All-electric cars get charged in Whistler

WHISTLER, B.C. – Late this year, auto-maker Nissan will begin shipping its new all-electric mid-sized car, the Leaf. Portland, Seattle and Vancouver are among the cities gearing up to accommodate the cars.

So is Whistler. Town officials have installed four charging stations in the Whistler Conference Centre parking garage.

“The charging stations are a small step on a much larger journey toward sustainability. However, they demonstrate that Whistler is continuously willing to explore and support new opportunities for progressive energy and emissions management,” said Mayor Ken Melamed.

Other ski towns are also starting to install charging stations for electric-only cars. In Colorado, Aspen last year installed 27 charging stations at its municipal parking garage and Vail has one. Jackson, Wyo., has started talking about charging stations.

Electric motors are six times more efficient than the internal-combustion engine in translating energy into forward movement. For that reason, many environmental advocates see them as crucial in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, they are also promoted as a way of reducing imports of foreign oil – although, in fact, the No. 1 source of oil for the United States is Canada.

Whistler won’t charge for the electricity. Electricity costs six cents per kilowatt hour, and charging drivers for the power would cost more than the electricity itself, said Dave Patterson, manager of park and village operations at Whistler.

Locavores lose ground to chains

GRANBY – For all the talk across America about eating better foods of local origin, the trend seems to be otherwise.

Consider Granby, a one-time ranching town between Winter Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. It used to have busy places called the Longbranch and the Chuck Wagon, but the action has shifted to strip-mall development. Arriving soon, reports theMiddle Park Times, will be McDonald’s and Subway.

Along the same highway, but in Utah,The Park Record reports the possible arrival of the bulk-item discount store called Costco. No distress at the prospect was reported by the newspaper.

In Wyoming, however, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance is bothered that the U.S. Forest Service refuses to put an easement on its property in Jackson that would preclude a big-box store. The agency wants to sell the property, located at a prominent site in Jackson, and consolidate operations elsewhere.

Medical ‘copter links towns to Denver

GYPSUM – A helicopter now based at Eagle County Regional Airport will be able to shuttle patients from hospitals in Aspen, Steamboat Springs, Vail and other nearby towns to Denver.

The Vail Daily reports that the helicopter will be used for strokes, head injuries and other cases where time is critical and mountains hospitals have neither the equipment nor the expertise to treat the patients. Summit County already has such a helicopter service.

Pushback from locals to trail-renaming

VAIL – There’s some pushback in the Vail community to the renaming of a venerable ski run in honor of Olympic gold-medal winner Lindsey Vonn.

Kerry Donovan, a native of Vail and now a member of the Town Council, created a Facebook site called “I still ski International,” which is the original name of the ski trail directly above Vail Village.

“We cannot disregard history in the name of corporate spin,” says the website. Donovan and her supporters prefer that Vonn be honored elsewhere on Vail Mountain, preferably where she trained, and that other Olympians from Vail also be honored.

 Google to lay fiber-optic in Aspen

ASPEN – A small group of Aspen-area residents have been campaigning to get Google to test a high-speed broadband net

The Aspen Times notes that the Facebook page set up to stir support for the Aspen effort so far has only 48 members, compared to thousands for similar efforts in some metropolitan area.

 Night uphilling banned in Montana

WHITEFISH, Mont. – A new policy has gone into effect on Big Mountain that limits uphill hikers, snowshoers and skiers to between 6:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. and also confines them to a designated route. The policy had been under consideration for several weeks.

Officials of the ski area said the policy was provoked by several incidents involving after-hours hikers and groomers using winch cables that might have ended badly. As well, they said that after-hour skiers have shredded freshly groomed slopes before the snow had time to set up. The result can be deep ruts in the snow, a safety hazard.

The Whitefish Pilot reports that after-hours uphill travel has become increasingly popular in recent years, with 40 to 50 hikers on an average evening and many more during a full moon.

For the time being, the resort operator will station personnel in the parking lot after hours to remind any uphillers of the new policy.

Deadly avalanche commemorated

REVELSTOKE, B.C. – Some 500 people gathered in Revelstoke the evening of March 4 to honor the 58 men killed in an avalanche that swept down on Rogers Pass precisely a century before.

The men and a rotary snowplow were laboring to clear debris from a snow slide that had covered the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks when a giant avalanche from the opposite side of the valley swept over them. Killed in the slide were men of Japanese, English, Polish, Danish and other descents.

TheRevelstoke Times Review reports that among those who took part in the ceremonies were several people from Japan, who had visited British Columbia many times but only learned recently that their great-uncle had perished in the avalanche.

Museum seeks artifacts of early ski era

TELLURIDE – Oh boy does Telluride have history. One of the world’s most significant innovations in electrical transmission was first tested here in 1892. The town also had a labor war that is literally the stuff of movies. And author Vladimir Nabokov chased butterflies among the wildflowers while sketching out his famous story of Lolita, which was published in 1955.

But the museum, a delightful affair, altogether lacks modern history. Museum officials intend to correct that omission and have begun talking with locals who can remember the early days of Telluride as a resort. The ski area opened in 1973, but the curators hope to represent the broader period from 1969 - 1980, reports theTelluride Daily Planet.

– Allen Best