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January 02, 2009

Aspen New Years Bomb Threat

New Years got ruined in Aspen by a Bomb Threat:

ASPEN, Colo. - They rang in 2009 a day late in Aspen after a former resident unhappy that his hometown has become a resort playground for the wealthy vowed "mass death" and left four bombs around downtown before killing himself.

Aspen police say James Chester Blanning, a 72-year-old who skied competitively as a teen but had grown bitter about his hometown, walked into two downtown banks Wednesday afternoon and left gift-wrapped bombs made of gasoline and cell phone components...

Blanning's bombs caused the evacuation a 16-block area - nearly all of downtown Aspen. The evacuation lasted until 4 a.m., meaning the resort's hallmark mountaintop firework display and ritzy downtown parties were canceled.

Aspen restaurants and high-end stores tried to recapture the holiday spirit Thursday night with a rescheduled fireworks display. Revelers even started chanting a New Year's Eve-style countdown. But the party numbered in the hundreds, not the thousands...

He gave no motive for the bombs, other than vague statement expressing hatred for President George W. Bush. The he added, "I was and am a good man." Linn said Blanning acted alone.

Aspen residents recalled Blanning as an eccentric who grew up fascinated by Aspen's past as a silver mining town. People who knew Blanning say he became disenchanted with his hometown as it became an increasingly exclusive destination for the wealthy.

Mary Eshbaugh Hayes, who writes a weekly society column for The Aspen Times, knew Blanning as a boy and once employed him as a driver for her trucking company. Hayes recalls firing Blanning, a noted skier in high school, because he was unreliable.

"He was a very good skier, but he didn't really fit into the new Aspen," Hayes said Thursday.

BAT. SHIT. CRAZY.

Posted by Justin at 02:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Aspen

December 30, 2008

Snowbowl Turns Away Customers Because of Insufficient Parking

People from Phoenix and Tucson want skiing in Flagstaff. Plain and simple. There is not enough parking or lift capacity to meet demand. Hence why it makes sense to upgrade the parking, add snowmaking, improve lifts, and open new terrain... unless you are the competition, the Sierra Club, or the Hopis and Navajos. But again, that is another matter:

Arizona Snowbowl filled up on Saturday, with an estimated 3,500 skiers, and again on Monday, said General Manager J.R. Murray.

Traffic leaving Snowbowl was at a crawl on Saturday, so about 400 customers stayed at the lodge for two extra hours, until about 8:30 p.m., to wait it out.

"We're trying our best to accommodate everybody," Murray said.

Some received vouchers or discounts, for long waits.

Avondale resident Steve Navis was one unhappy customer when Snowbowl's lift lines and parking lots filled up on Saturday.

He started up Snowbowl Road at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and, after lift tickets and lift lines, hit the slopes at 12:45 p.m.

Most of his group got in two runs for the day, due to large crowds. Then it took them 3 1/2 hours to descend Snowbowl Road.

It's a dilemma for the business, said Murray, which typically has 10 or fewer days per season that reach capacity.

"People don't want to get turned away after they've driven here, but at the same time, they don't want long lines," Murray said.

Demand is there. The area is there. Just a couple improvements away from having consistent seasons with artificial snow so that people do not all try to cram into the area at one time. Some additional parking. Some more lift capacity.

I feel bad for the people that got turned away. No business wants to turn people away. Every single unhappy person that drove up the mountain and got the boot should thank Joe Shirley and the Sierra Club for their attempts to block the improvements that would already be completed if not for their lawsuits. Instead of skiing at Snowbowl, a good way to spend the weekend is watching a Beatlemania knockoff concert at the local Indian Casino in Phoenix. OK, that was unfair, this is a different tribe, not the Navajos or Hopis, but still, come one. Beatles Knockoff band?

Posted by Justin at 04:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Snow Bowl

December 28, 2008

Review - Apollo Goggles by Spy

I really got to ski with my new Apollos for the first couple times over the last week. They rock so hard. First, they have yet to fog on me at all and are crystal clear. Second, they are sick comfortable. I did not know about all the technology that goes into them, but this is pretty interesting:

In development over the last three years, the Apollo's groundbreaking and proprietary Mosaic lens creates maximum peripheral vision with a nominal frame profile. The unprecedented lens shape-neither spherical or cylindrical-contours sharply at specific points, seamlessly following the shape of the face to maintain a perfect and enormous field of vision with no distortion or internal reflection. The first of its kind, Spy's new multibase lens is the first new snow goggle lens shape developed in over a decade.

In addition, a new precise, self-positioning Magnesium/Grilamid hinge system turns 360 degrees with movement at any axis, allowing a comfortable and helmet-compatible fit. As with all Spy Optic goggles, the Apollo boasts our patented Scoop(r) ventilation system to conquer lens fogging, triple layer Isotron(tm) face foam featuring moisture-wicking Dri-Force(tm) fleece, and 100% UVA, B & C protection.

Received with great interest and fanfare at the January 2008 SnowSports Industries America tradeshow, the Apollo garnered not only excitement from dealers and media on the show floor, but won an Innovation Award in the Skill Category from the SnowPress Show Daily, the official publication of the SIA show.

Spy Optics goggles are all I will be wearing from here on out.

Comfortable, helmet compatible--check and then some. It is like not even wearing anything. It was all kinds of cold and my helmet fits well even with my North Face mask underneath it. Just plain comfortable and the look kicks butt too. A little spaceman'ish, but cool.

Posted by Justin at 07:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Gear

Outstanding Conditions at Brian Head (and My Ride of Shame)

First, the conditions at Brian Head are outstanding. 100% Open and they just opened Dunes yesterday afternoon, unfortunately after Jarrett and I had finished skiing for the day. Jake, Jackson, and my dad were still out and hit powder run after powder run on Dunes while I was packing up gear and getting Jarrett back to the condo.

That brings us to the ride of shame. First run of the day we went up Giant Steps. The weather was extremely cold and the lift operator's station at the top of the lift was covered in ice where they could barely see. On top of that, the operator must not have been paying much attention. Jarrett and I went to get off the lift and he wrecked and cut me off, so it was either fall on top of him and hope I didn't blow out a knee or stay on the lift and wait for them to stop it. They didn't stop the lift when he wrecked, so it was back down the hill.

Concerned ski patrol and lift folks at the bottom. "Are you OK?" I felt like the guy that you always hate that gets on the lift to the top of the mountain, breaks a femur at the unloading zone of the lift and leaves you stranded, hanging in mid-lift for an hour. I was that guy. Thankfully Dad, Jake and Jackson were two lifts back and skied down with Jarrett or I don't know what he would have done.

Jarrett started the day out right for me and ended it early costing me powder runs on Dunes. Today I stayed at the condo with him for the day since he didn't want to go out. But you pick and choose your moments and honestly, it is worth missed runs and missed days to spend time with the kids. We went shopping at Walmart for Jake's birthday and we ate Sonic.

Dad said the conditions were unbelievable today too. Fast snow and still great coverage. Brian Head is ready to roll for the rest of the season and everything is open and running.

Posted by Justin at 07:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Brian Head

December 26, 2008

Two Feet at Brian Head

Brian Head got dumped on last night with over two feet. Wind is dying down and the temps are warming up tomorrow. Perfect day coming up.

We are here for until New Years. See you all on the hill.

Posted by Justin at 08:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Brian Head

December 22, 2008

Great Article on the Economics of Aspen

Interesting read and thanks for the great link from a reader:

To me it has always posed the classic development problem: how do you both improve and preserve what you've got, without setting forces in motion that undermine what you were trying to protect?

Before the housing and economic meltdown Aspen’s future was considered in State of the Aspen Area 2008, a report commissioned by the Aspen City Council and Pitkin County Board of Commissioners to provide guidance for future decisions on issues ranging from housing to growth management to transportation. The goal was to generate a 10-year community vision for the future, but that future may have to be put on hold.

The report highlighted several trends that seemed to pose serious challenges for Aspen. Most prominently, it suggested that the Aspen economy was becoming dangerously dependent on real estate and construction, as opposed to the original drivers of skiing, lodging and retail/restaurants. There were many new jobs, but a decrease in available housing for workers.

Aspen backs up to the Continental divide (closed all winter)! The Roaring Fork Valley is steep and narrow. Low- and middle-income workers must all live and commute “down valley.” But down-valley communities, where one used to be able to find cheap housing, have themselves become too crowded and expensive.

On top of this the Roaring Fork Valley has moved within sight of being "built out." Traffic congestion is expanding up and down the valley (there is only one road – Route 82 – to get in or out of town), reaching intolerable levels during rush hours which start earlier and end later. A population of primary and second homeowners increasingly "aging in place" (with large percentages intending to retire in place), taking both their labor and residences off the market, exacerbate existing housing/lodging/worker imbalances.

The only reason the town "works" now is massive cross-subsidization. The fabulously wealthy subsidize the town budget with high property taxes on their mansions (even though some are in residence only a few weeks a year). They also subsidize the many arts, cultural attractions and charities so ubiquitous to Aspen as well as a range of services for year-round residents, from child care to education, health services, senior services, and police and fire departments.

Revenues from the rich and ultra-rich also pay for a town government that has a budget of $100 million plus for a town of 6000 permanent residents. In other words, Aspen could not afford itself if it had to rely on itself. Yet it was assumed the system would continue to work indefinitely because of the belief that "there will always be [a need for] an Aspen," a playground for the ultra wealthy who spent freely and gave generously."

This is the ski industry in a nutshell. No locals anymore. Locals live down valley. Locals live like illegal immigrants do in Phoenix--working the jobs the rest of the folks will not and living in hovels packed 10 deep, sleeping on floors and thankful for their jobs that allow them to live in what to them is Utopia. The only difference between an illegal and a ski industry worker is that most ski industry workers do not send money home to their families in Mexico--except for the increasingly large percentage of ski locals that are indeed from places like Argentina.

It is an industry, not just a town, on the verge of collapse under the weight of high real estate prices combined with no real workforce to build the houses and staff the restaurants that cater to the rich.

Posted by Justin at 05:55 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Aspen, General Skiing

Arizona Snowbowl Open for Season

The recent snows have helped Snowbowl achieve 100% open status:

ARIZONA SNOWBOWL IS NOW OPEN FOR THE 2008-2009 SKI SEASON

We are happy to be operating with 100% of the resort open. We now operate daily 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, including holidays. Conditions are incredible. Spend your holidays with us on the slopes.

No thanks to Dave Smith for giving me a heads up or anything... (j/k) I am going to hit him up for some lift tickets just for forgetting the resort's biggest snowmaking supporter.

Posted by Justin at 05:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Snow Bowl