But who wants to drive up a mountain with all this snow on the roads?

Report Rates Western Ski Resorts on Environmental Policies and Practices

By Jennifer Gelband, 11-30-06

It is snowing, so it is now appropriate to discuss winter sports. Apparently that’s what everyone is doing.

National media has picked up the results of an annual report from an organization called the Ski Area Citizens' Coalition, which rates western ski areas on environmental policies and practices. The Coalition recently graded 77 ski areas in the region – 13 of which are in the division consisting of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

And the big shock that’s hit the press like an avalanche is that oh-so-chic Sun Valley narrowly eked its way out of the bottom ten with a “D” on the scorecard, pulling in 45.5 points out of 100.

“The Ski Area Environmental Scorecard strives to differentiate between those ski areas that engage in environmentally sound practices on the ground versus those that merely claim to do so,” the Coalition writes on its web site.

The criteria are complex and include grades on subjects such as how well they maintain ski terrain within the existing footprint, preserving undisturbed lands, road and parking lot construction, protecting endangered species, and more. A group of several non-profit conservation organizations compile the grades.

Sun Valley scored so low in part because of its proposals to expand real estate, roads and skiing terrain. The resort’s public relations director Jack Sibbach told an Associated Press reporter for a widely circulating story that he questioned the report's methodology, saying Sun Valley has, in fact, avoided building sprawling base villages that are popular at so many other ski areas. “I'd ask who uses more energy?" Sibbach said. "It's the other resorts who develop large condos and base villages. We don't have any of that."

Interestingly, the PR directors at some of the area’s other poor scoring resorts are keeping mum, possibly hoping that Sun Valley will bear all the criticism. But there were a lot of low grades.

So here’s the dirt: Idaho’s Silver Mountain Ski Resort scored an “F” and kept company in the bottom ten ranking with two Montana resorts that scored “Ds” low enough to place them in the Worst in the West. Skirting the bottom ten list like its neighbor Sun Valley is another top ski spot in Idaho, Brundage, which also scored a “D.”

In better news, Boise’s Bogus Basin Mountain Resort scored 71.6 points, an “A” and a secure number 9 spot in the Ten Most Environmentally Friendly Ski Resorts. Bogus, which was the only resort in the Idaho, Montana, Wyoming region with an “A,” earned kudos for participating in a resort sign-on letter to support Senate Bill 139 - the Climate Stewardship Act.

Check out the ranking and the reasoning at the web site.

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