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Show A-20 The Park Record Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, August 18-21, 2018 Continued from A-19 Mountain Town sides across the valley. At Taos, 80-year-old Lena Gallegos says even the magpies needed to be given water, because there was so little on the landscape. “It makes me want to cry,” she told the Taos Daily News. The newspaper tells of rural valleys where this year’s water scarcity has revived tensions that tend to go dormant in years of plentiful water. The overarching question is whether this year’s drought is a harbinger of what lies ahead as the climate turns hotter and most likely drier in the Southwest. BEST LOCATION! More summer amusements in already busy mountain towns SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Ski areas in the Tahoe-Truckee area continue to add summer attractions. “It’s happening, and it’s only going to continue to grow, hopefully beyond the bigger resorts,” says Michael Reitzell, president of the California Ski Industry Association. “I think every resort in some way or shape is heading in that direction.” The Tahoe Daily Tribune cites Heavenly, which is owned by Vail Resorts. The “Epic Discovery” offerings include zip lines, climbing walls, tubing, ropes courses, and a mountain coaster. A mountain coaster differs from a roller coaster in that it mostly hugs the downhill slope as the tracks twist and turn. Northstar, located near Truckee and also owned by Vail, also has extensive summer operations, as does Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadow, which is owned by Alterra. Others are following: Diamond Peak Ski Resort plans a major summer expansion. But other, smaller ski areas, such as those near Donner Pass, seem less inclined to expand into the non-amusement park attractions. Ski areas operating on U.S. government land had been governed by a 1986 law that made no mention of summer use of the land used for downhill skiing. Ski Run Across The Street And Deck Views To Main Street This Upper Woodside condo is undoubtedly the best location in Old Town for access to skiing and Main Street. Simply walk across the street to the slopes. Sit on your deck overlooking the Town Stairs with views to historic Main Street buildings. And if you’re looking for dinner or anything else Main Street has to offer, easily walk down the Town Steps from your front door. This condo has been renovated to open up the living room and create a nice great room for the living, dining and kitchen area. There’s also two spacious bedrooms upstairs with 1.5 baths, laundry and lots of additional storage. 928 SQUARE FEET | 2 BEDS | 1.5 BATHS 470 Woodside Avenue #1 | Old Town Offered at $599,000 435-901-0616 julie@jhparkcity.com A S S O C I AT E B R O K E R ® 2013-2015 2013-2017 KW TOP INDIVIDUAL REALTOR IN UTAH FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS! Most ski areas catered to mountain bikers, and many kept gondolas running to mountain-top restaurants. But the U.S. Forest Service, on whose land 122 ski areas in the United States operate, was resistant when Vail Resorts and other ski area operations began talking about new, summer-centric attractions. The agency said it needed clear authorizing legislation. Congress in 2011 delivered that green light, the Ski Area Recreational Opportunity Enhancement Act, which was then signed into law by President Barack Obama. The new law expressly loosely authorized the new activities. Vail Mountain was the test case for the new process, followed soon by Breckenridge and Heavenly. The Nature Conservancy blessed the idea and helped construct information panels and other devices intended to explain the natural world evident from the ski area activities. Ski areas get to keep much of the additional revenue and also extend some part-time jobs for employees into more year-round employment. Ski areas said they never expected that summer attractions would match that of skiing. So far, that seems to be the case. In California, the Sierra Club opposed the summer expansion plans at Heavenly, but not because of the activities on the mountain. Instead, the environmental group worried about extra cars and exhaust in the Tahoe Basin during the busiest time of the year for tourists, explains the Daily Tribune. “I’m sure there are some resorts where the expansion is perfectly appropriate,” said Bruce Hamilton, the deputy executive director of the Sierra Club. In Vail, the opening of the new attractions three years ago was hard to detect among the summer busyness. Vail’s two large parking garages 20 years ago sat largely empty. Now, they’re nearly full on many summer days. Jim Lamont, who heads an organization called the Vail Homeowners Association, says the new attractions add to Vail’s traffic woes, and that decreases the quality of life. He also sees this fitting into a business picture, one of economic expansion with unintended consequences. New and more customers results in the need for more em- ployee housing. “Are you ever going to get enough housing built to meet the needs? No,” he tells Mountain Town News. In California, the Daily Tribune portrays this against two important backdrops. One, is climate change and the seemingly greater ups and downs of snowfall. Not every winter is epic, the newspaper notes. The other is the fact that skier numbers have been flat for a good many years. What it fails to mention is that revenue from ski area operations, as opposed to skier numbers, has been anything but flat. How else do you explain why first Vail Resorts and now Alterra Mountain Resorts have engaged at a furious pace to buy more and more ski areas? An airy perch for tourists, but is that really progress? WHISTLER, B.C. – Whistler Blackcomb has another summertime attraction. The Cloudraker Sky Bridge allows people to venture to places where you can look down 130 meters (426 feet) to a ski slope below. “Since we opened, it’s been pretty much full on crowds,” Wendy Robinson, a business development manager with Whistler Blackcomb, told Pique Newsmagazine. This new bridge and viewing platform is seen as a way to broaden the appeal of Whistler Blackcomb. “You don’t have to be kind of a big-mountain skier or mountaineer to go up there now,” explained Marc Riddell, communications manager for Whistler Blackcomb. An anonymous commenter on the newspaper’s website was less impressed, describing it as a “theme park, wow” type of attraction. The commentator seemed to think that instead of sightseeing activities, Vail Resorts should instead pursue active sports. The idea was first assembled by previous owners of the ski area as part of a $345 million development plan called Renaissance. The centerpiece of that plan was a base area aquatic center. At the time of the announcement, it was described as an alternative necessitated by the increasing number of rainy days in Whistler, at least in the base area and lower slopes. That plan has been postponed, but not formally eliminated. Instead, Vail Resorts is focusing on the on-mountain infrastructure. PRESENTS THE 2 DAYS OF ENCOURAGEMENT, EDUCATION & COMMUNITY. 50% OF TICKET SALES WILL BENEFIT THE PEACE HOUSE! 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