Ear to the ground

“I got lucky and was able to spit it up in the toilet instead of straight onto my plate.”

-Durangoan commenting on her first and only experience with Tofurkey

The report cards are in the mail, and ski resorts are once again the students. This week, the annual Ski Area Environmental Scorecard was released, giving grades to 77 ski resorts throughout the western United States. Based on a comprehensive set of 24 criteria, the scorecard details the environmental friendliness of each ski area and then assigns each a letter grade.

“We hope skiers and snowboarders will utilize this information when choosing where to buy their season pass or when making ski trip plans this winter,” said Ryan Bidwell, executive director of Colorado Wild. “But even when you ski at a resort that has an average or poor grade, it makes a difference to mention to the resort that you hope they improve their environmental performance. Ski resorts listen to their customers.”

The grades run the full spectrum from the highest scoring Aspen Mountain Ski Resort to the rock-bottom worst F’s in the West: Crested Butte Mountain Resort and Breckenridge. Regional ski areas also received a variety of marks.

The down-home, mom-and-pop Wolf Creek Ski Area once again turned in its perennial A, getting high marks for its lack of real estate expansion, moves to lighten its environmental footprint and its effort to fight Texan Red McCombs’ proposed Village at Wolf Creek.

Closer to home, Durango Mountain Resort showed improvements over last year’s “high to mid-level D” to a “solid C.” The Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition has never looked kindly on the resort’s ambitious real estate expansion, but pioneering steps to further the use of biodiesel and a support of the recent Renewable Energy Amendment pushed DMR’s grade up.

Next door in Telluride, the ski area is also sporting an average C. In reality, Telluride is in worse shape than DMR, but its expansion is now a thing of the past.

This year’s Ski Area Environmental Scorecard arrives at a time when many Southwest ski areas are victims of delayed or partial openings. The report puts a premium on efforts to combat global warming.

“Global warming could reduce the ski season in Colorado by three to six weeks over the next 50 years, yet less than half of the Western ski resorts have voluntary environmental programs to reduce their emissions,” said Ben Doon, Research Director for the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition.  

Skiers can access the complete results at www.skiareacitizens.com, including the criteria which led to the grades. They can also email their congratulations or concerns to the resorts directly from the website.