Powder Burn: Arson, Money, and Mystery on Vail Mountain

Amazon.com
On the face of it, this is the story of unsolved arson at a high-glamour resort, a mystery packed with suspects that range from crusty ski bums to radical tree huggers to the resort's own corporate honchos. But underlying this entertaining true-life plot is a greater theme that is playing out across America. Here, tensions mount between the progress-minded shareholders of Vail Resorts Inc., environmentalists, and locals who simply pine for the days when they weren't priced out of having a meal--or a life--in Vail, Colorado. Elsewhere, similar hostility brews over conflicting interests in pricey tourist regions like Taos, New Mexico; the Florida Keys; and the Hamptons of New York. So while Powder Burn is an intriguing tale on its own, it also serves as a snapshot of our country as it struggles with its final growing pains. The modern corporatization of Vail Mountain is in direct contrast to its past, when a hard-drinking fellow could ride his horse into a bar and turn himself into local legend. Daniel Glick, a special correspondent for Newsweek, masterfully uses his reporter's eye for detail to deliver the spirit and breathtaking scenery of the Rocky Mountain West. He introduces personalities in rapid-fire succession, but, to his credit, the reader never feels overwhelmed or confused. The descriptions are so vivid--from the environmentalist tracking lynx paw prints through the snow to the vacationing company president staking out a Disney World pay phone as he receives updates on the 1998 fire's damage--that they remain fixed in the reader's mind as the story unfolds. It's a story that makes interesting reading for skiers, environmentalists, or anyone intrigued by the unfolding drama in our last wild places. --Jodi Mailander Farrell


From Publishers Weekly
Early on the morning of October 19, 1998, several raging fires caused $12 million in damage to ski lifts and buildings in Vail, Colo. Because construction of a vast new ski area that had been vehemently opposed by environmental groups was slated to begin that very day, arson was immediately suspected, and investigations revealed that the fires had been deliberately set. However, although a radical environmental organization claimed responsibility, the identity of the perpetrators was never discovered, and many local residentsAdarkly noting that the episode brought Vail's owners some much-needed sympathetic press, as well as insurance money that allowed them to rebuild outdated facilitiesAcontinue to believe the resort itself masterminded the event. Though unable to answer the all-important question of "whodunit," Glick, a Newsweek special correspondent for the Rocky Mountain region, provides a fascinating account of the tensions and cultural juxtapositionsAsometimes merely odd, sometimes deeply unsettlingAthat lurk beneath the idyllic, ersatz-Tyrolean surface of America's largest ski resort. Colorado, Glick notes, is populated by a volatile mix of diehard environmentalists and ruthless real estate barons, counterculture ski bums and titans of industryAall of whom coalesce in, and are particularly passionate about, places like Vail. Indeed, federal investigators found themselves confronted with a bewildering proliferation of suspects for the fires: it seemed that everyone within a 50-mile radius of the resort had a serious grudge against its owners, whose corporate HQ was known locally as "the Death Star." Combining solid investigative reporting with engrossing accounts of high-stakes wheeling and dealing and tantalizing glimpses of the glitzy life of the superrich, this is an irresistible story which, in Glick's hands, also reaches provocative conclusions about the more wide-ranging conflicts that beset the so-called New West. (Jan.) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Denver Post
"Compelling...social commentary, an updated version of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle for the recreation-based new West."


Boston Globe
"Glick...looks past the snowy peaks and windswept grasslands of our imagined West to reveal a much darker landscape...."


Colorado Springs Gazette, January 3, 2003
"welcomed by skiers, true-crime lovers, and those interested in the environmental, social and political issues raised by...the new West."


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In October of 1998, arsonists set fire to ski lifts, restaurants and other buildings on top of a mountain in Vail. These facts form the basis of Daniel Glick's book. Who set the fires and why are still unknown, despite the efforts of local, state and federal investigators, yet everyone has a theory and many had motives. There are the so-called "eco-terrorists," who have been violently opposed to the expansion of Vail Associates, the largest resort owners in Colorado, into the last pristine lynx habitat in the state; those who love the natural splendor of the area and who are resentful of the exploitation of it by tourists and wealthy pleasure-seekers; and the locals and old-time "ski-bums" who have seen their way of life destroyed. Even the developers have been suspected of destroying old buildings to make way for new and then casting blame on their enemies. In studying this crime, Glick, a reporter for Newsweek, analyzes the many forces that have come together in Vail, Colorado: New West and Old West, the rich and the working poor, locals and interlopers, exploiters and protectors. He creates a metaphor for the many stresses and strains that are occurring all over the country as we move into the 21st century and begin to understand that our resources may be limited and our greed boundless. This book would be an important addition to high school level or above environmental and sociological collections. KLIATT Codes: SA�Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2001, PublicAffairs, 275p. index.,


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