Slides -- Snow, Then Rocks -- Wreak Havoc on Colorado Roads

Traffic from the Front Range to and from Aspen and Utah forced to take long detour

An avalanche on Friday night caused the closure of U.S. 40 over Berthoud Pass. The snow was cleared off the road by Saturday morning, so it was business as usual for skiers and riders heading for Winter Park. A rockslide in Glenwood Canyon around midnight on Monday morning was far more severe and will take longer to clean up -- to say nothing of road and bridge repairs.

Some 20 boulders ranging from 3 feet to 10 feet in diameter and tons of additional debris fell onto Interstate 70, created eight craters and dips, exposing the highway's underwiring, taking out a bridge and destroying guardails. Both sides of the highway were affected. In 1995, Aspen writer Kathleen Krieger Daily and her two young sons were killed in a Glenwood Canyon slide. Fortunately, at this late hour, none none came down vehicles this time, but drivers were forced to make a 200-mile detour between Glenwood Springs and Denver or elsewhere on the Front Range and will be for weeks.

According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, the massive slide occurred on the west side of the Hanging Lake Tunnels,  where two bridges cross the Colorado River and Union Pacific Railroad tracks just west of the Shoshone Dam and the Hanging Lake trail parking area. CDOT says an average of 19,800 use Glenwood Canyon on an average day.

Other than traffic to/from Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction and points between, the biggest affect will be on skiers heading to or from Aspen from the Front Range. In summer, traffic can use Highway 82 over Independence Pass between Leadville and Aspen, but that road is not plowed out until May, and traffic must use 82 from Glenwood Springs that dead-ends in Aspen in winter. In addition, as slickrock season begins in Moab, cyclists headed to and from Utah will have to adjust their routes.

P.S. On March 9, the Aspen Skiing Company reminded visitors about access options to making the long detour, which both Gray Line Aspen/Snowmass and Colorado Mountain Express are doing. The trip is currently six hours from Eagle (287 miles) and seven and a half hours form Denver (379 miles) -- but at least someone else is doing the driving. It is also possible to fly directly to Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, or to Vail/Eagle County, Grand Junction or Montrose/Delta County.

Amtrak's daily service is scheduled to depart Denver’s Union Station to Glenwood Springs (only 45 minutes from Aspen/Snowmass) at 8:05 a.m. and arrive in Glenwood at 1:53 p.m. The return from Glenwood to Denver departs at 12:50 p.m. and arrives in Denver at 7:18 p.m. As a bonus, it's a simply gorgeous ride. Shuttle services, taxi, rental cars and RFTA public bus are options  for the 40-mile trip between Glenwood Springs and Aspen/Snowmass. Shuttle services and taxis are from Denver International Airport to Union Station, RTD's SkyRide (Route AF) goes to the nearby Market Street Station. The Amtrak schedule is such that most visitors will be spending a night in Denver before and another after their ski vacation in Aspen/Snowmass.

Slides -- Snow, Then Rocks -- Wreak Havoc on Colorado Roads

Frontier Airlines' Endangered Species

Lovable talking critters on airliners' tails threatened with extinction

When Cincinnati-based Republic Aviation took over Frontier Airlines last summer, it promised financial health without changing the name or doing away with the talking animals painted on aircraft tails that inspired one of the better advertising campaigns on television. First, Republic RIFfed the Frontier office in Denver, and more recently, rumors developed that Frontier's name and mascots would go away too.

The endangered animals are Grizwald the grizzly bear, Benny the other grizzly bear, Montana the elk, Stu the Eastern cottontail, Trixie the red fox, Rudy the other red fox, Mo and Jo the red fox cubs, Ollie the great gray owl, Humphrey the bison, Grace the swan, Woody the wood duck, Sherman the sea lion, Andy the pronghorn, Holly the great blue heron, Sal the cougar, Stretch the egret, Larry the lynx, Flip the bottlenose dolphin and others in menagerie.

Concerned Frontier employees rallied to save the animals and even launched a Facebook page called "Save the Frontier Airlines Brand and Animals." Nearly 400 people have joined the "Save Frontier" page on Facebook.

Frontier Airlines' Endangered Species

Henry Moore Sculptures and King Tut Treasures Coming to Denver

Botanic garden and art museum hosting two blockbuster exhibitions this year

Henry Moore was a 20th century British sculpture who is best known for his large, abstract bronzes found in important public spaces around the world, including opposite the British Parliament in London, the plaza in front of Toronto's City Hall, in front of Berlin's Kongresshalle, outside of Australia's National Gallery in Melbourne and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tutankhamen was a youthful 18th dynasty Egyptian pharaoh who ruled in the 14th century B.C. and inspired some of the most exquisite, intricate bejeweled pieces that the anonymous craftsmen of the Nile ever produced. Both are coming to Denver -- the Moore exhibition this week, King Tut's treasures this summer. I'm excited about both and hope the both locals and visitors to Colorado will see them.

Moore in the Gardens

The Denver Botanic Gardens' landmark outdoor exhibition of 20 monumental Moore works opens on Monday, March 8, and runs through January 11, 2011 enabling art lovers to see these pieces in all seasons and in diverse environments, Discover sculptures in the Gardens’ diverse landscapes including dormant winter gardens, prairie wildflowers, serene reflecting pools and the rugged rock alpine garden.. Moore found inspiration in natural environments, and the Botanic Gardens is (are?) dedicated to bringing and displaying nature in the heart of Denver and also at the Botanic Gardens at Chatfield in Littleton, south of the city.

If you need to understand more about Moore, join a free tour (with the price of admission on weekends at 1:00 p.m. through the run of the show) or special curator-led walks from May through October, $15 (check schedule later). For non-members, admission through May 9 and after September 12 is $11.50 for adults; $8.50 for 65+  and military; $8 for ages 4-15 and students, and free for children 3 and under. In summer, admission for all is $1 more. The main Gardens are at 1005 York Street, Denver; 720-865-3500.

Tut at the Museum

Denver is immensely fortunate, and honored, to be one of the five North American cities hosting Tutankhamun - The Golden King and The Great Pharaohs. Atlanta, San Francisco, Toronto, New York and Denver. It will be at the Denver Art Museum for six months beginning July 1 and closing January 2, 2011.

The art museum is devoting two large galleries in the Hamilton Building to this touring exhibition featuring more than 100 treasures from Tut's tomb and other sites. Not quite as large as most of Moore's sculptures but imposing nevertheless is a 10-foot statue, the largest depiction of of King Tut ever unearthed.  It was found in the remains of the funerary temple of two of his high officials and still retains much of its original paint. Other artifacts in this remarkable exhibition come from the reigns of other important rulers throughout 2,000 years of ancient Egyptian history, from about 2600 B.C. to 660 B.C.

The exhibition is the product of heavy hitters in the realm of culture and antiquity. It was organized by National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. A portion of the proceeds from the tour will go toward antiquities preservation and conservation efforts in Egypt, including the construction of a new grand museum at Giza near Cairo.

I visited Egypt a year ago and was captivated. The tombs in the Valley of Kings are open by rotation to try to protect them, and Tut's tomb was not open while I was there. The tomb was discovered in 1922 by by Howard Carter, and while many ancient tombs had been looted of their treasure, Tutankhamun's was intact. This is not the first time that priceless artifacts from the tomb have been on tour, but it is the first time they have been to Denver. The Treasures of Tutankhamun tour lasted from 1972 to 1979, visiting the British Museum, museums in the USSR, Japan, France, Canada, West Germany and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Tut tickets are now on sale to Denver Art Museum members and go on sale to the general public on May 14. Click here for the complicated pricing schedule. The museum is at 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway (just south of Civic Center Park and on 13th Avenue between Broadway and Bannock) Denver: 720-865-5000.

Henry Moore Sculptures and King Tut Treasures Coming to Denver

JFK Airport is Constipation International

Airport's longest runway closed for repaving

New York's already congested John F. Kennedy International Airport has gotten that much worse with the shutdown of the longest of its four runways for repaving. The Bay Runway, which pilots know as 13R-31L, sticks out into Jamaica Bay. The repaving project started on March 1 and is expected to be out of service for four months. Color me skeptical, but I'd put my money on construction delays. Why should repaving be completed on time when hardly anything else at the airport ever seems to be?

According to reports, one-third of JFK's traffic, including something like half of the departures, are using the three smaller runways. If you've ever flown in or out of JFK, you have seen (and waited in) long conga lines, even under the best of circumstances, and I'm afraid that New York rarely enjoys the best of circumstances. When I fly to Europe, I already try to avoid Chicago's O'Hare, especially in winter. I was beginning to feel more tolerant of JFK since the installation of a monorail connecting terminals, making plane changes a more efficient and pleasant process. But now....

International carriers using JFK must endure the construction delays, but domestic carriers have more flexibility. JetBlue, American and Delta and perhaps others have cut their schedules while the main runway is being repaved. That means those of us who connect to international flights at JFK might now be forced to us LaGuardia, another miserable, delay-plagues airport, or if they do manage a domestic flight to JFK, the fares might well have increased.

Even before 14,572-foot Bay Runway was closed, the US Department of Transportation ranked JFK a pathetic 28th out of 31 major airports in terms of delays, which the Federal Aviation Administration expects to be the Federal Aviation Administration expects delays to be about 50 minutes during peak times and 29 minutes off-peak. Fifty minutes sounds better than an hour, and 29 minutes better than half-an hour, which is bad enough. In order to make the next numbers sound better, airlines have begun padding their schedules by adding expected waiting times into their flight times so that they won't go on record as "delayed" or "late." If you're flying via JFK, bring a good book.

JFK Airport is Constipation International

Denver Sings "Happy Birth-DIA"

Denver International Airport at 15 -- looking back and looking ahead

Sometime at the end of February 1995, I flew out of Stapleton International Airport en route to, I think, Honduras. I returned to the new Denver International Airport, which had opened on February 28 while I was away. If an airport could have had a new-car smell, DIA would have had it. As I look at the original version photo below (which might or might not pop up on your screen in its entirety), I count 16 small masts or antennae atop the main terminal's distinctive Teflon tents -- one for each year and one for good luck.

After much ridicule and a hiccupy debut, DIA has matured into the fifth-busiest airport in the national and ninth-busiest in the world. Thirty thousand airport, airline and government workers and 140,000 passengers a day are under those Teflon tents and on the concourses. Many modifications have been made over the last 15 years: The central feature in the main terminal has been a dancing fountain and various kinds of gardens. The platforms on both sides of the terminal on the baggage-claim level have been widened (originally it was a challenge to wheel a SmartCart or a big piece of luggage around the concrete pillars,) and a roof now covers the platforms, because the original design didn't take into account summer's strong sun and random fall/winter/spring snows.

One thing that hasn't changed but continues to puzzle me one of the exits from the train level to the terminal, which has not been used for 15 years, always has a human security presence. Why on earth didn't they erect a gate? Other changes are obvious: a different mix of transportation entities with booths on the perimeter of the terminal, the post-9/11 addition of unsightly but mandatory security checkpoints complete with snaking lines of passengers cluttering the floor of the grand space and the great emptiness of the ticket counter areas, especially on the west side, since many passengers now print their own boarding passes and also checking as few bags as possible.

On the airside, there are now six runways taking up just a fraction of the airport's 54 square miles of land. That huge tract, annexed by the City and County of Denver for the airport, also boasts an enormous array of solar panels, a bison herd (a safe distance from the runways, of course) and 27 oil and natural gas wells.In contast to airports constructed decades ago and now hampered by congested metropolitan areas, DIA has lots of room under the big Western sky.

Back to the terminal, where increased passenger traffic and security needs not contemplated two decades ago, there's a proposal to move checpoints to the current ticketing areas. That would free up the main terminal space, which would them be restricted to passengers and also be more aesthetic with the TSA's hardware and mazes of passengers heading for the screening stations. There's a debate about whether new, upscale eating and retail in a repurposed main terminal would be a success or a fiasco. There's also a question as to whether an airport hotel that has been on the drawing board, at least conceptually, from the beginning is viable, and whether a lightrail extension to DIA is worth the cost of construction.

The Denver City Council, airport officials and consultants, who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to study the options, are charting DIA's course for the next 15 years and beyond. Stay tuned.

Denver Sings "Happy Birth-DIA"

Earthquake and Chilean Tourist Destinations

Reflections on Chile; broad-stroke news of current conditions

I created this blog in Santiago, Chile, during the 1996 Society of American Travel Writers convention there. The earliest posts are about the Santiago-Valparaiso area more or less in the center of this long skinny country, Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia in the far south and fascinating Easter Island (Isla de Pascua in Spanish) 2,300 miles out in the Pacific Ocean. Natural disasters (and man-made ones too) are heart-wrenching to begin with, but learning of tragendies in places I have visited adds a special poignancy.

It was with a mixture of sadness and relief that I read the following Chile Turismo summary sent to me by Gina Morgan who handles public relations and marketing for the Remota Lodges in the country.

Desert – The north of Chile was not affected by the quake and has not reported any damage.

Easter Island – Easter Island, which lies 2,300 miles off the cost of mainland Chile, a 5.5 hour flight from Santiago, was not affected by the quake. Initial tsunami warnings have been lifted and all operations are normal.

Santiago and Central Region - Santiago’s airport suffered structural damage to the passenger terminal, however no damage was reported to the runways and the airport is expected to reopen later this week. Electricity and phone lines have been restored in Santiago and the city’s public transportation including its metro is fully operational. Valparaiso and Viña del Mar have also reported damage. The annual Viña del Mar International Music festival which was underway has been suspended.

Lakes and Volcanoes – The northern part of the Lakes and Volcanoes region, around the city of Concepcion and the Bio Bio River, was most affected by the quake. Authorities are still working on assessing the full damage. Basic essential services including water, electricity and telecommunications are gradually being restored. The southern part of the Lakes and Volcanoes region was not affected by the quake. Operations in popular tourist towns including Pucon, Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt are normal.

Patagonia – The far south of the country was not affected by the quake and has not reported any damage.

Chile is a country with a history of seismic activity. The country’s preparedness, including its strict anti-seismic building codes, the rapid emergency response from the government as well as the help from a number of organizations can be credited for managing the situation and help minimize the damage. The country’s tourism infrastructure has, overall, fared well, reporting little damage.

Author Wayne Bernhardson, who has written Moon Guidebooks about Chile and Argentina and therefore has good contacts down there, has posted some more detailed news here and here on his blog, Southern Cone Travel.

When I visited briefly in 2006, Valparaiso, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, still showed evidence of a catastrophic earthquake a century earlier. The quake that struck in August 1906 killed nearly 3,000 people, and many buildings still bore cracks and scars. The fatalities appear to be far fewer, but I cannot imagine how an even more powerful quake might have affected the colorful buildings of this beauitfully located and very historic harbor city. I also wonder about the vineyards and whether the vines will be adequately watered and the wineries whose cellars are stacked with barrels and bottles of wine. I wonder whether the ski lifts at Portillo and Valle Nevado were affected. And of course, I am concerned about the Chileans who lost their homes and their livelihoods, for whom the effect on tourism is of relatively minot concern. The world reached out to Haiti with aid. The casualty toll was higher, CNN was there 24/7 for weeks and the country far more impoverished to begin with. I wonder what the world has in its reserves for Chile.

Give the Chileans a bit of time to take care of basic infrastructure needs and get aire service back to normal, and then put this beautiful country on your to-visit list. It's late summer in the Southern Hemisphere now. Harvest season is coming. And ski season will follow. Donate to relief efforts if you can, plan on visiting -- or at least buy some Chilean produce and order some Chilean wine to help the economy.

Earthquake and Chilean Tourist Destinations

US Airlines Recycle Just 20% of Their Trash

Unhappy ending for the 880 tons of newspapers, aluminum cans, plastic cups and more annually generated by airlines

When flight attendants roam up and down the aisle with large trash bags to collect passengers' discards, I've always wondered whether someone somewhere sorts it, or whether it just ends up in landfills. Responsible Shopper, a consumer watchdog website, has issued a new report cleverly called “What Goes Up Must Go Down: The Sorry State of Recycling in the Airline Industry.”

I wish it had been otherwise, but their disheartening finding is that of the more than 880 million tons of waste that carriers generate annually, only 20 percent is recycled while, the organization says, fully 75 percent could be. Delta, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic and Southwest are doing the best job of recycling and United and US Airways, the worst.

Lookout Landfills, Here It Comes!

According to research published by the Natural Resource Defense Council, airlines annually throw away 9,000 tons of plastic, enough aluminum cans to build 58 Boeing 747 jets, and enough newspaper and magazines to cover a football field some 700 feet deep. The council says that energy savings from recycling this waste "would represent a contribution by the airlines to reducing their environmental impact in the face of the considerable climate impact of jet fuel, including 600 million tons of carbon dioxide per year pumped into the atmosphere by commercial jets alone."

According to the Responsible Shopper report, airlines could recycle nearly 500 million more tons of waste each year (including 250 million tons of in-flight waste) than they do. Furthermore, no airline recycles all the major recyclables: aluminum cans, glass, plastic, and paper, and no airline has a comprehensive program for minimizing or composting food waste or waste from snack packages. It is probably out of embarrassment that no airline provides good public information about their recycling program, or reports out on progress in relation to any stated goals. In addition, the report says, that all airlines provide over-packaged snacks and meals (below), and not one is working with manufacturers to reduce this waste.

It doesn't have to be this way. A lifetime ago, I worked for Swissair in New York. Even then, the carrier had a contract with pig farmers near Zürich to take all the food waste. But then, the Swiss always seem to do things better than most of the rest of the world. When I think of how little flight attendants have to do on most domestic flights in these times of hardly any food service and minimal snack service, it doesn't seem to much to ask them to bring two trash bags down the aisle, one for recyclables and one for landfill-bound trash.

 The List

Ranked from best to worst with even the best receiving only a B- grade for current recycling efforts and future plans:

•  Delta Airlines
• Virgin America
• Virgin Atlantic
• Southwest Airlines
• Continental Airlines
• Jet Blue
• American Airlines
• British Airways (I'm not sure why this British flag carrier is on the list either)
• Air Tran
• United Airlines
• US Airways

Proactivity

Green America and Responsible Shopper have a call to action too. They are asking passengers respectfully ask flight attendants whether materials on their specific flights are being recycled, and go online to report their findings. The recycling report also contains a list of the airlines and their contact information for anyone who wants to contact them directly.

Responsible Shopper's lead researcher, Victoria Kreha, has some advice for passenger wanting to be proactive, "For concerned consumers looking to spend their travel dollars wisely, airline waste may be the ultimate example of ‘what goes up must come down.’ The good news is that airlines are starting to pay attention to recycling; the bad news is that they have a long way to go to improve the situation. Fortunately, airlines can overcome any of the challenges to creating in-flight recycling programs, including employee education and involvement, knowledge of the type of waste produced, and a time- and space-efficient system.”

I'm not about to preach about the environmental benefits of recycling, even though airlines practice pathetically little of it, better waste management has the potential of creating jobs nationwide, since according to Colorado Recycles, recycling creates six times as many jobs as landfilling. High time for airlines to step up to the recycling plate.

US Airlines Recycle Just 20% of Their Trash