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Show A-9 The Park Record Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, October 22-25, 2005 MOUNTAIN TOWN NEWS The Coloradification of the Sierra Nevada, Truckee-Lake Tahoe area All other things being equal, TRUCKEE, Calif. - People in the Rocky Mountains have long they can be expected to shoot up feared "California tion," as even more. Town voters, in the sprawl-type development is largest turnout in decades, often called. In the resort world, approved construction of a 'it's the other way around. The sewage treatment plant and Sierra Nevada is being changed extension of sewage lines. State in ways that could be called and federal grants cover well "Coloradification." Trends 10 to more than half of the estimated 20 years old in the resorts along $4.4 million cost. the 1-70 corridor of Colorado While the sewage improveare now playing out in the ments are expected to induce Truckee-Lake Tahoe area. more development and populaFor example, 10 years after tion growth, Rico Bugle editor Vail got a modern traffic round- Eric Heil contends that the projabout, work is being completed ect is a good one. For all its on a Truckee's first roundabout. Next, finishing touches are being applied to a pedestrian base village at Norths tar-atTahoe, a ski area. As was done at Beaver Creek, it will have an ice-skating rink (using synthetic ice in summer) and many places to spend money clothing stores and restaurants. Over two-thirds of the 60,000 square feet of commercial space has been leased. As well, 100 condominiums are .Vr i3:i going on line in the first of several phases. Project developers Booth Creek Ski Holdings and East West Partners both originated in the Vail area of Colorado. passenger rail service next spring, says Bob Barnett, editor of Pique newsmagazine, and another should be a peak-topeak gondola planned by •Will Whistler lose its soul if lntrawest. While the gondola has been derided as a Disneylandit gets gondola? type ride, he seems to think WHISTLER, B.C. - Whistler there's nothing wrong with it. continues to wonder how it can "The idea that Whistler is in return to the good-old-days, business often seems to run when business was always grow- counter to the hedonistic nature ing. The downturn has lasted of skiing and boarding and the four years, and forecasts for this spiritual nature of the mounwinter are short of ebullient. tains," he notes. '"The town is One answer is the return of losing its soul,' is a refrain that growth, Rico hasn't returned to the rich diversity of its mining days, and businesses barely hold on, he notes. •Would Carl Howelsen have jumped on plastic? •.'.•r~*%it'T,V,-;- •Helicopter skiing could be in cards at Silverton SILVERTON. Colo. - I t s funny how one thing can lead to another. Consider Silverton Mountain Ski Area began, where the original goal was to have great powder snow skiing at a cost of only $25 lift tickets. But great powder snow skiing often comes in tandem with avalanche threats. To quell the avalanche danger, ski area developer Aron Brill has to drop explosives into the snowpack. It can be done by shooting howitzers, but it's aptually less expensive to drop charges from a helicopter. And since you're operating helicopters anyway, why not take some paying guests, to help pay the overhead? Following this curious path, Silverton Mountain could go from the lowest-end, no-frills type of downhill skiing to the most expensive, exclusive kind. Still, while the permit from the Bureau of Land Management provisionally authorizes helicopter skiing. Brill tells the Durango Telegraph that helicopter skiing remains "highly conceptual." Richard Speegle. the federal agent processing Silverton Mountain's affairs, similarly reports a cautious approach involving a trial period. He predicts backcountry skiers may object to the noise. Of lesser issue is that another helicopter skiing operation, Telluride's Helitrax, has a permit to use public lands in the area, although it rarely does. > ' - • , J . ; - ' i ' ' ^ r : ^ ' ; - ^ - ^ it - 1 ••i^';;i.4:i.i.A*.-/';'i:.i-iV<; • . > • 'M anticipation of nre threat Please see Please see A to B?, A-10 RECOGNIZED AS A NATIONAL HEALTH CARE LEADER. AND SO IS BILL NELSON, ITS CEO;" ;v r , " •-•-• . - SfcSSEfeSltfkv spp« c v ^ • • • ' .-!?.•*-' Bill Nelson CEO, Intermountain Health Care THE INTERMOUNTAIN HEALTH CARE BOARD OF TRUSTEES CONGRATULATES BILL NELSON ON RECEIVING THE NATIONAL HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP AWARD. The National Center for Healthcare Leadership has named ^IHC's Bill Nelson as the first recipient of the National Healthcare Leadership Award. The award reepgnizes his leadership role at IHG and in the industry, his skills at coalition and team - building, and his commitment to providing quality and affordable health care - all things that we've recognized for a long time. Congratulations, Bill! INTERMOUNTAIN HEALTH CARE BOARD OF TRUSTEES A 5coHAnJer5on Merrill Gappmayer Kent H. Murdock Teresa Sect Kern C. Gardner Robert].'Parsons, PhD Ooi^as C. Black Robert H. Garff Richard R. Price, MD Mark R. Briesacher, MD M. Elisabeth Hammond, MD Bruce T. Reese Penny S. Brooke, RN, MS, JD Randy Horiuchi JoAnn B. Seghini, PhD Rebecca Chavez-Houck Clark Ivory Charles W. Sorenson, MD Daniel W. Davis, MD Linda C. Leckmon, MD MarcR. Udall, MD Spencer F. Eccles Lawrence 5. Lewin Irene S. Fisher F Ann Milker, EdD •Tiny Rico makes big commitment RICO, Coio. - Tiny Rico, located across Lizard Head Pass from Telluride, has been booming of late, with land prices reported to be four, five, or six times as high as only a year ago. LAKE LOUISE, Alberta .-; While U.S. President George W, Bush and others remain skepti-: cal of global warming theories; doubts seem to be dissipating at the grassroots level. • A case in point is the Emerald Lake Lodge, which is located north of Banff in Yoho National Park. There, crews will in January will thin the aging spruce-and-fir forest that surrounds the lodge in order to reduce the potential for fire. . I ,iaigaSsg-*3vl 5 i^i™ INTERMOUNTAIN " M " , , ; ' S C ' l f S ^ HEALTH CARE IS J STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. - A new era dawned in Steamboat Springs on Sunday with the baptism of a new 75meter all-weather ski jump at Howelsen Hill, the city's 90-year old ski jumping venue. The Steamboat Pilot and Today's Tom Ross reported a loud "thwack" as the first jumper, Davis Miller, touched down on the green plastic surface and skidded into the wet sod beyond, followed quickly by a dozen young ski jumpers. Program director Todd Wilson, himself a product of the Winter Park jumping program, was philosophic. "Would Tiger Woods be the champion he is if he'd only played golf six months of the year?" he asked in justifying the creation of a plastic jump. John Fctcher, the 93-year-old founder of the Steamboat ski area, reported mixed emotions. "I'm sort of mad at the Europeans for making it necessary," he said. "This is really a winter sport." He added that he thinks youngsters should not be pushed to specialize in one sport. And what would Carl Howelsen, who introduced Colorado to ski jumping, have thought? Ross points out that Howelsen was an all-season jumper himself. Turning from his vocation of brick-laying, Howelsen got a job with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. There, working under the big tent, he demonstrated ski jumping from a 100-foot ramp greased with Vaseline - in all seasons. has been heard since the mid'70s, when a conscious decision was made to turn Whistler into a destination resort." The gondola is neither a silver bullet, nor is it a soul-robbing decision that will make Whistler less of a ski town, he adds. "The soul of a town exists in the people who live there, which is why the economy, affordability and housing are always issues in Whistler." INTERMOUNTAIN !HC '?.3ii£%. |