Once again, guns, drinking don’t mix
CRESTED BUTTE – So, this 21-year-old guy has five or six drinks at one bar near Crested Butte and then hitches a ride into town, and has another five or six drinks at another bar. Then, he pulls a handgun from his pocket.

Can you imagine any good coming from this story?

Well, there wasn’t. The gun went off, sending a bullet into the pelvic area of his drinking buddy. The drinking buddy survived but spent some time in the hospital, reports the Crested Butte News.

Witnesses told police no anger or malice was evident. The shooter claims an accident. Why he lit out from the bar after the accident wasn’t explained, other than things “went fuzzy.”

As they tend to do after 10 or 12 drinks.

Jesus hangs on at Jackson rodeo
JACKSON, Wyo. – “Jesus doesn’t have a prayer at the Jackson Hole Rodeo,” reports the Jackson Hole News&Guide.

The story began last summer. An operator allowed to use municipal property for the twice-weekly rodeos began them with prayers that often included Biblical verses and other overt mentions of Christian belief. Some of those attending objected, as they felt forced to join.

In response, town officials asked the rodeo promoter to make the prayer nonsectarian, saying the town could not legally endorse a specific religion. The rodeo operator did, but then reverted back to a prayer rooted in the Bible.

All of this comes down to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech… .”

What does this mean in practice? Many people have argued that framers of the Constitution, who were mostly Christian, meant only that a specific type of Christian religion – say Presbyterian or Baptist – could not be made the state religion, as had existed in England.

The Jackson town government makes the case that the prayer needs to be of the sort that somebody of another religion could live with. “Those of us who honor Christianity will do so in our hearts, as we always have,” said Jackson Mayor Mark Barron. And those who honor Islam, Judaism or another faith will do so in their hearts as well, he added. This is, he said, a “unifying opportunity.”

But some local Christians said they believe this is an erosion of freedom of speech and expression.

Further muddying the waters is that the town does allow some specific faith-based events, such as Christmas caroling and a menorah, on town property. The difference, said Barron, is that the applications were specifically for faith-based purposes. The rodeo application was for a rodeo.

Heli-beacon helps in avalanche rescues
SUMMIT COUNTY – The odds of survival have gone up just a little bit for people who get caught in avalanches in the Breckenridge-Vail area.

The Denver Post reports that Flight for Life, a helicopter-shuttle medical service, now has a high-powered beacon detector that can be dangled from a hovering helicopter over a slide area. Within minutes, the service believes it can assemble a ski patroller from a nearby resort, a dog trained in avalanche search and a snow technician and shuttle them to the site.

The technology isn’t entirely new. It’s been used at Park City, Utah, as well as in Washington, Alaska and Oregon – and most certainly across Europe, where the technology was developed by Manuel Genswein, a Swiss avalanche expert who consulted with beacon maker Barryvox.

Of course, you do have to be wearing a beacon when buried. Also keep in mind that even when the helicopter gets there, your odds aren’t good. Avalanches are violent things.

Lou Dawson, of WildSnow.com, wrote this in 2006, and it undoubtedly still applies: “I can testify that if you’re swept away by anything but the smallest slide, your avalanche beacon is of little concern compared to your tearing ligaments and snapping bones.”

Just the same, always wear a beacon, added Dawson.

Water at headwaters requires balance
TELLURIDE – Even at the very headwaters of major rivers, the balance of water and competing needs can be precarious.

Consider Telluride and its box canyon of loveliness in the San Juan Mountains. The headwaters of the San Miguel River originate there in various above-timberline basins, and in one of those basins is a big bucket of pristine mountain water called Blue Lake. It’s 330 feet deep.

Water from the lake flows over the canyon lip at Bridal Veil Falls. But before it thunders to the canyon floor, the power of the falling water is harnessed by a hydroelectric plant.

This system dates back to Telluride’s era as a mining town, and it is now being reconfigured to best meet the needs of Telluride’s modern existence as a resort town. An agreement was recently reached between the municipality and Idarado, the former mine operator, a subsidiary of Newmont Mining.

The agreement, reports The Telluride Watch, gives Idarado the water it needs to avoid unhealthy levels of zinc contamination in the San Miguel River from mine tailings, as required by a legal settlement.

But the town also gets the water it needs, even in drought years. The town was perilously close to exhausting its supply last June.

“If we had had a big fire during (Telluride Bluegrass Festival), it could have been a very dangerous situation,” said Kevin Geiger. “That’s the advantage of Blue Lake. It is a large vessel of water that is there if we need to call on it at a certain time.”

A bonus for Telluride is that it can also use the former mining company’s water rights in its hydroelectric plant planned in conjunction with the new Pandora Water Treatment Plant. This will help the town reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.

Aspen reconsiders its hydro project
ASPEN – City officials in Aspen are back to the drafting table after voters issued a thumb’s down in a nonbinding vote to plans for a hydroelectric plant that would help the community shrink its dependency on carbon fuels.

By a wide margin, voters in 2007 authorized issuing $5.5 million in bonds to pay for the project. Over the last several years, however, river advocates and homeowners along the creeks that would be dewatered have argued that the impacts are too great. The vote was a squeaker, but even half the community having doubts is too much for some City Council members.

The city has already invested $7 million in the proposition – $9.5 million if you include interest, reports the Aspen Daily News. City officials recently said they’d go back and review options, including getting renewable energy from other sources. That said, they believe they already did that work before going down the hydroelectric route, and nothing else – wind, solar, you name it – comes close to what they had proposed, even with more limited electrical production.

Homeowners along the creek dismiss the project as an exercise in nostalgia. Aspen got all of its power from hydroelectric production until 1958, about 12 years after the ski area began operations.

Jim Markalunas, who is 81, began working at the plant in the 1940s, when he was still in high school. In letters published in the local papers, he argues for the council to stay the course because the power is clean and local and, he says, global warming is real. He also keeps track of temperatures, and Aspen is clearly warmer than it was 50 years ago.

But City Council members acknowledge that a new approach will be needed. Exactly what that approach will be isn’t clear.

“At the very least, they should analyze the arguments of the opposition, provide answers to the public, and then schedule a binding vote on the issues,” advises Jack Johnson, a columnist in the Aspen Daily News. “Clearly they shouldn’t give up in the face of this one result and waste the money we’ve already spent.”

A sore spot in the minds of hydro supporters were the numerous mailers sent to local residents prior to the November election that argued against the hydro project in ways that even opponents think fudged the truth. Who paid for these mailers is not clear.

Hands of justice turn on killer of sled dogs
WHISTLER, B.C. – Finally, there is resolution to the horrible case at Whistler of the dog-sled operator who killed dozens of his dogs, at least some inhumanely, according to a judicial settlement. Now found guilty, the man faces a fine of up to $75,000 and up to five years in jail.

The dogs were being culled from the sledding operation after no longer being needed in 2010. Operators are allowed to do so, as the dogs are of the sort that can’t be adopted out.

Exactly how he killed the dogs is not exactly clear, although there have been reports over the last two years. Because of the bungled nature of the killings, other dogs became fearful and traumatized.

All of this came to light when the man filed for worker’s compensation to deal with the mental stress of his deed. Details of his application were leaked to reporters.

Pique Newsmagazine says distress was evident in the courtroom. “Stop, stop,” a woman whispered loudly while hearing how some dogs were shot. A few members of the gallery were weeping.

After the sled-dog killings were reported, laws in British Columbia governing cruelty to animals are now the strictest in Canada.

Plans for Jumbo resort take another big step
INVERMERE, B.C. – The Jumbo Glacier Resort came closer to reality recently when the provincial government in British Columbia appointed councilors and a mayor for the new resort municipality of Jumbo.

Development officials commended the announcement, but environmental groups, some First Nations people and the mayor of the closest town, Invermere, condemned it.

In discussion since the 1980s, Jumbo is to have 5,500 beds at build-out and the infrastructure to accommodate 2,000 to 3,000 people per day. By comparison, the largest U.S. ski area, Vail, handles 20,000 on a very busy day. The resort is described as being one-tenth the size of Whistler Blackcomb.

“They are pushing ahead on something that clearly ignores the local population, First Nations spiritual claims and grizzly bear science. No one wants this,” Robyn Duncan, program manager of Wildsight, an environmental group in the Columbia River Valley, told one newspaper.

The resort is planned for a former sawmill site 55 kilometers (30 miles) west of Invermere, or 250 km (162 miles) west of Calgary.

At least one group of First Nations, the 300-member band of Shuswaps, supports the project, having concluded that sufficient environmental precautions are planned. They are also drawn by the 750 jobs the resort will supposedly create.

Bear outwits trash container in Aspen
ASPEN, Colo. – Aspen municipal employees thought they had outsmarted the local bears in the design of trash containers. They were wrong.
In mid-November, long after bears were believed to have retired for the winter, a bear plucked a bag from a trash container in front of Aspen City Hall.

The bear-proof containers had been in place for a decade. “After 10 years, we finally got a bear that was bright — brighter than we are,” said Jeff Woods, director of the city parks department. “The long and short of it is that we are looking to modify the trash cans to be more bear resistant.”

The Aspen Daily News reports that nine bears were killed in Aspen and close-by areas this year, and another six were trapped and moved to other areas.

– Allen Best