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Stay vigilant

Dear Editor:

No surprise that with gold at $1663/oz. and rising, mining companies —vanquished from Mono County in the late 1990s — have returned. Cougar Gold wants to strip mine in the Bodie Hills Wilderness Study Area. Royal Gold sold their claim at Hot Creek on public land in Long Valley to Vista Gold. Delta Minerals is now interested in buying Vista’s claim and developing it.

Delta Minerals’ friendly advance man from Canada presented himself as an “active outdoorsman” to local representatives of Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, the first stops in Mono County for any resource extraction outfit. What he doesn’t know is it’s not just traditional environmental groups opposed to mining; any Mono business dependent on visitors and tourism will be opposed, and for good reason.

The scale of today’s mining is hard to comprehend. Modern mining moves the land, mountains of it, with mega-machinery. The pit that Royal Gold planned to dig at Hot Creek was bigger than the town of Mammoth Lakes.

Digging huge pits is required to make money on low-grade ore. The rich veins are gone. With open pit/cyanide heap leach mining, though, Royal Gold knew the assay of 0.018 oz./ton at Hot Creek could be profitable — even when gold was at $800/oz.

Picture a very thin gold wedding band. At an assay value of 0.018 oz./ton, it would take a pick-up truck’s worth of ore, its bed piled higher than the cab, to recover enough gold to make it. At today’s prices, even lower assays are profitable.

Then there’s the cyanide. Crushed ore is piled in heaps two stories high on a rubber membrane. An elevated sprinkler system sprays cyanide solution on the heaps for months or years. The cyanide leaches out any gold in the ore as the solution percolates through the piles and runs off into a storage pond (located, in Mono County’s case, on the Pacific Flyway).

Imagine. Royal Gold’s operation was proposed for the most seismically active area in the Eastern Sierra, at the headwaters of Los Angeles’ water supply, adjacent to world-class fly fishing at Hot Creek, and atop an area whose hydrology is poorly understood. What could go wrong?

Cost-effective mining today is a deafening, dusty, 24/7 operation. The aggravation isn’t offset by well-paying jobs, either, because mining companies bring their own crews to run the expensive equipment. No more lone prospector with a pan and pickaxe or below ground shafts and tunnels and an on-site stamp mill: modern mining operations take over the land and crowd out nearly all other uses.

Tiffany & Co., wholly dependent on mining to supply gold, silver and gemstones, is an unexpected solid supporter of Mono County’s spectacular open spaces. Tiffany’s chairman and CEO, Michael J. Kowalski, wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle (August 2, 2011),

“Over 175 years of experience as a jeweler … tell us that you can achieve economic growth without sacrificing our nation’s natural heritage, wildlife and waters. It is for this reason that Tiffany & Co., beginning in 1994, has actively and publicly opposed irresponsible mining and development of our public lands. There are places in our nation, belonging to all Americans … too special to forever sacrifice for short-term gain.”

Delta Minerals’ advance man indicated, it was reported by Malcolm Clark, chair, Sierra Club Range of Light Group, “they would be hesitant to pursue the claim and development if faced with strong community opposition.”

May we locals remain as vigilant and prepared to speak up as was the chairman of Tiffany’s in New York City to not sacrifice Mono’s public lands to mining company shareholders.

Elizabeth Tenney
Mammoth Lakes 

Mono Supervisor crafts plan to allow Cougar Gold to move forward

During a meeting with the Mono County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 15, executives from mining company Cougar Gold told lawmakers that, following completion of their 2009 exploratory work, there would be no further activity at the Bodie Hills site until Congress releases the area from Wilderness Study Area (WSA) status.

This past Tuesday, a proposed compromise was floated by Board Chairman Hap Hazard intended to appease both environmentalists in favor of having the Bodie Hills area declared wilderness and those supporting either mining, general release of the area from WSA status or both.

With only four members on the dais (Vikki Bauer wasn’t present), Hazard said he wasn’t seeking action on the compromise, but rather, consensus to send a letter of support for the idea to Congressman Buck McKeon (R-25th District), and move the proposal onto the next step of what he hoped would be a relatively swift public process

In Hazard’s proposal, the existing WSA would be released. Inside that area is a section that would be Cougar Gold’s sphere of influence for any future mining projects. Hazard offsets that by setting aside a large chunk of land to the immediate north of Bodie State Park as wilderness, which he said already has a logical border, and uses Rough Creek as part of the border on the northwest side. The Hills area is one of a group of 13 such WSAs in Mono County (and others in Inyo County) that have been in a sort of limbo since the early 1990s, when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) submitted its recommendations for disposition. Since then, Congress has deferred action on the matter.

Hazard explained that an Ombudsman bill addressing the WSAs could soon be working its way through Congress. The Board has until on or about August to get any action by the County included as part of collateral attached to the bill.

Factored into Hazard’s timing on the compromise is redistricting, which, based on new census counts in Riverside County, might pull McKeon out of representing our district within a year or two.

Why the rush? This compromise, after all, deals with only one of the 13 WSAs. Hazard said a discussion can still be had on the rest, but those exist on a longer timeline. The Bodie Hills is a federal issue, and this compromise could be pivotal. It’s time, he said, to step up and make the hard decisions … and soon. “Let’s move this back to Washington D.C., where it belongs,” he stated.

Hazard said the Board and staff received 400 or more letters before the Feb. 15 meeting, and more than 600 for this meeting, nearly all rehashing previously made points or opinions. One new issue, however, came from the ranching community, where concerns are that the compromise’s new proposed wilderness might financially impact how they run their livestock operations, and handcuff the BLM’s ability to affect rehabilitation of sage grouse habitat.

Mining, as expected, dominated the periphery of the compromise discussion. “I’m disappointed that the WSA and mining have been inextricably linked,” Hazard remarked. “It’s caused nothing but grief.” Supervisor Tim Hansen cited a letter he received equating the use of cyanide to the Nazi death camps in WWII, which he said is indicative of how “beyond the pale” things have gotten.

Public comment was filled with much the same rhetoric from both sides. Opponents amped up their attacks with accusations of “stonewalling,” and implying that Cougar Gold’s real intent is simply to use the release as a “gift” and package the mining for a subcontractor.

Hansen’s mention of the death camps letter was punctuated by some public speculation that Cougar Gold would wantonly poison the water with vast amounts of cyanide and rape the land with massive open pit mines, then abdicate its environmental responsibilities and skip town leaving an insufficient completion bond.

Hazard stated he has no particular love for Cougar Gold, likening the executives’ business tactics to “snake oil salesmen.” He questions the company’s estimates on the number of jobs and whether most would come from Mono County. “I don’t count any Nevada jobs as beneficial to California,” he said. Hazard’s also wary of the company poaching Public Works for heavy equipment operators at three times what the County’s paying.

“Not going forward until the limbo status is decided is a reasonable business plan, but I’m not necessarily buying [Cougar Gold’s] numbers,” said Hazard. “I haven’t seen $7 million worth of positive impact to date, not a new coat of paint, not a new car.” Based on that notion, he’s skeptical that their $20 million of projected benefit will amount to any real significant impact.

Stacy Westerlund pointedly charged some of the Cougar Gold critics with being unwilling to listen. She felt Cougar Gold was forthcoming with answers to questions. Opponents who left early, she said, didn’t like the answers they were getting.

Sally Miller from the Wilderness Society rejected the compromise plan as a “closed-door plan driven by a false sense of urgency. What’s driving the proposal, and who’s leading who?” She rebuffed Hazard’s assertion that mining is a separate issue. “It’s all about mining. Yes the WSAs need to be resolved, but this is not how I do business.”

Dan Westerlund, a 40-year resident who lives on an access road to the Bodie Hills, said 100 years of use should be evidence it’s not suitable for WSA status. (The Hoover wilderness, he said, is a better example of wilderness.) The process, he said, hasn’t been rushed, but one that’s been going on in one form or another for more than 25 years.

On the dais, Supervisor Byng Hunt restated his opposition to any release of WSA at this time. Supervisor Tim Hansen, whose district would be most affected by the compromise, said he wouldn’t have voted to proceed, not because he disliked the idea, but due to what he saw as a shortfall when it came to an open process. Supervisor Larry Johnston said the compromise doesn’t reflect proper action or consideration by the Board.

Seeing no real support for swift action on the compromise, a frustrated Hazard folded his hand. “As far as I’m concerned, the issue is dead.”

Dear Editor:

I have been ruminating for the past few days over what I observed at the February 15, 2011 presentation by mining company, Cougar Gold, to the Mono County Supervisors.  I thought I’d learn about Cougar Gold’s mining plans in the Bodie Hills.  Well, I had no such luck.  Essentially what the company came to do is get support for loosening protections without ever telling us what they really intend to do.  No concrete plans have been submitted to the BLM or County or to US, the citizens of Mono County.

Is that what we want for the Bodie Hills?  To give carte blanche to a mining company?  Will they develop an open pit mine?  Use cyanide?  Poison the watersheds?  Dry up springs?  Cause highway safety problems and scores of accidents by increased truck traffic on US 395?  Who is this company and what do they really want to do to our lands, waters and communities?  Will they sell out before the price of gold drops and leave us with a toxic mess?

Extensive mining could change the Bodie Hills, forever.  Mining is a “Boom and Bust” venture.  I believe the greatest value to our community lies in our wonderful and accessible public lands.  Let’s not go chasing ‘fools gold.’

Dorothy Burdette
June Lake resident

Cougar Gold: No WSA release, no mining

Catch 22, Mexican standoff, vicious circle … call it what you will, but after spending $7 million on exploratory work in 2009, officials from Cougar Gold LLC told the Mono County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday they are reluctant to develop and submit any plans to move forward with additional work, let alone any full-scale mining efforts, until the Bodie Hills area is released from Wilderness Study Area (WSA) status.

The non-action agenda item, which also included representatives from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), pulled in a packed crowd to Bridgeport’s Memorial Hall. Needless to say, the discussion drew civil, but decidedly polarized comments from the general public. The afternoon Board agenda item brought out a preponderance of those who want the Bodie Hills either left under WSA status or determined to be wilderness. The evening’s Town Hall meeting, however, tipped the scales the other way, with mining supporters citing Bridgeport’s pressing need for jobs and revenue, and almost uniformly behind release of the WSA.

No matter your position, when considering the WSA, all roads lead to Washington D.C., where the BLM’s recommendations to Congress regarding the Bodie Hills and numerous other WSAs waits in what Cougar Gold’s Mark Wallace deemed “purgatory.”

American idle

The BLM-regulated Bodie Hills area, not to be confused with nearby Bodie State Park, fell into WSA status upon passage of the Federal Land Policy Management Act, Oct. 1, 1976, which required that all tracts 5,000 acres or larger be studied for potential wilderness qualities. In 1991-1992, the BLM recommended to Congress that the Bodie Hills WSA did not meet wilderness criteria for reasons including population density of the area and a cursory road system. Nothing happened. In 1999, the sitting Mono County Board of Supervisors narrowly passed a resolution calling for the release of 26 area WSAs. The result? Nothing happened.

On Sept. 15, 2010, U.S. Congressman Buck McKeon (R-25th District) introduced HR 6129, Mono County Economic Development Act of 2010, which called for the Bodie Hills area to be released from WSA status. The bill never became law. The following day, on Sept. 16, the House Committee on Natural Resources referred the bill to the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, where it still sits today, presumably awaiting expiration, based on Congress’ track record on such matters.

“The political is the next stage in the process, and only Congress has the final authority to designate WSA status,” Bob Wick from the BLM’s state office said.

“We’re committed to the area; we wouldn’t be here today talking about the process if we weren’t,” Cougar Gold CEO Marcel “Mac” DeGuire told the room. The determination made in the early 1990s, according to Wallace, was based largely on the area’s mineral history. Wallace went on to say that in his opinion, it’s not pristine wilderness and simply doesn’t merit WSA status.

“We just don’t think it makes sense to work within the ‘purgatory’ of the current WSA,” Wallace said. “Grandfathered [mining rights] or not, it doesn’t make sense to continue unless the community and elected leaders think that part of Mono County’s economic future involves extraction, even at a moderate level.” DeGuire added that a release doesn’t automatically guarantee there would be any mining.

How much are we looking at?

Larry Buchanan, Cougar Gold’s staff geologist, told the room there isn’t yet a gold deposit they can mine for profit. He said there is an “anomalous” amount of gold, which translates to about 14,000 ounces out of about 1 million tons of rock. In layman’s terms, that’s not much. What there may be, however, are more veins that make up the anomalous gold, but more exploration is required to locate those veins. Company officials said the “hope” is that more feeder systems would be found within the approximately one-mile-square target site, but for now Cougar Gold isn’t sure where the veins are or if they even exist.

Several public comments were critical of Cougar Gold’s intentions, speculating and opining about large, open pits and widespread use of the cyanide leeching process. DeGuire refuted both, rhetorically quipping that the company isn’t even at the “open pit” phase, much less the “cyanide” phase. Buchanan added that the use of the toxic chemical depends on the geology of the rock (which has yet to be determined). “There are several large mining operations that use no cyanide at all,” he pointed out.

Other members of the public didn’t question Cougar Gold’s ability to work within the rules and regulations. They want jobs, and pointed to the company’s recent hiring of locals from Walker to Lee Vining. Mining, several suggested, would help schools and future generations, and potentially rescue Bridgeport, which was labeled a “dying town” in need of help.

Asked about whether Cougar Gold had anything to do with McKeon’s HR 6129 bill, DeGuire didn’t acknowledge any formal contact, but stated, “If you’re insinuating … that there’s a hidden agenda, there’s nothing hidden about it. We think the WSA should be released.”

Any mining proposed for the Bodie Hills will be subject to an intricate mix of federal, state and county regulations, including all the standard environmental analyses, as well as substantial annual bonding to make sure the work is covered financially from first hole to reclamation. According to BLM geologist Mark Springer, Cougar Gold still retains an “open” status, and has completed the required reclamation process to the area that had been part of its 2009 project.

From the floor …

Most of the afternoon’s public comment rehashed the usual environmental concerns. Some called for more clarity as to Cougar Gold’s plans, much of which the company said it either couldn’t or wouldn’t be able address at this juncture. Others brought up new talk about implementing economic safeguards and other financial considerations.

“Cougar Gold bought into ‘purgatory’ in 2004,” Tony Dublino from Bridgeport commented. “I support economic development in Bridgeport and I think all comers should be entertained, including mining, but a dialogue should be held to establish some community protections to make sure the company doesn’t ‘take the money and run.’” Jimmy Little, who owns a business not far from Bodie State Park, said he has mixed feelings about the whole project. “There are lots of processes, but there has to be a balance,” he said, suggesting a commitment on the part of Cougar Gold to mitigate any potential economic flight risk.

Friends of the Inyo’s Stacy Corless said the organization recognizes the benefits of jobs to the area, but is leery of what the company will ask for in addition to the County’s backing of the WSA release.

Mark Davis, a self-described amateur historian, advocated a visitor center-type of economic scenario, as opposed to a mine. “A miner is a liar with a hole in the ground,” he said, quoting Mark Twain.

WSAs are for study, said former Mono County Supervisor Ed Inwood, and by definition supposed to be transitory. “The study’s been done; it should either be released or not.” Wallace took that point further and defended the use of the word “purgatory,” saying that keeping lands in a sort of permanent stasis was never the intent of the [FLPMA] law.

And from the Board dais …

“Even if you’re digging it up, moving it around and burying it again, think of how many jobs are involved in that digging it up, moving it around and burying it again,” Supervisor Vikki Bauer commented. The WSA, she opined, is not supportable, based on “what the land tells me it should be.”

“Everyone thinks mining should be done in some hideous, hot, dusty place, but it’s out of whack to think mining is an odd thing to do here,” Supervisor Tim Hansen remarked. Tourism is precarious, he opined, indicating the area needs more of an economic backup plan than it currently has.

Board Chair Hap Hazard railed against comments suggesting gold’s only function is to sit in vaults and prop up large banks, citing its value in electronics on small and large scales, among other everyday uses. He also called the WSA structure a “failure of government, which has divided its citizenry and defaulted on its responsibility to stand up and take a position and make tough decisions.”

“I’d like one day to see people come to Bodie and see the historic location and the legacy left behind, and also be able to drive over the hill a few miles to visit an example of a functioning, modern mining operation.”

If Congress opts to act on wilderness status anytime soon, don’t look for support for release from two supervisors. District 1 rep Larry Johnston said he prefers preserving the area as opposed to having a reclaimed pit. District 5 lawmaker Byng Hunt firmly stated his support for wilderness status and doesn’t see mining as a viable economic option.

After the meeting, BLM Bishop Field Office Manager Bernadette Lovato said, “The public deserves an answer. It’s been a very long time.”

Catch 22, Mexican standoff, vicious circle … call it what you will, but after spending $7 million on exploratory work in 2009, officials from Cougar Gold LLC told the Mono County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 15 that they are reluctant to develop and submit any plans to move forward with additional work, let alone any full-scale mining efforts, until the Bodie Hills area is released from Wilderness Study Area (WSA) status.

A non-action agenda item drew a packed crowd inside Bridgeport’s Memorial Hall. The Board also heard from Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The discussion drew civil, but decidedly polarized comments from more than two-dozen members of the public, both supporting keeping the WSA as is, as well as backing Cougar Gold’s efforts. Following the Board meeting, Cougar Gold also hosted a Town Hall meeting in the Memorial Hall at 6 p.m.

For more on this story, see this weekend’s print edition of The Sheet and online here at www.thesheetnews.com.

Right now, mining company Cougar Gold is laying out its next steps to the Mono County Board of Supervisors and the attending public. This evening, Cougar Gold will follow up with a Town Hall meeting from 6-8 p.m. where representatives of the company will give a presentation before opening up discussion with Mono County residents.

The purpose of the meetings, according to Cougar Gold CEO Marcel Deguire, is to discuss the process of its first round of exploratory drilling in the Bodie Hills, as well as the results, and to lay out how the company’s next steps may affect those in Mono County.

District 4 Supervisor Tim Hansen (who has worked for Cougar Gold in the past) told The Sheet last week that he believed the next steps mentioned would revolve around more exploratory work in the near term, but may also include the company’s view on what should happen if the Bodie Wilderness Study Area were released from its wilderness designation.

Last year, U.S. Congressman Buck McKeon, who represents Mono County, floated a bill that called for the release of the Bodie WSA from its protected status. The Bureau of Land Management, which has jurisdiction over the area, has yet to make a determination one way or another.

Tonight’s Town Hall meeting takes place at the Bridgeport Memorial Hall from 6-8 p.m.

Critics caution against Cougar Gold; Supervisor Hansen cautions against the critics

One would think there wouldn’t be so much of an uproar about a mostly informational item — one with no decision required and no fiscal impact — that’s on the Mono County Board of Supervisors agenda for this coming Tuesday. But then, the presentation is coming from mining company Cougar Gold, which has historically fired up activists leery of “the power of gold.”

The 1 p.m. agenda item, to be followed by a 6 p.m.  Town Hall meeting, will allow Cougar Gold to talk about “the process of [its recent] exploratory drilling project [and subsequent results],” and “lay out hopeful next steps and how it may affect those in Mono County.”

With no formal, full-scale plans for a large mining operation submitted to the Board previously (and none on the agenda for this meeting), District 4 Supervisor Tim Hansen, who is the County sponsor for the agenda item, said he thinks the “next steps” mentioned will probably be about plans for more exploratory work in the near term. Hansen, however, didn’t rule out the possibility that Cougar Gold may put forth their view on what should happen vis-a-vis release of the Bodie Wilderness Study Area, where previous exploration has taken place.

Last year, Mono’s U.S. Congressman Buck McKeon (R-25th District) floated a bill that called for the release of the Bodie Wilderness Study Area from its protected status. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has jurisdiction over the wildland area, and has yet to rule one way or the other, but has previously recommended that the Bodie WSA (and others in the region) not be designated wilderness.

The BLM is expected to be represented at the 1 p.m. meeting and possibly at both.

In an Open Letter to Mono County, Cougar Gold CEO Marcel Deguire wrote, “We were proud to hire Mono County workers for the duration of our project and impressed with the quality of work that can be found in this area.” He went on to say that the meeting is being conducted to “keep the citizens of Mono County as informed as possible.”

For many conservationists, that would mean getting a few very specific questions answered.

Speaking for Friends of the Inyo, one of several local and national groups that comprise the Bodie Hills Conservation Partnership, Executive Director Stacy Corless touched on several general points common to many of the BHCP’s membership. “I think we’re going to see a push for the WSA release,” Corless opined. “But this isn’t just a choice between wilderness or mining. We need to have a broader discussion about the best use for our public lands.”

FOI does prize the Bodie Hills, along with the state park ghost town, as both a major tourist destination and unique landscape with natural, cultural and historical values. The area has recently been eyed by Washington D.C. for national monument status. Corless acknowledged it wasn’t, however, likely that President Barack Obama would push it through under the Antiquities Act, at least not anytime soon. “But, it does show we’re not the only people who think it’s special.”

The issue in Mono County, at least for FOI, is one of extraction versus conservation. “What would releasing the Bodie Hills from WSA status give Cougar Gold that it doesn’t already have?” asked Corless. FOI, she added, recognizes the need for jobs and revenue, but frankly doesn’t consider mining a significant or sustainable part of the county’s economic infrastructure. Corless expects Cougar Gold to come on Tuesday armed with lots figures and projections on everything from taxes to jobs, but little in the way of specifics. “What jobs are we talking about and who’s going to get them?” Corless asked. Equally as nebulous (at this point) is the end result of exploration and what she indicated could be a “long shot” in terms of actually finding a gold deposit and developing a working mine.

Corless said she’s heard of Cougar Gold’s references to “environmentally friendly” mining. “Show me … give me a tour of an example of an environmentally friendly mine, and how it’s sustainable 20 years down the road.”

She’s also concerned about the “blinded by the bling” factor that may have beset job-hungry northern Mono County residents and officials, citing recent area history of deals gone bad. “Intrawest, anyone? Hot Creek Aviation?” Which raises another question of the cost of extraction and the break-even point on the market price of gold, which like other commodities ebbs and flows.

One thing FOI concedes is Cougar Gold’s right to conduct exploration on its mining claim. Nonetheless, FOI would prefer to protect the Bodie Hills as part of a “proven sector (tourism)” that Corless thinks could be better capitalized.

“I just hope that [at the Town Hall] the Board hears the concerns, asks the tough questions and doesn’t rush to any hasty approvals for Cougar Gold,” she said. One elected official who said he’s looking forward to this meeting being fact finding and the truth coming out is recently seated District 4 Mono County Supervisor Tim Hansen.

“This is the time to have questions answered [by the BLM] once and for all about the WSA and what Cougar Gold can and can’t do,” Hansen told The Sheet. “What I’d like to hear from the BLM is, ‘Do the Bodie Hills meet your criteria for WSA status … yes or no?’”

Hansen insists, contrary to errant speculation, that he’s “not a spokesman for the mining company.” Cougar Gold, he said, asked for the Town Hall to be agendized, and a supervisor’s name was needed to sponsor the item. It’s not my deal, but — full disclosure — I worked for this company previously, though I’m not on their payroll anymore.”

Hansen said that gives him unique, first-hand experience when it comes to Cougar Gold. He worked on the exploratory project from start to finish, knows the working conditions and how those conditions were adhered to. “Just to be clear: I have no intention of letting anyone get away with any misleading information or other factual deception,” Hansen said.

He went on to say that in the past two weeks, he’s documented numerous e-mails about the Bodie Hills WSA and Cougar Gold. “Many are very impassioned, but most lack any substance and are reactions to action alerts.” Quite a few, he pointed out, are from outside the Mono County area.

“I want to keep the meeting open and get questions answered,” Hansen said. “The perception is that Cougar Gold is determined to mine for gold in the Bodie Hills, which we don’t know is the case as yet. I want this to be based on fact. The people who live in Bridgeport have the most at stake in this.”

The Board takes up its agenda item on Feb. 15 at 1 p.m. and the Town Hall meeting is set for 6-8 p.m. Both will be held in the Bridgeport Memorial Hall, adjacent to the Courthouse building.

What a difference a few months can make.

At the outset of this year’s World Cup campaign, Mammoth’s John Teller had his hat out collecting donations just so he could compete on the circuit this year, and ESPN announcers Chris Ernst and Keir Dillon at X Games this past weekend referred to Teller as a “privateer” – a guy largely paying his own way to compete on tour versus having corporate sponsorship.

That likely all changed with Teller’s thrilling victory last Sunday in Men’s Skier Cross at the X Games in Aspen, where Teller beat prohibitive favorite Chris Del Bosco by half a ski length in the final.

Teller was the only skier in the field who got anywhere close to Del Bosco all day.

Del Bosco won his quarterfinal heat by nearly a second, an eternity in ski racing.

Teller, meanwhile, mistimed a jump at the start of his quarterfinal heat and from my vantage point on the couch, with Teller’s limbs spread-eagle in all directions as he sought to maintain his balance, it looked like he might fall and become an early casualty.

Teller righted himself, but at the cost of dropping from 2nd to 4th place (the top three finishers advanced to the semifinal round).

He ultimately made a slick pass toward the bottom of the course and placed second.

When The Sheet reached Teller via telephone at a steakhouse in Deer Valley, Utah on Wednesday, we asked whether Teller had been in danger of losing before he ever had a chance of winning.

“I wasn’t gonna fall,” he said flatly. “I just had the timing off.”

In the semifinal, Del Bosco and Teller were 1-2 out of the gate and stayed that way from start-to-finish. Teller had an opportunity to pass on the upper part of the course, but decided discretion was the better part of valor, as again, he only had to finish in the top three to advance to the final.

In the final, Del Bosco and Teller again came out of the gate 1-2.

This time, however, Teller, drafting behind Del Bosco, made a bid to pass.

“I made the move at the right time and somehow got through,” he said during a post-race interview with ESPN’s Jamie Little.

But watching the replay, it somehow gets a little more scientific. Teller just got lower than Del Bosco and was better able to maintain his speed through the pass.

The rest of the post-race interview went like this.

Little: You just became the first American to win a World Cup skier cross. Now you come here and take the gold. Where do you come from?

Teller: Mammoth!

Little: How doers a mechanic go from working every day to being a gold medalist?

Teller: It just shows hard work in life, no matter what you do, it always pays off.

The camera then panned to his mother Debbie crying tears of joy in the crowd.

Standing next to mom was Mammoth Mountain CEO Rusty Gregory, who’s never one to pass up a marketing opportunity. As the camera panned to him, Gregory smiled and pointed to the Mammoth logo on his jacket.

Little then threw the narrative back to play-by-play annpouncer Chris Ernst, who generally has no trouble babbling endlessly.

This time, all a stunned Ernst could say was “I don’t know what to say, exactly.”

That’s how much of a prohibitive favorite Del Bosco was. “The man we thought no one could beat,” admitted Ernst.

But sometimes, real life produces its own Rocky Balboas.

Teller will try to build on his Cinderella season this Friday at the World Championships in Deer Valley.

Teller qualified 9th on Thursday.