WOLF CREEK PASS - Opponents of a major real estate play next to the Wolf Creek Ski Area in southern Colorado have won a court ruling.

A Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that Mineral County commissioners wrongly approved the project, called the Village at Wolf Creek, because the road that was then the sole means of access is unsuitable for year-round use. The road is covered by as much as 10 feet of snow. Because of that faulty premise for approval, Mineral County must review the project again, but this time with the proper information.

Colorado Wild, one of the two environmental groups that filed the lawsuit, described the court decision as a "small step in the right decision," according to Ryan Demmy Bidwell, the group's executive director.

While there is no reason to believe Mineral County won't approve the project again, the decision still is "quite important in its larger implications," Bidwell added.

He explained that Mineral County's approval was then cited by the U.S. Forest Service as the grounds for permitting another road across Forest Service land to the private inholding. By treating the real-estate development as a foregone conclusion, the Forest Service argued that it therefore did not have to address the impact of the real estate development on surrounding federal lands. Colorado Wild argues that it does.

In a separate lawsuit, Colorado Wild is suing the Forest Service, arguing that the approval of the road dodged the question of its impacts. In other words, if not for this second road, the real estate project couldn't be done.

The project, if built as proposed, would yield 2,172 housing units, most of them in time-share configurations. Elevation of the new town would be at nearly 10,300 feet, with the nearest towns - Pagosa Springs and South Fork - about 20 miles away.

Bankrolling the real estate project is B.J. "Red" McCombs, a Texas-based businessman who made his first fortune in car dealerships and, until recently, owned the Minnesota Vikings.

The story goes back to the early 1980s, when the ski industry was rapidly growing. With no private lands, Wolf Creek had no lodging component. It still doesn't. But a land exchange consummated in 1986 yielded 287 acres of private land next to the ski area. Then, as growth in the ski industry slowed, the real estate market slumped.

The project was revived in the mid-1990s, but soon after, owners of the ski area, the Pitcher family, withdrew their support. The McCombs group then sued the Pitchers.



U.S. skiers still white and male, but now older

ASPEN - The news out of the National Ski Areas Association is that not much has changed, and that's both good and bad for ski areas.

That's good is that baby boomers continue to ski. The average age last season was 36.6 years, compared to 33.2 years a decade ago.

Customers aged 55 and older doubled over the last decade, while those aged 45 to 54 - the younger baby boomers - increased by 5.5 percent.

Some 61 percent of skiers are male, and all customers tend toward greater affluence than the general population. An overwhelming majority of skiers, 86 to 89 percent, are white.

But eventually ski areas will have to transition to new demographics. To some extent, this is already happening with younger generations. But the younger generations don't yet have the disposable income that the destination ski resorts are predicated upon.

Michael Berry, president of the ski areas association, told The Aspen Times that the industry is in good shape. But Michael Perry, senior vice president for marketing at the Aspen Skiing Co., said he is concerned about the whiteness of the sport.

The Times notes that Aspen's numbers are skewed higher toward wealth, as you might expect, although its age demographic has remained flat, owing to its efforts to attract a younger crowd in recent years with the X Games.



Skullduggery hypothesized in case of mysterious meat

FRASER, - It sounds like a novel one-upmanship. Police in Fraser were summoned to an apartment complex, where barbecued chicken and ground meat had been left atop a locking bear-proof trash container. The owners said they thought the meat had been left there to attract bears, in retaliation against them. Just what advantage the allegedly aggrieved party hoped to get by drawing bears to the cans wasn't clear, but the Sky-Hi News reports that the individual vehemently denied it. He did, however, observe that the bears seemed to have great fun tossing the bear-proof containers around.



7 bears and 3 dogs killed in Revelstoke this summer

REVELSTOKE, B.C. - Humans have killed seven bears in Revelstoke this summer, while bears have killed three dogs. Abby Pond, the coordinator of the local Bear Aware program, said the problem is that people are leaving their garbage cans out overnight. She urges action to prevent the attraction of garbage before another animal - or perhaps a person - is killed, reports the Revelstoke Times Review.



Whistler seeing severe housing shortage ahead

WHISTLER, B.C. - Whistler is out of its doldrums. Both winter and summer have been busy, and the pace of development is picking up in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics. On the other hand, the lack of housing for employees is once again an issue.

"I would describe it as a crisis looming on our horizon," said Councilor Ralph Forsyth at a recent forum.

The municipality has sowed the seeds for a 50 percent increase in deed-restricted housing, from 4,000 now to 6,000 expected in the next four years. However, the comments reported by Pique newsmagazine indicate that's not nearly enough. Also at issue are increased transportation costs.

Whistler figures that an individual needs to earn $26,000, or $60,000 for families, to pay rent, buy groceries, with still enough free time to take vacations and enjoy what Whistler has to offer.

Among the ideas being investigated are temporary trailers or modular housing, and also a daily shuttle service from Vancouver, two hours distant.

Ruminating on this and other stories, Pique editor Bob Barnett suggests that Whistler needs another infusion of Type A individuals. "Whether these people are drawn to the mountains or they grow up in them, the concentration of ambitious, successful achievers in resort towns is not new or unique to Whistler," he writes. "A decade and a half ago Park City's Myles Rademan described how that translates to politics in mountain towns: every issue seems to be immediate and life-changing."

Given this makeup in Whistler and other mountain towns, "it is perhaps not surprising that we continually try to grow out of our problems. We know our environment has physical limitations, but we are also gripped by the western frontier mentality that believes there is always something more, something new or different just over the next ridge. And mountain people are always pushing to see what's over that next ridge. The valley is too small to contain all those ambitions."

Whistler, he notes, has had growth limits for 30 years Ð and is still growing.



School enrollments down again in Tahoe-Truckee

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Student enrollment is down for the eighth time in nine years in the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District. Altogether, the district has lost 15 percent of its enrollment since 1999.

The story told by the Community Collaborative of Tahoe Truckee is a familiar one: higher costs of living are causing families with children to leave the area. This is despite a housing market where the median price has dropped $100,000 in the last year. The overall population continues to grow.

Much the same story was told in school districts in resort areas of the Rocky Mountains in recent years. However, during the last two years enrollments have begun to grow again. The Aspen Times, echoing reports from Jackson Hole to Crested Butte, this week reports increased enrollment once again in schools there.



Crested Butte walking its carbon footprint talk

CRESTED BUTTE - Town officials in Crested Butte are taking seriously their vows to minimize the expansion of the town's carbon footprint.

A law adopted by the town council mandates that private outdoor driveways, sidewalks, and other heated elements get their energy from renewable energy sources. Those failing to do so must pay in-lieu fees, which will then be used to create alternative energy sources or more efficient energy use elsewhere.

The town had strongly considered an outright ban on all private outdoor electrical use for melting of snow, but instead opted for a less Draconian program modeled upon one adopted by Aspen and Pitkin County in 2000.The measure was approved with only one dissenting vote, that of Mayor Alan Bernholtz. "The way to reduce carbon would be a ban," he said.

Crested Butte last year signed onto the Mayors Climate Change Agreement. Started by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickel in 2005, the agreement stipulates that the participating cities will strive to meet or beat goals of the Kyoto Protocol, a 9 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2012 from 1990 levels.

Crested Butte during the last year has revamped its energy codes, requiring better buildings that use energy more efficiently. A sticking point in the revision was the issue of outdoor energy use, such as for heated driveways, swimming pools and saunas.

The issue of sidewalks was a difficult one for town officials. Some had wanted the ban on snowmelt systems extended even to public sidewalks. In the end, Crested Butte exempted privately owned sidewalks within the public right of way, such as in front of shops along Elk Avenue, the town's main street. However, sidewalks used by the public in private areas, such as in courtyards of bars, must provide alternative energy or pay in-lieu fees.

Also disputed was whether banning snowmelt on sidewalks and driveways will save energy. The thinking is that gas-powered devices will be used to clear many of these areas. But Bernholtz, the mayor, said analysis showed that snowmelt systems use "drastically" more energy.

Yet another issue was whether to accept renewable energy credits, such as for wind produced in South Dakota, in mitigation for a local heated driveway. Crested Butte says no - to always shop local.

"When you purchase wind power, you money goes out of county," explained Alison Gannett, president of the Office for Resource Efficiency, the non-profit group that pushed for the regulations. "A solar panel goes up here, not in Wyoming."

Gannett also warned against confusing offsets with actual reduction in carbon. To meet the goals of the Mayors Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol, there must be actual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Gannett's group, ORE, hopes to expand the regulations to Gunnison County, which would make such regulations apply to rural subdivisions where many Crested Butte workers live. As well, there is some hope that eventually such regulations will be applied to the base area of the ski area, which is within Mt. Crested Butte. There, a major redevelopment and expansion of the bed base and commercial sector is currently underway.

Crested Butte's program was modeled on regulations adopted first in Aspen and Pitkin County, in 2000, and more recently updated in Eagle County. Aspen's Renewable Energy Mitigation Program, has generated $6 million since 2000, with the money used to erect solar panels at the Aspen Recreation Center or for solar installations at private homes. Increasingly, however, people installing heated driveways in Aspen are installing their own alternative energy sources instead of paying mitigation fees.

Basalt and Carbondale have similar but smaller programs. Representatives from Telluride and Vail have investigated the program.

Some 681 mayors in the United States have signed the Mayors' Agreement, including those from the Colorado mountain towns of Aspen, Basalt, Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Frisco, Gunnison, Nederland, Pagosa Springs, and Telluride.

Ski and resort towns elsewhere in the West include: California's Mammoth Lakes, Idaho's Sandpoint, Sun Valley and Hailey; New Mexico's Taos, Santa Fe and Ruidoso; Utah's Park City and Moab; and Wyoming's Jackson.



Mountain towns still imagine a coal-less future

TRUCKEE, Calif. - Mountain towns of the West fretting about their part in greenhouse gas emissions continue to imagine new energy futures.

In California, that new future definitely will include a sharply increased amount of electricity from renewable sources. With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger looking over their shoulders, directors of a utility district based in Truckee last winter rejected an extended contract for electricity from a coal-fired power plant proposed in Utah.

So far, the news is nothing but good. Next year, 29 percent of the Truckee Donner Public Utility District's electricity will come from renewables, including geothermal and hydroelectric. The year after, renewables will be 49 percent of the mix. And somewhat surprisingly, the cost is actually less than coal, reports the Sierra Sun.

It may not stay that way, however. Unlike the 50-year contract for coal, these contracts are for brief periods, and prices could be volatile in the future.

In Colorado, residents of several mountain towns got riled up last winter about whether their electrical providers would participate in construction of one or more new coal-fired power plants. That issue was revived recently at a hearing held in Telluride when speakers spoke to the need for more local production of electricity. "We don't like all of our eggs in the carbon basket," said Edwin Schlapfer, a Telluride resident.

In Jackson Hole, a session on energy was held for the benefit of legislators in 13 States of the West. Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said that the bottom line is the carbon impact. But he doesn't see us abandoning coal as an energy source. Instead, he wants a focus on carbon sequestration.

The task is not to quit using coal, he said, but rather to "figure out how to use it right."

Carbon has been sequestered in underground caverns in a few places, but not on a large scale.



Whistler vows to toe the carbon line, but hasn't yet

WHISTLER, B.C. - Despite Whistler's previous commitment to lower its greenhouse gases emissions, in fact, they are increasing. Still, the municipal government is joining other municipalities in British Columbia to pledge an even more rigorous commitment, reducing emissions by a third by the year 2020.

British Columbia has signed the Western Climate Initiatives along with six states in the West, including California and Utah. Colorado and Utah are said to be participating in the process as observers, as is the Mexican state of Sonora. Alberta, however, has opted out of the plan.

Canada's emissions have increased 27 percent since 1990. To meet the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, the nation would have to decrease emissions by 33 percent within five years - something that the federal government has said is impossible.



Free compact fluorescents cause a stir at Lake Tahoe

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Ten or 15 years ago, you could barely give away compact fluorescent light bulbs. They were big and, to the annoyance of many, flickered uncertainly when you turned on the switch.

Those days are gone. Sierra Pacific Power gave away the compact fluorescents on a recent day in South Lake Tahoe, and all 10,000 were gone within two hours.

The lights use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs, and last far longer. They are also more expensive. Still, incandescent bulbs are on their way out, says the Tahoe Daily Tribune. Nevada has banned their sale effective 2012. Similar legislation is in the works in Congress.



Frontier hopes to expedite review of new turboprops

DENVER - The expectation last year was that Denver-based low-cost air carrier Frontier Airlines was going to have its new 70-passenger Q400 turboprop planes flying to Rocky Mountains ski towns by this coming winter.

By mid-summer, however, it was clear this would not happen at most locations. A key problem is that Frontier has been unable to get certification from the Federal Aviation Administration to use the propeller-driven Bombardier Q400s.

In hopes of expediting the review, Frontier has asked for a face-to-face meeting with FAA officials, reports the Rocky Mountain News.

Among the ski towns that had most eagerly anticipated the new plan were Aspen, but also Vail/Eagle Valley, Steamboat and Jackson Hole.



Mammoth thinks it outdrinks Seattle

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - Anchorage, not Seattle, actually leads the nation in coffee shops per capita, at 2.8 shops for every 10,000 residents. But Mammoth figures it just might have room for an argument, since it now has six full-time coffee shops for a year-round population of 7,500 people.

The Sheet suggests a new motto for Mammoth Lakes: "We're the Seattle of the Sierra Ð without all the rain and crappy drivers."



Starbucks spoils all the small-town fun

EAGLE - Eagle, a town of 5,000 people located 30 miles down-valley from Vail, now has four latte-delivering shops. The latest, Starbucks, opened next door to a competitor called Zach's.

Annie Egan, writing in the Eagle Valley Enterprise, sees no good coming from this exercise in free enterprise. "Some people say that it works to have 2 coffee shops together ... somehow they play on each other. But guess what, folks, that's in the big cities, not small-town America."



Ketchum celebrates happy ending to fire

KETCHUM, Idaho Hollywood actor Bruce Willis and the rock musician Steve Miller are donating their talents in what is being called the "Kick Ash Bash," a benefit concert for the firefighters who fought the forest fire that singed the Sun Valley ski area and threatened homes.

Both Miller and Willis have homes in the area. The lighting-caused fire covered 48,000 acres before being extinguished in early September. No buildings were burned, nor were there any injuries.



Elks hope to get more dates if they quit smoking

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. - Even the Elks Club in Jackson Hole has gone smoke-less, leaving just two bars that still allow smoking. A good many members of the Elks Club still smoke, but in order to attract more members, the group decided by a 4-to-1 margin to permanently snuff the butts, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide. The organization has 500 members, with about 350 active.