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Mountian News

Vail evacuation plan readied

By Allen Best

VAIL, Colo. – Vail town officials are assembling an evacuation plan for town residents and visitors — just in case of a major fire of the dead trees, both within the town and in the surrounding national forest.

Forests of lodgepole pine have been hard hit by an epidemic of pine bark beetles that began a decade ago.

The evacuation plan calls for a mass 911 telephone alert to all residences, emergency radio broadcasts, e-mail messages and, possibly, emergency workers using loud speakers to warn of the need to evacuate, reports the Vail Daily.

Potential for what Phil Bowden, a U.S. Forest Service wildland fuels specialist, calls a “monster fire” will increase with passing years. Most of the dead trees now standing will have fallen to the ground in 15 years, providing more fuel. But even greater fire potential will arrive in 50 years, when logs remain on the ground and new trees are standing, allowing fire to be spread from tree crown to tree crown.

Meanwhile, efforts will continue this summer to create a moat along the town’s periphery. Trees will be cut and removed on 10 acres of town land and 170 acres of national forest. Residents are also being urged to reduce fire risk by removing any dead or dying trees in their own backyards.

Groves of aspen, which are less susceptible to fire, will be introduced in some areas.

 

Bloom is off Aspen Highlands

ASPEN, Colo. – The bloom is off at Highlands Bowl, the Aspen Skiing Co.’s expansion area at the Aspen Highlands ski area.

The virtues of the steep-sided bowl have been praised frequently by skiing and snowboarding magazines since it was opened for public skiing three years ago. The attraction of the new Temmerity Lift last year, combined with wonderful snow, pushed Aspen Highlands to a 15 per cent increase and fueled speculation that the ski area would surpass 200,000 skier days this year.

But Aspen Highlands is down 4 per cent this winter in visits, reports The Aspen Times, and the four ski areas operated by the Aspen Skiing Co. are down collectively 2.5 per cent. Unlike last year’s superlative storms, the snow has been so-so this winter.

Meanwhile, the Aspen Skiing Co. continues to plow money into on-mountain improvements at Snowmass Mountain, which does the heavy lifting for the company. Altogether, some $50 million in improvements are planned. This year, a children’s centre will be constructed. As well, improvements to a beginners’ area are likely, and a new on-mountain restaurant remains possible.

The company had also launched, in partnership with Intrawest, a $450 million to $500 million redevelopment of the bed base area at Snowmass.

 

More speed on tap

VAIL, Colo. – Vail Mountain continues to get up to speed. A high-speed quad is being installed to replace Chair 10, which has been in operation since 1973. The old two-seater took 14 minutes but kept out the “riff-raff,” one loyal skier told the Vail Daily. The new quad will reduce the time to 6.5 minutes. The lift serves some of Vail’s premier bump runs. While Vail Resorts would like to replace the old three-seater in the Back Bowls, Chair 5, the Forest Service has yet to approve a new lift, says the newspaper.

 

Federal aid crucial

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. – If Congress delivers the money, clearing of dead trees on 3,300 acres of national forest land in the wildland-urban interface of Summit County will begin this summer. Tree removal in critical areas near subdivisions and other crucial areas is expected for the next 10 years — if the money to pay for the work is authorized.

“These projects will not pay for themselves,” Rich Newton, district ranger on the Dillon Ranger District, told the Summit Daily News. “They depend on an input of federal dollars. That money hasn’t reached us yet in terms of our ability to write cheques.”

Some of the wood may be used at a pellet factory for wood stoves that is being planned at nearby Kremmling, Other, larger trees may be suitable for milling at sawmills, Newton said.

The Summit Daily explains that the project is the first in Summit County created under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which was created by Congress in 2003. Passed in response to increasing forest fires in the West, that law streamlined regulations but provided little money.

Specific projects include a buffer for the Wildernest residential area between Silverthorne and Frisco, strips in the vicinity of Keystone, some areas along I-70, and also on the Frisco Peninsula of Dillon Reservoir.

 

Tax revenues climb with Costco

GYPSUM, Colo. – A Costco opened in October at Gypsum, 35 miles west of Vail, and immediately the sales taxes skyrocketed. By December, the town’s tax receipts were 144 per cent greater than the year before.

It’s not all gravy for town officials. To land Costco, Gypsum agreed to rebate 38 per cent of the sales taxes to Costco, not to exceed $4.2 million. Beyond that rebate, Gypsum will give 40 per cent of sales tax revenues to Eagle, which bears a portion of traffic to the store. What that means, is that Eagle gets only $17 for every $100 of sales tax revenue for the next several years.

 

Airports getting upgraded

ASPEN, Colo. – Airports at both Aspen and Vail are getting significantly upgraded and expanded.

The airport at Aspen is in the midst of what may be $120 million in improvements. Some of the work is remedial. The runway, for example, hasn’t been reworked since 1983, and is becoming like a thread-bare carpet. That project alone will cost nearly $12 million. In addition, the terminal building, which is similarly aged, will be completely renovated. A parking garage for cars is also planned.

A 1,000-foot runway extension is planned, probably for 2009, although environmental approval has not yet been given, reports The Aspen Times. The current runway is 7,000-feet long.

The airport is unique among mountain resorts in its proximity to the ski slopes, with four ski areas within a few miles of the runway. However, by community decision, the airport was made too small to accommodate the largest planes. At present, the largest plane is the new regional jet, the CRJ-700.

The Eagle County Regional Airport, which serves primarily Vail and Beaver Creek but also Aspen, is also extending its 7,000-foot runway by 1,000 feet. The airport accommodates 727s, but during warmer months can carry fewer passengers, because of the reduced loft of air at more than 6,500 feet in elevation. As such, the runway extension is expected to accommodate both hotel and other tourism operations as well as vacation-home builders.

Of the $20 million cost for the runway extension at Eagle County, 95 per cent is being paid for by the Federal Aviation Administration.

 

Prius fleet goes on line

EAGLE COUNTY, Colo. – Eagle County government has purchased 20 Toyota Priuses, the popular electric-gasoline hybrid. Reduced gas use — an estimated $21,000 a year — drove the purchase, as did fewer emissions. The car produces 85 per cent less pollution than the SUVs that the Priuses replace.

The old vehicles averaged 18 miles per gallon, while the Priuses average 50.

The Vail Daily reports that officials looked at diesels, other hybrids like the Honda hybrid, and sport utility hybrids before settling on the Priuses. “None of them gave us as much bang for the buck in terms of gas savings, safety, price and maintenance costs,” said Gusty Kanakis, the fleet manager.

 

Mere millionaires need not apply

GALLATIN VALLEY, Mont. – Being a millionaire ain’t what it used to be. The Wall Street Journal reports that by at least one definition it takes more than twice as much money to be rich today as it did in the 1980s.

To participate in a hedge fund, the Security and Exchange Commission says a net worth of $1 million or an annual income of $200,000, the requirements set in 1982, are no longer sufficient. The new minimum is assets of at least $2.5 million, including equity in homes or businesses.

At the Yellowstone Club, located near Big Sky, a net worth of $3 million formerly was required of prospective member. Now, it’s $7 million, says the Journal. Land prices at the ski private ski and golf course community now have pushed above $2 million.

 

Girlfriend’s nags save life

BANFF, Alberta – A 25-year-old construction worker who spent the night on a windy ridge in extreme cold credits his nagging girlfriend with keeping him alive. She wasn’t there with him, but he could hear her voice.

“I was desperate and exhausted, and every time I felt like just sitting down and lying there for a minute, I heard her screaming in my head, “No way, Phil. You just get back up on your feet and you come home!” Phil Durand told the Rocky Mountain Outlook.

“Every time I laid down, every time she’d push me and I went forward, and that’s why I’m alive now, and that’s why I’ve got the best girl ever,” he added.

Durand was among several snowboarders in Banff National Park, near the border with Jasper National Park. They were going back to a ridge to make another run when he lost sight of his companions in a snow squall. The snow was falling fast, and the wind later that night gusted up to 80 kilometres per hour.

At the ridge, he went down the opposite side — waist-deep powder, but probably not worth the consequence. He trudged back to the ridge, then hovered in the trees not far from where searchers found a massive avalanche the next day. It was not terrifically cold, just a few degrees below freezing, but the wind combined with cold very nearly killed him. To stay warm, Durand said he stood up every few minutes and did jumping jacks, still wearing his snowshoes.

“If I did fall asleep, I knew it would be my last sleep, and then I couldn’t sleep,” he said.

“I’m in good shape, but that’s not what kept me alive. I know it’s all mental. It’s all my girlfriend screaming in my head.”

 

Deer Valley visionary passes reins

PARK CITY, Utah – Edgar Stern, the vision behind the Deer Valley Resort, is passing the reins to his son, Lessing Stern, who is now the chairman of the board of the resort’s parent company, Royal Street Land Co.

The elder Stern arrived at Park City in 1971 and helped engineer a partnership with the mining company that owned much of the land around Park City. That effort yielded ownership of Park City Mountain Resort. But Stern ultimately envisioned a ski area that pampered its visitors on the slopes as much as it did in the hotels, explains The Park Record. That resort became Deer Valley. The elder Stern, 84, now spends most of his time in the San Juan Islands of Washington state.

 

Enrolment still skidding

CARBONDALE, Colo. – Carbondale continues to boom, but enrolment in the local public high school, Roaring Fork, continues to decline. Seven years ago, 350 students attended the school. Now, there are 300. Why?

The Valley Journal says school officials have identified a key reason being something called, for lack of a better phrase, “white flight.” In the last five years the percentage of Latinos in the student body has more than doubled, from 26 per cent to 54 per cent.

Sources tell the newspaper that causes are more complex. As in many more affluent areas, Carbondale has become a place of two communities: immigrants and people who are past their child-rearing years. As well, the Gen Xers whose children would normally be in high school were a smaller demographic group.

The reduced enrolment seems to have a feed-back loop: Fewer students result in less state aid, which means cutbacks in honours programs, which means the school becomes less desirable to college-bound students.

Parents can choose to send their kids to high schools in nearby Basalt, Glenwood, or Aspen, or to two alternative high schools. Although more costly, the community also has two private schools.

 

Loss of forest disquieting

DURANGO, Colo. – The Durango Telegraph reports what seems to be a growing effort among activists and government agencies to rein in the impacts of off-highway vehicles in the San Juan Mountains.

The Forest Service several years ago responded to the growing intrusion of OHVs by channeling their use onto specific areas. But that philosophy is being challenged by the Colorado Mountain Club, which conducted a forum called “In Quest of Quiet Places.”

“There seems to be a carrot philosophy here — if we provide designated routes, motorized users will abide by the rules,” said Chris Paulson, vice-chair of the Durango chapter of the club. “The real question is whether these sacrificed areas save a part of the forest, or are we just opening up more areas to motorized travel.”

Hunting purists are among the most aggrieved by the growing use of OHVs. Among them is David Peterson, the author of several books and now a representative of Trout Unlimited. “It’s a very personal issue to me,” he told the Telegraph. “As a fanatical elk hunter and bow hunter, I have personally lost almost all of my old favourite national forest walk-in hunting spots to motorized invasion. All of those places now have such a heavy infestation of motorized hunters, I’ve had to give them up.”

One key problem is enforcement. The federal agencies — both the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management — have only one or two law enforcement officers for a vast region.

In response, county governments in the Telluride-Silverton-Lake City area, which are interconnected by a labyrinth of gravel roads, many of them above timberline, have hired a backcountry ranger to patrol their jurisdictions during warm-weather months. Something similar is being proposed for the Durango area.

 

Air service delayed

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. – Commercial air service to Mammoth has been pushed back again, this time to December 2008. The delay, reports The Sheet, was caused by what amounts to a turf war between the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Park Service. Because of the proximity to Yosemite National Park, the parks agency seems to resist development of air service and the resulting incursion of noise.

 

Jackson Hole on the rise

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – It’s doubtful that anybody noticed, but Jackson Hole has been on the rise — literally. University of Utah researchers have found that the valley floor of Jackson Hole has moved upward 1.7 inches in the last 17 years, and also one-quarter inch west during the same time. The Jackson Hole News & Guide explains that the findings were made using Global Positioning System technology.

 

Two killed in avalanche

ASPEN, Colo. – By the books, the three former college chums who set out for 12,340-foot Mt. Shimer, located near Aspen, had done many things right.

The day before their trip, they had consulted avalanche warnings for Colorado. They all had transceivers, probe poles and shovels. And they dug a snow pit at the base of the slope to study the snow bonding.

But within 500 feet of the summit, all three were caught in a soft-slab avalanche that swept 800 feet down through the trees. Two came down in body bags.

A report filed on the Colorado Avalanche Information Center website says the avalanche started on a north-facing slope of 38 to 40 degrees, the prime zone for avalanches. The report also points out that the local avalanche centre that morning had warned of moderate danger above treeline, but pointedly noted elevated danger on north-facing slopes of 30 degrees or more at or near treeline,

The two men who died were both on split-boards, while the survivor was on skis. There was no indication in the report that attributed his survival to pure skis.

News reports said the three had been classmates at the Colorado School of Mines, but one now lived in the New York City area, and the second most recently had been in Buenos Aires, Argentina.   The third man, the survivor, lived in metropolitan Denver.

 

Jackson Hole nearly smokeless

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Two more bars in Jackson Hole, including the famed Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, are going smoke-free this summer.

The Cowboy Bar has thought about banning smokes for years, partly because of concerns about health effects of second-hand smoke on employees, but also to reduce maintenance costs. Smoke filters must constantly be replaced, and the smoke makes the building dingy, requiring constant cleaning.

Smoking remains permissible at only three bars in Jackson Hole. Among them is the Virginian, where employees are advised in advance they will be among smokers. One of those smokers, a bar regular identified as “Spooner,” said smokers need a place where they can quietly go and be left in peace. “It’s an honest, crying shame,” he told the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

Julia Heemstra, of Teton County Tobacco Prevention, wants a total ban on smoking, and also wants to force smokers 10 and even 20 feet away from doors and windows.