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Mountain News: Justice finally served

, was "an effervescent, wide-eyed youth eager to drink in all this beautiful, exciting country could offer.

, was "an effervescent, wide-eyed youth eager to drink in all this beautiful, exciting country could offer."

Her brother-in-law, Jake Ehlers, of Seattle, writes that she was also smart and funny - and with him she shared an interest in murder mysteries.

"We liked surprises, but we also liked it when the surprises fell within the logical progression of a well-written mystery," he writes. "In a mystery there is always a reason for things happening, although it's not always apparent until the end."

Tragically, she became a murder mystery herself. She left a party in Jackson late at night in June 1984 and drove south. Her body was found in Hoback Canyon, just across the county line, on June 21, 1984. She had been shot twice.

It took nearly 26 years, but justice is now being served. A jury recently found Troy Willoughby, 46, guilty of the murder. Evidence at the seven-day trial indicated that Willoughby shot the woman because she had not paid for drugs he had supplied her. The type of drugs in question was not specified at the trial, although both marijuana and cocaine were found in her purse.

The early and mid-1980s were a time of widespread use of cocaine in mountain towns. Sometimes, the cocaine use led to death by poisoning. Police files in Vail and other nearby towns contain several cases of people who died after several days of frightening paranoia and desperate hallucinations.

Several murders in the Vail area were also tied to cocaine, and it was at least a background issue in several unsolved murders.

In Aspen, Steve Grabow went from living the ordinary life of a quasi-ski bum to having a lifestyle fit for a king - until, in December, 1985, a bomb blew up his Jeep Cherokee as he started it after a workout at the Aspen Athletic Club. At the time, he was facing trial for distributing cocaine.

Suspects in the death of Grabow have never been named, and for a long time it appeared that the murder of Ehlers in Wyoming would never be solved. It wasn't for lack of a suspect. Within a few days of the murder, a Crimestoppers phone call had tagged Willoughby.

But police in Sublette County didn't have the proof. They didn't forget, though. One break came in 1996 when a former friend of Willoughby's told Idaho investigators that he had seen Willoughby commit the murder. Afraid of being prosecuted, he later recanted the statement. In late 2008 and early 2009, the case finally started coming together. Stories of witnesses jibed, and new evidence was revealed.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide suggests that one part of the story was the persistence of investigators in Sublette County, the ranching and now gas-drilling county located south of Jackson Hole where the murder occurred. After all, notes the newspaper, the victim was from "tony and affluent Jackson Hole," and might have even represented things that people of the more rural, less prosperous Sublette County might have disdained.

It was the first murder conviction in Sublette County since 1912, but Jake Ehlers, the brother-in-law, suggests other work remains. As in the Vail and Aspen areas, unsolved murders from that era remain in the Jackson Hole area.

Snowpack below par

AVON, Colo. - If still nothing like 30 years ago, it's been cold enough in northern Colorado, the epicentre of the North American ski industry. Snow is another matter. Snow surveys conducted by federal officials in early February have revealed snowfall totals that rank it as among the more meagre in the last 20 to 30 years.

"Right now, due to a good October, it's about 76 per cent of average," said Rick Bly, a National Weather Service observer in Breckenridge. "But December through January were only 56 per cent of average."

More generally, runoff forecasts were 65 to 75 per cent in the Colorado River headwaters, a region that extends from Winter Park to Crested Butte.

In Vail, snowfall amounts have been paralleling those of the 2001-02 winter. That low snowfall, coupled with a hot and very early spring, resulted in the lowest streamflows in several centuries.

But this year could yet turn wet. Asked if he's worried about wildfire potential, Vail Fire Chief Mark Miller told the Vail Daily that nobody is overly anxious.

Meanwhile, the snowpack in this year of cold is predictably sugary. At such times, backcountry travel becomes very difficult unless a steady trail has been stomped out by others. Two snowboarders discovered just how sugary the snowpack is when they set out for an outing north of Avon.

The Vail Daily reports that the two men failed to be where they had promised to be, triggering a call to rescue officials. But technology in the form of global positioning systems failed to get snowmobiles to their site and so they spent the night out. The next day, they were OK, but certainly could not have made their way for several miles through the sugary snow to the nearest road.

 

Opera lover gets nine years

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. - The jig is finally up for Alberto Vilar. He rode the boom in Cisco and other high-tech stocks to great wealth, but then had to resort to something of a Ponzi scheme to sustain his lavish lifestyle and philanthropic commitments - including some in Vail.

A judge in New York City has sentenced the 69-year-old Vilar to nine years in prison and ordered him to pay $21.9 million in restitution.

Vilar, a native of Cuba, had accumulated great wealth as a co-founder of Amerindo Investment Advisors. Fortune Magazine at one point estimated his wealth at $950 million.

In turn, the opera-loving Vilar donated up to $225 million to artistic endeavours around the world, including those of Beaver Creek and Vail, where he owned three homes. He donated $7 million to the creation of a widely acclaimed performing arts center at Beaver Creek, and pledged more (delivering some of it) to improvements at the Ford Amphitheater in Vail.

Vilar's name remains on the building at Beaver Creek, unlike at some other places, where his name was stripped after he failed to follow through on his pledges.

The troubles began when the illusory wealth of the tech market imploded in 2000. In 2008, he was accused of conspiracy to steal $40 million from investors.

"In essence, he rolled sevens for years," said U.S. Judge Richard J. Sullivan at Vilar's sentencing. "But the sevens turned to snake eyes in 2000, 2001."

The Associated Press , which covered the sentencing, notes that after Vilar's arrest, he found himself largely abandoned by the affluent and powerful. He was confined to his apartment under house arrest for more than three years before his trial.

The judge, reports AP , said that Vilar, despite his tremendous generosity, had to be punished to send a stern message to money managers that they must act honestly to protect customers' assets. "If they don't believe that, the entire economy can suffer," said the judge.

Vilar, at his sentencing, objected to the claim of prosecutors that he was not sorry for his crimes. "I deeply regret any inconvenience that our 14,000 clients might have suffered." He also said he believed that there were only five victims in the fraud.

But the judge saw greater drama. "Most people want security - to know their life won't be abruptly turned upside down," he said, suggesting that was indeed the case here.

 

EAGLE, Colo. - Real estate sales volume in Vail and the rest of Eagle County dropped below $1 billion last year for the first time since 1996. Sales volume for the year was $900 million, down 42 per cent from 2008.

But real estate sales had started tumbling in 2008. The peak year for sales was 2007, when sales hit $2.96 billion. As measured against that benchmark, sales last year were down nearly 70 per cent.

ANGEL FIRE, N.M. - Shovel races have returned to the slopes of Angel Fire, reports the Wall Street Journal, but with restrictions imposed since the races were last held in 2005.

The newspaper explains that the shovel races began simply enough several decades ago. People parked their rear ends within the scoops of the old-fashioned grain shovels and let fly. That alone can produce plenty of thrills.

But competitive sports soon began modifying the shovels to achieve ever-greater speeds. "An early prototype fused a shovel with a bicycle. The sport morphed into a cross between soapbox derby and bobsledding," notes the newspaper.

One competitor, who recalls blowing his student loan money on one contraption, recalls a goliath made from a B-52 bomber's fuel tank. Others had roll cages and hydraulic braking systems. Speeds sometimes exceeded 70 mph.

The result was rather predictable. The most serious injuries were to a competitor in 1997, at the inaugural Winter X Games, who cracked his sternum, bruised his heart, and broke his jaw, leg and back in three places. He had to declare bankruptcy because he couldn't pay his medical bills.

Now, the competition has returned to the slopes at Angel Fire, but with nothing extra added to the scoop shovels other than paint and wax. To the sport's more rabid garage tinkerers, notes the Journal, this is akin to asking a NASCAR driver to take to the track in the family sedan.

But to others, it returns some sanity to the sport.

"People get worked up about losing the modified shovels, but at least we don't need an aircraft-carrier net anymore to stop people from crashing into the resort," said Gail Boles, a 47-year-old pharmacist from Taos.

Black bear deaths counted

BANFF, Alberta - A new report from Parks Canada shows that an average 23 black bears have been killed annually during the last two decades in Banff, Jasper, Revelstoke and other national parks of the Canadian Rockies.

No conclusions can be drawn from that statistic, park officials tell the Rocky Mountain Outlook , although it does establish a baseline for evaluating future trends.

During that span, Jasper has had the largest mortality, 209 deaths, compared with 90 in Banff, and 56 in Glacier. Jasper led probably because of its larger size and bear habitat. However, bear deaths have declined in part due to reduced speed limits on highways and better handling of garbage.

Out-of-bounds miscue ends in tragedy

REVELSTOKE, B.C. - Authorities had been worried enough about out-of-bounds ski and snowboard excursions at Revelstoke Mountain Resort that Cpl. Ross Wiebe, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mountain Police, in mid-January had told a local newspaper that it was just a matter of time before an outcome would be tragic.

The very next day, two young men and the father of one of them skied out of bounds, ending up in a steep, icy chute. They took off their skis and tried to climb out, but fell and slid approximately 100 metres and over a cliff. Only one of the three survived the fall. He was helicoptered out just before dark.

The Revelstoke Times Review notes a string of out-of-bound incidents in the week beforehand, although all ended up with happier outcomes.

 

plans protest

TELLURIDE, Colo. - Members of the Westborn Baptist Church, an independent Baptist church known for hatred of bisexuals and homosexuals, plan a protest at Telluride during the Telluride Gay Ski week in February.

The Telluride Watch reports it has received a copy of an announcement from the church, which is based in Kansas, of plans to "picket Judy Shepard during the fag ski trip crap..."

She is the mother of Matthew Shepard, the openly gay 21-year-old who was murdered in 1998 outside of Laramie, Wyo. She now heads the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which supports diversity and tolerance in youth organizations. Church members picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard and also the trial of his murderers. They carried signs that said such things as "Matt Shepard rots in Hell," and "God Hates Fags."

 

Is it graffiti or art?

PARK CITY, Utah - But is it art? That's always been the question, with no clear-cut answer. From ski towns comes a variety of answers as they address graffiti.

In Park City, a petition with at least 700 signatures has called for the preservation of graffiti by a fellow who goes by the name of Banksy. When in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, for the debate of a film about his work, he left five pieces of art/graffiti on the sides of buildings.

One of the pieces, which was on a publicly owned building, has been removed. But Macey Truett, a 19-year-old who signed the petition, contends the remaining four pieces should be preserved. In one of those pieces, a person is shown throwing a bouquet of flowers as if the bouquet is a Molotov cocktail.

"I love his uniqueness and his way of expressing things," she told The Park Record .

If Park City has been somewhat ambivalent about whether graffiti constitutes art, no such doubts were evident in Vail, Colo., and Banff, Alberta. In both cases, police have arrested suspects and charged them with defacing property.

In the Vail case, damage was estimated at more than $10,000. Judging from photos released by police, any artistic messages in the graffiti were decidedly obtuse.

 

WINTER PARK, Colo. - Oh, what a difference 20 or 30 years can make in terms of attitude. It used to be against the law in Winter Park to cut down a tree without permission. But spread of bark beetles in the epidemic that began in Colorado during 1996 has changed attitudes - and the law.

Nowadays, people are encouraged to cut down the dying and dead lodgepole pine trees amid which the town was created. The Sky-Hi Daily News reports that town officials had identified more than 100,000 trees inside the town limits until 2008, when they simply quit counting.

Next up to go down are trees along the Union Pacific Railroad right-of way, which bisects the town. "There is a ribbon of red that runs right through the centre of it," said Drew Nelson, the town manager.

Forest Service officials have concluded that the bark beetles have largely run out of lodgepole pine trees to invade on the Western Slope of Colorado, reports The Denver Post. Of course, that same story could have been written two years ago for some valleys of the Western Slope, while it's a premature story for other parts, such as near Aspen.

But the beetle epidemic has hardly run its course. The larger story in the next few years will likely be rapid spread of beetles in the sprawling lodgepole and ponderosa pine forests east of the Continental Divide. The U.S. Forest Service this week announced $30 million in funding for efforts to deal with the beetle epidemic in Colorado.

 

er

SILVERTHORNE, Colo. - Planning commissioners have given the preliminary thumbs-up to a Lowe's hardware store in Silverthorne, a town in Summit County. But Ken Orlin, writing in the Summit Daily News , argues that the bar is too low for this big-box store and another one proposed by The Home Depot.

Preliminary plans, he says "offer no hint of any intent to create an energy efficient, environmentally friendly building that fits our alpine environment." He proposes the developers be forced to take better advantage of passive-solar design.