U.S. resorts go 'greener': Heavenly Mountain Resort among several ski areas making the change

Visitors to many ski areas this winter will find cleaner air and better views of mountain landscapes.

Not only are ski resorts pushing legislation in Washington to combat global warming, at least 45 resorts in 14 states from coast-to-coast are using clean energy for some of their operations. Sixteen are getting 100 percent of their power from green energy sources including wind, hydroelectric, solar, bio-mass and geothermal.

"I think we're a platform industry. We have a bully pulpit to operate from. When you think of global warming the first thing you think of is snowfall and wintertime and how that changes," said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association.

In August of this year, Heavenly Mountain Resort's parent company Vail Resorts announced it will offset 100 percent of its energy use by purchasing wind energy credits.

The company is set to buy 152,000 megawatt-hours of power from a national wind energy retailer, Colorado-based Renewable Choice Energy. The move offsets energy use at all of Vail's properties, which include five ski resorts, several hotels, 125 retail locations and a new corporate headquarters in Broomfield, Colo.

"This will cover every aspect of our company so that we've become the second largest purchaser of wind power in the country," Heavenly Chief Operating Officer Blaise Carrig told the Tahoe Daily Tribune earlier this year.

Vail is now second only to Whole Foods in renewable energy purchases.

"We hope this would inspire other large companies to look at it and say yes, we can do this," Carrig said. "We think it's a great commitment to the environment and one that has a real impact."

Sugar Bowl ski resort north of Tahoe began purchasing 100 percent renewable energy this year. Aspen Ski Co. in Colorado announced this spring it would buy 100 percent renewable energy for all four of its resorts. Sierra-at-Tahoe and Northstar-at-Tahoe have purchased a portion of their energy in wind power for several years.

About 30 percent of resorts in America buy some wind power.

Vail's move will prevent 211 million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the air, which is equivalent to taking 18,000 cars off the road or planting more than 27,000 acres of trees, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

"This will have really big ripple effects," said Autumn Bernstein with Sierra Nevada Alliance, a coalition of environmental organizations that issues a Ski Area Score Card each year. "Every time one of these big companies purchases renewable energy, it lowers the price and makes it more possible for everyone else to do it. They will definitely win some big points for doing this in the scorecard."

In other moves, Bear Mountain and Snow Summit will spend $6 million on emission controls, said Bob Roberts, executive director of the California Ski Industry Association.

Aspen will focus on global warming in three upcoming ads in outdoor magazines. "We did talk internally before doing this. We knew it was risky but we want skiing to be around for 100 years," said Jeanne Mackowski, Aspen's director of marketing.

The industry is trying to show individuals that they can make a difference, said Berry.

Colorado, which set a record for skier visits last year with 12.53 million skier days, will offer two new gondolas this year.

Breckenridge, the nation's second-busiest ski resort, has built a gondola connecting the town's transportation center off Main Street to Peak 7 and Peak 8. The eight-passenger facility, which can carry 3,000 passengers per hour, means fewer people riding buses to the mountain. The resort also has added the highest lift in the nation, the high-speed Imperial Express, which goes to 12,840 feet on the summit of Peak 8.

"It has already raised our profile. The thing the gondola does is connect a great historic mining town with one of the great ski areas of the world. You don't get too build too many of them in your career. The Imperial Express on the top and the gondola on the bottom are two great bookends," said Roger McCarthy, Breckenridge CEO.

In California, Northstar at Tahoe is adding a six-pack. Alpine Meadows has a new 600-foot long superpipe and a terrain park with more than 25 hits, rails, and quarterpipes.

Big Sky in Montana added 212 acres of open bowl ski terrain accessed from the Lone Peak Tram in an area called Dakota Territories. In Idaho, Sun Valley's Dollar Mountain will be covered from top to bottom with 44 snow guns.

Ski Santa Fe has the first new chair in New Mexico in several years, a triple that opens up six new trails from the top of Deception Peak.

Mount Bachelor near Bend, Ore., is replacing its most-used lift, the Pine Marten, with a high-speed quad.

Stowe in Vermont will connect Mount Mansfield and its steep terrain with Spruce Peak's gentler slopes with a Poma lift ride capable of handling 3,400 people per hour. Also in Vermont, a high-speed quad will serve Mount Snow's new terrain park. Belleayre Mountain in New York's Catskills has a new high-speed, too.

Back in Colorado, Crested Butte is replacing its East River lift with a high-speed quad. And Steamboat is replacing its Sunshine triple chair with a high speed.