Crested Butte fears labor shortage

CRESTED BUTTE – The ski area at Crested Butte is expecting a hit this winter as the result of a national surge in requests for foreign seasonal workers under the H-2B visa program.

The resort company last year had 105 workers under the program, but this year applied for 225 – but not until late September, by which time the national cap for the winter months had been reached. While bills now being debated in Congress would lift that cap, there is no certainty they will be passed, reports theGunnison Country Times.

Crested Butte has several new lodging properties, for which more employees are needed. The resort had hoped that employees with H2-B visas would comprise 20 percent of the work force. However, the company hopes to fill staff positions with students holding J1 visas. It will be, said general manager Randy Barrett, a case of all hands on deck.

Other resort operators, such as Vail, seem much less distressed about the H2-B visa shortage, owing to more advance work in securing employees.

Meanwhile, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is certainly aware of the cap of H-2B visas, butThe Sheet says nobody at the ski area seems ready to hit the panic button.

“Ever since 9/11, we’ve been preparing for something like this by reducing our dependence on foreign workers, so we’re certainly not freaked out by this,” explained Jack Copeland, the vice president and director of human resources at the Fortress-owned ski area. “It may limit some of the service we can offer, but it’s not going to put us out of business.”

Copeland said of Mammoth’s 92 H-2B applicants who are returning, certified ski instructors, only 40 have been approved.

Aspen looks to hydroelectric power

ASPEN – In an effort to walk the talk about reducing their share of greenhouse gas emissions, both Aspen and Pitkin County were scheduled to look at two separate but similar proposals.

The more immediate proposal was before Aspen voters on Tuesday. That proposal was for the city to take on $5.5 million in debt in order to build a new hydroelectric plant on a local creek. Production is expected to be sufficient to supply 600 homes.

The plant had been in use for much of the first half of the 20^thcentury, but could not compete with the cost of coal-produced electricity. Letters toThe Aspen Times indicated only minor opposition to the proposal, mostly from landowners near the plant.

Separately, Pitkin County commissioners are expected to hear a proposal for revised regulations governing uses of riparian areas along creeks and rivers. The change would be needed to accommodate plans for several small hydroelectric projects, often called micro-hydro, in Pitkin County. One plan is being proposed for Brush Creek adjacent to a home.

A larger project is anticipated for the Crystal River at the old mining town of Redstone. A hydroelectric plant was operating there as early as 1901, but the existing building is in ruins. Pitkin County Open Space and Trails officials plan to buy the site for $250,000. The Redstone Historical Society hopes to restore the building and, in the future, build a micro-hydro plant.

“We certainly support any effort that will produce electricity outside the grid,” said Commissioner Jack Hatfield. However, he questions where the money will come from.

Carbondale solar array in the works

CARBONDALE – A major array of solar collectors is in the works near Carbondale. The Aspen Skiing Co. is anteing up more than $1 million, while the private Rocky Mountain School is providing the land.

If approved by Garfield County officials, it would be the largest solar collector on Colorado’s Western Slope. A larger complex is being constructed at Alamosa, in the San Luis Valley.

Carbondale is already a hotspot, so to speak, of solar activity. It has one company, Solar Energy International, with an office, and solar panels are erected at the town hall and fire protection district headquarters.

The Aspen Times explains that the solar array will cover a large amount of land, 120 feet by 240 feet, and in theory will provide enough electricity for 20 households per year. As a practical matter, homes use electricity continuously, unlike the sun.

In fact, the school – in addition to providing the land – will pay for 30 to 40 percent of the electricity at a fixed rate higher than the current market rate for electricity produced at coal-fired power plants.

Making it possible, explained energy expert Randy Udall, are the grants from Xcel, Colorado’s largest investor owned utility,

which is mandated to provide 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by the year 2020. The Federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 also provides tax credits. Because of such grants, solar farms can earn investors 6 to 10 percent annually.

Tourism to adapt to climate change

DAVOS, Switzerland – Tourism operators must adapt rapidly to climate change, according to a report adopted by a conference of 100 nations sponsored by the United Nations.

A changing climate is the only certainty of the future, said Geoffrey Lipman, assistant secretary general of the U.N. World Tourism Organization. How it will change and how it will affect a nation’s tourism industry will depend on the location and offering, he toldThe New York Times. Some places may get new opportunities as a result of the warming climate, he added.

The Whistler-Blackcomb ski area is building lifts higher on the mountain, in zones where snow is more reliable, Arthur DeJong, mountain planning and environment resource manager, told the newspaper. Ski lifts typically last 25 years, he said, and the company has done computer simulations to determine where the snow will likely be.

Tourism is reliant on transportation, and the Davos conference concluded that the tourism trade is responsible for about 5 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Telluride ponders snowmelt system

TELLURIDE – Telluride voters this week were scheduled to vote on a $5 million capital improvement plan for its main street. While new water mains are the basic problem, some people would also to see a snowmelt system, the better to avoid tumbles on the icy sidewalks.

Ruminating on decades past, Grace Herndon notes that on some winter days she’d count herself lucky if she stayed right side up. Still, she sounds ambivalent about the idea of melting snow. It is part of the new Telluride that is into every sort of amenity and comfort, she says, and it seems to go against the old ski-town mantra of “think snow.”

“Telluride old timers, figuring shoulder-high snowpiles and slick, icy paths were all part of mountain living, used ski poles and some form of snow cleats to combat the dangers of slipping on packed snow and ice,” she says. “Those safety measures weren’t foolproof, but they did offer a measure of security,” she writes inThe Telluride Watch.

Summit County fears major fire

SUMMIT COUNTY –Residents continue to talk about what it’s like to be living cheek by jowl with nature, specifically the trees that are dying as the result of bark beetles.

Research by economist Mike Retzlaff suggests that a big fire in the wildland-urban interface could destroy so many homes that local water and sanitation districts, which depend primarily on sales tax, could go out of business.

The study, notes theSummit Daily News, is being used to argue for greater federal funding, to thin and remove trees in the interface areas. The argument is that it will be much less expensive to spend money for forest treatments in advance than enormous expenses in the wake of a fire.

But Jonathan Bradley, a firefighter from a local fire district, recently was engaged in fighting fires in California. He says that Summit County would benefit from restrictions on what kind of building will be allowed near forested areas. He also notes that those buildings in California that survived were those that used less flammable materials.

A-Basin comes up to speed

ARAPAHOE BASIN – Arapahoe Basin is among the oldest ski areas in Colorado. Located near Loveland Pass, about 65 miles west of Denver, it was opened in 1946 and remained relatively unchanged for most of the next 60 years.

But after being sold first to Vail Resorts and then Dundee Realty about 10 years ago, changes have started coming rapidly. There’s a new parking lot, a new quad lift, a new mid-mountain restaurant and, on the far side of the mountain, a new expansion area called Montezuma Bowl, soon to open.

There’s also new snowmaking, which several times allowed Arapahoe Basin to be the first to open and the last to close (at least in Colorado). Skier numbers are also flying high now, but general manager Alan Henceroth tells theSummit Daily News that the ski area will seem less crowded than before, due to the greater dispersion.

 — Allen Best