It was the best of times, and the worst
DENVER – Snow is so good and deep in British Columbia that Whistler-Blackcomb has already announced an extended ski season, to May 28.

In Colorado, two small ski areas – Cooper and Monarch – announced they are closing early. Others are sticking it out. Vail had huge swaths of dirt even high on the mountain, and crews were moving snow from forested areas to cover the ski runs, and Steamboat had closed 20 percent of its trails.

In Idaho, the Big Wood River through Ketchum and Sun Valley was bulging with early and high runoff due to unseasonable warmth and heavy rains. The snow line was 6,500 feet but expected to rise up to 8,500 feet with a surge of weekend heat, the Idaho Mountain Express reported.

A strange winter is getting stranger
Fire is on many people’s minds. West of Denver, embers from a prescribed fire were whipped by strong winds into tinder-dry forests, yielding a wildlife that killed two people.

Near Crested Butte, at the hamlet of Gothic, scientists reported a record-breaking temperature that was 12 degrees higher than the previous one, according to the Crested Butte News. Another record was also within sight: the least amount of precipitation ever in March.
It’s feast or famine. Whistler-Blackcomb received 135 inches of snow during March alone, Crested Butte hasn’t surpassed 200 inches for the winter.

Last year, an already healthy winter motored through April and then May. At Steamboat Springs, the Yampa River didn’t see a peak runoff until July. This year, the peak seems to have already occurred, water officials tell the Steamboat Pilot & Today.

Global warming to blame for weather?
NEW YORK, N.Y. – March weather is always erratic, but this one in particular was so weird that the New York Times wanted to know whether scientists thought global warming was to blame.

For some of it – yes. The Earth is clearly warming. February was the 324th consecutive month in which global temperatures exceeded their long-term average for a given month. This year, 17 high temperature records have been set for every new daily low.

Even in 2007, the International Panel on Climate Change was willing to report with 90 percent confidence that the warming trend already well recorded around the world was due substantially to human activities, either greenhouse gas emissions or changed land uses.
But can extreme weather events also be pinned on global warming? That’s more difficult. Climate scientists have typically said trends will only become apparent in retrospect.

Marty Hoerling, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, while worried about global warming, suspects that this March madness will probably be explained by natural variability.

But others are exploring whether this heat – as well as other weather anomalies – can be linked to the rapid receding of Arctic sea ice.

Moving forward on climate change
ASPEN – Aspen and Pitkin County continue to debate how to be most effective in steering the politics of climate change.

Pitkin County commissioners last week unanimously endorsed a resolution that pledges the county to look at land-use policies that reduce energy consumption, sprawl and travel by car. The Aspen Daily News reports that the resolution also pledges the county to favor development of renewable energy sources.

But in the sticky issue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the commissioners are not yet ready to take a stand. The Aspen Skiing Co. has been pushing the local chamber to withdraw from the national group, because of the its resistance to policies that would harm fossil fuel interests. The ski company alleges that the U.S. Chamber gets much of its money anonymously from oil and other groups that are covertly fighting climate-change policies.

This is mostly an issue of symbolism. The local chamber pays only $800 to the national group, but local chamber members have so far agreed they wish to lobby for changes while remaining in the national organization.

Aspen Skiing Co. representatives argue that in quitting the national chamber, Aspen can draw national attention to the position of the U.S.

 

Chamber in regards to climate change. The ski company has been lobbying members of the local chamber to see things in that light.
A minority of county commissioners agrees with the ski company, but the majority isn’t ready to call on the local chamber to quit just yet.

Jackson Hole sets sights on foreigners
JACKSON, Wyo. – Like many mountain communities, Jackson Hole is looking to expand its appeal to the world’s wealthiest residents.

With a $44,000 grant from new lodging proceeds, local chamber delegates plan to visit large international trade shows in Berlin and London this fall. Also, airport officials are seeking to improve airline connections so Jackson Hole is only “one stop away” from any airport in the world, according to Mike Gierau, president of the Jackson Hole Air Improvement Resource.

In 2011, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, the number of international visitors to the United States increased by 2.4 million.

In other news, Teton County was named one of only seven destinations in the world selected for the Sustainable Tourism Destination Early Adopters Program, according to the Jackson Hole News&Guide. If the county pays $30,000, it will be evaluated by the United Nations-affiliated group for its efforts to conserve resources and reduce pollution.

With an increasing number of travelers selecting their destinations based on sustainable practices, being a part of this group could be a boon, says Tim O’Donoghue, executive director of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce.

Unsaid, at least in the published version, is a risk: What if Jackson Hole aims to be designated a model for tourism sustainability, but the evaluation by the international organization reveals deep, green flaws? After all, while the valley has remarkable scenery, much of its built environment isn’t much different than a suburb in, say, Cleveland.

Meanwhile, Jackson has also directed some of its new lodging tax dollars in another direction entirely. The community allocated some hotel rooms and $70,000 in lodging-tax proceeds to help underwrite a so-called reality television show called “Modern Family.” Some in Jackson question the expense. While the TV show may have an audience, it’s unlikely to attract anyone with values aligned with those of people in the outdoors-oriented Wyoming valley.
 
Late-day slab claims Crested Butte man
OPHIR – The United States’ winter’s avalanche toll reached 30 last Friday when a massive avalanche killed a skier in Paradise Basin, near Ophir Pass.

The 34-year-old victim, Knox Frank, from Crested Butte, was the seventh Colorado avi fatality this season. Although he was wearing a beacon, the slide was so massive that his three companions were unable to reach him for 45 minutes. According to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, the wet slab slide ran for almost a mile. Frank was carried about 1,000 feet and buried under 3 to 7 feet of snow. The slide happened at about 4 p.m. on a day where temperatures had reached close to 60 degrees.

In Telluride, speakers at a forum warned about getting too complacent about the dangers of avalanches, just because the snow is firming up into corn, reports the Telluride Daily Planet.

“We’ve had fatalities in April before. Just because February is the biggest month for avalanches and it kind of tapers off, (the danger is ) not to be ignored,” said Ian Havlick, a guide for Helitrax, a helicopter skiing company. He and others noted many wet-slide avalanches.

Elsewhere in Colorado, a 27-year-old backcountry skier died on Buffalo Mountain, located near Frisco, after falling nearly 1,500 feet in a couloir and hitting rocks.

Who should pay for backcountry rescues?
BANFF, Alberta – Spirited words are being expressed in the pages of the Rocky Mountain Outlook in the wake of an expensive helicopter rescue of snowboarders who left the Sunshine ski area to seek out powder in adjacent territory.

Their rescue, located in Banff National Park, involved a helicopter and snowmobiles, and also involved risk for the rescuers. Winds were high, and the terrain was tricky. In the end, all turned out well.

Or did it? Alvin Shier, in a letter published in the newspaper, notes that the helicopter used in mountain rescues costs $2,000 an hour – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

“There’s no question those in trouble should be rescued, but should the costs be borne by the taxpayers?” he asks. “It’s long overdue that those taking part in extreme sports carry insurance to pay all costs if they need to be rescued.”

Josh Briggs, writing the next week, finds that argument misleading and philosophically uncharitable. In fact, those who pay park user fees pay for rescues.

He also cautions against casting stones. “Personally, I am unwilling to judge one person as foolhardy and another as a victim of bad luck – accidents happen to good people with good intentions.”

More names than you can shake a stick at
GRANBY– Henceforth everything is to be known as Granby Ranch. And what was it before?

You have to go back to the late 1960s, when a Bavarian-style development patterned after Vail was planned for the property called Val Moritz. When the resort finally did open in 1982, it was Silver Creek and then, in a re-branding effort, SilverCreek.

Later came SolVista Ski Basin, although the real-estate component was called Granby Ranch and the golf course Headwaters.

Now, all is to be reannointed as Granby Ranch some way or another: Ski Granby Ranch, Golf Granby Ranch, and so on.

Granby Ranch representatives tell the Sky-Hi News that there’s never a good time to do a complete rebranding of this magnitude, which is expected to cost several hundred thousand dollars. But sooner was better than later. “Why continue to build equity in brands that are going to change,” said Kyle Harrison, the director of development for the real-estate division.

Real estate resurgence a story of highs, lows
VAIL – Real estate sold in the Vail area so far this year has hit the greatest volume since 2008, before the recession hit.

Dollar volume for the January-February months was $197 million. That compares with $331 million in 2008, reports Land Title Guarantee Co. Nearly a quarter of sales volume occurred at the valley’s high end, in Vail Village. One sale, in the new Solaris project, was for $2,218 per square foot.

In the lower valley, in the Eagle and Gypsum communities, there’s also considerable activity, but more of it is due to bank sales.
In Aspen’s down-valley communities, sales activity occurred at a furious pace. But, reports the Aspen Times, much of this breathless pace was spurred by foreclosures and short sales.

Prices are down 30 to 40 percent in the Basalt and Carbondale areas, but the newspaper reports a sense among real-estate agents that the tide has now turned in Basalt, which is a little closer to Aspen, but not quite yet in Carbondale.

– Allen Best