Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Downhill Slide: Why the Corporate Ski Industry Is Bad for Skiing, Ski Towns, and the Environment by Hal Clifford ISBN: 1578050715 Publisher: Sierra Club Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.58
Rating: 4
Summary: Growth for Growth's Sake
Comment: A thought provoking book, and in my case a bit like preaching to the choir. I found Clifford's book well plotted, researched and documented in this touchy area of Big Business versus Environmentalism. I have seen most of the growth issues Clifford speaks of come to fruition living and working here in Aspen, Colorado. Included from my viewpoint as a law enforcement officer the impact that these re-constructed "Company Towns" can have on the inhabitants of Oz. The seasonal nature of the ski business lends itself to just what the ski industry demands and gets in its workers. Short term, no investment, minimal wage earners that could care less about the "skiing experience" you and I will be paying for, much less them contributing anything to the town itself. It's actually getting hard to find a "lift op" that knows the mountain well enough to tell you what's open and what's closed here. Many workers here are now imported from South America to fill the low paying jobs the ski hills provide. What Clifford pens of the shadow cast on the worker bees and their lives is what I deal with every day as a deputy sheriff for our county. The domestic violence, substance abuse and other crimes are very real if not underplayed by the powers that be including our local media. These can stem from long hours, low pay and too many people crammed into too small of a space due to high rents and unavailability of affordable housing. With the additional problem of culture clash creating friction between the workers themselves, the results are inevitable. The impact on the localized environment Clifford writes of is clear. When more and more water is lobbied to be taken from our local aquifer (in our record drought) for snowmaking, (read, "Cadilac Desert", by Marc Reisner) to the changing of the migration patterns of our local wildlife. We are seeing record numbers of conflicts between residents and visitors with the black bear, deer, elk and even with the mountain lion with wildlife paying the price. Caused in combination with reduced range, changing local climate and more encroaching construction as real estate is touted as the prime bottom line fattener. All the while skier numbers are dropping throughout Colorado. Aspen longer has a tourist/skier driven economy, rather it's coffers are filled from construction and second home sales. Fewer people on the slopes is fine by me, in a selfish way. Aspen SkiCo even tried an ad campaign that touted "Uncrowded by Design" which wasn't inacurate. But as our town creeps closer and closer to one large gated community, it smacks of the mining industry that once dominated our state, then dried up, mostly disapearing leaving us holding the collective bag for the damage done to our waterways, hillsides and towns. This is including deep damage to the dreaded "E" word; Environment. All in all a good read with a bit of a pessimistic view of the solution. Clifford's book glimpses the increasing chasm between the proletariat and those that can afford skiing in today's destination resorts. His latest work was a fine piece while leaving me with the feeling that if the big planners and developers want to play a New York street hustler's ponzi scam on some of the resort towns using the very finite number of skiers, OK. Every business has the right to go broke on its own. Only one organism continues to grow until the death of its host; cancer. And, as Clifford documents, the damage left behind can be fatal to those that claim the place as home. His earlier offering, "Falling Season" was my favorite, but a less weighty tale than taking on corporate bottom line.
Rating: 5
Summary: A real eye opener
Comment: This is no question, one of the best books I have ever read. Hal Clifford is a wonderful writer, who goes into grate detail about what really happens behind the corporate curtain of the ski industry. He passionately talks of the good old days when living in a ski town was about getting away from the rest of the world, skiing, and living life like an adventure up high in the mountains. Once you know how things once were in ski towns, the book takes you on a swift and disturbing "Downhill Slide". This book opened my eyes to the way the corporate ski industry puts skiing, ski towns, and the environment in the back seat to real estate, expansion, money, and most of all deception. I have been a skier my whole life and this book hit very close to home. For any avid skier this book is a must, but this book is a real eye opener for anybody who thinks that the ski industry has done nothing but good things in the last twenty years.
Rating: 5
Summary: Disneylands in the mountains
Comment: This book should be required reading for people, skiers and non-skiers alike, who patronize ski resorts. DOWNHILL SLIDE exposes what really drives the continuing expansion of ski resorts -- and it isn't skiing. Clifford focuses on the "Big Three", the publically-traded corporations that control a large chunk of all the resorts in North America.
Although actual ski-run usage (including ski boarders) has been flat for a decade, resorts continue to bombard the US Forest Service with requests for more public land to build ski runs on. Why would they need more runs if the number of skiers is static? To build more condos and "ski villages" around. Clifford says that these companies are theme park/real estate developers masquerading as sports facilities.
The resorts are marketed as year-round recreation sites in order to keep the condos full of consumers for the retail establishments in the artifical "villages". The chapter entitled "Potemkin Villages and Emerald Cities" ought to bring a blush to the faces of those who sneer at Disneyland, but gush over the quaint shops and interesting restaurants at places like Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, or Whistler.
Why should we care that big corporations are peddling phoney "life experiences" in the heart of our public lands? Because Clifford says these bogus communities that are springing up in the most scenic parts of our national forests are environmental disaster sites. The thin mountain air is ill-equipped to cope with large new sources of pollution. Access roads and boundary fences interfere with wildlife. Clifford describes starving elk herds kept from their grazing areas by the fences around ranchettes put up by clebrities attracted to the Aspen lifestyle. Snowmaking equipment gobbles up enourmous quantities of energy and water. There are now sixteen golf courses in the arid Vail valley (those summer visitors must have recreation). In order to keep them green Vail Corporation appropriated the water rights of an indigenous town, Minturn. The large staff necessary to provide the amenities at the rustic magic kingdoms must commute from affordable housing in places like Minturn, often 50 or more miles away.
I quit downhill skiing in the early 70's, but since then have been a non-skiing customer at many of the resorts mentioned by Clifford -- Stratton, Stowe, Vail, Aspen, Sun Valley, Teton Village, Deer Park, and Snowbird. Never again. Skiers may be able to square their love of the sport with galloping environmental degradation, but non-skiers don't need to be party to it.
 |
Title: The Falling Season: Inside the Life and Death Drama of Aspen's Mountain Rescue Team by Hal Clifford ISBN: 0898866332 Publisher: Mountaineers Books Pub. Date: March, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: Powder Burn: Arson, Money, and Mystery on Vail Mountain by Daniel Glick ISBN: 1586480030 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 19 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
 |
Title: Mammoth: The Sierra Legend by Martin Forstenzer, Warren Miller ISBN: 0971774803 Publisher: Mountain Sports Press Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
 |
Title: Warren's World: America's Best-Loved Ski Humorist by Warren Miller, Bill Grout, Andy Bigford ISBN: 0967674786 Publisher: Mountain Sports Press Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: Vail: Triumph of a Dream by Peter W. Seibert, William Oscar Johnson, Jean-Claude Killy ISBN: 0967674719 Publisher: Mountain Sports Press Pub. Date: 30 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
