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Ski areas hope for a Godzilla El Niño

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Skiing in the Sierra Nevada last year was awful. And the year before that, too. With the likely return this year of what one scientist has called “Godzilla El Niño,” will the world become wonderful again for people with planks on their feet?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says chances of El Niño weather hitting the Northern Hemisphere this winter are about 95 percent, with an 85 percent likelihood that it will last into early spring.

Leaving little to chance, ski areas in California have been sweetening their deals to get people to commit to buying ski passes again.

“We want to give them the confidence they need to make that purchase and know they got a good value no matter what the weather does,” said John McColly, chief marketing officer for Mountain High, a ski area about 45 minutes outside of Los Angeles.

Starting this year, purchasers of annual passes to Mountain High will get up to four days of credit toward the purchase of a 2016-17 pass if they get to ski less than five days this season, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Vail Resorts has also sweetened its deals. The Tahoe annual pass, costing $500 for adults and good at the company’s three resorts in the Tahoe Basin, this year includes five days of skiing at Vail Resorts’ four properties in Colorado and two in Utah.

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Vail Resorts has revenues of $1.1 billion

BROOMFIELD – Despite the drought in California, Vail Resorts chief executive Rob Katz reports only “modest declines” in the sales of passes for the company’s three resorts in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

But overall, Vail Resorts has been doing swimmingly, with revenues of $1.1 billion. The Vail Daily, sitting in on a conference call with Katz and analysts, reports that the last fiscal year was a very good one for the company. Pass revenue was up nearly 21 percent, and summer business also grew. Plus, the acquisition of Perisher, a resort in Australia, has done well for the company.

Katz said destination guests are a big marketing target for pass sales. He said the company expects Perisher to increase pass sales – and continue to draw more customers to the resorts in California, Utah and Colorado.

Real estate has been coming back, too, if not necessarily to the amped-up levels of 2006-07. Few unsold units remain available at the company’s Breckenridge project called One Ski Hill Place and at Ritz Carlton Residences in Vail, said Katz. As such, he said, the company is having “conversations” about its remaining development parcels.

Among the projects at Vail is Ever Vail, which would see a great amount of real estate along with a new gondola from a base area west of Lionshead.

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Rising costs squeeze new senior facility

EAGLE – Rising construction costs have caused a reshuffling of plans for the Castle Peak Senior Care Center, located 30 miles west of Vail.

Costs have increased about 11 percent since construction began in July of the 64-bed skilled nursing and assisted living facility, reports the Eagle Valley Enterprise.

The facilities will be downsized by about 3,000 square feet even as the budget has expanded from $22.7 million to $24.9 million. Several jurisdictions have agreed to toss a few more chips into the ante, but the hat is being passed for the remaining $350,000.

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Apples might get bruins in trouble

JACKSON, Wyo. – An apple a day keeps the doctor away. But if you’re a grizzly bear in Jackson Hole, it might get you in trouble.

The News&Guide reports that a 5-year-old male was temporarily incarcerated after foraging on apples in a nursery south of town. Wildlife biologists believe the bear had wandered in from Yellowstone National Park. He was drugged, caged and released near Yellowstone.

It’s not the first grizzly spotted recently near Jackson. Just a few years ago, a grizzly was seen not far from Jackson Hole High School.

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Town hopes mining idea soon dies

CRESTED BUTTE – Will the Damocles sword hanging over Crested Butte finally be removed? As seen from local eyes in Crested Butte, the sword consists of potential for a molybdenum mine on Mount  Emmons.

Since the 1970s, various mining companies have been interested in the molybdenum within the mountain. Now comes at least a small hope that the threat can be removed. The Larsen family members who founded and have run U.S. Energy Corp for 49 years have stepped down from top management positions. The slimmed-down company will relocate its headquarters from Riverton, Wyo., to Denver.

Local stakeholders tell the Crested Butte News they hope this provides an opportunity to resume serious discussion with the company about a “final solution.”

 “I would hope that all interested parties can come together and find a realistic solution that protects our water and amenity-based economy while preserving some value for U.S. Energy shareholders,” said Bill Ronai, president of the Red Lady Coalition. The name represents the nickname for Mount Emmons, because of its huge alpenglow.

David Veltri, the new chief executive, told the News that his company’s view hasn’t changed. It wants to mine. But he also mentioned seeking a “finality to the mine question.”

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Glacial retreat largest since the 1930s

WHISTLER, B.C. – Two of the glaciers above Whistler have been beating a hasty retreat this summer. Whistler Naturalists, a nonprofit group, recently found that the unusually warm summer coupled with sub-par snow last winter has resulted in a near-record recession of the Wedgemount and Overlord Glaciers. There has been worse, though: the mid-1930s, a time of heat and, in the Great Plains, dust.

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Bedbugs plague a hotel in Jasper

JASPER, Alberta – Eight rooms at a hotel in Jasper were shut down by the provincial health department because of an ongoing bedbug infestation.

The Jasper Fitzhugh reports that Alberta Health Service had ordered the problem remediated, but two weeks later ordered the hotel rooms vacated altogether after bedbugs were still evident.

A hotel manager said the hotel has hired a pest-control company to heat rooms up to 160° F (71° C) for four hours at a time. He also said the hotel wraps mattresses in plastic and applies diatomaceous earth, which is an edible dust that dries the bugs out and kills them.

One hotel guest told the Fitzhugh that he had been bitten more than 70 times during his one-night stay, but didn’t realize this had happened until the next night, when he was in Calgary.

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Feeding the bears in the backcountry

WHISTLER, B.C. –In Whistler, bears have been feeding close to town, as backcountry pickings have been sparse since last winter’s drought.

But one idea is to go ahead and drop food for the bears, but out of the way from developed areas. That’s technically against the law in British Columbia, but none other than Parks Canada, the federal agency, has done it for years, points out Pique.

It was also done in the Lake Tahoe area of California in 2007 when fruit from orchards was dropped into alpine areas during summer, as the natural food sources that year, one of wildfire in the Tahoe Basin, were scarce.

– Allen Best

For more, go to www.mountaintownnews.net