JACKSON, Wyo. — As a Santa Claus slithered 60 feet down a rope, 2,000 people whooped in approval as Jackson Hole Mountain Resort unveiled its new tram cars.

The new $31 million tram has opened after nearly two years without a tram to whisk skiers 4,139 vertical feet to the top of Rendezvous Mountain.

The tram cars, says the Jackson Hole News & Guide, are sleek, with the bucking-bronco logo that is omnipresent in Wyoming adorning the sides.

“Its interior resembles what one might expect in contemporary European transit train — slick and functional,” reports the newspaper’s Angus M. Thuermer Jr.

In an editorial, the newspaper hailed the new tram and saluted the old one.

“From Yellowstone geysers to the Grand Teton, Mother Nature shines here like nowhere else,” said the newspaper. “It is improbable that a man-made contraption could rank next to such marvels, yet the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram has taken its place in the valley pantheon.”

The newspaper further noted that the gondola was critical to the operation of the ski area, which is what gave Jackson Hole — traditionally more reliant on summer tourism — a year-round economy.

Resorts willing to deal even for Christmas week

ASPEN — In most years, trying to get a reservation at Aspen the week before Christmas is a laughing matter, as in “You want what?”

In other words, the town is booked solid.

This year is different — in Aspen, but obviously everywhere else. Everywhere, local ski areas adopted the barroom-at-closing-time eyes.

As Christmas approached, negotiations were in the air, even a hint of despair, with those markets that previously didn’t look so good suddenly taking on new appeal.

In Aspen, most hotels had dropped their standard minimum-stay requirements.

Some were offering lower nightly rates, up to 40 percent off their normal Christmas rates.

Getting to Aspen was cheaper this year, as well, with air shuttles from Denver available for less than $130, a fifth of the going rate a year ago.

Even the ultra-rich are shifting their margins.

The Aspen Times suggests that the slacker economy may have something to do with cancelled reservations at an Aspen restaurant by oil billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Although now living in London, Abramovich made his money — estimated at $23 billion last spring — in the Russian oil fields. He also owns a premier-league soccer team in London called Chelsea.

The 42-year-old Abramovich last spring bought a 200-acre property near Aspen, with each acre of horse pasture probably worth far more than your house.

He was scheduled to host a New Year’s Eve party for 60 or more at the tony Piñons restaurant.

Vail Resorts, the operator of five ski resorts in the West, has responded to the downturn by shaving prices on its multi-day lift tickets in an effort to entice more of the well-heeled to its resorts.

Within Vail, the town, unusual measures have also been taken. Metropolitan Denver is just close enough, approximately 100 miles, to provide potential stand-ins for the usual ultra-high-end Christmas crowd.

Accordingly, in November, the town council engineered a $500,000 boost for special marketing to these potential close-by customers.

Other ski towns also decided to market closer to home this winter. The Winter Park-Fraser Valley Chamber of Commerce announced plans to dip into reserves to come up with $120,000 for a special winter marketing campaign.

Three women die from carbon monoxide

SQUAW VALLEY, Calif. — Three women died in an old Buick where they had been sleeping during a snowstorm.

Poisoning by carbon monoxide, an odorless gas, was blamed for the deaths.

The three women — aged 17, 21, and 22 — were employed by Squaw Valley, a ski area, and had been staying at an Elderhostel.

Authorities tell the Sierra Sun that the car had remained running, but snow during the night covered up the tailpipe. That resulted in the carbon monoxide entering the Buick’s passenger compartment.

Vail and Beaver Creek in ‘snow hog microclimates’

VAIL — Vail always has had a reputation for an uncanny ability to get regular dollops of snow. Others may get bigger dumps of powder, but Vail rarely loses out entirely.

Why is this? Joe Ramey, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, says that Vail and its sibling ski area, Beaver Creek, are in an “orographically favored” area.

He also called the ski mountains “snow hog microclimates.”

“Elevation and the shape of your mountains helps lift the air,” he explained. The lifted air is more likely to then disgorge its precipitation in the form of snow.

Vail and Beaver Creek have been well blessed during the last two weeks, but so has virtually every other ski resort in Colorado. After an extremely slow start, both Sun Valley and the Tahoe-Truckee area also have been doing well.