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Mountain news: Mountainfilm delivers again

Mountainfilm delivers again TELLURIDE, Colo. — It was a busy weekend in Telluride as filmmakers, writers, and some of their subjects gathered for Mountainfilm, now in its 35th year.
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FILM FEST The 2013 Mountainfilm event at Telluride delivered viewer satisfaction once again in the 35th year of the event. Photo by Melissa Plantz Photography

Mountainfilm delivers again

TELLURIDE, Colo. — It was a busy weekend in Telluride as filmmakers, writers, and some of their subjects gathered for Mountainfilm, now in its 35th year.

It's always a weekend of extraordinary beauty, big ideas, and fire — as in bellies, keyed on action.

On Sunday, Jim Whittaker — the first American on Everest, 50 years ago this month — was seen leaning up against the New Sheridan Opera House, engaged in a conversation. Don Colcord, a pharmacist in nearby Nucla and the subject of a profile in the New Yorker two years ago, answered questions at the high school auditorium following one film.

At a breakfast talk, the chemist from Harvard who believes he can achieve a breakthrough in solar energy technology, and was the subject of another profile, in the New Yorker, argued why nuclear energy is not the answer

In the Steaming Bean was James Balog, who had made the film "Extreme Ice," about the disintegration of glaciers in Greenland and Alaska.

Mountains, energy and climate change. Those were the themes, and at various places they intersected. Auden Schendler, from the Aspen Skiing Co., found the conversation comforting.

"I arrived at the venue — a whole day on climate solutions — to a room completely packed, standing room only, probably 700 people, maybe 1,000. I thought: 'Surely they will be gone by my talk later today.' Nope. Still packed. And that was true all weekend."

He said the response to him "suggested a new energy on climate."

Also talking about climate change was Whittaker, the original Everest climber. "He described the mountain having totally changed (melted out) since 1963," reported Schendler later, in an email message. One famous route, one pioneered in 1963 by Tom Hornbein, who also spoke at Mountainfilm, and the late Willi Unsoeld, has become bulletproof blue ice.

"The subtext, again, is how the mountain has changed," said Schendler.

Chilly and lovely — it's spring in the Rockies

ASPEN, Colo. — The wet, chilly spring had many mountain towners in Colorado grousing right up to Memorial Day. "Depressing," said one resident of Crested Butte after two days of snow.

In other words, it was kind of like spring in the old days.

But just as exuberantly, spring was in full profusion for the weekend. At Arapahoe Basin, tents and lawn chairs were set up in the parking lot next to the slopes. People barbecued, smoked Ganga, listened to rap, and on the slopes a few exposed more skin than any doctor of oncology would advise. One man even skied down in the male equivalent of a thong. Too much information?

Because of all the spring snow, the Aspen Ski Area reopened for the weekend.

The wet weather of April and May had allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief, Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo told the Aspen Daily News.

Still, local fire chiefs haven't forgotten last year's major forest fires that claimed seven lives along the Front Range of Colorado and destroyed hundreds of homes. The Aspen area — and indeed, ski towns were spared all but small fires. But DiSalvo reminded local residents to "cut, prune and do all those things" as necessary to create defensible space in case wild fires do occur.

In Winter Park, local water managers announced that they would have to abide by the same rules as those in Denver: lawn watering just two days a week this summer, and not at all during mid-day. That may be a bitter pill for some local residents in that Denver gets a substantial chunk of its water from creeks around Winter Park.

In Telluride, snow remained on the slopes of Wilson, Dallas and other peaks, but the aspen trees and willows along the San Miguel River were flush with the lovely bright green of first leaves. From such scenes have come dozens of calendar pictures.

Arch project dogged by rising antler prices

JACKSON, Wyo. — Every year, the elk antlers and skulls, mostly from elk but some from bison, are gathered from the National Wildlife Refuge located immediately north of Jackson by local Boy Scouts, then sold by auction. Boy Scouts this year got a quarter of the $131,400 in sales.

The Jackson Hole News&Guide explains that some of the antlers will end up as lighting fixtures for someone's dining room, but most will go overseas to be ground up and sold as elixir.

But a growing demand for antlers as dog chews has also boosted prices this year to $15.43 a pound, compared to $9.72 during the past decade.

The famed antler arches erected in the Jackson Town Square are being impacted by these rising prices. The 4.5-metre-high arches were first erected in the early 1950s, but it takes many antlers to create one arch: about 12,000 pounds per arch. Furthermore, the antlers eventually do degrade.

With that in mind, the local Rotary Club of Jackson Hole in 2007 began methodically replacing the arches. By the original schedule, the final arch would be replaced this year. Not going to happen, say Rotarians, who report being two-thirds short. To buy that many they need $74,000. And because of the recession, donations slowed.

Sow grizzly produces triplets for third time

JACKSON, Wyo. — Bear 399, a sow grizzly bear named for her research number, has done it again. For the third time, she has produced triplets. She has produced at least 10 cubs altogether.

The cubs would have been born in late January and probably weighed about a pound, notes the Jackson Hole News&Guide.

The mother and her cubs can be seen along a road in Grand Teton National Park, but park officials warn visitors to keep their distance, probably 100 yards or more.

The bears this year have already produced what is called a "wildlife jam" of auto traffic. Last year, park officials noted about 500 such wildlife jams, more than a third involving grizzlies.

Boon for summer biz a blow against griz?

BANFF, Alberta — Grizzly bear advocates are outraged, but tourism boosters excited after Banff National Park authorities announced that Norquay ski area would be allowed to conduct summer operations.

"Running a ski area solely on winter business is difficult, so it's nice having a hedge against a bad winter by being able to have summer business," said Peter Sudermann, a co-owner of Norquay, the ski area located a short distance from Banff, the town. "Summer in Banff is when the park is busiest, and hopefully we will be able to get our share of that traffic."

Norquay will be allowed to use a chair lift to whisk visitors to the upper mountain teahouse and observation deck. But the new authority gives Norquay permission to install cable-assisted climbing and hiking routes known as via ferrata.

Parks Canada also requires Norquay to build one or two wildlife trails on the lower slopes, with the intent that grizzly bears and other wildlife will use them to move through the area.

The Rocky Mountain Outlook says conservationists are quite unhappy. "It's really disappointing, because it shows there's really no long-term plans that are set in Parks that benefit wildlife," said Carolyn Campbell, a conservation specialist for the Alberta Wilderness Association. Grizzly bears must have space and security away from people, she said.

Norquay will be required to relinquish 41 per cent of its permitted area for winter use in exchange for its previously unallowed use of the land for summer.

Ski towns upgrading access to info highway

KETCHUM, Idaho — City officials in Ketchum, but also Steamboat Springs and Park City, are working at upgrading the Internet connectivity.

Fibre-optic technology is the best way to accommodate increased Internet traffic as people and businesses use bandwidth-greedy applications, such as video-conferencing, online data storage and advanced home security. John Honker, of Miami-based Magellan Advisors, a consultant to the city, says that the average number of web-capable devices per person has been rising, requiring more bandwidth.

The downtown area of Ketchum has some fiber optic already. But it needs more to meet expanding needs. Elected officials in Ketchum tell the Idaho Mountain Express that they don't intend to install the fiber-optic network themselves. Rather, they intend to require developers to install fiber-optic and conduit along city streets as the result of normal redevelopment. The city will then connect the dots by installing conduit in remaining segments.

Depending upon where you are, conduit goes for between 10 and 25 cents a foot. But fibre, which would be put inside the conduit, costs $40 per foot. Ripping apart concrete and then pouring new cement is dramatically more expensive.

In Steamboat Springs, local officials have identified a major problem in what is called the middle to last-mile delivery of broadband connectivity. One response is creation of a non-profit last year to provide connectivity to large institutional users. The goal is to aggregate the demands of large users, such as the school district and hospital.

One problem is expense. One official told Steamboat Today that local residents and businesses pay $100 per megabit per second per month compared to $5 to $15 for comparable service in the Denver area.

Internet connectivity is also in the news in Park City, where city officials are shaping up a "broadband roadmap." Scott Roberson, the city's director of information technology, tells The Park Record that most of the community has access to broadband connectivity that is reasonably good, or at about six on a one-to-10 scale.

One immediate goal is to examine the WiFi capabilities in the city, including the Main Street sector.

The Record explains that city officials want to further diversify the economy beyond its contemporary base in tourism, especially that connected with snow. Doing so, they say, would make the economy less vulnerable to warm, dry winters. Improved technology will allow Park City to draw new businesses not tied to the resort sector.

Using bike tires to put bodies in beds

GUNNISON, Colo. — Some 1,000 mountain bike riders and others were expected in Gunnison over the weekend for a series of races, one of them 51 kilometres long and the next 103 kilometres, collectively called Original Growler.

David Wiens, executive director of Gunnison Trails, said the races have produced a lot of activity in the Gunnison area on a weekend when not much was happening. About 87 per cent of racers come from elsewhere in Colorado, reported the Gunnison Country Times.

Other mountain towns have also been hoping to draw bicycle riders, both on fat tires and their skinny-tired cousins. A boom for the sport — and business — has been USA Pro Challenge, which this year is staying in northern Colorado after a launch from Aspen.

Steamboat Springs was on the debut tour two years ago, and although crowds along Lincoln Avenue were strong, the general take-away was that local hoteliers had given away as many rooms to race organizers as they had sold to visitors in town for the occasion.

This year, local tourism officials hope to generate more sales of room nights with the addition of a full week of cycling related events before and after the big race start and finish on Aug. 21 and 22.

Steamboat for some years has been talking about leveraging its assets, including asphalt roads and dirt trails, into an economic proposition called Bike Town USA. The Steamboat Today recently devoted 7,000 words in examining whether the hype behind this name has any future reality. There were, however, no clear conclusions. Said one local economist, it's not clear that Steamboat has any clear amenities to differentiate itself from a dozen other places that are also bidding for the favours — and dollars — of bicycle enthusiasts.

Canmore to fill pit caused by coal mine

CANMORE, Alberta — As a resort town located at the entrance to Banff National Park, Canmore is now dealing with its legacy as a coal-mining town. One legacy is a sinkhole located in an area targeted for development in the high-end Three Sisters Mountain Village.

The hole that opened up along a public path about three years ago is about five metres deep. The Rocky Mountain Outlook explains that an airshaft in a mine closed during the 1940s caused the hole.

The province of Alberta has given $600,000 to Canmore, believed to be more or less sufficient to cover the costs.

Galloping Goose back to retirement

TELLURIDE, Colo. — After four years of the railroad equivalents of hip-replacement surgery, eye jobs, and Botox injections, Galloping Goose No. 4 has returned to its retirement location in Telluride.

This Goose was among a gaggle of six like-named geese that once roamed the rails of the San Juan Mountains. Completed in 1890 by Otto Mears, the rail network loops around from Durango to Cortez, and north over Lizard Head Pass to Telluride and then Ridgeway.

Conventional trains once hauled silver and gold ores from the mining towns to smelters in Durango and elsewhere.

By 1930, however, mining had fallen off. In response, Rio Grande Southern had the idea of creating gas-powered vehicles, more like buses than heavy-duty trains, to deliver mail and passengers.

The idea worked well enough, but by 1950 highways had improved.

The mail contracts were lost, and most people had their own cars and trucks. For a summer, tourists to Telluride were ferried to the top of Lizard Head Pass, but Telluride was still a mining town, with only the occasional Nabokov to stop by and chase butterflies and contemplate Lolita.

So, in 1952, the Telluride Volunteer Firefighters bought one of the six geese that had plied the tracks and set it up between the New Sheridan Opera House and the San Miguel County Courthouse, reports the Daily Planet.

And so it remained until the deterioration of time forced a decision. At last, it was sent to Ridgway, where it was originally created, for restoration. Curators at the railroad museum in Ridgway did the work.

Solar gardens move forward

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — If somewhat slowly, plans by Breckenridge to create two so-called solar gardens within the community are moving forward. But the Summit Daily News notes a leeriness among some members of the community about the aesthetics of solar panels.

"What isn't appropriate is a massive solar farm," said local resident Eric Buck at a recent community meeting. "People don't come to Breckenridge to see the bleeding edge of technology or to admire the pioneers of environmentalism."

Under legislation approved in Colorado several years ago, solar panels can be assembled in central locations, what some people call gardens. The core concept is that they are operated by third parties, in this case a private company, and ownership in panels and hence production is sold to individuals or, in the case at Breckenridge, the town government.

"The town has enormous energy needs, and participating in the solar garden would be a prudent investment for us," said Brian Waldes, the town's finance officer, who has shepherded the project for several years.

The town government provided two municipal-owned areas, one near an electrical substation and the other along the entrance to the town. The latter is to be partially shielded, as the sight of solar panels is to some people unappealing.

Town officials originally planned to buy 80 per cent of the capacity, but because of a surprising amount of demand from the general public, will get less.

Elsewhere in Colorado, Telluride's town government is also a primary buyer of a solar garden located about 129km west, in the Paradox Valley. Aspen and Vail are also served in part by a solar farm located at the end of an airport runway in Rifle.

Consumers in Durango will soon be able to own panels in a farm being planned near Ignacio, on the Southern Ute Reservation.

Renewable fans win

DURANGO, Colo. — The electrical cooperatives that serve the vast majority of the rural west remain steadfastly devoted to the lowest cost. Even if the cost of coal has been rising rapidly, it remains far less expensive than renewables. Plus, coal plants cost a lot of money, usually in excess of a billion dollars, and cooperatives have been loathe to discard them like you would a pair of old shoes.

But here and there are spirited discussions about the right way forward. Those discussions have been reflected in contested elections in the Yampa Valley, in the cooperative that serves Steamboat Springs, and more significantly in the cooperatives serving Aspen, Vail and Telluride.

That discussion has achieved a critical threshold in southwestern Colorado, where three challengers who wear green sleeves were elected to the board of the La Plata Electric Assn. While typecasting can be dangerous, the Durango Herald counts six board members generally favoring accelerated efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and six who favor the old mantra of "cheap and reliable power" as the trump card.

"Now we have six people on the board who are progressive for renewable resources and six members who haven't had a record of that," said Frank Lockwood, an incumbent on the board who formerly was in the minority on many issues.

He clarified that other board members aren't necessarily against alternative power. In fact, they have been working on plans to advance renewable energy, too. At issue seems to be the pace.

Another new member, former Durango mayor Michael Rendon, noted an age gap. "I think the (average) age of the board probably went down by 20 years by this election," said Rendon, who is 40. "I don't think that necessarily means anything, except that's the direction where we're going."