Downhill slide : why the corporate ski industry is bad for skiing, ski towns, and the environment / Hal Clifford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clifford, Hal.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Skis and skiing--Environmental aspects--United States.

Skis and skiing.

Skis and skiing--Economic aspects--United States.

Skis and skiing--Economic aspects.

Skis and skiing--Environmental aspects.

United States.

Physical Description:

xvii, 282 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : Sierra Club Books, [2002]

Summary:

In this impassioned expose, lifelong skier Hal Clifford reveals how publicly traded corporations gained control of America's most popular winter sport during the 1990s and how they are gutting ski towns, the natural environment, and skiing itself in a largely futile search for short-term profits. Chronicling the collision between Wall Street's demand for unceasing revenue growth and the fragile natural and social environments of small mountain communities, Clifford shows how the modern ski industry promotes its product as environmentally friendly -- even invoking the words and emblems of such environmental icons as Ansel Adams and John Muir -- while at the same time creating urban-style problems for mountain villages. He also uncovers the ways in which resorts, much like theme parks, are carefully engineered to separate visitors from their money. Clifford suggests an alteranative to this bleak picture in the return-to-the-roots movement that is now beginning to find its voice in American ski towns from Mammoth Lakes, California, to Stowe, Vermont. He relates the stories of creative business people who are shifting control of the ski business back to the communities that host it.

Hard-hitting and carefully researched, Downhill Slide is indispensable reading for anyone who lives in, visits, or cares about what is happening to America's alpine communities.

Contents:

Chapter 1 From Rope Tows to Real Estate 3

Chapter 2 Skiing's Self-Defeating Arms Race 18

Chapter 3 Wall Street Comes to the Mountain 36

Chapter 4 What Is Land For? A Theological Schism 63

Chapter 5 Selling the New Resort 88

Chapter 6 Potemkin Villages and Emerald Cities 106

Chapter 7 Smokey the Bear, the Ski Industry's Best Friend 129

Chapter 8 Resort Roadkill: The Environmental Price Tag 159

Chapter 9 Commuters or Communities? 188

Chapter 10 Back to the Future 216.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-266) and index.

ISBN:

1578050715

OCLC:

49726353