winds that buffeted the crest of the Elk Range, where the race course tops out at about 12,300 feet. The winds later that day were strong enough to cause a chairlift at Aspen to be closed.

Air cleaner, winter getting shorter

ASPEN, Colo. — No news is the good news in Aspen. There, air pollution was often in the headlines a decade ago as Aspen, along with many other mountain towns, flirted with volition of a federal standard for air particulates called PM-10.

Fewer wood-burning fireplaces and, more importantly, less sand left on roads to be ground up by passing car tires has resulted in the air quality improving. To call the air pristine would be a stretch, but it’s well within federal limits.

But Lee Cassin, the town’s environmental health officer, continues to note evidence of global warming. As she did last year, Cassin again this year is noting that the resort’s summers have increased an average of 4.5 days per decade since record keeping began in1949. Most of that gain has come during the last 20 years, when summers have lengthened 26 days.

Some of this warming is natural, but most scientists are now convinced that man-caused sources are also contributing to the warming. One source of global warming is coal-fired power plants. Partly as a response, Aspen is generating 57 per cent of its electricity from renewable wind and hydropower.

Cat survives plunge

LEADVILLE, Colo. — The top news in Leadville seemed to be the odyssey of a cat that spent four days atop a power pole while the owner tried to get firefighters, police, and others to retrieve the cat from among the thicket of electrical lines.

The cat, a 6-month-old Siamese mix, ran up the wooden pole after being chased by a dog. Offers of tuna fish and other delights failed to draw the frightened feline back down, and neither did hurled potatoes and fired paint balls. Offers from local hunters to bring the cat down in a different way were, as you might expect, spurned.

Finally, the county road and bridge superintendent, assisted by a county commissioner, ran a ladder up the pole and dislodged the cat. The cat survived a 35-foot plunge to the ground with nothing more than bruises. It got tuna and milk and front-page treatment in the Leadville Chronicle. No word on whether the kitten will be psychologically scarred for life.

Dog laws very good, but…

TELLURIDE, Colo. — San Miguel County has some of the best regulations around for controlling dogs. They are banned from within a half-mile of elk-calving areas, migration corridors, and severe winter range.

But the laws aren’t enforced, and The Telluride Watch says there’s growing sentiment to revisit the laws. County Commissioner Art Goodtimes, who helped introduce the regulations, says outlawing dogs in down-valley communities is unrealistic. Sheriff Bill Masters says the regulations are overly broad and unenforceable. A libertarian, he urges more attention to education. And, he points out, a Colorado state law already allows dogs that are harassing wildlife to be shot.

But environmentalists and wildlife officials have in the past opposed weakening the regulations, and there seems to be some sentiment that the county should up the enforcement rather than weaken the law.

County debates lesser of evils

TELLURIDE, Colo. — Transportation always comes down to lesser-of-evils arguments. In winter, and also in summer, the current debate is where magnesium chloride falls.

Mag chloride has been getting a lot of attention lately for its use on I-70 and other highways in Colorado, and also other states. But it was used originally, and more broadly, as a way to quell dust from gravel roads. It does this by holding moisture, so as to keep the road bonded, thus making dust less likely to break away.

But in San Miguel County, there are second thoughts about mag chloride. By withholding moisture that would go to adjacent trees, the trees are dying along the 38 miles of roads where the chemical is spread. Instead, the 150,000 gallons already stocked for use this summer will be diluted by 20 per cent with a solution called lignosulfonate. The chemical is used to produce wood pulp, and it costs roughly 30 per cent more than straight mag chloride. It will be used during summer on those roads close to streams.

The ultimate solution to dusty roads is asphalt or pavement, which is what the county road department is now thinking about. However, the county’s road boss, Mike Horner, also reported to be working with suppliers of a dust-control product proclaimed to be 100 per cent environmentally safe.

Overpasses may slow roadkill

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo.–During the 1990s lots of things changed in Teton County. The population grew 60 per cent. Traffic numbers increased 85 per cent. And roadkill increased nearly 300 per cent.

After spending the winter studying where deer, elk, and other wildlife are getting creamed by cars, the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation are asking for official action to reduce the carnage. Among their proposals is something unusual for a county government anywhere, namely building an expensive overpass structure that would allow deer and elk to cross over Highway 22. Researchers there counted 86 deer-vehicle collisions in a 1.4-mile stretch.

Such overpasses have been built in Canada in an attempt to prevent animals from being killed while crossing highways. As well, overpasses and large-sized underpasses – much bigger than the culverts commonly found – are being talked about in Colorado for I-70 as well as other mountain highways.

While the foundation recommended education in attempting to get drivers to slow down, a Wyoming traffic engineer, Jim Montuoro, noted that signs don’t cause drivers to be more wary or slow down.

A study done about 20 years ago in Colorado, in the segment between Glenwood Springs and Aspen, showed that the only thing that caused drivers to slow down was seeing dead animals along the highway.

Rocks slide, but nobody dies

GEORGETOWN, Colo. — It was among the largest rockslides in memory to occur on Interstate 70, but this time nobody died.

About 30 rocks broke free at 2 a.m. and tumbled from near timberline down onto the highway on what is called Georgetown Hill, the steep incline between Georgetown and Silver Plume. The largest of the rocks was 9 feet in diameter.

Two trucks were destroyed in trying to avoid the rocks, and one driver was hurt. Even so, they fared better than has been the case in many rockslides during the last several years at Georgetown Hill, which is located about halfway between the Vail Valley and Denver. At least two people have been killed by falling rocks in the last five years despite new wire netting intended to prevent rocks from bouncing onto the highway. The netting was unable to contain the slide.

Boulder pulverizes desk

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. — Twice in the last decade fire has streaked through or around Glenwood Springs. Ten years ago this summer, 14 firefighters died on nearby Storm King Mountain. Two years ago, a fire from an underground coal seam leaped across a four-lane highway and flashed through a corner of the town.

But what geologists called debris flows – mudslides and rocks – is considered to be the greater danger in Glenwood Springs. Major evidence on behalf of that idea, an eight-ton boulder, recently smashed into a home, disintegrating the home office of an accountant, blasting apart office walls, but leaving unharmed both his computer and the dog. "She never moved through the whole thing," said Ron Dickman, speaking of his 16-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever.

The rock, dislodging at 1:30 a.m., hit a man-made berm, which deflected it from a subdivision and into Dickman’s house. "Somehow, it wasn’t my time or the dog’s time," said Dickman, who was sleeping at the time.

Methadone linked to deaths

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Methadone found in the bodies of two men who died recently at the ages of 24 and 25 has put the Jackson Hole community on alert that it has a drug problem.

Methadone is in the same family of drugs as heroin. While it is normally prescribed as a way of weaning heroin addicts from their addictions, it can be just as dangerous as heroin if taken in uncontrolled quantities or cut with uncertain materials, notes the Jackson Hole News. Methadone has not been clearly identified as the cause of death in the two cases, but autopsies indicated no other causes.

One of the victim’s peers, Garret Edington, faulted treatment programs that focus on the negative, that he says tell users that they’re bad kids. He also faulted DARE, which "doesn’t teach you how to help students who are hooked on methadone," he said.

Moose on the loose

PARK CITY, Utah — Moose have been frequently on the lose in the Park City area this winter, trampling a hiker, showing up in backyards, browsing on soccer fields.

The Park Record says the lesson here is that human uses, from ski area expansions to housing developments to longer hiking trails, are encroaching on the habitat of not just moose, but all wildlife.

"If there is any hope of preserving the wildlife after which countless subdivision streets, and ski runs are named, Summit County must move forward with identifying and preserving integral migration corridors," writes the newspaper in an editorial.

Open space should be acquired, says the paper, at least as much to protect wildlife corridors as to provide views and help connect hiking and biking trails.