Road Trip Stories for RoadTripArizona.com

Hat Tip to ArizonaTravel Blog


Out in the desert under the stars, a spiritual and healing experience happens around a campfire. A group gathers to share a sacred space in the beauty of Sedona's landscape and they intend to have fun while participating in an evening of self-realization and creation. Some people have their favorite musical instruments and ritual objects with them and these things will become part of the Ceremony. They may stop by the Medicine Wheel or the underground kiva for a meditative moment or to set intentions.

For thousands of years, indigenous people from as far away as Canada and Mexico have held the land and areas in Sedona as Sacred. Tribal members made pilgrimages to Sedona for their ritual and ceremonial time and to revitalize their energy for the times ahead. Shaman's, healers, indigenous people, wisdom keepers, and others still visit Sedona for the express purpose of making this profound earth connection. The earth is sacred - and connecting with the sacred land in Sedona is still a multidimensional healing and spiritual experience.

Son of a-! I can't believe I've lived here for three years and I just discovered this!

Alpine Ski Club is a bus service that leaves from Phoenix and takes large groups of people on skiing/snowboarding getaways locally and across the state borders. Judging by the photos, it seems all ages get on board and I've heard it's a blast partying on the way up. The best part about it? The deals are killer!

Check this out:

You can do a day trip to Sunrise Ski Park on the bus for $89 a person which includes your lift ticket ($40 value). When you take into account that it takes me at least a full tank of gas to get from Phoenix to Sunrise ($50 each way in my SUV), I'm saving $50 on the trip! Even if I split the gas bill with someone, it's an even deal and I get to booze the whole ride up and sleep the whole ride back. Now that is what I call a road trip!

It's sucks I'm just finding this out so close to the end of the ski season, but check out their schedule and see if you can find a trip that works for you:

In a previous post, Snowbowl's Artificial Snow debate is HEATING UP!, a representative of Howard Shanker (Rudy) wrote me some pretty strong words about the potential health risks of using reclaimed water to make snow at Snowbowl.

I wrote Rudy back with some questions to elaborate and Mr. Shanker himself responded! His email is follows:

Hi Zega - Rudy forwarded your questions to me. Hope this helps. Rather than read a lot of misinformation, I would recommend that you actually listen to the two Ninth Circuit arguments. The first one is more instructive because we had the opportunity to address the environmental as well as the legal/religious issues. I believe you can find the audio on our firm website www.Shankerlaw.net. Hope my brief answers below help.

Howard Shanker
www.Shanker2008.com
Candidate, Congressional District 1
P.O. Box 160 Flagstaff, AZ 86002-0160
www.howardshankerforcongress.com

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1.) What about the double standard of other native indian tribes who are plaintiffs against Snowbowl but who are using their religious lands for an economic boost (such as the Hualapi tribe building the Grand Canyon Skywalk)? I do not represent the Hualapai Tribe and cannot speak for their actions or beliefs. I certainly am not in a position to pass judgment on what they do or do not believe or what their priorities are. (I represent the Navajo Nation, the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the Havapai-Apache Nation, the Havasupai Tribe, the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Flagstaff Activist Network, and others). Nevertheless, what the first panel from the Ninth Circuit held was that the project had a substantial burden on the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe's ability to practice their respective religions. Based on that finding the Court determined that it did not need to look further into the claims of the other tribes. Does their argument about Snowbowl impacting native indian religious lands really hold water? Whether or not Snowbowl and/or others are comfortable with the Hualapi's claim and/or feel that they are in a position to pass judgment on their claim, really has no bearing on the validity of the other claims made.

2.) In your opinion, is the White Mountain Apache's (Sunrise) objection to Snowbowl making artificial snow more heavily weighted on religious grounds or their predicted economic loss (because of Flagstaff's closer proximity to Phoenix)? Are Sunrise's ski slopes located on what WMAs consider "holy land"? The WMAT are one of my clients. Their objections are based solely on religious grounds. WMAT practitioners (who hold essentially the same beliefs as the Yavapai-Apache (Apache) practitioners) testified that Sunrise was not on ground they consider holy. It is land the Tribe owns, not federal land. The WMAT use fresh water from Lake Ono to make snow, not reclaimed sewer water.

3.) In today's litigious and "sue-happy" culture, why would Snowbowl knowingly use water that would be "deadly to skiers" instead of properly treating it to healthy standards? I think "deadly" is a bit strong. The main problem is that we don't know what many of the effects would be and it is unwise to use our children (and other skiers) as laboratory rats. In your opinion, would Snowbowl use this contaminated water because (a) they haven't done the proper research about its health effects? (b) it cuts the costs treating of the water? (c) they don't have other options? (d) some other reason? We have a system that allows chemical companies and others to use a host of chemicals that are not proven as safe. It then becomes incumbent on a person who is sick from exposure to prove that it is the exposure that made them sick. Without adequate science, this is often an insurmountable task. These companies have no reason to spend money developing good science that could ultimately be used against them. Specifically with regard to the instant matter, this is about money for Snowbowl: (a) additional research costs money and time and could render contrary conclusions; (b) the water is treated by the City of Flagstaff and it meets applicable standards for reclaimed sewer water -- if the City or Snowbowl wanted to run the treated waste water through reverse osmosis, I assume that would address most of the health and environmental based objections. That costs money and is currently not required by Arizona law; (c) using fresh water would be very expensive. More importantly, however, we live in the desert and are facing a water supply crisis in the near future. Using fresh water to make snow would not be a very wise allocation of the resource and would likely run into additional opposition from the community for that reason. Using reclaimed water treated with reverse osmosis would present similar allocation issues, or at least it should. Indeed, a valid argument could be made that using reclaimed sewer water to make snow is not a wise allocation of that resource given our ongoing struggle for water and unchecked growth. As discussed below, use of fresh water would not necessarily address the religious and cultural concerns raised by the tribes.

4.) If it could be proven beyond a doubt that Snowbowl would use properly treated A+ water to make artifical snow, would Howard Shanker's camp still petition against them? The proposal calls for "properly treated" A+ water. The problem is that under Arizona law "properly treated" A+ water is not potable. It contains a host of chemicals that could potentially impact human health and the environment -- many of which are untested. Why or why not? If you assume, arguendo, that the water was 100% pure and there were no health or environmental issues, many of my clients would still oppose the project on religious grounds (I think reference to "Howard Shanker's camp" is a little misleading). I would continue to represent my clients as their attorney. If you are asking for my personal opinion, I believe that the financial health of a private, for profit ski area, on federal land should not overbalance the sincerely held religious beliefs of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans. Throw in the fact that this is not clean water and add my objections on scientific and environmental grounds to the mix.

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Zega,

Though Howard may consider "deadly" to be a little strong, I have read a great deal about wastewater and how it has already killed people on golf courses in Phoenix. I would call the water deadly. Please google norovirus and norwalk virus to see what I mean. There will be times when this is definitely in the water snowbowl wants to use.

-Rudy

Ok, ok, I know I've been bitching about Sunrise Ski Park and (what I believe to be) their hypocrisy about making artificial snow BUT, you have to remember, I just want consistent skiing in Arizona.

Well, I went snowboarding in Sunrise this weekend and their powder was as fresh and plentiful as Tony Montana's last scene Scarface.


It was by far the best snow conditions I've ever witnessed in the 3 years I've lived in Arizona and I'm looking forward to going back.

Sunrise boasts their towering pine trees that drape the slopes with long, dramatic shadows. Their main mountain (Sunrise lift) has high speed quad lifts that whisk you up to the peaks for breathtaking views and fast blue and black diamond runs. My favorite is "Spruceridge" because it's all about speed.

It was so nice to see everyone from around the state playing in the snow like we actually live in a real ski community, although it did get crowded by midday. At that point, we headed over to their other mountain (Cyclone lift) which has slower chairs and mostly flatter runs although their are a few - like "Tempest" - that will totally emascualte you. All in all, it was a great day. I will be heading back to Snowbowl on Jan 12th - 13th because it's supposed to snow again. (Update: I checked weather again on Jan. 4th and now it's not supposed to snow. Oh well, I'm going anyway.)

By the way, if your not enjoying this historic ski season, get off your candy ass and hit the slopes because it wll probably be another 3 to 5 years until we have consistent snow like this again.

The Wall Street Journal printed a great article back in June that summarizes the Snowbowl snowmaking case from both sides of the coin. I recommend everyone interested read the full article, "Tribes Envoke Gods to Block Wastewater Snowmaking" to catch up on the issue.

Or if you have A.D.D., there is a great summary and breakdown of the article on Ski-Blog.com.


My opinions on article excerpts:

• "The mountaintops are sacred to the Navajo and 12 other tribes, even though the land is not part of their reservations. The tribes regard the mountains as living deities that would be offended by man-made snowmaking, especially if it used treated wastewater..."
• So the tribes are saying these living deities (mountains) would be offended by snowmaking even if they WEREN'T using treated wastwater? That is absurd because the White Mountain Apache, the tribe who run Sunrise Ski Park and are 1 of the 13 tribes mentioned, also uses wastewater to make their snow, as "Sunrise's operators testified" in the article. An unnamed spokesman then contridicts that statement in the very next sentence by saying they only use spring water - but all this should be a moot point anyway since the deities are offended by ALL snowmaking. But...oh wait...in the same paragraph the Apache tell us their ski park sits on regular old fashioned mountains made of rocks...there is nothing sacred or living about them.

• "The tribes contend [using reclaimed/treated water] would contaminate plants and spring water used in religious ceremonies. The court compared spraying snow made from treated wastewater on the peaks to requiring Christians to use reclaimed water for baptisms."
• Irrigation is one of the main uses of reclaimed water so I find it highly unlikely their plants would be any less safe than the plants all of us (including our grazing animals) eat everyday. And, by its very definition, if the reclaimed water did get into the springs (a natural body of water) it would become.....wait for it.......potable drinking water! And no one is restricting the tribes to use only the plants and resources from the >1% of land that Snowbowl wants to make snow on, if they are that concerned about it, there is still another 77,000 acres of untouched mountain range to choose from! Therefore, a more accurate conclusion to the above analogy would be: it would be like requiring Christians to choose from 99 sources of water they normally use for baptism or 1 source of reclaimed water.

• "While most U.S. ski resorts make snow, Snowbowl would have been the first to do so only with reclaimed water, which is used across the parched Southwest on golf courses and parks. Under state law, the resort would have had to post signs warning skiers not to eat any snow."
• California - yes, those health and environmental nuts to the West of us - are the leading the nation in reclaimed water projects. As we become more populated and potable water becomes more scarce, reclaimed water projects will only increase. If your looking for an immediate precedence, you can bet your sweet ass Georgia is turning to reclaimed water in light of their dire drought situation. Snowbowl may be the first to make snow with it but they sure as hell won't be the last. As a matter of fact, the University of California has already established Treatment and Quality Criteria for reclaimed water snowmaking! And I understand people don't think a posted sign will provide any protection IF the snow was harmful to eat, but since reclaimed water treatment can exceed standard drinking water, this shouldn't be an issue, as long as Snowbowl uses A+ water.

• "This is not really about reclaimed water," says Joe Galli of the city's chamber of commerce. "This is about whether they want Snowbowl to exist at all, whether they want recreation to exist at all" on the mountain. The tribe called on the government to remove the entire Snowbowl resort and says snowmaking there would impair the tribe's ability to perform religious ceremonies."
• Ok, who are these guys, the fucking Taliban?