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Mountain News: Utah bid for (Whistler’s) Japanese skiers dashed

PARK CITY, Utah - A non-stop Delta Airlines flight between Tokyo and Salt Lake City has been cancelled for next winter, dashing hopes in Park City of increased numbers of Japanese visitors.

PARK CITY, Utah - A non-stop Delta Airlines flight between Tokyo and Salt Lake City has been cancelled for next winter, dashing hopes in Park City of increased numbers of Japanese visitors.

Park City had hoped to attract Japanese skiers who normally ski at Whistler but who might be worried about crowds there this winter.

A Delta spokesman told the Park Record that the recession, fewer passengers than expected, and predictions of another outbreak of swine flu this coming winter all played into the decision. The airline lost $300 million during what had been its most profitable quarter.

Water savings reflected in pricing

HAILEY, Idaho - Since water meters were installed in Hailey, located about 20 miles down-valley from Sun Valley and Ketchum, water consumption has dropped 23 per cent. Now, utility officials are instituting incremental costs that will reward those who use less. Those using less than 30,000 gallons will see their costs reduced by nearly 50 per cent on a per-gallon basis. Per-gallon rates for those using greater quantities than 65,000 gallons per month will be stepped up 12 per cent, relates the Idaho Mountain Express .

Bottled water sells well

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Bottled water continues to sell well in the Lake Tahoe area, despite the easy availability from taps of some of the best water found anywhere.

The Sierra Sun talked to grocers who say that the bottled water section has steadily expanded during the last decades.

But, if anything, tap water may be more heavily regulated than bottled water to ensure cleanliness. In California, officials tell the newspaper, state regulations come on top of federal regulations. "In California, we meet stricter drinking water standards than anywhere in the world, California prides itself on that," said Dennis Cocking, spokesman for South Tahoe Public Utilities District.

Bruce Olszewski, an environmental studies professor at San Jose State University, tells the newspaper that tap water is by far environmentally superior. "It doesn't have to be trucked, bottled; it is not in contact with contaminants like plasticizers. It does not have nearly the carbon footprint, and you don't have to worry about hauling away plastic bottles."

Tom Lauria, vice president of communications for the International Bottled Water Association, disputed the superiority of tap water. He also pointed out that bottled water doesn't necessarily compete with tap. "It competes with other packaged products, like coffee and soda."

Utility officials point out that tap water comes at much less expense: less than a cent per gallon compared to 89 cents a gallon of bottled water.

Bear browses among fur racks

ASPEN, Colo. - Among the visitors to a fur shop in Aspen last weekend was a small bear, which walked between the racks of fur coats and through mannequinned display cases.

"He wasn't grazing. He was just browsing," Mark Goodman, a shop worker, told the Aspen Daily News . "But it could have been a lot worse. Even though he was a small bear, one swipe of his paw and he could have done tens of thousands of dollars' worth of damage."

If that scene of a furry animal browsing in a fur shop sounds surreal, consider also that the bear was being stalked by a man, trying to get a photograph with a cell phone camera. "Bear paparazzi," quipped Goodman.

The report was among 26 filed with Aspen police in a three-day period, part of a summer-long trend. Police have gotten more reports of bears breaking into homes this summer than in years past. Ironically, the higher total may be the result of regulations that require bear-proof containers, instead of just bear-resistant.

While the berry crop this year has been damaged in some areas because of the unusually cool and wet weather, areas of good berries do exist, wildlife officials say.

Human in a world of predators

TELLURIDE, Colo. - A 74-year-old woman, Donna Munson, was killed and partially eaten by a bear recently at her home near Ouray, on the edge of the San Juan Mountains. She had been feeding bears for years, including the one that killed her.

Reflecting on this in Telluride, on the other side of Imogene Pass, Seth Cagin sees the woman as a victim of her own delusion. The woman's delusion, and a common one to a certain group of people, is that "hungry animals need them," says Cagin, publisher of the Telluride Watch . "No amount of reason or punishment can convince them otherwise. It's a maternal instinct gone terribly wrong."

He continues: "I write not to chastise Donna Munson, even though a dozen or more of the bears she loved will now die as a result of her delusion. I am more interested in the notion of predation of humans.

"It seems that nothing makes people more squeamish than the feeling that we may be regarded as food by another species," he continues. Except in a few places, such as tigers in India and occasionally mountain lions in the American West, humans have killed the predators - including the two major predators in the food chain of the San Juan Mountains: the grizzly and the wolf, he adds.

"That leaves us at the top of the food chain, which apparently is where we feel most comfortable."

But this is not natural, he goes on to say. "Despite human unease about becoming the prey and despite sounding insensitive in the wake of Donna Munson's tragedy, I feel all the more strongly that without the grizzly and the wolf outdoors we are missing something essential."

Life, he says, becomes more meaningful the closer the proximity of death.

"What could possibly make us more human than to live in a world where it is still possible to be eaten?" Cagin asks, while confiding an element of excitement when walking home in Telluride after dark with the possibility of stumbling across a black bear.

"It's bracing to know that there's something bigger and stronger than us out there."

He concludes: "May there always be sharks in the sea and tigers in India, and may the grizzlies and wolves soon find their way home to the San Juans, where they belong. For without them and the squeamishness they inspire, we are less fully human."

Bear confronts woman in house

ASPEN, Colo. - Colorado wildlife authorities on Tuesday were trying to find and kill a bear that entered a house in Aspen and took a swipe at a woman.

The woman said she had passed through the entry of her house on Monday night when her dog began barking frantically, and she was confronted by a large bear. Wildlife officers later discovered the bear had entered the house by forcing open a pair of unlocked French doors.

The woman screamed and turned to open the front door, but the bear struck her, lacerating her back and chest. The woman then fled upstairs to call for help. The bear left shortly after.

"A person certainly has a right to feel safe in their own home," said Perry Will, an area manager for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "This was an unprovoked attack and, if located, the offending bear will be put down. Bears that break into secured homes and bears that are aggressive toward people are too dangerous to relocate."

In a press release, wildlife officers added that they believed the bear had entered other homes. "Most of these cases start with bears getting into a home through an open door or window," explained Will. "Once they get in and are rewarded by finding food, it is fairly easy for these powerful animals to force their way into other homes in search of food."

Aspen residents have been reminded repeatedly this summer not to leave out pet food, birdfeeders and other food sources that might attract bears. In this case, authorities found no evidence of anything that might have specifically attracted the bear to the house.

Sun Valley proposes base village

KETCHUM, Idaho - The Sun Valley Co. has filed an application that could yield a major base-area development at the base of Bald Mountain, the ski company's marquee ski hill.

The plan calls for between 420 and 650 market-rate housing units, plus employee and community housing. In addition, a hotel with 150 to 200 rooms will be built, if approved by Ketchum officials.

East West partners, a major developer of base-area real estate in Colorado, Utah and California, is assisting Sun Valley with the planning. The Design Workshop is also involved.

Woodstock festival recalled

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. - A number of current residents of Summit County were at the Woodstock music festival, whose 40 th anniversary was celebrated last weekend. The festival was noted for its sex, drugs, and rock and roll, although the participants tell the Summit Daily News that they didn't necessarily partake of all the offerings.

"I was hoping to have a lot of sex, but I just didn't have any luck," said a laughing Eric Fisher, who was then 17,  "I was trying to be cool with all these naked women running around."

As for drugs, they were so omnipresent and the surroundings so surreal that no actual ingestion was needed. "No matter how straight you were, you were walking in a cloud," Fisher told the Daily's Kimberly Nicoletti,

Fisher had gone to Woodstock with the sole purpose of seeing his idol, Jimi Hendrix. It didn't happen. Instead, he helped a friend fix his Mustang, then crashed in the car's front seat after 48 hours of sleeplessness.

But another Summit County resident, John Timmons, did see Hendrix - and in a very personal way. The Daily News explains that Timmons was heading to his campsite for his first nap in three days. He was walking along the road behind the stage and slipped in the mud. That's when the car driving Hendrix away from the concert after his famed "Star-Spangled Banner" performance ran over Timmons' leg.

"The mud was so deep and soft, it just hurt a little bit," Timmons said. "Nothing was broken, but they felt bad enough to give me a ride back to my campsite.

"Hendrix seemed like just a down-to-earth, really good guy," Timmons remembers. "He was so electric on stage, and there, a half-hour later in the car, he was just mellow."

High-country gardeners frozen out

EAGLE, Colo. - Mountain town gardeners in recent years have come to expect longer growing seasons. Plots that featured short-lived and cool-weather plants, such as lettuces and radishes, have expanded to include more slow-to-develop vegetables such as tomatoes, bell peppers and zucchini squash.

In Eagle, located 30 miles downvalley from Vail and 1,500 feet lower in elevation, gardeners anticipate a full month more of frost-free nights than 40 years ago.

But a cold front in early August icily deflated many hopes. At the community garden in Eagle, zucchini squash, tomatoes, and green peppers were all lost in the freeze. In Gunnison, which is about the same elevation as Vail, gardeners told of more losses yet as temperatures fell to 28 degrees.

All this would seem to provide fodder for those people skeptical of greenhouse warming theory. But North American's mid-summer cooling was actually an anomaly to the global trend, reports USA Today.

True enough, July was officially the coldest on record in six states and the second coldest in four others - all of them east of the Rockies. Records go back to 1895, notes the newspaper.

But globally, July's average temperature was the second hottest on record.

White Russians go dry

JACKSON, Wyo. - All things Lebowski were celebrated in Jackson during a showing of the 1998 movie, cult classic The Big Lebowski . The pre-movie party included lawn bowling, Hula-hoops and badminton. Inside, a disk jockey spun the popular tunes featured in the movie.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide says nearly a dozen moviegoers dressed as the main character, Jeff Lebowski. Many more imitated the character's drinking, causing the supply of White Russians to go dry before the start of the movie. Some 200 people attended.