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Jacksonites can swill

JACKSON, Wyo. - Few people in Jackson and Teton County smoke. Most get their exercise. But when it comes to drinking - well, there's plenty of tipping.

JACKSON, Wyo. - Few people in Jackson and Teton County smoke. Most get their exercise. But when it comes to drinking - well, there's plenty of tipping.

According to a study from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, roughly 23 per cent of Teton County residents reported drinking excessively within a month of being surveyed.

Those statistics land Teton County in the bottom tier of the counties across the country for excessive drinking, notes the Jackson Hole News&Guide.

"It's part of the culture here," said Terri Gregory, public health manager in Teton County, "It's a party town."

She said that trying to curb binge drinking and its associated risks is a goal that for years has eluded public health officials.

 

Remembering Jack van Horn

WINTER PARK, Colo. - He was nicknamed Little Pierre, a name that lingers on a ski trail at Winter Park, as he wore wool knickers, a beret and stood 5-foot-2. But in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Jack van Horn was in Winter Park, people skied on long boards, 210s in his case.

So reports the Sky-Hi News in its eulogy to van Horn, who died recently, recalling a happy era when the recreational skiing was blossoming and the ski industry was booming.

Stretch ski pants were introduced during that time, and skier numbers at Winter Park quadrupled during the '60s.

As happened often, the young men quickly found wives, and in the case of Little Pierre, he and his wife, Helga, built a lodge and restaurant. After Winter Park, he worked as a ski instructor and contractor until 1987, before moving on again to Reno.

 

Sno-cat skiing may be the answer

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. - While American television has the soap opera called "Days of Our Lives," Crested Butte has the potential ski expansion called Snodgrass Mountain.

Snodgrass expansion has been talked about since the early 1980s, and in the latest installment the Forest Service refused to accept the proposal from Crested Butte Mountain Resort.

But "no," it turns out, doesn't mean "absolutely no." It just means no to that particular iteration of three lifts. The Crested Butte News reports that resort and government officials are now talking about what might be acceptable.

The most likely acceptable proposal would involve a Sno-cat skiing operation on the slope of mostly moderate terrain. But other ideas include a backcountry-type of expansion, or even a configuration of two lifts.

Crested Butte is currently the smallest destination ski resort in Colorado, with just 1,100 acres -about half the size of Telluride, the next smallest destination resort.

Ski area officials have long said that Crested Butte needs to get just a little bit bigger, to offer more terrain for

intermediate-level skiers similar to Vail, Snowmass and Park City.

But if not skiing, how about culture? Planning and fundraising are now underway for a new venue at the base of the ski slopes to be called the Mt. Crested Butte Performing Arts Center.

William Buck, mayor of Mt. Crested Butte, explains that the amenity would help anchor the community, the way that performance centers provide Beaver Creek, Jackson Hole and Aspen high-quality venues for plays and other shows.

"From the town's perspective, we're looking to broaden the attraction base," he said.

 

 

Thinner air for longer life

TELLURIDE, Colo. - Can living at higher elevations be healthier, at least when it comes to heart disease? A new study suggests that's the case.

The study found that 16 of the 20 counties with the highest life expectancy were in Colorado and Utah, at a mean elevation of just under 6,000 feet. Compared with those living near sea level, men lived 1.2 to 3.6 years longer. Women lived 0.5 to 2.5 more years than their sea-level counterparts.

The study was conducted by the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Harvard School of Global Health. Researchers analyzed death certificates from every county in the United States over the course of four years.

Taken alone, said Dr. Peter Hackett, executive director of the Institute for Altitude Medicine, living at higher elevations is no panacea. "You can't smoke and not exercise and come here to live longer," he told The Telluride Watch.

A study of this sort needs to account for variables among those living at altitude. For example, do they smoke less than their counterparts at sea level? Are they less obese? For the most part, the researchers were able to deliver apples-to-apples comparisons.

"It's not a perfect study, but they collected as much data as they could," said Hackett, who has climbed Mt. Everest twice and spent many seasons ministering to climbers on Denali, North America's highest peak. "As it turns out, there is something about the lack of oxygen at high altitude that is actually good for the heart."

What's going on? "Lower oxygen levels turn on certain genes, and we think those genes may change the way heart muscles function," said Benjamin Honigman, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado. "They may also produce new blood vessels that create new highways for blood flow into the heart."

Hackett said that studies of South Americans living at 14,000feet high have more blood vessels in their hearts than those living at low elevations. When the heart has more blood vessels, he said, blood is able to flow into the heart more effectively, especially if there is a clot.

"This wasn't done at 8,000 feet. It was done at 14,000 feet, but there is no reason to think that people living at 8,000 feet wouldn't have some of that," Hackett told The Telluride Watch.

One thing the study did not sort out is how long someone must live in thinner-aired elevations for the benefits to the heart to accrue. Hackett said he believes somebody born and reared at high altitude has an advantage over someone who moved to a place like Telluride, which is just below 2,700 metres in elevation, at the age of 60.

The study also found that living at elevations of more than 1,500 metres has adverse effects on those with compromised lungs, including those with emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

 

Airport cost goes sky-high?

HAILEY, Idaho - A sobering report that now puts the cost of a new airport to serve Ketchum and Sun Valley at US $327 million has caused local leaders to reassess their steps forward. As recently as 2005, cost of a new airport had been placed at less than US $100 million.

The existing airport is at Hailey, about 19 kilometres from Ketchum and Sun Valley. But the existing airport falls short of safety standards specified by the Federal Aviation Administration, at least as needed to accommodate larger planes. And Hailey and Blaine County have firmly opposed airport expansion with the impacts to existing residential areas, explains the Idaho Mountain Express.

But the new report said an airport farther away, outside the mountains, could expect to get only US $192 million of the US $327 million cost covered by the Federal Aviation Administration. Another US $89 million might come from third-party sources, such as the fixed-base operator or the U.S. Forest Service, according to the report from Chicago-based Ricondo & Associates and a Denver-based firm called Jviation.

That still leaves locals on the hook for US $38 million to US $45 million in funding. Property taxes could be raised by US $29 per US $100,000 of valuation for the next 20 years, but elected officials said they need to reassess.

"Six months ago, every discussion said, 'This airport will cost less than St. George (Utah), which cost about US $160 million,'" said Blaine County Commissioner Larry Schoen. "Now we're looking at an amount that is twice what St. George cost, and it has totally changed the discussion about how to fund a replacement airport" for the existing Friedman Memorial Airport.

Commissioners are now wondering at what level the community will support investment in a new airport.

For the last decade, Ketchum, Sun Valley and the Wood River Valley have talked about reinventing themselves along the lines of other destination resorts of the West. They now have approved four - and five-star hotels in Ketchum, although all are lacking investors. Air service comparable to that linking Vail, Aspen and Steamboat to the outside world is also considered crucial to improving the tourism and real estate economies.

 

A question of law

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. -For years, Mammoth Lakes has tried to improve its air service to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Along the way, the town stumbled in its dealings with a private business at the airport - and has now lost court cases through the California Supreme Court. The court in March affirmed that the municipality must pay US $30 million in damages.

Make no mistake how The Sheet , one of Mammoth's newspapers, sees the story. "This marks the culmination of three years of self-delusion on the part of Town officials, who, even in this week's press release announcing the Supreme Court's decisions, expressed disappointment that the Court "did not fully understand the Town's position and interpretation of the underlying legal principles."

The Sheet said that the Supreme Court did understand well enough that the town had attempted to "screw over a private business entity."

Wal-Mart goes local

DURANGO, Colo. - As Wal-Mart transforms itself into Walmart, the giant retailer now also vows to become more local in its food offerings. The Durango Telegraph notes a recent corporate press release that reads "more like the mission statement of your local nonprofit food coop than a communication from the world's largest retailer."

In the United States, the company aims to have at least 9 per cent of its produce come from the same state by 2015. In Canada, it aims even higher, 30 per cent.

Why would Wal-Mart, Walmart or Wally World aim for this semi-locovore goal? Because it can save money that way, not having to ship food so far, notes the Telegraph .

 

Bring the Bison back

CANMORE, Alberta - The Canmore municipal council has gone on record supporting the reintroduction of bison in Banff National Park. At least some of this support comes from the belief that the bison will become tourist attractions, but without resulting in bison wandering into Canmore, reports the Rocky Mountain Outlook .

 

Snow double edged-sword

REVELSTOKE, B.C. - Bountiful snow was a two-edged sword this winter. While it produced wonderful skiing and snowmobiling conditions, frequent road closures kept some people away. The Revelstoke Times Review notes that anecdotal evidence suggested fewer Europeans, Asians and Australians, but also fewer visitors from North America. Ironically, hotel revenue was up.

 

Great snow, cheaper passes equal records

JACKSON, Wyo. - When Jackson Hole Mountain Resort closed several weeks ago, four customers had managed to ski on the mountain each of the 128 operating days of the season, and another 118 had surpassed the century mark. The latter is a record.

Resort officials tell the Jackson Hole News&Guide that superior snow quality this year combined with lower-cost season passes explain the record. Jackson Hole got 558 inches of snow and chalked up 478,900 skier visits.

 

Employee complex delivered

VAIL, Colo. - A major employee housing project has been completed in Vail. Called First Chair, the 124-bed development is located in Lionshead, between Interstate 70 and the ski lifts. That makes it unique, as all other employee housing units are across the highway.

The employee housing was required by town officials as mitigation for Arrabelle, a major high-end, slope-side complex built by Vail Resorts, the ski area operator and developer.

Company representative Kristen Kenney Williams tells the Vail Daily that with completion of the employee housing project, Vail Resorts has no outstanding obligations to the town.

That will change. The company now has a US $1 billion project before town authorities called Ever Vail, which proposes a new gondola link to the ski slopes plus all manner of housing and shopping. This is in an area that used to have a gas station and still has professional offices and the headquarters for snow groomers and other vehicles.