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Mountain News: Hell freezes over for Taos

TAOS, N.M. – Taos Ski Valley has finally decided to drop the ropes for snowboarders. A memo to employees distributed by Mickey Blake, the ski area president, said the change will occur on March 19. “I guess hell finally froze over….

TAOS, N.M. – Taos Ski Valley has finally decided to drop the ropes for snowboarders. A memo to employees distributed by Mickey Blake, the ski area president, said the change will occur on March 19.

“I guess hell finally froze over….” said one blogger on the website of the Taos Daily News, where the news was reported.

In the West, the only other major ski area where snowboards remain banned is at Deer Valley.

“For several seasons the debate has been more directed as to ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ snowboarding would be permitted at Taos Ski Valley,” the memo continued.

The Taos Ski Valley website blogsite revealed great enthusiasm. “On behalf of about every tourist-related business in town, I want to thank TSV for lifting the ban,” wrote Marc Coan.

One unidentified grandparent lauded it as a way to renew family inclusiveness. “I am happy to say that once again we can be a ‘snow sport family’ in one area… hurray!”

As well, there was disappointment. More than one writer was sure that Taos Ski Valley founder Ernie Blake, who died in 1989, must be needing Tums.

One writer, while embracing the need for snowboards, called for a skis-only policy for some runs, to retain good moguls.

 

Still seeking pot of gold

VAIL, Colo. – For most of his life, Earl Eaton has been tromping up mountains, looking for a pot of gold. At age 85, he’s still looking.

It’s not that he hasn’t had success in his own way. Fifty years ago last March, Earl Eaton led Pete Seibert up what is now called Vail Mountain, to show Seibert the expanse of mostly treeless hillsides now called Vail’s Back Bowls.

This was before Interstate 70 was even authorized westward from Denver. While Seibert had trained nearby at Camp Hale, he had never seen those bowls. But the sight of them clinched his decision that this was the place to realize his boyhood dream of creating a big ski area.

Eaton grew up on a ranch about 10 miles west, during a time when the Eagle Valley was a hardscrabble place of mostly too-long winters for decent farming or ranching. Some people worked on the railroad or at the mines.

Things had changed little after World War II, when Eaton and Siebert were both living in Aspen. They probably met at Aspen’s famous Red Onion bar. In time, he learned of Seibert’s life-long quest to someday build his own ski resort. Later, when Seibert was managing Loveland Basin, Eaton confided to Seibert that he might have Seibert’s answer.

Seibert died several years ago of cancer, but Eaton, while diagnosed earlier this year with cancer, has been getting treatment and hopes to get back onto Vail Mountain yet this winter on his ski bike. During day-time operations, he’s the only person allowed to bike on Vail Mountain.

At one time, in the late ’60s, he thought he was going to make a fortune with the next big thing, bikes. Big in Europe, they never caught on in the states. Before that, he’d been a uranium prospector.

Still on Eaton’s to-do list, says his son, Carl, is to get back into the mountains around Eagle, where he lives, to look for the gold ore that Carl says his uncle found many years ago.

 

Housing second to commercial

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – A study by the Teton County Housing Authority firmly draws the conclusion that new development isn’t paying its way when it comes to generating employee housing.

Since 2000, the Jackson Town Council has approved more than 752,000 square feet of commercial development. That’s the equivalent of more than 15 large grocery stores.

Existing regulations, adopted in 1994, have yielded far less housing than what is actually needed to staff that many stores, restaurants and offices. The housing authority’s study found developers had built the equivalent of 45 apartments (at 400 square feet each) and paid another $94,000 in cash to meet requirements. On their own, they built another 127 small apartments.

The agency presents evidence that the formula adopted by the town during the 1990s vastly underestimated how many employees a busy bar and restaurant will generate.

A proposal now being reviewed by the town government would increase the mitigation rate, now at 15 per cent, to 25 per cent. But the housing authority recommends 40 per cent.

There is some fear that even 25 per cent will stall development, but the evidence from Aspen suggests it won’t even slow it. There, existing regulations require developers to provide housing for 60 per cent of employees, and the formula used in Aspen assumes more employees will be generated per 1,000 feet of commercial space, than are assumed in Jackson.

Even this much of a higher bar hasn’t stopped developers from coming into Aspen. In fact, last summer, one hotel developer offered to provide for 100 percent of employees — and was turned down by the town council.

Jackson and Teton County want to keep 65 per cent of all valley workers remaining within Jackson Hole. An increasing number are commuting across the Teton Range from Idaho.

Mark Barron, mayor of Jackson, told the Jackson Hole News & Guide, that the town must elevate its affordable housing requirements, but it also needs greater density, to find room for everybody.

 

Aspen turns to Puerto Rico

ASPEN. Colo. – Unable to hire as many foreign workers as it wanted because of the cap on H2-B visas, the Aspen Skiing Co. turned to Puerto Rico. Because they are U.S. citizens, if from a territory, no visas are required. Altogether, Aspen has 3,500 employees at its four ski mountains and its lodges during peak season, although it is coming up short on full staffing this year, reports The Aspen Times.

 

Vail Resorts housing at issue

VAIL, Colo. – Town and ski company officials played poker until the last minute, more or less. But they now have an agreement, after a fashion, about the terms by which Vail Resorts will come up with affordable housing as required by the town before a major new real estate development is opened.

The project is called Arrabelle, an Old World-type edifice with 66 condos, 33 hotel rooms, plus Starbucks, Patagonia, and all the rest. An ice-skating rink is in the middle. Two years in construction, it is to open Jan. 5.

Since summer, the town and ski company officials have crankily disagreed with one another about how Vail Resorts can meet its obligations to provide 120 employee housing units. The town preferred on-site, but Vail Resorts is wrangling for a location across I-70. Most of the negotiations have been occurring behind closed doors, which town officials insist is within the law.

For now, Vail Resorts will post a $17.3 million letter of credit — and has agreed to come up with a plan by late February. If it doesn’t, the town can cash the cheque.

There has also been crankiness in Jackson Hole, where Vail Resorts is on the hook for 22 affordable housing units resulting from a project approved in 2005.

The company was granted a six-month extension in early summer, but still has produced none of the goods. One commissioner, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide, even asked the county attorney to look into civil proceedings.

What seems to have happened is that Vail Resorts has contracted with a Colorado-based developer, David O’Neil, to build the 22 homes. He comes with a reputation for building higher quality affordable housing than is sometimes the case. One reason for the delay is the need for review from the National Park Service, as the development is near the border of Grand Teton National Park.

 

Several winters snowless

ASPEN, Colo. – The lack of snow during November this year caused some apprehension – and some looks back into history. In Colorado, autumn-like weather has lingered into January in some memorable years, reports The Aspen Times. For example, Independence Pass was open to motorists until Jan. 20 during one winter immediately prior to World War II. Normally, it closes in November due to snow. But even in the mid-1960s, there was a winter when it didn’t snow until mid-January.

But the dry winter of more recent memory — and the driest of the 20 th century, according to record-keeping — was in 1976-77. This was when snowmaking, at least in the West, was still in its infancy. There were snow dances, some tears, but also lots of beer drinking. Rents then, say those who paid them, were still cheap enough that a couple of bad months were not a disaster — although, in fact, a U.S. senator from Colorado was considering seeking disaster relief for the state’s ski areas.

 

Whole Foods coming

BASALT, Colo. – After a year of wrangling about terms of development, organic-food purveyor Whole Foods Market now has permission to build a 40,000-square-foot store in Basalt, a mid-valley town in the Aspen-dominated Roaring Fork Valley.

The valley has a large number of people with high incomes and high education levels. Such people tend to be buyers of organic and natural food products, explains The Aspen Times.

As well, the valley’s residents have discerning tastes and active lifestyles, according to psychographic studies conducted by the retailer.

The store is expected to take nearly two years to build. If all goes as Whole Foods hopes, the store will have success similar to one in Santa Fe, a place with similar demographics.

 

No need to slow down

AVON, Colo. – Slow down on the daily commute on Interstate 70 through the Eagle Valley? No need to, say Colorado traffic investigators, who intend to stay the course on the 75 mph speed limit between Avon and Glenwood Canyon.

The Vail Daily explains that police, firefighters, and other emergency services officials had asked for a slower speed limit. There has been a spike in traffic fatalities on the highway since the speed limit was elevated in the mid-1990s. Farther up the valley, in the Vail area, where the speed limit is 65 mph or less, there are more accidents, but far fewer people have died.

But although ambulance drivers think there’s too much blood being spilled, state officials say it’s no worse than on comparable highways.

 

Students can ski & study

TRUCKEE, Calif. – The West has many private ski academies where students, for relatively high tuition, study half-days and train for ski racing the other half. Vail has a new ski academy, which was profiled last week on National Public Radio, as does Crested Butte.

But what may be a unique program exists in the Tahoe-Truckee area of California. There, students enrolled in North Tahoe High School can take four classes in the morning. In the afternoon they train on the slopes. Students achieve the balance of the curriculum through independent study programs offered by Coldstream Alternative High School. Among the offerings are advanced-placement courses.

Students enrolled in the program must maintain a 2.8 grade-point average, reports the Sierra Sun, a higher average than usually required by traditional high school sports.

Although the program is new, school officials tell the newspaper there are no problems.

The Sun notes several other ski academies in the area. At one, Sugar Bowl Ski Academy, college-prep classes are taught for grades 7 through 12. Cost is up to $30,000 for those who room there, although less for local students. The public school program is free to any student who qualifies for California public schools.

 

Backcountry unforgiving

WALDEN, Colo. – Yet more evidence has arrived that an avalanche beacon is a tool, not a talisman. The unfortunate story for this message is told in the tragic death of 31-year-old Luke Oldenburg.

Oldenburg, a landscaper from Fort Collins, Colo., was with two companions on Dec. 2 near Cameron Pass, in Colorado’s Medicine Bow Range. The route they used to snowshoe to a bowl called Hot Dog is not uncommon, and located on a slope of only 24 degrees, below the normal threshold for avalanches.

He was wearing snowshoes with a splitboard on his back. All three men had avalanche transceivers and shovels, and one of his companions had a probe pole.

What caused the avalanche on the slope of 37 to 40 degrees above the men was not clear to investigators. The men may have triggered it, or it may have been natural. The avalanche danger that day had been classified as “considerable.” Still, about 90 per cent of avalanche-caused deaths result from slides triggered by the victims.

The snow slide missed his companions but buried Oldenburg beneath six feet of snow. Using their beacons, the companions quickly located his body. However, even with shovels, it took several minutes to extricate his body from the concrete-like snow.

When they uncovered him, he had stopped breathing and his heart had stopped. They were able to resuscitate him, and then began pulling him down the trail in a sleeping bag. He was in a helicopter being attended by paramedics within three hours of the slide. Still, he died about 10 days later.

“The take-home message from this accident, and a lot of accidents, is to not get caught in a slide,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

“Wearing beacons, knowing how to use them, and conducting an efficient rescue — all these things help, but they don’t guarantee your survival. What guarantees your survival is not getting caught in an avalanche.”

A similar report comes from the Canmore area of Alberta. The Banff Crag & Canyon reports that two men died from the injuries they received while being pulled through trees. Both men were believed experienced backcountry skiers, as they were equipped with avalanche transceivers and probes. But the slope they skied was 35 degrees.

“We recommend skiers to take conservative lines of 30 degrees or less,” said George Field, public safety specialist for Alberta Parks.

In November, two other men were killed in the same area after stepping onto a cornice, which broke off below them, triggering an avalanche.

 

Beacon saved sledder

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – A happier report was filed from Bondurant, Wyo., where a snowmobiler from Jackson was caught in an avalanche on Dec. 2. The slide was relatively small, but it buried his head under two feet of snow.

“When it started slowing down, that’s when I started freaking out,” said Jason Blair, 33. “It got tight, and I couldn’t move.”

Ending up face down, he told the Jackson Hole News & Guide that the weight was “unbearable,” as if somebody had dumped snow from the bucket of a front-end loader onto his back.

Luck was with him. He had eight companions that day, and they immediately rushed to where they believed he was. He was wearing an avalanche transceiver, and it worked. His companions also had beacons, although some discovered that their batteries were dead. One of those without a workable beacon began probing, and within the fourth try luckily hit Blair’s helmet.

Within five minutes, the companions got air to Blair’s mouth and nose, which were packed with snow.

He was also lucky in another way. He had put the beacon into his backpack. It wasn’t ripped from his body in the slide, but it could have been. From now on, said Blair, his beacon goes around his body.

 

Mining history on the move

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. – Breckenridge continues to reconfigure its landscape, softening the hard edges of its mining heritage. That heritage included the churning of vast piles of gravel in rivers and creeks by steam-powered dredges, yielding minute quantities of gold. In some cases, the rivers were dredged up to 50 feet deep, down to bedrock.

Although the dredge mining ended in 1942, vast piles of rock remained piled high in the Blue River at the town’s entrance well into the 1980s. Some piles remain even now in the Blue, as well as its chief tributaries, French Creek and the Swan River.

That is changing. The Summit Daily News reports that the piles of rock have been removed from the Swan, one truckload at a time, for use elsewhere as fill material below houses. In exchange, topsoil is being provided for the river restoration. As well, a small portion of the old dredging operation has been restored, as a sort of outdoor museum.

Another segment of the river restoration is being launched, explained Brian Lorch, Summit County’s open space and trail director. Within a few years, he hopes to see trout once again hiding in the waters of the river.

 

San Juan mining renews

OURAY, Colo. – With renewed mining continuing at Yankee Boy Basin, near Ouray, officials are adopting a policy governing who snowplows the road into the basin.

A major concern is the potential for avalanches. The history books are rife with stories of avalanches along that road in the heyday of mining, when ore was transported by mule trains from the basin.

In past decades, companies plowed the road as necessary without seeking formal permission. But things are different now. More people are snowmobiling and skiing on the slopes above the road than in the past. As such, Ouray County Commissioners wanted a more clear designation of responsibilities and liabilities. Among the agreements is that a sign will be posted at the road’s entrance noting that it is being “maintained only for mining activity.”

 

Seasons change quickly

SILVERTON, Colo. – How different are people in cities and mountain towns? A few weeks ago it was 55 degrees out, there was sunshine all around, and not one bit of snow in the San Juan Mountains, or for that matter, anywhere in Colorado.

In Denver, people were exulting in the “good” weather. In mountain towns, that same weather pattern evoked grumpiness.

But then the skies darkened, and the snow was being measured by the foot in Crested Butte. “People were excited to have to dig five feet of snow off their cars,” said one visitor.

In Silverton, where the mid-December snow was about 120 per cent of average, columnist Freddie Canfield reported arrival of the “good old days. The highway by Silverton on its way to Durango and Ouray “looks like a two-lane toboggan run with nearly 10-foot berms,” he reported in the Silverton Standard.

 

Home Depot hoping to Summit

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. – Home Depot has submitted an application for a 100,000-square-foot The Home Depot store in Silverthorne. The application was incomplete, but it’s possible that the project could be presented to planning commissioners in January or February, reports the Summit Daily News. The newspaper also notes immediate questions from the existing business community about whether the chain franchise will be a good addition to the community.

 

Opponents close to legal victory

PAGOSA SPRINGS, Colo. – Opponents of a major real-estate development adjacent to the Wolf Creek ski area in Southern Colorado may be close to a second significant legal victory.

Earlier this year, Colorado Wild and other groups won a court judgment that found Mineral County’s approval of the 2,600 housing units violated its own procedures. Those groups, including Alamosa-based San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council, also sued the Forest Service, claiming its environmental review was fundamentally illegal in its scope.

The case stretches back nearly 30 years, to a time when the Pitcher family, which owns the ski area, wanted to build lodging at the base. It forged an agreement with Billy Joe “Red” McCombs, who agreed to finance the development work. A land exchange was consummated in the 1980s, providing an island of private land in a sea of federally administered property. No real-estate development currently exists at the ski area.

For the development to occur, however, McCombs needs access roads across the Forest Service property. The Forest Service has authorized those roads, but Colorado Wild says the review process was fundamentally flawed. First, it uncovered evidence of collaborative efforts between the agency and the developer that Colorado Wild says were improper.

But the environmental impact statement reviewed only impacts of the roads, and not of the real-estate development itself. Colorado Wild says that the real estate cannot occur without the roads, and hence the impacts of the real estate must also be considered.

Ryan Demmy Bidwell, director of Colorado Wild, says no settlement has been reached in the Forest Service case, but confirmed a report in the Durango Herald. “We’re still working on details,” he said. “But in general, I think the Forest Service is coming around to the fact that it doesn’t want to follow this litigation to its conclusion.”

Bidwell said Colorado Wild remains committed to forcing a new EIS that considers the impacts of the real-estate development as “either a direct or indirect effect of the Forest Service decision on access.”