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Wariness of lions in mountain towns

VAIL – The shadows of Colorado mountain towns have become more suspect this winter since dogs in Vail, Steamboat Springs, and other towns have been killed by the big cats variously called mountain lions, cougars and pumas.

In Vail, a resident of Forest Road, located on the lower slopes of Vail Mountain, let a spaniel named Mogul out onto the patio at 6 a.m. Wildlife officers found the remains of the dog under the patio. Ironically, perhaps, the home is located near Vail’s neighborhood called Lionshead.

About 10 miles away, on what is sometimes called the “backside” of Vail Mountain, two more dogs have been killed in the small town of Red Cliff. In Steamboat Springs, a mountain lion also killed a dog.

In addition, mountain lions have been seen from Bridge Street in Vail to neighborhoods in Eagle, 30 miles away. Several have been killed on highways.

Wildlife officers have also killed several. In Steamboat Springs, after killing the dog, the cat hung out below the house overhang for eight hours – enough that the state wildlife officers decided they needed to kill the animal. While attacks on humans have been extremely rare, parents with children understandably get nervous.

Mountain lions have always been common enough in mountainous areas, even if the giant cats were rarely seen. They hang out where there is available prey, including deer and elk.

Wildlife officials say that mountain lion populations have been increasing in some portions of Colorado.

“I have had more calls in the last two months than in the last 30 years,” says Craig Westcoatt, a state wildlife officer. Before, he adds, it was “shock and awe” to get a report of a sighting. “Now it’s, ‘They’re here and we’re scared.’”

That’s the same story given by long-time residents. “People are scared,” says Barb Bomier, a resident of Red Cliff since 1989. A one-time mining town now of about 300 people, Red Cliff cut power to streetlights, to save money. Without streetlights, Bomier tells Mountain Town News, she won’t walk to the town’s only restaurant, located a block away, after dark. “I don’t want to run into a mountain lion.”

What has changed? In Red Cliff, one hypothesis is that in decades past, people had a tendency to take things into their own hands. A place populated by miners and their children, Red Cliff was also a place of hunters and guns. If a bear – or somebody’s dog – got into trash, it suffered the consequences. Mostly, nobody talked about it. It just happened.

After one dog was killed in January, a local, licensed hunter did kill a lion at Red Cliff. In that case, state wildlife officers had OK’d the shooting. But town and state officials warn against random shootings.

Bill Andree, a state wildlife officer, said killings can be condoned only if human safety is an issue. Even then, it’s up to the shooter to do so in a way that doesn’t endanger others. Andree, who has covered the Vail-Red Cliff area since 1980, likens the increase in mountain lions to the surge of encounters between bears and people that began about 15 years ago.

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Vail adds to Midwest farm system

ANTIOCH, Ill. – Vail Resorts has added another farm team in the Midwest with the purchase of Wilmot Mountain, located about halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee, on the Wisconsin-Illinois border. Vail also has two other ski areas in Michigan and Minnesota, both relatively close to large cities.

Vail said it plans to upgrade ski lifts, snowmaking and other infrastructure. It will offer the Epic Pass and Epic Local Pass next winter to customers at Wilmot, steering them to the company’s eight large mountain resorts in Colorado, Utah and Lake Tahoe.

The Chicago Tribune uncovered some apprehension among skiers in the Chicago area that Vail will hike prices. Geoff Buchheister, Vail’s vice president and general manager of urban ski areas, said an aggressive hike would be contrary to the company’s goal of creating a passion for the sport – and more customers for its ski areas in the West.

“We realize that there are a lot of skiers in the urban areas of Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit,” he said. “The strategy is … to get families out skiing and learning to ski and connect them to our Western resorts.”

Dave Belin, a consultant that works with the ski industry, points out that Vail Resorts has access to capital that many small ski area operators do not. When it bought Mt. Brighton, near Detroit, it invested $10 million. Belin told Mountain Town News that he sees the purchase as being evidence that Vail’s strategy of creating “feeder” areas seems to be working.

But what about rising global temperatures? Belin said the acquisition also gives Vail geographic diversity. “A poor winter in one area can be offset by another,” said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association.

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Drones authorized at ski areas

TRUCKEE, Calif. – Use of drones on ski slopes in California will soon begin, and a San Francisco-based company said it will expand operations to resorts in Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Utah later this season.

The Federal Aviation Administration has approved new rules that will allow Cape Productions to fly at least 30 feet off the ground when taking videos of skiers who want to record their ski runs. In the United States, the company will offer the service first at Squaw Valley and Homewood Mountain, both located near Lake Tahoe.

Later this season, reports the Lake Tahoe News, the company plans to expands the service to Winter Park in Colorado, Powder Mountain in Utah, Timberline and Mount Hood Meadows in Oregon, Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho, and Mountain Creek in New Jersey.

Cape Productions has been recording skiers since December 2014 at the Fernie Alpine Resort in British Columbia, where regulations made it easier to fly drones. The company also recorded the U.S. Ski Team in New Zealand.

“We’re basically the first consumer drone video service to do what it does legally,” said Louis Gresham, president and a co-founder of the company.

The company maps a resort’s slopes and then programs its drones to fly down a specified path, called a rail.

The company will offer packages of $50 to $150. They typically include two or three runs, recorded at angles from the front, back and perhaps off to the side.

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Plastic bottles booted from resorts

TRUCKEE, Calif. – Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows have ceased to sell bottled water. Instead, guests may buy reusable water bottles and will have access to 20 water refill stations.

In a press release, the two resorts – both owned by Denver-based KSL Capital Partners – said they want to inspire their customers to rethink their daily habits.

Andy Wirth, chief executive of Squaw Valley, said the company seeks to “lead by example to show businesses that these kinds of changes are environmentally as well as fiscally viable.”

Squaw estimates that the program, called Drink Mountain Tap, will remove 28,000 plastic bottles from the annual waste stream of the resorts while also reducing their carbon footprint.

No other U.S. ski resort has undertaken an initiative of this kind, but the resorts hope that others will follow suit.

To help sell the idea of using ordinary tap water, the resorts point out that tap water from local water districts that supply them have won several best-tasting water awards in California competitions.

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Uber vs. taxis: more heartburn at Sundance

PARK CITY, Utah – While movie critics analyze the latest offerings at the Sundance Film Festival, taxi drivers continue to stew about the new competition from Uber, the car-sharing alternative.

One taxi service owner, Jack Fenton, has printed up 50 bumper stickers: “Get lost in the mountains. Take Uber,” the stickers say.

Fenton, a 35-year resident of the area, told The Park Record he questions whether Uber drivers know their way around Park City’s often-confusing geography. However, he didn’t provide evidence for that insinuation.

All this matters because the 11-day Sundance is the year’s best payday for taxi drivers. During Sundance, the going taxi rate within Park City increases by 25 percent, from $20 per ride to $25 per ride.

Fenton also sought to portray Uber as a big, multinational organization. “The film festival is all about independent films. We should all be embracing independent taxi services as well,” he said. 

Uber, meanwhile, announced plans to start offering helicopter shuttles from the film festival to the airport in Salt Lake City, just over the hill, about 45 minutes away by car. But town and county officials tell The Record the company had not submitted a proposal for a helipad, as required by law.

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Steamboat Springs to get a higher-fiber diet

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – First-rate Internet connectivity has been a central driver of local economic development in many mountain towns. In Steamboat Springs, the local newspaper reports a $758,000 grant from state government that the newspaper calls one of “the first major news stories” of the year.

“The installation of fiber optic trunk line between the two sides of Steamboat has huge potential to positively impact the local broadband landscape,” the Steamboat Today says. “Redundant broadband service and reliable, fast Internet access are essential to doing business in the modern world,” the paper noted. 

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Coal miners reeling in Steamboat area

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – Steamboat Springs calls itself Ski Town USA, but in a round-about way, it’s a coal town, too.

From the top of Mt. Werner, you can see plumes of steam coming from four coal-fired generating stations in the distance. You can’t see the coal mines, but there are three, and one of them, Twentymile Mine, owned by Peabody Energy, pays 6 percent of property taxes in Routt County. The coal miners and power plants also create a significant payroll, with average wages in excess of $100,000, far better than the ski town norm.

But it’s not a good time for coal. Six coal companies have filed for bankruptcy in the last year, their stock prices tumbling. Why?

The Wall Street Journal on Saturday talked about coal producers “staggering” under environmental regulations and low natural gas prices.

The New York Times on Sunday had a more nuanced story. It pointed to Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal company, which was trading at $1,000 a share as recently as 2011. Now, it’s down to $4.

These same arguments have been playing out in the pages of the Steamboat Today as well. Recently, Gary Burkholder, a local coal-miner of the last 33 years, shared his frustrations and wagged his finger at the Clean Power Plan, the U.S. effort designed to reduce greenhouse gases. The policy, he charges, was designed to “destroy an industry.” And it will, he predicts, double electricity prices.

Paul Bonnifield, a former college history instructor and one-time railroad brakeman, sees different dynamics. Natural gas burns more cleanly and efficiently than coal and – owing to the revolution in drilling techniques – has become less expensive than coal, says Bonnifield, who lives among coal miners in Yampa.

– Allen Best For more, go to www.mountaintownnews.net.