Mammoth opts out of skateboard laws
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. – In September, a young man was skateboarding in Mammoth Lakes when he hit a pothole and tumbled. He died from his injuries.

As a result, the question arose: should Mammoth Lakes regulate skateboarders? The village council ultimately decided to leave well enough alone, but the conversation reported by The Sheet suggests plenty of pent-up peeves. “Just be aware that cars don’t know what to do with you,” said Mayor Jo Bacon.

Skip Harvey, a council member, surprised the young skateboarders in the audience when he told them that back in the day he had been a skater, too. In fact, he had run a skate shop.

“I can relate to the fun and sense of freedom you feel,” he told a delegation of skaters who had testified in opposition to new rules. “Plus, it’s a great physical workout, which is what we’re all about up here. But you need to police yourselves and set examples for other riders. Don’t just go blowing through stop signs.”

Sun Valley grapples with air service
KETCHUM, Idaho – Taking stock of the disagreement over air access to the Sun Valley/Ketchum area, the Idaho Mountain Express draws a stark comparison.

“The prospect of not having an adequate airport is the greatest threat to the area’s economic viability since silver markets went bust… and put local mining operations out of business,” says the newspaper in an editorial.

Ketchum was the inspiration for most other resort towns of the West. Its initial access was by railroad. However, rails long ago were ripped up and the airport that serves the resort area falls far short in its ability to accommodate the sort of planes than serve Aspen, Vail and Steamboat, not to mention Park City, just 45 minutes from a major international airport.

The existing airport, located in Hailey, down-valley from Ketchum, needs to expand if it’s to accommodate larger planes. The alternative was to build an entirely new airport, outside the mountains, which was the plan until the Federal Aviation Administration suspended environmental review, citing both ballooning costs and impacts to sage grouse.

The Express discerns three groups, each with simple answers – including expanding bus or van transportation to more distant airports at Twin Falls or Boise. But none, it says, are necessarily coming to grips with the situation. “Seen clearly, the reality should lead us to put pettiness and parochial rivalries aside,” the editorial stated. “No solutions will be perfect, but not finding a solution simply is not an option.”

Some, not all, joining bag-ban ranks
HAILEY, Idaho – On Nov. 8, voters in Hailey – the largest town in the Sun Valley-Ketchum area – will decide whether to adopt a town-wide ban on plastic bags.

In Colorado, Aspen has already done so, but only as applied to the community’s two grocery stores. The ban takes effect in May. Down-valley, Carbondale last week voted to follow in Aspen’s path. Basalt seems to be headed toward a fee on both plastic and paper bags.

In Aspen, always a place of contention, there is dissent in the pages of The Aspen Daily News. Columnist Jeremy Madden, obviously infatuated with alliteration, says the ban shows “the depth of the degradation and depravity that has come to define the disintegration and demise of Aspen.”

He argues that if the town were more honest, it would ban all bags, not just from grocery stores, and not just plastic. “Ban plastic bags full of medical marijuana, ban plastic bags for vegetables, ban plastic bags of coke, ban plastic bags of Botox, ban plastic bags of sushi, ban plastic bags of poop…”

Telluride weighs longer gondola season
TELLURIDE – A movement is under way to expand operations of the gondola that connects Telluride with Mountain Village. Adding two or three weeks in autumn, and perhaps a week in spring, would cost the two towns $50,000, reports The Telluride Watch.

However, just keeping the gondola operating is not the only key, said speakers said at a recent meeting. There must also be events and other programming, such as an Oktoberfest. And, not least, stores and restaurants would have to stay open longer in the shoulder seasons.

Wasatch ski connect gains support
PARK CITY, Utah – Momentum seems to be building for a lift or gondola across the crest of Utah’s Wasatch Range, linking two ski areas, Solitude and Canyons.

At a recent forum, Nathan Rafferty, president of Ski Utah, declared that 90 percent of people support the interconnect, maybe even 99 percent. The potential, says Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Area Association, is huge. “What we’re seeing at Canyons now is a game-changer.”

Another tantalizing prospect is the connection of Park City and Alta and Snowbird, also close in proximity. “Six miles as the crow flies, Alta and Snowbird are winning accolades for terrain. What if you could connect them? You’d create a pretty compelling product,” said Rafferty.

Drunken drivers gets 4 years in Vail
EAGLE – A 29-year-old Vail man has been sentenced to up to four years in prison for killing a pedestrian with his Jeep Cherokee. The tragedy occurred in March when the victim was walking on the town’s frontage road. The driver, David Perzanowski, had been working, then went drinking in Vail. His blood alcohol level was .189.

Perzanowski had a prior alcohol conviction in 2006, reports the Vail Daily. When the judge asked about the “Vail lifestyle,” Perzanowski described it as “ski hard, party harder.” He said he regrets not finding an AA community after his first conviction.

The victim was an All-American swimmer and an honors graduate from an Ivy League college who was working in his family’s oil and gas business.


Fewer jobs available in Jackson
JACKSON, Wyo. – Just 166 jobs are up for grabs at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, compared to 200 last year. Human-resource personnel at the ski area tell the Jackson Hole News&Guide that the economy, combined with last year’s abundant snow, has a lot of employees returning. The resort has 1,300 peak-season employees, down from 1,500 at the start of the recession. Seasonal jobs pay between $8.40 and $9.94 an hour, the latter for shuttle drivers.

Another broke ski area in Big Sky
BIG SKY, Mont. – One private ski area in Montana’s Big Sky complex is emerging from bankruptcy, but another one has entered bankruptcy.
Moonlight Basin, which has 1,900 acres adjacent to Big Sky’s 3,600 acres, has reached an agreement with Lehman Brothers to transfer ownership to the investment bank and move the resort from bankruptcy. Officials told the Bozeman Chronicle that the plan will provide stability for Moonlight.
The Chronicle explains that the court order settles years of court battles between Lehman and Moonlight over two loans totaling $170 million. The loans became due in 2008, and Moonlight filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. Two steps remain before the bankruptcy is formally concluded, the newspaper says.

Spanish Peaks, another private ski, golf and real estate complex, has closed and entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It reports $50 million in assets and $500 million in debt. It also boasts more acreage than Vail and more vertical than Jackson Hole. Both claims assume terrain at the Big Sky ski area, to which the private ski areas are connected.

The Yellowstone Club, a third private ski area adjacent to Big Sky, also went bankrupt.

– Allen Best