Ski towns celebrate the harvest

CARBONDALE – Ski towns and their down-valley suburbs have many curious festivals that draw on their economic foundations, geographic distinctiveness, or even historical peculiarities.

Idaho’s Ketchum has its running of the sheep, homage to the economic times between mining and ski lifts. Breckenridge’s winter calendar includes Ullr Fest, a nod of the community hat to the Norse god of snow. And Crested Butte has its Vinotok, held on or near the autumnal equinox, a post-summer, pre-winter festival.

Merriment is ordered, and grumpiness banned as all complaints are stuffed into a collective Grump made of metal and cloth that is then burned in a community gathering. The festival is rooted in the community’s Slavic miners who came to work in Crested Butte’s coal mines late in the 19^thcentury and early in the 20^th century.

In Carbondale, located about 30 miles down-valley from Aspen, most residents are recently arrived Anglos or Latinos, most of whom are tired to the economy of Aspen and Snowmass. But a century ago, most of the farmers had a significant cash crop in the form of potatoes.

To that, a Potato Day festival was held annually each fall, and although few continue to grow tubers now, the event continues.

Aspen starts transforming into Vail

ASPEN – Once upon a time, it was easy to keep Aspen and Vail straight. Aspen got the movie stars, Vail the corporate moguls. Aspen had a two-lane highway, Vail an interstate. Aspen said “stay out” to population growth, while Vail – or at least Eagle County, where Vail is located – say “c’mon in.”

The distinctions are blurring. Aspen now has four lanes of freeway to the town’s edge, while Eagle County is talking about an Aspen-style move, a moratorium on upzonings.

And now, Aspen is getting a clientele somewhat more like that of Vail, reportsTheNew York Times. “The face of Aspen’s wealth is changing,” reports the newspaper. “The party scene of the 1980s and ’90s has faded as a new kind of buyer has taken over in the second-home market.” The newspaper quotes one real estate agent who reports most buyers now are Wall Street types from New York, California, Texas and Florida, younger Baby Boomers, from their mid-40s to mid-50s. “These buyers prefer a long day on a mountain bike to a long night of partying, and they see Aspen as a family paradise.”

Climate change seen in Yellowstone

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – For the last five years, Ron Matous has been noticing the forests near Yellowstone National Park dying. It has become problematic for him. Once, looking for a place to camp, he had to go nearly to timberline to find a place where he wouldn’t worry about the wind blowing a tree down on him as he slept.

The cause, he suggests in a column in theJackson Hole News & Guide, is a drought that has now lasted 10 to 15 years. What seems to have happened is that the conifers are now weakened by lack of moisture and hence more subject to epidemics. But it’s not just one insect, and there is no easy solution – if any.

“There’s a misconception that we’re dealing with a single insect – spruce budworm, for example, that can be controlled by spraying or other methods,” Will Lanier, an insect diagnostician from Montana, told him.

“The fact of the matter is, our forests have been severely weakened by drier conditions over the last 10 to 15 years, and there are at least 20 different varieties of pests – fungus, beetles, moths and their larva – that have always been in residence but don’t have much effect on healthy trees. Drought-stricken trees are incapable of producing enough sap to heal over the damage done by these pests, and eventually they die.”

Insects are a result of a forest’s decline, not the cause, Lanier said. The forests are not dying because of blight, bugs or fungus; the forests are dying because of drought, and drying trees are easy targets.

Woman vanishes on Holy Cross Mtn.

MINTURN – The last time that a woman was lost on Mount of the Holy Cross, a 14,005-foot peak near Vail and Beaver Creek, the story was a feel-good affair. Kathleen Kinderfather, then 68, was detected among boulders on the mountain’s treacherously steep western flanks as would-be rescuers made

one final pass after six days of searching.

That was in July 1997, and Kinderfather’s rescue was one for the ages. It was a story of religion on a mountain named for the religious icon composed of snow on its face.

This time the missing woman was a 35-year-old mother of four, Michelle Vanek, who disappeared just short of the summit during an arduous late-September hike. She was reported to be strong and a triathlete, even if somewhat incongruously this was her first 14er in Colorado.

Of no small relevance to the story was the route she and an undisclosed friend had used. Instead of the shorter, conventional route, the pair had gone the more circuitous route called Halo Ridge. Although the route requires no technical ability, it is long, a full-day outing for even an experienced hiker. She stopped at an elevation of 13,800 feet, and agreed to traverse around the summit. But her companion said he never saw here after that.

The biggest search in Colorado history was conducted on Oct. 1, a full seven days after her disappearance, but without any clues as to where she may have gone, search officials called it quits that night. They surmised she may have wandered off a cliff and fallen to her death at a spot that, even with helicopters, would be impossible to see.

Jackson Hole tries to cut down trash

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – While what happens in Las Vegas may stay there, that’s not true of the trash in Jackson Hole. Like many resort areas, the trash is exported – in this case, to a landfill in neighboring Sublett County.

While the ethics of that exportation could be challenged, the more immediate issue is the cost. Running garbage trucks long distances (in Wyoming, all distances are long) costs good money – and that was before the price of gas began escalating.

With that in mind, many efforts are under way in Jackson Hole to promote the mantra: “reduce, reuse and recycle.”The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports the effort is succeeding. Recyling increased 10 to 19 percent this summer. People increased purchases of wind and other “green” electricity sources increased 21 percent. Traffic into a reuse business called the ReStore rose 8 percent.

Organizers in three environmental organizations credit a catchy advertising campaign that ran on 267 cable stations, backed up by print and radio ads. The Teton County Board of Commissioners are backing that effort up with a $10,000 commitment toward public awareness.

Now, workers have been digging through residential trash containers, sorting out what could be diverted or recycling. The research will provide county authorities with a better idea of what items could be recycled – and hence generate income for the county, to be applied against the cost of exporting the trash.

Voters to weigh in on Home Depot

FRISCO – Summit County already is a boxy place, with a Super Target in Silverthorne plus a Borders, Office Depot and other familiar mid-boxed franchises along Interstate 70.

Next, a Home Depot could be included in the mix on a plot of land owned by Frisco next to the existing Wal-Mart. Frisco voters will have a chance to exercise a veto at a November election.

Opponents object to the aesthetics of such large stores, although representatives from nearby Avon, a town 30 miles to the west that now has both big-box Wal-Mart and Home Depot stores, say that the blunt look can be muffled by good design.

The fall-back plan, if Frisco voters nix the sales-tax bonanza of Home Depot, is a mix of residential and commercial.

Earthquake strikes in Steamboat

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1 hit near Steamboat Springs last Friday just before midnight. One person toldThe Steamboat Pilot that it felt like a car hitting a house, and a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey said that’s exactly how an earthquake of that intensity should feel.

No injuries were reported, nor damage. Unlike those in California, which roll and quake for longer durations, this one was just a jolt. “It was a little bit of entertainment for us Californians,” said one ex-Californian, Joan Allsberry.

The Steamboat Springs area has had several smallish earthquakes in the last 20 years.

– compiled by Allen Best