Mountain towns answer Katrina?s call

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS ? Even the most remote mountain hideaways seem to have been affected by Hurricane Katrina.

In Idaho, yoga instructors in the Hailey-Ketchum area donated their fees to relief efforts. At Tamarack, the new ski resort near Donnelley, a family scrambled to begin life anew in their summer cabin after learning that water had risen to 12 feet at their house in New Orleans.

In Colorado, firefighters from Aspen, emergency service workers from Silverton, and the sheriff and deputies from Telluride were off at a moment?s notice to muck in the fetid waters of New Orleans. ?What goes around comes around,? San Miguel County sheriff Bill Masters toldThe Telluride Watch. ?If we ever need help, they?ll come and help us.?

Some schools took in students

Even the most dissimilar places have strong connections ? perhaps because of their dissimilarities, notedSky-Hi Newspublisher Patrick Brower. He points out that the Granby-Winter Park area is located nearly entirely above 8,000 feet and historically has had some of the most bone-chilling cold in the continental United States. And, despite all the snow, it has very little native water left, as most of it is diverted to metropolitan Denver. One story in theWinter Park Manifest, about a transplant from New Orleans, was titled ?From the Big Easy to the Big Chill.?

Even before the hurricane, plans had been laid for a fund-raiser in the Winter Park area featuring popular Louisiana performer Tab Benoit to draw awareness to the environmental problems of Louisiana that were partly responsible for the great destruction.

Other mountain town employers explored providing jobs to displaced Gulf Coast residents. Vail Resorts investigated offering mountain jobs to New Orleans tourism industry workers. In the Steamboat area, coal mine operators ramping up for production of a new underground mine saw potential jobs for electricians, heavy-equipment operators and mechanics. ?We?re looking for people with good, strong values,? said Ron Spangler, the human resources manager for Peabody Twentymile Coal Co., which has a mine about 20 miles from Steamboat.The Steamboat Pilot noted that the coal-mining jobs pay $60,000 a year.

Crested Butte still mulling expansion

CRESTED BUTTE ? Twenty-year-old plans for Crested Butte?s proposed ski area expansion onto nearby Snodgrass Mountain are now being mulled anew by local as well as federal officials.

The expansion (technically, it?s a new ski area, because it?s separated by a short distance from the existing ski area) would provide 300 acres of mostly intermediate terrain. Ski area officials have identified intermediate terrain as the most pressing need to attract destination visitors and get them to return for a second year. Crested Butte officials say they have a relatively low return rate as compared to other ski areas, because there is so little diversity of terrain.

However, a new group called Friends of Snodgrass have an alternate plan for Snodgrass Mountain: nothing.

Ketchum holds Hemingway festival

KETCHUM, Idaho ? Back in the mid-century, before ?second-home owner? became a demonized phrase, Ernest Hemingway spent part of each year in Ketchum, the town made famous by the Sun Valley ski area. There, he fished and hunted and wrote the better part of several novels, includingFor Whom the Bell Tolls.

Now, Ketchum is seeking to capitalize on the writer?s fame by holding the first Ernest Hemingway festival. Events include lectures and discussions by national scholars, a short-story contest, a tour of his old hangouts, and other ways of paying tribute and drawing visitors.

Ketchum often delves into its past for festival storylines. In early September, the town hosts Wagon Days, when a parade of more than 100 nonmotorized vehicles recalls the wagons used to haul ore from the mines of the region to smelters and railroad cars. Another festival, held in October, is called Trailing of the Sheep, recalling the era when sheepherders drove bands of sheep from the high mountain pastures to trains waiting to take them to markets.

Such festivals, explains theIdaho Mountain Express, are more than entertainment. ?Communities that don?t know of their origins and the hardscrabble existence of those who carved out the first signs of a town have no sense of tradition or pride that goes along with honoring the past.?

Recently, neighbors of the house that Hemingway owned prevailed in their wish to make it inaccessible to the public. That, declares the newspaper, was a mistake for Ketchum.

Canadians probe drop in U.S. visits

WHISTLER, B.C. ? Whistler and other resort communities in Canada are awaiting a report that hopes to definitively explain why fewer Americans have been visiting Whistler and other Canadian resorts.

In Whistler, visits from Washington state were down 17 percent during the summer and those from California were down 38 percent. Banff and Lake Louise were also reported to be ?challenged? by the all-important U.S. market.

What?s going on? Doubled gasoline prices? The strengthening Canadian dollar that has made Whistler vacations 30 percent more expensive? All of these ideas and more are being examined.

Making Whistlerites even more nervous is the prospect of new U.S rules requiring passports of all citizens returning from Canada. The rule goes into effect in 2007. The Canadian government hopes that an alternative documentation may be satisfactory to the U.S. to establish identity and citizenship.

Four Seasons hotel looks abroad

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. ? The new Four Seasons hotel in Jackson Hole aims for the top notch in customer service, and to do it staff members are recruiting workers from abroad. For summer, they are drawing students from Poland. For winter, they are going to Chile and Peru. About 50 foreign employees are hired during each season.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide explains that several agencies, such as Student Adventures in Poland, arrange work placements with companies in the United States. Students can obtain work permits, called J1 visas, for four months for the first visit or up to 18 months for subsequent employment.

For the Polish students, the work experience in Jackson Hole gives them an advantage in later securing employment with Four Seasons resorts in Europe. In Jackson Hole, the Polish students work get paid $10 an hour for work that might pay $2 an hour in Poland

Lightning strikes man on dirt bike

CRESTED BUTTE ? You may have heard that you can?t get hit by lightning while driving a car because of the insulation of the rubber tires.

Actually, you can get hit by lighting while in a car ? or on a motorcycle. And that?s exactly what happened when two brothers from Texas were riding their dirt bikes in the Taylor Park area near Crested Butte in early September. The brother who was not hit told police that he saw his bother go straight up and then fall back on the road. He was treated at a hospital in Gunnison, about an hour away, and then flown to Grand Junction for further treatment.The Crested Butte News did not disclose the extent of his injuries.

Aspen sales surge toward $2 billion

ASPEN ? The real estate market continues to surge in Aspen and surrounding areas.The Aspen Times reports $1.35 billion in sales through August. At this rate, the Aspen area will surpass $2 billion in sales. Only twice before ? in 2000 and in 2004 ? has the Aspen area surpassed $1 billion.

Real estate agents monitoring sales also report that down valley, Garfield County has been recording $1 million sales, reflecting the general ratcheting-up of prices.

Wolves could reduce elk population

GRAND LAKE ? Reintroduction of wolves into Rocky Mountain National Park remains a possibility. For several decades, the park has been troubled by too many elk. Without predators ? or human hunters ? the elk are damaging the vegetation of the park. A recent study identifies several options, including killing of elk ? called ?lethal reduction? in the study ? by National Park Service personnel or contractors, and also using birth-control mechanisms. Wolves are considered one form of lethal reduction.

? compiled by Allen Best