Question for Coloradoans (inexpensive, snow, skiing)

[marie_co]

I don't ski either - cool I thought that I was the only native who didn't like to ski!! I feel so much better kwowing there are others out there.

I for one love Beaver Creek and the "ritzy" resorts. There is nothing that I love more than to treat myself to a spa day in the mountains.

[RuqiaRaqs]

This is a really fascinating thread, with a great range of relevant topics. I don't ski either, but love Colorado winters and do a lot of snowshoeing/winter hiking.

I have another topic for folks to consider in terms of the quality and future of the ski towns/resorts, glitzy or otherwise:

What will happen to the economy here when all the trees are dead after the Mountain Pine Beetle outbreaks? Ecologically, this isn't a problem, just another natural process, but it isn't terribly attractive. I don't think the millionares and billionares will want to pay to come ski in forests filled with red lodgepole pines, simply because it does not provide the picture-perfect view that drew them here.

Fact: MP Beetles are here and the outbreak cannot be stopped with cutting, spraying, or any other meager human intervention. The forests will recover within a century, but will these ski resorts empty out when the trees die?

[jazzlover]

I think the beatle problem will impact the aesthetic attractiveness of the resorts, but that by no means is the only problem. Those dead and dying forests are going to be much more fire prone--and the type of fires are likely to be the "mega-fire" variety similar to the Hayman. You don't really fight those kind of fires, you just try to get out of the way.

Sudden aspen decline is another concern that may even more heavily impact the "view sheds" in Colorado. It appears that there is little we humans can do about that, either.

The real $64,000 questions are:

a) Are the forest die-offs a natural cyclical event, or are they because of human intervention in the forests? Probably yes and yes.

b) Is climate change, from whatever cause, aggrevating the die-off? Probably yes.

c) Is that climate change another natural cycle, or is it--in fact--a result of human activities, i.e., global warming caused by the massive burning of fossil fuels in the last century or so? That's an item of hot debate. However, more and more people--including some experts who have been historically skeptical about global warming--are starting to think that global warming is "real," and is being aggrevated--if not outright caused by human activities.

As I have posted before, I think a much more imminent concern for Colorado's economy is the coming recession/depression that will be caused by exploding energy costs, potential energy shortages, and the havoc that will cause in the national economy. Those crises will devour most of the discretionary income that has kept a lot of the recreational "party" going for the last 15 years or so.

By the way, if you want to read a sobering report on the "Peak Oil" problem, this link will take you to a report prepared for the US Department of Energy in 2005 ( http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/The_Hirsch_Report_Proj_Cens.pdf (broken link) ).

[redtrek1]

Hi,

I am new to the City-Data Forum and can't figure out how to enter a question/post. Can anyone help me?
Thanks

[lalahartma]

Originally Posted by rmm64

I can't comment about skiing or the prices of it (yes, another Coloradoan that does NOT ski and hates snow)

Me, too! Well, I don't hate snow, but I don't see much here in the Springs. I'm too cheap to downhill ski.

[Ticky909]

Locals climb Nokhu Crags and ski down the cirque.

[esya]

I stopped camping when it got too hard to get a spot on a Friday night without a reservation six months in advance. I stopped cross country skiing when it took more than an hour in rush hour traffic to get to the trail and then you still were not alone, and I stopped going up altogether except for the rare fall trip when no one else is up there. If I want to be alone I go to the swimming pool or wander around out in eastern colorado.

If I go, I stay in Breck (convenience) or Steamboat ( I still like it esp northwest of it), off season. I would go to Telluride, I did once by accident during the film festival but it cost as much for three nights as it would have for two weeks anywhere else.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by esya

I stopped camping when it got too hard to get a spot on a Friday night without a reservation six months in advance. I stopped cross country skiing when it took more than an hour in rush hour traffic to get to the trail and then you still were not alone, and I stopped going up altogether except for the rare fall trip when no one else is up there. If I want to be alone I go to the swimming pool or wander around out in eastern colorado.

If I go, I stay in Breck (convenience) or Steamboat ( I still like it esp northwest of it), off season. I would go to Telluride, I did once by accident during the film festival but it cost as much for three nights as it would have for two weeks anywhere else.

That's what the newcomers (and newcomer wannabes) don't get:

a) The jobs are mostly on the Front Range.

b) If you live on the Front Range, you almost always have to deal with a 100,000 other people who have the same idea you do about going to the mountains to ski or whatever for the weekend.

c) You usually have to get at least 100-150 miles (or more) away from the Front Range to find much solitude on weekends--even in the wilderness areas.

d) If you go far enough away from the Front Range to avoid the crowds, it usually takes a three-day weekend to really make the trip worthwhile. If it's a holiday three-day weekend, you have three or four more times as many people to deal with, and you will have to go another hundred miles or more to find much solitude.

e) If you live in rural Colorado away from the Front Range, it's a lot easier to go to the mountains and find some solitude, but because wages are geneally low and real estate prices are still high in rural Colorado, you may not be able to afford to go but a few times each year--especially if fuel gets up to that $4.00/gal + range again.

That, folks, is the "Colorado reality"--the one that the Chamber of Commerce types don't talk about.

[Shuffler]

Skiing has become pretty 'elitist' when you look at the costs and the 'ski industry' is really more about real estate than skiing. Vail shows no signs of slowing down....last time through there in the Fall I counted no fewer than 8 big construction cranes...so they're getting a huge influx of money from somewhere.

I get out a handful of times, usually just a day trip during the week to avoid the crowds and chaos on the weekends. Could care less about amenities and just want to ski. I usually hit Eldora or Loveland.

Not sure what the future holds for Colorado resorts with regard to beetle kill, climate change, and the economy, though. Something's gonna give at some point...

[CosmicWizard]

The most fun I ever had with downhill skiing was in my Pennsylvania back yard and in some nearby orchards when I was a kid. I even made my own skis out of wooden barrell staves. That was FUN skiing, and it didn't cost a nickle. In my teenage years I graduated to the nearby ski slopes with a pair of real skiis, but lost interest quickly when I had to keep shelling out for the lift ticket every time I wanted to ski. Waiting in lift lines added to my dismay. So I sold my downhill skis and took up cross country skiing a few years later when I was living in British Columbia. That made skiing fun again, but it never measured up to the thrill of skiing on my own hand made skis in my back yard.