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Mountain News: Canmore takes Natural Step

CANMORE, Alberta – Sustainability means many things to different people. In Canmore, where a sustainability plan is being drawn up, some people say that for Canmore to be sustainable, it needs to cap the population at, say, 30,000.

CANMORE, Alberta – Sustainability means many things to different people. In Canmore, where a sustainability plan is being drawn up, some people say that for Canmore to be sustainable, it needs to cap the population at, say, 30,000. Others think it must limit the number of part-timers if it is to remain sustainable.

Also suggested in the interest of a sustainable community were:

• The need for seniors’ assisted living facilities.

• A bowling alley for youngsters.

• A limit on the size of homes, to reduce their carbon footprint.

• More local food production, by allowing residents to keep chickens in their backyards and allocation of land for community gardens and greenhouses.

And so the talk goes on in what is a three-step process designed by the Natural Step regimen. Natural Step was also used by Whistler to create a sustainability plan.

 

Immigrants want answers, licences

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – The profound disconnect between American immigration laws and the economic realities of resort-based mountain valleys was on stage, front and centre, at a recent meeting in Jackson Hole attended by 140 people.

The meeting, explains the Jackson Hole News & Guide, was provoked by a six-fold increase in the number of deportations during the last year. Many of those deportations are attributed to arrests for driving without licences.

So, asked immigrants, how do you get a driver’s licence, which is necessary to get to jobs at remote locations?

The short answer is: You can’t get a driver’s licence if you have no evidence of legal residency. A license from Mexico is not satisfactory, and neither is an international driver’s licence.

“Do not waste your money on an international licence,” said Lt. Tom Kelley, of the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

“We’re here tonight because some Latinos are afraid they are treated differently than our Anglos,” said Father Ken Asel, of St. John Episcopal Church. “They think certain individuals in law enforcement will harass Latinos when it’s not necessary.”

Police from three agencies denied that allegation. They said that Latinos who need help should seek the help of police without fear of arrest or deportation.

But the cops also said that they do enforce traffic laws — and therein lies the peril for immigrants driving without licences. Dan Zivkovich, the police chief in Jackson, said the first time a driver is arrested for driving without a licence, he or she is given a ticket. The second time, the driver is arrested.

For some Latinos, it all ends up as a Catch 22. The economy says they’re wanted, but the legal system says they’re not. “Why should we continue to have these talks if the thing we’re always missing is a driver’s licence, and as Latinos and Mexicans, we can’t get them?” asked Miriam Cabello.

The problem seems circular. “We recognize you care about the community and you don’t want problems. We recognize that, but we cannot change the law,” Zivkovich told the immigrants.

 

Horror and heroics revisited

SQUAW VALLEY, Calif. – The 30 th anniversary of a strange, horrible but also heroic cable car accident was remembered at Squaw Valley during April. In 1978, on the last trip of the day, a freak accident occurred during blizzard conditions.

The wind blew a downloading car sideways, and for reasons never understood, a cable sliced through a car like a can opener. This was high on the mountain, over difficult terrain.

The accident also caused another cable car to be stranded high off the ground and 800 feet away from the bottom terminal.

The accident killed four people, injured 31, and shocked the ski industry. This came only two years after Vail’s misfortune with a fallen gondola car that killed four.

The accident at Squaw was finally ruled an “act of God,” but Moonshine Ink, in a story written by Robert Frohlich, says that the resulting rescue could be described as a miracle.

“A Hollywood scriptwriter could not have written a more dramatic crisis,” he writes. “Darkness was falling, and the storm had socked the surrounding mountains. The suspended cabin swung above the ground in the most remote seduction of the mountain under a knifelike ridge that separated Shirley Canyon and expert ski terrain called Broken Arrow. It would be impossible to send in snowcats or snowmobiles to that section of the mountain. Snowfall was estimated to be falling at two inches per hour.”

In the face of winds that at times hit 60 mph, the 10-hour rescue included more than 300 volunteers who, once the survivors had been lowered to the ground, handed them from person to person down the mountain.

There were many, many heroes, including ski patrol director Jim Mott, community doctor Charles Kellermyer, and lift mechanic Jon Krauss. Most unlikely of the heroes were a trio of rude, young ski bums who pushed their way onto the last tram car up the mountain. This is the one that was not damaged, but which was stranded.

Breaking into the evacuation devices, it became apparent one was not working. One of the trio, Mike “Goofy” Shimmons, then 25, told Moonshine Ink that it became apparent that only he and his two buddies had any mechanical aptitude.

“We ordered everyone up against the walls, spread the winch out on the floor, smoked a joint and tried to figure the thing out. Patrol was directly below and they sent some tools up. We finally ended up tin-snipping a piece of metal from the car itself to shim the mechanism.”

More ingenuity was further needed, as well as substantial bravery. But in that tram car, they all lived to tell about it.

 

Heated runway considered

HAILEY, Idaho – Ski towns have lots of heated driveways and sidewalks. Why not a heated airport runway?

That’s the idea in the Wood River Valley, where a new airport is being contemplated to serve the Sun Valley-anchored economy.

Rick Baird, the manager of the current airport, which is located at Hailey, said that underground heating to melt runway snow would eliminate the need for big diesel-powered snow-removal machines except in emergencies. No existing airport is believed to have a heated runway, he said.

Just how much will this shrink the carbon footprint of airport operations — if at all? Apparently, those calculations have not been done.

For now, reports the Idaho Mountain Express, the airport authority is encouraging airplane crews to recycle cans, bottles and paper products by furnishing containers to that end.

 

Colorado resorts still have snow

INTERSTATE 70, Colo. – Of all the ski areas located hard along Interstate 70 or within an hour of it on either side, one was open last weekend: Arapahoe Basin. It was doing a robust business on Sunday, with cars parked in lots aside of Highway 6 across Loveland Pass.

But the somnolence elsewhere along I-70 is not for lack of snow. Snow at Copper Mountain remains good to the base area, and only small brown spots started appearing over the weekend on the bottom runs at Vail.

At Beaver Creek, there was skiable snow all the way to the base of Arrowhead, at not even 7,500 feet in elevation. In some years past, snow conditions have become marginal there even in February.

At Vail Pass last week, there were reports of people skiing the backcountry in knee-deep powder.

It was an extraordinary year. Just the same, plenty of people seem to be ready for summer.

 

Employee housing rising

VAIL, Colo. – Buildings in Vail continue to grow taller and taller. The latest plan approved by town officials is an 84-foot-tall complex called Solar Vail, which is to provide housing for about 150 employees. The project is being done by owners of one of the major hotels, the Sonnenalp.

The hotel began acquiring employee housing about 20 years ago and will not need all of this new housing, hotel owner Johannes Faessler told the Vail Daily. But the newspaper notes that there is no shortage of demand for employee housing: redevelopment now underway or expected soon will create 3,615 jobs.

Vail in recent years has argued several times about how high is too high as buildings get redeveloped. Buildings in prominent locations have nudged 60 feet to accommodate more high-dollar condominiums.

But those debates have been about projects near the base of the ski area. This seven-storey building, in contrast, is to be located north of Interstate 70, opposite Vail Village, and set against a steep field of sagebrush and aspen trees, blocking no view corridors.

 

Icon will cut back hours at age 96

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – John Fetcher, whose name is nearly synonymous with the modern era of Steamboat Springs, is finally ready to give the reins to somebody else. He’s general manager of the Upper Yampa Valley Water Conservancy District, and at age 96 he allows that he can foresee retirement.

“I suppose the day will come when I will have to quit,” Fetcher told the Steamboat Pilot & Today. “Perhaps sometime this fall, but I would probably stay on part time.”

Educated at Harvard, where he got a master’s degree in business and engineering, he moved to the Steamboat area in 1949 to ranch. Soon, though, he had his hands busy with other tasks — such as creation of the big downhill ski area, of which he is credited as co-founder. He also was involved in operations of the town’s smaller ski area, Howelsen Hill, which has been used for ski jumping for about a century.

In addition, Fetcher designed ski jumps for Crested Butte, Purgatory, Winter Park, Aspen, and Park City, and he chaired the jump site work for the Denver 1976 Olympic Organizing Committee.

But lately, he is best remembered for his work in creating water storage, including Steamboat Lake and the Stagecoach and Yamcolo reservoirs.

It’s a measure of the considerable esteem in which he is held that the readers’ blog on the Pilot & Today’s website, which tends toward snippy comments, had nothing but tips of the hat. “Anything good which happened in this valley can be attributed to John Fetcher,” said one.

 

Noisy debris flow gets attention

TELLURIDE, Colo. – A mud and debris flow into an affordable housing complex near Telluride threatened, but did not substantially damage, 10 homes. Residents told The Telluride Watch that water gushes form the earth as if from industrial-strength showerheads, accompanied by a cacophony of land and debris shifts. It sounded, said San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters, “as if the whole hillside was coming down.” Masters downplayed the risk of further slides to the personal safety of residents, but said there might be some damage. “You might get a new yard, but it’s not going to kill anyone in their homes,” he said.