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Mountain News: Year of anniversaries at resorts

KETCHUM, Idaho - It's a time for milestone anniversaries. Deer Valley, the resort in Park City, turns 30. So does Beaver Creek, the sibling to Vail.

KETCHUM, Idaho - It's a time for milestone anniversaries. Deer Valley, the resort in Park City, turns 30. So does Beaver Creek, the sibling to Vail. And off in a remote, forgotten valley of Idaho, the first deliberately created destination mountain resort in North America opened for business 75 years ago this winter.

Beaver Creek had a rocky beginning - literally. It was a severe drought winter. The ski area was opened - and then closed for at least several weeks.

The economy wasn't so hot, either. An oil embargo caused skyrocketing oil prices that staggered the national economy. Then, oil prices cascaded, causing Denver's oil-based economy to stagger. To the west of Vail, Exxon pulled the plug on its oil shale project near Rifle, immediately throwing 2,000 people out of work. The reverberations lasted many years.

Real estate sales at Beaver Creek stalled until 1987-88, when the new tax laws ushered in by the Reagan administration favored investment in second homes. Then, Beaver Creek took off - and it hasn't stopped since.

Beaver Creek has been arguably the most robust resort in the West in the last 20 years as measured by growth in skier days, increase in terrain, and addition of bed base.

Many of the same things can be said about Deer Valley. And it continues to expand, with first the St. Regis last winter and now the Montage, both of them hotels glittering with stars.

When you look around the resort West, many of the new hotels at other resorts are a reaction to the coming-of-age of Beaver Creek and Deer Valley.

As for Ketchum, the story of Sun Valley sure is well known. Averill Harriman, chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, wanted to develop business on the passenger trains and sent out a scout to survey the West. Bald Mountain was usefully devoid of many trees, and at its base was an old mining camp that had become a headquarters for sheep grazing: Ketchum. And, most of all, it had a railroad - the UP, of course.

Almost immediately, Ketchum and Sun Valley became Aspen, Park City and Whistler all rolled into one. The actor Gary Cooper, the novelist Ernest Hemingway and the ice skater Sonja Henie became regulars.

Many films were made there. Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall filmed How to Marry a Millionaire at Sun Valley, James Stewart was there for The Mortal Storm .

But the trains that made such filming possible were overtaken by planes and other equally scenic but more accessible locations. After World War II, Aspen became the middle of North America's ski resort pond. Arguably, it still is.

Eventually, the trains that were the original catalyst for creation of Sun Valley stopped running to Ketchum. Now, Ketchum is trying to get a good airport and some new hotels.

 

Judge to determine Tamarack's fate

DONNELEY, Idaho - Tamarack, the beleaguered resort 90 miles north of Boise, may reopen for limited skiing this winter, but the status of its bankruptcy remains in doubt.

The Idaho Statesman reports that lawyers representing Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank that is the primary creditor for the $300 million loaned to the resort, argued for moving Tamarack from Chapter 11 reorganization into Chapter 7 liquidation. That way assets within the resort could be broken up and sold, ensuring the bank gets at least some of its money back.

The bank wants developer Jean-Pierre Boespflug and his partner, Alfredo Miguel Afif, removed from the resort management.

Boespflug, in court filings, responded that liquidation demanded by Credit Suisse would be "counterintuitive and perhaps senseless." He argues that the resort has greater value as a whole.

After several abortive efforts over two decades, Tamarack was opened in 2004 and the next year hosted President George W. Bush on a mountain-biking trip. Tennis professionals Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi announced plans to develop a luxury property, later cancelled. The resort sold 531 properties for $359 million after its opening.

Majority owners of the resort filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2008.

 

Mac ads show Sun Valley

KETCHUM, Idaho - Are you a Macintosh person? Then you may be getting an advertisement from Apple that shows Ketchum's Roadhouse Inn and several shots with the Sun Valley ski area in the background. The Idaho Mountain Express explains that the filming took place last April, when the snow was fast disappearing. Luckily, a wintry spell for several days made a Christmas setting plausible.

 

Growth tied to resort

REVELSTOKE, B.C. - How much will Revelstoke grow in the coming years? For planning transportation and other infrastructure needs, it matters a lot. But projections vary a great deal.

B.C. Stats, the provincial agency that conducts analysis, says to expect an almost imperceptible increase of 118 people during the next 16 years. Current population is just below 8,000. How about 11,000, wonders a local planning agency.

George Penfold, from Selkirk College, says it all depends on the success of Revelstoke Mountain Resort. "Without the resort, the answer is no - that's not going to happen," he tells the Revelstoke Times Review .

 

Revelstoke giggles in powder

REVELSTOKE, B.C. - It was giggle time at Revelstoke Mountain Resort on opening day. The ski area was blessed with a foot of powder.

"I'd slap anyone who complained," said one girl after a run through nearly untracked snow.

The Revelstoke Times Review reports that the line to board the first gondola began forming at 11 p.m. the night before and had grown to at least several hundred people by 8:30 a.m. - long enough that it took a reporter three minutes to traverse.

 

Steamboat, Jackson dumped on

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. - How quickly driest autumn can turn into deepest winter. Still, this year seems to be exceptional.

Steamboat ski officials reported that it was the snowiest November since records began in 1979. Some 90 inches fell, besting the previous record for 83 inches, officials told the Steamboat Pilot. This is a La NiƱa winter, and the last time was 2007-2008 - when the resort ended up with nearly 500 inches of snow.

In Wyoming, operators of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opened all of Rendezvous Peak to skiing after getting 113 inches of snow, a record for the date, Nov. 23. Never in the history of the resort - which is now nearly 50 years old - has so much terrain been opened so soon. "We've never had a complete opening before," said Zahan Billimoria, a resort spokesman.

Ironically, the resort spent $1 million last summer to expand its snowmaking capabilities, to ensure more than one run on opening day.

 

Restaurateur kills bear

TAHOE CITY, Calif. - The Sierra Sun tells of a restaurateur on the shores of Lake Tahoe who killed a 500-pound bear that charged him. The bear had broken into the restaurant repeatedly during the previous week, and the proprietors had sought help. One idea was to install electric bear wires around the windows and doors.

But then one morning just before Thanksgiving, the restaurant co-owner encountered the bear sleeping on the floor of the dining room. When he tried to ward the bear out, the bear charged him. Because of the break-ins, he had a loaded shotgun, which he used, killing the bear.

"The business owner was defending himself," said Jason Holley, wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game. "I'm sure seeing an angry 500-pound wild animal was an intimidating sight."

He told the Sierra Sun that no evidence was found that the restaurant had stored trash improperly.

 

Fisherman gives thanks

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. - The movie 127 Hours , about the predicament of Aspen resident Aron Ralston that caused him to cut off his arm while in the canyon country of Utah, has been playing at movie theaters across the country.

Another harrowing story of near-death was played out on a recent evening in Steamboat Springs. In early August, a geologist from Denver had gone fishing on the Snake River, located about an hour north of Steamboat. While walking through the river, he had broken his tibia, or shin bone.

At a reunion and thank-you dinner with his rescuers that was attended by the Steamboat Pilot , the geologist, Craig Horlacher, recounted how he chose to remain on rocks in the middle of the river: so he could better be seen. In trying to use the leg, he ran the risk of further injury and an acute medical issue.

So he settled into his surroundings, soothed by the sound of the running water. "My rational mind told the rest of them that this is the best hand I can play," Horlacher said. "And it was a beautiful place." The rocks, he said, were pre-Cambrian.

Although he was able to capture two rainbow trout, he started becoming hypothermic by the second day after slipping into the water. Even though it was high summer, he started shivering that night.

He would have died, and at least one searcher told Horlacher that he thought he was looking for a dead body. "You changed my outlook on searches," said Scott Scherer, a member of the Routt County Search and Rescue.

Although delirious when discovered, and just hours away from death when searchers found him after his fifth night out, Horlacher recovered after 33 days of hospitalization and then further treatment. His tibia has now been fused with nine screws and a metal rod.

Told that he was a hero, Horlacher deferred any praise. "I'm not the hero here," he told his rescuers.

 

Allen Best publishes a newsletter called Mountain Town News, which offers news in both brief and depth from mountain resort valleys of the West. He can be found at www.allenbest.net