High Country News March 04, 2013
Feature
Climate change turns an already troubled ski industry on its head
California's Mammoth Mountain provides a case study on the uncertainty of the ski business, and how global warming threatens to make it even more unpredictable.
Current
Can Sally Jewell interest a new generation in public lands?
The chief of Recreation Equipment Inc. has worked hard to support conservation and get people of all ages and colors outside. Can she do the same at the Department of Interior?
Philip Anschutz’s outsized reach in the West
The billionaire has stakes in everything from Western art, railroads and petroleum to renewable energy, national parks, stadiums and Justin Bieber.
Technology eases access to ancient ruins, for better or worse
A writer uses the Internet and GPS to find secret Ancestral Puebloan dwellings and other wonders on Utah’s Cedar Mesa, home of the country’s highest concentration of archaeological sites.
Lake Mead's retreat leaves Nevada ghost town high and dry
The residents of St. Thomas were forced to leave their homes behind when Lake Mead submerged their town. But after decades under water, drought has brought it back to the surface.
Will Los Angeles bring its cougars back from the brink?
With just a handful of mountain lions left in the Santa Monica Mountains, Californians must decide whether they care enough about wildness to fund key habitat connections.
Editor's Note
Ski industry supports cloud seeding but downplays climate change
Getting skiers on the slopes is less about actual snow and more about getting skiers to believe there is snow.
Dear Friends
Students take over HCN Facebook page
Marketing students try their hand at managing HCN’s Facebook page; new books from Julianne Couch and Mike Medberry; corrections and clarification.
Book Reviews
An unlikely penitent: A review of On Top of Spoon Mountain
John Nichols’ latest novel tells the story of an aging writer who wants to climb one last peak to redeem his mistakes and restore his relationship with his children.
Girl in the woods: A review of The Snow Child
The debut novel from Eowyn Ivey, now in paperback, describes a homesteading couple in Alaska who adopt a mysterious girl living in the woods.
Book review: The Wild Wyoming Range
A review of The Wild Wyoming Range, edited by Ronald H. Chilcote and Susan Marsh
Essays
'We Don’t Give a Damn How They Do It Outside'
An Alaska native struggles to "blend in" in the Lower 48.
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