Mountain town news.

#Colorado

Summit Daily News Link

If you read the Wall Street Journal, you may have noticed a full-page advertisement on Tuesday that included a great many names of ski companies — Squaw Valley, Aspen, Vail, among others — as well as 100-plus other businesses, including New Belgium Brewery, Nike, Teton Gravity Research, and The North Face.

And then these names: Hilton, Owens Corning, and Procter & Gamble, plus Coca-Cola, the Hartford Group, Dell and Microsoft.

The advertisement proclaims support for a low-carbon energy plan, and urges the U.S. government to “seek a strong and fair global climate deal in Paris that provides long-term direction and periodic strengthening to keep global temperature rise below 2°C.”

The ad also supports action to achieve or exceed U.S. commitments and, finally, supports investment in the low-carbon economy at home and abroad, “giving industry clarity and boosting the confidence of investors.”

The advertisement was put together by a consortium of environmental groups led by the World Wildlife Fund. Marty Spitzer, that group’s director of U.S. climate and renewable energy policy, said the initiative was modeled on a similar advertisement placed in the Financial Times of the United Kingdom in June.

“This is a big change from five years ago,” he told Mountain Town News. “Big companies see climate as a big risk.”

Spitzer said companies such as Kellogg’s, the manufacturer of breakfast cereals and snacks, foresee problems in their supply chains, “and ski companies obviously see a direct link.” Proctor & Gamble has begun speaking up “in a significant way in the last few months,” he said.

While acknowledging that the Wall Street Journal advertising is not cheap, he declined to say how much the ad cost. The newspaper says the national full-page rate is $269,125.92.

MAURICE STRONG HAD A BIG IDEA FOR COLORADO

CRESTONE, Colo. – Maurice Strong, a Canadian who made a fortune in oil and then went on to organize the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, died last week at age 86.

The Rio conference was the first international effort to start grappling with climate change. As such, it was a direct predecessor of the Paris climate talks this week.

But Strong also had a strong connection to Colorado’s San Luis Valley — including the idea of exporting water from an ancient aquifer to service suburban growth in metropolitan Denver.

Born into poverty in Manitoba during the Great Depression, he had graduated from high school at age 14 and then hopped a train for British Columbia. By 25, he was vice president of a petroleum company in Alberta and by 31 was president of the Power Corporation of Canada.

A billionaire, in 1978 he bought the 200,000-acre Baca Ranch in the San Luis Valley. The valley is located four hours from Denver, along the New Mexico border, and it has a wild, lonely but rare beauty. Part of an old Spanish land grant, the ranch is between the Great Sand Dunes National Park and the old mining town of Crestone.

On the ranch, Strong’s Denmark-born wife, Hanne, helped create a spiritual center on the land. To this day, it has two Buddhist stupas amid the pinyon and juniper, plus scores of houses, many of them with unusual designs.

But Strong also saw opportunity to make money from what lay underground. With other investors, he formed American Water Development Inc. with the intent of pumping up to 200,000 acre-feet a year from what is called the Confined Aquifer. The valley there is at an elevation of about 8,000 feet, and the aquifer is located miles underground. By some estimates it has 50 times the volume of water as the combined capacity of Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

“The Confined Aquifer is a magnificent water supply that seems to make people go crazy,” Alex Prud’Homme observed in his 2011 book, “The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century.”

How much is 200,000 acre-feet? By way of comparison, the total of all of the 25 transmountain diversions in Colorado — including those from near Aspen, Vail, Summit County, Winter Park, and Grand Lake — range from 400,000 to 650,000 acre-feet in any given year. In other words, a vast amount.

In the San Luis Valley, the plan was hated. It was ultimately rejected by a Colorado Water Court. The Baca Ranch became protected as the Baca National Wildlife Refuge.

But while Strong moved onto other global save-the-environment advocacies, including the Rio conference, the idea was taken on by Gary Boyce, a native son of the San Luis Valley in the 1990s.

That water-export idea failed, but Boyce has not given up. The Crestone Eagle reports that Boyce has returned with a new iteration. It’s smaller, just 35,000 acre-feet. The pot has sweetened for locals: $50 million over the course of 25 years in Saguache County, one of the nation’s most sparsely populated and most impoverished counties.

As for Strong, he may be remembered as a great figure who helped alert us to our unsustainable environmental follies. He did a great many things with the United Nations and, for a time, was thought to be a possible candidate for the secretary-general.

In an article several decades ago, The New Yorker almost deified him. “The survival of civilization in something like its present form might depend significantly on the efforts of a single man,” it said.

The National Review saw Strong far less favorably, as somebody who would usher in world government. A 1997 article cited the example of a proposed mine in Montana, on the edge of Yellowstone National Park. The mine was blocked, in part, because Yellowstone had been designated as a “World Heritage Site.” A 2013 article cited Strong in an article about environmentalism. “Global warming had so evidently turned out to be the right fear at the right time,” it said, and the writer didn’t mean this kindly.

But in Colorado, Strong may be remembered as the progenitor of the biggest transmountain water diversion ever — but one that, at least so far, has not occurred.

BANFF STARTS TALKING ABOUT A GOAL OF 100-PERCENT FOSSIL-FREE

BANFF, Alberta – Banff, the municipality in Banff National Park, has started talking about setting a goal of becoming totally reliant on non-fossil fuels by 2050.

Chad Townsend, the town’s environmental coordinator, said the goal is doable, if still ambitious. This goal, if adopted by Banff’s elected officials, could also include transportation and heating, in addition to electricity.

No place in the modern world has achieved this goal so far, although many towns and cities have started embracing it. Vancouver, B.C., recently adopted a 100 percent renewable energy goal by 2050, and the college town of Fort Collins, Colorado, adopted something similar.

Eliminating fossil fuels from the electrical mix remains challenging enough for most communities. Aspen joined two other smaller towns and cities in the United States this summer when it completed a 100-percent renewable portfolio. The Aspen utility, however, only services half to two-thirds of the load in the community of 6,000 and none to the ski area itself.

The Rocky Mountain Outlook reports that town officials remain non-committal, but are considering spending $40,000 on developing a path to define how to get there. Clearly controversial would be expansion of hydro-electricity, particularly if it requires dams. One dam has been removed from within Banff National Park, and Councillor Stavros Karlos said he’s ready to see more dams blown up after watching DamNation, a documentary that challenges the systems of large dams in the United States.

About half of Aspen Electric’s renewable power comes from turbines installed on existing dams. A recent proposal to recreate a hydroelectric generator on a local creek that had delivered electricity to Aspen from 1885 to 1962 failed because of community pushback. Instead, Aspen secured its remaining power from wind farms on the Great Plains, hundreds of miles away in Nebraska and South Dakota.

FAT-TIRED BIKES OK’D ON SOME NORDIC TRAILS

CANMORE, Alberta – Fat-tired bikes will be restricted to ungroomed single and double-track trails at the Canmore Nordic Center, putting groomed trails off limits at the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics cross-country ski competition.

Fat bikes have extra-wide tires and thick, sturdy frames that allow them to handle snowy conditions.

Alberta Parks told the Rocky Mountain Outlook that it’s a growing sport, and so some trails needed to be designated for its use.

NEW CHINESE SKI AREA FRONT TRICKLE OF FLOOD?

WHISTLER, B.C. – Another Chinese ski resort has opened. Called Thaiwoo Four Season Destination Resort, it’s a three-hour drive from Beijing and amid a cluster of new resorts.

Whistler-based Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners designed the new resort, and while it looks like a ski resort in North America, it was designed with cultural differences in mind. Ryley Thiessen, the firm’s vice president of resort design, says that a day on the mountain is more of a family affair in China. Ecosign estimates that only 50 percent of Chinese resort visitors will actually strap on skis. That makes off-mountain amenities more crucial.

Might more Chinese strap on boards? The China Ski Association projects that Beijing hosting the 2020 Winter Olympics will cause the number of skiers to increase 30 fold, from 10 million today to 300 million.

That, in turn, could cause a flood of new skiers to ski resorts in the North American West, says Thiessen. “I think we’re going to see that change in the next 5 to 10 years, and I really hope we’re ready for it,” he told Pique Newsmagazine. That probably requires spending time on how to cater to needs of this new market, whether it’s having more translators or different meal options.

HUNTER WHO KILLED WOLF NOT CHARGED

KREMMLING, Colo. – U.S. wildlife officials have announced they will not charge a hunter who killed a gray wolf near Kremmling. The town is located along the Colorado River, about halfway between Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs.

The hunter said he mistook the male wolf for a coyote.

Only a few wolves have been seen in Colorado since the species was extirpated from the state in 1943. However, since 2004, several have wandered down from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, where wolves had been reintroduced in the 1990s. These lone wanderers are called “dispersers” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They have been seen as far distant as South Dakota and Arizona.

BROTHERS SURVIVE, BUT HAD FEARED THE WORST

TELLURIDE, Colo. – Two brothers skiing in the backcountry near Telluride before Thanksgiving both had luck on their side. The first one skied down a 30-degree slope, triggering a “massive slide.” From above, his brother watched his sibling being swept out of sight.

Skiing down to look for his brother, he triggered another slide. Alarmed by the conditions, he abandoned the search and then retreated to a place from which he could summon a rescue team.

But, in fact, the first brother had tumbled 1,000 feet, but when the snow quit sliding, his face and an arm were exposed. Still, it took him about 15 minutes to dig himself out of the avalanche debris. He then began searching with his beacon for his brother, whom he also thought was dead.

But both had survived, reports the Telluride Daily Planet, and they now have a story that few could match — or would want to match.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

I-70 Corridor Designation Signed Into Law

#Colorado

Summit Daily News Link

An amendment authored by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis to designate Interstate 70 from Denver to Utah as a Corridor of High Priority was signed into law Friday evening as part of a five-year highway transportation bill. It’s the first long-term transportation bill to be signed into law in more than a decade.

With this congressional designation, I-70 will now be eligible for certain federal funding streams to help with maintenance and improvements on what is a notoriously-congested highway, especially during peak ski-travel times. High-priority corridors are given preferential consideration when applying for discretionary grant programs like the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) and newly-established Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects, as well as financing opportunities like those established under the Transportation Infrastructure and Financing Act (TIFIA).

“We all know what it’s like to sit in miles of traffic heading up to, or back from, our world-class ski areas,” Polis said in a statement. “While this amendment doesn’t fix that problem immediately, it’s an important first step in freeing up federal funds to help alleviate traffic and congestion and, hopefully, make us all a little saner on our mountain getaways.”

In September, he wrote the leaders of the House Transportation Committee outlining Colorado priorities, such as maintenance and improvement projects along I-70, in this major highway bill.

EXPECT DELAYS FOR I-70 MOUNTAIN EXPRESS LANE TESTING

A few Interstate 70 closures will be in place as crew continue work on the I-70 Mountain Express Lane between Empire and Idaho Springs.

Monday, Dec. 7, and Tuesday, Dec. 8, eastbound I-70 traffic will be moved into the two general purpose lanes (the center lane and right lane) while CDOT crews do testing and preparation work in the Express Lane. This work will include testing the overhead boards that display various toll rates — but it’s important to note that tolls will not be collected until Saturday, Dec. 12, at the earliest.

On Wednesday, Dec. 9, and Thursday, Dec. 10, there will be times each day when all eastbound I-70 traffic is moved into the inside Express Lane for further testing of the communication network. While traffic is in this single-lane configuration, eastbound drivers could experience longer travel times. Should any of the overhead message boards indicate a toll rate during this testing, drivers should disregard this as, again, no tolls will be collected until Saturday, Dec. 12, at the earliest.

Because the final lane stripes and rumble strips should be in place by early next week, as different lanes are closed, there could be times when drivers will need to cross back and forth over the solid white line delineating the Express Lane or temporarily drive over rumble strips. Throughout the testing process, there will be times when lanes are closed with no visible work being done on the roadway.

While opening the Express Lane is obviously a major milestone for the Peak Period Shoulder Lane Project, work on this project (and lane closures when necessary) will continue into 2016.

The most notable work still to be done involves the demolition of the current bridge structure over I-70 at mile point 241 in Idaho Springs. This demolition work will be done during the overnight hours after traffic is moved onto the new bridge. It will take two or three nights to remove the old bridge, and, as soon as exact dates are set for this work, stakeholders will be notified.

In conjunction with opening this new bridge, grading and paving work will need to be done at each of the permanent on-ramps and off-ramps in this interchange to provide seamless connections with the eastbound and westbound lanes of I-70. While this work is being done, there will be various ramp closures in the Exit 241 interchange along with lanes closures on I-70.

Construction activities are weather dependent and the schedule is subject to change. For additional project information, visit www.i70ppsl.com or call 303-223-6581.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Ullr Fest adding fat bike race to annual Breckenridge celebration

#Breckenridge Colorado.

Summit Daily News Link

From when the snow melts to when it returns, Summit County has a relatively short mountain biking season. But that may soon change with the growing popularity of winter fat biking — trail riding on mountain bikes with oversized tires.

“It’s the fastest growing segment of the industry,” Maverick Sports Promotions founder Jeff Westcott said of the relatively new niche sport. His company runs the popular Summit Mountain Challenge mountain bike racing series in the summer, and in an effort to promote winter fat biking Mav Sports will organize Breckenridge’s first winter fat bike race, Ullr Bike, as part of next week’s Ullr Fest winter celebration, Jan. 11-15.

The race will take place Friday evening, Jan. 16, at 5 p.m. on a 9.5-mile course at the Gold Run Nordic Center outside of Breckenridge. Fat bikes will also be featured as part of the traditional Ullr Fest Parade on Thursday, Jan. 15, with race title sponsor Borealis Fat Bikes as a parade entrant.

“We first had the idea a year ago,” Westcott said. “We just decided that this was the year to test the waters.”

Friday’s race will be the culmination of a half-day fat bike festival at the Nordic Center with a number of companies offering free fat bike demos starting at noon.

“We’re just trying to get people on the bikes who haven’t tried it before,” fellow race organizer Chris Cawley said. “It’s going to be good exposure for this new, up-and-coming sport.”

Cawley also organizes Copper Mountain’s annual WinterBike race, now in its fourth year. This year’s WinterBike, part of the Leadville Winter Mountain Bike Series, will take place the week following Ullr Bike, Saturday, Jan. 24. That event will also include free fat bike demos both Saturday and Sunday.

The long-standing Leadville series was an inspiration for the new Breckenridge race.

LEADVILLE IN THE LEAD

“We took the lead from the Leadville guys. Those guys have been at it longer than us,” Westcott said.

Cawley added, “They were way ahead of the curve. They were trendsetters.”

Each Leadville race typically attracts about 100 riders; last winter’s WinterBike at Copper included roughly 150 participants who raced on a course through Center Village and along the Nordic trails. Westcott and Cawley said they hope to get similar numbers at their first-year event.

The Ullr Bike race will consist of two laps on a course that incorporates the Gold Run Nordic Center’s groomed trails, which are not normally open to bikes. The race will take place after the Nordic Center closes and prior to groomers preparing the trails for the following day’s skiing.

Demo bikes will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Participants are required to bring headlamps as the race will take place at night on the trail network around the Breckenridge golf course. Competitors may use traditional mountain bikes for the race.

GROWING SPORT

Already popular in the Midwest, fat biking is just starting to gain traction in Colorado.

“Honestly Colorado is one of the last to embrace it,” Cawley said, attributing the slow start to the state’s abundance of winter sports options. Both he and Westcott see it continuing to grow in the future.

“I see it as an alternate activity for those who want variety in the winter,” Westcott said.

A number of area rental companies only recently added fat bikes to their rental fleets and have said it’s been a popular addition.

With the potential growth of the sport, however, Cawley and Westcott both voiced concerns about trail accessibility.

“It’s going to be interesting in the next couple of years,” Cawley said, comparing fat biking to the early days of snowboarding when it comes to future trail access. “We’re breaking ground on a new recreational sport.”

“It’s only been in the last 12 months that it has come to Summit County,” Westcott explained. “This is really the first year where they are getting more prevalent.”

As an advocate for mountain biking, Westcott said he and his group look forward to being a part of the discussion.

Currently there are no restrictions on area trails, except for groomed Nordic trails.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

When cars talk: The future of Colorado's I-70 Mountain Corridor

#Colorado

Courtesy of the Colorado Department of Transportation

Summit Daily News Link

Interstate 70 will soon be a testing ground for new technology that will allow vehicles to “talk” to each other. The Colorado Department of Transportation’s Connected Vehicle Pilot Program, part of an initiative to use new technology to improve safety and traffic, will start coming together next June.

The program will equip more than 700 CDOT, first responder, ski shuttle and commercial vehicles on I-70 with Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) devices, that use radio waves to transmit information on road conditions, traffic and closures. The devices will also be installed on roadside infrastructure to collect data on vehicle speeds and incidents.

“A significant portion of what the future holds for us is the capacity for vehicles to talk to each other and be able to share data or information with drivers…” CDOT communications director Amy Ford said. “This has been talked about for a while. The federal government is looking at (DSRC).”

The hope is to make trips across the corridor more efficient, improving traffic by informing drivers, and vehicles, about upcoming hazards.

“I am curious to see how big of an impact these projects can have on the corridor. I have no doubt they will help,” I-70 Coalition Director Margaret Bowes said. “Colorado is trying to be very cutting edge with this technology. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were at the forefront of it.”

CDOT plans to invest $10 million into the project over the next several years. While initial meetings around the pilot started this week, CDOT hopes to gain industry input by June, and to install DSRC in selected vehicles over the next year.

For the purposes of the pilot, vehicles installed with DSRC will function as “data collectors,” automatically sending information to CDOT that can be sent out to drivers along the corridor in a timely fashion. The project will stretch between C-470 in Denver and Edwards.

Ford said the I-70 Mountain Corridor was selected for the project due to the unique road conditions and variety of travel uses.

“It’s one of the most critical and yet challenged corridors we have in the state,” she added.

SMART AND MOBILE

To launch the program, CDOT will first determine how to best communicate road conditions to drivers. Ford said they were exploring using a mobile app or incorporating the data into other applications.

“It will be highly geolocated information that hits you right when you need it,” Ford said. “We would gather that info into a database, cleanse it and spit it back out.”

For example, a phone might notify a truck driver traveling downhill to slow down for an approaching curve in the road. Ford said they would also look at hands-free ways to share the information with drivers, such as having phones that read conditions out loud.

CDOT vehicles, such as snowplows, installed with friction sensors could send information on icy or snowpacked road conditions to this database. Sensors installed on highway infrastructure tracking traffic volume, travel speeds and accidents could also feed this data into the system for “very, very real-time” traffic updates.

A JETSONS FUTURE

Eventually, the next step would be to transmit this information to autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, or “self-driven cars.” In the future, cars would be able to communicate directly to each other, and be able to respond automatically to upcoming hazards.

“A lot of people are saying this is some Jetsons future. But it’s happening today,” Ford said. “Whether the human is making the decision or the car makes that decision, those are the next pieces.”

The idea would be that if a car braked sharply, the cars following it would automatically brake as well, avoiding an accident. Peloton Technology is already implementing this with a system that allows trucks to drive in a “platoon,” following closely behind one another to increase fuel efficiency and create more space on the road.

While the truck driver still has some control over the vehicle, it will automatically brake in turn with the others in line.

“Vehicles can travel closer together, safer,” Bowes said. “Cars could drive four feet from each other.”

While there are few fully autonomous cars on the market, meaning that the car can drive, park and shift without assistance, several manufacturers are starting to implement semi-autonomous cars. While the driver still has control, the cars are capable of maintaining highway speeds, remaining in one lane and making parallel parking easy.

Colorado Automobile Dealers Association president Tim Jackson said he expected to see autonomous cars in the marketplace in the next three to five years.

“All the manufacturers are working toward autonomous cars,” he said. “Some are further along than others.”

Just in October, Tesla updated its cars remotely to be semi-autonomous, while Google started testing its self-driving cars as early as 2009. He said several other manufacturers have made commitments to have autonomous vehicles at a set point in time.

“They are on the way, they’ll be safe, efficient, they’ll be incredibly technology-oriented and it will change the way people think about driving and mobility,” Jackson said.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Town of Breckenridge hosts Race of the Santas, tree lighting

#Breckenridge Colorado.

Carl Scofield / Breckenridge Tourism Office

Summit Daily News Link

It’s not easy being Santa at nearly 10,000 feet — or his wife, or reindeer. Nonetheless, Breckenridge attracts more than 500 Santas and Mrs. Clauses, or that is, people dressed as the big red guy and his wife, at Race of the Santas. Kids (dressed as reindeer, of course) run too. This year’s event takes place Dec. 5, along with the Lighting of Breckenridge. It’s one of many holiday events taking place throughout December.

Though the Race of the Santas only stretches for 7 blocks down Breckenridge’s Main Street, “everyone says it’s the toughest 7 blocks they have run,” said Sandy Metzger, events director for the Breckenridge Tourism Office. “Running at almost 10,000 feet adds to the challenge. There are a few people that sprint the race, but the majority jog or walk the course. They are just out to have fun and raise money for a great cause.”

The cause: Adopt an Angel Summit County, which helps families who would not otherwise be able to provide gifts for their kids during the holidays. The race has raised more than $8,000 for Adopt an Angel Summit County since the event began.

Beyond the great cause, the great fun of dressing up in a Santa or Mrs. Claus outfit (or, for kids 12 and younger, wearing antlers and jingle bells), there’s a great incentive — or deterrent, depending upon how you look at it — to running at elevation, and that involves — you guessed it: cookies and milk.

“Think of the milk and cookie station as an obstacle along the race route, for race participants,” said Rachel Zerowin, spokesperson for the Breckenridge Tourism Office.

Locals and visitors alike participate. There’s no need to come pre-outfitted, though if you happen to have your own Santa suit, registration is $15. If not, pick up a Santa suit for $25 at Vertical Runner or the Breckenridge Welcome Center. Kids get in for free, antlers included.

Though the run is non-timed and all about having fun, the top three female and male finishers win prizes.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Vail Resorts commits $30 million to workforce housing across three states

#Summit County, Colorado.

Summit Daily News Link

Vail Resorts on Wednesday pledged $30 million to new affordable workforce housing developments near its properties in Colorado, California and Utah in hopes of assisting these mountain communities with this urgent necessity.

The Broomfield, Colorado-based company plans to partner with local towns and governments, as well as community businesses and leaders to break ground and get projects moving along as soon as possible. How exactly this large sum of money will be divvied up among the three regions that support the area ski hills has yet to be decided, but the resort company says it understands the needs and is ready to act right away.

“We are ready to go,” said Mike Goar, Keystone Resort’s chief operating officer. “We all recognize the crunch for affordable housing in Summit County. We often talk about available rental units, and basically it’s zero percent; there’s nothing available to the workforce. Many of these conversations are already underway and continue. But now we have something more tangible.”

The announcement comes as welcome news to Summit County, which continues to battle an enduring rental-housing crisis, particularly for local employees. Although specific details are still being hammered out, including an eventual timeline, county officials are encouraged by the news and anticipate meetings with Vail Resorts as early as next week.

“It’s really exciting to see one of the largest employers in the county take such a strong leadership role on this critical matter,” said Gary Martinez, county manager in Summit County. “This is really great. Big kudos to Vail.”

The new initiative couldn’t have come soon enough. In 2013, the county, in conjunction with the towns of Breckenridge, Dillon, Frisco and Silverthorne, commissioned a housing needs assessment that showed in just the Upper Blue River Basin, between 200 and 370 rental units would be needed, in addition to 280 ownership units, by 2017.

Upon receiving the results of the study, the town of Breckenridge worked toward putting four affordable housing projects into development, devoting more than an estimated $40 million over the next three years to them: Pinewood Village II ($10 million), Huron Landing ($8.5 million, and in partnership with Summit County) and Denison Placers, Phase I and II (between $21 and $23 million total). Pinewood 2, which will offer 45 rental units and is currently under construction and projected to be completed by the end of 2016, while the other three will begin construction in the next year or two, all expected to be completed by 2018.

Even with those four structures, though, that still leaves the town deficient between 70 and 240 rental units of the 2013 Housing Needs Assessment target, in addition to 200 ownership units short following two private projects, Maggie Placer (nine units) and Wellington II, (69 units, and scheduled for completion between 2016-2020). The demand remains very real.

“This is a critical need in our community,” said Kim Dykstra, director of communications for the town of Breckenridge. “We look to some of the business community to help solve this. That’s not just on Vail Resorts; this is a community challenge. We have a fairly good track record in having a lot of projects come online and at various stages, and we’re looking forward to the next steps to continue to solve this issue together.”

What’s in store following Wednesday’s initial announcement and how much money will go to which locales is still being worked out, as is at what point affordable projects might reach completion down the road. In the meantime, Vail Resorts, which added about 650 beds in the last three years for a grand total of more than 3,200 it already owns and maintains — the majority of which exist in Summit and Eagle counties — has offered up its own land and a willingness to execute long-term leasing guarantees, aside from the $30 million in capital.

Keystone’s Goar noted that money might not necessarily be evenly distributed, however. He also said that he does not envision a pitch meeting to make those decisions. Funding will be provided based on priority of the greatest identifiable need, and could even go toward existing projects as, once more, time is of the essence.

“We fully expect meaningful dialogue to take place immediately,” he reiterated. “We’re reaching out today talking to local governments … and saying, ‘How quickly can we sit down and really putting energy into conversations and solutions?’”

The county is optimistic about this new collaborative effort and of the mind that obtaining its slice of the pie comes down to being innovative and putting all options on the negotiation table in working toward a goal of producing the most local impact.

“They have some land, we have some land,” said Martinez. “We need to find ways to leverage each other’s resources and build strong partnerships to get a couple projects going in the not-so-distant future.”

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Mikaela Shiffrin interview

#Colorado.

Summit Daily News Link

Mikaela Shiffrin is already making history, and the World Cup ski season is barely a month old.

Over the holiday weekend, the 20-year-old EagleVail native won two World Cup slaloms in Aspen — her win on Saturday was the first slalom title for an American at Aspen — after taking a nasty fall in the final stretch of the giant slalom on Friday. If she hadn’t fallen (and she rarely does), she might have easily won three events in a row to begin the season nearly 200 points ahead of her nearest competitor in the World Cup overall standings.

But she doesn’t deal in what-ifs these days. She leaves that to the newspapers and race fans and social-media masses, including her 59,700 Twitter followers and ski racing’s own governing body. The day after her GS near-miss, a homepage headline on the official FIS website read “Lara Gut gets giant slalom win after Shiffrin falls.” By now, the expectations will always be there for the young, nearly flawless technical specialist — when you don’t win, the world will wonder why.

That’s what an Olympic gold medal at 18 years old will do, even if folks in Shiffrin’s home country hardly recognize her on the street. She’s not quite Lindsey Vonn — yet — but she still seems to spend as much time hosting reporters and photographers as she does training these days. Again, it comes with the territory.

Yet it’s hardly affected her performance. The Burke Mountain Academy grad is still on top of the overall standings after the GS fall, and that’s right where she wants to be this season. For the first time this week, she’ll break out of the slalom gates for several World Cup super-G races. She hasn’t committed to a downhill quite yet, but she spent the summer and early winter training for speed on full-length courses.

It’s a major change of pace for someone more familiar with razor-sharp edging, and she couldn’t be more excited to simply get out there. Before leaving for the Lake Louise super-G, she sat down with the Summit Daily sports desk in her childhood playground of Vail — she considers it her home hill along with Burke Mountain in Vermont — to talk about the upcoming season, how she’s handling expectations and why a few downhill runs at Copper were the most fun she’s had on skis in years.

Summit Daily News: You just had back-to-back slalom wins in Aspen, where no U.S. skier has ever topped the slalom podium. How’s it feel to break the spell?

Mikaela Shiffrin: I was real excited with how that weekend went. Even the giant slalom, even though I didn’t finish, I felt like I had a really good race. I was attacking, so it’s something new for me to take that much risk that I actually fell. Hopefully, I can take the same amount of risk in the next races without falling.

Of course, the slaloms were two of my best slalom races. To start off the season like that is very nice. I felt on point — probably even better. I was not expecting to win a race by three seconds (laughs). Going into that race, I was so nervous because I didn’t know where anyone else was, how they were skiing, how they stack up. All I kept hearing is that they were skiing really fast, and I don’t know if I’m fast enough. I guess I’m fast, but you never know until the first race. Finally, the first race has happened, and they went really, really well for me. Now the trick is putting it out of my head to keep moving forward.

SDN: Talk about entering Lake Louise — your first super-G — on top of the overall World Cup standings. Is that where you want to be this early in the season?

MS: It’s definitely going to be new, and that’s part of why I want to do it. Sometimes adding something different and new can be a little bit refreshing. I’m excited to change up the pace completely, and, if I can put some good skiing out there, if I can charge — I’ll be starting 31, not a bad start number — then I can maybe keep this momentum going and take it into the European side of the tour.

SDN: You’ve said in the past that you perform best as the underdog. You thrive there. How have you adjusted to make sure you’re still performing at your peak now that every race is under the microscope?

MS: Well, it’ll be interesting to see how I feel the day of the super-G race inspection and everything. Just because I won a couple of slaloms and had a good GS race doesn’t mean that I’ll necessarily be fast I super-G. But, training has been going well and I have a little built of confidence there. I feel comfortable with the speed and comfortable on the skis, so all the signs point toward having a pretty good race. But, there are so many factors. I’ve never been there — I don’t have the experience on the hill. There are a bunch of things that have to fall into place. It takes a lot of work to get to the top and stay there, so right now with super-G I’m just kind of blindfolded.

SDN: Do the speed disciplines make you nervous at all? Your teammates, skiers like Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller, know just how devastating — and common — injuries can be on the big course.

MS: I feel like I’ve taken a pretty methodical approach to speed so far, especially this past prep period and over the summer. I got quite a bit of time skiing over terrain and jumping and trying to go fast, practicing the tucks and all the different piece, the elements of speed. I’m not actually that nervous right now. I think I’ll be nervous on race day, but it’s interesting. I feel like what I don’t know doesn’t make me nervous, whereas I know what it takes to win a slalom race, and sometimes I wonder if I have it in me to keep doing that. For GS, I know how much work it has taken to get into the top 15 and then the top 7, and I still only have one GS win under my belt, even though I feel like I’m skiing well enough to win GS races.

SDN: That’s interesting — taking on a new discipline doesn’t make you nervous, but it’s because you don’t really have any expectations?

MS: Yeah, it’s just about the technique — stay in your tuck, be smooth through the turns. You know, theoretically I know what it takes to be fast. It’s just a matter of doing. It. But yes, I have no expectations for where I end up in the race. It’s just about putting good skiing out there.

SDN: What about the expectations other people are placing on you? How do those fit in the mix?

MS: There are definitely expectations. I think that without trying to put expectations on me or force it on me, my coaches are thinking, let’s really try to manage this well because it could end up being more than an event that she throws in every once in a while. That’s what I’m thinking too, but everyone has their own expectations, maybe thinking that I’ll be really good, or maybe thinking that I’m just a slalom skier going to feel it all out. I’m somewhere in between, thinking that, like I said, I know what to do to be fast. It’s just a little difficult to switch gears from slalom and GS to super-G, but, if I can make that switch, it could be really fun. That’s my biggest expectation — it’s going to be fun.

SDN: That brings up a good point: At this point in your career, when are you having the most fun on the slopes?

MS: You know, it’s funny because I just did a downhill race last week at Copper Mountain. The first race I was a little bit nervous, but the second race, I just kind of let that go and tried to ski as straight as I could. That was really fun. I have a lot of fun skiing slalom and GS, but it’s also kind of the normal for me now. Switching that up, skiing super-G and downhill a little over the past few weeks, it’s been a nice change. There’s so much more space between the gates that you can kind of shut your mind off, and after skiing through flushes and hairpins and doing slalom, you don’t have time to think, let alone react. With super-G and downhill, I feel like you have a bit of time to say, “Here I am in the course, this is where I need to be, this is what’s coming up.” Everything is in slow motion almost, even though it’s higher speeds.

SDN: Do those speed courses feel more like freeskiing then? Like you’re just out taking a few runs?

MS: Freeskiing on super-G skis is so fun (laughs). You’re just ripping down the mountain. You’re going fast, but those skis are so long and stable that you feel like you’re in slow motion. You just feel totally free, like you’re flying, which is pretty cool.

It’s definitely nice to have a change of pace, but it has been nerve-wracking prior to this past weekend because I was spending more time on speed skis and subsequently less time on my slalom skis. I was thinking that the less time I got with slalom, the less chance I’d have to do well in slalom because I just feel like it takes a lot of repetition in slalom gates to ski fast. I’ve been getting a lot less training there, so I was really nervous heading into these races, thinking I’ve been spreading out my training too much and my slalom might take a hit. Apparently it didn’t this weekend. We’ll see as we keep going. It’s important now, after good races this weekend, that I don’t become complacent.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Colorado's most expensive toll lane, the I-70 Mountain Express Lane, to open

#Summit County, Colorado.

Courtesy of the Colorado Department of Transportation

Summit Daily News Link

How much would you pay to ensure a speedy return from a weekend ski trip? How much to catch a flight at DIA?

The Colorado Department of Transportation will weigh these factors in upcoming weeks as it conducts test runs of a new express lane along the state’s notorious Interstate 70 Mountain Corridor.

The long-awaited I-70 Mountain Express Lane, touted as a solution to the corridor’s congestion issues, is set to open on Saturday, Dec. 12. The lane is also gaining another reputation as one of the nation’s most expensive toll roads, with a fluctuating toll rate capped at $30 for the 13-mile stretch of road, to the tune of $2.31 per mile.

While the bulk of construction work for the project is complete, the Colorado Department of Transportation is setting aside the next two weeks to test the new infrastructure, including electronic signs, license plate cameras and tolling equipment.

CDOT communications director Amy Ford said the department would also conduct a few “dry runs” to gauge toll prices, which will vary from $3 to $30 depending on demand.

“There is no other express lane built on the idea of recreational weekend travel,” she said. “Those people traveling the corridor at that time are people who have made an investment in recreation and now have an opportunity to make an investment in their travel time coming home.”

By nature, the lane would mainly target Front Range residents, who often head up to the mountains for a weekend of skiing and return east in time for the workweek. Open 73 days per year, the Express Road will function as a toll lane on summer holidays and ski-season weekends. The remainder of the year it is intended to be used as a shoulder.

“It is not a full, brand new lane. The solution is temporary in nature,” Ford said. “We hope it will give us 5 to 10 years to develop more permanent options to address issues in the corridor.”

THE PINCH POINT

The 13-mile shoulder-lane, stretching between Empire and the Veterans Memorial Twin Tunnels, is intended to address a small segment of I-70 that is particularly prone to congestion.

Not only did the eastbound lane have a shoulder to more easily construct the lane, Ford said, but the downhill direction also sees slightly worse congestion than westbound on weekends.

“People change the times of when they come up to go skiing,” she said. “(Traffic patterns) are much more consistent eastbound. You’re seeing people flush out at very particular times.”

According to CDOT’s statistics, traffic in the “pinch point” peaks between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on the weekends. However, the congestion can start as soon as 11 a.m., as skiers head off the mountain early to avoid the brunt of the traffic.

As an example, the toll sets the rate at a base of $3 for the morning. Into the afternoon, the price might jump to $8, rising to $10 by late afternoon, when traffic is densest. Then it would drop back down to a $5 toll by the evening.

“It could flow up and down within that range throughout the day,” she said. “We’ll have to see what people’s price points are. We will be working and testing all of that.”

The goal is to use the pricing to maintain a volume of 750 to 900 vehicles per hour, guaranteeing a steady speed of 45 mph. Rates of 2,000 vehicles per hour lead to reduced speeds, and 3,000 vehicles per hour results in stop-and-go-traffic. The hope is that the influx of vehicles into the toll lane would also assist with congestion in the two regular lanes, even if just by a slight amount.

The lane will be open to all two-axle vehicles under 25-feet long. The road will not serve as a high-occupancy vehicle lane, however, and all vehicles that are able to enter will be required to pay a toll, either by attaching a transponder to their dashboard or by having their license plate photographed, resulting in an increased price to account for processing.

Ford said carpooling was not incentivized because the corridor is unique in that the majority of vehicles during peak periods already carry three or more passengers. So, creating an HOV lane would not significantly change traffic patterns.

The plan came together three years ago, after a third lane was added to the twin tunnels east of Idaho Springs. The $72 million project is partially financed by state and federal funding, as well as $25 million in loans from the state’s High-Performance Transportation Enterprise that will be repaid over a seven-year period using toll revenues.

However, even after the debt is repaid, the lane will still maintain a toll for the purpose of regulating traffic. As per HPTE standards, the remaining funds must be used for improvements to the toll lane.

WHAT ABOUT SUMMIT?

So far, the Summit County community has met the plan with skepticism, most saying they would prefer to take an alternate route to avoid traffic than to pay a toll.

Summit County resident Marshall Raulerson said he would “absolutely not” use the lane.

“There’s no viable solution outside of impossibly widening the freeway to double or triple its current width or building a light rail from Denver to Summit,” he wrote on a Facebook posting seeking comment on the article topic.

Others said they would use the Express Lane under the right circumstances, such as catching a plane, or if the tolls sank beneath a deemed price.

“If I actively see the profits being funneled back into our society, meaning visible improvements that are necessary and not just luxurious, then I would be happy to comply with a reasonable toll (reasonable being a $10 maximum),” Tina Huelsmann commented on Facebook.

Summit County assistant manager Thad Noll noted that, from a tourism perspective, the lane might bring the benefit of allowing tourists to stay in the county for a longer period of time, generating more revenue.

“I think the direct impact would be people feel more comfortable coming up here and staying because the drive is not so onerous,“ he said. “Instead of leaving at 10 a.m. because of traffic, they might stay until 1 p.m.”

He added that if the lane did reduce congestion in the corridor significantly, it could help prevent traffic backups that lead to jams throughout Silverthorne, though he added the benefits “would be very peripheral.”

Ford said that while CDOT would like to expand I-70 by one or two lanes in each direction and add a train as an alternative transportation option, the state simply does not have the funds yet.

“We have a final decision document that says ‘Here’s what we would love to do to the corridor,’” she said. “However, in the short term, we wanted to do some quick-turn responses on how we could address issues in the corridor.”

CDOT currently has a $1 billion annual budget. The option to widen the I-70 corridor from the Denver through the tunnel to Vail would cost between $3 billion and $4 billion, and the addition of a train, which would require a third bore through the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel, would cost a whopping $16 billion.

In a few years, Ford said, CDOT might look to add a similar express lane westbound, if they can secure the funding.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.