Skiing subsidizes real estate in CB

CRESTED BUTTE – Tim and Diane Mueller were hailed as heroes when they arrived in Crested Butte as the new owners of the ski area in 2003. Crested Butte had been languishing for several years. The previous owners had lost interest in the ski area and were either unwilling or unable to invest money in upgrades. The consolidation that had swept the ski industry in the 1990s had also left Crested Butte, already more than four hours away from the nearest major population center, even more isolated.

The Muellers, with a successful history in New England, promised investment that would allow Crested Butte to thrive again, and planned anew to build base-area real estate and new intermediate ski trails.

Earlier this month, the couple announced sale of a substantial share of their holdings at Crested Butte to a real-estate investment trust called CNL. The company also owns Northstar at Tahoe, Sierra at Tahoe, the Copper Mountain base area village, and other properties.

The Muellers will continue to operate the ski area. Also, uninvolved in the sale is undeveloped property, although they are likely to sell that to CNL once the development occurs.

Tim Mueller told theCrested Butte News that the public mostly misunderstands the financing at ski areas. It is the skiing that pulls the weight, he said, and not real estate.

“We want the real estate aspect of the business to be able to stand on its own, rather than be supported by ski operations, which is what is happening now – despite what everyone thinks,” he told the newspaper.

The Muellers said that CNL will provide financing for ski area improvements that banks might not. One immediate repercussion of this new, deeper pocket are plans next summer for a new mid-mountain restaurant called the Red Lady Lodge.

Tim Mueller said other enhancements, such as resort and retail operations, are also likely.

For development of residential real estate, however, the Muellers will still be on their own. They have always made the case that an improved bed base is needed at Crested Butte if the resort is to reach a critical mass of 500,000 to 600,000 skier days. The other part of the equation, they argue, is an expansion of the existing ski area onto Snodgrass Mountain, which would produce the intermediate terrain that is mostly lacking on existing ski runs.

Fatality inaugurates avalanche season

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Several early in-bounds avalanches have occurred in the last week, including one at Snowbird that claimed the life of 26-year-old Heather Gross.

Gross was buried for nearly an hour by a slide in the Eye of the Needle, described by guidebook author Brad Asmus as one of Snowbird’s most distinctive chutes. He rates it as being 9.3 on a 10-point scale, with 10 being the hardest.

TheSalt Lake Tribune, citing National Weather Service statistics, said Gross was the first woman killed by an avalanche while skiing inbounds in the past half-century in Utah. However, seven lives have been claimed overall, including that of a Colorado man just a year ago at Park City’s The Canyons.

In Colorado, an avalanche in Vail’s Blue Sky Basin buried a skier to his waist but left the man unharmed. The slide was about 3 feet deep and started at the ground. Scott Toepfer, of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, told theVail Daily that ski patrollers had set off avalanche explosives on the same slope about two hours before the slide occurred.

In Telluride, skiers triggered an in-bounds avalanche, but in an area where ski patrollers were still conducting avalanche control operations. To access the area, reportsThe Telluride Watch, they ducked ropes. There was no evidence of injuries to anybody.

Mom-and-pop regulation backfires

ASPEN – Aspen’s efforts to control the commercial mix in its dynamic downtown district has had unintended consequences, interfering with the creation of the unique mom-and-pop businesses that were the intended beneficiaries.

The story goes back to 2006. At the time, some long-standing commercial businesses – a locals’ lower-cost eatery, a theater and a bookstore – were all threatened with replacement by other uses, possibly of the chain-store variety.

In response, the City Council adopted a moratorium on remodels. Landlords were permitted to allow different businesses, but not the remodels that might allow different uses – a retail store, for example, as opposed to a restaurant – to operate.

But Chris Bendon, the city’s planning director, concedes that

the freeze has had the opposite effect. One case cited to illustrate the folly was of a new coffee shop, called Parallel 15, which was ordered to shut down because it had painted the walls, in violation of the remodeling moratorium.

Bendon told the City Council he couldn’t explain the cause for the moratorium with a straight face.

“It’s getting weird,” he toldThe Aspen Times. “Regulation is not a tool of creation; it’s a limitation. There is no bright, gleaming purpose at this point.”

The council, by a 4-to-1 vote, agreed. Instead of a stick, the city staff is talking about offering carrots, in the form of public-private partnerships, to keep unique stores owned by locals and often catering to locals in the commercial mix.

Whistler unveils mammoth gondola

WHISTLER, B.C. – A giant ox bell was rung in Whistler last weekend, as is a tradition when new Doppelmayr lifts are launched. But this lift, the new Peak 2 Peak Gondola, is like no others.

The $51 million gondola claims superlatives in two dimensions. The span between two lift towers of 3.024 kilometers (about 1.9 miles) will be the longest in the world. In addition, the distance to the ground from that span will be a maximum of 436 meters (1,430 feet). That’s twice the height of the tallest building in Vancouver, B.C.

Intrawest, the ski area operator, built the lift to connect its two ski mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb. The two mountains are in close proximity, but to cross from one to the other ordinarily required skiing to the bottom and then taking lifts up the other mountain.

“This way we’ll get a lot more crossover traffic, balance the utilization of the mountains, restaurant seats, and on-mountain experiences,” explained Doug Forseth, senior vice president of operations.

But another major reason for the expensive gondola is that it will draw business in summer. “It will enhance the summer sightseeing immensely and allow us to open Blackcomb again in the summertime,” explained Forseth. “It expands operations for people hiking and spreads them out over the alpine areas.”

Since its announcement two years ago, the Peak 2 Peak Gondola has generated considerable publicity. Even more is expected in the year leading up to the 2010 Games.

Towns join plastic bag challenge

BRECKENRIDGE – Last summer, Aspen engaged in a friendly competition with Telluride and its sister slope-side town, Mountain Village, about which could do the best job of getting grocery-store shoppers to reduce the number of plastic bags used for grocery shopping. Patrons were asked to reuse plastic bags or perhaps use cloth bags.

Telluride and Mountain Village won the challenge, and the three towns altogether eliminated 140,000 plastic bags during the three-month contest.

Other ski towns have been invited to join in a more extended rivalry called BYOB, for Bring Your Own Bag. The year-long contest is set to begin Jan. 1.

Breckenridge has been among the first to enlist in the contest. “It’s the right thing to be doing,” Mayor John Warner told theSummit Daily News.

Town officials are approaching the town’s two grocery stores to ask if they will contribute 5 cents per bag toward a community fund for providing bag handouts and educational documents.

Frisco, Dillon and Silverthorne were also considering being in the contest. The facilitator of the contest is the Colorado Association of Ski Towns, which counts 18 ski towns in Colorado as members.

Scam artists hit seasonal workers

PARK CITY, Utah – It’s scam time in Park City. At least two groups of South Americans have lost major sums of money after placing deposits on what they believed would be housing needed during their winter employment.

In one case, a couple of Peruvians were apparently fleeced by Columbians, who sent a key to a house and gave an address. But alas, when the Peruvians tried the key, it didn’t work, and the person who answered the door knew nothing about the deal.

In the other case, 13 Uruguayans lost $5,000. ThePark Record indicates no suspects in that case.

– Allen Best