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January 2006

Blue Pages :: January 2006

Reviewing the Environmental Scorecard... $1 Millon for a Week in Aspen?... Evolution in the Park... Beer Money... Advertising on Forest Service Land... A Might Wind(Mill)... Laying Down the Law With Guests... NSP Seeks a Few Good Men (And Women)... Shortswings

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Reviewing the Environmental Scorecard
No one will confuse the Ski Club of Great Britain (SCGB) and the Ski Area Citizen’s Coalition (SACC), but both have a similar aim: to highlight the environmental records of ski areas and to hold them accountable.

Unintentionally, the two groups are doing a good cop/bad cop routine. The SCGB format focuses on the positive actions taken by 200 ski areas worldwide on environmental issues from recycling and using green power to traffic reduction and climate policy. The SACC tends to shout the loudest about what it sees as negative actions and lack of action, from expanding snowmaking and terrain to the lack of carpooling or biodiesel use, at 77 western U.S. resorts.

The important point, though, is that both provide their information so that skiers and riders can make decisions based on a resort’s environmental record. While there might be some debate as to whether either of the routes taken are effective, there’s no doubt that each group believes skiers and riders want to know what resorts are doing
--and will make decisions accordingly.

And how are areas doing? SACC bemoans the fact that only 21 percent of the 77 areas it grades use biodiesel and only 31 percent rely on wind or solar power. Since almost no resorts were using biodiesel, wind, or solar power as recently as five years ago, those numbers are actually a sign of progress. In its more positive way, SCGB reports on other steps areas are taking to reduce use of fossil fuel, such as using high-efficiency lighting and energy-efficient snowmaking systems. SACC’s insistence that all areas adopt alternative sources within a year may be unrealistic, but customers do expect their favorite areas to show steady improvement.


$1 Million for A Week in Aspen?
OK, make it 10 days, not a week. And during the highest of high season, the Christmas holiday. But no matter how you figure it, $1 million is a lot of moolah, even in Aspen. Even at the very upscale, storied four-star Hotel Jerome. Even if the pricetag includes the most deluxe of accommodations and meals, unlimited ski passes and private lessons, and on-call masseuses. And even if it includes a custom-built, one-of-a-kind, 12-cylinder, 550-hp, $375,000-plus Maybach 62 ultra-luxury automobile, which comes with a chauffeur (at least during your Aspen stay.

So you would think this was merely a cheap publicity stunt. But as we’re talking about Aspen, it’s worth noting that the package drew several serious inquiries. Though at press time, no one had put a deposit on their American Express card, and the hotel was nearly sold out.


Evolution in the Park
The terrain park continues to evolve and revolutionize the winter resort business. Loon, N.H., and Northstar-at-Tahoe, Calif., are installing the first-ever Burton Progression Parks, developed by Burton and Snow Park Technologies. The parks feature pint-sized replicas of pro-sized terrain, including small tables, boxes, rails and spines, to provide big-time thrills to those who are just learning the ropes. Down-sized replicas of bigger parks is a relatively new concept (see SAM November 2005), but a trend we expect will grow.

The Burton Progression Parks advance the concept in a few key ways. First, they are designed for coaching, and coaches will be available to instruct riders. “Stop and Drop Zones” are strategically located before each terrain feature. And signage in each zone offers guidance with a “trick tip,” a Smart Style message, and a picture of the feature.


Beer Money
Another defunct small area west of Denver could be reborn as a terrain park. Like Echo Mountain (formerly known as Squaw Pass), the area at St. Mary’s Glacier could be serving park riders as early as this month. St. Mary's Glacier (actually, it’s a permanent snowfield, not a glacier, but no matter) operated a T-bar sporadically from the 1930s to 1984. Twenty-four-year-old Mike Coors, of the Colorado brewing clan, and two other investors paid $1.65 million for the old area and plan to create the Eclipse Terrain Park, nine miles off I-70 in Idaho Springs. The group hopes to attract up to 250 snowboarders a day, as early as this month. To that end, the group has refurbished the old T-bar, purchased a groomer, and has enough water to make snow--with a temporary use permit. In the future, capacity of the 270-acre site could be expanded to 500 riders a day, and lights could be added for night riding. First, though, the new owners will have to submit formal plans to Clear Creek County, and allay locals’ fears of increased traffic, noise, and water use.


Advertising on Forest Service Land
A new interim directive of the Forest Service allows advertising on restraining bars on chairlifts on national forest land. In a pilot project at Aspen over the past few years, so-called MapLinks, four-foot-long panels containing trail maps, public service announcements, and a sponsor’s logo, found favor with the vast majority of guests. For convenience, MapLinks beats a paper map hands down. And that persuaded the FS to change its policy. Not everyone in the FS is happy with the change, which reverses a decades-long ban on commercialism in the National Forests, on the assumption that Americans get bombarded with enough advertising in their daily lives.


A Mighty Wind(mill)
Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort has joined the ranks of those investigating the installation of windmills to help power their resorts, like Magic Mountain, Vt., and Vail before it. But Jiminy could be the first to run its lifts on the area’s own wind power. The area plans to erect a single wind turbine, which could be operational by next winter. The 1 Megawatt wind turbine can produce enough electricity for approximately 30 percent of Jiminy’s annual demand. Over time, the wind turbine will provide a significant source of low-cost electricity and help the resort achieve its long-term goal of reducing the use of fossil fuel. The turbine could reduce the resort’s annual emissions by 4,100,000 pounds of carbon dioxide and 18,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide (a leading contributor to smog and the primary cause of acid rain). Jiminy received a grant of $582,000 from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to help offset the project’s estimated $2.1 million design and construction cost.


LAYING DOWN THE LAW with Guests
Some areas are mad as hell over the way their season passholders act, and they are not taking it anymore. Jackson Hole, for example, is cracking down on reckless skiing (there have been five fatal accidents involving reckless skiers and boarders in the past two seasons). The area is warning reckless pass­holders that they can lose their passes for up to two weeks for a first offense, and for life after a third. While Jackson has always punished offenders, the resort has taken this new program public, to make skiers and riders more aware of it.

Meanwhile, Vail has countersued a woman passholder who sued the area after she was injured on a skier bridge. Vail claims breach of contract, since the woman’s pass contract includes a waiver that protects the resort against lawsuits, even if the area was negligent. If Vail prevails, the decision could affect hundreds of thousands of passholders nationwide, since many areas include similar language in their season’s pass contracts.


NSP Seeks a Few Good Men (and Women)
After a group of disgruntled patrollers sought to force the NSP to become more responsive to members, the Colorado courts held that the organization had to poll its members on bylaws changes sought by the dissidents. The election was held and the votes are in: the upstarts and their plan to reduce the term for members of the board of directors and to expand the nomination process garnered more than 7,000 votes, with just 400 in opposition. As a result, new elections for the seats of five directors whose terms are ending will be held this month and next, with the new directors taking their positions March 1. One of the first tasks the new board will have to tackle is choosing a new executive director to replace Steve Over, who left the position in November.


Shortswings
Remember when the British were the model of decorum? Someone forgot to tell the young adults who call themselves skiers and snowboarders. British Foreign Office research recently revealed that 36 percent of Brit skiers ages 18 to 24 end up fined, injured, or asked to leave the resort due to excessive alcohol consumption. . . . Aspen, a new Manhattan restaurant, has the décor of a ski lodge from Aspen’s heyday, the ’70s. It also features a Gonzo Room for private dining. Festooned with images of and quotes from gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, the room dares diners to cut loose and party as if it were, say, 1979. . . . Watch for the state of Utah to launch an aggressive, $10 million tourism promotion, perhaps as early as mid-January. The state tourism board has been preparing a new campaign, aimed at giving potential visitors a new image that encompasses the red rock canyons and snow-capped mountains under one slogan. How the Mormon Tabernacle fits into the plan is not known.