Time Machine: 50 years ago, developers break ground on Vail International condominiums
Vail Daily archive/Vail Trail
10 years ago
March 29, 2013
Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin were honored in Vail following the conclusion of the World Cup season.
Each of the Vail locals brought International Ski Federation crystal globes to the event; a crystal globe is given to a skier who wins the overall title of a discipline.
Vonn won the downhill globe and Shiffrin won the slalom globe.
“It would be unique for a community to have one World Championships athlete, and in this case, we have two,” Vail Mayor Andy Daly said at the event. “Mikaela, this is a new burden you probably didn’t even realize you had, with all these young people looking at you as they’ve looked at Lindsey for the last few years.”
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20 years ago
March 31, 2003
Vail CEO Adam Aron shared Vail Mountain visitation numbers in relation to “the South Frontage Road parking problem” and sales of the Colorado Pass, a $319 Keystone and Breckenridge season pass that allowed guests 10 days at Vail or Beaver Creek on non-blackout days.
“It has become popular for some in our community to point their fingers at the Colorado Pass, but the facts simply do not support that the Colorado Pass alone is the root of our problem,” Aron wrote in a column in the Vail Daily. “Of the 156 days this ski season, we have seen only 17 days so far with 16,000 or more skiers and snowboarders on Vail Mountain. And of those 17 days, fully seven were not weekend days when Colorado Passes could be used … On only five days so far this season have 19,000 or more skiers and snowboarders been on Vail Mountain. It has been a long-standing consensus around town that Vail could in fact accommodate 19,900 skiers per day before Blue Sky Basin opened. With Blue Sky Basin, Vail Mountain can comfortably handle more like 23,000 to 25,000 daily visitors.”
Aron concluded that, in addition to Front Range visitors, someone else must be parking on the South Frontage Road.
“Guess who else, dear reader?” Aron wrote. “You are! … The busiest parking day of the year occurred on Vail’s opening day, Saturday, Nov. 16, when the town counted a total of 4,150 parked vehicles. That was clearly a local’s day. The second busiest parking day this season took place on Sunday, Feb. 23, when approximately 1,200 vehicles were parked along the South Frontage Road. That day was also our busiest Merchant Pass usage day all season long.”
30 years ago
April 2, 1993
Interstate 70 in western Eagle County saw the most roadkill it had ever seen over the course of the winter, the Vail Trail reported, quoting Division of Wildlife officer Bill Heicher of Eagle.
Heicher theorized the abnormally large amount of deer killed along the roadway was because deer had “moved down from the south, from the area of Bellyache Ridge, and cross the river, looking for places where the snow had melted,” the Vail Trail reported. That led them across fields where the snow had crusted and onto the interstate right-of-way, which remained snow-free much of the winter.”
Elk were also killed along Interstate 70 in addition to the deer, the Trail reported.
40 years ago
April 1, 1983
A proposed dam and hydroelectric power plant at the east end of Little Gore Canyon, known as the Azure reservoir, was drawing the ire of rafters, the Vail Trail reported.
“The idea for a dam and reservoir is the result of an agreement between the Loveland-based Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District and the Glenwood Springs-based Colorado River Water Conservation District, which would split the profits from power sales,” the Vail Trail reported. “Both want storage water for their respective water users on the Front Range and Western Slope. On April 30, 1980, the Winter Gap agreement was signed by the two districts allowing the eastern water district to build the Windy Gap diversion project near Granby and removed 600 cubic feet per second of Colorado River water to the Front Range. In exchange, the Loveland district agreed to provide the Glenwood Springs district with the Azure reservoir.”
Rafters said the dam would destroy some of the best whitewater rafting in the state in the area where the Colorado River slices through the Gore Range.
50 years ago
March 30, 1973
Developers broke ground on a new, 56-unit condominium to be known as Vail International in Lionshead, the Vail Trail reported. Completion was expected by Nov. 1, 1973.
60 years ago
March 28, 1963
The Eagle County school board was considering the use of mobile units to be used as classrooms for the 1963-64 school year, as an additional influx of students was expected to flood Eagle County schools.
“To provide equal educational opportunities for each student, the Board of Education is faced with the problem of providing space to receive the influx,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported. “It has been determined that to operate the present program, and to have the recommended 35-30 pupils in elementary classes, additional classrooms will be needed at Eagle (3); Gypsum elementary (1); Minturn (2); Red Cliff (2).”
