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Mountain News: Resorts sure to look anew at snowmaking

Sierra nevada mountains relying on man-made snow
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If temperatures were warm and snow scarce, winter has been long for snowmaking crews at most ski resorts of the West. For many, the work typically ends by Christmas or at least early January.

Not this year. Snowmaking continues even as storms have now arrived.

With the rockiest start to winter in decades at many resorts, some locations will probably re-evaluate investments in water, snowguns and other infrastructure, say officials involved with the ski industry.

"Snowmaking is something you can never take for granted," says Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association and a former supervisor of snowmaking crews.

"It takes constant upgrading, constant improvements, constant effort to improve your water rights. And just when you think you don't need it is the year you will need it the most," he added. "There's no more stark juxtaposition than last year compared to this year all across the mountain West."

Spanked by two hard-luck winters in 1976-77 and 1980-81, Steamboat and most other Colorado destination ski areas have invested heavily in snowmaking.

This investment paid off this year for Steamboat. Despite warm nights that idled snowmaking crews during parts of November and December, the ski area had 1,900 acres, or 65 per cent of the terrain, open at Christmas. That was among the best in Colorado. Only two ski areas, Durango and Wolf Creek, both located in the state's southern tier, were 100 per cent open.

But while locals and a few visitors grimaced about the hard-pack, few complaints were voiced by the well-heeled and mostly intermediate skiers that frequent places like Vail and Snowmass during Christmas.

Last summer, Steamboat purchased seven new snowmaking guns. The new guns, which are elevated higher above the ground, use 30 per cent less energy, partly because they require less compressed air to shoot the particles across slopes.

Water is a vital component of snowmaking. At Breckenridge, where snowmaking continued as of Jan. 21, the ski area had consumed 900 acre-feet as of Jan. 21, compared to the normal 700 to 750 acre-feet, according to Glenn Porzak, the resort's water lawyer.

Not all resorts have substantial snowmaking systems, however. Particularly, the ski areas located along the crest of California's Sierra Nevada suffered with almost no natural snow and just thin ribbons of man-made snow.

"It was just remarkable. I don't think I have ever been in a mountain area in the latter of part of January where there was so little snow," said Porzak after a ski industry meeting at California's Squaw Valley. "It was brutal."

Porzak has helped ski areas in Colorado and other Western states secure water rights for snowmaking since the 1970s. After every significant drought, ski areas have invested heavily in additional snowmaking capabilities. The more well heeled have invested even when no drought is imminent.

This year, Porzak expects ski areas to engage in an intense re-evaluation of water needs and snowmaking infrastructure. The need is most obvious in the Lake Tahoe resorts, where fresh snow is often measured by the foot, not by the inch. This year, however, Squaw had just two runs covered with snow as of Jan. 19, the day before natural snow started arriving.

But decisions to invest in snowmaking are made against a matrix of financial, topographic and climatic factors.

The complex calculus is evident at the Lake Tahoe resorts. There, Heavenly and Northstar both have long had sophisticated snowmaking systems, which has put them in better stead for the tough early season this winter, says NSAA's Berry.

But resorts allocated along the crest of the Sierra Nevada — Squaw Valley, Homewood, Alpine Meadows and others — have fewer options for water. Water delivery can be engineered, for a price. But even then, will temperatures be low enough to make snow? Berry points out that when a high-pressure dome hovers over Lake Tahoe, temperatures tend to be warmer, unlike the higher, usually colder mountain ranges in the interior West.

Ski resorts scrunched along the spine of the Wasatch Range in Utah are also hard-pressed to find water. Park City and Deer Valley are well positioned, and Canyons partially so. At Snowbird managers have reclaimed water sullied from old mines into water pure enough for use in snowmaking.

But with rival demands for water from municipalities both at Park City and across the range in the Salt Lake Valley, the water story in Utah is something like store shelves were in the old Soviet era in Moscow: not much was for sale.

Economy leveling off says trash

EAGLE, Colo. — For decades, sewage treatment managers in Vail-Beaver Creek have estimated peak-season populations with what has sometimes been called the flush factor. Something of a comparable metric, trash dumped at the Eagle County Landfill, is now being used to chart the economy.

The Eagle Valley Enterprise reports that tonnage of construction debris has dropped 68 per cent since 2007. Compacted trash delivered by trucks servicing homes and businesses dropped 23 per cent.

Ken Whitehead, director of Eagle County Solid Waste and Recycling, believes that the drop in compacted trash had indicated an exodus of people from the valley. Also, with the recession, people were buying less. He says 30 per cent of what ends up in the landfill comes from packaging of goods.

"During a recession, people are less likely to buy a television. And that means there will be less packaging to be recycled or go into the landfill."

John Lewis, the finance director for Eagle County, told the newspaper that trash tells the story of the economy more rapidly than other economic indicators.

"We don't get unemployment or sales tax numbers for a month and a half," said Lewis. "If you want to know how the economy is really doing, you should check out your neighbours' trash."

And what do the most recent trash-talk numbers say about the economy? Whitehead, the landfill boss, says the economy overall seems to be levelling off.

Construction and demolition waste, however, continues to decline. "It hasn't flattened out yet," he says.

Billionaire roots for Rick Santorum

JACKSON, Wyo. — Unbeknownst to most voters in the Republican primary election in Florida on Jan. 31, one of the people who be trying to influence them is a mutual-fund mogul in Jackson Hole named Foster Friess.

Friess moved to Jackson Hole 22 years ago, and he has been a benefactor to local non-profits and also has given generously for disaster relief after the Thai tsunami, the Haitian earthquake and Hurricane Katrina.

But Friess, a billionaire, has particularly rooted for Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, who is arguably the most conservative of the four remaining presidential candidates.

A story in WyoFile, an on-line magazine, explains that Friess is the main benefactor of the Red White and Blue Fund, one of the so-called super political committees formed to influence elections in the wake of the 2010 Supreme Court ruling. He spent $537,000 to help Santorum come out on top in Iowa. More recently, he has sent solicitations to 5,000 wealthy Republicans, promising to match any contributions, up to $500,000, that they make to the Red White and Blue Fund.

Despite his great wealth, Friess calls himself an "underdog billionaire." His wealth is dwarfed by the $21.5 billion in personal wealth of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who has been supporting Newt Gingrich.

Friess says he likes Santorum because his conservative stances correspond closely to his own. "I also like the fact that Santorum is 53 years old and he starts each day with 50 push-ups. It will be very hard for us to expect to win with the more mature candidates."

But it's not just Republicans who throw big money at elections. Friess points out that billionaires George Soros and Peter Lewis spent millions in 2004 in an effort to defeat George W. Bush's re-election. The initial game plan of the Democratic billionaires was, according to a story in the New Yorker at the time, hatched at a meeting in Aspen.

Hibernating bear at foot of tree

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — Imagine what it would be like to be skiing along in the backcountry when of a sudden you discover a black bear a ski pole away.

That's what happened to Karsten Heuer, who has no small credentials as an outdoor adventurer. In 1998-99, he trekked from Yellowstone to the Yukon to bring attention to the needs for wildlife corridors and core reserves. In 2003, he followed the Porcupine caribou herd from its Yukon winter range to the herd's calving grounds in Alaska, which are endangered by proposed oil drilling, and then back.

While skiing about 20-kilometres north of Lake Louise, he came across the black bear curled up like a dog underneath a spruce tree. The bear seemed drowsy, but gave every appearance of not liking the disturbance.

"He put his head down as if to ignore us, then lifted it again," Heuer told the Rocky Mountain Outlook. "We decided to leave for the bear's sake and for our sake."

Mike Gibeau, a bear expert based in Canmore, told the newspaper that it's uncommon, but not unheard of, for bears to simply curl up under trees to hibernate.

"Sometimes there's a bit of an overhang, sometimes they tuck underneath the roots, so it's not completely unusual to have an open den," he said.

Alec Baldwin helps raise funds for water

BANFF, Alberta —Although he hasn't received a Tony or an Oscar award, actor Alec Baldwin, who has a lead role in the TV series 30 Rock, got an award at a fundraising event held at Banff for Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Waterkeeper Alliance. The event, reports the Rocky Mountain Outlook, raised $1.1 million and drew the likes of Peter Fonda, Golden Globe winner Edward James Olmos, and Julia Jones.

Mammoth flights a success

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. —The flight program into the Mammoth Yosemite Airport seems to be taking off. The Sheet reports seven flights into Mammoth daily from Los Angeles and San Francisco, some say enough to triple the number of gates. Currently, there is but one.

Also, an effort is beginning to beef up the foundation for providing revenue guarantees for airlines, as is done by many Colorado resorts. John Urdi, executive director of Mammoth Lakes Tourism, hopes to enlist local businesses and homeowner groups. Already, Mammoth Mountain, Mono County, and the town of Mammoth Lake are providing money.

Death dealt in variety of outdoor adventures

SILVERTON, Colo. — It was a deadly week at ski areas in Colorado — and outside them too.

At Silverton, a 25-year-old skier lost an edge on the extremely steep terrain of Silverton Mountain, then rolled and bounced down the 460 metre slick slope.

According to a sheriff's report carried in The Telluride Watch, the victim was the third person down the steep chute on what was their first run of the day. Because the chute has no run-out, skiers who fall must self-arrest. For whatever reason, she did not attempt to do so.

This was the first fatality at Silverton Mountain, where the slogan is "thrills, not frills," since it opened about a decade ago. The sheriff's report described the victim as an expert skier.

Others died in avalanches, both within and outside of ski area boundaries. At Winter Park, a man was killed by a small avalanche within a wooded area. On Vail Mountain, a 13-year-old boy was killed by an avalanche in what Vail Resorts specified was a closed area, although the boy did not duck ropes to get there. Instead, he and friends side-stepped up to get their shot. Whether the area was clearly marked as closed has not been firmed up yet by reporting in Vail.

At Snowmass, the avalanche death was in a gully outside the ski area boundary, in what was described as a very short but very steep slope.

At Aspen Highlands, death came in another form. A local man was snowboarding on a double-black-diamond run, in an area of glades among thick woods. The victim struck a tree and then another, and was impaled with a branch in his chest.

In the backcountry north of Steamboat, a snowmobiler died after an avalanche.

In Telluride, renowned ice-climber Jack Roberts died of a heart attack after a climbing accident on the famous Bridal Veil Falls. He fell approximately18 metres, suffering a hip injury. An involved rescue was underway when he suffered the cardiac arrest.

Local guides and ice-climbers described Roberts as a "legend" who had started climbing in California during the late 1960s, then later established first ascents on Mt. Huntington, Denali and other mountains.

"It didn't matter if you were grumpy, you would see his smile and the twinkle in his eyes and you couldn't help smiling as well," Gary Ryan, of the San Juan Mountain Guides, told The Telluride Watch.