Mountain Town News
Testy over compensation
WHISTLER, B.C. – The resignation of a long-term ski instructor at Whistler Blackcomb has exposed grievances. Better wages for foreign instructors is one complaint, as is the compensation for ski area executives.
Terry “Toulouse” Spence, 72, had taught at the ski area for more than 20 years. He tells Pique Newsmagazine that he resents that temporary foreign workers get $15.30 per hour for standby, a minimum wage mandated by the federal government, while others such as himself get paid $10.25 for standby.
He also was frustrated to see the cost of lessons go up without a corresponding increase in his income.
Another ski instructor, Paul Venner, has not quit but complains that this past winter he got only a 15 cent hourly wage increase, to $33.75, this winter, while compensation to executives rose by double-digit percentages.
Whistler Blackcomb this season was charging $699 for a full-day private lesson. Venner got $202 of that, before taxes.
The ski area had 100 temporary foreign workers on its school school staff this year, and they have high-level ski and snowboard expertise plus being able to speak foreign languages—crucial to meeting needs of some customers. The instructors come from Romania, Spain, Mexico, South America, Australia, the United Kingdom and Japan
Joel Chevalier, the ski area’s director of employee experience, told the newspaper that temporary foreign workers must have level 2 certification as a minimum. “They do an amazing job from a service (standpoint),” he said. “A lot of them speak multiple languages. And a lot of the folks from Romania have multiple disciplines as well. They can teach skiing and they can also teach snowboarding at a high level.”
343 get pins for 100-plus days
ASPEN, Colo. – What the Aspen Daily News describes as a ski bum badge of distinction has been given out to 343 locals. The pins awarded by the Aspen Skiing Co. recognize 100 days or more of skiing at the company’s four ski mountains in and near Aspen and Snowmass Village. Company employees were excluded.
An Aspen Mountain regular, Mikey Wechler, skied all but one of the 155 days that it was open. On that day of hooky, he skied at Beaver Creek. He has missed just four days in the last 10 years.
Those getting pins ranged in age from 8 to 78.
The company began the program five years ago, after beginning automated access. This is the most people who have earned the pins in any one year.
Whole Foods for Frisco
FRISCO, Colo. – The Whole Foods store that opened on Tuesday, April 29 in Frisco has a unique distinction. At 9,197 feet in elevation, it is the highest of any of the 378 stores in the chain. Most are in the United States, but a few are in Vancouver and elsewhere in Canada.
Founded in 1980, Whole Foods is unlike most other grocery chains in many respects. It has a great selection of organic goods, of course, but also stopped distributing disposable plastic bags in 2008. Then this: a feng shui consultant.
The Summit Daily News reports that the consultant, Alex Stark, blessed the new 32,000-square-foot store in Frisco last week before a tour of local dignitaries. Standing in front of the store, he mixed gin, rice, and cinnabar. They represent the heavens, people, and the earth. He also hung crystal balls in specific spots in the back rooms.
Vending machines for cannabis?
AVON, Colo. – Herbal Elements, a store licensed to sell medical marijuana in unincorporated Eagle County, between Vail and Avon, may have the first vending machine for cannabis.
The Vail Daily reports that some 200 people recently turned out to see how the machine works, even if the machine was temporarily in Avon, which wants nothing to do with marijuana. The machine lacked marijuana.
Called ZaZZ, the machine provides a secure way to make sales to regulars while freeing up display space and store employees. Representatives of the company liken it to the self-checkout areas at grocery and further note that they see “edible” cannabis, as opposed to smoking, as the wave of the future.
Park City drama continues
PARK CITY, Utah – There’s more drama surrounding the Park City Mountain Resort. The ski area operated by Powdr Corp. is located on 3,700 acres of private land leased from Talisker Land Company.
Park City failed to renew a low-cost lease in 2011, and Talisker —now represented by Vail Resorts – is trying to oust Park City from the property. The ski lifts in question operate just a few blocks from the main shopping district in the ski town.
The Park Record reports that Talisker Land Holdings has submitted what is essentially a formal eviction order to sign if the judge rules in favor of Talisker and Vail.
In response, Alan Sullivan, lead attorney for Park City, issued a statement accusing Vail of attempting to “manufacture a crisis… We believe that the litigation will take years to work its way through the courts, and PCMR plans to operate without interruption in the meantime.”
Talisker (and Vail) say that Park City “makes clear that they will go to great lengths to keep prolonging this litigation as long as possible solely to delay the consequences of their own poor business decisions.”
A step toward geothermal
PAGOSA SPRINGS, Colo. – Can the hot waters underlying the Pagosa Springs area be further tapped for heating purposes?
They already are, both at the commercial hot springs located along the banks of the San Juan River and for a square block of downtown Pagosa Springs. Now, in what the Pagosa Sun describes as a “housekeeping move of sorts,” a government agency called the Pagosa Area Geothermal Water and Power Authority has been formed.
The new entity, a collaboration of the town government and Archuleta County, is further described as a step toward production of geothermal energy in Archuleta County.
