3,000 glowing windmills? Welcome to Vail

Vail's is planning a public art project made up of 3,000 windmills on a hillside above the Vail golf course. Above is a similar installation from Iceland.

The high-tech windmills have been engineered by the artist to produce light in minimal wind conditions using translucent polycarbonate shafts and LED lights. See video of it here. So on windy nights, the mountain will be a wave of surging lights. So much for the dark skies initiative. As for me, I always find the best part of a night high in the mountains is the amazing spread of stars.

Busted

Nearly three dozen people have been prosecuted so far this season for using someone else's ski pass at Vail Mountain (compared to three this time last season). It's becoming harder to deceive employees with the bigger photos on this year's passes and improved training. Vail Resorts spokeswoman Jen Brown said employees are paid extra to catch imposters, but she wouldn't say how much. Those who do get caught and charged with "deceptive use of a ski facility" face a hefty fine - up to $999.

You'd think a ski mountaineer would be concerned with global warming, but...

This week Lou Dawson, (right) author, blogger and Colorado backcountry skiing godfather, says in his latest self-proclaimed "enviro rant" that "I believe global warming is happening but don’t feel it can be stopped any more than we can stop world hunger. Slowed down perhaps, but not stopped. I don’t blame global warming for every interesting weather event, or for my headaches. I also believe global warming is being used as a political power base and as a fear tactic to manipulate people."

I've met and spoken with Dawson on a few occasions and he has always struck me as a thoughtful, sensible person. On many of his environmental arguments, I see his point of view. He's especially hard on the non-motorized "hypocrites" who decry the use of Jeeps and ATVs on trails, but don't think twice about driving 300 miles to bike 10 in Moab.

But I'm not won over on global warming. I've never taken a hard stance on whether I think it's happening or not, or whether it's caused by humans or not. But here's the thing: Even if you don't believe in it, the cure is good for many other ills, and you'll wind up with cleaner air, fewer oil wells, more efficiency, more renewable energy, less smog, less waste. Seems like a good idea, whether you think the ski is falling or not. And if your passion and livelihood are based on snow, might be a good idea to hedge your bets.

UPS guys break out the shorts

"In a welcome sight heralding the end of another winter and the arrival of spring, United Parcel Service men across the nation are breaking out the shorts."

This is the lede from an old Onion article. But on my way to work today I actually saw the UPS guy rocking shorts. And why not? It was over 50 degrees at dawn in Colorado Springs. Snow is disappearing from the city like chip manufacturing plants.

I scrambled up the Incline yesterday, and while it was snowy and slushy, it wasn't icy. I'm not saying spring has arrived, but I'll gleefully accept a brief interlude of warm weather before the forecasted snow of the weekend.

Try not to gloat

Just so we don't take our snowy winter for granted, we remind you that the Sierras are having one of the driest winters in two decades. This from the AP:

RENO, Nev. — One Sierra ski area has called it quits for the season while others struggle to keep lifts running and workers busy during the driest winter in nearly two decades. Northern California’s June Mountain, which averages 250 inches of snow at the top of its 10,090-foot summit, conceded to nature Jan. 28.

“We had to say, ‘Just not this year.’ We got to the point where we finally pulled the plug,” General Manager Carl Williams said Monday. With a base of 3 to 18 inches and limited snowmaking capability at the resort some 180 miles east of San Francisco, Williams said June Mountain was not providing a quality experience for skiers. “It was very marginal when we opened. Much longer, it would have gotten unsafe,” he said. “Last year it was 600 inches of snow. This year, it’s nothing, so it’s still an average of 300.”

Most of June Mountain’s 175 workers were let go a week ago. About 20 full-time staff were reassigned to Mammoth Mountain, it sister resort 20 miles to the south, which is working around the clock to maintain a 3-4 foot base of packed powder and machine-groomed snow, Williams said.

It’s the same story some 150 miles north in the Lake Tahoe Basin, where employees’ hours are being slashed as much as 80 percent to try to avoid layoffs. Although other western ski areas benefited from storms late last year, most of the snow skipped over the Sierra on its way east, leaving the mountains along the California-Nevada line without their seasonal thick white caps. The last time snow was so skimpy at Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe resort south of Reno was in 1990-91, which was rescued by a huge “Miracle March” snowfall that resuscitated ski resorts but barely dented the drought that had begun three years earlier.

Dan Greenlee, a hydrologist with the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, said the snowpack up and down the Sierra compares with that winter 17 years ago, averaging from 30 percent to 40 percent of normal for early February.

At Squaw Valley USA on Tahoe’s northwest shore, spokeswoman Savannah Cowley said the resort was managing to avoid layoffs. “If anything, we’re putting more time into snowmaking. ... to keep running as many lifts as if there was snow,” she told the Sierra Sun in Truckee, Calif.

Sugar Bowl, at Donner Summit, said it was slashing hours 50 percent to 80 percent for employees in food and beverage, lift operations and housekeeping. “We’re on serious cutbacks right now,” Human Resources Director Regina Nystrom said. The resort is trying to help workers whose hours have been cut by providing free dinners, but Nystrom said some workers have had to leave in search of a paycheck.

Mammoth Lakes’ always upbeat marketing and public relations manager, Jimmy Kellett, said this year’s slow start could be followed by a big finish reminiscent of 1991, and Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe spokesman Mike Pierce remained optimistic. “It’s coming,” he told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “But this is a weird year. There’s no doubt about it.” Forecasters are calling for a possibility of snow by the weekend, but expect it to fall fairly high in the mountains, turning to rain at lower elevations

Wondering what to wear to St. Moritz?

Coming out of Fashion Week (in New York), this from designer Oscar de la Renta: He trimmed his chunky knit sweaters with fur. Fashionistas are saying we should expect to see those sweaters, worn with black satin tights and furry flat-heeled boots in the apres-ski lounges in St. Moritz at Christmastime. But satin tights at Wolf Creek or Monarch? Only if there's a way to add a little Gore-Tex.

Deep snow at Fossil Beds

The winds finally died down this weekend, and on Sunday morning, I went snowshoeing at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. Rangers there have been raving about the snowpack this winter, and they weren't exaggerating - there's a good 3- to 3 1/2-foot base right now, and very few tracks. I had to share the park with a half-dozen other 'shoers as well as a pair of cross-country skiers. It was that perfect kind of winter day - blue sky, sun so warm I had to shed my jacket, and the snow, untouched, untracked and sparkling. The park is open from 9 a.m to 5 p.m.... I found myself wishing it had some nighttime hours for a full-moon adventure.

Talk about a boom town

The Denver Post published today that a Texan near Ouray can't build his dream vacation home because it's right in the path of artillery used to clear avalanche paths on Red Mountain Pass.

The problem hadn't come up before on a corkscrew stretch of U.S. 550 known for its nerve-racking, sheer drop offs, 101 avalanche paths and average of 250 inches of snow each winter. No one else has asked to build there. So for three decades, the state Transportation Department has been blasting away to trigger small, controlled avalanches from several metal-lined concrete firing boxes with clear shots at some of the worst spots.

Avalanche in Bear Creek Canyon?

I wouldn't believe it unless I saw it. Saturday morning I went skiing up the High Drive (above.) (It was part of a long training ski for the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse.) Anyway, not more than a quarter mile up from the gate at Bear Creek, I came across a Volkswagen-sized pile of snow that had covered half the road. It had come down a narrow gully on the north side after two days of intense cold and wind, along with a light bit of new snow.

Was it dangerous? No. Even if it had caught a skier or hiker on the road it would have just pushed them around a little at most, but it does suggest that the snowpack is very unstable right now. I can't remember ever seeing snow slides in the Cheyenne Canyon/Bear Creek area just outside the city. Anyone else?

I'm glad I wasn't up on Pikes Peak.

As an aside, the skiing on High Drive is absolutely dreadful right now -- sun-cupped ice topped with wind-blown gravel. It doesn't get much worse. On the other hand, skiing on Upper Gold Camp Road was very good Saturday, and may still be today if the warmth hasn't melted all the snow. Better hurry.

Skiing to resume Saturday

Snow and wind stopped events today at The Honda Ski Tour in Breckenridge. The good news for spectators: ski cross time trials, heats and finals will all take place Saturday, starting at 10:15 a.m. The halfpipe qualifying rounds and finals also were delayed -- till Sunday.

If you're too busy splashin through the powder yourself, you can watch the tour on ABC-TV at noon Feb. 10. The tour continues Feb. 22-25 in Aspen.

A familiar mountain on Summit Post

For those of you who haven't checked it out, www.summitpost.org is a sort of climber's bulleting board, or maybe the on-line refrigerator where the post things they are proud of. The trips range from world-class ascents to minor local adventures. One of the featured stories right now is a winter ascent up the east face of Pikes Peak. Looks cold. Check it out.

Big prizes for Pikes Peak Ascent, and for slackers!

I reported in the Gazette today that the Pikes Peak Ascent, long a premier race without any premier prizes, will award winners in 2007 $5,000 to $7,000 each. The total purse is $30,000.

Runners who miss the online sign-up — which opens and promises to fill March 1 — have a new treat this year. After registration has closed — which, if trends continue, might take only five hours — would-be racers can submit a 250-word essay on one of two topics: “Why you missed the boat and should be allowed in the race” and “What you would do/give to get in the race.”

Read the full story here.

Mush, mon

A Jamaican sled-dog racer will take on the big dogs of racing next week. The Jamaica Dogsled Team will race in the Yukon Quest, a brutal 1,000-mile race from Whitehorse, Yukon, to Fairbanks. Devon Anderson, who has never seen snow, has swapped the white sands of the Caribbean for the white landscape of Alaska to take part in this event. The 42-year-old hopes to compete in the world championships and the Winter Olympics in 2010. The Caribbean is too hot for huskies so Anderson has trained a team of mongrels rescued from Kingston's dog pound. His efforts are reminiscent of the success of the Jamaican bobsleigh team which took part in the 1988 Games in Calgary and provided the inspiration for the 1993 film "Cool Runnings."

Anderson, who works for a Jamaican tour company, said he was excited about picking up the reins for his first race on the four-mile track at Loch Morlich. "I am really looking forward to the rally - I am not nervous at the moment because I am in a relaxed environment, but on Saturday I know I will be. Once I am in that position I think the adrenalin will take over and the team will do the best it can. It is definitely a challenge for me."

The Jamaican team is sponsored by Bob Marley's record producer, Chris Blackwell, and country singer Jimmy Buffett.

Old St. Mary's ski area closer to reopening

The old St. Mary's Glacier ski area is being repackaged as Eclipse Snowboard Park. It passed an important regulatory hurdle Thursday night when the final meeting for the rezoning of Eclipse Snow Park to C-OR (Commercial Outdoor Recreation) was completed with a 2-1 vote in favor. The next step in the county process the Development Review phase where the backers will present the Master Plan for the park project to the County.

The area would be the second long-closed mom and pop ski hill near Denver to reopen. Squaw Pass became Echo Mountain Park in 2006. It's been having a great year.

Why does cold snow squeak?

I walked to work today. My home thermometer said it was -9 degrees. And the snow was squeaking. Why does it do this? No one has definitively studied it, but here are some possibilities.
1. When you step on really cold, stiff ice crystals, the jagged edges rub abruptly against one another. Think of it sort of like a cricket rubbing the barbed edges of its legs together. As snow warms, it may become a bit more flexible, and loose water molecules in the snow may lubricate it, so the squeak goes away.
2.Another possible explanation is that the pressure of stepping on the air-filled snowflakes rapidly expels the air and produces the characteristic squeak, sort of like a very small, high-pitched whoopie cushion.

Ski resorts get a dusting after yesterday's big dumps

According to www.coloradoski.com, almost every ski area in the state picked up an inch or two last night. Many have seen over a foot of powder in the last few days, and with the cold temperatures (so cold my dogs literally refused to go out this morning) the snow is staying good. Rising temperatures this weekend should make for great skiing.
It's Superbowl Sunday, which means ski crowds will be sparse. You could get in a full day of skiing and still be back in the Springs for the halftime show.

Man survives plunge into canyon

If you've ever visited the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and marveled at the steep canyon walls, you'll be amazed at this story: A tourist from Chicago drove off the road at the Tomichi Point overlook Monday afternoon and his car plunged 400 feet down into a ravine. The amazing part: He survived, with just bruises. Take note: he was driving a rental car - a 2007 Kia Optima. Those on the rescue operation say the car's airbags and seat belt saved him. The driver isn't talking, and authorities are trying to determine if the crash was accidental, according to the Montrose Daily Press.

Hiking in Teller County? Be on the lookout

You might happen upon pieces of an America West Express Flight jet engine. The engine broke apart and showered debris into the air over what officials say is "a remote part of Teller County" last week. The plane returned to Denver and landed safely.
Missing parts include an exhaust nozzle and fairing. If you happen upon anything that looks like an engine part, leave it alone - authorities say it could be hazardous.

Deer organize in Alamosa

The're challenging people as they walk. They're killing dogs in their yards. They're causing car accidents. They're hanging out in groups around the high school. The deer in Alamosa are out of control, so town officials are taking charge. The town is issuing hunting licenses to reduce the number, estimated to be between 500 and 1,000.
Hunters are limited to using bows or shotguns and must be qualified by a local instructor before they're issued alicense. Most of the community is said to be supportive, but some are upset at the notion of kiilling tame deer.

You can find anything on Craigslist

This is a real post. Question though, who would ever search for it?

Looking for a Bear Attack Victim
Reply to: mailto:gigs-267388927@craigslist.org?subject=Looking%20for%20a%20Bear%20Attack%20VictimDate: 2007-01-23, 5:57PM MSTMajor network show wants to feature someone who has survived a bear attack. Please email w/brief bio re: the incident, 3 pictures of yourself and/or a myspace URL, and your best contact info. Casting immediately.
Location: CO
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: yes