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Mountain News: 91-year-old says moderation is key

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Sven Wiik has been skiing now for 89 years, and he owes his vigor to at least two precepts.
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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Sven Wiik has been skiing now for 89 years, and he owes his vigor to at least two precepts.

First, he skis nearly every day on the Nordic tracks around the Scandinavian Lodge that he founded in the 1960s in the hills above Steamboat Springs.

"There are two reason I ski," he told The Steamboat Pilot and Today. "It's enjoyable, and I do it to stay in shape. I need the exercise. I eat a lot."

His 91st birthday was celebrated on Sunday, and the Pilot and Today says Wiik's advice was conspicuously demonstrated.

"Moderation," he stated simply. "I've been eating all my life, and that's the word I use more than any. Moderate in everything."

Surrounded by a field of decorated cupcakes, he carefully selected one — but only one, says the Pilot and Today.

"The thing that doesn't appeal to me is when people start to talk about when you shouldn't eat this or shouldn't eat that. Eat dessert. But eat it in moderation."

A native of Sweden, he competed on behalf of that country in the 1948 Olympics as a gymnast, then a demonstration sport. Later, for 19 years, he was ski coach and an assistant professor of health and physical education at Western State College, located near Crested Butte. He also helped guide the U.S. cross-country and Nordic combined ski team at the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley.

Deep pow in spots, wind-crust in others

VAIL, Colo. —Winds were ferocious across Colorado last week. Ski-town newspapers were full of stories about closed highways, avalanches on wind-loaded slopes, and power outages.

The most interesting story came out of Vail, where the ski area initially posted reports of 30 centimetres of new snow one morning. By mid-morning, however, the ski company had posted a message on its Facebook page saying that the earlier report was inaccurate.

Actually, Vail Mountain got more than 30 centimetres on some runs, but almost nothing on other runs.

Chris Jarnot, the chief operating officer at Vail Mountain, tweeted an apology at noon. "We blew the snow report this a.m. — apologies to those who were disappointed. Our goal is to be accurate and over deliver," he said, according to a report in the Vail Daily.

Vehicles 10, moose 0

JACKSON, Wyo. — an estimated 10 moose have died on the segment of two-lane highway between Jackson and the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort during the last year, half of them during this winter alone.

Appalled by the carnage, a long-time resident of cushy Teton Village, Uta Olson, donated $30,000 to buy portable message boards to remind drivers of the hazard.

"5 MOOSE KILLED NXT 1MI" one of the signs says.

Some wildlife advocates have called for a reduction in speed limit, now 45 mph, to 34 mph during evening hours.

Another avie death in sidecountry

PARK CITY, Utah — Another avalanche death, this time in a gulch adjacent to the Canyons ski resort. It's the fourth avalanche death in Utah this winter, and the second one in the last seven years at this particular site. Officials tell the Park Record that the victim and his companions were not wearing avalanche beacons or equipped with shovels.

Core issues about powder being faced

TELLURIDE, Colo. — Telluride is among the most liberal of the ski towns. Yet the current issue confronting the skiing populace is fundamentally an issue among libertarians.

Oddly, perhaps, the issue is one posed by the sport — no, make that religion — of powder skiing. An avalanche death occurred recently in Bear Creek, a big canyon adjacent to the Telluride ski area. Avalanche deaths have occurred there with some regularity since at least 1988.

For a time, the U.S. Forest Service closed the backcountry gates from the ski area, but without total effect. The gates are now open, and some might argue that they should be closed again.

Of course, a recent victim of an avalanche adjacent to the Telluride ski area had all the gizmos in the world. Avalanche deaths in the Bear Creek gulch have occurred every few years since the 1980s, points out Seth Cagin.

"Thus there are big issues on the minds of folks in Telluride this week: the challenge of balancing individual freedom against individual responsibility; yielding to the allure of the high country versus managing the risks encountered there. There is the pain of knowing that in being part of an alpinist community, you can't know if you will be the next person to get into trouble out there, or if it will be a close friend, or a complete stranger. But you can know that it will be someone who will leave behind loved ones, and that their loss, however painful it will be, won't stop you or others from taking the same risks again tomorrow or when the shock wears off," he writes.

"All of this makes alpinism something akin to a religion. The mountains, with their beauty and dangers, and with the thrills and challenges they present, inevitably produce both ecstasies and agonies. More than a few people have had spiritual encounters with the mysteries of human existence in the cathedral of Bear Creek," he adds.

"In the aftermath of this week's tragedy, there will likely be talk of better controlling the ski area boundary. More talk of gates and questions about liability, and possibly suggestions of a something more like the European system, of offering the option of guided access or of selling rescue insurance, or even of expanding the ski area into Bear Creek so it can be managed.

"But in the end, skiing powder will remain a koan: one of the most beautiful things a person can do, and one of the most dangerous."

Gay ski weeks offer outdoor conviviality

PARK CITY, Utah — After a decade of promoting gay ski week at California's Mammoth Mountain, Tom Whitman now returns to Park City for what has become the second annual gay ski week there.

The event in Mammoth has grown enormously. He hopes for the same success at Park City. "Last year we had 200 to 300 people, and this year we're expecting 400 to 500. I want this to be the second biggest event in Park City next to the Sundance Film Festival."

Whitman said he first visited Park City when he was on the ski team at the University of California-Los Angeles.

"The gay community has expanded in how it's becoming more prevalent in different places around the country in the last 10 years," he told the Park Record. "There is still a need for events catering to the gay community, guys and girls can come out here and feel comfortable."

One of the event organizers, John Manelski, told the newspaper the concept of a gay ski week saved snowboarding for him.

"When I came out of the closet, I couldn't find anyone to golf or snowboard with," he said. "Those happen to be two things I love doing.

At Ketchum and Sun Valley, gay skiers are also in the news. An organization called Ski Bums, identified as the largest club in the world for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ski and snowboarders, visited during Presidents' Day for a four-day treat.

Chris French, club president and founder, said he always tries to call ahead and make sure that the resort in question is welcoming of his community.

"I'm always super clear (about the nature of our group)," he told the Idaho Mountain Express. "We want to go somewhere we'll feel safe.

French told the Express that he founded the club because he wanted to meet people who love the outdoors as much as he did. "I wanted to find a boyfriend to travel the world with."

Alas, although his club now has 800 members, 30 of whom are ski instructors, and a few more who are ski patrollers, he doesn't have a partner. He's been too busy to date, he says.

Money available to insulate houses

JACKSON, Wyo. —In 2008, elected officials in Jackson and Teton County announced an ambitious effort to reduce energy use of all types 10 per cent by 2010 within government operations. They succeeded — barely.

Now, they are hoping to make similar efforts in the broader community. A consortium of local groups has received $900,000 from the federal government to deploy toward energy efficiency.

Using the grant, the local consortium is loaning up to $7,500 per electrical customer for work in energy efficiency. They must pay the money back within five years. Larger loans may be possible.

Another $1 million federal grant is pending. That money would go to commercial projects.

Hardiness changes in mountain towns

ASPEN, Colo. — The U.S. government recently issued revised maps for plant hardiness zones, the first revision since 1990.

The zones have shifted somewhat. The new maps draw upon more temperatures gauges. Particularly in mountainous areas of the West, this has had the perhaps unexpected result of putting valleys into colder zones than they were previously, according to the website for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But the broader sweep of the last few decades has been increasing temperature, especially on winter nights. The zones are based on the average minimum winter temperatures between 1976 and 2005. Low temperatures during winter are crucial in determining whether plants can survive at specific locations.

And in places like Aspen, Jackson and Fraser — the latter Colorado town once called itself the icebox of the nation — temperatures have clearly been rising in the last decade as compared to the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

In Aspen, the new zones were taken as a restating of the obvious impact of human-caused climate change. The town had previously been in zone 3, with low temperatures between minus 30 and 40. Now, it's in zone 5, with temperatures not regularly any lower than minus 10 to 15 degrees.

Gyles Thronley, a landscape architect, told The Aspen Daily News that the new hardiness zone will give planters license to use trees, shrubs and perennials, among them honey locusts, that previously were thought not to grow.

"It actually makes the life of landscape architects and gardeners much easier, because it gives us more options," he said.