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Mountain News: Big ranch sold in resort areas

Compiled by Allen Best JACKSON HOLE, Colo. — The brisk market for ranches near resorts is revealed in several sales during recent weeks. First was the 650-acre Guber Ranch near Aspen, which sold for $46 million, or $70,800 an acre.

Compiled by Allen Best

JACKSON HOLE, Colo. — The brisk market for ranches near resorts is revealed in several sales during recent weeks.

First was the 650-acre Guber Ranch near Aspen, which sold for $46 million, or $70,800 an acre.

Second is the 10,300-acre Castle Peak Ranch near Eagle, which sold for $23 million, or about $2,200 an acre. The buyer is an investment banker from London. Proximity to a major airport (Eagle County Regional), the restaurants and other cultural activities of Vail and Beaver Creek, plus views piled upon stunning views contributed to the healthy sales price.

It might have gone higher, except that the ranch lacks a critical feature wanted by hobby ranchers – a river running through it. Brokers associated with the deal told the Eagle Valley Enterprise that they expect virtually no development to occur.

Meanwhile, in Jackson Hole, a development company owned by Ross Perot Jr., son of the two-time presidential candidate, has contracted to buy 1,300 acres of a ranch. The price has not been disclosed, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide, but the listed price was $110 million. If that were the sales price, that works out to $8,461 per acre.

Perot’s company intends to subdivide the land into parcels of 35 acres or more, but retain the core of the property as a working ranch.

Real estate brokers say that agricultural production alone does not justify ranch prices of more than $2,000 an acre. In Jackson Hole, ranches rarely exceed $10,000 an acre, except in smaller acreages. In the Blue River Valley of Colorado’s Summit County, prices of smaller ranches are in the range of $10,000 to $30,000 an acre – as long as there’s a river or creek in it.

Near Meeker, where golfer Greg Norman and financier Henry Kravis have ranches, prices range from $2,000 to $6,000 an acre. The beauty is unsurpassed, but their ranches are several hours from the cultural opportunities of Steamboat, Vail, and Aspen.

Avalanche cuts power to Telluride

TELLURIDE, Colo. — March this year came in roaring like a lion, nearly knocking Telluride on its rear end.

A quick but hard snowstorm that isolated nearby Silverton for several days because of avalanches also caused avalanches that knocked out two power lines supplying the Telluride area. That left only one remaining power line, causing rolling blackouts. The gondola was idled as were some lifts. Diesel generators were fired up to power the remaining lifts.

Meanwhile, the wobbly remaining power threatened to go off, too.

How to repair the power lines? As explained by The Telluride Watch and others, authorities suspected another avalanche above the power lines, so power company officials would not allow workers to repair the lines until the danger had abated. On top of all this, another storm was moving in.

This began a lot of Solomon-like decision-making. If the avalanche that was to be deliberatedly triggerd destroyed homes in the town of Ophir, who would pay for the lost homes with a value of up to $10 million? And what about the improbable but potential loss of life?

In the end, the various government leaders as well as the new owners of the ski company struck a deal pledging responsibility should things go wrong, crossed their fingers, and ordered that avalanche explosives be set off – to little effect. All the snow that was going to run had already run.

The linemen did their duties, the electricity began flowing, and life returned more or less to normal.

More evidence economy is back

VAlL, Colo. — Destination skiers have returned to resorts of the Rocky Mountains this winter. From Winter Park to Crested Butte to Aspen, the story is the same – hefty gains, including some double-digit increases in skier days.

In January, the passenger count at Eagle Valley Regional Airport, which services primarily Vail/Beaver Creek but also Aspen, was up 2.3 per cent over the same month last year, reports the Vail Daily.

Meanwhile, in Aspen, where the story for much of the last year has been the decline in retail sales, a record was set during January for retail sales – $45.3 million in taxes collected. Cold weather and the much-heralded Winter X Games were attributed for the 17 per cent increase.

The only sector losing ground in Aspen was liquor, down 15.7 per cent from last year, reports The Aspen Times.

Film of avalanche seized

BANFF, ALBERTA — Not all the exciting footage taken by a Warren Miller film crew near the Sunshine Village ski area will be seen in theatres next fall.

While shooting in an out-of-bounds area, the crew observed an avalanche. A report went out that the crew had caused the avalanche; crew members denied the report. Parks Canada, which administers the land, corroborated the film crew’s version, but nonetheless requested the film segment of the avalanche, to ensure it does not get used.

A spokeswoman for Banff National Park said park authorities believed that the film crew "had put themselves in an unsafe area" and did not want the film used, thereby avoiding sending an inappropriate message.

The crew was in the Banff-Lake Louise area for 10 days. With the prospect of 50 million people seeing some of this, tourism officials were delighted. "It’s gold for us and the Alberta ski industry,’ said Don Boynton, a Travel Alberta spokesman.

No off-the-shelf solutions for housing

CANMORE, Alberta — A mothballed report about affordable housing done by the Three Sisters Mountain Village developers is getting renewed attention.

The report to local officials said they shouldn’t expect, after studying other resort areas, to find a single off-the-shelf solution for Canmore’s affordable housing problems. Instead, Camore should mingle various strategies to fit the town’s specific circumstances.

The temptation is to point the finger at developers for both the problem and the solution, notes the Rocky Mountain Outlook, but the issues are actually far more complex. In developing the land the developers are only the tip of the pyramid of those involved with the benefits and hence problems associated with a growing economy.

Cyanide mining ban challenged

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — The recently enacted ban on heap leach cyanide mining in Summit County is being challenged legally by the Colorado Mining Association. The industry group claims the Summit County commissioners exceeded their authority by adopting new performance standards for toxic and acidic chemicals.

Partly at issue, reports the Summit Daily News, is the Climax Molybdenum Mine, which is located primarily in adjacent Lake County but with some facilities in Summit County. That mine has been mothballed for most of the last 23 years, but owners say they can foresee bringing it back into production in another 20 or so years.

Critics of heap leach cyanide mining say that the process has not been used responsibly in the three open-pit mines in Colorado where it has been used. One, the Summitville Mine, resulted in a Superfund site. But defenders, including the mining association, say the three states that have tried to enact such a ban have all failed.

Shelton in the land of the Sherpas

TELLURIDE, Colo. — Ski writer Peter Shelton has been on a tour promoting his most recent book, "Climb to Conquer," a history of the 10th Mountain Division, from which many of the founders of the post-World War II ski industry came.

A ski instructor first at Keystone and then in Telluride, Shelton tried his hand at writing and has had a fair measure of success with magazines, allowing him to travel the world –- Poland, Switzerland, and Norway, among other places.

Interviewed by The Telluride Watch, Shelton expressed fondness for Oslo, Norway. "They have an incredible Nordic trail system, and folks ski day and night. Talk about vibrant ski culture! I could live there someday," he said.

He has also gone twice to the Himalaya, the land of the Sherpa people. "It was a bit awkward being a Day-Glo skier in an ancient culture, but I’ve found that mountain people are more alike than different."

Wilderness hot tubs proposed

CHALLIS, Idaho — A hunting-and-fishing outfitter is asking the U.S. Forest Service to allow installation of hot tubs in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area.

The tubs would be set up in spring, taken down in autumn. Water would be drawn from nearby streams and heated with submersible wood-burning stoves, reports the Idaho Mountain Express.

The Wilderness Act of 1964 bans motorized vehicles and equipment as well as forms of mechanical transport, but it does not specifically address hot tubs. A key question presumably would be how different a hot tub set up for a full summer would be from a tent that is set up from spring through autumn.

Silverton, Velocity Peak battle

SILVERTON, Colo. — Call it the tale of two ski areas. Before there was a Silverton Mountain Ski Area there was a Velocity Peak Inc., a ski area more-or-less in the making for the last 20 years.

But when Silverton Mountain showed up across the narrow, avalanche-ridden road, Velocity Peak began getting cranky. It has become particularly cranky lately, after Silverton Mountain has begun setting off avalanches, to make the skiing acceptably safe. Velocity Peak owners say the snow has been crossing onto their property, and skiers have skied on it – and across their property. They have filed a complaint with local authorities.

But San Juan County officials intend to take no action. The photos submitted as evidence, while showing ski tracks, do not show skiers, explains the Silverton Standard. As well, the snow ranger for the BLM has seen no evidence of trespassing by Silverton Mountain guides and clients.

Case closed.

Illegals will keep licences

PARK CITY, Utah — Mexican citizens rejoiced at nearby Salt Lake City after state legislators rejected a proposed law that would have denied illegal immigrants the ability to obtain drivers’ licenses.

The defeat angered supporters of the measure. "Federal law is very clear," said Matt Throckmorton, co-founder of Utahans for Immigration Reform and Enforcement. "(Undocumented immigrants) shouldn’t be here if they don’t come here legally, and then it is just kind of a slap in the face to every citizen of Utah when they begin chanting ‘long live Mexico’ right in our rotunda," he told The Park Record.

To pave or not to pave

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — During winter, Crested Butte lies at the end of the road. During summer, the only other road options are gravel or worse.

The Federal Highway Administration would like to change that by paving the remaining 13 miles across Cottonwood Pass, making Interstate 70 and Denver about an hour closer. The essential question for Crested Butte is how much closer it wants to get to civilization, and at what cost.

One cost is money, reports the Crested Butte News. The chief operating officer for Gunnison County, Marlene Cosby, explains that aggressively maintaining a gravel road costs 10 times more than maintaining an asphalt road. Moreover, applying magnesium chloride is the primary method for controlling dust on gravel roads. Many believe the chemical causes adjacent trees to die.

But another cost is the loss of quiet caused by additional traffic to the area of Cottonwood Pass and Taylor Park, as some Crested Butte leaders have noted.

Two towns in the area verge on support, Crested Butte is squarely on the fence, and cattlemen oppose it.

Steamboat merchants prepare for Gart Sports

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Sporting goods merchants in Steamboat Springs are accessing the coming impacts of a medium-sized retailer, Gart Sports.

The Steamboat Pilot reports that existing, non-franchise retailers seem generally unruffled. They see Gart as a generalist, and themselves as specialists to which customers will remain loyal.

"We have a guy who has tuned skis on the World Cup circuit," explained Mike Parra of Ski & Bike Kare. "Locals come in here and ask for 1-degree or 2-degree bevel on the edges of their skis because they have a race coming up. We’re getting ski instructors coming in here because they know we’ll put their feet in perfect alignment with their skis."

Scott Ford, who heads Steamboat’s Economic Development Council, agrees that going head-to-head with a large franchise retailer is foolhardy. Golf tees are strictly a commodity, he said, whereas consumers are often willing to pay top dollar for the expertise of a staff well-versed in such goods as mountain bikes.

While Gart provides stiff competition in the $300 to $400 price range, the independents expect to retain the upper level bike customers.

"Ninety-five per cent of our bike customers are locals," said Parra. "Bikes are so service-intensive – if you treat your customers fantastic, you can own them."

Post offices gets recycling bins

DILLON, Colo. — Last year the U.S. Postal Service took away recycling bins at post offices in Summit County. For locals to whom recycling is one step from godliness, this was blasphemy.

Postal officials explained that they didn’t want to make it easy for people to throw away catalogues and other kind of direct mail. About 43 per cent of Postal Service business comes from such mass mailings.

But U.S. Rep Mark Udall, a Democrat from Colorado, got involved, and now the Postal Service has purchased recycling bins and posters to be used at dozens of Colorado post offices during the next year in a pilot program. To prevent identity theft, the bins will remain locked until recyclers empty them.

Study shows Durango housing costs average

DURANGO, Colo. — To hear people talk in Durango, housing costs are extraordinarily high, the gap between rich and poor broad and getting broader.

In fact, a study shows the cost of living and housing are only slightly above average for Colorado. What could make the living difficult, however, is that many incomes are from service-sector jobs in the tourism industry, notes the Durango Telegraph.