People love or loathe Christo art project
SALIDA – Landscape artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude made quite a pair. Appearing on the stage of the high school in Telluride a few years ago to talk about their latest project, they bantered back and forth a bit like Sonny and Cher.
SALIDA – Landscape artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude made quite a pair. Appearing on the stage of the high school in Telluride a few years ago to talk about their latest project, they bantered back and forth a bit like Sonny and Cher.
Although he has broader name recognition, they made a splash together for about 35 years with such projects as: a 24-mile fabric fence across the hills of San Francisco; the wrapping of 11 islands near Miami in pink plastic; and, in 1972, a giant orange curtain that was temporarily draped across the mouth of a canyon near Rifle.
In 1997, they began planning a return to Colorado, for a project called “Over the River.” The plans, now approved by state and federal officials, call for suspension of reflective, translucent fabric above the Arkansas River. This is to be done in segments covering almost 6 miles of a 42-mile segment of the river between Salida and Cañon City. The exhibit is planned for two weeks during the summer of 2014.
Few people are on the fence about the project. Anglers seem to hate the idea. “You can put clothes on a dog, but what’s the point,” said Denver Post hook-and-bullet columnist Scott Willoughby. The same newspaper tells of a recent hearing in Cañon City at which opponents raised their voices more shrilly. “God’s natural beauty cannot be enhanced,” said one local resident.
And the sheriff in Fremont County, downstream of the project, where the SuperMax prison is located, warns of risk from having so many people congregated in the canyon. He warns of a “very real threat” of terrorists, many with “brothers in arms incarcerated a few miles away,” launching an attack in the canyon, according to a report in the Post.
Opposition is coalesced in a group called Rags Over the Arkansas River, or ROAR.
However, ROAR’s stridency has made some a supporter of the project, such as Ed Quillen, of High Country News.
Another supporter, Lois Manno, writing in Salida’s Mountain Mail, currently lives in Santa Fe but intends to move to Salida – in part because of the project by the 77-year-old Christo. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009 of a brain aneurysm. “We are living proof that Christo’s project will draw new energy to the region – people from outside of Colorado will view Salida and Cañon City favorably because there are enough open-minded citizens to support this world-class art event,” Manno wrote.
Avie victim dies despite equipment
TELLURIDE – Again comes evidence that you can have all the technology in the world, and it won’t necessarily save your hide.
The Telluride Watch reports that Nate Soules, 38, Events and Activities Coordinator for the Telluride Ski and Golf Club was skiing alone Monday in the Bear Creek drainage when he was caught in an avalanche. His avalanche beacon worked fine, and he was buried under only 4 feet of snow. His Air Bag System had been shredded. He also had an Avalung, to no avail.
The newspaper noted that he was without breath or pulse when dug out, and there was evidence of head trauma. He leaves behind a widow and a young son.
The area where Soules died, known as “Contention” is near the infamous Temptation slide path. The accident occurred almost 23 years to the day of the tragic 1989 Valentine’s Day avalanche in Temptation that killed two local skiers and injured another, according to the Watch. A string of avalanche fatalities in Bear Creek during the winter of 1987/88 caused the area to be closed, but access to parts of Upper Bear Creek reopened in 1988/89. That opening didn’t last long, with the 1989 Temptation accident prompting another federal closure in 1990.
However, in 2000, a backcountry access gate was installed at the top of what is now Revelation Bowl, giving “sidecountry” access to Upper Bear Creek from the ski area. The lower terrain, including Contention, remained closed. Then, in 2009, as per USFS request, backcountry gates were installed at the top of Lift 9, along the ski area’s eastern boundary, above the frequently traveled Contention and Reggae terrain. Soules likely accessed the area via one of these gates.
Telluride Ski Resort reported more than 10 inches of new snow Monday morning and the Colorado Avalanche Information Center had posted an Avalanche Warning for the San Juans, noting it was “a good day to avoid traveling on or below avalanche terrain.”
Aspen not so sexy from the back side
ASPEN – Sexiest city in the United States? A poll of 752 people conducted by Orbitz, the internet travel company, put Aspen at the No. 4 slot, behind Las Vegas, Miami and New York City.
With sex on its mind, The Aspen Times interviewed Zemfira Alieva, who owns a store that clearly caters to people with sex on their minds. Her store sells lingerie and other novelty items. She described Aspen as more romantic than sexy.
The newspaper noted that there are aspects to Aspen that are neither sexy nor romantic: youths in their late teens and early 20s vomiting in the pedestrian malls during the X Games; smells in the downtown alleys after a busy night in the bars and restaurants; and the city’s often contentious discussions of land use.
Bus agency weighs natural gas policy
ASPEN – Credit this to leaders in Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley. They do think about some of the dominoes of their actions.
A case in point is the transition to natural gas by the valley-wide bus agency, Roaring Fork Transit Authority, which is converting 22 buses from running on diesel to running on natural gas. The move would save the agency hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
To help retrofit them, the agency is accepting $365,000 from EnCana Oil and Gas, one of the largest natural gas producers in North America and a major operator in Colorado’s gas fields.
EnCana has raised eyebrows in the last few years on a couple of occasions. It admitted to a mistake and was fined $371,000 eight years ago for fouling a creek near where the RFTA buses operate. More recently, in December, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found a shallower aquifer in Wyoming had been polluted because of fracking.
Too, there’s much local heartburn about potential drilling in the Thompson Creek area, to the west of Carbondale and Aspen. It’s not, say most locals, an acceptable place to drill, despite permission from federal agencies, who administer the land.
Faced with these complexities, the directors of the transit authority are mulling a policy statement that says it will attempt to do business with only those that adhere to industry best practices when exploring for, extracting and delivering energy resources, and that it does not support exploration or drilling for natural resources in environmentally sensitive areas.
The Aspen Times says the board is split on whether it has any business trying to tell companies where and how they can drill.
“How do we define environmentally sensitive areas?” asked one board member. “It’s not our place to be making some of these judgments.”
Another, however, said adopting a policy would “make the industry think – a tiny bit. It’s a start.”
While admitting to “some slight hypocrisy,” another member reported this bottom line: “We’re in pursuit of the most efficient fuel possible, but we want to be protective of our environmentally sensitive areas.”
Whole Foods next on Frisco’s plate
FRISCO – Summit County continues to fill with bigger-box stores from corporate America. It has Target, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart, and is now looking at a Whole Foods.
Developer David O’Neil, who has developed affordable-housing projects in Breckenridge, Frisco and Denver, says that the natural food chain is interested in building a store on the town’s 9.4-acre lot along I-70. He describes Whole Foods as the crown jewel of national retailers.
The store would be at least 25,000 square feet, reports the Summit Daily News.
Salt Lake also now studying Olympics
PARK CITY, Utah – Denver and Reno were already thinking about going after the 2022 Winter Olympics, and now comes Salt Lake City. City and state officials announced last week that they were convening a committee to take a hard look at seeking the 2022 or 2026 Olympics. It seems like the last one in 2002 was so fun, they want to do it again. Besides, they now have the facilities built, so half the work is over.
Rift likely to rumble across Colorado
BOULDER – Everybody knows that California will eventually have another big rumble. But how about Colorado?
New research by scientists has established that the Rio Grande Rift is very slowly tearing apart Colorado, as well as New Mexico.
“We don’t expect to see a lot of earthquakes, or big ones, but we will have some earthquakes,” said Anne Sheehan, the associate director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences.
The rift is marked by a series of hot springs as it extends northward through Colorado’s San Luis Valley, past Poncha Springs and on to Leadville.
Using GPS at 25 sites in Colorado and New Mexico, the team of scientists tracked the miniscule movements from 2006-11.They found that the Earth’s crust is straining to tear apart at the rate of 1.2 nanostrain each year.
That’s less than was thought – but still enough to produce some earthquakes from time to time.
Corporate offices to remain in Steamboat
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – In 1974, a small construction company called The Industrial Co. was founded in Steamboat Springs. It did small projects in Steamboat and nearby areas, such as water-treatment plants, but grew steadily over the years.
In time, it began doing business around the world – but kept its corporate headquarters in Steamboat Springs. Despite having been sold to construction giant Peter Kiewit in 2008, it looks like TIC, as the company is now called, will stay put – more or less.
The Steamboat Pilot reports that the workforce for the corporation shrunk to 145, from a boom-years’ high of 230. But it remains the training headquarters for both craftsmen and managers. This year, the company expects to rotate more than 1,300 employees through Steamboat.
The company has a presence across North America, including Alberta’s development of oil sands.
Revelstoke sees a drop in population
REVELSTOKE, B.C. – Just a few years ago, population growth was a major worry for many in Revelstoke. People were arriving, drawn by the beauty of the region, and that was even before a determined effort was launched to make Mount Mackenzie a major new ski resort, Revelstoke Mountain Resort.
But the census says that Revelstoke has actually lost 100 people in the last five years, leaving it at 7,139, reports the Revelstoke Times Review. This compares with a population gain of 7 percent across British Columbia.
– Allen Best