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F e b r u a r y 2 2 , 2 0 1 2 • V o l . 5 • N o . 8 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
Mountain Miracle BY KAREN BOSSICK
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Sun Valley skier is alive today, thanks to the persistence of two skiers and the Sun Valley Ski Patrol. The Ski Patrol received a report at 10:18 a.m. Saturday of a skier down on 42nd Street just below Exhibition on the River Run side of Bald Mountain. Ski patrollers responded and found two skiers from Twin Falls performing CPR on the unresponsive skier, who was in his early 60s, according to Sun Valley spokesman Jack Sibbach. The two skiers had reportedly just completed their CPR training. According to the scuttlebutt on Baldy, ski patrollers used the defibrillator twice without a response. On the third attempt—about 15 minutes after CPR was initiated—the man sat up, wondering what was going on. The defibrillator was used more than once, Sibbach confirmed. The Ski Patrol transported the man to the bottom of River Run. Given the snowy conditions, he was then transported to an area near Shoshone where he was air-lifted by helicopter and taken to a hospital in Twin Falls. The man was back home by noon Sunday and word was that he planned to return to Baldy on Tuesday to thank the Ski Patrol, said Sibbach. “The cardiologist said that if it weren’t for that couple performing CPR, that that guy would’ve died,” added Sibbach, who declined to release the names of the heart attack victim or his rescuers. “The efforts of that couple performing CPR and the Ski Patrol saved a life that day.” Ski Patroller Bryant Dunn said the Ski Patrol is always grateful for the opportunity to participate in little miracles like this one. “All I can say is that it’s a privilege for us to serve the public and when we have outcomes like this, it’s even better.”
Free Play Reading BY KAREN BOSSICK
O
rphaned in childhood, Phillip has grown up with a skewed view of the world. He never leaves his dilapidated row house in North Philadelphia because he fears he might die from something out there after having had a neardeath experience from an allergic reaction in childhood. He learns about the world by watching reruns of “The Price is Right” and seeks to hang onto his dead mother’s memory by lying in her clothes closet. His already wacky world is turned upside down when his brother Treat, who provides for the two of them through thievery, kidnaps a Chicago gangster named Harold. Harold, smarter than the two of them combined, soon becomes teacher, healer and surrogate parent to the two grown orphans. This play by American playwright Lyle Kessler will be presented as a free play reading at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the nexStage Theatre in Ketchum. The play reading will star Scott Creighton, Dawson Howard and Ben Flandro. Complimentary wine and cookies will be served. “We try to feature great writing in our play reading series and Lyle Kessler is an extraordinary playwright,” said Jon Kane, who will direct the reading. “This is a very entertaining
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There’s No Business Like…
Cowboy Comedian and Singer, Kip Attaway at the Boiler Room
read about it on PaGe 5
Snow Business
STORY & PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
D
ennis Harper got used to watching the skies for snow as a sugar beet farmer in the Raft River Valley south of Burley. Now he watches the heavens as Sun Valley’s snowmaking manager. Harper and the 18 men and women who work for him around the clock helped build a snowy playground on Baldy and Dollar mountains this year in a snowless season that might otherwise have been a bust. Using water and compressed air, they covered Sun Valley’s ski hill in white, allowing skiers and boarders to play in the snow when ski resorts in Utah, California and other states had little or no terrain open. “What they’ve done is nothing short of spectacular,” said Bob Gordon, who owns Formula Sports ski shop in Ketchum. “The snowmaking saved our bacon. But, beyond that, it’s every bit as good as the real stuff and maybe even better. It’s very consistent and grooms out real well. We’ve had excellent conditions from Thanksgiving Day onward, whether we had natural snow or not.” By the time Sun Valley opened to 2,600 skiers on Thanksgiving Day, Sun Valley had used 62 million gallons of water—20 million gallons more than last year at the same time. It was enough to fill a hundred Olympic-sized swimming pools, said snowmaker Corey Allen. Altogether, Sun Valley’s snowmakers sprayed 168 million gallons of water this year through the end of January when they stopped making snow. That’s 36 million gallons more than last year when Sun Valley got a bumper crop of snow but, amazingly, not as much as the 178-million-gallon record the resort set in 2007. This year Sun Valley used 2 ½ million gallons of water to build the bump course to the right of lower Warm Springs. The resort used nearly 9 million gallons to build the 18-foot-tall, 437-foot-long superpipe on Dollar Mountain and another 4 million gallons to make snow for features on the mountain’s terrain park. Perhaps the most impressive figure that Harper carries around in his head, however, is the one comparing it to his farming roots. Running Sun Valley’s snowmaking system full bore uses only about the same amount of water as two farming pivots that cover 250 acres each, he says. “And we have more fun per gallon with our water than the farmers do,” he adds. Although Sun Valley has not been making snow for the past few weeks, Harper is still leading free 90-minute tours that show skiers and boarders how the craft has evolved since the winter of 194950 when three aircraft engineers in a
ABOVE: Jeremy Kaiser scans the maps of snowmaking guns, checking the list of to-do’s that includes fixing a broken valve, installing a new microswitch and tending to a frozen hydrant. BELOW: Sun Valley’s snowmaking manager Dennis Harper stands outside Snowmaking Central on Baldy. The big fans cool water to cool the compressors.
“What they’ve done is nothing short of spectacular. We’ve had excellent conditions from Thanksgiving onward, whether we had natural snow or not.” –Bob Gordon
snowless Connecticut connected a garden hose to a 10-horsepower compressor and spray-gun nozzle to make the ski world’s first snow gun. The final tours of the season will be offered at 11 a.m. Thursday and Saturday. Up to 15 people can take part. Tourgoers should check in at the River Run Lodge desk on the morning of the tour. Those who sign up for the tour will follow Harper up to the Roundhouse Restaurant via the gondola. There they will cruise down a cat track onto the gentle Roundhouse Slope, angling to the right toward a clump of trees along the edge of the slope. Hidden among the trees is Snowmaking Central—a big concrete building that
June 30, 2012 Sun Valley Pavilion
houses fire hoses, snow gun parts, air compressors and the computerized system that monitors the 555 automatic guns on Baldy. Harper’s crew starts each season with what they call “production snow,” putting more water in the snow to make a good hard base that neither skiers nor snowgroomers will break through. It was actually easier building that base this year with the lack of natural snow than last year when Baldy was besieged by natural snow during November and December, says Harper. The snowmakers build mountains up to 25 feet tall, which the groomers then
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