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Mountain News:

Below average snow the norm for most of West

PARK CITY, Utah — Storms of plenty during early January have receded to endless days of sun in March, as a big winter has turned average in some places, while in others an average winter has gone seriously bad.

"We had nine feet of snow during January," said Myles Rademan, director of public affairs for the municipality in Park City. "Now, look at these hillsides," he said last week, pointing to a slope next to a road, now barren of snow. "Normally, there should be snow there."

The more southerly resorts of the West did even better. Even as Los Angeles drowned in rainstorms, ski areas in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado frolicked in storm after pounding storm. That was then. "Not a flake during March," reported The Telluride Watch’s Seth Cagin, where the ski season is three weeks yet to go. However, nobody is talking drought, he reports.

Not so in Vail. There, the upper Eagle River Valley snow depths were only at 80 per cent of average going into March. The conditions are eerily reminiscent of conditions in 2002, which ended up being the worst drought in 300 years in many parts of the Colorado Rockies.

To the north, Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is having the driest winter in five years, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

In Idaho, Bogus Basin, located near Boise, has already closed, while Brundage, located near McCall, was expected to close this weekend. In Ketchum, Sun Valley remains up and running, thanks to snowmaking, but the snowpack in the Big Wood River Basin is only 58 per cent of average. The Idaho Mountain Express reports mountain bike trails have opened.

Whistler is having its worst winter since 1976-77. The winter started well, but part-way through January the resort was hit by three weeks of warm, soggy weather. The highest parts of the Whistler and Blackcomb ski mountains got snow, but sometimes heavy rains eliminated snow from the lower third of the mountain.

A cold snap allowed snowmaking to resume, but for several weeks now warm temperatures have prevailed.

Mount Washington, a small ski area on Vancouver Island, which usually gets piles of (wet) snow, has been closed since late January. A No Snow Festival is planned.

In the Sierra Nevada, snow depths have also receded during the past month, although March 1 surveys showed a snowpack still at 125 per cent of normal on a statewide basis.

Many of these reports are suggestive of how scientists describe winters influenced by global warming: shorter and warmer.

International visits lift Vail

AVON, Colo. — Buoyed by a 21 per cent increase in international visits during January, Vail Resorts reported a healthy profit for early winter operations. The company owns five ski areas in Colorado, one in California, and a lodge in Jackson Hole, among other properties.

Although skier visits overall were up only 1.7 per cent during early winter, international visitors tend to pay higher prices for lift tickets and more frequently stay at lodges, helping boost Vail’s profits.

Altogether, Vail has a substantially reduced debt from the same time last year. Net income was $32.2 million, compared to a loss of $6.7 million for the same second quarter last year. Part of the company’s successes were expanded real estate offerings at Vail, where the company is launching a base-area redevelopment project that is expected to ultimately cost $500 million.

In a conference call with analysts, Vail CEO Adam Aron indicated interest in buying Dave McCoy’s interest in Mammoth Mountain, but pointed out that Intrawest Corp, which already owns 60 per cent of the resort has the first right of refusal on the remaining stock.

$4.5 million for airport runway

HAILEY, Idaho — The federal government has granted $4.5 million to improve the runway at Friedman Memorial Airport, which services Sun Valley and Ketchum. The runway improvements will allow the airport to more safely accommodate the smaller B3 aircraft.

Meanwhile, the federal government is refusing to pay for three police officers hired specifically for airport security. In fact, the Transportation Security Administration, which was created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, is suggesting that the Hailey airport may owe the federal government money to reimburse it for overpayments. The police officers are paid about $25 per hour, with $10 more per hour in benefits. The Idaho Mountain Express says such unfunded mandates by the federal government are creating showdowns at various locales across the nation.

Volvo choice of Vail, Aspen

ASPEN, Colo. — Cops in Aspen next year will likely be driving more roomy Volvos, instead of Saabs, as they have for the last several years.

Police wanted several Dodge Durangos, a model of SUV, but the city council nixed that idea. The council’s first choice is a gas-electric hybrid SUV, but a model suitable for police use still seems to be several years away. The model now under consideration, a Volvo XC90, is an SUV, but it gets 20 to 21 miles per gallon, better than most SUVs, and it meets the super-low emission vehicle standard, explains The Aspen Times.

Volvo may provide the cars for free to Aspen, because Aspen offers good exposure for the cars in a market with plenty of disposable income. Aspen is reported to be getting 10 vehicles from Volvo.

Meanwhile, Volvo is to become the "official car of Vail" in a deal cut with the town, the ski company, and the Vail Valley Foundation. Vail is scheduled to get 18, but none are to have any frills, says The Denver Post.

Breckenridge police were once using Land Rovers, but switched to less pricy vehicles have a barrage of criticism.

‘Dragons in Paradise’ at Park City

PARK CITY, Utah — George Sibley, a one-time newspaperman from Crested Butte and a long-time essayist in Mountain Gazette, Colorado Central, and other publications, recently issued a book of his essays, called "Dragons in Paradise: Somewhere Between Sanity & Civilization."

The book is getting much attention, particularly in ski towns. Among Sibley’s stops is Park City, where he was scheduled to meet with both the local Rotary Club and a group called Leadership Park City. Park City’s Myles Rademan, himself a frequent lecturer in various ski towns of the West, compares Sibley to Edward Abbey, John Nichols, and Wallace Stegner.

"Anyone who has lived in the mountains for a month or a lifetime will find Sibley’s insightful, thought-provoking and often ornery outlook on the way we live in, love and abuse our mountains compelling," says Rademan.

Idle time limited at Mammoth

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — A new policy at Mammoth Mountain limits the amount of time that vehicles can idle in the parking lots to a maximum of five minutes.

The new policy goes a bit beyond new regulations imposed by California’s state government. That law targets diesel fumes, which are among the worst air-borne carcinogens. The state law limits idling times for commercial diesel trucks to five minutes and buses to 10 minutes. Mammoth’s regulations, in contrast, cover all vehicles, whether gasoline or diesel, and commercial or non-commercial.

Lisa Isaacs, Mammoth’s environmental affairs officer, said she’s unaware of a similar policy in effect at any other mountain resort, although 20 states and municipalities have parallel laws.

The policy will also save money for the ski area. John Walline, Mammoth Mountain's snowcat maintenance manager, said the idling limit is expected to save 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel a year in operation by snowcats.

For the complete text of CARB's new regulation, visit: www.arb.ca.gov/toxics/idling/regtext.htm.

Turkeys introduced near Eagle

EAGLE, Colo. — Turkeys are now happily gobbling in sagebrush-covered hills near Eagle. The 53 birds had been trapped from a flock near DeBeque, about 100 miles west of Eagle along Colorado’s Interstate 70 corridor. If winters continue to be mild, wildlife officials expect a hunting season can be established in two or three years, reports the Eagle Valley Enterprise.

Fluoride conspiracy convincing

TELLURIDE, Colo. — In the 1950s, the John Birch Society and other right-thinkers claimed that fluoridation of public water supplies was a Communist plot.

They got it half right, says Art Goodtimes, a left-leaning county commissioner in Telluride. Instead, it was a corporate plot. After reading "The Fluoride Deception,’ by Christopher Bryson, Goodtimes reports he has completely changed his mind about what he had thought was a chemical that had been proven safe. Fluoride is, in fact, damaging to human healthy, he reports, and it was a corporate scam abetted by unscrupulous scientists from seven major and otherwise credible non-profit organizations that caused it to be introduced into public drinking supplies.

After considerable discussion, Telluride last year got rid of fluoride, and similar talk has occurred in several other mountain towns.

Beetles in Winter Park

WINTER PARK, Colo. — Ski towns in Colorado and Utah are thinking past spring and to natural processes in surrounding forests and thickets.

In Winter Park, pine beetles are in epidemic stage in the aging forests around and within the town, and to prevent even more massive attacks on vulnerable trees, a town official is proposing the hiring of a seasonal "town forester." Voters last fall took the issue of pine beetle spread seriously enough that they voted to raise their property taxes in order to raise $145,000 a year specifically to suppress beetles.

Meanwhile, in Utah’s Summit County, where Park City is located, county commissioners are hiring a full-time fire warden. The warden is to facilitate work by residents in rural subdivisions to create defensible space around their homes.

Power boat damages disputed

INVERMERE, B.C. — Several environmental advocates are calling for restrictions on motorboats in the wetlands area along the Columbia River. They say the jet skis and power boats are damaging nests and wildlife.

However, a long-time protagonist in this dispute, Dean Kupchanko, disputes any damage. He says few power boats are on the river, and awareness campaigns have made them responsible users, he told the Invermere Echo.

Solar panels an issue

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. — The one-time mining town of Breckenridge has 350 buildings within its historic district, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On the other hand, oil is projected to increase to $80 a barrel.

So, where do solar panels fall between those two numbers? Probably discretely placed, after a case-by-case review, town officials tell the Summit Daily News.

"There’s a difference between slipping in a couple of solar cells discretely on the property and putting up a 400-square-foot solar array that looks hideous," said Jim Lamb, a council member. "That would compromise the integrity of the historic district."

Hmmm – and how discretely placed are the cars amid the painted ladies? They certainly didn’t exist in Victorian times.

In a related matter, the town hopes to get building contractors on the same page, to avoid alterations that detract from the historic integrity of the buildings. The town is reviewing Aspen’s program, unique in Colorado, which requires general contractors working on historic buildings to take a town-developed test (cost: $40) that entitles them to three-year licenses. Successful test-takers know what the town code allows when dealing with historic structures.

A healthy norm defined

ASPEN, Colo. — Not every kid in Aspen is smoking pot and getting drunk, according to a new advertising campaign being sponsored by several organizations in Aspen.

The campaign is premised on a concept called "social norming." The idea is that people will try to do what they think others are doing, for better or worse. Hence, if they think everyone else is abusing substances, they will, too. If they think others are leading healthy lifestyles, they will, also.

The Aspen Times says that a survey of local high school students conducted two years ago revealed that a vast majority said they don't binge drink or drink-and-drive.

Should over-70s ski free?

VAIL, Colo. — Should somebody be able to ski for free when they hit 70? Free skiing used to be the norm for retirees at many resorts, but ski areas have been raising the bar in recent years because of the flood of older people. Shaped skis and other innovations are make skiing easier, and people are entering older ages without being as worn out. One regular snowboarder at Colorado’s Sunlight Mountain Resort, near Glenwood Springs, is 93!

Still, some argue for a freebie once they hit 70. One recent contributor in the Vail Daily was having none of it. Do seniors also expect free restaurant meals and airplane flights? Those wanting free skiing, the commentator added, are whining, self-serving and greedy people who give all seniors a bad name.

 

Idaho ski areas to offer cheap passes

BOISE, Idaho — Discounted ski price passing originated at Idaho’s Bogus Basin in 1998, but quickly spread to Colorado, where a full-out price war emerged. Vail Resorts Inc. has the most attractive packages, with season passes at three ski areas and 10 days at two other ski areas. Aspen Skiing Co. can package four different ski areas, while Intrawest Corp. offers the options of two major ski areas.

Meanwhile, the pricing innovations have now come full circle. Seeing what Colorado ski areas have done, Idaho’s Bogus Basin is joining with Brundage and Tamarack for two-ski area and three-ski area season pass combos. Prices range from $400 to $600.

Clif Taylor dead at 83

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. — Clif Taylor, a 10 th Mountain Division veteran who went on to play an important role in skiing, has died at the age of 83.

Taylor taught skiing after World War II at Aspen and then Vermont’s Mad River Glen and Hog Back, but even in the 1950s was insistent that skiing could be most successfully taught by using short skis. He called his instructional program the graduated length method, as he took beginners to parallel skiing by using first three, then four and finally five-foot skis.

The Professional Ski Instructors Association rejected his system, although he lived long enough to be able to say, "I told you so." Nowadays, of course, short skis are all the rage, for experienced skiers as well as newbies.

Taylor lived for about 15 years at Copper Mountain, near where he had trained at Camp Hale during the war. He was among the 1,200 men who scaled the cliffs Riva Ridge in the dark in the prelude to the decisive Battle of Belvedere. Also among those Riva Ridge climbers was Pete Seibert, who founded Vail.

Homes capped at 1,000 square feet

ASPEN, Colo. — Reversing the trend toward always-bigger homes, the Pitkin County commissioners have rezoned an area on the western front of Aspen Mountain to cap homes on 35-acre lots at 1,000 square feet, which compares to the previous cap of 5,750 square feet.

While Pitkin County has generally tried to downsize homes on more remote parcels, this may not make all that much difference. A county planner told The Aspen Times, that many of the land plots, which are old mining claims, are owned fractionally among a number of parties. That’s why there has been so little building in that particular area to date, despite the relative proximity to Aspen.

New hotel plan pitched

MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, Colo. — A new hotel plan, somewhat different than the old hotel plan, has been hatched for land adjacent to the ski slopes at Telluride.

Former ski company owner Ron Allred had envisioned a luxury hotel in two separate developments linked by a gondola. The site in question is not currently accessed by road. He expected that supplies would be taken to the hotel by snow cat. The current ski area owners, the Horning family, are thinking the luxury hotel needs a road.

Whether by gondola or road, however, both ideas anticipated that more short-term rentals are needed in Telluride. Like most every other ski area, the real estate business has been booming, but the tourism business has been no better than so-so, explains The Telluride Watch. To help buy down the infrastructure costs of the hotel, however, several expensive homes are also planned in conjunction with the hotel.

It’s time to bear down

BANFF, Alberta — Although still hibernating, bears are back in the headlines in Banff. Last fall, they got into garbage seven times, more than had occurred in a good number of years. With that in mind, both town and Banff National Park officials say it’s time to step up enforcement of laws that require commercial operators to maintain bear-proof garbage containers.

The Rock Mountain Outlook explains that bear interactions with people and garbage were common during the 1970s and 1980s, with the consequences that several bears were killed. After the community dump was sealed and bear-proof containers were required, the bears disappeared.

Hospital expects to cater to seniors

FRISCO, Colo. — Construction of the hospital in Frisco continues on schedule. The hospital, to be called St. Anthony Summit Medical Center, is to open by Christmas with staff of 175 people. Affiliated with the hospital will be clinics at Copper Mountain, Granby, and Winter Park.

The Summit Daily News reports that hospital administrators expect to develop programs that cater to the growing senior population in Summit County, specifically responding to the more common ailments of high blood pressure, diabetes and osteoporosis.

Why we keep places like Auschwitz intact

GRANBY, Colo. — Although the bulldozer that rampaged through Granby last June remains intact, the key governments involved want to see it dismembered. Not one Kathy Gilbetson, who is siding with the dissident local historical association.

"When you walk through Auschwitz or stand next to remnants of the Berlin Wall, you have a better appreciation of man’s inhumanity to man than you’d ever get from a photo," she writes in the Winter Park Manifest.

"I agree that we need to put the bulldozer in the hands of a group that is responsible in preserving our local history," she added. "I trust them to do the right thing with it for the right reasons."

Avon bucks homeowners

AVON, Colo. — Some snickering occurred in the Vail Valley last year when a new exit was opened for Interstate 70 in Avon. Lo and behold, the exit named a boulevard christened in honour of an attorney that had represented the nearby development of big-box stores. In fact, another street was named for the mayor, who many thought had given away the community’s goods to the developers.

Well, the tide has turned. A slate of council members sharply more critical of growth has been elected, as was evident in a recent case. A property owners group in a high-end subdivision had wanted the road that leads to their homes renamed. The road is called Buck Creek, echoing the name of the nearby creek, but the homeowners wanted it named Mountain Star, after their subdivision.

No go, said the town council. Councilwoman Tamara Nottingham-Underwood, a descendent of the town’s first settlers from a century ago, had this to say: "Buck Creek is a fine name. I like the Mountain Star development and I respect it, but I just think it's time we stop naming things after developers and development. Avon is more than that."

Avalanche control system installed

REVELSTOKE, B.C. — A state-of-the-art remote controlled system called Avalanche Guard has been installed on the TransCanada Highway 50 kilometres east of Revelstoke.

"Because crews can trigger the explosives by remote control, rather than by helicopter, we'll be able to activate a controlled avalanche in poor weather conditions, day or night, even if the visibility is bad," explained Kevin Falcon, minister of transportation.

The system in British Columbia cost $943,000. The same technology has been used in Europe for several years, but also in Alaska, Washington state, and Wyoming.

The slide path east of Revelstoke, called the Laurie, has run every three or four years. When it ran two winters ago, it damaged two large trucks beyond repair and closed the highway for more than two days.

Land prices rapidly rise

WESTWOOD, Calif. — Land values have doubled in less than three years in California’s Lassen County, apparently in response to a planned ski and golf resort.

The project, called Dyer Mountain, calls for five ski lifts, two 18-hole golf courses, and housing to accommodate 4,000 people. This is not particularly big compared to destination resort areas of the West, but it would be a seismic shift in Westwood, an old lumber town that has been decaying since the 1950s.

The Los Angeles Times found any number of "urban refugees," some of them residents since the 1970s, who fear an end to their free-spirited mountain lifestyle. "What attracted people like us is that it was cheap – and we like it just like it is," said Steve Robinson, a carpenter who has lives there for 32 years. "If we wanted skiing and a big resort, we would live in Tahoe. We do not."

However, local residents approved the project by a two-to-one vote in 2000.

Dam’s vulnerability disputed

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The safety of the dam that creates Jackson Lake continues to be disputed.

Bureau of Reclamation officials say an independent assessment by one of the world’s top engineering companies, URS Geniner Woodward Clyde, will likely conclude that a big earthquake would cause damage but not total failure.

Still, local geologists are not persuaded. They tell the Jackson Hole News & Guide that a fault line at the base of the Teton Mountains, which is believed to be overdue for an earthquake, could deliver one of a 7.5 magnitude. For several years they have been calling for an early warning system to protect residents in case of dam failure.