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Mountain News: Gen Xers staying away

KETCHUM, Idaho – Gen Xers — the age group from roughly the mid-20s to the mid-40s — have been emptying out of ski towns for much of this century, instead moving to cities where housing costs are lower and better paying jobs exist.

KETCHUM, Idaho – Gen Xers — the age group from roughly the mid-20s to the mid-40s — have been emptying out of ski towns for much of this century, instead moving to cities where housing costs are lower and better paying jobs exist.

This comes during a time when ski towns are distinctly grayer, a result of baby boomers who arrived in ski towns during the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s staying in place, independent, location-neutral entrepreneurs arriving, and retirees arriving for their golden but still active years.

The statistics are rather jarring. Consider Idaho’s Blaine County, where Ketchum and Sun Valley are located. Those aged 65 and above increased 47 per cent in recent years, while the number of boomers increased 32 per cent.

But those aged 15 to 44, reports the Idaho Mountain Express, declined 3 per cent.

Other ski-based mountain towns have similar statistics.

Some in Idaho think that Ketchum and Sun Valley are entirely too stodgy, Jima Rice, an economic consultant, tells the Mountain Express. “We still market a 1938 image,” she told the Idaho Mountain Express. “It’s put us behind the curve. We’re not marketing to the right market.”

The story provoked several e-mail responses to the newspaper’s website. One correspondent, Rick Lethbridge, said he had left Ketchum to a well-paying job in the finance industry in Seattle. The money has been good, city life interesting, but he now wants to get back to the small community and lifestyle. “I need to get back to my roots and solidify myself in what really makes me happy.”

Another, unidentified blogger, thinks that ski towns have strengths that the outside world does not. People there are a lot more innovative and progressive, says the blogger.

“I’m not trying to knock the rat-race communities (OK, maybe I am), but people in major cities tend to take on the role of specialized ants and there is little innovation over a long period of time with that sort of cube-rate culture.”

Ski towns, with their high costs of living, “force the community to smarten up and form a new reality that isn’t exactly one already created by generica.”

 

‘Adventure’ takes on new meanings

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. – “Experiential adventures” are a growing trend in the travel business, according to a speaker at a recent tourism conference.

Daniel Levine told attendees at the conference that a hotel in Finland has glass-topped “igloo” suites so guests can lie in bed and watch the Northern Lights. A guide company in Lisbon, Portugal, offers tours in which customers wear blindfolds and are led around the city by blind people to experience the sounds, smells and feelings of the city.”

“You’re creating brag-ability,” Levine said. But the key, he added, is to provide adventure without too much danger or effort.

Levine also cited several other major trends in the travel sector, reports the Vail Daily, including “sustainability” initiatives. But companies claiming to be green, he explained must be able to show proof of their good deeds.

 

Thrills in parks under review

BANFF, Alberta – Parks Canada, the federal agency that administers Banff, Revelstoke, and other national parks, is assessing whether to allow thrill-seeking activities such as zip-lines, canopy tours, and via ferrata.

Via ferrata is a mountain route equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders and bridges. First assembled by soldiers in the Dolomites during World War I, via ferrata — Italian for “iron road” — allows large numbers of people and climbing abilities to safely use exposed routes.

Canopy tours, explains the Rocky Mountain Outlook, allow people to slide along cables through treetops. Zip-lines consist of pulleys suspended on cables mounted on an incline.

Ski hills located within Banff National Park are interested in offering these devices, as is Pacific Rim and Whistler.

The review by Parks Canada is drawing mixed opinions, reports the Rocky Mountain Outlook.

“These are adventure activities that are attractive and fun, but have absolutely no place whatsoever in a national park,” said Jim Pissot, executive director of Defenders of Wildlife Canada. “They are the kinds of activities that can be done elsewhere.”

But another group, the Association for Mountain Parks Protection and Enjoyment, a business alliance, endorses redrawing the lines of what’s permissible.

“We’re solidly behind this because it fits in with visitor experience,” said Rich Leavens, the organization’s executive director. “It will have benefits for the sort of the person who may not have the courage to go in the backcountry, but this is a way to get them to understand about national parks.”

A similar discussion is also simmering in the United States, where a Colorado congressman, Mark Udall, agreed to introduce legislation that would give ski areas greater authority to provide non-skiing recreation within ski-area permit legislation.

 

Hotel developer looking for money

KETCHUM, Idaho – Now that they have their approvals for a four-storey, 73-room hotel in the heart of Ketchum, a pair of developers now have the equally difficult task of rounding up financing to build the $65 million structure.

Jack Bariteau, the lead developer, tells the Idaho Mountain Express that in former times lending institutions provided up to 75 per cent of the cost. Now, he expects to get no more than 40 to 50 per cent. Another $25 to $30 million must come from private equity investors. He and his partner, Paolo Patrone, owner of Piazza Hotels, have $5 to $6 million to invest, he indicated.

Bariteau indicated he is not discouraged. He said he believes credit markets will swing around in time for him to meet his two-year deadline imposed by city officials on his project. “This is probably the fourth credit crunch I’ve been through in my career,” he said. “They seem to come around every 12 to 20 years in order for the market to clear itself.”

He did say that if another and even larger hotel project in Ketchum, called Warm Springs Ranch Resort, goes forward, his financial opportunities will improve, because of the synergy of additional marketing for Ketchum and Sun Valley.

Bariteau estimated he needs 10 to 12 years to recoup his own investment. “I get chagrined when people say I just want to make a quick buck off the city.”

 

Tightened credit slows projects

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Tightened credit is delaying redevelopment work at the base of the Steamboat ski area.

Ski Time Square, a commercial area built in the early 1970s, and an adjoining property called Thunderbird Lodge have both been demolished during the last year. The expectation is of a new base with more condominiums and shops plus a street design that is both more pleasing and functional.

But an agency of city government has postponed its planned issuance of $20 million in bonds to pay for new pedestrian area walkways and other public infrastructure improvements to complement the private sector work. Without that bond issue this year, nothing is likely to happen until after next year. City officials tell The Steamboat Pilot & Today nothing is likely to happen next year in upgrading public areas. Among those improvements was an all-seasons promenade which will ring the central portion of the base area.

What will happen in the private-sector work remains to be seen. A major developer, The Atira Group, admits uncertainty, but retains hope that high-end real estate will not be as deeply affected.

“We’re definitely in a challenging time for the next few months… But it’s not as much of a concern with a higher-end project,” said Mark Matthews, a vice-president with Atira.

Matthews told the newspaper that Atira Group is encouraged by continuing sales at another base-area project, called Edgemont. “The high-end market is still out there. This type of product is a lifestyle product,” he said. Moreover, Steamboat Springs city officials have not even yet approved the projects. By the time that happens, he said, “we feel the credit markets will be different.”

But Lou Antonnucci, the president of the Steamboat Springs City Council, said he fears the original timetable for a completed redevelopment within three to five years might be impossible.

“It’s almost like our worst nightmare came true,” he said. “The fact is, we’ve got a wasteland up there.”

Steamboat’s improved future, he continued, “really depends on there being buyers out there who are willing to buy a second home in Steamboat.”

Another fear in Steamboat is that “institutional memory” may be lost if too many individuals involved in the project drift off to other projects during a hibernation. One of those key figures, redevelopment coordinator Joe Krakum, said he’s looking for other work. “The bottom line is, I can’t go two months without work.”

Elsewhere in Steamboat, in the town’s original downtown, the tightened credit has caused one major new project to delay work until next year. Bankers are reportedly requiring increased amounts of capital down on their projects. Instead of 25 per cent of total project costs, developers are required to come up with 35, 40 or even 50 per cent of total costs from other sources.

But one of the major developers, Jim Cook, is guardedly optimistic. “It’ll change,” he told the Pilot & Today. “All these things change. I’ve been through about six or seven of these downturns. Some are larger and more painful than others, but by and large, they pass.”

 

“Green” trumps historical

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Across the nation, there have been disputes between the sometimes conflicting goals of historic preservation and environmental gains. Such a dispute became evident in a recent case reported by the Steamboat Pilot & Today.

Developers wanted to replace two stucco duplexes on the fringes of the town’s downtown with a much larger, 4,711-square-foot mixed-used development.

The city’s historic preservation staff recommended denial because the building would be larger and taller than normally allowed. However, the city planning staff recommended approval, based on the building’s environmental credentials. Developers plan to seek gold-level certification, the third highest of four levels in the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) process.

The citizen planning commission recommends approval, but the city council has final say.

 

Consultant takes a dive over Everest

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. – Simon Repton’s day job is as a consultant in information technology. But boy what a weekend warrior he is.

Traveling to Nepal, Repton joined 31 others in parachuting from planes flying at 29,500 feet. This was in the area of Everest, elevation of 29,028 feet, and also Lhotse, Nuptse and Makalu, which are also 8,000-metre peaks.

“A high-altitude jump from 30,000 feet is possible in the U.S.” Repton told the Summit Daily News.

“You just don’t happen to pass mountains at the same height as soon as you get out of the plane.”

The skydiving consisted of a 62-second freefall and then a 4-minute under-canopy float. High and Wild, a United Kingdom “adventure holiday” company that sponsored the superlative sky-dive, said the designated landing zone of 12,350 feet was the highest in the world.

The thin air requires preparation and equipment not usual for skydiving. Because of the thin air at 29,000 feet, supplemental oxygen was also necessary.

In addition, a parachute of 280 square feet, which is 50 per cent larger than normal, was required, with a special design cable opening at speeds of more than 200 mph.

The atmosphere at 29,500 feet has only 32 per cent as much oxygen as is found at sea level. At 8,000 feet, it has 75 per cent as much oxygen.

There’s much less room for error when skydiving in such rugged territory. “If you can’t get to the landing area in that part of the world, you are hosed,” Repton told the Summit Daily. “The area is surrounded by the biggest peaks, most vicious rivers, and the most unforgiving boulders and angles you could imagine.”

In fact, Repton nearly ended up in one of those unforgiving landscapes when his vision was obscured by clouds. Luckily for him, he plopped down in the Royal Yak Farm, to the surprise of four Tibetans on the scene.

A Brit by birth, Repton’s next major adventures is to climb Mt. Everest, something he plans to prepare for by camping on top of a 14,000-foot peak this winter. Previously, he hiked the Grand Canyon in both directions in 24 hours.

 

Aspen voters consider money for rivers

ASPEN, Colo. – Voters in Aspen and Pitkin County will be asked in November to approve a sales tax of a penny on a $10 purchase for use in water matters.

The money, calculated at $1 million for the first year of collections, is to be allocated to maintaining water quality in rivers and streams, buying new water rights to guarantee sufficient water for recreation, wildlife and environmental needs, and also to promote water conservation.

There are no active threats to water in local streams, although large transmountain diversion projects already take substantial amounts of water to farms and cities on Colorado’s Arkansas River Basin. In the drought year of 2002, portions of the Roaring Fork River nearly dried up.

 

Objections to diversion raised

GRAND LAKE, Colo. – Few people now living can remember a time before major transmountain divisions from the headwaters of the Colorado River to the state’s Eastern Slope.

The largest of those 20 th century diversions — what Telluride native and historian David Lavender called a “massive violation of geography” — came in the 1940s and 1950s. That diversion, the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, diverts water via a tunnel from Grand Lake, at the western entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, to a reservoir near Estes Park, at the park’s eastern entrance.

Benefitting from the diversion are cities from Fort Collins to Boulder and farms along the South Platte River as far as Nebraska.

But there have been costs, as several witnesses with first-hand experience testified in recent hearings held in Granby and Grand Lake. The greatest concern, reports the Sky-Hi Daily News, is increased impact to the water quality of Grand Lake. Adjoining the lake is a resort town of the same name.

“The water quality has totally degraded,” said Gay Shaffer, who has spent 73 summers in Grand Lake.

The clarity of the water has been compromised by the series of reservoirs created to contain water from spring runoff. The inter-connected reservoirs allow the water to warm and accumulate organic material that sullies the water clarity in Grand Lake.

But quantity, not just quality, is also at issue as a consortium of cities and farmers propose to divert more water in a project called the Windy Gap Firming Project. Fishing shop proprietor Mitch Kirwin said the Colorado River system is already stressed. “Our economy is tied to our ecology.” Instead of diverting more water, the Front Range districts should take less.

Those testifying from the headwaters counties also feel aggrieved that more stringent conservation measures have not been embraced by the Front Range water districts. “I can say, a great deal more conservation needs to take place on the Eastern Slope,” said Sylvia Hines, who has vacationed at Grand Lake since the 1930s.

Another increase in diversions is also being studied by Denver Water, which owns water rights in the nearby Fraser River Valley, where Winter Park is located. It, too, is being protested.

 

Remediation now complete

URAVAN, Colo.   – The San Miguel River originates in the alpine bowls above Telluride, but soon enters the slickrock country of the southwest. Along the river’s banks, about an hour west of Telluride, uranium is found amid the sedimentary rocks.

Madam Curie pioneered her research about radioactivity there in the 1920s. Later, in 1942, the U.S. government built facilities there at a camp called Uravan to process uranium for the Manhattan Project, which resulted in the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. Later still, uranium was produced at Uravan to fuel nuclear power plants.

Mill production at Uravan ended in the 1980s, and in 1986 the area was designated as a Superfund site. Since then, the town has been dismantled. Also, millions of tons of dirt have been cleansed or at least consolidated into piles that have been capped.

Total cost of remediation was $120 million, most all of it picked up by Dow Chemical.

Colorado health officials say lessons of the past have been learned. But local officials worry about a new uranium-processing mill planned for the area between Telluride and Moab.

Art Goodtimes, a San Miguel County commissioner who writes for the Telluride Watch, notes that despite the Uravan cleanup, there are many, many mining messes remaining from the post-World War II boom in uranium mining. The real question, he says, is whether uranium mining truly pays its way. By extension, the supposedly low cost of nuclear power is really on trial.

For this future mill, governments will require up-front money of $1 million. That is the money deemed necessary for maintenance of the site beyond the mill’s 20- to 30-year life cycle. Left unsaid, notes Goodtimes, is that the U.S. Department of Energy is committed to maintenance for the next 1,000 years — and materials retain their radioactivity for even longer than that.

The governments, he said, really should be thinking for even longer than seven generations, and if that is the case, then $1 million is probably not near enough — nor is nuclear power nearly as cheap as is now commonly supposed.

 

More plans for beetle-killed trees

KREMMLING, Colo. – More ambitious talk continues to come from Kremmling, where a company called Confluence Energy is now working 24/7 to process dead lodgepole pine trees into pellets that can be burned in stoves. The town of 1,600 people is located midway between Steamboat Springs and Winter Park.

Next up may be an operation that will mill the better logs into house-building timbers. Now comes new aspirations of a cellulosic ethanol plant. Mark Mathis, the chief executive of Confluence Energy, sees potential for production of 5 to 10 million gallons of ethanol per year. To do so will require a 25 per cent increase in the amount of wood, or what is called “feedstock.”

Company officials tell the Sky-Hi Daily News they have already invested $10 million and will spend another $50 million during the next two years.

 

Women still make less than men

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Compared with other places in Wyoming, women in Jackson Hole make more money. Also, their wages are closer to those of men.

Closer, however, is no cigar. Women still make only 72 cents for every dollar that men make. The national average is 81 cents for every dollar, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Sources consulted by the Jackson Hole News & Guide say the disparity is explained in part by job choices. Women tend to have jobs that pay less, such as in nursing. However, others say discrimination still exists.