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ail's Blue Sky Basin - ten years later, nobody's protesting

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Created on Thursday, 17 June 2010 22:07

Written by Nathan

Controversial ski expansion led to protests, eco-terrorism

By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD, The Gazette

A snowboarder rides the spring-like conditions of Earl's Bowl in the Blue Sky Basin at Vail Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. The south-facing slopes were icy and hard packed.

CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE

BLUE SKY BASIN • It takes four lift rides to get here, the most remote spot at the nation’s largest ski resort.

The 45-minute journey takes you 7 miles from Vail village and Interstate 70, up the front side of the ski mountain and down the back, with a couple of long traverses that will test your wax job.

It’s worth the effort. Blue Sky Basin is a 645-acre backcountry playground where cliffs, glades, moguls and groomers let skiers feel like they’re miles from civilization, and where many insist the most snow falls at the resort.

Just 10 years ago, this quiet woodland basin was perhaps the most controversial ski area expansion ever in Colorado, the target of protests, court battles and one of the  worst acts of eco-terrorism ever committed in the U.S.; opponents feared the expansion’s impact on lynx habitat.

It all seems like ancient history when you’re knee-deep in powder with the majestic spire of Mount of the Holy Cross in the distance. But Blue Sky Basin remains a milestone in Colorado skiing, and not just because it boosted Vail past Breckrenridge to become Colorado’s largest resort.

In many ways, it raised the bar for what it means to ski in Colorado, ushering in an era of expansions, as resorts sought to give skiers more terrain, more snow and, above all, the chance to get away from it all and lose yourself in the wilderness without the hassles and hazards of going it alone in the backcountry. Some call the experience “backcountry light.”

Looking ahead in the past

The first time World War II ski trooper Pete Seibert and his friend Earl Eaton stood atop the high ridge now known as Vail Mountain to survey the area where they planned to build the resort, they saw the potential for the snowy basin in the distance.

“He had spent a lot of time in Europe, and things were on a grander scale there. There was really no reason to sell yourself short and stop on the north side of Two Elk Creek,” said Seibert’s son, Pete Seibert Jr., in a recent interview. “They didn’t know how long it would take, or whatever it would take to get to a size of ski area that would encompass Blue Sky Basin, but they knew it was the thing to have.”

Blue Sky Basin was always considered the third stage of development at Vail, after the front side in 1962 and the back bowls. But when the resort sought approval for lift-served skiing in the mid-1990s, environmentalists said it would ruin a vital migration corridor for endangered lynx. Others said it was an example of runaway development at Colorado’s ski resorts.

Environmentalists battled the resort in the courts for years, and when that failed, eco-terrorists in 1998 set fire to several buildings on the mountain, including Two Elk Lodge. Damage was estimated at $12 million and the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility.

“Putting profits ahead of Colorado’s wildlife will not be tolerated,” the group announced. Seven members of the group were imprisoned; four remain at large. The arson painted expansion opponents as extremists and rallied supporters around Vail.

When tree-cutting began in 1999, protesters chained themselves to logging vehicles, a last-ditch effort that got 10 of them arrested.

“That was 10 years ago. The people that were causing all the trouble are long gone,” Seibert said. “We’re still here. The third generation of Seiberts to ski the mountain, and skiing Blue Sky.”

Vail named Pete’s Bowl and Earl’s Bowl in Blue Sky Basin  to honor the founders.

Borrowing from nature

The addition of Blue Sky Basin has not increased skier visits to Vail, said chief operating officer Chris Jarnot.

“It hasn’t been a volume change in our business as much as it’s really improved the experience of our guests who are here,” said Jarnot.

While much of Vail ski area is made up of broad runs lined with thick stands of trees and the wide open expanse of the back bowls, Blue Sky is like skiing in a natural woodland, along with a couple OF groomed runs for intermediate riders.

In Belle’s Camp, at the summit of the basin, you can use the gas grills to make your lunch, while soaking in views of the Sawatch and Ten-Mile ranges.

And powder stashes do linger a week or more after a storm on Blue Sky’s shaded, north-facing runs.

“The way the snowstorms move through our valley, they seem to get trapped back there,” said Vail extreme skier Chris Anthony, who skied the area, before lifts went in, for the 1999 Warren Miller film “Fifty.” “If the front side gets 8 inches, most likely in Blue Sky they got 10 or 11.”

Snowfall aside, Anthony thinks Blue Sky Basin, more than anywhere else at a Colorado resort, lets skiers feel they’ve finally gotten away from a resort; the gladed terrain, he said, feels natural.

“At a lot of the other ski areas you can move out there pretty far, but it definitely still feels like you’re in kind of congested ski area,” he said.

But the area can be a victim of its own success. On mornings, especially with fresh snow, Anthony avoids the mad rush to Blue Sky and goes in the afternoon, or he gets there early, does one run off Lover’s Leap, then heads to other bowls for more solitude.

“It’s amazing how many people I know who wake up in the morning and that’s their goal, to go to Blue Sky.”

And other expansions

Absent from the anniversary party this month were environmentalists, who long ago grudgingly accepted that the fight to prevent expansion at Vail resort was over.

But they are still battling what Blue Sky represents: expansion at ski resorts.

Colorado’s ski resort owners seem to feel an incredible need to expand, when they have the money and client base, and that expansion seems to know no bounds, said Rocky Smith, forest watch program director for environmental group Colorado Wild.

The expansions did not start with Blue Sky Basin, or end there. Mirkwood Basin at Monarch Mountain, Montezuma Bowl at Arapahoe Basin, Independence Bowl at Keystone, and the Imperial Express chairlift at Breckenridge are among the expansions in recent years that allow skiers to enjoy the “backcountry light” experience.

Smith questions whether the expansionist era is at an end. He points to last fall’s denial by the U.S. Forest Service of a skiing expansion at Crested Butte, which is now under review, and local opposition in Breckenridge to an expansion to Peak 6. It’s not hippies chaining themselves to bulldozers, but in some cases local business owners and officials are voicing concern.

“If the town is as jammed up as Breckenridge is on ski weekends and ski holidays, your quality of life suffers,” he said.