September 04, 2001

The Return of Quiet

The Labour Day crowds have fled, the Elk Chair has ceased its transport of armoured, two wheeled gladiators and I was able to walk all the way up to the top of Bear and back today without seeing a soul. Life is good.

That it was a beautiful early fall day with lots of sunshine and pleasant, but (at least on the down hill) not too warm temperatures, was an added bonus. While we are still a full quarter year away from ski season, up in the alpine the colours already contain lots of reds and oranges to remind us that the time is coming. By the way, those of you who don't have a pair of high contrast amber sunglasses don't know what you are missing. At times it is the sixties all over again. :-)

The turmoil arising from the financial troubles of the ski hill's parent company seems to be dying down. The creditors overwhelmingly accepted a restructuring that sees Charlie Locke staying, but with a new majority shareholder in the form of Calgary tycoon Murray Edwards. The mountain manager is looking much more relaxed these days and reports that construction of the sewage treatment plant upgrades should start this week and they still hope to have it finished by Christmas. The environment folks required them to prepare a contingency plan in case it isn't and apparently that has been done.

While there is probably still the odd dedicated paranoid still worried that the hill won't open this winter, it now seems all but unimaginable. Indeed folks around here seem pretty upbeat and almost universally convinced that this winter will be pay back time for the less than generous snow delivered last year. Certainly the hill should now be able to keep up on its payments to the Griz and maybe even slip him something extra to unleash that back log.

At quarter to six it is clear and the sun is beating down on the porch thermometer, but I would guess it to be in the low to mid twenties.