Summit County Citizens Voice

A view from Steamboat's Howelsen Hill toward Steamboat Ski Area. Howelsen Hill Ski Area holds a unique place in the history of skiing. It has sent more skiers to international competition than any other area in North America. Howelsen Hill boasts a remarkable heritage. It is the oldest ski area in continuous use in Colorado, and has the largest and most complete natural ski jumping complex in North America. Howelsen has been the training ground for more than 64 Olympians making over 90 Winter Olympic appearances, 15 members of the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame and 6 members of the National Ski Hall of fame. PHOTO COURTESY CITY OF STEAMBOAT SPRINGS.

Yellowstone Club trial ends
New West is reporting on the latest from the trial of Yellowstone Club founder Tim Blixseth, accused of fraud and “breach of fiduciary duty” related to a $375 million loan he obtained from Credit Suisse in 2005. The 59-year-old former billionaire spent more than $200 million of the cash for his personal use, buying everything from high-end real estate to airplanes.

The exclusive private ski area was created during the go-go years of ski industry development, but filed for bankruptcy in Nov. 2008, when court documents showed the exclusive resort owes an estimated $343 million to creditors such as banks and local contractors. The court filing said tight credit markets had made it difficult to raise money to pay off those debts and make needed repairs to the resort.

The three-day trial ended Feb. 26, leaving Blixseth’s fate in the hands of a bankruptcy judge.

The New York Times also has reported on the bankruptcy proceedings, calling on one of the signature, fin de siècle moments of our passing Gilded Age. The NYT story is online here.

Swiss guide dies in avalanche
As always, PlanetSki has a handful of interesting stories related to skiing and mountain life. This week, there’s a news story about a new round of avalanches in Switzerland including yet another death involving a ski professional.

According to PlanetSki, the guide was killed by a slide that happened as he was testing a slope for stability near his group in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. Five people were hit by an avalanche on an in-bounds run at Champex, Switzerland. Thus far, 24 people have died in Swiss avalanches this winter, twice the average for this time of year. More of the mountain news roundup after the break.

PlanetSki also published an interesting piece on the impact of social media on the coverage of the Vancouver Olympics, and also examined how the popularity of Olympic events like skiercross may fuel a renewed growth spurt. The post also includes some great photos from the Austrian Freeski Open held at the end of February at the Kitzsteinhorn.

Telluride land deal
The Telluride Daily Planet reports California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman recently bought the land around Alta Lakes, where previous development plans caused a stir in the area.

According to the Daily Planet, county planners believe Whitman wants to preserve the land. The former eBay CEO contributed $1.5 million to the efforts aimed preserving the Telluride valley floor as open space.

The previous owners of the backcountry Alta Lakes parcel had county approval to  build 28 very big houses of up to 12,000 square feet each, plus 20 caretaker houses on the land. Read the story here.

Wolf Creek development update
Click over to the Durango Herald and read about a recent roundtable meeting held to discuss development plans at Wolf Creek. The long-running debate over plans to build a residential development  includes numerous twists and turns.

The latest iteration calls for a land swap that would give the development proponents a parcel closer to the highway in exchange for a large inholding surrounded by public lands.

U.S.Rep. John Salazar organized the event in Alamosa, attended by 23 stakeholders. Environmental advocates say the Forest Service needs to conduct a full-scale environmental study to reveal the potential impacts to public lands, even though the development would be on private property.

According to the Herald, Forest Service officials expressed doubt that the agency would consider the proposal as its currently envisioned. Read the story here.

‘Oddbal’ weather impacting Crested Butte
Crested Butte ski area officials say they’re noticing a trend of winter arriving a bit later each season, and the Crested Butte News wove that into a story about global weather and climate change.

Snowmakers at Crested Butte say they used to start operations right around Halloween, but that hasn’t been the case in the past five to 10 years. Nowadays, it’s more common to start blowing snow in mid-November, the newspaper reports. Read the story here.

You can also read a recap of the Feb. 17-21 U.S. Freeskiing Championships online at the Crested Butte News here.

Olympic fever in Steamboat
Steamboat Today is featuring video footage of crowds gathered at One Steamboat Place to watch and celebrate Olympic Nordic competition in Vancouver. Steamboat, of course, figures prominently as a long-time incubator for Winter Olympic ski athletes.

The town has produced more Olympic medalists than any other. This year was a breakthrough year for the American Nordic program, with Johnny Spillane taking three silvers, including the first-ever medal for the U.S. in the Nordic Combined.

On the news side, Steamboat Today is reporting on a complex transfer of development rights program that is intended to preserve agricultural land by enabling owners to sell development rights on rural parcels. The rights could then be transferred to properties closer to town. Ultimately, the program could end up creating the potential for up to 300 five-acre lots on the northern and western edge of the town. Read the story here.

Olympic wrap-up
And the Whistler Pique, off course, is full of Olympic and post-Olympic coverage this week, including a look at how busy the mounties were during the winter games. Turns out, things were relatively quiet. Officers arrest about six to 10 people per night, no different from any other busy Friday or Saturday night in Whistler.

Read more of the Pique’s Olympic coverage here.

Filed under: mountain news roundup Tagged: | avalanches, mountain news roundup, Steamboat Springs Olympians, Summit County Colorado, Summit County News, Tim Blixseth bankruptcy trial, Yellowstone Club