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Mountain News: Intrawest responds to Vail pricing

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Several weeks ago Vail Resorts announced a new ski pass, the Epic Season Pass.

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Several weeks ago Vail Resorts announced a new ski pass, the Epic Season Pass. At a cost of $579, it is to be good for all five of the company’s ski areas, including its flagship mountain plus Beaver Creek, Keystone, and Breckenridge, all in Colorado, and Heavenly in California.

The pricing strategy potentially challenges Aspen Skiing Co., but also Intrawest, which operates Copper Mountain, Winter Park, and Steamboat.

In response, Intrawest has dropped the cost of the Rocky Mountain Super Pass Plus, from $470 this season to $439 next season. It provides unlimited skiing at Winter Park and Copper, plus six days at Steamboat. An unrestricted pass at Steamboat, meanwhile, will cost $979.

 

Slowing economy evident

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. – It took a while, but now evidence of the slowed economy is becoming apparent in the mountain resort valleys of the West.

In Crested Butte, the ski area operator has announced it is postponing construction of a higher-end 95-unit condominium project at the base of the ski mountain. Prices of the units ranged from $875 to $1,500 per square foot, respectable in any ski town, but perhaps precedent-setting in Crested Butte.

The long and short of the story is that the ski company didn’t have enough commitments from buyers to move forward, explains the Crested Butte News.

“We wanted to be somewhere between 70 per cent and 80 per cent under contract before we pulled the trigger. I think we’re around 45 per cent — that is, of the dollar volume,” said Michael Kraatz, the vice president of real estate and development for Crested Butte Mountain Resort.

The Cimarron is to take the place of the former Gothic building. This is part of the resort’s renewal process launched by Tim and Diane Mueller, who bought the resort in 2004 from the Calloway and Walton families. They are looking at going forward in 2009, reports the Crested Butte News.

Proceeding this summer, as originally planned, is construction of a 22,000-square-foot on-mountain restaurant called Red Lady Lodge.

 

Vail cops following Aspen

VAIL, Colo. – It’s a by-now familiar pattern. First something happens in Aspen, and then 5 to 10 years later, in Vail, and 5 to 20 years later at yet other resort-based mountain towns of the West.

The formula holds true in the case of police cars. It used to be that police in both Vail and Aspen drove Saabs. Then, a few years ago, Aspen police switched over to Volvo. Now — you guessed it — Vail has taken possession of four Volvos at significantly discounted prices.

It’s not a simple matter of Vail imitating Aspen, explains the Vail Daily. Volvo also dangled financial incentives to Vail, such as money to buy uniforms for bus drivers and booth attendants, as well as recycling bins. In return, Volvo gets to put its logo on uniforms and parking-ticket stubs. Also, Volvo is the official car of Vail Resorts, the operator of the Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas.

However, if tradition holds, Vail cops will soon be driving hybrids. Aspen thinks that’s what it will do next year, and is now testing Toyota Highland hybrids. Vail, for its part, considered Chevy Tahoe hybrids, but found the cars too expensive and unproven as police cars, said police chief Dwight Henninger.

 

Canmore to remember its past

CANMORE, Alberta – Canmore is gearing up for the celebration of its 125 th as a community.

The town, a recreation-based community of about 10,000 just outside Banff   National Park, was created in 1883 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was used to store supplies and maintain locomotives. Those tasks were later moved to Calgary, but by then mining of anthracite coal had begun, which has the highest capacity of any coal to generate heat. The mine closed in 1979, but a reunion of all those who were somehow involved in that mining economy is planned for this summer.

Among Colorado mountain towns, there are strong parallels with Crested Butte. There, anthracite and also bituminous coal were mined beginning in the 1880s. However, the last coal mine at Crested Butte closed in 1952. Also unlike Canmore, which is located along both the major rail and highway transcontinental routes in Canada, Crested Butte is at the end of the road for six to seven months of the year and is four hours from the nearest major city.

 

Jackson thinking of bears

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Teton County commissioners have mandated steps to reduce conflicts between humans and bears. The commissioners are requiring bear-resistant garbage containers or, in lieu of such containers, that trash be kept in bear-proof enclosures.

Also, for about seven months of the year, bird feeders must be at least 10 feet off the ground and 4 feet lateral from any structure. The regulations apply to only those areas of the county where there have been conflicts, notes the Jackson Hole News & Guide. The legislation was described by one county commissioner, Ben Ellis, as a “mild step.”

The mountain resort communities that seem to be in the lead on this issue are Vail and Snowmass/Aspen. There, bear-resistant trash containers were deemed insufficient to thwart determined and reasonably intelligent bears. Instead, more challenging, so-called bear-proof devices are now required.

 

Mountain lion dies at 23

TELLURIDE, Colo. – Ruby, the pet mountain lion of Melissa Margetts for the last 23 years, is no more. The aging cat was put to sleep in early April as she purred in the lap of Margetts, her companion and caregiver.

Although mountain lions — also called cougars or pumas — have a normal life expectancy of 7 to 11 years, this cat set a world record for longevity, which Margetts, writing in The Telluride Watch, attributed to “lot of lovin’ and all the ‘room service’ she’s gotten.” That room service included road kill, part of the 30 pounds of raw meat she ate per day, capped off by a cone of vanilla Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Margetts relates that she obtained Ruby when the cat was 10 days old and weighed only one pound. It had been confiscated from a fur farm in Iowa.

The cat’s adult weight of 175 pounds had dropped to 100 in recent months, its once knife-sharp canines worn down to nubs and the incisors entirely absent.

“Though her eyes are still bright, they gloss over every now and then and betray her fright as she is becoming less aware of where she is. Kitty dementia and Alzheimer’s have now tipped the scale, and she is having more bad days than good," said Margetts, in a story as she considered putting her pal to sleep.

When that appointed day arrived, Margetts had second thoughts. In an Internet posting, she reported that the lion seemed to be having a resurgence of strength. Still, the deed was done. She says her 23 years with the cat are more than those she spent with her parents (16), her son (18), or her former husband (10).

 

Ski towns riled up by toll proposal

INTERSTATE 70 CORRIDOR, Colo. – The proposal to levy tolls of motorists using Interstate 70 between Denver and the mountain towns has riled the locals to an extent not seen in years.

From Steamboat Springs to Granby, and Idaho Springs to Eagle, it was a two-Tums case of indignation after first State Sen. Chris Romer, a Democratic, and then Andy McElhany, a Republican, introduced legislation to begin tolling.

Romer’s bill got a lot of attention, but was shot down in the Colorado Senate Transportation Committee. McElhany’s bill, as of early April, remained alive, although it was not expected to survive beyond many, if any, additional legislative reviews. The bill proposes to levy a $5 toll at the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel Complex.

“Premature at best and bad ideas at worst,” said the Summit Daily News in dismissing both bills.

With only McElhany’s toll proposal remaining, voices of opposition cited several overlapping reasons: First, the legislation would supersede a multiplicity of planning efforts launched in the last year since Gov. Bill Ritter took office. The first of the reports are due this summer.

“Random politicians throwing spaghetti at this complicated wall only muddies the waters unnecessarily,” said the Vail Daily diplomatically in an editorial otherwise peevish in tone.

Second, mountain communities were not specifically consulted before the bills were introduced. “The bill was quite arrogant in the way it was presented to me, and no one was consulted from any of our district,” said Rep. Christine Scanlan, who represents the Breckenridge, Eagle and Leadville areas.

The third point of opposition is that tolls are not right — at least for this section of highway. It is not the only way between metropolitan Denver and the mountain communities, but all others involve significant detours, in some cases requiring several extra hours of travel.

Typical of the comments was Doug Monger, a commissioner in Routt County. “It’s a totally unfair solution,” he told his hometown newspaper, the Steamboat Pilot & Today. Added Diane Mitch Butsh, another Routt County commissioner: “It’s our lifeline. It’s our artery. It’s how goods get here.”

If the future of Interstate 70 is truly of statewide interest, then why shouldn’t the whole state pay for it, asked the Sky-Hi Daily News — a point similarly made by other commentators.

As well, there is distrust of both how and where the money will be used. Transit supporters fear money will be spent to create more asphalt along I-70. Others fear money will be siphoned off to other transportation corridors, reported the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

“We don’t want Interstate 70 to become a cash cow for Interstate 25," said former Gunnison County commissioner Rikki Santarelli, who is now chairman of the Western Slope advocacy group Club 20.

An essential issue is lack of money. Colorado several years ago gutted its transportation funding to expand a section of Interstate 25 in Denver’s south-metro area, and any expansion of capacity — whether by widening highways or some sort of mass transit — will be far more expensive, likely to cost billions of dollars.

But while tolls are highly unpopular, many students of transportation say that they will become an essential source of transportation funding in the future, not just along I-70 but across the nation. Simply put, the conventional means of highway funding, the gas tax, isn’t reaping what it used to, partly because of improved fuel efficiency of automotive fleets, but also because neither state nor federal taxes have been raised since 1992, notes Colorado Biz Magazine in a story about Colorado’s transportation woes. During that same time, construction costs have soared.

“The unfortunate thing is the public really believes that the tooth fairy is going to show up and pay for these roads,” Romer told the Associated Press. He said he will continue to lobby through the summer on behalf of tolls that use congestion pricing and other still unpopular ideas.

 

Snowmass claims 400 inches

ASPEN, Colo. – Snowfall slackened considerably during March, but Aspen is still at or near a record level. Snowmass Mountain entered April with 407 inches, compared with a 300-inch average.

Farther up the Roaring Fork Valley, a Snotel site found the most water in the snow since such measurements back in 1981. However, more could come.

Often, the snow depth at higher locations rises through April and even into May. The highest reading for that particular site was on May 19, 1995, a year when it snowed, snowed and then snowed some more through spring. Even in mid-June, a skier from New England visiting Arapahoe Basin turned to his companion with astonishment and said: “These are mid-winter conditions.”

 

Mammoth taking heat

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. – Mammoth Lakes is in plenty of hot water — if the water is located below ground. So far, the community has put it to little, if any, use. However, The Sheet reports plans to change that.

A memorandum of understanding was signed recently between two local government agencies and an energy developer. The developer, Iceland America, is to tap the geothermal heat to warm schools, municipal buildings and malls. The cost of all this is projected to run into the tens of millions of dollars, but with the advantage of fixing energy expenditures in the long run.

 

Mine proposal resurfaces

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. – It was two steps forward, then two steps back for a potential molybdenum mine at Crested Butte. Kobex Resources Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C, has withdrawn from plans to develop an ore body in the community’s backyard.

A press release issued by the company said that “regulatory and legal uncertainties” posed by the several layers of government had become “too great to justify the necessary time and major predevelopment expenditure that are required to advance this property.”

Property owner U.S. Energy Corp., which had partnered with Kobex, said much the same thing. “Mining is not an easy thing, and exploration of mineral projects is not for the weak of heart,” said Keith Larsen, chief executive officer of the company. He also told the Crested Butte News that Kobex may have “underestimated what they saw as the issues.”

A stock analyst, John Kaiser, of Kaiser Bottom Fish Online, several weeks ago predicted that Kobex would cut its losses at Lucky Jack, as the mine has been named.

The issue is money. Kobex had already spent $8 million on rehabilitating an existing mine at the site, located on nearby Mount Emmons, which overlooks the town. That left $15 million of the company’s investment capital, and it would have required another $14 million to bore a mile-long drift into the mountain, to better gauge the value of the ore.

Crested Butte town officials have been fine-tuning their regulations governing impacts to its watershed, which would include the mine. The primary jurisdiction, Gunnison County, was similarly at work on revised regulations.

Two grassroots community groups, High Country Citizens Alliance and the Red Lady Coalition, were girding for a battle. Lately, they had been offered the free high-powered aid of a legal lobbying firm, DLA Piper, which has an office in Washington D.C. led by several former high-ranking congressmen.

With Kobex gone, there seems to be a sign of relief in Crested Butte. But it’s muted.

“The old adage is that as long as there is an ore body in the ground that hasn’t been protected, they’ll be back,” Roger Flynn, an attorney with the Western Mining Action Project, told Mountain Town News.

With that advice in mind, community activists are continuing to talk about buying the mining rights from U.S. Energy. The company has said the ore body is worth $100 million, reported Bob Salter, minerals specialist from the High Country Citizens Alliance.

Although Crested Butte is steadily getting more well-heeled, with the average sales price of homes last year hitting $850,000, raising that much money would be a challenge for the community of 3,000 people. Still, Telluride is only marginally larger and wealthier, and it came up with $60 million to buy open space at its front door, so such fund-raising is not totally out of the question.

 

Resort developer throws in towel

LASSEN COUNTY, Calif. – Developers of a proposed major resort in a lightly developed area of the northern Sierra Nevada have filed for bankruptcy protection.

The project, called Dyer Mountain, was to have included 4,000 homes, three golf courses, and a ski resort. Lassen County voters in 2000 approved rezoning of the land to accommodate the resort, and county officials approved the project last September, reports the Sierra Sun. Creditors, however, foreclosed on the property in January.