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Superlative early season a double-edged sword

CARBONDALE, Colo. — While memories do tend to be suspect when forced to examine the minutiae of decades past, the skiing of early season is being described as among the best ever in Vail, Steamboat and several other resorts in Colorado.

CARBONDALE, Colo. — While memories do tend to be suspect when forced to examine the minutiae of decades past, the skiing of early season is being described as among the best ever in Vail, Steamboat and several other resorts in Colorado.

A more empirical test, amount of snowfall, would suggest the memories could be correct. Vail, for example, was reporting 141 cumulative inches of snow atop Vail Mountain as of Dec. 5, surpassing the previous record set in autumn 1985.

School closings also seem to confirm the unusualness of this winter’s start. Mountain districts rarely close, but schools closed for the first time in eight years in the Roaring Fork School District, located down-valley from Aspen. Schools also closed in the South Routt School District, south of Steamboat Springs.

Unlike eight years ago, when the Internet was not yet in broad use, parents this time got explanations of the closings by e-mail. The advance notice was by radio.

Because there are no radio broadcasts in Spanish in the very early mornings, school officials are trying to figure out how to inform parents in the burgeoning Spanish-speaking community of the closings. Well more than half of student bodies in some schools in the district are composed of students for whom English is a second language.

Public money sought for tram

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The 40-year-old tram at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is scheduled to be disassembled next spring, and it’s unclear what will replace it.

Officials at the ski area say their first option is to spend $25 million on a replacement tram. That tram would carry up to 520 skiers per hour, 160 more than the existing tram. A second option is a shorter, smaller capacity tram with a somewhat smaller price tag of $16.6 million.

A third option is a gondola at a cost of $15.6 million. While it would reach the top of the 10,450-foot summit of Rendezvous Peak, high winds would prevent its use 20 per cent of the time.

But key to any of this, says the Kemmerer family, which has owned Jackson Hole for the last 13 years, is outside, public funding. The family does not want to take on private investors because of what a resort spokesman described as operational reasons. Instead, Jackson Hole has enlisted local business and government leaders, as well as a lobbyist in Washington D.C., to solicit possible money from local, state, and federal governments. The resort is willing to spend only $5 million of its own money.

Jerry Blann, president of the ski area, told the Jackson Hole News & Guide that the ski area has been a major loss for the Kemmers. They have invested $56 million for improvements, getting an annual return that has averaged only $27,000. The resort is selling a three-acre parcel at the ski area base for $10 million in order to proceed with a tram replacement and other on-mountain improvements.

Limits to growth debated

BANFF, Alberta — Banff continues to grapple with a notion that most would find strange, if perhaps still admirable. Growth is capped.

The town is located within Banff National Park, and in 1998 the federal government ruled there would be no expansion. All 350,000 square feet of commercial development then authorized has been distributed, if only a third has been used. The question for Banff residents has become whether to try to get around this growth cap.

Sentiments expressed at a recent public meeting suggest Banff wants to live within its existing britches, reports the Rocky Mountain Outlook.

This is not a unanimous opinion, however. Some think that this growth cap will leave Banff steadily more elitist. The town government plans to do a study next year that plots economic trends. The town planning director, Randall Mckay, is firmly of the opinion that Banff will thrive, not stagnate, as a result of this growth cap.

Guide recalls deadly slide

CALGARY, Alberta — Ken Wiley carried a heavy load after an avalanche north of Revelstoke, B.C. that left seven people dead in 2003. In a way, he still does.

An assistant guide on that expedition, he recalls guilt that weighted him heavily for a month. "I was angry for about a month afterward," Wiley told a group in Calgary. "Then I realized it could easily go somewhere ugly, so I knew I had to make it into something positive. It becomes part of you. You have to go forward with it."

In skiing the backcountry, everyone makes little mistakes, Wiley told a group at an event covered by the Rocky Mountain Outlook. The key, he said, is to admit errors in decision-making – and not sweep them under the carpet.

"I came up with excuses why what happened on Durrand Glacier wasn’t my fault. We want people to perceive us as competent, so we don’t acknowledge responsibility. But if we sweep responsibility under the proverbial rug, we don’t learn from what happened."

DEA expects more drug busts

ASPEN, Colo. — Drug agents arrested 20 people at two restaurants in what they promises will be a much bigger sweep. However, nine of the arrests were for immigration violations, reports The Aspen Times. The type of drugs and the amount of money seized by Drug Enforcement Administration agents and their local collaborator were not reported.

Gangs on the rise

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Hispanic gangs are becoming more influential on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, primarily in the Kings Beach area. The Tahoe World reports youth are being pressured to affiliate with the two dominant gangs, the Norteños and the Sureños.

At a recent session called Growing Together, youths surprised even law-enforcement officials with how much they knew about gangs. For example, when asked to pick the hidden gang symbols contained within an elaborate pencil drawing, one 12-year-old girl found them immediately.

Although high schools bar certain types of clothing in efforts to suppress gang affiliations, members display their allegiances by drawing sings on their hands or notebooks or by using other, more subtle symbols.

Why the gangs? Some speakers at the session seemed to think that gangs are a substitute for shifting nationality. "They don’t know what their history is," said Emilio Vaca, of immigrant children. One girl, 12 years old, was asked: "Do you feel like an America." She replied: "I feel like a Mexican."

Tourists becoming locals

GRANBY, Colo. — A century ago a railroad from Denver was marching its way westward, with builders aiming their sights eventually for Salt Lake City.

The rails never reached Salt Lake, but the quest did have a profound impact in creating ski and summer resorts. Just across the Continental Divide, the railroad played a large role in the creation of the Winter Park ski area. The railroad also had an indirect role in fanning the popularity of ski jumping at Steamboat Springs, which is claimed as home by more Olympians than any other U.S. town.

The railroad also yielded Granby 100 years ago. A ranch center for many years, then an important place for automobile tourism through the mid-century, the town in recent years was a mutt of these functions while also becoming a service centre for the resorts, Winter Park and Grand Lake, as well as the largest collection of dude ranches in the nation.

But Patrick Brower, publisher of the Sky-Hi News, notes that the town is now evolving once again, becoming something that is widely recognized in mountain towns of the West. With a variety of vacation home developments in and near the town, he points to the new blending of home ownership and residencies that should be familiar to people in the real-estate driven resorts of the West.

"Tourists are becoming locals, buying homes and, frequently, working here," Brower says of Granby. "Locals act like tourists, living in their own trophy homes."

40 is the pivotal age

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Who do you think has the highest risk for getting injured when skiing and snowboarding? Would you say old people, what a newspaper in Vail once called skeezers. Or how about testosterone-driven young guys?

Neither, reports a physical therapist at Lake Tahoe, who cites a recent study that shows 40-year-old males are most at risk. They have the desire to take risks, but their joints won’t hold up.

Foursome escape avalanche

PARK CITY, Utah — Four skiers playing in the backcountry snow between the Brighton ski area and Park City survived a major avalanche that was 600 feet wide and 5 feet deep.

The skiers, who ranged in age from 45 to 59, had skied the Wasatch Range for decades. They were well prepared, as they had probes and shovels, plus beacons, but admitted to a lapse in judgment. "We usually play it conservatively," one of the skiers, Jane Arhart, told The Park Record. "We were stupid today."

Two of the skiers were partially buried, but collectively the group only lost five of the eight skis and six of the eight poles.

Vail real estate tops $2 billion

EAGLE VALLEY, Colo. — Real estate sales through October in the Eagle Valley surpassed $2.2 billion, just shy of the record set last year, reports the Vail Daily.

While there were more sales in lower-cost homes, there was much, much more money in the high-end homes. One home at Beaver Creek sold for $9 million, while another went for $7 million.

Another terrain park possible

ST. MARY’S GLACIER, Colo. — Another small ski area near a major metropolitan area is back on the drafting table.

Mike Coors, the 24-year-old son of the chief executive officer of Coors Tek, and two other investors are trying to rev up operations at St. Mary’s Glacier, which is located nine miles from Interstate 70. They are proposing a terrain park that they believe could attract up to 250 snowboarders on any given day.

No plans have formally been submitted to officials in Clear Creek County, although neighbors tell a Denver newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News, that they are up in arms about the proposal, fearing impacts of traffic congestion, the noise of snowmaking machines, and even the loss of water. Coors told newspapers of plans for a 270-acre terrain park. His group paid $1.65 million for the property.

St. Mary’s Glacier was used for commercial skiing sporadically from the 1930s to 1984. It had a T-bar but little else. A permanent snowfield and not a true glacier, it has been shrinking rapidly in recent years.

This is the second small ski area being revised within an hour’s drive of metropolitan Denver. Echo Mountain Park, previously called Squaw Pass, has opened for business after an investment of $4.7 million.

In both cases, the model seems to be Mountain High, a small ski area in the San Gabriel Mountains overlooking the Los Angeles Basin that has been doing big numbers during the last several years. Mountain High appeals to younger Gen X and Echo generation snowboarders who need less space for tricks in half-pipes and other terrain park features. Mountain High also features an unusually large number of ethnic minorities as compared to most ski areas, reflecting the trends of the general population.

Breck now the highest

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — Breckenridge now has thin-air bragging rights. The ski area’s new lift, the Imperial Express, which reaches 12,840 feet in elevation, highest in North America, was officially opened on Sunday.

The previous record was held by Loveland Basin at 12,700 feet, although Loveland continues to boast of North America’s highest terrain of 13,010 feet. However, access is via walking.

The terrain at Breck now accessed by the new lift could also be reached by walking, and some were willing to do so in past years. A good many of those now feel short-changed that a lift provides easy access to their stash.

Silverton tries extreme route

SILVERTON, Colo. — By several measures, San Juan County was an extreme place even before Aron Brill showed up with his ambition for a XX-rated ski area.

First, it’s Colorado’s least populated county, with only 600 or so year-round residents. Second, it has absolutely no – zip, none – tilled acres for agriculture production, the only Colorado county with that distinction.

Finally, while not the superlative, it has among the state’s highest county courthouses. The elevation of Silverton is 9,318 feet, lower than the courthouses located in Cripple Creek, Breckenridge and Fairplay but still high.

So, it all fits together that "extreme" sports are the premise for Silverton’s post-mining economic resurgence. In addition to Brill’s Silverton Mountain Ski Area, there is the Hardrock 100 running race of summer and several other races for the hardy and hard core.

Still, it’s not a wealthy place – at least not yet. The Rocky Mountain News, a daily newspaper in Denver, reports that about two-thirds of public school students qualify for free or reduced-price hot lunches. Reflecting the pattern of other resort towns, the school is also becoming increasingly diverse, with Spanish-speaking students now constituting 30 per cent of the enrolment.

Public officials tell the Denver newspaper that they believe they can remain unique and will not hew to paths followed by other former mining towns such as Aspen and Telluride.

Meanwhile, one retiree who has chosen to live in Silverton points to the attraction of small towns everywhere. "It’s a community you can easily become invested in," said Everett Lyons, speaking of sociology and not finances. "I don’t know if you can become invested in Denver or Aurora, at least not in the same way."

Planners advise rejection

DRIGGS, Idaho — Planners in Teton County have recommended rejection of plans for a major base-area expansion at Grand Targhee Resort. The plans by the family of George Gillett call for the 96 existing housing and lodging units to be supplemented by 779 units.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide says planners find too many uncertainties remain about employee and affordable housing, as well as traffic and affects on public lands. Grand Targhee representatives did not appear to be taken aback by the recommendation, but said they were not yet ready to submit ideas to "mitigate" their plans. The story suggested the terms of the debate are at this stage being defined without any real prospect of ultimate rejection.

An evening of no smoking?

PARK CITY, Utah — Because of the Mormon influence, Utah has a reputation for the straight-laced and narrow. Liquor, while available, is tightly prescribed. Ironically, when it comes to tobacco use, Utah seems to be more libertarian than others.

To wit, several Park City bars and restaurants are tepidly experimenting with the concept of a smoke-free evening. No, not a smoke-free day, but a smoke-free evening.

One bar owner, Jesse Shetler, told The Park Record what while his business is participating in the smoke-free evening, that doesn’t mean it’s headed in that direction. Curiously, he also owns a restaurant that is smoke-free. He insists on the right of self-determination.

The trend elsewhere goes in the opposite direction. In Colorado’s Summit County, smoking is banned at all bars and restaurants. Voters in Eagle County also banned smoking, although the individual towns have not. Ten states have banned smoking in bars and restaurants, as have Italy, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand.

Bar upends ban on smoking

ASPEN, Colo. — One bar in Aspen is reversing course, allowing smoking. A new owner, Heather Kent, said it’s just a matter of business. She plans to appeal to Aspen’s blue-collar-type crowd with Irish food and such deals as Pabst Blue Ribbon for $2 a pint.

Before the bar banned smoking in January, it had attracted a lot of lift-operators. "There were Russians, Argentines, a lot of internationals – and a high percentage of them smoked," she told The Aspen Times. Some of those smokers, however, said they were happy she also installed a ventilating system.

Beetles lead to smoke

WINTER PARK, Colo. — The bark beetles that are munching their way through the lodgepole pine forests of the Fraser Valley are having a secondary effect: smoke.

After property owners cut down trees, to reduce the fire danger, they are burning the slash in 15- by 15-foot piles. After one such big burn, public officials were besieged with phone calls from people who felt they had been smoked out.

Grand County officials reported 400 such slash piles in 2000. This year they expect upwards of 5,000. Burning is permitted during winter, when danger of spreading fire is low. The trick is to burn when weather conditions will allow the smoke to be blown out. However, a ring of mountains creates temperature inversions that often create a lid on smoke.

Just how can people get rid of the excess wood? County officials have talked about a biomass plant, which would burn the wood with controls on emissions in order to produce electricity. However, biomass plants can be enormously expensive, in this case running $100 million to $120 million – hard to justify if the source of wood is temporary.

While the Fraser Valley has never had particularly good air, owing to a century of railroad locomotives, sawmills, and stoves and fireplaces of residents, the Winter Park Manifest sees a similarity between the valley’s pollution and the skyline of Denver, Los Angeles and other cities.

Another drowning in park

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont. — While Glacier National Park may be more famous for its stories of grizzly bears attacking hikers, the leading cause of death is drowning.

Another victim was added to that roll recently when a 40-year old hiker, Dennis Brooks, fell into McDonald Creek and drowned. The Whitefish Pilot explains that the man, ignoring several signs that warned of the danger, had been hopping from boulder to boulder when a small bit of moisture caused him to lose his balance.

Since 1913, at least 52 people have drowned in Glacier, according to Park Service records.

Buses back to regular diesel

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — Everyone likes the idea of diluting regular diesel with a 20 per cent component of plant-based biodiesel. It produces less pollution, improves gas mileage, and causes less wear on engines.

But the devil is in the details, as operators of bus fleets both in Crested Butte and the Roaring Fork Valley can testify.

For the second straight winter, Mountain Express buses are returning to full-strength petroleum-based diesel because of problems with biodiesel. The cause of the problem is unclear – perhaps the buses, the fuel blend, or even the 30-year-old storage tank being used to hold the biodiesel, Ron Clipala, a director of the bus service, told the Crested Butte News.

In Aspen, the biodiesel problem that plagued three buses was traced to a green, algae-like substance clogging the fuel tank. The problem had already been remedied by the fuel supplier, a firm from the Greeley area. The buses in the Roaring Fork fleet have been using a 5 per cent portion of biodiesel for the last 13 months. To prevent this problem from recurring, all fuel will be treated with a "biocide."

Alternative fuels considered

EAGLE COUNTY, Colo. — Eagle County is beginning to take small steps toward powering its fleets with alternative fuels. The Vail Daily reports the county will begin using B-20, as the 20 per cent blend is called, for vehicles used at the landfill beginning in April.

While Breckenridge, Crested Butte, and the Roaring Fork Valley have all encountered problems with biodiesel, more than 100 school districts have switched to biodiesel blends, as have many city fleets in warmer weather locations. Biodiesel remains more expensive than petroleum diesel, but the gap has narrowed.

However, Eagle County fleet supervisors are less sure of the value of hybrid vehicles that use both electricity and fossil fuels. They are, say officials, more effective in stop-and-go traffic. Eagle County, despite its continued urbanization, has relatively little stop-and-go traffic. Still, the county will be getting two hybrids next year.