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It's snake eyes as riders roll dice in backcountry

JACKSON, Wyo. - Three skiers and snowboarders were in the news last week after being in avalanches near ski towns. Two of them lived to tell about it.

JACKSON, Wyo. - Three skiers and snowboarders were in the news last week after being in avalanches near ski towns. Two of them lived to tell about it.

The most famous was Jimmy Chin, the climber and photographer who was on the cover of the March issue of Outside Magazine. Chin had just purchased his first helmet the previous day, and he and his companions - a renowned bunch of skiers and riders - had done all the things you're supposed to do.

"We didn't think we were pushing it," Chin told the Jackson Hole News&Guide .

Still, by around 2 p.m., they were heading down a south-facing slope on Shadow Peak, in Grand Teton National Park, provoking wet-snow avalanches ahead of them, in what they believed was a successful effort to abate the threat.

Then it happened. Fifty feet behind Chin, a wet slab broke, nearly a metre high.

Chin kicked off his skis, threw his poles-the advice given people caught in slides, to help keep them at the top. It worked for about 150 metre of the 610-metre slide. Then he started going down and coming up, going down and coming up. When down, he told the newspaper's Angus Thuermer Jr., it felt like 20 tons of wet snow was on top of him. He prayed to end up near the top.

He did - buried to his waist as the concrete-like snow set up. And that's when the second slide hit. "I was pretty sure I was going to get cut in half," China, 37, told the News&Guide . But he wasn't, although his helmet was dented.

Chin told the newspaper he wasn't proud of being caught in the avalanche, but he wasn't going to hide it. "There's always a lot to be learned from incidents like this."

In Colorado, an equally harrowing story unfolded near Loveland Pass, adjacent to the Arapahoe Basin ski area. Again, the victim was no novice. Danny Ferrari, 42, had checked the avalanche forecasts, carried a shovel, beacon and probe, and he knew the area well.

A companion was filming him snowboarding down an area called Devil's Tool when he felt a change in the snowpack. "I pushed down and the whole slope just released," he told the Summit Daily News .

The cement-like snow moved slowly, then picking up speed, slammed him into a tree and knocked him upside down. "Then I was in the washing machine," he said.

When the snow stopped, his head was pointed downhill, his torso twisted and he was completely submerged. He was, however, able to create a small air pocket by eating some of the snow near his face. And he was able to move his arm enough to see the sky. And, by removing his gloves, he was able to start clawing at the snow that had congealed around him.

Finally, help arrived to dig him out. The companion who had been filming him had suffered a broken leg, but was able to call for help on a cell phone.

His survival made Ferrari a happy statistic. Only 34 per cent of those buried for more than a half-hour survive.

"I was mad as hell, because I was like, 'I can't believe this just happened,'" Ferrari, the father of two, told the News's Caddie Nash.

The final avalanche story comes from Aspen and it has an unhappy ending.

Adam Brady Dennis, 38, had been skiing with four friends in an area called Desolation Row, near the Aspen Highlands ski area. A soft-slab avalanche carried him 427 vertical metres, leaving debris that averaged a metre thick.

But while all the companions had beacons, and they located him quickly, it was too late. A coroner's autopsy confirmed asphyxia due to snow burial as the cause of death.

 

Banff no place for low-income loafers

BANFF, Alberta - As spectacular as the setting is, you can't just up and move to Banff and live there happily ever after. Not even if you're really rich.

You have to have a job there, or at least have worked in Banff National Park for five years before retiring. The land is located within the park and hence subject to the rules set by Parks Canada.

Now, Parks Canada has decided to step up enforcement by insisting on supporting documentation, such as would be required by a bank lending money, reports the Rocky Mountain Leader .

Twelve miles down valley at the entrance to the park, Canmore also has a rarified distinction. According to a new provincial report, Canmore has the highest cost of living of any town in Alberta as measured by rents, restaurants and a few other metrics.

Town officials interpreted the report as evidence to support the need for affordable housing initiatives. But realty agents and restaurants told the newspaper that the report was too narrow of a snapshot to prove all that much.

Richard Greaves, a RE/MAX agent, said real estate prices are constantly in flux, making a two-week window too narrow for conclusions. And restaurants said that the independent dining opportunities, unlike the chains found elsewhere, are superior, so of course more costly.

"I think that we are very lucky as locals to have such a variety of family-run independent restaurants for a town our size and we also have the opportunity to showcase this to our visitors from around the world," said Todd Kunst, owner of the Sage Bistro.

 

New evidence that the rich still are

ASPEN, Colo. - Evidence continues to arrive that wealthy people continue to have money. Not surprisingly, the most recent testament comes from Aspen, where a 6,641-square-foot home sold for $1,852 per square foot, or $12.3 million.

While that's by no means a record for Aspen, it is believed to be the highest price in the city's stylish West End neighborhood, reports The Aspen Times . However, a house that sold in December came close, $1.816 per square foot.

Scott Condon of The Times reports a flurry of sales above $12 million this year, but also quotes Carrie Wells, a listing broker for one of these houses, who warns against sellers being too aggressive in their prices.

"Some sellers say, 'Hmmm, the market's back to where it was in 2006, 2007,'" Wells said. That's not the case, she insists.

 

"BAG IT" to air on PBS

TELLURIDE, Colo. - "Bag It," the film made by local filmmakers that pushed Telluride into its ban of plastic bags, and has Aspen and probably Whistler talking about it, will be shown on Public Broadcasting Service stations during Earth Week. Made by Telluride filmmakers, it documents the environmental and health dangers posed by global use of disposable, non-biodegradable plastic products.

 

Eight days for Vail's trails

VAIL, Colo. - Rob Schilling began his quest to ski all of Vail's named ski trails with one named "Forever."

The trail lies in Vail's signature Back Bowls, facing southwest, looking out toward Mount of the Holy Cross. The trail had just a few inches of powder, and Schilling, who considers himself a 9+ skier on the 10-point scale used by ski instructors, got to the bottom in five minutes.

One down, 122 runs to go. If not forever, it still took Schilling nearly all of the next eight days to ski the trails of Vail Mountain, the continent's largest. The ski area is seven miles wide at its broadest dimension.

Schilling twice before has skied all of Vail's named runs, first in the mid-1990s and then in 1999. The latter time, it took him 7 and 1/2 days.

Of course, Vail has changed since then. In 2000, the lifts and trails spread into adjacent Battle Mountain in an expansion called Blue Sky Basin. It was the single largest ski expansion ever in North America. But new high-speed quads have also shrunk the mountain, allowing faster laps.

Schilling started skiing at Vail in 1973, when he moved there with his family. He has left a few times, but always returned, and now sells real estate, with an office in Vail Village, the Alpine-inspired base-area, just three minutes from the Vista Bahn lift.

As he went about his errands in the semi-wilderness, Schilling, 49, blogged on the website of Vail Resorts, the ski area owner. As you might expect, there were no real complaints. Oh, the snow got like mashed potatoes in the afternoon. "I would have liked a little more butter with those taters," he said after his first day.

More common were religious-like exultations. Pausing to take in the grand landscape one afternoon, he reported seeing "Mount of the Holy Cross floating in the sky, reminding us that we had been blessed as the glory day was coming to a close."

His last run was the trail colloquially called "Adios."

 

Bed bugs at home

HAILEY, Idaho - Bed bugs have arrived in the Wood River Valley, home to Sun Valley and other towns.

Joe Pearson, owner of Wood River Pest Management, said he used to get a couple of cases per year. Now, it's two a month - and he has competition. One new company in the area, Bedbug Thermal Solutions, reports getting a couple of calls per day.

That puts the Sun Valley area into good company, as Google's New York City office has had them. So has a Victoria's Secret store. But bed bugs remain stigmatized, much like lice.

While some exterminators use chemicals, the bugs have built up resistance. One method now preferred is heating a home to a near broil of 130 degrees.

 

Fire may yield "smoky" ale

SILVERTON, Colo. -Silverton's Greene Street now has a smudged gap in its row of gaily-painted Victorian-era buildings.

A fire that originated in the Pride of the West saloon badly damaged two buildings despite half the town's water supply being poured over the flames, according to the Durango Herald .

Officials said the upper floors were pretty much a loss, and the bottom floors are probably too water-logged to be of much use. "It just breaks my heart," town planner Dave Michaelson told the Herald .

The Pride of the West had been a popular gathering spot for locals, which sort of included snowboarder Shaun White, who was given a private half-pipe for training at nearby Silverton Mountain by one of his sponsors.

But even the sad news had its joke. Proprietors of the nearby Silverton Brewery said they might craft a special "smoky" ale to commemorate the fire.

 

Harvesting the sun's rays

BASALT, Colo. - Again come questions about how green and clean renewable energy is. The arena for this latest questioning in is the Roaring Fork Valley, about 20 miles down valley from Aspen, where a solar-farm developer called Clean Energy Collective wants to create a solar farm.

The company last summer created a solar farm in the area with 328 panels, which can produce 77.7 kilowatts. This new proposal ups the ante. It would have 4,300 panels, capable of generating 2 megawatts of electricity.

The Aspen Times reports that volunteer planning commissioners are mixed about the wisdom of the solar farm on land that currently has no particular use. Some see just too much visual intrusion, while others think the panels are something to be proud of.

Aesthetics aside, the bigger story is that miles and miles of such solar panels will be needed to make a true dent in the carbon dioxide produced by burning coal and natural gas.

 

 

Allen Best writes about mountain towns at http://mountaintownnews.net/