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Skiing not just for the rich

Allen Best

CRESTED BUTTE – Is skiing a rich man’s sport? Arguably not, says John Norton, ex-officio president at Crested Butte Mountain Resort.He points to Bode Miller, who grew up in New Hampshire in a family of modest means. Home schooled, he was released to cut loose on the local ski hills, where he learned to ski fast.Norton’s choice as the world’s best woman skier is Croatia’s Janica Kostelic. Reared in a war-torn country, her father drove her to Slovenia regularly, putting all their clothes on so they could sleep in the car. “Her father was a passionate skier, and he passed that love onto the kids. And the kids got good. And now Janica is the best,” says Norton, writing in the Crested Butte News.”It’s true we can spend lots of money on skiing – but does that make it a rich man’s sport?” adds Norton. “We all find ways to do the things we love.”Groups about hunting grizzliesCANMORE, Alberta Provincial officials have approved a limited hunt of grizzly bears this year. The population is estimated at 700 on provincial land and in the national parks, about half of them mature adults.All told, 73 licenses are to be awarded, with most of them in the northern part of the province, where grizzlies are more abundant, and none south of the TransCanada Highway. Last year’s hunt yielded only six dead grizzlies.Conservationists are dismayed, reports the Rocky Mountain Outlook. They say the population is struggling and can ill afford any losses. But a hunters’ group, the Alberta Fish and Game Association, said too few bears are being killed to make a impact. Tahoe snow at 154 percent of averageLAKE TAHOE, Calif. The Sierra Nevada got pounded by storms in January, sending the snowpack to 154 percent of average. But is the drought there over? Last January’s snowpack was similarly high, 120 percent of average, but then March hit. By the end of April, the snowpack was only 66 percent of average, notes the Tahoe Daily Tribune.Still, there’s enough snow that Heavenly Mountain Resort has announced it will remain open for skiing to May 1.Vail, Colorado


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