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By Tom Boyd
Headline RSS FeedSome of my best friends are Front Rangers
April 9, 2008 —
It seems I got Kaye Ferry of the Vail Chamber and Business Association in some hot water with my story about the possible traffic, parking and skier-safety impacts of Vail Resorts’ new Epic Pass.
She denies it, but I accurately quoted her in the article referring to the “Front Range riff-raff” who might be attracted to the new, unrestricted and inexpensive ($579 for six resorts) season pass.
Kaye and I have known each other for years, and she tends to go on tirades while I tap into her extensive knowledge of town government and the local political scene. This time, I clearly told her we were on the record, but she was spouting off and apparently wanted me to edit out terms like riff-raff so she wouldn’t get blasted from all quarters.
The essence of what she had to say – that the Epic Pass will create more Front Range skier days and therefore more impacts to the town and ski mountain’s already strained infrastructure – was similar to what she told the Vail Daily in an article and wrote in her own column in that paper. The term “riff-raff” was the kicker.
It wasn’t my intention to get her in trouble - I was just trying to drive readership to a couple of websites and delve into an interesting topic – because I think she’s a straight-shooter who serves as a mostly sane watchdog for local elected officials and paid staff. Believe me, there are some insane “watchdogs” I’d love to see ousted. Kaye is not one of them.
I personally have done a 180 on discounted passes. Years ago in the Vail Trail I blasted the ski company for not offering a local version of the Summit-only Buddy Pass (running a cartoon of an Eagle County skier with a giant screw through his chest), but once the Colorado Pass came along, with its 10 days at Vail and Beaver Creek, things have gotten ugly.
A 5,200-acre mountain gets tracked out by 10:30 a.m. on a powder day, cars are forced to park way out on the frontage roads on mid-winter weekdays, I-70 traffic has become at times intolerable, and certain choke points on the mountain are like shooting galleries, with Jackass-generation jibbers seeing how close they can come to plowing into you.
I think the ski company could double the price of the Epic Pass and get just as much money with half the skiers. People would pay a premium for a little more relaxed experience, one where hordes or ski patrollers and yellow jackets aren’t required to police the mayhem. Don’t get me wrong, some of my best friends are Front Range skiers – I’d just like to see a little less of them on weekends.
Meanwhile, the jury is out on the Epic Pass: brilliant marketing and revenue-generation move by the ski company in a down market, or the straw that broke the back of America’s top ski town? Only time will tell.
I do know that if skier days surge too much above current levels as a result of the pass, chaos and deep dissatisfaction with the ski experience will be the result. Vail Resorts officials seem to sense this as well, but they insist mostly out-of-state skiers will buy the new pass, and if they’re right, then it will have been a fantastic move in what could be a tough economic climate next season.
If they’re wrong, and parking, traffic, peak-day crowding and acute labor shortages get worse, then at the high end – all those folks Vail Resorts Development Company has been selling Arrabelle units to – they have created an instant market for the private Battle Mountain ski and golf resort the Ginn Company hopes to build off the backside of Vail Mountain.
Having actually skied the only other large-scale private ski club in the United States – the eerie Yellowstone Club off the back of Big Sky, Mont., I can tell you that I’m skeptical of the concept as an actual ski resort. If you’re into ski trails as a real estate amenity, then that’s another story.
But the Yellowstone Club freaked me out. It was like a neutron bomb went off at Beaver Creek and vaporized all the people but left the lift towers standing. I see skiing as more of a social sport (although not too social), and would spend those millions for a club membership on travelling the globe to ski – if I had millions.
Anyway, my biggest regret in the whole Battle Mountain saga is that when that land was available and there was talk of the Forest Service and the Eagle Valley Land Trust pursuing a conservation easement, nothing ever came of it. Think about it: $12 million for a 70-acre gravel pit in Edwards versus $32 million for more than 5,000 acres between Minturn and Red Cliff.
Water under the bridge, I guess. Minturn voted to annex Ginn’s property and seek to shape the 1,700-unit development in exchange for a slew of public benefits such as a water treatment facility, a rec center and more. Can’t blame Minturn. It’s finally their turn.
Now a successful petition drive has placed the issue on a May 20 ballot so the voters can decide. In Tuesday’s town election, Mayor Gordon “Hawkeye” Flaherty and incumbent councilmen George Brodin and Jerry Bumgarner won reelection, so the couple of hundred voters who turned out apparently were pleased with how the town has handled Battle Mountain so far. The only newcomer voted in was Matt Scherr, head of the Eagle Valley Alliance for Sustainability.
My take on the juxtaposing of an overrun Vail and a largely underutilized Battle Mountain is that there has to be a happy median. And don’t tell me it’s Beaver Creek. Even that formerly gate enclave is rapidly approaching one million skier days.
2 Comments on "Some of my best friends are Front Rangers"
larkin — April 10, 2008
How come the Post story only refers to you guys as "a website"? What'd you do to not merit the free publicity? http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_8874105 -Larkin
RKG — April 10, 2008
how is it you can tick off Kaye and not Cacioppa? You must be slipping, man.
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By Dan Davis trekkerphoto.com
New daily paper launching in Eagle County
April 7, 2008 —
Incredibly, it’s been almost eight years since Vail and Eagle County last had two competing daily newspapers. That, apparently, is all about to change.
I’ll string this out a little longer so my former competitors and, in some cases, coworkers over at the Vail Daily can experience heart palpitations for just a few more seconds.
One such former coworker told me a few months ago that when my partners and I launched realvail.com in September it sparked a company-wide staff meeting at the Eagle-Vail Taj Mahal (aka the Vail Daily offices) - a strategy session to plot our certain and crushing defeat.
Well, we’ve made it a ski season, and the only thing that’s getting crushed is our server due to increasing visits to the site. But don’t worry Dailyites, RealVail isn’t going to a print version (at least not yet), but rather, your competition will be coming from your esteemed founder.
Many of you working there now will have no idea who the hell I’m talking about, but his name is Jim Pavelich, and he’s the guy who in 1981 had the brilliant idea of starting what amounted to a flyer at the time. It was one sheet, front and back, with Town Talk on the front.
I ran into Pavelich (aka JP) at the Starbucks in Edwards the other day, and he let fly that he’s starting a new daily paper in Eagle County. His non-compete after selling the Vail Daily to Swift in the mid-1990s has expired and he’s going for it.
He told me it was no secret and that I could shout it from the highest mountaintop, so rather than scale any peaks I thought I’d just toss it into my blog. JP’s looking for a couple of good reporters willing to bring it without any bias, and then it’s off to the presses.
For me, such ventures kindle a little nostalgia. When I mentioned it’s been almost eight years since Eagle County readers and advertisers had any choice in local newspapers, I know this because I was editor of the last competing daily: The Daily Trail.
It was a daily offshoot of the Knox family’s Vail Trail, and it lasted about two and a half years. We started it in June of 1998 and pulled the plug in December of 2000. Critically acclaimed but financially doomed, it was a fun and frenetic couple of years.
Pavelich, who owns suburban dailies in California and a LoDo throw-down called the Denver Daily News in Denver, is facing some long odds with his new startup, but this guy has the Midas touch when it comes to free dailies, so who am I to doubt him?
I worked for JP for a few years in the early 1990s, when the VD was still in the old Crossroads building and we kept our skis by our desks and a bottle of Jagermeister in our desk drawers. The bad old days, but a hell of a lot of fun.
Now that the new, corporate VD has acquired every bit of local media in the valley, I've been relegated to the Web, where I think I'll hang for a while(at least for now).
Editor's Note: read more about this story by clicking HERE.
7 Comments on "New daily paper launching in Eagle County"
Debbie Marquez — April 7, 2008
Best of luck to JP. I remember the first Vail Daily. If he starts small again, he could make it a great alternative. I haven't checked the Daily, but I assume they wouldn't have reported the news? Oh and DaveO, regarding those server crushes, I have been linking to your stories frequently. Mostly at Colorado political blogs. I hope it's helping. Deb
vail dude — April 7, 2008
I say the more the merrier. If Aspen can handle having two newspapers, so can Vail!
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By David O. Williams
Vail Film Festival injects some culture into the end of the season
April 5, 2008 —
No matter how many times Matthew Broderick stars in films and plays such as “Glory” and the “Producers,” to a generation of film fans he’ll always be the devious Ferris Bueller taking his famous day off in downtown Chicago.
During Thursday’s opening film of the fifth annual Vail Film Festival – “Diminished Capacity” starring Broderick and Alan Alda – I desperately wanted a pudgier but somehow almost more boyish Broderick, now nearing middle age but still stuck in his perpetual persona, to jump up on a float and lip synch “Twist and Shout.”
He never does. The film meanders through his life as a newspaper editor slightly brain-damaged by a blow to the head who returns home to the sticks to deal with his equally addled uncle (Alda), who is just as stuck in his Hawkeye Pierce pigeonhole but manages a bit better to play a man haunted by the past and artfully avoiding the future.
The film is a mostly humorous – and at times outright witty – romp through an absurd quest to return to the Windy City and sell a rare baseball card from 1908, the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. I like that the filmmakers kept it light and stayed away from the morose introspection I expected from two “diminished” characters trying to sort through life.
Not a bad start to a festival I’ve amazingly never participated in before. It started up the year I departed the local mainstream media scene and entered into the shadow world of fulltime freelance, where I never could find a market for the film festival. Five years in, I have to say I’m impressed. Click on their banner ad on our site to see the full schedule for the remainder of the weekend.
And most astonishing, the new Vail Mountain School theater has to be among the best in the valley at this point, only slightly behind the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek. So it was a treat to check out that facility on Thursday.
From there the party moved to Vail’s Donovan Pavilion for the festival’s opening soiree. Musicians, dancers, a very open bar and sushi for the beautiful people ensued, and Vail looked a little like LA for a night. Although the biggest celeb I encountered was William Mapother, who’s here in support of “Mountain Top Removal,” a documentary about the impacts of strip-mining in West Virginia.
Mapother, who was in Lords of Dog Town and several episodes of Lost, narrates “Mountain Top.” He’s also Tom Cruise’s cousin, but, asked about the famed Scientologist Thursday, said only: “He’s a really nice guy.” The same could be said about Mapother, who amiably worked the opening night crowd.
Definitely an auspicious start to an awesome event.
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By David O. Williams
Vail surpasses 400 inches as wet, heavy spring storm drops 2 feet
March 31, 2008 —
Much as some of us might want it to be, winter is not done with us here in the Vail Valley. A sloppy 13-incher rolled through Sunday night and brought Vail Mountain to that magical 400-inch cumulative snowfall threshold.
Then another 11 inches fell during the day and into the evening Monday, bringing the final monthly tally to 78 inches, well ahead of the annual monthly average of 63 (second only to January’s average of 64).
For the record, that's 411 inches for the season, 63 ahead of the annual average of 348, and from what I hear, the conditions were mid-winter and steller Monday and Tuesday.
The same could not be said for the rest of March (my surgically repaired left knee still prevents me from seeing for myself), as conditions for most of the month paled in comparison to December, January and February, when temps stayed low and the snow fell fast and furiously. The freeze-thaw cycle started early this spring.
But still, more than 33 feet of snow so far this season means the last couple of weeks should provide for some amazing spring skiing (if the sun ever makes a return engagement). Me? My mind is wandering to Moab and warmer climes. If you can’t ski, might as well get a jump on cycling season.
In fact, last week was spring break for our local schools, and in order to get the kids out of the house and keep all of us from killing each other, we headed down to one of two Mobil five-star hotels in the state: the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs (the Little Nell in Aspen is the other one).
Incredibly, the Vail area boasts no five-stars, although after attending the First Descents Ball at the Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch, Saturday night, I think a strong case could be made. By the way, what an awesome, high-energy event, with kayaking superstar Brad Ludden leading the charge to raise funds for young cancer patients … but I digress.
Back on the snow/spring getaway front, I’m not one to tell people to spend spring break anywhere but in the fabulous Vail Valley, but if you’re like me and just a little sick of shoveling precipitation, the Broadmoor is a must-see lodging property.
At the base of Pikes Peak and loaded with Colorado history (a hangout since the 19th century for visiting politicians and celebs from around the globe), the Broadmoor is a compound of plush buildings arrayed around a lake, with golf courses, spas, an infinity pool and a full-sized, in-house movie theater. It’s also home to some great restaurants, including the new Summit, across the street in the meeting complex.
Right now, the Broadmoor is offering a spring deal through April 20 that starts at $85 per person (for adults) and gets kids under 10 in for free, which also includes free dining and movies for the youngsters when accompanied by paying adults. Check out the details at http://www.broadmoor.com/colorado-vacation-packages.php.
It was relaxing, killer rehab for my knee in the fitness center, plenty of tennis for my wife and the kids in the bubble-domed tennis center, and with temps in the upper 60s, just the right medicine for my severe case of cabin fever. Plus, the scenic drive from Vail took us right through South Park and Hartsel, the home of the creepy and still mysterious buffalo massacre that just took place (we only saw a herd of pronghorn antelope).
That’s my getaway suggestion du jour, but for those of you still jonesing for powder turns before Vail shuts down on April 13, get out here this weekend for the Taste of Vail and Vail Film Festival and the following weekend for Spring Back to Vail. It’s all going on over the next couple of weeks.
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