Redevelopment sweeps the Butte

CRESTED BUTTE – Crested Butte Mountain Resort continues to forge ahead with investment in its infrastructure, with hopes that it can soon have something to brag about beyond the “world’s best grooming.”

The Forest Service willing, the ski area intends to add gondola cars to one of its main lifts, the Red Lady Express, and also add new lifts, expand snowmaking and make assorted other on-mountain improvements.

In a couple years, the ski area hopes to have a new on-mountain restaurant, the 22,000-square-foot Red Lady Lodge, with a Vail-like dining area large enough for 230 people plus a fine-dining component large enough for 100 people.

At the base of the mountain, much work has been done already in redevelopment, but more is coming. Among the new buildings will be a base-area cafeteria with 95 condominiums in the upper levels, with asking prices ranging up to $1,500 per square foot.

The resort is also planning or what would essentially be a new ski mountain. While that project, called Snodgrass, is likely years away, much more imminent is base-area real estate. One of those two projects calls for 400 new residential units.

The second real-estate base project envisions 1,000-plus units, plus a new town hall (currently located in pre-fab housing) and a post office. In effect, that new project, called North Village, aims to create a central focus at the base of the ski mountain. The municipality is called Mt. Crested Butte, to distinguish it from the old coal-mining town 2 miles away.

Similar to what has been happening elsewhere, this new real-estate pod is to be connected to the ski mountain via a gondola. Otherwise, the project would be separated by a road and other development.

Although boasting nearly 600,000 skier days a decade ago, the annual skier day total tumbled to 300,000 several years ago. This year, the resort aims to surpass 425,000 skier days, on track to getting back to 500,000 to 600,000 on a consistent basis.

Jackson Hole absorbs San Simeon

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – During November, a writer and a photographer from theJackson Hole News&Guideaccompanied a group of Latinos from Jackson Hole back to their native land of Mexico. Most of Jackson Hole’s Latino services workers come from a town called San Simeon in a corn-and-cattle region amid belching volcanoes, about two hours from Mexico City.

The town is quiet for much of the year. That’s because about half the population is off working in Colorado, Utah and New Jersey. But most – 2,000 to 2,500 – live and work in Jackson Hole and nearby Teton County, Idaho.

The young affectionately refer to their home away from home as “Jacksimeon.”

Everyone in San Simeon has at least one close family member in Jackson Hole. Only old people and children now live in San Simeon.

The town is as empty as if all the young people were drafted for war, explains Cesar Marquina Corna. “In a way, it is a war. We’re at war for a better life,” says Cesar, 24, who returned to Mexico after a four-day drive in November. Hundreds make the same journey every fall and spring.

The migration first began to the farms in Idaho, then expanded to Jackson Hole beginning in the late 1980s.

The newspaper tells of one ranch family headed by Sanchez Rodriguez, 74, who first began going to Idaho to work in 1978 to lay irrigation pipe. Now, eight of his 14 children live between Driggs, Idaho, and Jackson, Wyo.

Some of the service and construction workers in Jackson Hole have seasonal work visas, while others risk the desert crossing every few years.

Many of those making money in Jackson Hole are building new homes of concrete, but not adobe, in San Simeon. Because so many able-bodied young people are gone, the wages are higher there, $50 per day for construction, than in surrounding towns.

Snowboarders billed for rescue

NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C.  – Grouse Mountain Ski Area ski patrollers plucked two snowboarders, a father and a son, from a high-risk avalanche area in waist-deep power. The two had ducked ropes to get to the terrain.

But, in a case that raised eyebrows in Whistler, some 90 miles to the north, Grouse Mountain chose to bill the father and son for the estimated cost of the rescue, $2,500. The season passes of the two were also rescinded.

“They knew going in there would come with some risk,” said

Andrea Scott, public relations manager for Grouse Mountain. “Perhaps this (fine) is some incentive to respect the signage.”

At Whistler, reportsPique, the decision at Grouse is being applauded. “I think it’s great,” said Bernie Protsch, manager of the Whistler Mountain Ski Patrol. “It’s time this becomes the benchmark in the ski industry.

Similar rescues in out-of-bounds areas by ski patrollers are becoming increasingly commonplace at Whistler. Even as Protsch spoke with the newspaper, he was supervising the third out-of-bounds rescue in two days.

Brad Sills, manager of Whistler Search and Rescue, likewise complains of people not taking responsibility for themselves. He called them “Dial-a-Rescues.”

Something similar occurred in Jackson Hole. There, snowboarders stopped at Togwotee Pass, near Yellowstone National Park, and cruised into the backcountry on snowmobiles. Then a snowboarder rode the snowmobile off a peak – leaving them without a ride back. At daybreak, they were able to hike up to a ridgeline and call 911 for help. A search team of 20 had been dispatched, including a medic aboard a helicopter.

The two young men are to be billed $1,200 to $1,400 for the helicopter, reported theJackson Hole News&Guide.

Mittens come off in “icebox” dispute

FRASER – The mittens have come off. The lawyers are now at work in the case of which town has the right to call itself the Icebox of the Nation.

Weathermen several decades ago used that phrase frequently to describe Fraser, located 2 miles from Winter Park. Fraser then had volunteers willing to get up at all hours of the night to track the progress of the plunging thermometer. Often as not for many years, those checks revealed that Fraser had the nation’s coldest overnight temperature.

But International Falls, Minn., claims it has been using the phrase since at least 1948 – longer than Fraser.

The two have been jousting over the rights to this dubious superlative since the 1980s, and for a time, International Falls prevailed, having registered it with the U.S. government. But then, the Minnesota town let its registration lapse. Fraser discovered the lapse and filed their own paperwork.

Since then, the two have had some fun with the rivalry. Fraser’s council challenged counterparts in International Falls to a snowball fight and also sent International Falls a box containing plastic penguins.

But now, Fraser’s legal task – if it wants to have the title – must be to prove it was using “Icebox of the Nation” by 1956.

Fraser’s competition has not only been with the Minnesota town, but with other towns in the West through the years. One of the more spirited competitions was against Big Piney, Wyo., which is located south of Jackson Hole. Other frequent rivals were Gunnison and Truckee, Calif.

Deer feeding begins in Gunnison

GUNNISON – In Gunnison County this winter is being called the most severe in decades. The most apt comparison seems to be to the snowy winter of 1983. It’s been cold, too, with temperatures in Gunnison dipping to 25 below for a couple nights in a row, although not for weeks at a time, as occurred often during decades past.

Still, this winter’s deep and crusted snow concerned state wildlife biologists sufficiently that they launched a feeding program for about 8,000 of the 21,000 deer in the Gunnison Basin.

Deer and other big-game animals lose 30 percent of their body weight during a normal winter, said state biologists. They expect to lose 8 to 15 percent of deer during any given winter, but fear more severe losses this winter. which will destabilize the herds.

Biologists are reported to be monitoring conditions in the Eagle and Roaring Fork valleys, too, among other locations as to whether feeding operations will be necessary there.

Skier attacks snowboarder in Aspen

ASPEN – It was, reportsThe Aspen Times, an international incident – not to mention a reversal of stereotypes.

The story told was of a collision between a 19-year-old snowboarder from Australia and a 58-year-old skier from New York City. The snowboarder said the skier crashed into him, then climbed back up the slope and berated him. When the snowboarder protested, the skier punched him in the face and kicked him before taking off.

— Allen Best

The family of the snowboarder was pressing authorities to file charges against the skier.

into a sleeve of the bag, avoiding that annoying tendency of sliding off the pad in the middle of the night.

The company, explains the newspaper, is a quintessential enterprise of the 21^st century. Steamboat houses the administration offices, product development and warehouse. Carbondale, down-valley from Aspen, is the marketing arm of the company, which is handled by a former ski patroller from Vail. The laborers, who assemble the growing line of products, are in China.

Growth of Big Agnes products was steady until 2006, when itincreased by 60 percent. The brand identity isn’t as strong as others, retailers tellThe Times, but once customers learn about the innovative designs, sales often result.

Aspen struggles with snow load

ASPEN – There can be too much of a good thing. Aspen city officials have been perplexed at where to put all the white stuff. As of Jan. 2, contractors had hauled away nearly 2,000 truck loads of snow, compared with not even 1,300 for the entire winter two years ago, reportsThe Aspen Times. However, the city was fast running out of places to cache the snow. In unincorporated Pitkin County, the same issues are reported.

“All of our typical snow storage areas are full,” said Brian Pettet, director of Pitkin County Public works. “We’re not even halfway through the season, and we’ve reached our capacity.”

He told theTimes that most of the country roads have become virtual tunnels, posing safety problems at curves and intersections. “A low car can’t be seen in the roundabout right now.”

Skier attacks snowboarder in Aspen

ASPEN – It was, reportsThe Aspen Times, an international incident – not to mention a reversal of stereotypes.

The story told was of a collision between a 19-year-old snowboarder from Australia and a 58-year-old skier from New York City. The snowboarder said the skier crashed into him, then climbed back up the slope and berated him. When the snowboarder protested, the skier punched him in the face and kicked him before taking off.

The family of the snowboarder was pressing authorities to file charges against the skier.

–Allen Best