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Snowshoer dies in slide near Frisco

GEORGETOWN – Again comes evidence that having an avalanche beacon in your pack won’t necessarily allow you to survive an avalanche.

The story comes from Kelso Peak, located 50 miles west of Denver and 20 miles east of Frisco. Three people on snowshoes were walking at the foot of Kelso with the intent of climbing Torrey’s, a 14,000-foot peak on the Continental Divide.

A report on the Colorado Avalanche Information Center website says the three followed a previous skier’s track with some misgiving, as it crossed a slope with several avalanche tracks. Bad decision. The first snowshoer made it safely across, but the second one was caught in a slide.

Using beacons, the companions were able to find the trapped individual under 5 feet of debris, but it was too late.

Throughout the West, there were other deaths and near deaths. In Utah, outside the boundary of Canyons Resort, near Park City, a skier triggered a 300-foot wide avalanche the day after Christmas. He ended up being buried to his neck in avalanche debris that was 15 feet deep. The skier, described as highly experienced in backcountry travel, was dug out by companions, reports the Park Record.

In Wyoming, a 54-year-old lawyer from Cleveland ran out of luck when skiing at Jackson Hole. The body of Marc Krantz was found in a somewhat inverted position, his head buried in the powdery snow, in a steep ravine. While the coroner’s report had not been released, it appeared he was asphyxiated, unable to free himself in the deep snow.

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By the walk-up price, Vail is still No. 1

ASPEN – What’s the most popular ski area in North America? That question is the bread-and-butter for the ski magazines, who use all sorts of measuring sticks to come up with their rankings.

One measure, however, is how much a ski area can get for its lift tickets. Yes, yes – hardly anybody pays the full price and mostly then just during the busy holidays.

That top-dollar price again this year has been at Vail and Beaver Creek, at least so far. The Aspen Daily News, which tracks such things, reports that the resorts were charging $159 one day last week, while Breckenridge had upped its rate to $145.

Aspen kept its lid at $129, up $5 from last season. Deer Valley was charging $120 and Whistler/Blackcomb $119.

Those numbers may have shifted somewhat after the Daily News report, but they give a flavor of this particular pecking order.

The Daily News also notes that Aspen’s top price has gone up 65 percent since 2005. That should tell you about income levels for the world’s wealthiest 1 percent, the Christmas week bread-and-butter for Aspen and many of the other destination resorts.

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Squaw Valley takes strong climate stance

TRUCKEE, Calif. – How much of a threat is climate change to ski areas? At California’s Squaw Valley, chief executive Andy Wirth describes it as “most certainly a real threat,” but “not a direct threat to our existence as a viable business.”

How so? Squaw Valley has invested millions in expanding its snowmaking capacity since drought began hammering the Sierra Nevada three years ago. “Since the mid-‘80s, the length of ski seasons has actually materially increased with the advent of snowmaking,” he tells the Sierra Sun.

He suggested that ski areas can use other tools to leverage their businesses even as temperatures rise.

The ski area recently released “Environmental & Community Report 2014,” its first such document. It has strong language.

“For our part, Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows now stands with 99 percent of the scientific community and publicly recognizes that climate change is both human caused … and utterly irrefutable,” writes Michael Gross, director of environmental initiatives, in the report. “Our glaciers are melting, sea levels rising, temperatures soaring.”

He also points to the changing condition of Lake Tahoe, which has had reduced clarity even after cleanup efforts. The problem is growth of algae, a product of warmer temperatures.

A good snowmelt might seem like the answer, but research by University of California-Davis scientists points to a long-term trend: Snow decreased from an average of 51 percent of total precipitation getting into the lake in 1910 to just 36 percent in 2012.

“As a world-renowned resort, our intention is to lead the fight against climate change – not merely follow the paths of others,” Gross writes in the report.

Tellingly, the report urges readers to check out some of the more fierce advocacy organizations, including Bill McKibben’s 350.org and Citizens’ Climate Lobby, which advocates a carbon tax and fee on emissions.

“We have the resources and technology to change the destructive path we are on,” the report says.

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Steamboat looks at tight rental market

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – The Steamboat Pilot & Today says that one of the major challenges facing its community this year is the scarcity of affordable rental housing.

“The increasingly tight rental market has caused rents to rise, and more and more people living here on moderate incomes are finding it extremely difficult to secure housing.”

The newspaper applauds plans by the local Yampa Valley Housing Authority to pursue a public-private partnership to develop affordable housing on 10 acres of land owned by the nonprofit.

Meanwhile, the Jasper Fitzhugh newspaper objects to arguments made by neighborhood opponents of a rezoning that could produce 10 apartments in the community’s tight-as-a-drum rental market.

“Most troubling of the arguments was the idea that renters are less respectful of their homes and neighborhoods than homeowners,” notes the newspaper. If there’s truth to that perception, it paints with entirely too broad a brush, the newspaper says.

“By crying ‘not in my backyard’ and pointing fingers at lowly renters, homeowners are depriving many of Jasper’s residents of the healthy, happy homes they deserve.”

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Whistler struggles with illegal rentals

WHISTLER, B.C. – Might a centralized database of available short-term accommodations in Whistler reduce the black market of rentals in Whistler?

Sue Chappel, chief executive of a resort vacation rental website called alluraDirect, said such a central database would vet and list all legitimate rental properties available in the resort.

Whistler has a severe rental crunch, and the finger is being pointed at least partly at homeowners illegally renting out to vacationers units that had been previously rented to local employees.

This is not a new issue in Whistler or, for that matter, anywhere else. But in Whistler, as elsewhere, the perceived problem has grown in recent years with the advent of Airbnb, VRBO and other web-based accommodation-listing services. In renting illegally, such services also avoid paying community lodging and other taxes.

Pique Newsmagazine reports that some 45 of 65 illegal rental properties have been brought into compliance.

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Assessing the first year of legal pot

FRISCO – It was expected that legalization of cannabis sales would provide a major new source of revenue for local governments in mountain towns, and that’s been the case.

The nine dispensaries in Summit County have done extremely well, by almost any measure. In August alone, they generated $114,000 in tax revenue, according to numbers collected from the state government.

The Summit Daily News points out that the local tax revenues are double those of Aspen and Pitkin County and triple those of the Vail-dominated Eagle County.

In Breckenridge, the dispensaries produced $6.1 million in total sales through November, up from $1.8 million the prior year, when only medical sales were legal. This is a little short of what the town expected, admits Brian Waldes, the town’s financial services manager, but he says no one knew what to expect.

– Allen Best