CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. – Heidi Montag must be a woman of extremes. After growing up in Crested Butte, she’s now in Los Angeles, where she has been a star of MTV’s hit reality show “The Hills.” A regular in the fanzines, she is also the cover girl on this month’s issue of Maxim, which seems to be the Playboy Magazine for males of Gen Y.

The Denver Post, under a headline about “Crested beaut,” reports a “revealing pictorial” of the 21-year-old in Maxim, and a quick dance across the Internet shows the surgery-augmented lass in plenty of skimpy bathing suits.

And just think, if she were still in Crested Butte this winter, she’d have to be bundled up to her eyeballs to handle the 30 below nights.

Prices of Steamboat’s ski-in homes soaring

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Steamboat Springs is fast establishing the kind of real estate prices that are more commonly associated with Vail, Aspen and perhaps Telluride. The Steamboat Pilot & Today reports of a 6,277-square-foot slope-side townhome that was subdivided into a duplex. One side sold for $5.4 million and the other side for $5.3 million. Unbuilt lots in the same neighbourhood are listed for $2 million.

Another property has an asking price of $4.3 million, and real estate agent Arlene Zopf of Steamboat Village Brokers says that many potential buyers see the price as no barrier. “I have a lady from Texas coming this weekend, and she only wants to look at ski-in, ski-out properties – only the best.”

Neighbours get agreeableto burning of pine slash

GRAND LAKE, Colo. – It looked like the meeting might get stinky. Grand Lake town officials were planning to begin burning slash from 6,000 acres of trees killed by mountain bark beetles. Expediting the burning is to be a Dumpster-like machine that can burn an average of two tractor-trailer loads per hour, while leaving little ash. But neighbors were not happy to have the incinerator, and especially its smoke, in their neighbourhood.

The Sky-Hi Daily News explains that the $250,000 budgeted this year by Grand Lake town officials allows them to cut down every infected tree that is 4 inches in diameter or larger. Without the ability to haul trees a short distance, to the portable incinerator, the town could process only half as much.

The controversy dissolved, says the newspaper, after the neighbours had an opportunity to vent, heard the rationale, and then discovered that they could also dispose of their own slash in the burner.

Community activism cut short by disease

KETCHUM, Idaho – Sometimes things don’t seem to make much sense. Such would seem to be the case of a woman in Ketchum named Chris Potters.

The Idaho Mountain Express explains that she moved to Ketchum in 1981, raised two sons, taught school, and in 1993 got involved in city government, eventually serving three terms as a council member. She was heavily involved in creating a skateboard park, adopting a dark-sky law, encouraging affordable housing, and fighting gated developments. She lobbied for, but did not succeed, in getting the community swimming pool heated by geothermal resources. Her final job on the council was to oversee the Ketchum Cemetery.

Even then, she had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. She recently died of the disease at age 55.

War on Terrorism causes traffic detours in Summit

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. – The Summit Daily News thinks that the war on terrorism needs to be better connected at times with common sense. What provokes the newspaper’s grousing is diversion of traffic from across Dillon Dam, a shortcut between the towns of Frisco and Dillon.

Concrete barriers are being installed along the road upon the advice of the federal government, which says the barriers will make it more difficult – although probably not stopping anybody, says the newspaper – for anybody to sabotage the dam. The dam and reservoir are owned by the City of Denver.

In just the first week, 56,000 cars were re-routed – although it’s probably worth pointing out that the alternative route, Interstate 70, parallels the dam road, requiring only a few more minutes of driving. However, permanently lost will be scenic pullouts, including one that provided a history of the dam.

Many other changes across the Colorado mountains have been instituted since Sept. 11, 2001. Almost immediately, restrooms at the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel complex were closed to the public. Dam facilities at Uedi Reservoir, near Aspen, were similarly closed.

In Steamboat Springs, a new courthouse was relocated to the edge of town, because the existing courthouse site in the downtown area had too little room for all the mandated security areas. At Gypsum, 34 federal transportation security workers were hired, at federal wages, to screen passengers and baggage at Eagle County Regional Airport.

In Glenwood Springs, the public was no longer allowed to freely enter the offices of the White River National Forest, but was instead screened before being allowed through a locked door.

Why so many skiers slamming into trees?

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. –The death of an 11-year-old boy who slammed into a tree on the edge of an intermediate ski trail at Breckenridge has John Wolters, a visitor from Texas, wondering about grooming policies. It’s not the first such death – two other skiers also died at Breckenridge last year after hitting trees.

Writing in the Summit Daily News, he points the finger in two areas: First, shaped skis have made it much easier for beginner skiers to rapidly ski with confidence.

“They go from bunny slopes to the intermediate slopes overnight. Therein lies the tragedy. It appears from my unscientific research that most of the deaths occur from hitting objects on intermediate slopes,” he says.

“These accidents could be prevented or lessened in severity,” Wolters goes on to say, “if the resort management companies – Vail Resorts in this case, would alter their slope-grooming habits. If they would leave a five to eight-foot area ungroomed near the trees and obstacles, there would be fewer skier deaths.

Blogging on the newspaper’s website, a reader identified as Tom Clancy thinks the recommended solution unworkable. “Any death is a tragedy, but building berms along the sides of all blue runs to prevent beginners from crashing into trees is a bit far-fetched,” he says. “I think a much better idea is for beginning skiers to take some lessons so they can learn how to turn, stop, staying the middle of the run and properly bail out before getting too close to the edge.”

He adds: “I’ll guess that most of the beginners who get injured or killed did not take lessons because they thought a) they didn’t need them, or b) it was too expensive. Big mistake.”

Riders high on alcohol and testosterone 86ed

DURANGO, Colo. – Four men have been banned for five years from Durango Mountain Resort. Ski area officials said the men were vulgar, rode their snowboards recklessly, and then, to elude ski patrollers, jumped from a lift chair that was 15 to 20 feet above the snow. When finally caught, the four men showed no remorse, general manager Hank Thiess told the Durango Herald. The four men, all young, appeared to be intoxicated.

The resort is exploring how and with whom to share the names of these and other problem skiers and riders. The motive is to avoid pushing its problem onto the slopes of another resort.

Forest Service trying to regenerate aspen trees

NORWOOD, Colo.—The U.S. Forest Service is hoping to cut about 200 acres of low-elevation aspen trees that appear to be dying out, with the hope that the cutting will provoke the aspen trees to generate root-based generation, called suckers.

The aspen trees are old, and so their dying is not a surprise. But what is happening in the San Juans, and elsewhere in the West, is that aspen trees are not regenerating as is often expected. This particular area is about 45 air miles northwest of Telluride, on the Uncompahgre Plateau.

“Because aspen regenerates primarily through root suckering, some managers and scientists feel that clear-cutting before sudden decline advances too far is the best way to regenerate a new stand,” said a press release.

A plague on both of you drivers, jurors seem to say

ASPEN, Colo. – A jury awarded only $1 to a driver who was involved in traffic-related altercation at Aspen’s entrance in 2006. The driver had been sprayed with mace by the other driver as the two argued about a near-collision. The man who had been sprayed with mace had filed the lawsuit, but the jurors found no compelling testimony one way or the other. A juror, Lisa Johnson, told The Aspen Times that the jury’s decision was about teaching both men a lesson.

Parking scarce in Vail, a good problem to have

VAIL, Colo. – How good has the snow been at Vail recently? The parking situation partly tells the story. The town has 2,350 parking spaces in its two major garages, plus hundreds more in other, private parking garages.

Still, on a recent Saturday there were nearly 1,000 cars parked along the frontage road. It was the 9 ^th time this winter that cars have overflowed the garages onto the frontage road.

“It’s a good problem to have,” said Stan Zemler, the town manager. The Vail Daily notes that there are 800 additional spaces in possible future developments near the ski lifts. The overflowing parking lots have been a problem since about 2000. The greater concern is having people unloading and walking on a busy road.

Jay Leno lampoons urologist in Jackson

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Under a headline titled “Comix whiz disses Jackson urologist,” the Jackson Hole News & Guide tells the story of its own Dr. Lisa Finkelstein, who got lampooned by television comedian Jay Leno.

The good doctor, explains the newspaper’s Johanna Love, has for several years had fun with the nature of her business through her witty newspaper advertisements. Leno, in turn, had some fun at her expense.

“You know something, if you have some problem and you go to an urologist – maybe it’s me – I want a mature urologist,” he said during the “Headlines” segment of his TV program. “I don’t want a jokey urologist. I don’t want a cute urologist.”

He then showed a card with a newspaper advertisement pasted on it. Said the ad: “If you sprinkle when you tinkle … come see Dr. Finkel.”

The newspaper explains that Jackson Hole residents and visitors have for years giggled at the doctor’s witty newspapers advertisements: One, with a photo of elderly golfers, said: “Senior golf league ... the pee G.A.”

This year’s advertisement shows a painted lizard with a missing tail holding a “Can’t Work” sign. The text asks readers: “Suffering from reptile dysfunction?”

Finkelstein tells the newspaper that her ads, while amusing people, help people talk about uncomfortable topics. “I’d rather them laugh than look at me and say, ‘Uhhh, that’s the urologist. ’”

Robert Redford the talk of Park City and Truckee

PARK CITY, Utah – It’s that time of year when Park City is in the news of New York City, Los Angeles and just about every other place where people pay attention to cutting-edge cinema.

The Park Record says actor Robert Redford spoke at the opening of his 24 ^th annual Sundance Film Festival. There would be, he announced, a new kind of spirit” at this year’s festival, ones that welcomes fresh collaborations of poetry, art and music into film.

“In past years, filmmakers have been connected to the generation of baby boomers, trying to hang onto something of value,” Redford explained. “Now, there’s a new group that’s saying, ‘We don’t want to mirror what’s come before. We want to do something new, so just get out of our way.’”

Meanwhile, in Truckee, Calif., Park City has also been in conversations. It’s an old railroad town, but the old railyards are being redeveloped into a New West sort of place, with a three-story boutique hotel and other such resort-related goodies. Among the proposed components, reports the Sierra Sun, would be a movie theater.

The developer, Rick Holliday, says he has two very interested operators of the theater, “but my main guy is Robert Redford. He says he should have done Truckee for the film festival; it’s more real than Park City.”

At least for now. Park City was once an old mining town.

Real estate prices edge down in Sierra Nevada

TRUCKEE, Calif. – The lower- and middle-end housing market is shuddering in the Lake Tahoe/Truckee area of the Sierra Nevada.

The median price for homes sold in the Truckee area least year actually dropped from the prior year, from $669,500 to $645,000. A similar drop was also reported in Tahoe City, which is located along the shores of Lake Tahoe.

Without providing evidence, the Sierra Sun cites a “spike in defaulted home loans” in the area. However, the newspaper does offer the testimony of a real estate agent, Kelly Smith. “I’ve been here going on 18 years, and until six months ago there was no such thing (as a foreclosure market,” he said.

Jackson Hole examines its own carbon footprint

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Jackson Hole has taken stock of its carbon footprint, and it’s not a pretty sight. An analysis of electricity, petroleum natural gas, and heating records show that each resident is responsible for 37 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas.

The national average is 24 metric tons.

“Such statistics show that Jackson Hole, known for fostering a land conservation ethic, has developed an economy that relies on massive energy consumption,” notes the Jackson Hole News and Guide’s Thomas Dewell, in reporting the analysis.

“The numbers are just staggering,” said Michael Miller, president of Teton Power, whose company helps organizations and individuals find ways to decrease their carbon footprint. “We’re energy pigs, and to live where we live is energy intensive.”

He noted that the valley economy is “completely unsustainable without outside input. There is no such thing as a salad grown in Jackson Hole during the winter.”

Even though 10 percent of Jackson Hole’s electrical consumers have signed up for hydroelectric, wind, and other forms of “clean” energy, as a practical matter even the renewable energy economy depends upon the natural gas being extracted to the south in the Pinedale area, the nation’s leading poster child for oil and gas development.

The drive to use renewable energy will require even more natural gas development, because wind and solar energy require backups that can be turned on immediately, said John Bargas, manager for communications for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States.

Aspen was among the first to inventory its carbon footprint as a part of its Canary Initiative. Similar efforts are also underway in the counties where Crested Butte, Telluride, and Durango are located, among probably others.