Rich and poor square off in Aspen

ASPEN – It was a somewhat typical week in Aspen. Funk legend George Clinton was coming to town. Also on the agenda were comedian George Carlin and Comedy Channel newsman Stephen Colbert.

But for sheer volume, local politics was the steadiest source of entertainment.

The latest chapter is the coming mayoral election in May. The incumbent, Helen Klanderud, is term-limited. In a race characterized as one of “the rich versus the poor,” two candidates so far are vying to replace her.

Best known is Mick Ireland, a former newspaper reporter in Aspen and also a lawyer. Brash and opinionated, he is known to wear skintight cycling gear to meetings in Pitkin County, where he was a commissioner for 12 years, surviving several recall attempts.

Ireland argues powerfully for Aspen’s version of the proletariat, and he wants not only expanded affordable housing but also lower-cost housing in the city’s commercial core.

Facing him is a former Aspen council member Tim Semrau, who expects to be called a “dirt pimp,” as real estate agents are often called, and “growth advocate.” But trying to draw distinctions between himself and Ireland in favorable ways, he calls himself a “problem-solver and a doer,” while he characterizes Ireland as a “career politician.”

The Aspen Times also distinguishes the two candidates by what they drive: a slick road bicycle and beat-up Volkswagen Rabbit for Ireland, and an antique Porsche convertible and a BMW motorcycle for Semrau.

But what the two candidates do have in common is a decision to consult public relations firms. Ireland’s firm has advised podcasts, such as that of a question-and-answer session, that can be posted at YouTube and other Internet sites.

Other potential candidates include Bonnie Behrend, the anchor of a local television news program. In her capacity as news anchor, she asked to interview Semrau. That request drew an annoyed response from the candidate’s PR firm, which said it was not “journalistically appropriate” for a potential candidate. The TV anchor responded that a disclosure of a potential candidacy was the only requirement for journalism ethics.

Gale force winds strike Front Range

FRASER – The big wind story of Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2007 is likely to be remembered well into the future. It shut down ski lifts from Aspen to Winter Park and Steamboat Springs.

The winds also closed many highways and made those that remained open among the most hazardous in several decades. “Horrendous,” is how Ken Kowynia, a winter sports program manager for the Forest Service, who drove from Crested Butte to Steamboat Springs that day, described the highways north from Fremont Pass, near Copper Mountain.

The gondola and several upper-mountain lifts were closed at Steamboat, where a maximum wind speed of 107 mph was recorded atop Mount Werner.

The Winter Park-Granby area was among the most severely hit. Winds of 40 to 60 mph are not exceptional there, but nobody could recall them being sustained for six hours, as was the case on the Friday going into the weekend.

Ski lifts at Winter Park were necessarily closed down just before noon that Friday, and soon after the highway across Berthoud Pass, the valley’s link to I-70 and Denver, was also closed. Berthoud Pass remained closed mostly until late Saturday afternoon, when winds had calmed and the avalanche chutes, heavily loaded with snow by the wind, had been blasted.

Highway 40 between Fraser and Granby was so dangerous that it was closed because of the blowing snow. Ironically, only a few inches of snow had fallen.

More than 200 people were sheltered overnight at schools in Fraser and Granby.

Andy Miller, a long-time Fraser resident, said that even when Winter Park several years ago got 72 inches of snow in 72 hours, travel in the valley did not shut down. “We were still getting around,” he recalls. Not so during the big wind storm of ’07.

California suffers from subpar snow

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. – Snow conditions have been so marginal in the Sierra Nevada this year that June Mountain, an ancillary area to Mammoth Mountain, was closed in late January. Only one other season, the 1976-77 drought, had a season as short as this one. The resort has been open since 1961.

Even with good snow, June Mountain is a marginal operator. The owner, Fortress, had proposed keeping it open only on weekends.The Sheet reports some fear in Mammoth Lakes that the ski area won’t be re-opened.

At Lake Tahoe, it only snowed 8 inches between Dec. 1 and Presidents’ Weekend. While a bust for ski areas, it’s mostly a boon for construction contractors. “It’s the coldest summer we’ve ever experienced,” said building contractor Curtis McLachlan.

Contractors tell theTahoe Daily Tribune that little snow saves them time, because they don’t have to spend half a day after a storm digging out.

But this winter has been both cold and dry, and cold has its own consequences. The lack of snow for insulation has led to many burst water pipes. Further, at 20 degrees and colder, working outside becomes inefficient, says James Costaluipes, a contractor. “You spend more time trying to keep warm than getting work done.”

Hydrogen buses slated for Olympics

WHISTLER, B.C. – Hydrogen-powered buses will be part of the 2010 Winter Olympics hosted by Whistler and Vancouver.

The governments of Canada and British Columbia are pushing hydrogen technology, spending $89 million to create fueling stations between Whistler and Vancouver. That also pays for a fleet of 20 buses, which will be based in Whistler.

In hydrogen vehicles, the fuel is kept in a fuel cell. As such, the vehicles are like all-electric cars. Unlike diesel or even gasoline-powered vehicles, they emit no chemical exhausts, only steam.

Eventually, Canada would like to connect with a highway dotted with hydrogen fueling stations that is proposed to run along the Pacific Coast to San Diego. The San Francisco and Los Angeles metropolitan areas already have or are planning several fueling stations.

President George W. Bush has pushed hydrogen as the fuel of the future. And, reporting in March 2006, Reuters said major automakers are expected to have most technical aspects on their experimental models solved by 2010 but do not expect mass production until 2020.

But hydrogen still has one fundamental problem. With existing technology, it takes as much energy to create hydrogen from water as is provided by the hydrogen. British Columbia has been vague about the source of its hydrogen.

Jackson Hole tram to break records

JACKSON HOLE – The old tram at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort remains in use, but only by the ski patrol. Meanwhile, the new $25 million tram planned is now taking shape on paper.

“This is the biggest, largest, the most money spent on a tram in North America,” says Jerry Blann, the president of the resort.

Instead of 62 passengers, the capacity of the old tram cars, the new cars will carry 100 passengers, reports theJackson Hole News&Guide. Most of the tram towers will be 30 to 60 feet higher than existing towers.

The tram is designed to operate in winds of up to 75 mph.

Some new tram cars will also be able to carry freight in compartments below, including water and sewage occasioned by a restaurant on the mountain. A snowgroomer can also be carried up the tram.

Ski academy nabs major headlines

CRESTED BUTTE – If you follow professional basketball, you probably know that some of the top hoops prospects get vetted at special high-school academies on their way to the National Basketball Association.

Several schools, including one in Crested Butte, do the same for snowboarders who aspire to the X Games and the 2010 Winter Olympics.The Wall Street Journal profiled one of the 14-year-olds at the school, Zeppelin Zeerip.

He has, says the newspaper, a stocking cap, sagging jeans and a broken bone, as do a fourth of the 67 students at Crested Butte Academy. They practice tricks before school in the morning.  In fact, it’s formal school policy to allow three powder days per year of the students’ choosing.

The tuition normally runs to $30,000, although the profiled student gets a sharply reduced rate. Even then, he can afford to be at the academy only from Thanksgiving to April, returning then to Michigan.

– compiled by Allen Best

as led to many burst water pipes. Further, at 20 degrees and colder, working outside becomes inefficient, says James Costaluipes, a contractor. “You spend more time trying to keep warm than getting work done.”

Hydrogen buses slated for Olympics

WHISTLER, B.C. – Hydrogen-powered buses will be part of the 2010 Winter Olympics hosted by Whistler and Vancouver.

The governments of Canada and British Columbia are pushing hydrogen technology, spending $89 million to create fueling stations between Whistler and Vancouver. That also pays for a fleet of 20 buses, which will be based in Whistler.

In hydrogen vehicles, the fuel is kept in a fuel cell. As such, the vehicles are like all-electric cars. Unlike diesel or even gasoline-powered vehicles, they emit no chemical exhausts, only steam.

Eventually, Canada would like to connect with a highway dotted with hydrogen fueling stations that is proposed to run along the Pacific Coast to San Diego. The San Francisco and Los Angele

s metropolitan areas already have or are planning several fueling stations.

President George W. Bush has pushed hydrogen as the fuel of the future. And, reporting in March 2006, Reuters said major automakers are expected to have most technical aspects on their experimental models solved by 2010 but do not expect mass production until 2020.

But hydrogen still has one fundamental problem. With existing technology, it takes as much energy to create hydrogen from water as is provided by the hydrogen. British Columbia has been vague about the source of its hydrogen.

Jackson Hole tram to break records

JACKSON HOLE – The old tram at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort remains in use, but only by the ski patrol. Meanwhile, the new $25 million tram planned is now taking shape on paper.

“This is the biggest, largest, the most money spent on a tram in North America,” says Jerry Blann, the president of the resort.

Instead of 62 passengers, the capacity of the old tram cars, the new cars will carry 100 passengers, reports theJackson Hole News&Guide. Most of the tram towers will be 30 to 60 feet higher than existing towers.

The tram is designed to operate in winds of up to 75 mph.

Some new tram cars will also be able to carry freight in compartments below, including water and sewage occasioned by a restaurant on the mountain. A snowgroomer can also be carried up the tram.

Ski academy nabs major headlines

CRESTED BUTTE – If you follow professional basketball, you probably know that some of the top hoops prospects get vetted at special high-school academies on their way to the National Basketball Association.

Several schools, including one in Crested Butte, do the same for snowboarders who aspire to the X Games and the 2010 Winter Olympics.The Wall Street Journal profiled one of the 14-year-olds at the school, Zeppelin Zeerip.

He has, says the newspaper, a stocking cap, sagging jeans and a broken bone, as do a fourth of the 67 students at Crested Butte Academy. They practice tricks before school in the morning.  In fact, it’s formal school policy to allow three powder days per year of the students’ choosing.

The tuition normally runs to $30,000, although the profiled student gets a sharply reduced rate. Even then, he can afford to be at the academy only from Thanksgiving to April, returning then to Michigan.

– compiled by Allen Best