Phil says alpine residents should get used to snow

By The Standard Staff - 02/03/2008

TELLURIDE, Colo. (AP) — Another weekend, another storm. And Punxsutawney Phil said Saturday that alpine residents better get used to it.

The long-range forecast is for a dry spring, but no one will believe that until they see it.

Those already fed up with the snowfall were facing another big storm Saturday. Wildlife, who don’t get to say anything, will deal with it the way they always have — many will die — despite a possible expansion of a feeding program by the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Telluride has already had two months of record snow. “Locals can’t remember the last time it has snowed like this,” said Jeff Proteau, vice president of Telluride resort operations. So far, 19 feet has fallen. The statewide snowpack was 128 percent of the 30-year average Saturday.

“We’ve had snow on the ground here since the first of December and it hasn’t gone away,” said D’Wayne Gaymon, a CDOT senior foreman in Glenwood Springs. “That’s not very normal. There’s been a lot of overtime,” he told the Glenwood Post-Independent.

Now the Colorado Division of Wildlife is having to consider feeding more wildlife. They are monitoring the situation with weekly flights and began feeding deer and other big game in the Gunnison River Valley in the middle of last month because the deer are so stressed.

“We are ready to feed on a moment’s notice. But we don’t want to intervene too quickly,” said Steve Yamashita, the division’s assistant northwest regional manager. “If you intervene too soon and prevent the natural processes you can unnaturally over-inflate populations and aid the spread of disease.” Gov. Bill Ritter traveled to Gunnison Saturday to thank volunteers and help with the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s deer feeding operation.

For snowriders, powder days have been frequent, and occasionally fatal. Seven backcountry users have died, and three have been skilled at ski areas.

“This is probably my best day, for sure,” snowboarder Brian Bonsell, an employee at the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel, told the Steamboat Pilot on his way up the Sundown Express lift. “This is the most powder I’ve ever been in.” In Aspen, the Daily Times reported epic skiing. Red Mountain, Aspen’s other mountain, was being skied, perhaps for the first time since 1983-84.

“It was fun. It’s not a long ski. It wasn’t hard. It was just novel,” Neal Beidleman said.