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Mountain News:

Tahoe resorts ‘next best thing’

NORTH TAHOE, Calif. — Are the Truckee-Tahoe ski resorts soon to inherit the crown as the center of skiing in North America? A big winter has at least one economic development official talking such talk.

"We are on the edge of the next best thing," said Andy Chapman, tourism director of the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association. Colorado and Canada have had their turns, and now it’s Tahoe’s turn, he told the Tahoe World.

What inspired such optimistic talk was a winter that arrived early and stayed steady, even as resorts to the north faltered. As a result, collections of the lodging tax – a good barometer of the tourism economy – were up 21 per cent in the Thanksgiving-December period, while the first months of this year were up 10 per cent.

600-plus ski days and counting

HOOD RIVER, Ore. — Rainer Hertrich has been skiing every day since Nov. 1, 2003.

At more than 600 days, that easily surpasses the only record that Hertrich is aware of, the 366 days (it was a Leap Year) that British ski journalist Arnie Wilson logged in 2004.

A snow-groomer at Copper Mountain, Hertrich skied this year during ski camps after the conventional closing, then drove to Utah’s Snowbird for a few days, then on to Idaho’s Tamarack, where he skied a snow patch of less than 400 feet to keep his string intact.

The Vail Daily reports that Hertrich this summer has been living in a tent at the foot of Mt. Hood’s Palmer Glacier. It has been a drizzly or worse summer on Mt. Hood, and Hertrich several times was tempted to quit. When summer winds down, he plans to continue his skiing with a trip to South America, as he did last winter.

Hertrich, says the newspaper, "may some day go down as the quintessential ski bum, the guy who took the concept of an endless winter and ran with it like no one else ever has."

He is, by the way, a free-heel skier.

Idle promises?

ASPEN, Colo. — Aspen city officials are using a combination of sticks and carrots in a new program called "Idling Isn’t Cool"to put the pinch on idling cars.

The stick – not a very big one, admittedly – is a placard that is put on the windshields of cars that are left to idle. The placard notes that cars need to idle only 30 seconds to get engine oil circulation. It also notes a city ordinance the bans engines from idling for more than five minutes.

The placard also explains that turning off engines is one of the easiest things to do to lessen contributions to global warming. It also urges people to a Website with "carbon calculators," which is to say a list of questions that determine how much carbon dioxide a person’s lifestyle pumps into the air. People who provide evidence of this carb-counting get vouchers for a free cookie from a prominent bakery in the city.

Biker fined $400 for wheelie

CANMORE, Alberta — Because mountain bike trails in the nearby forests are closed due to danger from grizzly bears, mountain bikers have been spending more time in Canmore. One recently popped a wheelie while going through a four-way intersection and promptly got a $400 fine.

Police there told the Rocky Mountain Outlook that he was ticketed in accordance with a law that finds wheelies could distract and confuse drivers, as they might be unsure where the cyclist could turn.

The bicyclist maintains than the fine was an overreaction, as nobody else was at the intersection. Police said there was more to the story that the bicyclist let on, although they didn’t spill the beans to the newspaper about just what that was.

‘Lunatics’ survive, species grows

SILVERTON, Colo. — The Hardrock Hundred may be the craziest of all the mountain races. As the name implies, it covers 100 miles, but they are very, very difficult miles – including crossing a 14,000-foot peak as well as the crest of several ranges.

The winner this year is a familiar figure, Karl Meltzer, a bartender from the Salt Lake Valley. He has won three of the last four years. He finished the final six miles this year at a pace of 10 minutes 30 seconds per mile. Keep in mind that he had been running for 28 hours at an average elevation of above 11,000 feet.

It’s not just men punishing themselves. The lead female runner, Sue Johnston, was two hours back.

Betsy Nye, a former race winner, didn’t compete last year because she was pregnant. But even this year, there was no rest for this weary competitor. During at least one aid station, reports the Silverton Standard, she paused to breast-feed her baby. She finished fourth this year.

"This is how we’ve been so successful as a species," the wife of one competitor said as she waited for her "favorite lunatic" to stride into Silverton. "A whole bunch of people come together to support a lunatic idea."

Aspen ticket will cost $78

ASPEN, Colo. — It’s an old saying: price your lift tickets for what you consider to be their value, then discount, discount, discount. In Aspen, the sticker price will be $78 next year, although ski area officials expect Vail to inch above that level. However, buying five days brings the price at Aspen down to $69/day.

Grizzlies dying rapidly

BANFF, Alberta — A new study reveals an alarming increase in the mortality of female grizzlies during the past two years in the Bow River Valley after nine years of stability. In reporting the deaths, wildlife biologist Stephen Herrero is calling for the designation of grizzly bears in both Alberta and British Columbia as "threatened."

The Rocky Mountain Outlook reports that Herrero stopped short of blaming human-grizzly conflicts in the Bow Valley on land developers, but he said that people must learn to share the land with the grizzlies if grizzlies are to survive. Nowhere else in North America where they still survive are grizzlies as threatened, he said.

"We must identify areas where bears can be secure and those where people can be secure," he said. He recommends seasonal closures in areas where interaction is likely.

Many of the killed bears were considered nuisances, because they had become habituated to areas where they were likely to have conflicts with people. However, many bears are killed by hunters. Herrero was divided in whether he wanted to see hunting end, as hunters are also responsible for conservation of habitat. However, Nigel Douglas, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association, called for a suspension of hunting.

Aspen sizzles, CB gushes

ASPEN, Colo. — It wasn’t hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement. The Aspen Times tried it. But the 91 degrees reported in Aspen on July 15 was within a sizzle of the town’s all-time record of 93 degrees.

Meanwhile, about 20 miles south and 1,000 feet higher in Crested Butte, temperatures were reported to be only in the high 70s. Nonetheless, Crested Butte residents were gushing water on their lawns. The Crested Butte News reported that the water used by the town’s 1,500 residents on July 9 was roughly equivalent to each of them filling up a 10-by-18-foot swimming pool with four feet of water.

Despite the splurge, the town had water to spare. Not so at Park City, where officials told the Park Record that the town was "barely getting by" with its water supplies. The supply was such that violators of watering restrictions were to be given $50 tickets, not the customary warnings.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain News examined what cities were using the most water per capita. While perhaps not at the head of the class, Aspen was reported to be among the leaders in profligate use.

Stewart Udall reflects

SANTA FE, N.M. — Stewart Udall, a former secretary of Interior in the 1960s and an architect of the Wilderness Act of 1964, took a hike in a wilderness area near the Santa Fe Ski Area recently, and the Los Angeles Times tagged along to record his observations.

At age 85, he’s moving more slowly now, but he gamely sloshed across a stream. "This is good wilderness," he said. "Any time you have to struggle a bit to cross a stream you’ve got good wilderness."

Along with Robert McNamara he is the last surviving member of the White House Cabinet under President John Kennedy. Kennedy, he recalls, wanted his senior officials to show some "vigah." To that end, Udall climbed Japan’s Mt. Fuji and Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro while in the Cabinet, while also rafting a host of rivers. Just last year, Udall hiked up from the Grand Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail.

McNamara also was active. He contributed money for creation of two backcountry ski huts, McNamara and Margy’s, in the famed 10th Mountain Division string between Aspen and Vail. While also in his 80s, he continued to ski into the huts until relatively recently.

Time to slow down?

EAGLE COUNTY, Colo. — Eagle County commissioners are considering a moratorium on new building proposals in unincorporated areas, which include suburbs of both Vail and Aspen.

Already, there are 16,000 housing units approved but not built, reports the Vail Daily, and the moratorium would not affect those units. Two of the three county commissioners seem to favor the idea.

"It’s pretty much a given that our population is more than likely to double," said Commissioner Peter Runyon. "What all of this is about is what happens after that point."

Another commissioner, Arn Menconi, said he wants to cool the construction of luxury homes in the more rural areas. "I don’t want to hear, ‘If we’re not growing, we’re dying’ anymore," he said.

What legal justification would be used for the moratorium? That isn’t clear, but at least one builder of high-end homes, R.A. "Chupa" Nelson, seemed undisturbed by the idea. "It would impact the construction industry by slowing it down, but that’s not necessarily bad with as overheated as the real estate market is right now," he told the Daily.

CB town centre approved

MT. CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — It was already a big year for base-area real estate projects in ski towns. Now, the ropes have dropped for yet two more big projects.

At the base of the Crested Butte ski area, town officials in Mt. Crested Butte have given final approval for the $200 million Town Centre project. The project will add both lodging and conference space, but more generally will tidy up a base area that could look and function better than it does.

Ski area officials see this as an important first step toward creating a somewhat larger and much more inviting product to entice destination visitors. Yet to come is the formal proposal for a new ski area, called Snodgrass, that would offer bundles of intermediate ski terrain, something Crested Butte is shy of.

Meanwhile, the Teton County commissioners have approved a major expansion of the base area at the foot of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. This comes after two years of debate, including a rejection only two months ago. The developer, Snake River Associates, pared the proposal and sweetened the pie before returning to the commissioners. The new plan contains 225 affordable and employee housing units, 18 golf cabins, free-market 59 houses, and 10,000 commercial square feet.

Elsewhere this year, Snowmass Village approved a $400 base area plan. In Vail, work got underway in earnest on $1 billion in real-estate redevelopment, while plans were announced for a $300 project at the foot of Beaver Creek. In California, work has also begun on a major base-area development at Northstar-at-Tahoe.

Lake may establish timeline

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Scientists are mapping a study of Lake Tahoe that could yield the most definitive timeline yet of climates in North America during the last two million years.

Because the lake is so deep and so old, sediments provide a history of ash from volcanic events, earthquakes, and of the incursions of man with such things as logging and leaks of chemicals from gas stations. Cores of those sediments can also tell about weather cycles. Thin, sandy layers indicate dry years, and scientists have already found evidence of a 70-year drought.

"Lake Tahoe is a North American record," Kenneth Verosub, professor of geology at the University of California, Davis, told the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

In this study, which may cost $2 million to $5 million, scientists also hope to arrive at the answer of "what is normal" for Lake Tahoe. By all accounts, clarity of the still deep-blue lake has diminished during the last 100 years as a result of the activities of people. But, if those activities can be restrained or modified, what should the lake look like? What is normal?

‘No’ to Dozer Days

GRANBY, Colo. — Should Granby make hay of its misfortune last year and host a celebration called "Dozer Days?" That’s what the Sky-Hi News asked in a straw vote, and 72 per cent of respondents said no in no uncertain terms. "Not only no, but hell no," scribbled one voter.

The idea was nominated almost immediately after muffler-shop owner Marvin Heemeyer last year tore through the town in a fortified bulldozer, wrecking or damaging 13 buildings while causing $5 million in damage.

Dismay obviously remains the dominant response. "Why would anyone want to celebrate a day of fear and destruction that ended in a death (Heemeyer’s suicide)," wrote Jo Moore. "Speaking as someone who was hearing the gun fire, seeing the destruction and trying to calm terrified children – to say nothing of being forced from our homes for 24 hours – none of us, particularly the children, need or want to be reminded of that day."

Aspen studying global warming

ASPEN, Colo. — A study that will attempt to predict the effects of global warming on Aspen is being drawn up.

Much of the $120,000 budgeted for the study will be spent on computer modeling. About 15 computer models have been developed in the world that attempt to predict effects of warming. However, most cover broad areas, with little precision even in areas as broad as the American West. This computer modeling will attempt to crack that barrier.

Although the precise causes remain disputed, climates across much of the Earth are clearly changing, mostly becoming warmer. That’s certainly true in Aspen. While the snowfall has remained more or less constant during the last 50 years, the timing has changed. It now snows later and melts sooner.

This study is part of a broader effort, called the Canary Initiative, which was launched by Aspen city officials earlier this year. The initiative attempts to not only reckon with the consequences of global warming, but also to take more specific action to understand – and limit – Aspen’s emission of greenhouse gases.

Rough Science in Silverton

SILVERTON, Colo. — The British Broadcasting Corporation is in Silverton during July to produce several segments for a program that sounds like reality TV visits science. Four scientists are being given tasks that they must complete in three days and with just a rudimentary tool kit.

The Silverton Standard says that in a previous segment for the BBC series, scientists in California’s Death Valley were given the tasks of finding water, constructing a rover operated by remote control, and purifying the liquid to make it drinkable.

Coal miners still active

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Steamboat is best known for its white, powdery stuff, but almost as important to the local economy is the dark, heavy stuff – coal.

The Steamboat Pilot reports that an underground mine, Seneca, figures to lay off 100 employees later this year. However, a strip mine at Twentymile Park is planning to add 80 employees. The workers being hired will make an estimated $67,000 each.

Bus shuttles or parking

CANMORE, Alberta — Canmore is talking about creating a municipal bus service, although at least once councilor says that a parking garage is more likely than a bus service. The town has a parking problem that is increasingly annoying. Nearby Banff already has an in-town bus shuttle, as do most of the major mountain resorts of the West, some of them nearly as sophisticated as city systems.

Building and preserving

KETCHUM, Idaho — Ketchum was first a mining town and then a major centre for sheep ranching before finally, in the 1930s, becoming the first destination ski resort in the West. As such, it has lots of old buildings – some 30 alone eligible for national recognition, historic preservationists say, plus hundreds deserving local recognition.

And the town’s planning commission wants to take steps to ensure they do get preserved. The Idaho Mountain Express reports that one idea is to allow people buying the houses to transfer density potential to other sites, presumably in the downtown area. That way, they will not want to raze the old homes and build to maximum heights.

Free parking to end in Truckee

TRUCKEE, Calif. —Ten years ago free parking ended in Aspen. Now, it’s ending in Truckee, where the town council has purchased 35 "pay and display" meters. Town officials expect kinks in the new system, which includes solar-powered traffic meters. Key business owners in the rapidly changing downtown district have been pushing for paid parking for year.

Lynx have bumper crop of kittens

SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS, Colo. — Evidence continues to accumulate that Canada lynx are re-establishing themselves in Colorado. Two years ago wildlife researchers found 16 kittens, and last year they found 39 kittens. This year 46 kittens were found.

Lynx disappeared from Colorado during the 20th century, with the last confirmed lynx being killed in 1973. However, more than 200 lynx have been reintroduced into Colorado since early 1999. Most of the lynx remain in the San Juan Mountains, where they were reintroduced and where biologist thought the best habitat exists.