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Mountain News: Banff won't limit formulae stores

BANFF, Alberta — After hashing it out hard once again, the Banff municipal council appears highly unlikely to adopt limits on the number of chain stores and eateries.
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banff business The resort community is discussing whether or not limits should be put on the number of chain operations Banff should allow to operate in the Alberta mountain resort. Photo by Jackson Gee

BANFF, Alberta — After hashing it out hard once again, the Banff municipal council appears highly unlikely to adopt limits on the number of chain stores and eateries.

The Rocky Mountain Outlook finds only one supporter on the council and three clear votes against.

"The quota system is basically dictating certain things, and I don't like the idea of dictating to our partners in the business community," said Grant Canning, a council member who owns a local mom-and-pop coffee shop — exactly the sort of business that the proposal aimed to protect. "I prefer the idea of working together to come up with a joint economic strategy."

Banff is home to Starbucks, Tim Hortons, McDonalds, Gap, Lululemon, Tony Roma's, Chili's and The Keg.

The lone supporter, Brian Standish, says he believes Banff needs to protect its competitive advantage over other tourism towns. "Banff has a successful commercial sector primarily because we have unique sense of place. What could happen to Banff if every business in town was a formula business? Banff would simply cease to be a special place," he said.

Couloir lives up to its name

JACKSON, Wyo. — The community of Jackson has lost another of its own to an avalanche this winter in Grand Teton National Park. The Jackson Hole News&Guide reports that Jarad Spackman, 40, was killed while ascending a chute called Apocalypse Couloir, which feeds into Death Canyon.

He was carried over 300 vertical metres down the couloir, and although a friend got to him almost immediately to begin administering CPR, it was to no avail. The deputy coroner for Teton County said that blunt force trauma to the man's back, neck and leg caused the death, and that death came swiftly.

A native of Jackson, he had graduated summa cum laude with a degree in international finance from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1995. He worked as a real estate broker in Sotheby's International Realty for 18 years alongside his brother and father. The family was ranked among the top in the nation for sales volume twice in recent years.

As for the terrain, it's extreme under any and all conditions — even when the avalanche hazard is low.

"We put out a general avalanche forecast, and it doesn't apply to terrain like that. Ever. The teeniest little slide could sweep you to your death," said Bob Comey, director of the local avalanche centre.

"It's been identified as a go-to place for extreme skiers, and you know what — it has consequences."

Bear calls reached new high in Aspen

ASPEN, Colo. — There's a direct correlation between drought and the activity log for police in Aspen.

The Aspen Times says police-call statistics describe a town that is both safe and small. But it has been getting busier with summons to assist with problem bears. In 2008, there were 82 such calls, and last year it grew to 1,040 calls.

Last year was a monumental year for drought in the Southern Rockies and so there were few berries and nuts for bears to eat. The Times notes that bears were everywhere last summer: between midnight and dawn scavenging for food in downtown alleys, especially in areas behind restaurants that failed to secure their garbage containers properly. But even during day the bears were found atop crabapple and other fruit trees in downtown Aspen and around the many parks.

"Often, authorities attempted to chase them out of the city limits, but the bruins would climb a tree or a building and play a waiting game with their pursuers," explains the Times.

Bears also invaded Telluride, where they broke into homes and garages, clawed their way into cars to get groceries and, as in Aspen, cruised the alleys in search of unsecured garbage cans, reports The Telluride Watch.

Snowmass Village, Vail, Aspen and other ski towns in Colorado have previously hiked requirements for securing garbage, so it doesn't attract bears, and also began levying high fines for failure to do so. Now, Telluride is following suit. Henceforth, offenders will pay the same as for having a dog run loose, $250 the first time, and up to $1,000 for a third offense.

"It was certainly clear last year the community doesn't like the consequences of a troublesome bear having to be killed," said Coun. Chris Myers. "We need to do our part."

Wasatch ski linkage gets public mugging

PARK CITY, Utah — The idea of linking the ski areas on the east side of Utah's Wasatch Range with those on the west side was the subject of a recent meeting in Park City, and if the general turnout is any indication of the broader public sentiment, this proposal is one for the deep freeze, reports The Park Record.

The idea of the interconnection has been talked about for decades, but a new proposal has been made by Solitude and Canyons Resorts. They have been pitching it for the last two years as a way for Utah to become a much greater draw for destination visitors. They also argue that it will reduce the amount of driving, as people can stay on one side and take lifts to the other side of the range, and vice versa.

"We have absolutely no interest in any development (along the route)," said Mike Goar, managing director of Canyons Resort.

Salt Lake City, which draws water from the Cottonwood Canyons, where Solitude and several other ski areas including Alta and Snowbird are located, doesn't like the idea. A representative said she worried about a "piecemeal approach" to the proposals.

And environmentalists are passionately opposed. Peter Metcalf, president and chief executive of outdoor equipment manufacturer Black Diamond Equipment, said outdoor enthusiasts oppose the ski link.

But can he purport to speak for all outdoor enthusiasts? That was the response of Goar, the ski area manager.

Smug Alert about drilling

CARBONDALE, Colo. — Oh heavens, can the hypocrisy get any more rank than this? Consider the ongoing battle in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado about natural gas drilling.

The Thompson Valley, located just west of Carbondale, which itself is 48kms from Aspen, is said to be a wonderful place — not formally wilderness but with many of the same attributes. Residents go there to mountain bike, graze cattle and so on.

It's also a place rich with fossil fuels. A coal mine used to operate there, and drillers bored wells decades ago. Others hope to do so again. Several companies have leases from the federal government to drill for natural gas, but locals are almost completely in agreement it shouldn't happen.

The Aspen Times tells of a recent meeting attended by an estimated 300 people.

The newspaper reports what would seem to be an honest appraisal of a local student, who said that everyone uses natural gas and must support, at some level, energy development. But some places must be off limits from our country's appetite for fossil fuels, she said. "This isn't the place to (drill)," she said, to widespread applause.

Ranchers also object. "It will drive the wildlife out and kill the cattle industry," said one, whose family has ranched for multiple generations.

A drilling company with existing permits argued that drillers can leave a light touch on the land. "Oil and gas can be responsibly developed, and it is responsibly developed," he said.

And then there was a resident who warned the "wolf is right at your door."

He got a resounding "no" when he asked the crowd if it was worth "poisoning the earth" to extract more natural gas to feed the country's addiction to fossil fuels.

What exactly is his role in that addiction? Well, he spends his workweek in California, where he runs one of the country's largest manufacturers of outdoor clothing and other such goods. And on weekends, he jets back to the small town in the Rockies, where he can have access to "one of the last great places."

Hmmm. What doesn't this guy with a 3,200km commute not understand about energy and poisoning of the earth's great places?

Do jet planes operate on pixie dust?

This guy needs to review that South Park episode where everybody decides to buy Pious cars, and the most pious of the Pious crowd decides South Park just isn't pious enough, so moves to San Francisco, where everybody sips wine and sniffs their own behinds.

Until then there's an unharmonic convergence of smug converging from the Rockies, Hollywood and the Bay Areas.