The Outsider .. Park Service kills proposed policy banning bolts. Climbers and wilderness advocates are cheering. ...Middle East

Plus: STRs dodge a bullet, Leadville gold plan nixes cyanide, Old Spice inspires National Ski Patrol revamp, White River NF closes its Glenwood HQ

Jason Blevins

Outdoors/Business Reporter

Sneak Peek of the Week

Ski towns drop short-term rental homes from plans for a vacancy tax

“We do want you all to be vigilant.”

— Jaclyn Terwey with the Expedia Group

7,544

Short-term rental licenses in Summit County, which generated more than $8.5 million in licensing fees in 2024

Short-term rental property owners, managers and advocates got a bit of good news this week. A legislative plan by ski towns to impose the first vacancy tax on empty homes will not include homes that are rented to vacationers.

Instead, the draft legislation proposed by the 28-member Colorado Association of Ski Towns — or CAST — will focus on properties owned by far-away owners and left vacant except for a week or two a year.

“The vacancy tax bill will target the properties that are truly vacant the majority of the time with hope of incentivizing rentals and, if not, creating revenue for local housing programs,” said Margaret Bowes, the executive director of the Colorado Association of Ski Towns.

Bowes said the association removed short-term rentals from the draft legislation because “communities already have tools to manage STRs and many CAST communities feel they are striking a good balance with STRs through those efforts.”

CAST last year tried to get lawmakers to bite on a bill that would have allowed local governments to levy taxes on empty homes. The idea was the legislation would be either a tool for increasing revenue for affordable housing or spur owners to rent homes to working locals.

The association earlier this year also floated the idea of expanding the real estate transfer tax that has swelled coffers in a dozen Western Slope towns that installed the tax before passage of the 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which prevents new taxes without voter approval. Bowes said the association will not push a real estate transfer tax — or a real estate transfer fee — at next year’s legislative session.

Short-term rental owners and advocates with rental platforms like Vrbo and Airbnb last year joined to fight legislation that would have quadrupled property taxes on vacation rentals by taxing them as commercial, not residential, properties. The legislation — Senate Bill 33 — was killed in committee. It was sponsored by state Sen. Chris Hansen, a Democrat from Denver who had previously sponsored legislation that would increase taxes on short-term rental properties. Hansen was reelected to a second term in November and a week later announced that he will resign from the Colorado legislature next month.

At an online webinar this week hosted by the Summit Alliance of Vacation Rental Managers, a public affairs executive with the Expedia Group, which owns Vrbo, said the news that CAST was dropping short-term rental properties from its vacancy tax plan was “huge news.”

But Jaclyn Terwe, with the Expedia Group that owns Vrbo, warned that legislation addressing vacation rentals would “likely be moving forward.”

“We do want you all to be vigilant,” she told the owners and property managers on the call, suggesting that a lawmaker’s amendment to the draft legislation could add short-term rental homes to the vacancy tax proposal.

Terwey said her group is anticipating legislation that would enable local communities to ask voters to increase lodging taxes from 2% to 6% and a bill that would allow municipalities and counties to levy an excise tax on vacation rental homes, possibly on top of lodging taxes.

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Breaking Trail

Park Service kills plan that could have banned climbing bolts in wilderness areas

12,000

Number of comments collected by the National Park Service on proposed climbing guidance policy

The National Park Service on Wednesday abruptly killed a nearly two-year plan to overhaul climbing policy in wilderness areas that could have led to a ban on fixed anchors.

A Park Service spokesperson said it would rely on existing regulations overseeing fixed anchors in wilderness areas. The proposal to create a process where local land managers could allow fixed anchors in wilderness even though the bolts would be considered “permanent installations,” which are expressly prohibited under the 1964 Wilderness Act, was ardently opposed by climbers and wilderness advocates.

The Park Service received more than 12,000 comments around the proposed plan, making it one of the most controversial policies the agency has ever considered.

Climbers and wilderness advocates cheered the Park Service’s reversal.

>> Click here to read this story

The Playground

How Old Spice is inspiring a rebrand at the National Ski Patrol

“We are the new Old Spice.”

— National Ski Patrol CEO Stephanie Cox

32,000

Members of the National Ski Patrol

Stephanie Cox stepped into a mess two years ago.

“I like cleaning up messes. I like the challenge. They used to call me the sweeper,” says the chief executive of the Lakewood-based National Ski Patrol.

The former executive director of the nonprofit World Child Cancer health organization arrived at the National Ski Patrol two years ago, becoming the fourth director of the organization in only five years. The former bosses reported conflicts with the group’s member-elected board of directors. An online petition was calling for an overhaul of the venerable organization that formed in 1938. Staff were bailing after years of turmoil, which included board members twice suing their own organization. The group was losing its relevance in a quickly shifting ski resort industry.

Cox landed with a plan. She started visiting ski patrols across the country. She shepherded an overhaul of the organization’s training programs. She enlisted staff and kept them onboard. She mended fences with her board. She’s now got 32,000 members across 630 patrols, including more than 5,000 pro ski patrollers.

“I invested in my team. I invested in board relationships. I traveled all over the country. This year I went to Alaska and met with patrollers. I was just listening. I had no magic bullet. I was not on a white horse to save this organization. I got in the trenches and did the hard work,” she says, decked in ski gear after meeting with ski patrollers at Copper Mountain. “You know what I learned? Patrol is about family. We recruit patrollers who are stoked to ski and they love the industry and they love the sport. But then they stay because they become part of a family. I knew I had to join that family and that’s what I did. I went to work on relationships.”

Here are a few questions with Cox, exploring new directions, a renewed mission and how Old Spice helped spark a revival of the 86-year-old NSP brand.

The Colorado Sun: In Colorado we hear a lot about ski patrollers forming unions to push for better pay and benefits for their careers. A majority of your members are volunteers. In Colorado, we don’t necessarily recognize the important role that volunteer patrollers play in the resort industry.

Stephanie Cox: “So volunteer patrollers not only started the National Ski Patrol in 1938, they also started the 10th Mountain Division, (the U.S. Army’s first military mountaineering unit). Volunteers also created every education course that has guided training for patrollers for decades, including a brand new course on outdoor risk management and we’re in the middle of creating leadership development courses. All done by volunteers. These are doctors, nurses, lawyers and medical professionals who are in all our communities and they donate all this time and professional knowledge to create new opportunities for ski patrollers everywhere.”

TCS: The National Ski Patrol is a bit OG …

Cox: What’s OG?

TCS: Old guard. Old guy. Dudes with caterpillar mustaches and skinny skis.

Cox: I think about 60% of our members are over the age of 55. So we are aging out a little bit.

TCS: So as you prepare for that next generation of ski patrollers, you’ve created NSP’s first sponsored- athlete program. … You have a 16-year-old on that team. What was the impetus for that?

Cox: So last April, I was having a meeting with my leadership team and we were talking about NSP as this iconic, legacy brand. I love marketing and I love brands. And we were talking about the question of relevancy. How do we acknowledge the past and then look to the future? And I ...

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