Page 38 - the NOISE December 2013

ILearning How and How Not to Ski
learned how to ski at the Arizona Snow- story by Sarah Weatherby illus by Ed Kabotie According to the Arizona Snowbowl, the
bowl. In my younger years, I spent birth- bad winters in a row. Until the Flagstaff fix- These arguments focused on the possible “process of snowmaking piggybacks on the days skipping school for the free day of ski- ture of Mountain Sports, our local winter ski environmental and aesthetic impacts in us- natural processes of nature utilizing air and
ing because I was blessed enough to be born at the right time of year. I have skinned up the mountain late at night and early in the morning — hitching rides with the snowcat drivers whenever possible — to get the first runs after new snow. A number of my favor- ite winter days have been spent at the Snow- bowl, reveling in the speed of my skis and in the bite of the air. When I was finally old enough, I’d end each day on the deck of the lodge, drinking a cold beer. On those days, I always felt strong and tired from pushing myself just a little too far, from getting in that last run when my legs were already burned but I had gone regardless and that last per- fect turn filled me with such contentment I couldn’t imagine doing anything better with my day, with my winter, with my life.
Even in those most idealistic times, I was aware there were problems for the ski area. How could I not be? I too suffered through the nearly snowless years. I too dealt with the ski seasons that lasted only days and pissed off everyone who had gambled on buying a pass. I have witnessed boom years for the Snowbowl and bust years. Fortunately, the ski area was still keeping a large enough profit margin to open and run when the snow came. Until, ostensibly, there were two
rental, sale and repair shop went out of busi- ness. Until Snowbowl had enough reason to propose their snowmaking plan, a plan that happened to create cold, fluffy white stuff out of reclaimed water. Then, apparently, the six and a half decades of successful op- eration no longer provided enough.
Mountain Sports’ closure was followed by threats of Snowbowl’s possible shut-down, with their own version of carrot and stick. In short, the Arizona Snowbowl claimed it would shut down unless given a way to guarantee snow. There were a flurry of let- ters to the editor of the Arizona Daily Sun in support of the snowmaking proposal (“Save local business, make snow;” “Ski seasons that last from November to April;” “Freshy- pow-pow for all!”), and under the combined weight of Snowbowl’s demands and ap- parent public support the City of Flagstaff caved, it decided to sell reclaimed water to the ski area and this place I had grown up in became a city divided.
A series of suits were filed to stop the use of reclaimed water on the San Fran- cisco Peaks. The Sierra Club, The Center for Biological Diversity and tribes from the sur- rounding area marched through town put- ting forth arguments against snowmaking.
ing reclaimed water, on safety and health concerns, on religious grounds. The replies from Snowbowl were provided by the gen- eral manager — via the local newspaper (az- dailysun.com) - in neat little quotations that could be easily parroted by the skiing faith- ful. If this was happening anywhere else in the Southwest, Snowbowl would be heralded as an environmental savior, my skiing friends and family repeated. The Indians are making snow in the White Mountains, they echoed. Why should the concerns of the minority get in the way of our good time?
It was during this period of time that I gave up skiing at the Arizona Snowbowl, and as the years passed I watched from a distance as Snowbowl’s great new business plan moved forward step-by-step. The re- claimed water was bought from the city, the environmental assessment was bought from the Forest Service and court cases were won and lost. On the mountain, trees were lev- eled, ground burned, protesters prosecuted and pipe laid. The arguments put forth by tribal members, concerned citizens and en- vironmental groups failed and the residents of Northern Arizona found themselves split into two camps. You either wanted to save the Peaks or reclaim them.
water plus favorable temperatures to pro- vide a quality product for everyone’s en- joyment” (arizonasnowbowl.com/resort/ snowmaking.php). What is not mentioned is this natural process of nature uses re- claimed water to make snow, and reclaimed water contains agents that are in no way natural. Think of all the liquids and solids we send down our drains. There are the obvious, the intended flushables, but too are the unexpected items. Reclaimed water contains caffeine, hormones, pesticides and preservatives. It contains the byproducts from being disinfected.
It is not only made up of water, but also the chemicals that are used when you brush your teeth, the hand sanitizers, the bacteria killing soaps. It has all of those prescription drugs that are not fully metabolized. It has the cleaning supplies that make our homes’ and hearths’ sparkle before riddling our wa- ter system with chemicals. As these chemi- cals, hormones, bacteria, and antibiotics mix and roil around they react to each other in new ways, creating additional compounds yet to be studied.
If the thought of making snow with this chemical soup isn’t frightening enough, keep in mind some of the known compounds in
38 • DECEMBER 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
READERreport