Under the Covers

Tahoe's Kirkwood ski resort has always been this laid back rustic bare bones ski area, not affected by the commercialization and mall culture plaguing other resorts such as Heavenly and Northstar. So, Vail resorts' recent acquisition of Kirkwood surprised many. "Kirkwood sold it's soul to the devil!", they thundered. "Save the independent ski areas in tahoe!", they implored.

Were they really independent? Here is a sneak peek of the Tahoe ski industry.

KSL Capital Partners owns Squaw as well as Alpine Meadows and now are the majority stake holder of this combined resort area. JMA ventures owned Alpine and now are minority stake holders. JMA also owns Homewood.

Boothcreek resorts own Sierra-at-tahoe resort, which some claim to be the last independent ski resort in tahoe area. Boothcreek actually used to own Northstar-at-tahoe but sold it off to Vail in 2010. Vail had made an entry into tahoe area by acquiring Heavenly in 2002.

Why mention all this? George Gillett, a businessman and entrepreneur, was the former owner of Vail. He also went on to co-found Boothcreek and is their CEO & chairman. Michael Shannon and Larry Lichliter worked with Gillett, as CEO and COO, respectively, of Vail . Shannon and Lichliter went onto co-found KSL Recreation (Kravis, Shannon, Lichliter) which ultimately became KSL Capital Partners. So these 3 business holdings put together and the closely connected individuals behind them own five of the most popular resorts in the Tahoe area and are now influencing the direction of the Tahoe ski industry.

Ski industry is now operated as a business and for profit. Profits should never be construed as a bad thing, it will guide their investments. This might be in contrast to the tradition and style of the original Tahoe ski pioneers such as Alex Cushing (founded squaw), Warren Hellman (was part owner of Sugarbowl), Dave McCoy (founded Mammoth), Dick Reuter (co-founded Kirkwood), and Bud Klein (founded Kirkwood). Never a dull moment reading about how McCoy built mammoth or how Reuter single-handedly lumber jacked his way around Kirkwood clearing ski runs. They were mountain men in the truest sense.

But, it is no secret that lift ticket sales alone were never profitable for the ski industry. The business reality makes a compelling case for these mergers -- helps to save costs, consolidate operations -- and explains their inclination towards real estate development at these resorts. Their focus now is on projecting these resorts as a winter vacation destination for urban families.With this approach, some say that skiing, as a sport, has perhaps been relegated to the background but I am not buying that argument. The charm of the mountain and snow is still their primary product, and they need to build a successful business around it. Their success is important for the sport of skiing.

Concept of "Mother" Earth

Note: Only some of these thoughts are mine, a few thoughts were based on discussions with others this past week, a few others are extracts swiped from articles, quotes on the internet, as well as from books.

Is Mars tectonically dormant? That is the question.

Seems like there is enough evidence that "Life" on earth was largely shaped by the planet's geological activity. This is what I refer to as the concept of "Mother" Earth -- As a mother shapes the life of her child, so as our planet's geological activity shaped life as we know it. On one end of spectrum, life has probably evolved and thrived on this planet due it's tectonic activity, and on the other end, our religion, customs & traditions have been shaped by this activity as well.

We know that life requires three main ingredients: a solvent (water), structure (carbon compounds) and energy. Life needs access to these key ingredients -- hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulphur. These elements support the basic chemistry of life as we know it. They must be regulated and replenished. Nature's method of achieving this on the Earth appears to be plate tectonics.

Major factor for Life is the recycling of carbon, which is needed to stabilize the temperature here on Earth (contrast with Venus's runaway greenhouse effect). Plate tectonics is known to regulate the carbon cycle on this planet: Carbon is washed out of the atmosphere and digested by bacteria in the soil and pushed deep into the interior of the planet from where it can be outcast through volcanic activity. Tectonics is probably "that" crucial phenomenon that helps release gases from the core and determines how much of an atmosphere a planet has. Our planet's tectonic activity has also helped in creating the magnetic field that shields us from harmful radiation.

On the other end of the spectrum, how about the planet's geological activity shaping human life? Didn't the integrated religion of Vaishnavism* arise after the cataclysmic events in 11,000 BP**? Didn't the atheistic beliefs of Buddhism and Jainism arise during the great drought of 3800 BP that lasted for nearly three centuries (when people effectively lost faith in God)?.

Our living planet is continually shaping it's destiny.

How about Mars? Some say that Mars - unlike Earth - is too small and has too cold an interior to host plate tectonic processes. Some other analysis suggested that Mars's tectonic activities are excruciatingly slow, with major tectonic shifts occurring about every million years or so. Researchers suspect that Mars is subject to a different kind of plate tectonics — one that may be the result of the planet just having two plates, as contrasted with Earth's seven.

Actually, there is another interesting element to this story. Many within the planetary science community believe that to have plate tectonics, the near-surface rock must be weakened. The molecule most effective at doing this is H2O -- water. So worlds with plate tectonics are likely to have water as well, which means they feature two ingredients theoretically necessary for life. Beautiful! Isn't it?

*Vaishnavism = precursor to Hindusim as we know it in the modern era
**BP = Before Present