Mountain Town News
Hands off
JACKSON, Wyo. – The gloves are coming off in Jackson. Or maybe it’s the hands. After a two-month grace period, town police last Saturday were scheduled to begin enforcing the ban on holding a cell phone while driving.
It’s still illegal to use a cell phone, however, and the local Radio Shack dealer tells the Jackson Hole News&Guide that hands-free devices such as Bluetooth have been flying off the shelves.
The law, said Reid Squyres, store manager, “has “probably increased our business in Bluetooth and any other hands-free 15 or 20 fold,” he said. The most popular has been a voice-activated speaker that can be clipped onto the visor of a car.
Many states have banned texting while driving and some jurisdictions, like Jackson, have banned holding a cell phone while driving. But nobody seems to ban talking on a cell phone altogether while driving. But the Harvard Mental Health Letter in 2010 suggested that maybe they should be.
“A review of studies concluded that hands-free cell phones are just as distracting as handheld models,” says the publication.
It’s not against the law to talk to a passenger while driving. Why is it any more dangerous to talk into a speaker?
The Harvard researchers point to studies that found that cell phone conversations do not vary much in response to changing traffic conditions. In contrast, drivers and passengers both tend to stop talking when a traffic problem develops. Too, passengers often become another set of eyes and ears, helping the driver navigate.
“Even the smartest of ‘smart phones’ can’t do that,” added the report.
Is an update worth it?
ASPEN, Colo. – The Aspen City Council wants the city’s lodging stock updated and expanded. But how much will it give in to get it?
That was the critical question in the case of Hotel Aspen, a prominent property that the developer proposes to expand into 54 300-square-foot rooms with the pot sweetened by three 3-story homes on the backside of the property on Bleeker Street.
Two of the four councilors at the meeting were ready to vote yes, but just as many – including Mayor Steve Skadron – were ready to vote it down because they see it as just too much bulk. The developer was ready to walk. “I don’t want to waste your time and I can’t waste ours anymore,” said Michael Brown, the hotel co-owner.
Skadron was just as firm. He said that incentivizing small lodge developments by allowing new spec homes is a dangerous and slippery slope. “We have a policy that seems to, by its very nature, turn hoteliers into real estate developers. … this city is co-opted by the lure of speculative development,” he said. “And I think that development chisels away at this community’s soul.”
In the end, Councilman Dwayne Romero, who develops real estate at Snowmass Village, persuaded both sides to put off the final decision to a later meeting, to see if the bulk can be shaved just enough to satisfy the concerns of Skadron and Councilman Art Daily.
Skier escapes tree well
NELSON, B.C. – Chris Johnston got lucky. But he also got educated, and that may explain most of why he survived falling into a tree well at the Whitewater Ski Resort.
The Nelson Star explains that Johnston, a 48-year-old consulting engineer from Burnaby, B.C., was skiing with friends when he turned upslope of a tree. He lost a ski and fell head first down a fairly large tree well.
He first felt he was just semi-buried and could get out. But more and more snow kept coming down on him, and he started breathing in snow particles. “I realized I was in danger,” he told the newspaper. “I was a little bit panicked.”
He stayed still, clearing the snow from around his mouth, to keep his lungs free, then he took a deep breath and reached up and managed to get his remaining ski off. He had to then restore a space in front of his mouth, but with that move he was able to stand up.
He was in a deep well, and the snow was about a meter above him. He was able to climb up the tree to get out. He had radioed his friends to tell them of his predicament.
As the Star notes, statistics don’t favor people such as Johnston. While good data is scarce, it would appear that 90 percent of people who fall into a tree well without a companion nearby to help fish them out become suffocated by loose snow that fills in around them.
Johnston was lucky in that he only had one ski from which to detach himself. He also did some things right. “We love this tree skiing, and we got scared a few years ago when we heard a story,” he told the Star. Now, he and his friends wear radios and stay together.
He added that he will no longer turn uphill of a tree, he won’t strap his hands into his poles, and he’s now learned there can be lots of air in the snow once particles are cleared from a person’s mouth.
Cannabis-induced panic attacks
TELLURIDE, Colo. – It’s not unexpected, says Art Goodtimes, writing in the Telluride Watch, but the local medical clinic has seen increases in “cannabis panic attacks.” It is, he explains “a surefire indicator you ate too many brownies.”
He notes that one local store limits the edible milligram count to 50, but he’s seen edibles with twice that much in other stores.
“And anyone who’s had more than their comfortable body doses of cannabis knows it can make you pretty woozy, to the point of nausea. And with new users that can lead to an anxiety attack.”
