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Possible expansion plans at Mammoth

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. – In the 1970s, Mammoth Mountain led North America in skier days, despite being 350 miles from Los Angeles and with not much of an airport.

After that, it got bumped by Vail Mountain and then Breckenridge. Now, backed by the investment capital of Starwood, Mammoth is flexing its muscle again, purchasing Bear Mountain and Snow Summit, which are located about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.

But why would anybody want to buy ski areas after drought in three of the last four years and a warming climate? The Los Angeles Times noted that skier visits dropped as much as 45 percent last winter as compared to the previous season.

“We are dealing with a climate-change market,” Bob Roberts, who runs the California Ski Industry Association, told the Times. Roberts pointed to a new push by ski area operators to generate profits by developing year-round activities, such as zip lines and mountain bike trails.

“Consolidation is allowing larger resorts to rethink the mountain recreation business,” he said.

Roberts didn’t mention Vail Resorts, but Rusty Gregory, the chief executive of Mammoth, did. He told The Sheet, a newspaper in Mammoth Lakes, that this addition of two new ski areas allows Mammoth to better compete with Vail Resorts for customers from Southern California. He also hinted at trying to draw destination skiers from elsewhere in the world.

Now, one bundled ski pass of $689 provides access to the three ski mountains plus June Mountain, Mammoth’s kid sister. The pass is cleverly being marked as the “Cali4nia” pass.

Another $389 will provide the advantage of the Mountain Collective, a pass good for 14 additional days of skiing at Aspen/Snowmass, Jackson Hole, Alta/Snowbird, Whistler, Squaw Valley and others.

Gregory spoke of “exciting new development and expansion plans” for each of the four ski areas, but did not elaborate. The four ski areas combined currently draw about 2 million skier days per winter, 60 percent of those at Mammoth and June Mountain.

Michael Berry, director of the National Ski Areas Association, said he sees the California consolidation as further evidence of the profitability of ski areas and another step in the industry’s vertical integration. “The players might change. The companies might change. But the industry has been ripe and will continue to be ripe for consolidation,” he said.

He said the most attractive ski areas for purchase will be those medium-sized ski areas, some of them family owned, near major population centers or with strong transportation connections.

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Tarantino flick to film near Telluride

TELLURIDE – The storyline of writer-director Quentin Tarantino’s next movie is set in Wyoming but, in fact, it will be filmed 10 miles west of Telluride on a ranch on Wilson Mesa.

The Denver Post reports that the movie, called “The Hateful Eight,” will be filmed starting Dec. 8.

Set in the early 1870s, the film tells what happens when a collection of bounty hunters, Civil War vets and – well, this is a Quentin Tarantino movie – scoundrels descend on a small Wyoming town.

Colorado is paying a $5 million subsidy for the movie production, which has a $44 million budget. The crew is to be housed in Telluride and take a break over Christmas.

Snow, says the Post, is crucial to the storyline, which could be one reason why New Mexico wasn’t in the running. Telluride better hope for more snow than it has gotten in recent years.

Actors rumored to be attached to the film include Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Dern.

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Visions for future of ‘Snowmastadon’

SNOWMASS VILLAGE – Four years ago this October, a bulldozer uncovered a large bone while enlarging an ancient lakebed for use as a reservoir for Snowmass Village. It turned out to be the bone of a mammoth.

That discovery led to the discovery of a lot of other ancient bones, including another elephant-like creature, a camel, a giant ground sloth larger than today’s grizzly bears and many other species from the last interglacial period of 130,000 to 40,000 years ago.

Since then, Snowmass has been mulling over what to do with this significant discovery. Paleontologists involved in the excavations say it ranks among the most important ice age discoveries ever in North America.

A recently completed feasibility study outlines options, including the potential for visitors to overlook the reservoirs where the bones were found, along with a museum. But all of this will take money. The online nonprofit news source “Aspen Journalism” reports that the cost might run as high as $10 million.

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Boom years are back in Park City

PARK CITY, Utah – Things are bustling in Park City, with every expectation of more bustle yet.

Vail Resorts now controls two of the three local ski areas, Park City and Canyons. The company plans to link the two ski areas with a chairlift next summer, although the precise details won’t be revealed until next spring.

Real estate is in play, too, notes The Park Record. Rob Katz, the chief executive of Vail Resorts, told analysts that the Canyons has a “tremendous amount” of real estate development potential. But Vail, according to the Vail Daily, will not be involved there.

Opportunity also exists for further development of the base area at Park City. “That’s something obviously we would like to monetize, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to be by us doing the project ourselves. We could partner with others as well.”

However, Katz seems less than bullish about immediate work. “There are no projects being launched at any resorts,” he said, although he did note a dwindling inventory.

Even without active base-area development, the hustle and bustle of construction has returned to Park City. The Record reports that the city this year will almost certainly surpass $100 million in building for the first time since 2008. Work slowed to $41 million during the recession compared to a peak of $240 million during the boom.

A new study about road congestion expects far more growth ahead. A state agency predicts an 85 percent population growth in Summit County, where Park City is located, during the next 30 years. Neighboring Wasatch County should expect a 149 percent increase. All that, of course, means more cars on roads ill-equipped to handle them.

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Why the hesitancy about solar project?

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – Breckenridge has invested in community solar gardens, and so have Telluride and Mountain Village.

Not so Steamboat Springs and Routt County. Why the heck not? Asks the Steamboat Today.

Mystifying to the newspaper is the city and county governments’ rejection of a new solar garden despite the happy experience of county government with its existing solar energy. Solar panels installed on the Justice Center seven years ago recouped $60,000 in renewable energy credits and $24,000 in reduced energy costs, says the newspaper, citing a local government official.

Those savings were accomplished with $8 per watt for solar panels. Prices have plunged since then, and the project being shunned offers panels for just $2.75 per watt.

The proposed solar garden “falls in line with the county’s goal of transitioning in ‘future energy strategies.’ It also would match the city’s stated priority of being a leader in sustainability,” the newspaper says in an editorial.

Too, this can be achieved with a relatively small increment in price, 10 cents a kilowatt hour compared with the 7.8 cents per kwh now being paid.

“We view both the county commissioners and the City Council’s hesitation to invest in the solar garden as a missed opportunity for our local government leaders to make a small but meaningful investment in a project that could pay bigger dividends for individual consumers, and we hope they’ll reconsider,” the editorial continues. “In our eyes, their involvement in the project is not only an investment in renewable energy but an endorsement.”

– Allen Best

The solar garden is being installed in Craig, 42 miles west of Steamboat, by Clean Energy Collective. The same company has also developed two solar gardens in Breckenridge, two down-valley from Aspen (one at El Jebel and the other at Rifle), and another one 80 miles west of Telluride/Mountain Village. All solar panels in these projects have been sold except for the one west of Telluride.

The company is now planning a solar garden atop a landfill in the Glenwood Springs area.

For more in-depth stories from mountain towns and valleys across the West, go to mountaintownnews.net.