Ouray Ice Park Opens for Winter

CLIMBER READY – Cold and dry weather has made for ideal ice making conditions at the Ouray Ice Park, which plans to open on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 7 a.m. Sharpen those axes and crampons. It’s finally time to climb. (Photo courtesy of Mike Bryson)
slideshow OURAY – With prevailing frigid temperatures and the hard work of ice-making crews, the Ouray Ice Park already has terrific ice for climbing. They are opening for the season this Saturday, Dec. 12 at 7 a.m. – a week earlier than its scheduled opening date.

“So far it has been a banner year as far as making ice goes,” said head ice maker Mike Bryson this week. A cold start to the season and a lack of snowfall are the perfect conditions for creating a good base of ice. “Relatively speaking, it is going to be a year of much more ice than usual.”

Ice Park crews are currently working on upgrading the water delivery system from a four-inch to a six-inch pipe and they are utilizing the former BIOTA water line. This will allow the park to be run on two separate water systems rather than one. Moreover, this year crews will be making ice seven instead of five days a week, as in the past. Bryson said that once the upgraded water delivery system is finished, the ice park may prove to have the best ice climbing conditions yet.

“The new system will enable us to run water with more pressure, which basically means more ice,” Bryson said. “The park will be in the best shape it has ever been in due to the fact we will be able to create more ice.”

Bryson said the park will be opening this weekend but warned that early-season conditions will exist with some thin ice in some areas. He added that some areas of the park may not open this weekend depending on conditions. Crews will make that determination on Friday.

Looking ahead, the 15th annual Ouray Ice Festival and Climbing Competition will be held Jan. 7-10. Great slideshows by Andres Marin, Caroline George, Steve House, Majka Burhardt, Timmy Oneill, and Dave Nettle are planned. There will also be a premier screening of the movie The North Face – a film that re-creates the first ascent attempt on the Eiger.

This year’s Ice Festival will host over 70-plus interactive climbing clinics, including 12 extended-length climbing seminars of six hours each. Nightly slideshows will feature outstanding world-class mountaineers and climbers. Make sure to attend the Petzl/Arcteryx Superhero Party on Saturday, Jan. 9, following a live auction at the Ouray Community Center. The party is always full of surprises and interesting costume, to say the least. All the great evening auctions, parties, fundraisers and meals make the Ouray Ice Festival the premier climber gathering in the world.

Season memberships to the Ouray Ice Park cost $40. Membership fees help keep the Ice Park a free climbing facility and pay for park improvements; those with membership cards receive a 20 percent discount at most member lodges in Ouray as well as a 10-20 percent discount at Ouray’s restaurants and participating retail stores.

For more information about the Ouray Ice Park call 970/325-4288 or visit www.ourayicepark.com.

Posted by Erin Eddy
Written by The Ouray County Watch

Golf Course purchased near Ouray

Equilibrium Resorts has bought the Divide Ranch & Club golf course facility on Log Hill Mesa.

The lifestyle resort communities company, based in Dillon, announced in a press release last week that it has moved from management to an ownership position by acquiring all the assets to the golf course.
Seller Gary Tharaldson retains ownership in the real estate inventory of the subdivision, which originated in 1994 as Fairway Pines, as Ouray County’s first recreational planned unit development. The PUD allowed developers to create and sell more than 400 lots smaller than six acres around a golf course on Log Hill Mesa.
H.T. Heritage Inn of Erie LLC, a Philadelphia-based corporation led by Tharaldson, bought the Fairway Pines project in June 2006 for a reported $15 million from Fairway Pines Golf Partners Ltd., Pines Development Group LLC, James A. Willey, and the James A. Willey Living Trust.
The project was re-named Divide Ranch & Club in 2007 and a new clubhouse overlooking the golf course, primarily for use by residents of the development, opened in 2008.
Paul Stashick, founder and CEO of Equilibrium Resorts, said the solid membership base, minimal debt on the property and the opportunity to leverage Equilibrium Resorts’ years of experience in the resort business made the purchase a good fit for the company.
“We look forward to continuing to enhance programming at the Divide Ranch & Club and making it the premier club in the southwestern Colorado,” said Stashick. “The focus of these programs are the cornerstones of our company’s vision: lifelong learning, self-actualization, wellness and relationships.”
Equilibrium also announced that the Divide Ranch & Club will be offering an Invitational Gold Membership for a limited time, which includes unlimited golf privileges, fly fishing, Nordic skiing and snowshoeing, 4x4 excursions, guided hikes and cooking classes with clubhouse chef Steve Poland. The membership includes all fees associated with golf cart rental, range balls and discounts at the pro shop.
The 18-hole golf course, which opened to the public in 1993, has a championship rating and received the “Best Places to Play” award numerous times from Golf Digest magazine.
— Special to The Ridgway Sun

Ouray is great place to play

OURAY – Last week, Ouray was named “Best Destination for Recreation in Colorado” for 2009 by the popular online site, The Official Best Of (www.officialbestof.com).

Ouray will be listed on the website and will be featured on the television program The Best of Colorado, which will air Oct. 24 at 12 p.m. on KCNC (CBS 4) in Denver.

Official Best of solicits nominations for award winners on its website, which is intended to provide TV and web viewers with the official best places to visit in a number of states across America.

Ouray Chamber Resort Association President Karen Avery said it’s been quite the month for Ouray. She notes that the “Best Of” designation comes on the heels of Ouray being named one of the most beautiful towns and villages in the southwest by a book of the same title.

“The Switzerland of America is the perfect escape from the everyday,” said Avery. “Jeeping, hiking, horseback riding and biking are popular summertime activities. The Ouray Ice Park – the first of its kind dedicated solely to the sport of ice climbing – is a huge draw in the wintertime. We host hundreds of the world’s best climbers every January for the infamous Ouray Ice Festival. It’s really quite something.”

Avery noted that there are plenty of cold weather activities for the average Joe, as well. Snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and sledding are popular options, as well as the Ouray Hot Springs Pool, which is open year round.

Ouray County Watch Staff

Great Ouray Trail Run Kicks Off for 2nd Season

OURAY – Challenge yourself to a 13.9-mile loop run and contribute to regional youth outdoor education programs this weekend. The second annual Ouray Trail Run takes place Saturday, Oct. 3 on the trails above Ouray, but it’s not your average jog in the park.

Comparable in difficulty to the Imogene Pass Run between Ouray and Telluride, the Ouray Trail Run circumnavigates the City of Ouray using the Silvershield, Ice Park and Portland trails. With the unsurpassed views of Ouray and the surrounding fall foliage, this year’s run will no doubt prove to be one of Colorado’s most beautiful fall events.

“The course is unbelievably beautiful,” race Director Erin Eddy said in an interview on Tuesday. “This has to be one of the most scenic runs in the state because of its timing. The course is just awesome and it is a great race.”

Participants are reminded that the course follows steep and rugged, single-track trails in the high altitude terrain, with a base elevation of 7,700 feet. The course gains over 3,600 vertical feet and includes many steep and loose sections. Another factor participants should keep in mind is the unpredictable fall weather of the San Juan Mountains, which can range from mild and sunny to cold and snowy in a matter of minutes. Ultimately, runners are responsible for their own safety and are expected to use good judgment with regards to their ability to complete the race.

The course will be marked with flagging, cones and signs, and a number of volunteer course marshals will be strategically located to keep runners headed in the right direction.

Eddy said that last year’s inaugural event raised approximately $2,000 for local outdoor education programs, including the San Juan Riding Program, the Ouray Cross County Team, and the Ridgway and Ouray schools’ outdoor education programs. He hopes to raise even more for those programs this year.

“This race is all about getting kids outdoors,” Eddy said.

The $50 race entry fee includes an official race T-shirt, aid-station refreshments, and a post-race barbecue. Prizes, custom made by Ouray glassblower Sam Rushing, will be awarded for overall male and female winners as well as male and female age group winners. Door prizes at the post-race awards ceremony will include Osprey packs, arm warmers, socks and shirts from Sugoi, a sport band for an iPod, and gaiters by JoeTrailMan. Race participants will automatically be entered to win prizes, but they must be present at the ceremony to win.

Race registration will occur on Friday at the Ouray Hot Springs Pool between 5 and 7 p.m., or on race day, between 8 and 9:30 a.m. The race starts and ends at the pool, and has a 10 a.m. start time.

Stick around town after the race for some much-deserved relaxation and revelry at the Ouray Oktoberfest and 45th Annual Jeep Raffle. Popular Bavarian band, The Austrian Connection, will perform, and there will be kids’ activities and costume contests with cash prizes. Traditional German food such as brats, potato cakes, apple sauce and German chocolate cake are on the menu, as well as Colorado Boy brews and wine. Call the Ouray Chamber for additional information at 800/228-1876.

The Ouray Trail Run is a 501(c)4 corporation and all race proceeds go directly to local outdoor youth recreational programs and local youth recreational clubs. For more information, go to www.ouraytrailrun.com.

Ouray's Hydro Plant Operator Leaves Legacy

By Samantha Tisdel Wright

Richard Ezra Fowler, aka “Mr. Dick,” was an iconic Ouray character, spanning the old and the new as effortlessly as he spun tales from his stool of honor at the Buen Tiempo. The former operator of Ouray’s historic hydro plant passed away last week. He was 67.
As this paper reaches readers’ hands, Fowler’s memorial service at the Ouray Ice Park will have taken place – it was set for Thursday evening. And surely many a margarita will have been lifted afterward in his honor at the Buen, where his barstool has been temporarily retired. And just as surely, many a “Mr. Dick” story will have been told.
How Fowler ended up in Ouray in the early 1990s is a story worth telling in itself, and is best done so by Fowler’s former employer and good friend Eric Jacobsen, owner of the Ouray Hydro Plant.
“Dick and I go back to the late ’80s when he had a Jeep repair garage in Grand Junction,” recalled Jacobsen, who also owns the famous Bridal Veil hydroelectric plant near Telluride, accessed via Imogene Pass. “We used old Jeeps for doing all the work (at the Bridal Veil plant),” Jacobsen said. “Dick had a little shop with a wood stove. We’d drag our Jeeps in, in the fall, and he’d spend the winter fixing them for us.”
At that time, Jacobsen was in the process of getting his bid together to buy the Ouray Hydro Plant from Colorado Ute, a regional utility which eventually went bankrupt. He got the plant for $10 because he was the only pre-qualified bidder. But that’s another story.
Over that winter, Fowler got word of Jacobsen’s new acquisition. “He showed up with his toolbox in hand and said he’d decided he wanted to be a hydro plant operator,” Jacobsen laughed. “He said he’d sure be glad if I hired him, but if I didn’t, he’d work for free.”
Fowler was hired, and moved right in. “He’s basically lived there ever since and has been very intimately involved in every aspect of the operation,” Jacobsen said.
Fowler came by his technical know-how by way of two hitches served in the U.S. Army, starting when he was only 18. He was stationed on the border of East and West Germany, where during formative years, he was in charge of a big truck maintenance garage.
The experience shaped the way he saw the world and lived his life. “He always had a very military viewpoint toward his work at the hydro plant,” Jacobsen said. “His idea was to keep the lieutenant happy but kick him out the door as soon as you can. I was always the lieutenant … Dick was the master surgeon.”
Fowler applied his military mentality to his hydro plant employees, too, including his right hand man, and in Jacobsen’s words “heavy lifter” of many years, Jimmy Pew. “Jimmy, unfortunately, was the private,” Jacobsen joked. “Either they loved Dick or they hated Dick, but he used his military structure on those guys; that’s how Dick ran the power plant.”
Jacobsen was happy to leave the running of the plant largely in Fowler’s hands, and like a good lieutenant, gave him plenty of space to do just that. ”I literally had not been in his apartment since he moved up there in 1992,” he said. “That was Dick’s world.”
Fowler retired from his position at the hydro plant about 18 months ago. New operator Chris Babbins now keeps things the old thing spinning. But it wasn’t long after Fowler stepped down from his operator position that he found his way back, this time as caretaker, doing maintenance work on an hourly basis.
“I think Dick frankly got tired of being retired,” Jacobsen chuckled.
Fowler’s boots at the plant will be hard to fill. “He was totally into old equipment,“ Jacobsen said. “He had the perfect personality to keep the hydro plant running. Dick would complain loudly when we had occasion to upgrade old equipment. He liked mechanical things and was very suspicious of anything electronic.”
Now, as for Fowler’s famous story-telling ability… “He had all sorts of funny stories,” Jacobsen said. “He had a way of making anything sound funny. It’s hard to do that.”
But interestingly, Fowler talked very rarely about his family.
“Funny stories and mishaps with machinery were more Dick’s thing,” Jacobsen said. “He was a good storyteller, so you didn’t mind if he’d recycle a story every few months. There’s all sorts of funny stories Dick had about daily life, and he never was the hero in any of them. His stories were always very complimentary of some other person for having patience and humility; listening to him was kind of like having zen lessons. He was very self-effacing. He just loved Ouray and the people here.”
And not surprisingly, Fowler had a knack for tapping into what makes the town tick. In addition to his work at the hydro plant and his estimable position at the Buen Tiempo, he was also a “de facto” member of the Ouray Mountain Rescue Team. To this group, Fowler’s snow-cat maintaining skills proved invaluable.
“He hung out with the young rock climber group and took the Ice Park very seriously,” Jacobsen said, adding that Fowler helped build the very first catwalk at the Ice Park in the early 1990s. “He had really, really good friends in Ouray – young, old and everywhere in between. He was a very happy, warm Ouray character.”
Fowler was born on a farm in Salida, the town where his mother and sister still live. He is also survived by a brother in Loveland, and his companion of many years, Mary White, who resides in Fruita. (White has bequeathed Fowler’s beloved old Jeep to Jacobsen.)
Prior to his stint as a mechanic in Grand Junction and his long-term gig in Ouray, Jacobsen said that Fowler worked in construction and as a truck driver.
“I think he always wandered a little bit until he found his way to Ouray,” Jacobson speculated. “Once he found the hydro plant, I think that that’s what he considered he wanted to do for the rest of his life.”

Ouray Bypass Construction

OURAY — Ouray County is seeking nearly $16 million in federal stimulus funds to reconstruct and pave County Road 1 over Log Hill Mesa and connecting roads to Highway 62 west of Ridgway.

The Board of County Commis-sioners on Monday approved the final version of a Tiger Grant application, made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, following its review during a special meeting on Sept. 8. The grant application was due Sept. 15.
The proposed 15-mile project would upgrade County Roads 1 from Colona over Log Hill Mesa and CR24 and CR 24-D through the east end of Pleasant Valley. County commissioners conceded after last week’s review that the project could make the route a bypass of Ridgway by funneling traffic off Highways 550 and 62.
“This will be a more efficient bypass road," said Commissioner Keith Meinert last week. But, Meinert noted, issues of speed limits, signage, weight limits and traffic enforcement need to be addressed. “I may lean toward favoring it when these questions are answered. People will need to know what the implications are.”
BOCC Chairman Heidi Albritton said last week that the BOCC will fully field public comment to see if county residents “have the political will” for the project, should funding be obtained.
On Monday, Albritton complimented county staff, in particular Administrator Connie Hunt, for putting the grant application together so quickly and so professionally. Albritton said she knows the project may stir controversy.
“But I feel as elected officials it’s important for us to examine all options that will help the community,” said Albritton.
Meinert echoed Albritton’s comments. “I want to assure the public that it can air any concerns,” said Meinert. “We will hold a public forum … if we get this grant. We are not making a commitment today.”
The grant application cites a potential benefit of creating a more convenient and shorter route (by nearly four miles) than the 19-plus miles on the Highway 550 and Highway 62 corridor through Ouray County.
Other benefits include improving safety for school buses and emergency response vehicles, winter travel and by reducing the number of vehicles that use Highway 62 through Ridgway for commuter or delivery travel between Montrose and Telluride; reducing dependence on oil and gas by providing an alternate route that is about 20% shorter; and enhancing air quality by reducing vehicle emissions and particulate matter from (gravel road) dust and the road-surface placement of sand during winter.
“It was a huge project pulling this together,” said Albritton. “It (the application packet) is really well thought out and pulls the picture together. We have a lot of good information to share at a public forum.”
A complete digital copy of the grant application is available at the Ouray County website: www.ouraycountyco.gov/

— By Patrick Davarn, news editor

Ouray Real Estate and Water

Written by: Allan Best - Ouray County Watch
Posted by: Erin Eddy

www.ridgwayland.com
www.ourayland.com

With demographers forecasting 35 percent more people in Colorado by 2035 and climate scientists predicting 15 percent less water available in the Colorado River Basin by mid-century, something has to give.

More and more, public officials, business groups and environmental organizations have been talking about additional dams and reservoirs to augment those built in the mid-20th century.

“The water inheritance is running out,” said Josh Penry, the minority leader in the Colorado Senate, in a speech at the summer meeting of the Colorado Water Congress, a consortium of water providers. “Colorado needs to embark on a new round” of storage construction.

“We study too much. We analyze too much,” added Penry, who is from Grand Junction and a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor.

Representatives of environmental groups concede the need for additional storage but also call for restraint.

“There are projects that have significant adverse environmental impact that we could not support,” said Melinda Kassen, managing director of the Western Water Project for Trout Unlimited. “And there are projects that have substantially fewer environmental impacts that we can support,” she said, if mitigation measures are included.

Hovering over these conversations is the ghost of Wayne Aspinall. A onetime schoolteacher and lawyer from the fruit orchards of Palisade, Aspinall possessed neither good looks nor a good speaking voice. He did have a solid command of legislative techniques, however, and an ardent belief in the need to harness and regulate the rivers of the Rockies.

Serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973, Aspinall helped obtain authorization and federal funding for a series of major dams in the upper Colorado River Basin. Utah’s Lake Powell was the most massive, but a trio of reservoirs on the Gunnison River also resulted from his legislative perseverance. Today, they are collectively designed as the Aspinall Unit.

Growing populations

But if Westerners saw the yoking of rivers into submission as the major task of the mid-20th century, today a more nuanced challenge exists. The limits of abundance have become more apparent.

Most, if not all, of the best dam sites have been taken. Few reliable water supplies remain unclaimed, and those that are unclaimed, such as on the Yampa River of northwestern Colorado, are far from population centers.

Coloradans in the future, as is already the case, can be expected to congregate along the urbanized Front Range corridor. More than three-quarters of the state’s residents currently live in a narrow swath less than 200 miles long. The State Demography Office projects that the population, now at 5 million, by 2035 will nudge 7.8 million – an increase roughly the existing size of metropolitan Denver-Boulder.

Even more staggering population growth has been projected by 2035 for what is called the Colorado River system, an area that includes Denver, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. The existing population of 24 to 30 million people will have grown by another 12 to 15 million. Imagine Las Vegas 11 times over.

In contrast to this uphill population climb, climate scientists see a downward slope for water. Temperature is the major driver.

Computerized simulations differ substantially as to whether precipitation will increase or decrease. Further, existing precipitation patterns could change, as increased planetary heat alters flow of the jet stream. In other words, changes in Vail and Telluride might not be uniform.

There’s more certainty about increased heat. Rising temperatures will produce shorter winters, more evaporation and transpiration, and a substantial reduction of total flows in the Colorado River. Scientists in the last two years have settled on a 15 percent reduction as a central figure.

“We are expecting a 39 percent increase in population and, if you want an average, a 15 percent reduction in supplies,” said Taylor Hawes, of The Nature Conservancy, describing the seven-state Colorado River Basin.

“By most standards, that’s a crisis.”

Managing uncertainty

Further confusing water planning is the prospect of drought. Colorado had several significant droughts in the 20th century, but all are overshadowed the mega-droughts of the distant past. Study of tree rings across the Southwest conducted by Connie Woodhouse of Arizona State University and other dendrochronologists shows clear evidence of extended drought periods, from roughly 1,000 years ago, that lasted up to three decades.

The parched summer of 2002, a time of roaring wildfires near Denver, Durango and Glenwood Springs, caught water managers by surprise. Levels in Lake Powell dropped precipitously in 2003, and by late 2004 had left bathtub rings two-thirds below the high-water mark. Many wondered if the reservoir might actually drop to a dead pool, unable to generate any electricity.

Along Colorado’s Front Range, the situation looked equally bleak. Had it not been for a miraculously wet and heavy snowstorm in March 2003, cities and farmers might have faced another withering summer, hot and dry.

Water managers broadly embrace the theory of human-caused global warming. Their meetings for the last several years have focused on the sharp warnings coming from climate scientists.

“The science is all basically painting in the same direction,” says Eric Kuhn, general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District.

But if the all signs point toward hotter and drier, great uncertainty remains. Faced with that uncertain hydrological future, Marc Waage, manager of water resources planning for Denver Water, says he has been “scratching my head for the last two years” about how to create a long-range water plan.

Before, water planning was a lot easier. There was always population growth, of course, but planners assumed a worst-case scenario that resembled a previous drought. Colorado’s documented worst drought came in the mid-1950s – about the time that Wayne Aspinall was proposing to dam the Gunnison, San Juan, and Green rivers.

Now, water planners realize much more serious droughts are possible and that even the average amounts of water will be less. Runoff will occur weeks and perhaps months earlier, leading to much longer, hotter and drier summers. Combined with population growth, all this suggests that the existing water infrastructure may be inadequate.

The elephant of Colorado

Colorado’s big question mark remains the urban Front Range corridor, especially Denver’s southern suburbs that overwhelmingly rely upon underground water that has become steadily more difficult to extract.

Prairie Waters Project, a major new diversion project to be completed in 2011, will draw water from the South Platte near Brighton several dozen miles south for use in Aurora, located on the eastern flanks of Denver. Short as the pipeline is, this project is expected to cost nearly $700 million.

Far more ambitious projects have been conceived. The most spectacular, proposed by former Montrose farmer Aaron Million, would draw water from the Green River near Rock Springs, Wyo., piping it along Interstate 80 and then down to the Front Range.

More recently, a rival plan employing the same idea has begun to emerge from a consortium of water providers in Denver’s southern suburbs.

Another so-called big straw would draw water from the Yampa River west of Craig. That idea comes from the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, the agency responsible for the Colorado Big Thompson project. The project, which takes water from Grand Lake to Estes Park, was described by Telluride native and historian David Lavender as a “massive violation of geography.”

These big straws have mostly been painted as saviors of agriculture. The thinking is that without further Western Slope diversions, the cities will end up buying farms for water.

But does the water exist?

Whether Colorado actually has sufficient water under the treaty apportioning the Colorado River Compact is open for debate. Kuhn, for example, has long suggested that Colorado has no more than a few hundred-thousand acre-feet of unallocated water. A study to be completed later this year by the Colorado River Water Board will, it is hoped, answer with greater certainty just how close Colorado is to the last drop.

Another set of studies will attempt to push the science of climate change even more rigorously. Tapping the expertise of scientists assembled in the federal laboratories at Boulder, these studies, it is hoped, will provide a better idea of how much water may exist in a hotter and drier future.

The focus naturally is on the Western Slope, where three-quarters of Colorado’s water originates, mostly in the form of snow. The studies will also attempt to predict how much precipitation regimes will change between basins – the San Juan, for example, as distinct from the Eagle.

While this gets sorted out, parallel roundtable discussions have been occurring regarding the state’s major river basins. The intent of these roundtables is to reach some larger consensus about water allocations, perhaps similar to the compacts that govern the Colorado River now.

Friction

If the roundtables have improved dialogue, tempers have occasionally flared. Disagreement was evident in one exchange at last month’s meeting of the Colorado Water Congress. Pitkin County Commissioner Rachael Richards complained that Western Slope water had not been given its due in generating revenue in Colorado’s second largest economic, tourism and recreation.

She got pushback from Rodney Kuharich, director South Metro Water Supply Authority. Aspen, he observed, seemed to have done quite well despite the diversion of waters from the Roaring Fork River and its tributaries that began decades ago. Resorts on the Western Slope, he said, have benefited handsomely from customers drawn from along the Front Range.

As for additional storage, future reservoirs will likely be smaller but perhaps at higher-elevation locations, to minimize evaporation. But whereas the reservoirs of Aspinall’s day were all about commerce, today they will be judged against a greater matrix of considerations.

The Nature Conservancy’s Hawes said her group believes that decisions about storage should be guided by multiple uses, “so that the environmental is part of the planning and not an afterthought.”