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One-armed Ralston continues to amaze

Compiled by Allen Best ASPEN, Colo. — Aron Ralston gained international attention last year when he severed his own arm after being stuck in a Utah canyon for five days. Since then, he has changed his ways.

Compiled by Allen Best

ASPEN, Colo. — Aron Ralston gained international attention last year when he severed his own arm after being stuck in a Utah canyon for five days.

Since then, he has changed his ways. He tells people where he is going, and he also carries a cell phone. He is now equipped with a prosthesis, to which he can attach an ice axe for his mountaineering adventures. Some say he hasn’t missed a beat.

For example, during March he scaled two of the 14,000-foot peaks near Telluride. It’s part of his six-year-old bid to solo climb all 59 – by Ralston’s count – of Colorado’s fourteeners during winter. (Most peak baggers consider 54 Colorado peaks to be fourteeners).

It hasn’t been easy, he admitted to The Aspen Times’s Tim Mutrie, who was writing about Ralston’s extraordinary hunger for adventure long before Ralston became a celebrity. "Other people had a lot more confidence than me, saying I’d be back soloing fourteeners in winter, no problem. But honestly, I had my doubts," Ralston told Mutrie.

For example, setting up a tent by himself requires more forethought. So does operating a stove. And he has to think beforehand about which coat pockets he puts things in while out on adventures. "Everything’s in my left-side pockets now," he explained. "It takes up so much brainpower when you’ve got to think everything through."

Ralston went through five surgeries and eight weeks of monitored rest and intravenous drug cocktails before returning to his of life of hiking and then skiing. But he says he didn’t get closure for six months, until he went to Bluejohn Canyon with television news anchor Tom Brokaw and friends. There, by himself in the slot where he had been stranded for five days, he spread the cremated ashes of his hand, then cried all the way back to Colorado.

This tragedy has turned Ralston from a somewhat obscure couch-surfing resident of Aspen into a relatively affluent mini-celebrity living in a $450,000 condo. He’s giving lectures here and there, is talking with a movie producer, and has just completed a book that is due for release in September, followed by foreign-language editions six months after that.

Between times, he recently took a road trip to see Pfish play in Las Vegas and in early summer is to do a mountaineering ski trip on Mt. Shasta, among other adventures.

Double-digit gains in Aspen

ASPEN, Colo. — Last year it was doom-and-gloom and where-did-we-go-wrong in Aspen? This year it’s double-digit gains in retail sales, 13.5 per cent for the first three months compared to last year.

January and February were record months, and warm and dry March was only 1.4 per cent behind the record set in 1998 for that month, reports The Aspen Times.

Chinese steel drives up home prices

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — A butterfly flapping its wings in Beijing can affect the weather in California, it is sometimes said. Now, preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing are being partly credited with driving up home prices in Steamboat Springs.

The Steamboat Pilot reports that building materials for large homes cost $40,000 more this year, but even average homes cost $4,000 more. The cost of steel products imported from China is the largest single factor.

For example, a modest home might require 300 sticks of rebar, explained Ty Steward, assistant manager of Steamboat Lumber. Last summer, a stick of half-inch rebar cost $2.89. This year, it costs $5.77. That’s $800 alone for rebar. Meanwhile, the structural steel needed to create a vaulted ceiling in a spacious great room last year cost 21 cents a pound. This year it’s 40 cents a pound.

In addition to gearing up for the Olympics, China is also building a huge dam as well as new factories, all of this making everything from 16-penny nails to circular saw blades in the United States more expensive.

The costs of oriented strand board is also going up. The cost of a plank has tripled in 18 months.

Firefighters on alert

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — The ideal vacation or ski-town home seems to be one nestled amid whispering pines. But with that proximity of trees comes danger, one now being much discussed in resort areas of the West.

At Lake Tahoe, fires naturally occurred every 5 to 18 years until European settlement. Now, some areas haven’t burned in 130 years, and that is setting up the conditions for some really large fires.

"What should alarm you is that the vast majority of Tahoe residents live in this pale area," said Ed Smith, a natural resources specialist from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Speaking with the Tahoe Daily Tribune, he pointed out that the most vulnerable part of a house is the roof. He advises homeowners to rid their roofs and gutters of needles, and to inspect vents and chimneys to ensure they are screened. As well, homeowners are advised to replace wood-shake roofs with other, more fire-resistant materials such as composition shingles. Not least, he recommends homeowners remove dead vegetation and debris within 100 feet of a house. The distance doubles on slopes of 40 degrees or more.

In a recent report to Vail council members, fire chief John Gulick noted the need to modify the town's landscape guidelines and to encourage the replacement of cedar shake shingle roofs with a fire resistant material.

Parks Canada cutting back

BANFF, Alberta — Parks Canada is cutting back funding for monitoring of wildlife that use Trans-Canada highway crossing structures.

The 24 crossing structures are considered perhaps the most important place in the world for learning how to adapt transportation corridors. In six years, the research of Tony Clevenger, a research ecologist from Montana State University’s Western Transportation Institute, has yielded 12 peer-reviewed publications.

But cutbacks begun in 2001 are eroding the research. A Parks Canada employee says it’s a matter of priorities. Maintenance of fences that funnel the wildlife onto the crossing structures is more important than the monitoring of the structures every three days. "We’ve suggested the money is better invested in repairing the fence than in monitoring and telling us there’s a hole in the fence," said Terry McGuire, director for the western asset management service centre for the mountains parks.

Jim Possot, executive director of Defenders of Wildlife Canada, says Parks Canada appears to be contradicting itself. "On the one hand they are reluctant to construct large and aggressive wildlife structures because they say we don’t have enough research to support them. On the other hand they are cutting the research that could provide those answers," he told the Banff Crag & Canyon.

Reservoir planned west of Vail

WOLCOTT, Colo. — It looks as though life will become a beach in the Vail area. The reservoir being planned 20 miles west of Vail by the City of Denver would be about half the size of Dillon Reservoir, which is another Denver reservoir.

Denver began buying property for the reservoir site in the 1980s, but showed no hurry to do anything until the drought of 2002. A study due next month projects building costs much less than had been expected, reports the Vail Daily.

The reservoir would swamp habitat for the dwindling sage grouse, but would provide water for several endangered species of fish in the Colorado River.

Record skier days in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — As expected, Ski Utah is reporting a record number of skier days, nearly 3.4 million. That’s a 3 per cent gain on 2000-01, Utah’s previous record season.

Utah's Summit County ski areas (Deer Valley Resort, Park City Mountain Resort and The Canyons Resort) saw a combined record for the second year in a row with visits totalling 1.4 million.

Snowbird, meanwhile, remains open through Memorial Day

Sun Valley inches up

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — Sun Valley reported a 5 per cent increase in skier days this past winter, inching up to 385,000 skier days. However, Sun Valley is still far below its record year of 475,000 skier days in the early 1980s.

In response, Sun Valley plans two hotels to stem the erosion of beds. However, the Idaho Mountain Express suggests new hotels aren’t a cure-all. After all, Jackson Hole was flat this year despite a new Four Seasons Resort at the ski area base.

Mixed reactions

REVELSTOKE, B.C.–British Columbia plans a new international marketing program that will, once it is developed, benefit the Mountain Mackenzie ski resort, according to Sandy Santori, the new provincial minister of resort development. He promised details within three months, reports the Revelstoke Times Review.

Santori said he was gratified by the high level of support for the proposed project, unlike other resorts being planned, particularly the proposal to build a ski resort at Jumbo Glacier, about 60 kilometres from Invermere.

Revelstoke Mayor Mark McKee said that unlike the Jumbo Glacier proposal, the Revelstoke ski area has clear economic benefits to the local community.

The Invermere Echo reports that opposition was strong among the 250 people who packed the community hall at hearings about the $450 million Jumbo resort. Invermere Mayor Mark Shmigelsky said the municipal council will review that impact with staff reports before submitting the town’s position on May 26.

Drought forces reconsideration

POWELL RESERVOIR, Utah — The development of the modern urbanized West – one of the biggest growth spurts in the nation’s history – may have been based on a colossal miscalculation, says The New York Times.

Blue skies and meager snowpacks may be the harsher climatic norm for the West, and not the relatively wetter hydrological cycle that was used in drawing up principals for sharing the Colorado River.

The focal point for all this speculation is Powell Reservoir, which has been sinking dramatically and would now require 10 years of normal precipitation levels to refill. The lack of water has states plotting for shortages for the first time since Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s. The period since 1999 is now officially the driest in the 98 years of recorded history of the Colorado River, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The prospect of a waterless Powell draws up all sorts of fascinating and disturbing images. For example, notes the newspaper, the mud flats could become a vast environment for noxious weeds like tamarisk and thistle. A drained Powell could mean decades worth of agricultural chemicals at the lake bottom mixing with the lingering river to poison the Grand Canyon, which lies downstream. And without water, Glen Canyon and other dams cannot generate as much electricity. Hence, the Western Area Power Administration plans to reduce by about 25 per cent the amount of electricity it can promise in future years. If the drought continues, water providers in the Las Vegas area may ban new swimming pools.

There is some concern that if this drought becomes a crisis on the Colorado River, 100 years of water law will be upended. "The law of the river is hopelessly, irretrievably obsolete, designed on a hydrological fallacy, around an agrarian West that no longer exits," says Professor Daniel McCool of the University of Utah. But other individuals, according to the Times, say that this drought just proves the value of Lake Powell in stretching limited water resources.

Fluoride debate continues

TELLURIDE, Colo. — Give enough years and everything changes. Consider fluoride. Thirty-five years ago dentists were urging that it be added to municipal water supplies as a way of protecting the teeth of youngsters. Traditional right-wing groups said it was a Communist plot.

Communists have receded into the shadows of history, but fluoride continues to be added to municipal water supplies. But not in Telluride.

There, reports The Telluride Watch, medical doctor David Homer persuaded the town council that there is "some evidence that too much fluoride can be toxic or even carcinogenic." Just as with immunizations, he told the council, parents should be allowed to freely choose as to whether or not fluoride should be administered to their children.

Homer prevailed in what could be called a homer decision over the protests of state health officials, who argued that fluoridation is the most cost effective way of dramatically reducing tooth decay. Fluoridating Telluride’s water had cost $1.75 a day.

A magnet for heavy hitters

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Jackson Hole is known for many things – its proud mountaineering, its couloir skiing, and its rich stock of wildlife in what is sometimes called the "Serengeti of North America."

But another major component of Jackson Hole is golf. The place, notes the Jackson Hole News & Guide, is a "magnet for some of the golf industry’s biggest hitters."

So it was no surprise to see a large crowd to view the premier of a new movie, "Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius." The $15 million independent film was financed by a local group, Teton Investments. Among the acting cast appearing at the premier was Malcolm McDowell, who posed for photos with a crowd thick with real estate agents, resort royalty, and regional golf nuts – "nearly all of them dressed to the nines (holes?)," noted the newspaper.

Timeshares include voting rights

DURANGO, Colo. — Durango Mountain Resort, the ski area formerly known as Purgatory, has given about 20 one-week timeshares in its properties at the base area to top employees.

The timeshares, said Gary Derck, chief executive officer, are bonuses, and are not an effort by the resort to influence the election in the Purgatory Metropolitan District. But an election official, Michele Redding, told the Durango Herald that this "postage stamp" strategy – postage stamp, because the property ownership is so small – has been used many times in various locales. "Unfortunately, it’s not illegal. It’s suspicious, but it’s not illegal."

The board of directors being elected will be responsible for enforcing the rule and regulations that govern Durango Mountain Resort’s planned development of 1,649 living units and 400,000 square feet of commercial space.

During the last several years, the election attracted only 20 voters or so.

Burglaries down

PARK CITY, Utah — Often, when crime statistics in resort areas rise, police warn the local citizenry that it’s because happy valley is becoming a city or otherwise being influenced by city ways.

So, how do they explain that the number of burglaries in Park City last year dropped by nearly half? Police Chief Lloyd Evans says he doesn’t know. "I’m not sure what this indicates other than we had fewer burglaries," Evans told The Park Record.

But Evans thinks he can explain the growing number of abuse and domestic violence complaints. People are increasingly willing to report it, whereas once it was a "silent" thing. He also noted that a larger number of Latinos, who now are about 20 per cent of Park City’s population, have begun approaching police with such complaints.

Where are the ethnic eateries?

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. — A reporter for the Summit Daily News seems to think that Summit County is short on ethnic eateries, such as are found in big cities. Why?

One theory advanced is that the sort of tourists that Summit County gets just aren’t all that adventurous. Another is that the permanent population isn’t that large.

While the newspaper dug up real-estate agents citing figures that suggest that lease rates per square foot in Summit County are about the same as in Denver, it was a pretty thin examination.

Where do you find ethnic eateries in big cities? Usually not in prime, high-rent locations, but instead in old suburban shopping centers. Lease rates there are presumably much lower than the $20 to $30 per square foot cited in the article.

Fretting about West Nile Virus

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Governments in the ski valleys of Colorado are bracing for arrival of mosquitoes bearing the West Nile Virus.

Last year the virus killed 55 to 65 people – newspaper accounts vary – in Colorado, mostly along the Front Range. However, nearly 3,000 people had the fever, including nearly 400 who developed meningitis and 233 who had encephalitis. Most of the cases in Colorado were among baby boomers aged 45 to 49.

Only a few cases were reported among ski-valley residents, although a few horses died.

From newspaper accounts, there seems to be no worries that West Nile will damper the tourism economy in Vail, Steamboat, and other resort towns. However, long sleeves and pants may well start selling better, and surely the sale of insecticides containing DEET are on the rise.

Despite the general concern, John Pape, epidemiologist for Colorado, told The Steamboat Pilot he doesn’t expect the virus will be worse this year than last.

Snowmobile noise disputed

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — A dispute about the noise level of two-stroke vs. four-stroke snowmobile engines is getting noisy.

An advocacy group called the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees argues that a recent study finds the newer-generation four-stroke snowmobiles are just as noisy as traditional two-stroke engines. As such, they say, the new snowmobiles don’t meet park noise standards and should be banned. Instead, they favour snowcoaches. But Park Service employees and consultants say the group is flat-out wrong and has misrepresented the study’s findings.

At issue, at least in part, is whether the noise is being measured immediately adjacent to the snowmobile, or 50 feet away. The retired employees seem to think that the volume standing next to a snowmobile is the one that should count, but officials say the more distant measure is the one that, by regulation, properly applies. They also point to peer-reviewed studies that show that the newer generation snowmobiles are, in fact, quieter even than snowcoaches.

Need for phones reviewed

CORTEZ, Colo. — Cellular phone towers have turned up at 15 national parks in the United States, including a 100-foot-tall cell tower recently approved near Yellowstone’s Old Faithful geyser.

Now, there’s a proposal at Mesa Verde National Park. Patty Trap, Mesa Verde’s chief of planning, says any cell tower placed in the park must ensure the protection of the cultural resources and the natural resources. "That is the bottom line," she told the Durango Herald.

Mark Pearson, director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, said he was skeptical about the "real compelling need for cell phone use at a national park."

A group called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility objects generally to phone towers in national parks and monuments. "The National Park Service is inducing the death of solitude," said Frank Buono, a former long-time National Park Service manager who is now a board member for PEER. "How can one commune with nature when you cannot escape ‘the calling area’ of civilization?"

Scott Silver, a Bend, Ore., based activist, says he suspects the real story has to do with business. "NPS managers know all too well that cellular phone service is crucial to business, and today most successful NPS managers take their new role of being ‘business facilitators’ very seriously," he writes.

Suburbanites go native

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — With so many ski resort valleys turning suburban, with homes and yards that could – except for the background of peaks – be in suburban Chicago, why not visit Chicago for the latest trends?

There, suburban Schaumburg has a new law that allows homeowners to landscape their back yards with so-called natural techniques, permitting prairie grasses to reach 12 inches. The goal is to conserve water, attract wildlife, and reduce pollution. However, bluegrass continues to be de rigueur in front yards.

Folk music in Winter Park

WINTER PARK, Colo. — Folk music, which seems to be making a comeback, has been added to the list of summer music festivals at Winter Park.

Winter Park now has a festival that appeals to people who like things loud (ZZ Top playing to motorcycle riders), a more mainstream rock festival, a jazz festival, and then a blues festival.

At one time Winter Park also had a reggae festival, but it was a private party, and most certainly an anomaly. This festival honouring a musical style originated by poor black people living at sea level in the tropics was held by moderately affluent white kids in the woods at 10,000 feet in elevation.