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Mountain News: Aron Ralston story goes to film

ASPEN, Colo. - It looks like former Aspen resident Aron Ralston's gruesomely fascinating story will make the big screen.

ASPEN, Colo. - It looks like former Aspen resident Aron Ralston's gruesomely fascinating story will make the big screen. Citing the entertainment-trade magazine Variety, the Aspen Times says that Slumdog Millionaire filmmaker Danny Boyle is set to make a movie of Ralston's tale of survival. Release is said to be scheduled for late 2010.

Ralston in 2002 had been making news in Aspen for his adventurous streak, which included skiing Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks during winter. Then, in May 2003, he burst on the international scene after he was discovered hiking out of a remote area of the canyon country of Utah, his arm sawed off below the elbow. He spent five days immobile in a canyon, his arm inextricably caught between two rocks. Finally, fearing death from thirst, he used a small knife to cut off his arm in order to remain alive.

 

Glimmers of better times

VAIL, Colo. - Some glimmers of recovery in the destination ski business are being detected in Vail. Advanced flight bookings for the winter have risen 4.5 per cent, compared to a 3 per cent decline last year. Lodging reservations recorded by the Vail Valley Partnerships are up 20 per cent from last year. However, Vail municipal officials tell the Vail Daily that lodging bookings they monitor are down for November, December and January. But despite the downhill slide, Vail officials figure the drop-off is nowhere as precipitous as it has been for many other resorts.

 

Airport no longer has a big dip

TELLURIDE, Colo. - Until this year, Telluride's airport had a 16-foot dip in the middle of the runway. Now, after $24 million in dirt moving, the runway is even, if still tilted.

With this change, more flights are expected into the airport, reports the Telluride Daily Planet . The current portal is in Montrose, well more than an hour away. "Economically, it's very important," said Rich Nuttall, the airport manager. "We are a resort town, and people like to fly right to their destination."

The federal government picked up the tab on most of the previous work, and the locals hope for continued largesse for another $35 million project at the airport.

 

Possession of marijuana decriminalized

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. - Voters in Breckenridge have voted to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana and paraphernalia. However, state laws still will apply. As well, the municipal code still bans the smoking of marijuana in public, use by minors, or driving under the influence.

Rick Holman, the police chief, said the revised law changes little. "It's never been something that we've spent a lot of time on, so I don't expect this will be a big change in how we really do business," he told the Summit Daily News . He said the town last year ticketed 10 people under the town's law governing possession.

 

Skiers spared in snowslides

BANFF, Alberta - Two skiers got buried up to their waists in an avalanche, but escaped with only minor injuries. "There's not a lot of snow out there, but there is enough snow that looks like it's skiable," said Marc Ledwidge, manager of mountain safety for the mountain national parks for Parks Canada.

"The temptation is to ski the wind-loaded features just because that is where the most snow is," noted a bulletin for Banff and other national parks. "The problem is, these wind-loaded features are also the most susceptible to producing avalanches."

 

Vietnam vet shoots four

VAIL, Colo. - The question in the wake of the shooting on Saturday night in Vail was what happened with Rossi Moreau.

"There's a better way to do things," he told the Vail Daily 's Ed Stoner for a story in 2007, in explaining his staunch opposition to the war in Iraq. "You just don't have to kill people. It doesn't accomplish anything. If you kill someone, you carry that with you for the rest of your life."

Even then, as a veteran of two tours of duty in Vietnam, Moreau was carrying around his past. "Every person that I killed I took their soul with me," Moreau said.

On Saturday night, he added another one.

Witnesses told police that Moreau, 63, was escorted out of a bar in Vail that caters to local residents after an argument. He then pulled a semi-automatic .45-calibre handgun. A witness said the first man shot was a manager of the bar. Moreau then returned inside and shot three more people, killing one.

Officials told the Vail Daily that it was only the third homicide in the 47-year-history of Vail, and possibly the first shooting death.

"Other than a few shoving matches once in a while, we're a very safe place," said Dwight Henninger, the Vail police chief. "So it's a real strike to the community, a real blow to us."

Police as of Sunday had established no motive for the shootings. But the Vail Daily, in several stories published in recent years, had reported Moreau's great inner turmoil.

Originally from New Hampshire, Moreau told the Daily he had served as an Army Ranger in Vietnam during 1968 and 1969, the time of the fiercest fighting for U.S. forces. However, the POW Network, a Missouri-based group that tracks the history of military veterans, said Moreau was in a non-combat arms position as a radio and teletype operator during 48 months of active duty.

"The first thing you might notice about Rossi Moreau is his flowing mustache," observed Stoner in his 2007 report. "Or his effusive friendliness - he'll shake your hand three different ways and pound your fist. Or the snowflake tattoo on his cheek, a badge that represents his love of skiing."

In that report, Stoner explained that Moreau first visited Vail in 1970 to watch a ski race. He fell in love with the town and stayed, coaching skiing and soccer and helping organize the first Vietnam veteran's parade.

Moreau had been active in the community, serving as a volunteer firefighter. Others talked about his friendliness. He loved the surrounding wilderness areas, and had applied last year to be a volunteer wilderness ranger on U.S. Forest Service trails. With others, he shared his love for his cats.

During winter, he skied 150 days a year. In summer, he mountain-biked down Vail Mountain.

Vietnam's Tet Offensive in 1969 left him scarred on his neck. His post-traumatic stress disorder was less obvious but more pervasive.

"He takes medicine every day," Stoner wrote, "but he is resigned to the fact that he will never recover from the disorder. The symptoms began with sleeplessness. And when he did sleep, he dreamed of painful things he'd forgotten. Like holding a dying friend in his arms during combat."

"He called for his mom," Moreau told Stoner. "I watched him die in my arms. It's really hard watching someone die in your arms. All you can do is watch them die."

However, Mary Schantag of the POW Network told the Daily , "I found that hard to believe as a radio teletype operator. He wasn't a grunt - a machine gunner, an ammo bearer. Those are the guys who are going to be up front."

Moreau's former psychologist, Darlene T. Hoffman, told the newspaper that Moreau had recurring nightmares, flashbacks, and problems expressing his emotions. As such, she said, he needed to live alone.

She also said Moreau is heavily involved with sports "to stay alive. He's got days when he goes into a shell and cannot talk to anybody." Moreau himself said that if he could not be active, he must be alone.

Every morning, he said, was a battle.

Pat Hammon, another Vietnam veteran in the Vail area, told the Vail Daily that Moreau was a "very likeable guy in very many ways. He was a lot of fun and was a great skier and had a great love for Vail. But Rossi had a lot of problems. He had his demons he was working with."

 

Locals' discount at cemetery

CANMORE, Alberta - In a bid to strike justice in the cemetery, Canmore has been debating the various degrees of localdom.

Lifelong residents get an automatic pass to the great beyond in the town's cemetery, provided they paid about $2,000 for a cemetery plot. But the cost for non-residents is more than $4,000.

The Rocky Mountain Outlook reports a discussion among city officials about the degree of cost that should be levied to residents who have left Canmore but want to be buried there; those who have maintained vacation homes for decades but never became full-time residents; and still others in hope of eternal residence.

 

Banff may bring back bison

BANFF, Alberta - Wildlife biologists see bison and woodland caribou as the only two significant pieces of the ecosystem missing from Banff National Park. Some planning is now underway to reintroduce both species.

"The idea is really around ensuring this national park has the full range of naturally occurring species," said Kevin Van Tighem, superintendent of Banff.

Bones excavated within the park prove the bison were there 10,370 years ago. What may have been the last wild bison was shot in 1858, near Lake Louise.

For a time, Banff had a small herd of bison, but only within a fenced area. Van Tighem rejected the idea of a "show herd."

But some in Alberta worry that the bison will be like those in the Yellowstone ecosystem, where bison from Yellowstone National Park have wandered onto adjacent private lands in Montana, causing ranchers to worry about spread of brucellosis.

"Bison, of course, would not confine themselves to a national park, and that would create fairly significant management issues for us," said Dave Eagley, spokesman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

Woodland caribou might also be restored - provided wildlife ecologists can figure out what caused the long-term decline. An avalanche wiped out most, if not all, of Banff's tiny caribou herd earlier this year. But the park had 23 caribous as recently as the late 1980s. Predation by wolves may have been partially responsible.

An even more significant challenge will be to figure out where caribou may be available for reintroduction into Banff. The species is listened as threatened in Canada.

 

Proposed wilderness divides groups

EAGLE, Colo. - Mountain bikers and snowmobilers have become more vocal in their opposition to a proposal to designate 400,000 acres of federal land as wilderness in northwestern Colorado.

The proposal, called Hidden Gems by supporters, would put motorized and mechanized vehicles off-limits in several dozen areas between Winter Park and Crested Butte. These lands are mostly at mid-elevations, as opposed to the "rock and ice" of higher elevations that have typically been the province of earlier wilderness designations.

But instead of jewels, many opponents see the proposal as fool's gold.

"I would like to see Hidden Gems go away," mountain biker Larry Grossman, the founder of a group called the Hardscrabble Singletrack Coalition.

The group opposes inclusion of Hardscrabble Mountain, located near Eagle, in the wilderness bill. A recent meeting covered by the Vail Daily featured a roomful primarily of snowmobilers. The meeting, reported the newspaper, turned rowdy and rude.

Two valleys away, a group called the Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association has announced it can support 94,000 acres. The Aspen Times says the group in other areas proposed for wilderness agrees with bans on oil-and-gas extraction and motorized use but not with similar bans on mountain bike use.

Mike Pritchard, a director of the group, said his members hoped for compromise on the issue of wilderness. "Unfortunately, there's still disagreement," he said. "It comes down to philosophy, almost religion."

Another valley away, at Crested Butte, the process by which Hidden Gems was delivered has some people squirming. The Crested Butte Town Council was recently asked to support the proposal, and it did so. But council member Skip Berkshire said he was uncomfortable with the process, despite his belief that "50 years from now every square inch of wilderness will be treasured.

"But I am very disappointed in the process. I don't like being caught between these user groups," he said, referring to the mountain bikers and hikers. He called for a collaborative alternative.

Another council member, Dan Escalante, wondered: "What's the rush?"

Actually, proposals for at least some of these areas originated in 1998. Conservationists argued then - and it's their core argument now - that existing wilderness areas are almost exclusive in what they call the rock and ice. They say mid-elevation lands also need protection. That proposal had little traction in Congress, however.

In 2002, the White River National Forest issued a report that found substantial lands in the Aspen-Vail-Breckenridge met the criteria for wilderness. Hidden Gems includes those areas, but many more areas that the Forest Service deemed unworthy.

Seeking to take a Solomon-like long view, The Aspen Times favoured the proposal. "This debate is not about people and what they can do with their toys. It's about the land and the wildlife, and we would rather err on the side of protection," the newspaper said. But, added the paper, proponents have failed to define biological and aesthetic criteria used in selecting the proposed parcels.

Counties can create energy programs

EAGLE, Colo. - Voters in Eagle and two other mountain counties in Colorado have authorized their county commissioners to launch programs that will enable homeowners to access loans to pay for energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy systems. The programs are modeled upon a program created in Colorado's Boulder County.

Despite support from Vail Resorts, which operates the Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas, the margin was relatively thin in Eagle County, with 53 per cent supporting the measure and 47 per cent against. That spread of six per cent compares with a 20 per cent spread in Gunnison County, reported by the Crested Butte News , and a 46 per cent spread in Aspen and Pitkin County.

The idea behind the program is that governments can use their bonding authority to access sources of capital to be lent to building owners for energy-saving and renewable energy upgrades.

Partly at issue in the election in Eagle County was the potential exposure of costs to other taxpayers. Unless homeowners default on loans, there is otherwise no direct risk to the county government. The loans will become attached to the property. However, many worried that the county government could end up picking up the cost in case of housing foreclosures.

 

Should bear spray be required?

JACKSON, Wyo. - About a year ago, officials in Grand Teton National Park began requiring hunters, who are allowed to hunt elk within the park, to take bear spray. Now a lawyer is drawing up a proposal for consideration by Wyoming lawmakers to require all hunters, backpackers, and others venturing into areas frequented by grizzly bears to carry spray.

The lawyer, Steve Wichman, cites two studies that have concluded that bear spray more effectively blunts attacking bears than bullets. One of those studies, by a Brigham Young University professor, showed the spray stopped aggressive grizzlies 92 per cent of the time. Firearms succeeded 67 per cent of the time.

Wichman's rationale of the proposed requirement is the need to reduce human-grizzly conflicts, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide. Park Service officials say that hunters have mostly complied with the requirement for carrying bear spray in Grand Teton National Park.

The proposed measure also gets support from the Jackson Hole Alliance. The group's Louise Lasley told the newspaper that carrying bear spray, "while seemingly cumbersome, will probably go a long way in protecting those backcountry users and the bears."

In September, a deer hunter killed a grizzly bear from 40 yards away. The hunter claimed self-defense, which is allowed, but authorities didn't buy his claim. They charged him with killing a grizzly bear, which is protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, without a license.

 

Trailers on way out

HAILEY, Idaho - The trailers that line River Street in Hailey, a town down-valley from Ketchum and Sun Valley, will likely disappear, one by one. They cannot be replaced under town and state law, notes the Idaho Mountain Express. Those codes require, at the very least, manufactured homes set on foundations, building officials say.