Photo by David Benbennick

In their quest to own all of skiing and rebrand it as Skiing by Vail®, Vail Resorts Inc announced that they’d purchases SkiReport.com. They already operate OnTheSnow.com, which counts about 9.6 million visitors per year. Looking for a snow report? Well friend, I can assure that Vail will always be loaded with ‘packed powder’ and even in October they’ll have a base of ‘variable to 100 inches.’

Photo by Nick Csakany

Colorado authorities are going after a man for the cost of his backcountry rescue. The reason for this unjust fee? He faked his disappearance. They say the man parked his car in the Vail lot then hopped on his bike and rode down to a bus stop. The police caught up with him in the next town during the search. But why would anyone want to disappear in Vail? The cops said there was a warrant out for his arrest because he had failed to register as a sex offender.

The Breckenridge Town Council finally had their day on stage regarding Vail’s proposed expansion to Peak 6 that would involve a new lift, restaurant and several hundred new acres of skiing. Some council members railed against Vail, and others warned that the huge resort would pull out of an intergovernmental agreement that would task the resort with addressing impacts of the expansion if the council failed to sign onto the expansion.

It’s an odd setup. If the council doesn’t approve the expansion, then Vail can leave this agreement that puts them in charge of paying for the fallout from the expansion. Then if the expansion goes through anyway, Vail won’t be bound to dealing with the fallout. But if the town fights the expansion and wins, then it won’t have mattered anyway. If there were any teenagers involved it’d be great fodder for a John Hughes movie.

Telluride has announced that their single-day adult lift tickets during peak season will be $98 this year. Prices drop when people buy multiple days, become seniors, or borrow their friend’s season pass. Vail and Beaver Creek haven’t announced their prices this year, but last year they were the most expensive at $96 and could easily climb above $100. I guess you have to keep the riffraff out somehow.

This season Vail Resort in Colorado will be outfitting their entire resort with radio frequency towers on almost all 90 lifts. The idea is that iPhone and smartphone developers could create apps that would let skiers check-in across the hill or go online and track their progress up-and-down the resort after skiing all day. I think a lot of people will be disappointed when they find out the “thirty or so” runs they skied that day turns out to be more like 11 runs. Vail expects some apps will let people share their positions in real time, which will help lost families unite on the hill and robbers know which village homes are vacant for them to break into.