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Mountain News: Real estate sales edge upward in Aspen

ASPEN, Colo. - Real estate volume through June in Aspen and Pitkin County was 22 per cent ahead of last year, with June being particularly strong, reports the Aspen Times .

ASPEN, Colo. - Real estate volume through June in Aspen and Pitkin County was 22 per cent ahead of last year, with June being particularly strong, reports the Aspen Times .

The greatest amount of activity was in properties ranging in value from $4 million to $8 million. One real estate broker associate, Tim Estin, reported he was "day to day hopeful." Between 60 and 70 per cent of annual sales occur between the Fourth of July and the end of September.

Unless conditions worsen, Aspen can expect to surpass $1 billion in sales, although this will lag far behind the benchmark years of 2006 and 2007, when roughly $2.6 billion was sold each year. "I am of the opinion we're never going to see 2007, at least not in my lifetime," said long-time agent Bob Starodoj, owner and chief executive of Mason Morse Real Estate. He sees future prices more in line with those of 2004 to 2006.

Meanwhile, hoteliers in Aspen have been expecting improved economic conditions this summer. Bill Tomcich, director of a reservation agency, expected lodges over the July 4 th weekend to surpass last year's figure of 84 per cent of capacity.

Part of the draw during late June was the annual Ideas Festival. The festival in years past had a regular string of front-page names passing through: the Clintons, John McCain, and many more. This year has been no exception. Tickets were $1,225 for students and $7,500 for regular patrons.

 

Slackline tops Vail Mountain

VAIL, Colo. - A complex of slacklines has replaced a volleyball court atop Vail Mountain. Slacklines are often used for training by skiers, snowboarders, cyclists, climbers and gymnasts.

The Vail Daily explains that participants balance on a two-inch-wide webbing. The park has 10 such webbings, running between 10 and 40 feet in length. The vendor said Aspen and Snowmass, both in Colorado, and the Pennsylvania's Whitetail Resort plan to follow suit.

 

CB to have own gay ski week

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. - Crested Butte next March will join a number of other ski resorts in winking at gay skiers.

Aspen, Whistler and Telluride for a number of years have hosted gay ski weeks. Last year Vail joined them. Crested Butte next March will debut the Matthew Shepard Foundation Memorial Gay Ski Week.

Organizers said they were drawn to Crested Butte because of its native funkiness. They particularly noticed the costumes and revelry during the Al Johnson Memorial Uphill/Downhill Race.

 

Summer economy looks good

TELLURIDE, Colo. - For whatever reason, the economy has been improving markedly in Telluride. Lodging occupancy reservations for June through November ranked tops among 11 ski-based mountain towns in the West monitored by the Mountain Travel Research Program. Occupancy remains low, just 20 to 30 per cent, but average daily room rates have been increasing steadily and now are second among those towns. The real estate market has also been bouncing back.

 

Two bears killed in Banff

BANFF, Alberta - Two more bears have been killed in Banff National Park. A black bear was killed on the TransCanada Highway, while a grizzly was killed by a train.

The Rocky Mountain Outlook says that six grizzlies have been hit by trains in the last three years in the same two-kilometre segment. Steep hillsides and the Bow River tightly hem in the curving train tracks there.

In addition, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports the death of two bears, both hit by traffic, in Yellowstone National Park.

 

Climbers keep up on Everest

RIDGWAY, Colo. - For nearly 40 years, Peter Hackett has been ministering to climbers as well as the natives among the world's highest mountains. But his most recent trip to Mt. Everest included prescription of a drug that might more normally be associated with the porn-movie studios of California's San Fernando Valley.

Climbers in thin air always experience reduced capacity for physical performance, but about one-third of them decline to a greater extent. This is because vessels that deliver blood to their lungs constrict even more, preventing carbon dioxide from the body being exchanged with fresh oxygen.

Those with high blood pressure in the lungs, such as caused by emphysema and other pulmonary diseases, experience the same problem. And the same problem of constricted blood vessels can cause erectile dysfunction.

Viagra and Cialis now can be used to allow greater flow of blood to the penis and hence erections. But could the same medicine help the impaired climbers improve their ability to go uphill while on Everest?

That was one of Hackett's experiments this year on Everest, and he tells the Telluride Watch that in his study of four climbers, all achieved dramatic results. One climber more than halved the time he took to climb from camps located at 21,300 feet in elevation to a higher camp at 24,500 feet. All four summitted the mountain and believe they could not have done so without the Cialis.

Did the climbers also report yearning ever so much more for home and loved ones? No doubt there were such conversations, but they were not disclosed.

In another experiment, Hackett gave climbers an asthma inhaler to curb the hacking cough frequently experienced by climbers in extreme altitude. The cough can become so racking that it fractures ribs.

"That's probably the major health problem up there," Hackett said.

Results from the experiment, which included 40 participants, suggest improvement.

Hackett first visited the Everest area in 1974 and has twice reached the summit. He was the 111 th person to succeed.

Everest has become much busier since then. Just 25 people were on the mountain during his first visit, but this year there were 900. Among this year's climbers was an 18-year-old girl who had never before been on snow and many others who had never used crampons.

In his remarks with The Watch, Hackett took a somewhat dim view of the changes. If the local people, called Sherpas, were essential to the success of Sir Edmund Hillary, today the Sherpas have become almost valets. Still, added Hackett, "No one can carry you up Everest."

 

Swimmer trapped

CROATIA - A man got a nasty surprise when he tried to get out of his deckchair and found his testicles had become stuck between two slats of wood.

Mario Visnjic had been swimming naked off Valalta beach in Croatia and his testicles had shrunk in the cool sea. When he sat down they slipped through the slats and then, as he lay in the sun, expanded back to normal size.

He was freed after he called beach maintenance services on his mobile phone and they sent a member of staff to cut the deckchair in half.

 

Marmots not all same

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. - Those shrill whistles by marmots - it sort of sounds like "geek!" - may all sound the same, but they're not. So says Dan Blumstein, a biologist from the University of California at Los Angeles. He tells the Summit Daily News that marmots have different personalities, and they respond to threats in different ways. Those different perceptions are revealed in the alarm calls of the animals.

Some marmots worry a lot, and they respond to perceived threats accordingly. Others tend to be more laid back. Blumstein tells the Daily News that having a diversity of behavior in a species helps it adapt to changes in the environment, such as when a predator population grows. He also notes that this is not unlike how people tend to behave differently in cities vs. rural areas.

 

Ritz-Carlton at Park City?

PARK CITY, Utah - Park City had a major, star-spangled hotel open last November at Deer Valley and another top-crust hotel has been rising. Can it stand another?

A family with land on the slopes of Park City Mountain Resort says they have discussed the potential for a Ritz-Carlton with hotel representatives. But the deal could be years off, notes the Park Record, which also mentions that putting the land into a conservation easement is another possibility.

 

Duplexes show signs of new life

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. - A few years ago, plans to build four duplexes wouldn't have ever gotten into the newspaper unless there were some great controversy about it. But that was then. Today, it's notable because it's the first new residential project in some time, local real estate agent Chris Johnson told the Summit Daily News. The real estate market there has been cautiously warming.

 

Jackson goes soft on idling

JACKSON, Wyo. - Town councillors in Jackson have rejected an ordinance that would have made it unlawful to let cars and trucks idle.

"This would be a tool in the toolbox for police to use at their discretion," said a supporter of the ban, Greg Miles. But the majority of council members warned of a backlash. They want a softer approach. "I believe this is a cultural shift, not a legislative action," said a councillor, Mark Obringer.

It's already against state law in Wyoming to leave an unattended car or truck idling. This would have extended that ban to vehicles that are occupied. Instead, Jackson intends to work up an educational campaign.

A local resident, David Swift, advised the council that the threat of a proposed idling law would start the job of creating peer pressure to curb the habit of mindless idling. "Tabling the ordinance with 'we'll trust people's common sense' is good PR, and conversely will starve the anti-government drama-queen crowd of their cherished victim-hood status."

 

No help from feds

VAIL, Colo. - A biomass plant to generate heat and electricity in Vail may still get built, but it won't be with federal stimulus funds. The Connecticut-based company that proposes the plan had requested $26 million but more quietly insisted that the idea didn't need federal money.

Whether enough wood will be available to burn in the $46 million plant remains uncertain. The bark beetle epidemic has left plenty of dead trees, but pine trees begin rotting relatively soon after they have died, in most cases far sooner than the life of a biomass plant. The Forest Service intends to study just how much wood might be available in the long term for such a venture.