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It’s enough to make your skin crawl!

ASPEN – Ever had lice crawling in your scalp or on other hairy parts of your body? They’ll cause you to scratch your head for years, long after the lice have disappeared, wondering where you got them.

They’re not due to poor hygiene. You can be rid of them, but not by mere shampoo and soap. Instead, you need products such as something called Rid. Aspen’s pharmacy has had a run on the product in recent weeks.

“We’ve been selling through it like crazy,” a technician at Carl’s Pharmacy tells the Aspen Times. “It started with children, and now the adults are getting it.”

The Times focused on the lice in several child-care facilities. “We’d always been told they wouldn’t survive here because of the altitude. But clearly that’s not the case,” said the owner of one child-care center.

“It is important to note that head lice are not a health hazard or a sign of poor hygiene and are not responsible for the spread of any disease,” noted the Times, citing a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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Using 100% snowmaking for Olympics

WHISTLER, B.C. – Well, this is a different concept. Build a ski area in a place that gets cold but not much snow.

But that’s exactly what the International Olympic Committee has done in choosing China’s location for the 2022 Winter Olympics. But then why do you need snow for the Olympics.

That was essentially the response of Ecosign, the Whistler-based resort consulting company that has been retained by China to create the venue, located about three hours from Beijing, near the city of Zhangjiakou.

“Generally, in China, ski areas have 100 percent snowmaking,” said Don Murray, senior vice president of Ecosign. “The snowmaking snow is good and dense and forms a good base for race courses.”

He added that temperature is not a huge issue.

Ecosign began working with hosts in 1988 at the winter games held in Calgary and Canmore, then in 2002 for the games at Salt Lake and Park City, and – of course – at the Vancouver-Whistler games in 2010.

Murray said China’s greatest challenge will be getting everything built on time. It has an advantage, though, in that some venues in Beijing built for the 2008 Summer Olympics can be used for winter activities, too.

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Ski area expansion outrages scientists

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta – A decision that could produce what the Rocky Mountain Outlook describes as a massive expansion of the Lake Louise ski area has drawn fire from retired managers of Parks Canada. The federal agency manages Banff National Park, where the ski area is located.

“Parks Canada will tell you they haven’t approved anything, that these are guidelines,” said Stephen Woodley, one of 11 former senior park managers who have registered opposition to the guidelines. “But this gives the ski hill at Lake Louise essentially carte blanche to proceed with a massive development in a world heritage site. It’s simply outrageous.”

He and other former park managers are asking the United Nations committee that designates world heritage sites to investigate threats to Banff National Park.

Wildlife advocates worry about impacts to habitat for grizzly bear, but also goats, probably wolverines, and other species.

The guidelines approved by Parks Canada allow an expansion of ski terrain, a new on-mountain cafeteria, and relocation of summer sightseeing operations. Potential capacity could grow to 11,500 skiers a day, nearly double the existing 6,000.

Dan Markham, the director of brand and communications for the ski area, told the Outlook that all the projects would take a couple of decades. “It’s going to be about market demand,” he said.

At Marmot, a ski area about two hours north of Lake Louise but within Jasper National Park, the federal government is also leaving the door open for expansion. Scientists worry that ski area expansion may work against preservation of the endangered caribou herds. Mark Hebblewhite, a caribou expert, said it’s unethical to think about reintroducing caribou from elsewhere into both Banff and Jasper national parks while thinking about expanded commercial development.

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Jackson Hole expansion in the works 

JACKSON, Wyo. – Jackson Hole’s two ski areas are both moving along toward major upgrades.

The smaller of the two ski areas, Snow King, is located within the town of Jackson. Officials in July announced they will begin seeking approval for a gondola, something the ski area now lacks, as well as a top-to-bottom zip line. An expanded boundary would allow Snow King to become two-thirds larger.

Max Chapman, president of Snow King, told the News&Guide that the goal is to create a ski hill that will draw the locals while holding its own against other resorts in the region.

In addition to Snow King, there’s the larger Jackson Hole Mountain Resort about 10 miles away, and Grand Targhee, about an hour west. Both of the two ski areas are on the flanks of the Tetons.

Snow King says its zipline would be steepest in the United States, capable of reaching speeds up to 70 mph.

After floundering for a number of years, losing money on skiing, new investors have poured $8 million into Snow King in an effort to create enough revenue to cover expenses. A new lift has been completed, a mountain coaster will be soon, and work had begun on a rope course.

The U.S. Forest Service must approve the gondola, which would also have a bottom terminal on property owned by the town of Jackson. Ski area representatives say they foresee the gondola as the greatest challenge. A restaurant or observatory would be located at the summit.

Meanwhile, plans to upgrade the infrastructure at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort continue. A new gondola is the most ambitious among 16 projects that resort owners want to do on Forest Service land. The suite of projects also includes a zip line and expansion of the mid-mountain Casper restaurant and installing a “magic carpet” lift in the beginner area.

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I-70 toll lane could reach $20 to $30

IDAHO SPRINGS – Those eager to bypass the weekend crawl of ski traffic on Colorado’s I-70 can expect to pay $20 to $30 next winter for expedited travel.

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the highway congeals into a slow-moving parking lot as a one-hour journey drags out into three and sometimes four hours. To improve traffic flow, CDOT has widened the Twin Tunnels, located 30 miles west of Denver, to accommodate three lanes. But much of the highway from the Continental Divide to Idaho Springs also has just two lanes.

In one segment, from Empire to Idaho Springs, the highway agency is adding new configurations that will allow buses and drivers willing to pay a toll to be ensured of more rapid travel.

Peter Kozinski, an official with CDOT, told the Clear Creek County commissioners that the cost might seem high to some.

“One of the biggest shocks to the population might be the toll range,” he told the Clear Creek County Courant, which covered the meeting. “It’s possible that the upper end … is in the $20 to $30 range.”

State officials expect the toll lane to cost $78 million to build and operate. The state’s High-Performance Transportation Enterprise took out a loan of nearly $25 million last year to ensure funding for the project. To pay back the lane in seven years, the state agency needs to collect about $3.5 million per year in tolls, the Courant explains. State officials expect the toll lane to be open for business before Christmas.

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White-tailed deer see white along highways

JACKSON, Wyo. – Can something so simple as a white sock draped over a post discourage whitetail deer from hanging out along highways?

That is the conclusion drawn from a study conducted between 2008-13 in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin by two researchers. Speaking in Jackson Hole recently, Corinna Riginos and Morgan Graham explained that they assessed deer-vehicle collisions along three stretches of highway.

They compared collisions in areas where the highways were lined with post-mounted reflectors against segments where the reflectors were covered with black bags. In a third group, the posts were covered with scraps of white canvas.

Turns out there were 65 percent fewer collisions in the highway segment with the white canvas than in those where the posts were covered with black bags.

More effective than black bags, but less than the white canvas, were red-glass “deer delineators.”

The Jackson Hole News&Guide reports that the researchers suspect the effectiveness of the white canvas may have something to do with the white tails of deer.

– Allen Best

For more, go to www.mountaintownnews.net