Around the Mountains: Ski towns nervous about economy

SUMMIT COUNTY — The conventional wisdom is that ski towns may hurt during economic downturns but not as much as elsewhere. Still, edginess is evident in reports from across the West. In Steamboat Springs, reports the Pilot & Today, cash-buyers are asking for — and getting — discounts on properties as concern spreads about the viability of credit sources. In Aspen, a development that envisions two large hotels, affordable housing and a new lift — all in a long-neglected area near the city’s downtown district — is in doubt, reports The Aspen Times. Financial consultant Byron Koste told a task force that the outlook for the development is grim because of the absence of financing. In Vail, rumors have been floating of imminent foreclosure proceedings by Capmark Financial Group against the Vail Plaza Hotel. This is the major hotel located at the town’s middle entrance on the ski-hill side of Interstate 70. The Vail Daily found circumstantial evidence to support the rumor. Town governments are also tightening their belts in expectation of flat and even reduced revenue. Vail, for example, is projecting $51 million in revenues next year, compared to $54 million this year. Sales taxes collections are expected to be flat, while real-estate transfer tax is projected to decline nearly 14 percent. “I’ve got some anxiety, but I don’t think there’s a reason to panic,” said Stan Zemler, the town manager, told the Vail Daily. Eagle tells Texan, tear out that theater room EAGLE — Eagle has always held the big-money, big-house, second-home economy of Vail at arm’s length. True, many local residents make their livings by building, financing, and servicing those big up-valley homes at Vail and Beaver Creek, 20 to 30 miles away. But a decade ago Eagle vowed not to remain different. It said no gated communities would be allowed, and it also said that houses couild be no larger than 7,000 square feet. Town officials, reports the Eagle Valley Enterprise, recently noticed excavation of a crawl space that was intended to increase the size of a home to 10,000 square feet. Faced with an edict, the homeowner, a part-time resident from Texas, must remove what appeared to be a home theater. At least for the record, the homeowner wanted to “do the right thing,” according to his architect. But if Eagle is keeping the line drawn on house sizes, it appears to be losing a broader battle about geographic naming. Increasingly, the town is referred to as being in the “Vail Valley,” an advertising locution that causes local teeth to grind in annoyance. End of trail for adventurer is lined with $100 bills MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — Preston Morrow went hiking last week, and he found a trail lined with money. It was not, however, as happy a discovery as you might think. Morrow, a manager of a sporting goods shop, had aimed to reach an old mine located west of the Mammoth Mountain ski area. But because of a late start, he aborted his trip short of his destination and instead hiked off trail to get the views from the ridgetop. That’s where he found a sting of $100 bills, plus a pilot’s license and a couple of other pieces of identification. However, the name on the license meant nothing to Morrow, he later told The Sheet, a newspaper in Mammoth Lakes. But when Morrow showed his discovery to fellow employees the next morning, they instantly recognized the name: Steve Fossett, the retired banker from Chicago (and part-time Beaver Creek resident) who became an adventurer, setting 116 sporting records for such things as being the first man to balloon nonstop around the world. Fossett disappeared last year after taking off from a private airstrip south of Reno, Nev. His stated purpose was to studying dried-up lake beds in Nevada to gauge their suitability for a future ambition, to set a land-speed record. At Mammoth, searchers subsequently found the plane wreckage strewn across the mountain side in a 450- by 400-foot swath. Most of the fuselage had disintegrated, although here and there were items: a faded sweatshirt. Charred bone was to be tested. Investigators described a high-impact crash several hundred feet short of the ridgeline. Although of modest origins, Fossett gained considerable wealth working out of Chicago. Early in his post-retirement adventuring career, Fossett had skied from Aspen to Vail in what he believed was a record of 55 hours. Vail distance racer Dawes Wilson, although somewhat younger, took that as a challenge. He promptly skied the same route, unaided by assistants to break trail, in 45 hours. Later, however, Fossett did establish Guinness Book of Record marks in any number of endeavors, all with considerable danger involved and requiring great mental focus to survive. In July, the London Daily Mail reported speculation that Fossett may have faked his own death. Some things just didn’t seem to add up. For example, despite his high-altitude experiences, he wore only light clothing and took only a single bottle of water on this trip. Also, he failed to take a global positioning system watch, which he was said to always wear when on solo flights.