On Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 29, first responders received a report about a 38-year-old man who was unconscious and not breathing in the Colorado River at Pyrite Rapids in Gore Canyon near Kremmling in unincorporated Grand County.

The Grand County Sheriff’s Office, Grand County Search and Rescue, Grand County EMS and Flight for Life all responded to the scene where the man had been pulled out of the water after he fell out of his raft. Due to the rough terrain, Union Pacific Railroad provided assistance with accessing the site via hi-rail truck — a vehicle that can operate on railroad tracks and roadways.

According to a news release from the sheriff’s office, a group launched their raft at the confluence of Blue and Colorado rivers not far from Kremmling. Shortly after launching the raft, the man fell overboard and was in the water for an unknown period of time before the group could locate him.

After exhausting all lifesaving interventions, crews from Grand County EMS and Flight for Life determined the man was dead. The victim was an experienced rafter and was wearing a helmet and life jacket, according to the news release.

The man’s name and cause of death will be released by the Grand County Coroner’s Office when it is deemed appropriate.

Amid a statewide and local housing shortage, Steamboat Springs city officials, in coordination with the U.S. Forest Service and with support from federal lawmakers, are continuing to push for an affordable housing development on an 8-acre plot of federal land adjacent to Hilltop Parkway.

Under legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado and U.S. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, which was signed into law as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, the Forest Service holds authority to enter into long-term lease arrangements with local authorities at qualified sites in exchange for cash or non-cash contributions.

The federal agency acquired the Hilltop Lane property in 1996 and planned to construct a headquarters on the site to serve Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and the Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming. But the agency ultimately decided to locate the office in Laramie, according to Forest Service District Ranger Michael Woodbridge, and the designated administrative land has remained unused.

Sen. Bennet and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, who represents Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District which includes Summit County, visited the lot on Aug. 23. They were joined by Woodbridge, members of the Yampa Valley Housing Authority, City Council member Michael Buccino and Routt County Commissioner Tim Corrigan, underscoring their support for development of affordable housing at the site.

“We are facing a housing crisis in Colorado — and that is not too strong of a word,” Bennet said. “And it is particularly problematic in resort communities.”

Statewide, nearly one-third of Colorado households spend more than 30% of their income on housing — a dynamic that often forces people to move farther from where they work, according to estimates compiled by the office of Gov. Jared Polis.

Like many other businesses and organizations in Steamboat, Woodbridge explained how a lack of housing directly correlates to difficulties in hiring both seasonal and permanent employees to work at the local Forest Service station he directs.

“Now that we have this land here and we haven’t put it to good use as an office location, we have the opportunity to partner with our local government and address the number one issue in Steamboat — which is housing,” Woodbridge said. “That includes firefighters, engineers, trail cutters and everything in between. Affordability is the number one reason we have people say, ‘Sorry, I would love to live in Steamboat, but I just can’t afford it.'”

Since the legislation allowing Forest Service land to be leased for the purposes of developing housing passed in 2018, Bennet’s office has worked with Western Slope communities and the Forest Service to identify nine administrative parcels suitable for development of affordable housing. To date, only one, in Dillon, has received approval.

On July 21, the Forest Service authorized a 50 year-lease of an 11-acre administrative plot with plans to build up to 177 affordable, long-term rental units of mixed configuration in Dillon, along with a community center, parking, public transit connections and upgraded infrastructure and utilities.

In Steamboat, a lease for the federal land has yet to be authorized and signed and a timeline for that to happen remains unclear, along with what the development might look like in size and structure. The development would not be subject to local zoning regulations because the property is owned by the federal government.

Still, local officials touring the property Wednesday all expressed a desire to continue to work toward a common goal and see the project through.

“We think this is a really great opportunity,” said Yampa Valley Housing Authority Executive Director Jason Peasley, adding that any development on the federal land in the future would make affordable units available for both Forest Service employees and community members.

“There is probably a capacity for about 100 units on this site,” he added. “That is not to say that is the right number … but it’s a great opportunity to take advantage of the land that is being under-utilized and make a big impact.”

Sen. Bennet commended the efforts of the local housing authority in its push to fill the local housing gap. But, he added, “everybody has a responsibility to ensure that our communities in Colorado can thrive,” and that includes local taxpayers, local businesses and the local ski resort.

“I think it becomes a reasonable question, in my mind, for the taxpayer that asks how resorts and other employers are helping make contributions to this as we go forward,” Bennet said. “… We don’t want to become Seattle, we don’t want to become San Francisco, we don’t want to be a place where people are deciding they simply can’t afford to live and therefore are moving to some other part of the country, or are moving out of Routt County to go somewhere else more affordable.”

This story is from SteamboatPilot.com.

It began with a low-dose, 30-day prescription of Vicodin for both her mother and sister. But within weeks, Jaime Boyle said her family was turning to other opioids for pain relief: Percocet, Oxycodone and, eventually, 100-milligram fentanyl pain patches for her mother. 

“At one point, they were on such a cocktail that they needed something to go to sleep at night, something to wake up in the morning,” Boyle said. “It becomes impossible, at that point, to untangle everything unless you’re able to get off everything, which is still exceptionally hard.” 

It was 2009 and Boyle, then a film student at the University of Colorado, turned to one of the few outlets she had to make sense of reality: her film camera. 

“It felt like a way to interrogate what I was seeing and start to try to unravel it,” Boyle said. “I was really at a loss and had no other tools at my disposal. I had tried to talk to their doctors. I had tried to talk to various health professionals and to no end.” 

What began as a student film eventually morphed into an intimate documentary of a family gripped by addiction. “Anonymous Sister,” which debuted in theaters this summer, chronicles the personal journey of Boyle’s mother and sister amid the opioid epidemic and their eventual path to sobriety. 

Summit County health experts will host Boyle for a screening of the film and subsequent panel discussion in acknowledgment of International Overdose Awareness Day on Thursday, Aug. 31, at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge, located at 107 Denison Placer Road. 

The free event, which will run from 5-8 p.m., will also feature a training course for naloxone, which can reduce the effects of narcotic overdoses, as well as free doses. 

Public Health Director Amy Wineland said she hopes it will bring more awareness and resources amid an ongoing opioid overdose crisis that has enveloped communities across the country. 

Of the 10 recorded overdose deaths in Summit County last year, state health department data shows eight were from an opioid overdose, Wineland said. A July 2023 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that three in 10 adults in the United States say they or someone in their family has been addicted to opioids, including prescription painkillers and illegal opioids like heroin. 

“The data is alarming and is certainly a call to action in and of itself,” Wineland said. “But it’s important to understand that behind every data point, there’s a loss of a friend, a family member, a loved one, a neighbor.”

Wineland added that sharing personal stories, like those captured in Boyle’s film, is what will help “decrease the stigma” around addiction. 

“There’s so much stigma around who is affected by this epidemic,” she said. “It’s just so important that we talk about it and break down that stigma.” 

For Boyle, her family’s battle with addiction began the same way it does for tens of thousands in the United States: with a prescription from a doctor. 

Her mother, a gymnast, was experiencing symptoms associated with rheumatoid arthritis while her sister suffered from nerve damage in both feet due to a figure skating career. While Boyle documented their initial descent into opioid dependency in 2009, she wouldn’t resume the project until 2016, when her family faced new struggles with their sobriety. 

For the next four years, she filmed her family in an attempt to humanize the opioid epidemic’s profound impact on hundreds of thousands across the country. As momentum grew for accountability from drug manufacturers, Boyle said more and more communities realized how the crisis transcended socio-economic demographics. 

It impacts poor, middle-class and affluent families, Boyle said, adding, “It seemed like everyone I talked to had experienced some form of what I experienced.” 

And the proliferation of illicitly manufactured opioids, in particular fentanyl, is only exacerbating the public health crisis. 

“Fentanyl overdose is now the No. 1 killer for 18- to 45-year-olds in this nation, which is just unheard of,” Wineland said. “So we’re still continuing to battle the overprescribing that continues to happen, but also let people know, ‘you shouldn’t be taking anything that isn’t prescribed to you.'”

Mental health issues can be a major driver of addiction and overdose, and the High Country particularly sees the fallout of what Wineland called the “paradise paradox.” According to state data, Summit County’s suicide rate was 17.4 deaths per 100,000 people from 2004-2020, higher than the national rate of 14.5 deaths per 100,000.

“We absolutely know that people do choose to self-medicate and, especially coming out of COVID, substance use did increase,” Wineland said. 

Boyle said both her mother and sister endured “emotionally traumatic events” before receiving their first opioid prescriptions, which she called “absolutely and inextricably linked.”

But amid these challenges, Boyle said she believes her film ultimately provides hope for those who know someone struggling with addiction or struggling themselves. 

“Definitely, there is a lot to be learned in terms of potential ways out and comfort to be found in different paths,” Boyle said. “I do think that the takeaway between the film and the panel is that it is treatable and there’s absolutely a path through it. And we’re more equipped now than ever before to offer that to folks.”

Two million acres of Colorado’s most scenic Western Slope lands would see stronger protections and less oil and gas leasing under a draft Bureau of Land Management proposal, in what would amount to a large-scale greening of the powerful federal agency.

The wildlands-friendly BLM draft, forced by environmental lawsuits and now lauded by the same groups, immediately drew the ire of extraction advocates.

The BLM’s preferred alternative in a draft supplemental environmental impact statement now up for public comment makes it easier to carve out wilderness and harder to drill on public lands in two districts stretching through Eagle, Pitkin and Mesa counties, and along much of the Colorado River. The impact statement is required for a BLM resource management plan that serves as the operating manual for years of federal actions. Once locked in place, advocacy groups can sue if the plan’s tenets are not fulfilled. 

Wildlands advocates went to court to seek tougher screening of land uses for potential greenhouse gas and climate change impacts. In a rare development over sprawling public lands battles in the modern era, the revised management plan gave green groups much of what they wanted. 

“This is really setting the stage for how you’re going to manage these 2 million acres for the next two decades,” said Peter Hart, legal director for Wilderness Workshop, one of the groups who sued over the BLM’s proposed 2015 resource management plan for the Grand Junction and Colorado River Valley districts on the Western Slope. 

Read the full story at ColoradoSun.com.

On Wednesday morning Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Department of Transportation held a press conference in Grand County on U.S. Highway 40 at the top of Berthoud Pass. The event was organized to celebrate the start of paving and repair operations on severely damaged roads across High Country.

After an especially harsh winter, the Colorado Transportation Commission granted CDOT $25 million in additional funds to address the critical pavement conditions across the state. The funding allowed CDOT to contract in-house maintenance crews to do the repairs without canceling any construction projects slated for 2023.

The critical pavement repairs in Grand County include a 10-mile section of Berthoud Pass from mile point 233-243 on U.S. 40, which is essentially from the Berthoud Pass Trailhead parking lot to Winter Park Resort’s Mary Jane Base.

In addition, CDOT plans to repave eastbound Interstate 70 east of the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels to the Georgetown on-ramp, and resurface the outside lane of eastbound I-70 from Vail Pass to outside of Frisco, among others projects.

The I-70 eastbound resurfacing project between the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels and Georgetown started in early August and is expected to be complete by fall 2024. Crews are repaving from milepoint 215.7-228.35. In addition, a half-mile stretch of eastbound I-70 at the U.S. 40 Empire Junction will be repaved and guardrails will be replaced. Once winter arrives the project will shut down and resume in spring 2024.

During construction there will be single lane closures on evenings Sunday through Thursday. Sunday work hours will begin at 9 p.m. and end Monday at 8 a.m. Monday through Thursday work hours are 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. There will be no lane closures on weekends or holidays, according to a CDOT press release.

The I-70 resurfacing project from Vail to Frisco will repave the outside lane of the eastbound Interstate from mile point 190-201. CDOT estimates the project will be complete by late fall 2023.

CDOT says motorists should expect daytime single lane and shoulder closures and 10-20 minute delays. Daytime work is necessary due to pavement temperatures at night.

More than $17 million of the funds will go towards two projects – Berthoud Pass and I-70 near the tunnels.

The Berthoud Pass project is expected to be complete by the end of this fall, but weather could impact the timeline. There will be alternating lane closures and delays Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and a speed limit of 40 mph. There will be no work during holiday weekends or on Fridays.

“Our mountains are really a key part of why we live in Colorado and we want to make sure that Coloradans and our visitors, who help power our economy, are able to get where they need to go quickly and safely,” Polis said.

Polis went on to say that the work is critical for the upcoming season and the long-term health of the roads. He also thanked CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew for her leadership and the CDOT crews working to fix the roads.

Lew said that the department is “relentlessly focused” on repairing Colorado’s roadways before the upcoming winter season, according to a CDOT press release.

“The last winter was one of the harshest for Colorado causing potholes and rutted pavement,” Lew stated. “We are putting that money to work by repairing 12 stretches of roadway across the state, including three along busy sections of the High Country.”

Navigating construction zones

While CDOT is trying to minimize traffic impacts, motorists should still expect delays. CDOT is urging everyone to plan their trips and check COtrip for traffic and construction impacts when traveling.

“These are repairs we know the traveling public wants to see take place but we know that construction zones can still be frustrating to navigate,” Lew said. “We ask everyone to drive with extra care and heed the signs in work zones.”

Visit CoDot.gov/projects to find out more about traffic impacts. To receive U.S. 40 updates email, US40BerthoudPass@gmail.com.

This story is from SkyHiNews.com.

Anyone who has had to travel over Hoosier Pass when the roads are icy knows it can often be a harrowing experience. The Colorado Department of Transportation has been working on one solution help address some of those concerns and expects to have a chain-up station completed near Alma on the Park County side of the pass.

CDOT officials are hoping to begin construction on the Summit County chain-up area in 2024 or 2025, but the application is still under review by the town of Blue River and approval is not certain amid ongoing concerns from the town.

A general lack of compliance with the state’s traction law, which requires vehicles without four-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive to be equipped with snow tires or use a traction device such as tire chains, has been cited as one factor in traffic accidents and travel delays over the pass. While some pull-out areas exist along the road, many are shorter, unpaved and unlit, which can make it difficult for semi drivers to use them to install tire chains.

Last winter, members of the Hoosier Passers Facebook group reported at least nine jackknifed semitrailers blocking the flow of traffic between Summit and Park counties along Colorado Highway 9, many of them just past a sharp pair of curves near “headlight house” about a mile south of the town of Blue River.

The current pull-off areas also do not meet the requirements that would allow Colorado State Patrol to enforce chain law restrictions on vehicles and drivers heading over the pass, according to Elise Thatcher, a spokesperson for CDOT Region 3.

“Having designated chain stations allows the Colorado State Patrol to ticket Chain Law violators since there is now a reasonable and safe place to chain up and down. We anticipate those tickets and associated fines help deter motorists from traveling over the pass during Chain Law events without proper equipment,” said Thatcher via email.

Construction on pullout area on the Park County side of the pass has been underway throughout the summer, and, aside from the installation of electronic message signs and electronic speed limit signs, the chain-up station located just north of Alma is expected to be completed in time to be used this winter, with full completion anticipated by summer 2024.

While semitrailers are expected to be main users for the chain station, any vehicle will be allowed to use the area to install traction devices, while use for other activities, including parking, will not be allowed.

The timeline for the Summit County station was delayed after Blue River officials and residents voiced concerns about potential negative local impacts from adding a a 50-foot expansion on the west side of the highway in the town. In response, CDOT set up a project leadership team to guide the design of the Blue River chain station.

Design changes included eliminating lighting, reducing the length of the station, adding berms to provide a buffer between the station and residential properties, and adding a chain-down station on the other side of the highway to allow north-bound vehicles to remove chains once they are on the other side of the pass, according to Thatcher.

Ongoing concerns from the town of Blue River

The new designs have been completed and sent to the town for permitting, which is currently under review. Still, town officials remain concerned about the local impacts from the project.

“In my opinion, the application does not reflect the significant work done in meetings over the last two years,” wrote Michelle Eddy, Blue River’s town manager and clerk.

Just as they were in 2021, the town’s concerns are focused on increasing traffic through the town and over the pass, as well as the residential and environmental impacts from the finished project. The section of the town’s website dedicated to the proposed chain-up station says traffic is often diverted over the pass from Interstate 70 when the interstate closes and the town gets limited support to ensure Highway 9 has snow removal and emergency support services.

“Again, it is my opinion, that the application does not reflect the work done in the meetings and the concerns expressed back in 2021 remain concerns moving forward,” wrote Eddy in a follow-up email.

The town also outlined seven main concerns, which are further explained on the town’s website:

• Incompatible with residential uses and aesthetics — “A commercial truck area within a neighborhood may negatively impact residential property values, quality of life and forever change the community of Blue River.”
• Environmental impacts — These include impacts on local wildlife, the Blue River and light pollution from the site.
• Hazardous loads — Highway 9 is not an approved route for hazardous materials, and a CDOT presentation “touted increased safety for trucks that should not be utilizing the pass.”
• Traffic — “It should not be the goal of CDOT to encourage and increase the use of this route by additional truck traffic.”
• Enforcement — The town currently only has one on-duty officer at any given time to cover traffic enforcement and public safety needs, and they would not be able to adequately monitor the station.
• Unlawful or extended parking and camping — “The area selected will create the opportunity for trespassing on private land.”
• Increased in large region or interstate truck traffic — “Large trucks should remain on I-70 due to the nature of their destinations and not be encouraged to utilize Hoosier Pass.”

In a follow-up email with the Summit Daily News, Thatcher said the route is not a designated Hazmat Highway, and hazardous materials should not be transported over the pass. Adding chain stations will not change the status of the road.

She added that CDOT generally does not encourage Hoosier Pass as an alternate route when I-70 is closed, and instead encourages travelers to detour over U.S. Highway 40 to the north (traveling through Steamboat Springs, Kremmling and Granby) or a combination of U.S. Highway 50 and U.S. Highway 285 (traveling through Montrose, Gunnison, Salida, Fairplay and Bailey) to the south. She added that these recommended routes see significant increases during I-70 closures, and she said “it is extremely rare” for CDOT to recommend Hoosier Pass as an alternate route.

The future for Hoosier Pass

With or without a chain station, traffic has been increasing over the pass. According to past Summit Daily reporting, the average daily number of trucks driving south along Highway 9 in the winter increased from 204 in 2016 to 252 in 2019. By 2045 CDOT expects 34 trucks per hour will pass through the area during peak hours.

“The reality is that commercial vehicles do use Hoosier Pass, and we want to make it as safe as possible for all roadway users and reduce operational challenges due to closures which occur frequently on CO 9 during Chain Law events,” wrote Thatcher.

For now, Eddy emphasized that, as of Aug. 11, the project has not been approved by the town of Blue River and is still under review for completeness and to verify the required information has been submitted. After the town is finished reviewing the application, there will be a public hearing before a decision will be made regarding the project permits.

“This will be a public hearing process with impacts evaluated by the Town to protect the citizens of the Town of Blue River,” wrote Eddy.

There was no timeline for the process as of Aug. 11, and Eddy was not able to provide an estimate for when a public hearing might take place for the project.

Thatcher said CDOT officials are continuing to work with the community and “are in the process of evaluating solutions for this important safety concern.”

Assuming the permit is approved, construction on the Summit County chain area would be expected to begin in 2024 or 2025, with 2025 being most likely, according to Thatcher. If the Blue River site is rejected, she says there are limited alternatives.

“The CO 9 site in Blue River was selected because it presented the first flat area that was as close as possible to Hoosier Pass without getting into the steep elevation changes. It was deemed the safest area we could find with good sight distance and any locations closer to Hoosier Pass have homes that are in close proximity,” wrote Thatcher. “… Alternative locations further north than the town of Blue River would be over 5 miles away with challenges with sight distance, home proximity and increased damage to the pavement.”

It may be August, but early indicators are already brewing for what the 2023-24 winter season could look like in Colorado. 

At Breckenridge Ski Resort, a dusting of white on Peak 6 was photographed on Aug. 11. Whether it will herald another blockbuster ski season remains to be seen, though one factor is nearly certain: atmospheric patterns are set to change this winter. 

“We are going into what looks to be a strong El Niño season,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Bernie Meier. 

El Niño patterns can form when surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean (off the coast of South America) rise above average by 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit for three consecutive months, according to Meier. 

El Niño pushes the jet stream south and can bring more precipitation and cooler temperatures to southern regions. In Colorado, this can translate to heavier, wetter snow in the southwest, particularly for the San Juan Mountains, as well as the central mountains. In the state’s northern areas, such as Steamboat Springs, weather may be warmer while snow is dryer, Meier said. 

“Not every year is a great snow producer, but if you look at the history, we tend to do better than not for snowfall with El Niño,” Meier said of the southern and central mountain region. 

A July projection from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a greater than 90% chance of an El Niño pattern persisting through December 2023 and February 2024 winter season across the United States. 

The prediction comes after the past three winters saw a La Niña pattern (the inverse of El Niño), according to an Aug. 14 report by meteorologist Alan Smith on OpenSnow. 

La Niña occurs when the same ocean temperatures fall below average and is defined by wet, cold weather in the north and dryer, warmer weather in the south. According to Smith, the succession of La Niña patterns over the past three years has only happened three times since 1950 — a “rare occurrence.”

“Confidence is increasing that we could see a strong El Niño this year,” Smith wrote in his report, adding the last strong El Niño pattern was in 2015-16.

However, neither pattern guarantees an outcome for winter conditions, especially at the local level. 

“It’s one of the few things that we have any shred of ability to forecast six months in advance,” said OpenSnow founder Joel Gratz. “Just because there’s a correlation, it doesn’t mean that every year is guaranteed to be that way.” 

Last winter’s La Niña pattern should have been characterized by heavy snowfall in the north and less in the south, but that wasn’t completely the case in Colorado. 

While snowfall continuously blanketed the state’s northwest, making 2022-23 the second snowiest season on record for Steamboat Resort, storms also favored southern mountains, with Purgatory Resort reporting one of its best snow seasons on record. 

Even the central mountains, which are typically forecasted to see less snow under La Niña conditions, received above-average snowfall and several surprise powder days. 

“It kind of broke the rule of what you’d expect last year,” Meier said of the La Niña pattern. 

By late last winter, however, the La Niña pattern had begun to phase out, with ocean temperatures beginning to rise in March, Meier said. 

“We’ve almost met the conditions for El Niño already and should carry on into winter and next spring,” he added. 

Though a stronger La Niña or El Niño pattern can mean average or above-average snowfall, in some areas there isn’t a strong correlation between snow and atmospheric patterns, such as around Colorado’s Continental Divide.

And a 90-day forecast from NOAA shows equal chances for above, below or normal temperature and precipitation, making it anyone’s guess for how the beginning of ski season will kick-off in the Colorado High Country. 

“I’m curious to see how this is going to play out,” Meieir said.

The EagleVail golf course was vandalized in the night between Sunday, Aug. 13, and Monday, Aug. 14. Five greens, including holes 1, 16, 17, and 18, as well as a tee box, were all torn into with some kind of sharp tool, uprooting the carefully groomed terrain. A report was filed with the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office, and deputies are investigating.

At 5:15 a.m. on Monday, EagleVail golf course superintendent Brent Barnum was making his early morning rounds when he noticed damage on the No. 18 green. He contacted the rest of his team, who fanned out to examine the rest of the course, finding damage on five total holes, and one tee box.

“So at that point, you have to reevaluate your day, and change some priorities, and say, well, we’re going to need a crew to start helping fix the damage because we do have golf, we still have a golf course to run,” Barnum said.

The damage, which appeared to resemble male genitalia, seemed to have been created using a sharp tool.

“I think it was probably a garden tool or come kind of hand shovel, or something, where they just went around and, maybe 300, 400, 500 strokes of hitting these greens,” Barnum said.

EagleVail golf course maintenance workers spent hours repairing the damage to playable condition. They were able to repair four of the greens to playable condition, all except No. 1, which had the most extensive damage. The crew closed the hole and, according to Barnum, spent five to six hours on Monday working on it to make it playable for golfers, while Barnum himself spent four hours repairing the other holes.

Maintaining the EagleVail golf course, even without additional damage, is a hard job.

“It’s difficult, and it’s a challenge to have healthy turf, and to have playable turf, just throughout the season. Here we’re challenged because we’re under snow for five to six months, so to come out, you have to fit in, basically, a year’s worth of golf into four, five months,” Barnum said.

For Barnum, the destruction of the course he spends so much time maintaining threatens to be demoralizing.

“I’m pretty proud of these greens, and I’m proud of the work that has been put into them, so to come in and see something like that, that’s just so destructive, and just uncalled for, it’s just really disheartening. But you put on your hat, you put on your boots, and say, ‘All right guys, we’ve got to get it back to playable conditions,'” Barnum said.

The last time EagleVail saw damage to the golf course greens was in 2021. In June, and again in July, vandals “dug into the green pretty severely on No. 11,” Barnum said. This year’s damage appears to be an isolated incident, completely unrelated to the prior vandalism.

The effects of some of this year’s damage will last for months. “I think No. 1 green, which was the worst, we’ll see scars from that all throughout the rest of this year. I think next spring, when it’s a new growth season, we’ll start to see some of that become more uniform in the putting surface, but that will be in the spring, hopefully,” Barnum said.

The long-term extra maintenance the damaged holes will require to return to their original condition will be costly in time and resources. Barnum estimates the total expense to be between $15,000 and $20,000 in the long run, due to the extra labor, equipment, and materials that will need to be put into fully repairing the damaged greens, as well as the effect on golfers playing the course.

“You have to change your cultural practices on those greens, so now we’re going to have to aerify them more, top dress them more — that means putting sand on them and smoothing it out — aerifying is just putting holes in it so it can breathe a little bit better. Maybe a little extra fertility on those greens, extra water. All that stuff adds up over time,” Barnum said.

EagleVail golf course staff filed a criminal report with the Sheriff’s Office, and the investigation is ongoing. Cameras on the driving range captured two individuals just after midnight on Sunday night that the Sheriff’s Office is looking to interview, as well as accepting other leads and tips. The Sheriff’s Office asks those with information about the situation to contact Deputy Lovegren at greg.lovegren@eaglecounty.us or call 970-479-2201 to reach an on-duty deputy.

This story is from VailDaily.com.

As the Lahaina wildfire burned, Aspen native Jeremy Baldwin, now a Maui resident, heard explosions closer and closer. He now believes the sounds may have been car gas tanks or power-line transformers bursting from the intense heat.

Power was out in his neighborhood, so there was no TV to warn residents how close the blaze was. There were also no sirens and no cellphone alerts warning him the deadliest wildfire in American history was coming closer. The one road from Baldwin’s Lahaina subdivision was jammed with motionless vehicles.

He remembers a city bus packed with people, some of them weeping, trapped in the traffic.

Here’s the analogy the family uses, so Aspenites can envision the scene: Imagine every Aspen resident, first-responder, and tourist trying to escape on the narrow road through Independence Pass.

And Maui was being blasted by hot winds from an offshore hurricane.

Somehow, a lone policeman managed to drive into the neighborhood. He yelled over and over through a bullhorn, “Evacuate now! The fire is coming!”

Baldwin says the night sky was bright red, and the horizon was blazing. Lahaina residents on top of the hills didn’t have time to drive the winding roads.

“They fled down the hillsides driving through fences, broke down gates,” he said.

Now, the one possession Jeremy, wife Elisha, and their kids still have is the vehicle they escaped in. Their Maui home, landscaping business, Elisha’s pottery studio, their vintage Airstream trailer, Jeremy’s wood sculpting workshop, and their chicken coop were incinerated.

But they are grateful to have their lives. The death toll was 106 as of Wednesday. And they are staying in a friend’s Kihei condo on Maui’s southern coast.

“I have 10 landscaping employees that I’m worried about now,” Baldwin told The Aspen Times, adding one worker, who was a recent immigrant, distrusted banks in his homeland. The worker kept his money in what he called “his rubber-band bank,” Baldwin sighed deeply. “His savings were all in cash wrapped in rubber bands. It all burned.”

Baldwin grew up near El Jebel, then launched a career as a Roaring Fork Valley landscaper and “log cabin mansion builder.” Hard economic times in the form of the 2008 recession prompted him, his wife, and their four kids to make a new home in Maui, where landscaping work was then more plentiful. But the family came back to visit Aspen as often as possible.

Baldwin says his love of Aspen’s sports and arts scene made him the person he is today: athletic, artistic, adventure loving. His father, Robert, was a Holy Cross Energy high-voltage lineman who lobbied hard for placing power lines underground.

“That change lessens the risk of wildfires caused by downed power lines and saves lives; I’m so proud of my father,” Baldwin said.

The cause of the Maui fire was still unknown as of Tuesday. Lahaina’s 19^th-century wooden buildings were blamed by some news accounts for fueling the rapidity of the fire. But the Baldwins’ cinderblock home was destroyed. He described what he found when he visited the rubble on Tuesday.

“Pieces of cinderblock wall still standing; they shimmered almost like crystal like the fire had altered them,” he explained. “When I touched them, they crumbled into ash. My wife’s car tires melted.”

The Baldwins are using their escape vehicle to drive supplies from volunteer nonprofits like Maui Strong to distribution points.

When asked if there was anything Aspen residents could do for him, Baldwin replied, “If folks have homes in Hawaii and need landscaping, I’d love it if they would consider me for contracts. I want to help my workers recover.”

His sister-in-law Maya Halverson set up a GoFundMe page for the Baldwins. She lives in Ojai, California, but loves visiting Aspen.

“People there have big hearts, and they know how to throw a great party,” she told The Aspen Times. “If anyone can throw a good fundraiser for Maui’s wildfire survivors, it’s Aspen.”

This story is from AspenTimes.com.

Interstate 70 between Glenwood Springs and Dotsero through Glenwood Canyon reopened shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday following a mudslide earlier this evening, a Garfield County emergency alert states.

According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, the slide took place just east of Glenwood Springs between Grizzly Creek and No Name exits at 5 p.m.

The slide is mostly water with some mud and debris. Material was on eastbound and westbound traffic, a CDOT news release states.

“Crews immediately began clearing the slide with pre-positioned equipment and are making good progress on clearing the roadway,” the release states. “When crews arrived on scene, the deepest part of the slide was 1.5 feet against the roadway barrier.

A Flash Flood Watch began at approximately 4:40 p.m. Wednesday.

“This is a location that has had slides in the past,” CDOT spokesperson Elise Thatcher said during a Wednesday evening press conference.

CDOT Communications Director Matthew Inzeo said no injuries or trapped vehicles are reported.

History

Mudslides in July 2021 prompted an extended safety closure for I-70 for approximately two weeks. Very little flooding took place in Glenwood Canyon in 2022, affecting only the recreational trail. CDOT has conducted extensive rockfall and debris flows prevention work in Glenwood Canyon. Crews will periodically conduct rockfall removal and related work in the canyon.

This story is from PostIndependent.com.