April 2005 |
| Breckenridge
News The Breckenridge Ski Resort has cancelled this spring’s E-Chair Challenge after organizers refused to cover insurance costs of about $30,000. Fortunately the Imperial Challenge, the Bump Buffet and other Spring Massive events are going ahead. This is the best time to come here as visitors because we have deals on lodging, dining, lift tickets and a full schedule of events. We have also had almost two feet of fresh snow in the last week! The skiing is awesome and the first weekend of April is supposed to be beach type weather with another big storm to follow. There are only two weeks left so hurry! More info on events can be found here: Event Schedule and Snow.com. Great news for golfers this summer. Peter Forsberg of Colorado Avalanche hockey fame has committed to returning for the Second Annual Great West Peter Forsberg Celebrity Golf Tournament June 18 & 19. The tournament is open to the public and teams of four players will be paired with celebrities. The tournament will take place at the Breckenridge Golf Club and the Keystone River Course. This tournament is the main fundraiser for the Summit Foundation, a local charity that redistributes money to local non-profit groups and awards scholarships to local students. Since 1986 the Summit Foundation has award $5.44 million to 180 non-profit organizations. More information can be found at: http://summitfoundation.org/ Breckenridge is still
looking at a licensing program for contractors to help preserve the historic
district. Aspen already has a program in place that requires contractors
to have a special license before working on any historic structure. The
Aspen program involves taking a test to assure the contractors know what
is historic and must be preserved with heavy fines and license revocation
if mistakes are made. Breckenridge would provide information and training
materials if they implement the program. With the vast majority of the
visitors to town saying they like the historic nature of the town it is
obvious that everything necessary needs to be done to preserve it. |
| WHY
I LIVE HERE… Keystone Resort has tripled the amount of wind energy it purchases for the resort, to a total of 707,000 kilowatts per year, or enough energy to run its night skiing operation for a season. In this vein the city of Aspen, in partnership with the Aspen Ski Corporation and local environment organizations, has launched The Canary Initiative. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10% and have 80% of its electricity produced by renewable sources by 2010. The town realizes it won’t stop global warming by itself but it is putting its money where its mouth is. They realize that at their elevation, global warming could end skiing in one of the world’s greatest resorts forever. With all the talk of global warming I am proud to say that Colorado is one of the leaders in climate research. Hundreds of local scientists are working on projects related to “human induced climate change.” Some of the major facilities in the state include the National Center for Atmospheric Research operated by universities from across the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The National Ice Core Laboratory, The National Snow and Ice Data Center and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. At the NREL in Golden over 1000 people work to lower the cost of alternative energy sources like solar, biomass and wind power. How long does it take to biodegrade?
Orange peels, 6 months Please recycle and dispose of your trash properly. |
| SCHOOL
NEWS… Dillon Valley Elementary is exploring a new two-way bilingual immersion program. That’s a fancy way of saying all the students from kindergarten on will be taught completely bilingual, so that by the time they are in the fifth grade they will be fluent and literate in both Spanish and English. Two teachers alternating their lessons between the languages would teach students. Much has to be worked out but the program could start with next year’s kindergartners. Colorado Mountain College continues towards creating a central campus in Summit County. A preliminary study has indicated that the former Frisco Medical Center near the middle school would be an appropriate location when the current tenants move to the new medical office building. The Wise Inc. Company, under contract to purchase the building this month has indicated a willingness to work with CMC and the town of Frisco to make this a reality. The report indicated that the existing building would be suitable for retrofitting into classrooms and actually has enough space for years of growth. |
| SNOW
NEWS KEEPS GETTING DEEPER! A backcountry skier was killed on Quandary Peak last month. Climbing in high to extreme avalanche danger, in an avalanche chute, without beacons, probes or shovels, his odds were very slim of making it out alive. The slide measured nearly six hundred feet wide and two thousand feet long. By some miracle his companion slide 1800 feet down the mountain and ended up on top of the debris field. From the time the call came in it took about four hours to locate the victim. Although cause of death is still pending, recovery time could have been greatly reduced had he been properly equipped. His partner possibly could have found and rescued him instead of waiting for emergency personnel to arrive. If you are going to go into the backcountry in the winter give yourself half a chance and do it right. The Colorado Avalanche information center has education classes and up to the minute forecasting. Check out their website at: http://geosurvey.state.co.us/avalanche/ We lost another pioneer of the ski industry last month. Clif Taylor was the creator of the short ski or Graduated Length Method of teaching skiing. He passed away at 83. Like so many of our pioneers, Clif was a member of WWII’s 10 th Mountain Division that trained at Camp Hale near Tennessee Pass. He taught hundreds of soldiers how to maneuver on skis. Clif was in the initial party to lead the assault on Riva Ridge in the middle of the night. After the war he devoted himself to the ski school industry and perpetuating his revolutionary GLM, which taught students to parallel turn at the end of their first day. Over the course of his life Clif taught celebrities and royalty to ski, spending time in Colorado and Vermont before eventually settling at Copper Mountain. He wrote books and made videos to promote his methods but the industry didn’t embrace the idea of short skis until recently. His life’s work did earn him a place in The National Ski hall of Fame in 1979 and The Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in 1999. Clif’s ashes were spread at Camp Hale where the ghosts of many of his war buddies probably hang out. Great news for the US Ski Team. In case you hadn’t been following Bode Miller became the second American male, Phil Mahre was the other in 1983, to win the overall World Cup Alpine title. In stellar fashion he also tied teammate Daron Rahlves for the Super-G title. Let’s get behind the boys as we head into an Olympic year. This month also means the kickoff of fishing season. The lower elevations like the Arkansas and the Eagle Rivers were doing well all through March but you will now find the feeding frenzy has begun in Summit County and especially along the Blue River below Silverthorne. Recent rebuilding projects along the Blue River have improved flows and allowed the area to maintain Blue Ribbon status. We have a multitude of fishing guides who can get you to the best places in the county. Happy angling. |
| TRAVEL
TIPS...LEARNING TO SCUBA AT AGE 45 I grew up in Southern California and the ocean was my second home. Twenty-five years ago in college I learned to SCUBA dive. Shortly thereafter I moved to Colorado and counted the days, almost 10,000, till I could return to the rapture of the underwater world. I thought snow skiing would be a temporary respite from the ocean and the coastal life but it became the center of my world. Life had been a collection of modest tastes and budget travel options and trips to the coast for me entailed only the expense of a large towel and a Styrofoam ice chest. Now all my hard work and credit card charges equaling two free plane tickets have paid off and my wife and I are on our way to Maui with reservations for the three-day diving certification class. A life long dream has come to fruition. The first morning is spent watching a video that explains all about the equipment and the reasons for not holding your breath when you dive. I can see the other students squirm a little when they talk about your lungs popping like a balloon, especially when they show the cartoon illustration. They also talk about what to do if sharks approach, now they are really squirming. I’m sure things will be fine when we all get in the water. After the video it’s time to wriggle into our wetsuits. The instructor, who is obviously single, begins to fall over himself to help the young Asian beauty get fitted with hers. Perhaps he’s hoping for a date after class. Just then her fiancé walks in. A quick switch to help the rest of us now, I thought maybe we would miss the day’s dive by the time he got around to us. We’ll be learning to dive at a place called Olawalu. We found out a few months later that they put up shark attack warning signs. Good thing for this group they weren’t up already or the instructor and I would have been the only ones in the water. The dive shops think the signs are just a ploy by the snorkeling boats to draw more business. I guess you’re supposed to assume that boats are safer than beaches? I thought sharks liked the deeper water. Things go smooth at first. We found the beach and there was one parking space left. The Big Mac is sitting a little heavy in my stomach though. The instructor did cover this, he told us just to vomit through the regulator. I was so relieved to know the equipment designers think of these things. I just hope I chewed thoroughly. My first step out of the car and a five-inch thorn goes right through my flip-flop. Fortunately it only nicks my skin, just a trickle of blood. Now what did the video say about what you do when sharks appear? I am glad they hadn’t put up those shark-warning signs yet or none of us would have been in the water now. Every one gets suited up and runs through the checklist. The checklist anagram is; Big Whales Really Are Fun! That is unless they’re killer whales I guess. Now, into the water! I am glad the surf here is mellow; the Big Mac seems to be getting bigger . Does vomit attract sharks? OK enough with the shark stuff. As we head out the instructor has to yell at some other tourists to quit standing on the coral. This is a never-ending learning process, touching the coral kills it and it takes decades to grow back. Down we go just like we are taught, everyone trying to clear his or her ears. A strange sensation if you have never done it. As we settle at an intimidating ten feet down I look around. I never knew my wife’s eyes could get that big. Suddenly she bolts for the surface, the instructor grabs her equipment and won’t let her go. Great job! He looks in her eyes and takes her up making sure she exhales on the way. She forgot about the bursting balloon video I guess. The rest of us sit around enjoying the truly foreign experience of breathing underwater. I let the instructor talk to my better half on the surface figuring she’ll listen to him. After all, I’m the jerk who got her into this mess in the first place. Three days of skills. The other students are not excited about taking off the masks underwater. They too bolt for the top while the instructor hangs on for their dear life. Perhaps the bursting balloon wasn’t graphic enough? We all had a little trouble with the zero buoyancy tests. That is one of my favorite aspects of SCUBA, the weightlessness of it. As humans we get so oriented to our two dimensional existence, it’s an indescribable feeling to suddenly move in three dimensions. You are an alien or spaceman for a day.
SCUBA will give you a perspective unlike no other. It’s the only
way to truly appreciate the vast underwater universe on its terms. I think
snorkeling is great, but it is to SCUBA like the difference between looking
up at an airplane and actually flying. Whether you are 15 or 45 the only
way to find true adventure in life is to get over the fear of leaving
your comfort zone. My wife found courage and now loves to dive as much
as I do. Take the plunge into something new; you’ll never look back. |
| INVESTMENT
OPPORTUNITIES There are 42,000,000 IRAs in America today that represent Trillions of investment Dollars. 1% of those IRAs hold real estate, 99% hold Wall Street products. I ask you, “Is real estate that bad of an investment when compared to Wall Street?” Quite to the contrary, real estate has proven to be an excellent investment. Wall Street has had its moments too but the financial market debacle of the early 2000s vaporized trillions of dollars of equity leaving millions of Americans holding devastated IRAs. The majority of Americans believe IRAs cannot buy real estate. This is untrue. An IRA can invest 100% of its funds to buy real estate including the use of mortgage leverage. Why then is this misconception so ingrained and universal? Twin dynamics perpetuate the myth; since the enactment of ERISA in 1974 that created the IRA, Wall Street has spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting its products. Amazingly over the same three decades not one competitor has stepped forward to challenge Wall Street’s dominance over trillions of IRA dollars. “Can my present IRA Custodian/Trustee buy real estate?” Theoretically yes, however, because most IRA Custodians are so tied to Wall Street financial products they cannot facilitate your IRA purchasing real estate. “Your IRA can’t buy real estate. It’s too complicated a process. You can only invest 50% of your IRA in real estate,” says your Stock Broker, Lawyer or CPA. All three professionals are wrong and their miscomprehensions are commonplace. “I want to buy real estate with my IRA but it lacks enough money to close the deal.” You are not alone. The majority of IRAs do not have sufficient funds to purchase for all cash a real estate investment but there are options you can employ to get the necessary funds: Borrow money Non Recourse (mortgage)
“Is setting up a Self-Directed IRA or SEP complicated and costly?” No. It can cost under $100.00 and the process involves moderate paperwork. So next time someone asks you: “What’s In Your IRA!?” you can say: “Real Estate”. Submitted by: Thomas Phelan Specialist in IRA acquired real estate (720) 244-2803 |
| MARKET
CONDITIONS REPORT As of the end of February, skier visits at Colorado ski resorts had increased for the second year in a row, according to Colorado Ski Country USA. Total skier visits are up 2.31%, or 178,240 visits, year-to-date over the 2003-04 season. Skier visits at Vail Resort’s five areas increased 1.7% during the quarter that ended Jan. 31, from 2.62 million to 2.66 million. Vail owns and operates Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly Valley on Lake Tahoe. Breckenridge sales tax collections for 2004 were up 5.7% over the previous year. Lodging sales were up 6.8% and real estate transfer taxes were up a whopping 14.7%! Vail Resorts posted net income of $32.2 million on revenue of $264.6 million for its second quarter, compared with a net loss of $6.7 million during the same period a year ago. Vail Resorts’ stock has risen to levels it hasn’t seen since 1998. At the end of March the company’s stock was trading at $25.90 a share, a huge leap from $13.73 a share in May 2004. Real estate sales in Summit County broke the $1 billion mark in 2004 for the second time in history. The total volume of $1.1 billion for the year represents a 29% increase over 2003, but did not beat the all-time record set in 2000. According to a study released by the National Association of Realtors last month, investment or vacation homes accounted for 36% of residential real estate transactions nationally in 2004. The Rocky Mountain Resort Alliance has compiled 2004 statistics from nine Realtor boards in areas including Steamboat Springs, Aspen, Telluride, Vail, and Summit County and found Steamboat Springs and Summit County, with average sales prices of $353,025 and $290,000, respectively, were the lowest of those tracked. Telluride, at $1.35 million and Aspen, at $1.1 million, topped the list. Our mountains are just as pretty, we are closer to Denver, and people in Summit County are friendlier. Why buy anywhere else?
Economists predict that Colorado will continue to add new workers. There were 45,000 new jobs during Nov-Jan and in February 58,000 more jobs were created in the state than last year, indicating Colorado’s comeback is stronger than the experts anticipated. Unemployment in the state is now at 4.9%, down from 5.8% a year ago and one of the biggest improvements in the country. The weak dollar has boosted exports and Colorado is now expected to replace the 75,000 jobs lost in ’02 and ’03 and then some. Colorado corporate income taxes are expected to rise 34% for fiscal ’04-’05 over the previous year. There were 137,477 vehicles that traveled through the Eisenhower Tunnel between midnight Friday March 18 th and midnight Sunday March 21 st , the highest three-day winter vehicle count in its 32-year history. |