Environmental Upright Ski Resorts?

The seemingly sudden trend of ski resorts opting for wind power to generate electricity smacks a little of hypocrisy.

So, it seems that suddenly ski areas everywhere are jumping on the wind power/alternative energy bandwagon.

By buying alternative energy credits to offset their electricity consumption, they're making themselves into environmental stewards, and amping up their images as good guys.

You got a problem with that?

I do. At least to some extent.

I'm as addicted to alpine skiing as anyone who rides a chairlift and slides down a hill, and I thank skiing for getting me into the mountains every time I reach the summit and look across the grand vistas.

And, clearly, any steps resorts take in conservation's direction must be a good thing.

But it's hard to imagine resorts that are building new, ultra high-end real estate developments faster than we can count 'em as grand environmental poo-bahs. Not to come off like a curmudgeonly old-timer, but I can remember when the Killington access road was dirt and bordered only by a handful of small buildings. Now, the place looks like an extended shopping mall, and the car traffic at 4 p.m. on winter Saturdays is New Jersey- or Los Angeles-horrific.

And, the master plan there calls for a build-out that will create one of Vermont's largest cities. If not the largest.

Try driving to or from Colorado's Front Range on a Friday or Sunday evening, and tell me why the bumper-to-bumper traffic can't be replaced with a light rail.

Meanwhile, as noted in a in a September 17 Colorado's Summit Daily News www.summitdaily.com/article/20060917/NEWS/109170050/0/FRONTPAGE article by Allen Best, Aspen Skiing Co. is building a major real-estate project at the base of Snowmass, is expanding ski terrain there and its top executives have been driving large SUVs.

Additionally, Best writes, most customers arrive in jets, even private jets, and jets are singularly the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in Aspen's economy.

I'd add that, generally speaking, ski resort customers also arrive in gas-guzzling SUVs, burn wood fires in their fireplaces and stay in upscale lodging properties that are increasingly amenity-rich (witness time shares selling in Aspen for $1 million-plus for one-eighth shares, and homes starting at $500,000-plus in Stowe), which generally means they use a goodly amount of electricity. Even if they're equipped with EnergyStar appliances and energy-saving light bulbs, they're still using a heck of a lot more juice than the previously empty spaces they're now filling.

I've long held that skiing once was, and could still be, a form of mountaineering. But, somewhere along the line it has drifted into an upscale mass recreation that requires luxurious trappings and gourmet meals.

Now, don't get me wrong. When given the chance, I like to bask in upscale trappings and gourmet food as much as anyone. But, I'm not sure these are required for my ski experience.

This bowing to windmills seems to be developing into a have-my-cazke-and-eat-it-too situation.

Give me a viable mass transit option for accessing the slopes (like the ski trains of Wengen, Switzerland), and I'd love to use them.

Give me basic, affordable lodging with a private bath, and I'd be comfortable.

Give me long, challenging trails that follow the mountain's contours or squiggle through the trees, and slow-moving lifts that allow my legs to recover between runs, and I'd be perfectly happy.

And probably the environment would be, too.

Related Article: Ski Areas Turn to Wind Power