Lights twinkle, but at expense of stars
WHISTLER, B.C. – LED lights have been praised profusely. The lights are brighter and more efficient than even compact fluorescents, and certainly more so than the old-fashioned incandescent bulbs.

But their deployment is having a perhaps unintended consequence in Whistler. Because they cost less to operate and are durable, why not put up more of them?

If saving energy is the goal, then that defeats the purpose. It also defeats the purpose of seeing the stars in the night sky.

“Many of our village trees are now decked top to bottom with Christmas lights through the winter with hundreds of thousand more bulbs than before in the build-up to the 2010 Olympic Games,” notes Pique Newsmagazine’s Andrew Mitchell. While these and other sources of illumination are truly beautiful, he says, “there’s also no question that all this electrical magic blots out the natural glamour of our night sky.”

Celestial twinkles are being suffocated by many other land-based lights, too. For example, lights designed to look like Olympic torches were erected along a trail in an area called Cheakamus Crossing. The torches light the paths, sort of, but also are directed skyward.

In some cases, there’s room for dispute about the proper balance. One transit stop that is used 22 hours a day is lit far too lavishly, say nearby residents. City officials cite the need for safety of travelers. At length, the bus agency has agreed to install shielding in fixtures to direct the lighting downward, at a cost of $200 per light.

It was once possible to see the Milky Way from anywhere in Whistler. No longer, and a photographer who specializes in the night sky said it’s hard to completely get away from the glow of Whistler, Squamish and Vancouver.

Is there hope? A local amateur astronomer, who must now go elsewhere to view into outer space, points out that if energy becomes more expensive, it will be used more judiciously. That would mean pointing lights directly at what you’re trying to see, not wastefully in every direction, as is so often the case.

Aspen canary chirps but none too loudly
ASPEN – In 2005, the city of Aspen released a climate-change manifesto, called the Canary Initiative, which vowed to slash community greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020.

The charter document identified Aspen and other mountain communities as the canary in the coal mine for global warming. The goal asserted then was to aggressively reduce Aspen’s carbon footprint and to serve as a model.

In what could be viewed as a mid-term, Aspen certainly isn’t flunking but it has a ways to go. It has reduced greenhouse gas emission 6 percent as of 2011 when compared to the 2004 baseline. Elyse Hottel, the city’s environmental initiatives project coordinator, said the carbon footprint needed to be down 11 percent by now.

In the last four years, reports the Aspen Daily News, the major gains were recorded in reduced emissions of methane from the landfill and reduced electricity. However, the emissions caused by burning of fossil fuels for air and ground transportation were up, and so were the heating and other power needs of buildings.

Telluride celebrates 40 years of skiing
TELLURIDE – The old-timers are often seen as being in conflict with the newcomers in the ski towns of the West. But in Telluride, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary as a ski resort, the miners were very happy to see the ski lifts arrive.

Telluride’s mining history went back to the 1880s, and for a time the mining paid plenty of bills and built some fabulous-looking houses. By the 1960s, though, the town was on a downhill slide. The last bank had closed and the final few hundred residents wondered how long they could afford to stay. Ores were being depleted.

According to a story in the Daily Planet, those locals included William “Senior” Mahoney, who had grown up skiing and had his own ideas of starting a ski area. Such ideas had been floating around since the late 1930s, about the time commercial skiing began at Aspen, Berthoud Pass and Winter Park.

But none of the ideas floated during the early post-World War II era got anywhere. They needed money. It took the persistence of Joe Zoline, a Chicago-born son of Russian immigrants, to make things happen. The executive vice president and treasurer for Hilton Carte Blanche, he was vacationing in Yellowstone National Park when he heard about Aspen.

In Aspen, he fell in love with mountain towns, so much that he bought a ranch adjacent to the town. Soon, he learned about the plight of Telluride. Lands used for sheep ranching were in danger of being subdivided into 35-acre ranchettes. Zoline resisted diving into a new project, family members tell the Telluride Daily Planet, but at length he agreed that somebody needed to make the ski area happen. He did.

Mahoney was the first company hire, and Johnnie Stevens, who had also grown up in Telluride, came soon after. Both remained as key figures in skiing and other resort operations until relatively recently, and they say it’s been almost entirely good.

“We were finally transitioning from a mining town,” Stevens says of that pivotal time in the 1970s. “We were living the dream.”

At times, there has been squabbling, but not about the long-term vision, says Stevens. And he stressed the teamwork needed to achieve success. “I think on most counts we’ve done a very, very good job. A lot of people think this was luck, and it wasn’t luck. It was collectivism.”

Visions of I-70 corridor high-speed rail
SILVERTHORNE – Visions of a high-speed rail for Colorado’s Interstate 70 corridor were on display last week as eight of 10 companies laid out their specifications.

About half propose to use magnetic levitation, an old technology that is now in use in a high-speed train in Shanghai, China. One company proposes to use electric power to push rubber tires on a guideway, while another company envisions a suspended monorail.

In inviting applications, the Colorado Department of Transportation said that the proposals had to be fast – or at least faster than cars. That’s 65 mph when the highway is unencumbered by snow or heavy traffic. On Saturdays and Sundays in particular, but increasingly on other days of summer and winter, a 60-minute drive from Summit County to Denver can drag to two, three or even four hours.

The minimum speed purported by any of these technologies is 80 miles per hour, but many say their vehicles would be able to achieve speeds of 150 miles per hour, and even faster, according to a document released by the Colorado Department of Transportation.

When will any of this happen? Who knows? In June 2011, CDOT issued a document that calls for continued investment in the existing highway system, to increase the number of vehicles it can carry, by reducing bottlenecks.

But the document also articulated a plan to begin evaluating some kind of rail-based mass transit to be implemented sometime during the next 50 years. State officials tell the Summit Daily News that study of financing could begin next year.

Even the cheapest of the proposals calls for a staggering capital investment of at least $15 million per mile. Others range up to $458 million a mile. That’s $1 billion and up for the segment between Denver and Vail. However, a previous study estimated $15 billion for the corridor. By comparison, CDOT’s annual capital construction budget for the entire state is $1 billion.

Meanwhile, work is now starting on a project that will lessen but not eliminate an existing bottleneck. Widening of the Twin Tunnels, located 30 miles west of Denver near Idaho Springs, had been estimated to cost $60 million. The project is now being budgeted for $100 million.

Snow matters, but it’s not everything
ASPEN – Snow was crummy last winter in Colorado, including Snowmass. But somehow the ski company still managed to increase revenue at its primary property.

Because it operates on Forest Service land, the company is required to pay fees based on those revenues. The Aspen Daily News reports that the company paid $1.2 million for revenues derived last summer and winter. That’s the most in the last seven years, surpassing even a year of epic snow.

Dave Perry, senior vice president of the mountain division for Aspen Skiing, told the newspaper that the revenue increase can be attributed to strong destination-visitor numbers. In turn, there was strong revenue from ski school and on-mountain restaurant operations.

Across the 11 ski areas in the White River National Forest, which also includes Vail and Breckenridge, ski areas paid the Forest Service $12.5 million last winter and summer. Skier numbers were generally down – but revenues were not.

Cops report a dicey situation in Whistler
WHISTLER, B.C. – Being a cop in a ski town can’t be all that dangerous, can it? Well, add alcohol to the mix, and things can deteriorate rapidly.
In Whistler, a bar was so crowded that managers banned additional patrons. When the growing crowd outside grew rowdy, police were summoned.

Cops tried to detain one young man, who was damaging a rack with skis on it, but he resisted –egged on by members of the crowd. Some tried to physically assist the vandal, and police told Pique that one individual even attempted to pull a gun from the holster of one of the cops.

All in all, while ski towns like to think of themselves as frisky, it’s not the sort of thing that family-friendly resorts are happy to report.

Colorado River-front property to stay open
EAGLE – Thanks to the gambling instincts of Coloradans, the public will have more places along the Colorado River to get their feet wet without infringing on private property.

With a $3.9 million grant from Great Outdoors Colorado, Eagle County Open Space purchased a conservation easement on a 1,000 acre ranch that straddles the Colorado River, northeast of Glenwood Canyon, about an hour’s drive from Vail.

Along with another acquisition, 3.7 miles of Colorado River frontage will be protected, according to a press release from Eagle County.

SmartWool goes solo at the Beav
BEAVER CREEK – SmartWool, the manufacturer of sturdy socks and other items made from merino wool, now has a store at Beaver Creek, the first such SmartWool-branded retail store in North America.

The Steamboat Pilot reports that SmartWool, which was founded and still is headquartered in Steamboat Springs, has partnered with Vail Resorts.

Some 39 retailers in North America have 200- to 300-square-foot spaces devoted to SmartWool products, but this store is a stand-alone, with 600 square feet.

As for when SmartWool will open its own store in Steamboat, no one knows.

– Allen Best




 

In this week's issue...

January 25, 2024
Bagging it

State plastic bag ban is in full effect, but enforcement varies

January 26, 2024
Paper chase

The Sneer is back – and no we’re not talking about Billy Idol’s comeback tour.

January 11, 2024
High and dry

New state climate report projects continued warming, declining streamflows