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Doc PJ: Don’t sacrifice Peak 6 for VR shareholders

"doc pj" Perrinjaquet, MD, Breckenridge

Dear Breckenridge Town Council: “Yes!” means “Yes!” Voice your support. “Yes” to Alternative 1 (no action). Preserve Peak 6.

If after the pine beetle epidemic is over in five or 10 years, we have too many beautiful spruce and too much wildlife habitat, our community threatened by lynx, moose and rare alpine toads, then let’s cut 61 football fields worth of trees and go skiing.

If someone said, “I want to poke your right eye out because it’s really fun,” would you say, “No, but in the spirit of compromise, you can poke out my left eye”?



“No!” means “No!”

If they said, “Well your eyeball is just a 2.4 percent of your body,” would you feel it a compromise if they said, “OK, I’ll just put a sharp stick in the middle of your pupil, that’s only 1 percent”?



“No!” means “No!”

The small increase in ski terrain will only be a marketing tool that will make the rest of the ski area more crowded on the already too crowded weekends at the expense of the most exquisite remaining undeveloped section of the Tenmile range.

I have only been to Peak 6 twice. That’s enough to know there is probably better backcountry ski terrain in Summit County, but no more beautiful stand of trees in Colorado, maybe the world. I’ve seen a lot of the world and few places compare. I almost broke my buttocks on a rock as I dropped off the cornice of Peak 6 to ski down. I would be glad to never ski there again if I knew it would be preserved from development.

I ran the peaks trail from Breckenridge to Frisco Saturday morning, and as beautiful as the sky and wildflowers are right now, the trees are dying. I’ve knew the trees were dying for years, but now I can see them turning brown and falling down.

Do we want to be known in 10 years when most of this area is brown or burnt as the community that at least saved the heart of the Tenmile range for wildlife – or as the community that caved to Vail Resorts, Incorporated and carved it up to boost the bottom line of stock holders?

The decision has not been made. Those 61 football fields of old growth spruce are still there. I want to be able to look myself in the mirror in 10 years and know I did everything I could to keep them there.

“Yes!” means “Yes!”

Support Alternative #1! Yes to Alternative 1 means yes, we will continue to have the choice of how best to use this beautiful area for the years to come. It’s called Alternative 1 because our first choice, our first responsibility should always be to preserve our valued resources until there is a clear and overwhelming need to exploit them, to cut these trees down, which simply does not exist – especially now.

Let’s give ourselves the option of doing the right thing in another 10 years. If Alternative 2 or 3 are approved, we won’t have that choice.

Don’t take another sharp stick in the middle of your eye. Support Alternative 1.


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