Native Vail Gal
Banned
Has anyone heard of "Sustainable Slopes?" Do you know what this is all about, and is this a good organization??
-
Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.
Sustainable Slopes
- Thread starter Native Vail Gal
- Start date
Little Lightning
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Sustainable Slopes:
The Environmental Charter for Ski Areas
" As a society,we find ourselves needing more than ever to escape every day pressures by heading for the outdoors. With that increasing demand comes impacts and a number of emerging environmental concerns that must be addressed proactively.The ski industry adopted this Environmental Charter in 2000 as a framework for sustainability in our operations. We are revising it today to renew our commitment to responsible stewardship and foster improved environmental performance industry-wide.
I did a google search, for some reason I can't copy and paste the links but it looks like it an effort from the NSAA (National Ski Association) to preserve the wilderness areas.
Kathi
The Environmental Charter for Ski Areas
" As a society,we find ourselves needing more than ever to escape every day pressures by heading for the outdoors. With that increasing demand comes impacts and a number of emerging environmental concerns that must be addressed proactively.The ski industry adopted this Environmental Charter in 2000 as a framework for sustainability in our operations. We are revising it today to renew our commitment to responsible stewardship and foster improved environmental performance industry-wide.
I did a google search, for some reason I can't copy and paste the links but it looks like it an effort from the NSAA (National Ski Association) to preserve the wilderness areas.
Kathi
Quiver Queen
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Over the last couple of years there's been a tremendous interest in this effort by the U.S. ski industry; seems to be led by Western areas, but the East is coming along. A big part of the stewardship is to operate on renewable energy resources, be it hydroelectric, solar, or wind. Windmill farms are surprisingly common and accepted in some areas of the country--Easterners get a skewed message by the Long Island Sound rhetoric.
Native Vail Gal
Banned
Interesting stuff! Thank you, ladies! We do have wind farms here in Colorado and I just found a report that shows what each ski area is doing to prevent the mountains from looking like the Kansas or Nebraska plains in many years to come. (no offense to Kansans or Nebraskans!):p
What some more of my research has been revealing is that vegetation is a BIG concern, and some of the alpine plants are becoming extinct. We're going to drop Native Colorado Wildflower seeds off of the ski lifts anytime we go up this spring. They say this is really helpful, and may be helpful enough to continue the vegetation to grow and spread!
It appears to all be coming down to this global warming thing, and I'm finding interesting websites on this.....www.keepwintercool.com.
Hopefully that will post, but if not its www keepwintercool dot com.
Interesting!
What some more of my research has been revealing is that vegetation is a BIG concern, and some of the alpine plants are becoming extinct. We're going to drop Native Colorado Wildflower seeds off of the ski lifts anytime we go up this spring. They say this is really helpful, and may be helpful enough to continue the vegetation to grow and spread!
It appears to all be coming down to this global warming thing, and I'm finding interesting websites on this.....www.keepwintercool.com.
Hopefully that will post, but if not its www keepwintercool dot com.
Interesting!
volklgirl
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Crystal is powering their high-speed quad completely with wind this year and offering free passes to anyone who signs up for wind energy! I thought that was pretty cool. Here's their press release:
https://www.crystalmountain.com/about/index.cfm?fuseaction=pressview&pressreleaseid=214
https://www.crystalmountain.com/about/index.cfm?fuseaction=pressview&pressreleaseid=214
Tremblant is a 4 season resort with golf, tennis and watersports in the summer. Hiking and mountain biking are big. They have discontinued biking on certain runs to keep the vegetation on them. Only downhill is allowed now as well. This is to keep nature at its best. They also return all water to the lake, but filtered to remove all kinds of stuff. Energy consumption could be "greener" I think. Also I would like to see less disposible plates, cups etc at the mountain top lodge. They are using cutlery, but not plates, bowls or cups. Then all of that garbage must be brought down at night. I'm sure it's a few trips with the snowcat. Tremblant actively promotes sustainable slopes in their literature. They are trying!
Thatsagirl
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
To elaborate a bit on what "Sustainable Slopes" is: It's an initiative of the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA), which is the trade organization for ski resorts in North America. Most member resorts agreed to implement this initiative and each is trying to make changes to lessen the impact on the environment. It has really gained momentum in the past year or so, since most resorts had to do studies to figure out what they could do to make a difference. Each resort has its own issues to address, so there isn't a "blanket solution" to be adopted.
While using wind power and solar power are getting the biggest attention right now, resorts are also doing things such as recycling, waste reduction, using biodiesel to fuel vehicles and groomers, replacing old snowmaking equipment with equipment that is energy efficient and uses less water to make the same amount of snow, using waste energy from snowmaking equipment to heat buildings, upgrading motors on lifts, using compost toilets in the summit and mid-mountain facilities, doing erosion control, replanting trees, and so forth.
For full details:
https://www.nsaa.org/nsaa/environment/sustainable_slopes/
Thatsagirl
P.S. You might notice that on the KeepWinterCool.com site, NSAA is a partner.
While using wind power and solar power are getting the biggest attention right now, resorts are also doing things such as recycling, waste reduction, using biodiesel to fuel vehicles and groomers, replacing old snowmaking equipment with equipment that is energy efficient and uses less water to make the same amount of snow, using waste energy from snowmaking equipment to heat buildings, upgrading motors on lifts, using compost toilets in the summit and mid-mountain facilities, doing erosion control, replanting trees, and so forth.
For full details:
https://www.nsaa.org/nsaa/environment/sustainable_slopes/
Thatsagirl
P.S. You might notice that on the KeepWinterCool.com site, NSAA is a partner.
Native Vail Gal
Banned
Excellent Information! I think this is something that I'm going to be paying more attention to this year and next....and so on..... Thanks for giving me more information and contacts on this!
Thatsagirl
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Native Vail Gal said:
You are most welcome. I like to think that as a ski writer, I can provide important information beyond the whole "where should I ski" dilemma!
Hopefully, SkiDiva won't mind me adding a link to something on my site that I think you might be interested in, since it is about something Vail is doing with the National Forest Foundation:
https://www.letsplantrips.com/news/vail_to_raise_conservation_funds.php.
SkiDiva, please let me know if you'd prefer I remove my link above.
Thatsagirl
Native Vail Gal
Banned
Love this!!!! OMG!!! Love this! Steve (my finace) and I have been discussing "favors" for our guests at our wedding next December. We want to make a donation to an organization that will be helping to conserve the Beautiful Colorado Mountains! I think this just may be it!!! Thank you so much. We will be reserving a block of rooms through Vail Resorts for our out of town guests, etc. and we will include this article with our information!
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much!
Thatsagirl
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Native Vail Gal said:Love this!!!! OMG!!! Love this! Steve (my finace) and I have been discussing "favors" for our guests at our wedding next December. We want to make a donation to an organization that will be helping to conserve the Beautiful Colorado Mountains! I think this just may be it!!! Thank you so much. We will be reserving a block of rooms through Vail Resorts for our out of town guests, etc. and we will include this article with our information!
Thank you so much!
Did I mention I'm also a wedding planner? LOL :D
Thatsagirl
Native Vail Gal
Banned
LOL!! :D No you did not! WOW! Another wonderful resource on this site! I am so laughing my head off right now! :p That's awesome!
Our wedding website is (I hope you don't mind me posting this here Ski Diva!) www.kellyandsteve.net.
You can see what little we have planned so far! :o
Our wedding website is (I hope you don't mind me posting this here Ski Diva!) www.kellyandsteve.net.
You can see what little we have planned so far! :o
Thatsagirl
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Native Vail Gal said:
You know I was saying that in jest, right? ;) But, hey, I help plan trips and I planned my own wedding (and did my own flowers and favors, fortunately I do have an artistic side to me), so why not be a wedding planner too! By the way, I really like your wedding website.
My advice to you: make your wedding personal so it reflects who you two are, keep things simple, and remember that SOMETHING will go wrong and you need to LAUGH when it happens.
Thatsagirl
Native Vail Gal
Banned
Thatsagirl said:You know I was saying that in jest, right? ;) But, hey, I help plan trips and I planned my own wedding (and did my own flowers and favors, fortunately I do have an artistic side to me), so why not be a wedding planner too! By the way, I really like your wedding website.
My advice to you: make your wedding personal so it reflects who you two are, keep things simple, and remember that SOMETHING will go wrong and you need to LAUGH when it happens.
Thatsagirl
Oh yeah! I know you were just kidding! But.....if you don't mind I may just bend your ear every now and then! AND A CAKE???!!!!!!! WOW!!!!! You are a talented one!
It will be very simple....80 people MAX....and lots of pretty purples and candles.......blah blah blah! :D
(I won't bore the rest of you)!
Just still struggling with the whole flower thing.....hmmmmm....think I'm going to do them myself....wholesale or something.....hmmmmmmmm.........
Thatsagirl
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
OK, going WAY OFF TOPIC!
I got my flowers from two places:
1) My mom's garden (she is a master gardener and she grew some flowers specifically for my wedding! );
2) Costco. Costco has excellent prices on flowers and they last a very long time.
I chose flowers that had special meaning to me. My name is Susan, and my main flower was a black-eyed Susan, one of my favorite wild flowers. I also had black-eyed Susans on my cake. I got married in the fall, and the year before, I collected fall leaves and preserved them. They were strewn on the tables with the flowers and cake.
I went to Michael's (a craft store) to get the vases for the flowers on each table (I think they were about $2 each). That is also where I bought ribbons (the flowers my wedding party and I carried were tied in bunches and wrapped with a long ribbon, like we'd just picked them from the fields).
Other things I did: My wedding dress was influenced by the 1920s, so my mother rented a PT Cruiser for me and my party to arrive in. Instead of a traditional veil, I wore an antique hat with an ostrich feather and a floor-length veil similar to what you see in old pics of ladies riding horses. I am of Scottish decent, so my father ordered a full-dress kilt in our clan tartan and also hired a bagpiper. We got married on a ship, and it was really cool to have him lead the wedding party aboard. We definitely drew a lot of attention from all the people at the waterfront!
Here's something that went over really well and got EVERYONE dancing: We did a "guys' song" and a "ladies' song." The guys in the wedding party led all the male guests in the guys' dance, and the ladies in the wedding party led all the female guests in the ladies' dance. The ladies' song was "Big Legs Tight Skirt" by John Lee Hooker. The guys' song was "Hoochie Coochie Man" by Eric Clapton. The best pictures from the wedding are from these two dances! :D Ladies went first, then the men. We have great pictures of my mom and I dancing together. We have a picture of my father in his kilt flashing my husband's mother (he had tartan boxers on underneath ;) ). By the time Hoochie Coochie Man got revving up, we had major DIRTY DANCING going on! I stuffed a five-dollar bill in my husband's suspenders, my maid of honor put a dollar bill in her teeth and made one of my stepsons take it from her, and my brother wrapped his jacket around his wife and she danced up and down his leg. It was HILARIOUS! Then, one of my stepsons, who was 11 at the time, took off his tux jacket and threw it at the ladies! :D
NOTE: No one was drinking very much, this was in the middle of the day, so everyone remembers just how much fun this wedding was!
Anyway, some ideas for you. You can PM me if you want more, since I'm sure NO ONE else wants to read all this wedding stuff!
Thatsagirl
Native Vail Gal said:
I got my flowers from two places:
1) My mom's garden (she is a master gardener and she grew some flowers specifically for my wedding!
); 2) Costco. Costco has excellent prices on flowers and they last a very long time.
I chose flowers that had special meaning to me. My name is Susan, and my main flower was a black-eyed Susan, one of my favorite wild flowers. I also had black-eyed Susans on my cake. I got married in the fall, and the year before, I collected fall leaves and preserved them. They were strewn on the tables with the flowers and cake.
I went to Michael's (a craft store) to get the vases for the flowers on each table (I think they were about $2 each). That is also where I bought ribbons (the flowers my wedding party and I carried were tied in bunches and wrapped with a long ribbon, like we'd just picked them from the fields).
Other things I did: My wedding dress was influenced by the 1920s, so my mother rented a PT Cruiser for me and my party to arrive in. Instead of a traditional veil, I wore an antique hat with an ostrich feather and a floor-length veil similar to what you see in old pics of ladies riding horses. I am of Scottish decent, so my father ordered a full-dress kilt in our clan tartan and also hired a bagpiper. We got married on a ship, and it was really cool to have him lead the wedding party aboard. We definitely drew a lot of attention from all the people at the waterfront!
Here's something that went over really well and got EVERYONE dancing: We did a "guys' song" and a "ladies' song." The guys in the wedding party led all the male guests in the guys' dance, and the ladies in the wedding party led all the female guests in the ladies' dance. The ladies' song was "Big Legs Tight Skirt" by John Lee Hooker. The guys' song was "Hoochie Coochie Man" by Eric Clapton. The best pictures from the wedding are from these two dances! :D Ladies went first, then the men. We have great pictures of my mom and I dancing together. We have a picture of my father in his kilt flashing my husband's mother (he had tartan boxers on underneath ;) ). By the time Hoochie Coochie Man got revving up, we had major DIRTY DANCING going on! I stuffed a five-dollar bill in my husband's suspenders, my maid of honor put a dollar bill in her teeth and made one of my stepsons take it from her, and my brother wrapped his jacket around his wife and she danced up and down his leg. It was HILARIOUS! Then, one of my stepsons, who was 11 at the time, took off his tux jacket and threw it at the ladies! :D
NOTE: No one was drinking very much, this was in the middle of the day, so everyone remembers just how much fun this wedding was!
Anyway, some ideas for you. You can PM me if you want more, since I'm sure NO ONE else wants to read all this wedding stuff!
Thatsagirl
