the sheet In Mammoth Rec League hockey, key stats are not measured News, Views & Culture of the Eastern Sierra by GAA but rather BAC. Just ask Jon Tayer (pictured above). For more, see page 13. Saturday, February 1, 2020 FREE Vol. 18, No. 5 EMBRACE THE “SUCK” SPEED RACER A visit to the Mountain Warfare Training Center By Page he Sierra Nevada can be To put it another way: “We’ve an intimidating place created an island of isolation Tto settle. The combina- where we can torture Marines tion of altitude, isolation, and without the scrutiny of the extreme weather remove any public,” Col. Hutchinson ex- possibility that that it might plained, drawing a laugh from be easy, creating an environ- the civilians and Marines in the ment that for many is entirely auditorium. undesirable. The civilian group’s visit to Unless the people in ques- the base is one of two times tion are Marines. that the Mountain Warfare Where others might see a Training Center welcomes visi- difficult situation, the Marine tors during the year. All those Corps sees a golden oppor- invited to visit on Wednesday tunity, which is precisely why have established relation- the Marine Corps Mountain ships with the Training Center Warfare Training Center (MC- whether it be through veterans MWTC) is located here on the groups, donations, or volunteer Eastside, in the mountains be- work. tween Bridgeport and Walker. After the battle of Chosin We want our Marines to get Reservior in the Korean War, pounded by inclement weath- during which the Marine Corps Laurel White on course Thursday in a CNISSF qualifier for the Mammoth Huskies on Thursday. Results on p. 12 er,” Colonel Kevin Hutchin- sustained more than 7,000 son, Commanding Officer at non-battle casualties as a result SCOPES TRIAL MCMWTC, told a group of of cold weather, there was a Inyo County hosts two scoping meetings for Bishop Airport community leaders assembled desperate need to incorporate By Hite in the training center’s audito- mountain training into the nyo County hosted two Inyo County, Clint Quilter, board of MLT (Mammoth rium on Wednesday morning. see MARINES, page 9 public scoping meetings, told the Sheet that improve- Lakes Tourism) asking the Iin Bishop and Mammoth, ments to date started with airport representatives if the as part of the environmen- an FAA airport improvement timeline for the opening was tal review and initial study program (AIP) grant to do actually reasonable. which need to occur this year multiple repair/rehabilita- Truax told the Sheet, “The before Bishop Airport can tion projects. business ramifications (of accommodate commercial Such projects are typically a deadline not reached) air service. 90% funded by the feds. could come back on the The plan is to transfer Then the Airport improved other side.” Truax noted United’s current service to it’s diagonal runway with that environmental studies Mammoth forty minutes money from the Infrastruc- (NEPA/CEQA) typically take south, and have three daily ture Stimulus Project total- an average of 50 months to flights, from Los Angeles, San ling $7.8 million. The Fed complete. Obviously, if there Francisco and Denver, dur- paid all of this and Bishop’s are no complications with ing the ski season (December was one of two California air- the preliminary environmen- 15-April 15) and then have ports, the other being Santa tal assessment, this timeline one daily flight from Los An- Rosa, to receive money from is way shorter. geles in the summer months. this program. Clint Quilter told the Sheet The Bishop Airport was Last week, Inyo County Inyo County wasn’t looking originally built for military hosted scoping meetings to give itself an extra cushion use to accommodate refuel- which were, for the most part just to make sure they would ing of large military aircraft uneventful. However, certain meet a deadline. Quilter said during World War II. It is public comments sparked he’s working closely with the equipped to handle com- questions, with Brent Truax, FAA and all parties believe mercial aircraft because of the Managing Director at the October is viable as a tenta- its long runways. The County Sierra Nevada Resort who tive opening date. Master Sergeant Ricardo Valenzuela leading a demonstration on the Administrator Officer for usage of smoke grenades. served eight years on the see AIRPORT, page 10 Remembering Davina 25 for 26 Light of Day Going for three Paint it Black p. 18/ p. 11/ p. 4/ p. 6/ p. 2/ 2 I www.thesheetnews.com THE SHEET I Saturday, February 1, 2020 the Ted Carleton ....... Jack of all Lunches ROUND TWO 760.937.4613 / [email protected] If you talk to folks about the Ikon Pass and its blackout dates, you’ll cer- June Simpkins... tainly attract a wide range of opinion. Jack of everything else 760.937.3967 / [email protected] The second series of this season’s pass blackout dates occurred over Mar- tin Luther King weekend. sheet Zachary Hite ................... Writer For hotels, reports Owen Page, business was good; Sierra Nevada Resort, News, Views & Culture of the Eastern Sierra [email protected] Alpenhof, and the Village Lodge all reported being sold-out on the weekend Owen Page ..................... Writer in question. “We were slammed at the front desk,” said Louie Allen at the “Saepe me offenditis, et faciunt etiam [email protected] Village Lodge. tibi, Si oblivesci non possumus, vel non Robert Schaubmayer, owner of Alpenhof and Petra’s, said that the hotel ita, ego coniecto ut per potuimus” Melissa Maddux .............Writer was booked through the weekend but noted some “oddball nights” between -Grateful Dead [email protected] Clocktower and Petra’s where business was solid but nothing extraordinary. Charles James ............ Contributor Schaubmayer noticed a tangible difference between MLK weekend and 760.614.0546 the following weekend, January 25-27, estimating a 35% increase in the JACK LUNCH Clouds McCloud ......... Ass-trologer crowd at Petra’s and Clocktower from one weekend to the next. PUBLISHER Alexis Rausec at Stellar Brew also commented on the difference between P.O. Box 8088 Spike Todd ...........Beverage Consultant the two weekends, noting that Stellar Brew was slow until the Monday after Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546 the blackout weekend while the following weekend was substantially busier. For a subscription, contact Lunch at his 760.924.0048/[email protected] above e-mail address, or call the office. Issues Rausec also explained that the rush hadn’t been expected, which can create An adjudicated paper of general circula- are mailed out bi-weekly. Cost is $75/year. resource issues if demand outstrips supplies. tion. © 2020 The Sheet, all rights reserved. On the retail side, “It wasn’t the busiest MLK weekend we’ve had,” said Suzanne Strunk at Kittredge Sports. “This past weekend was way busier.” cancel all flights on January 16 due to inclement weather. Strunk attributed the slow pace to many IKON holders already having “Blackout dates are helping level it out so [businesses] are not getting their own gear; beginner/casual skiers may not yet have a need to purchase crushed and employees aren’t getting wiped out,” Kaylor told the Sheet. any gear. And “people are counting their pennies,” said Strunk, referencing pricing Joani Lynch, Mammoth Mountain’s V.P. of Marketing and Sales, elabo- changes at Mammoth as another possible deterrent. rated on the “leveling” theme in a phoine conversation Thursday. According to Lara Kaylor at Mammoth Lakes Tourism, the occupancy rate She said if you look at the three-week period bookending MLK weekend, in Mammoth Lakes for MLK weekend was 76%, with the highest rates oc- you’ll see that the total numbers are about even, and that in terms of total curring Saturday and Sunday nights. skier visits, Mammoth is running ahead of last year. “We’ve heard from businesses that it’s still really steady business com- But because of the business being dispersed, you don’t have that crush of ing in,” said Kaylor. Kaylor also reported that inbound flights to Mammoth people at any one time. Yosemite during MLK weekend were between 54%-63% full while outbound Mammoth Lakes Tourism Executive Director John Urdi also cited the flights were between 61%-71% full. The Denver service was only 31% full numbers. He said December TOT revenue came in $116,000 ahead of last for inbound flights and 45% full for outbound flights. United was forced to year and that TBID revenue categories (retail, restaurant, TOT) were up across the board. Matt Hammer of Black Velvet Coffee thinks the blackout date policy actually helps his business, because he can only serve so many people at a time and doesn‘t really have the capacity or labor to provide good customer service when it’s completely packed. Others in the food and beverage business are not so sanguine. One sent a long text to me which stated, “The previous article you wrote about the blackout dates ... did not reflect the real story of how detruimental Mammoth’s business practices are for local business ... local vendors have PEOPLE confirmed this is the worst winter we’ve had in more than a decade.” This person cited Mammoth’s day ski pass rates and food prices as crip- DOWNHILL pling and causing people to stay away. And yet, the numbers from Lynch and Urdi don’t reflect that. Perhaps - and this is guesswork - when you have such a disruption in the HAVE THE RIGHT business model, it creates a recalibration, and maybe even a different set of winners. OF WAY Looking forward, there’s one final series of blackout dates to brace over President’s weekend in mid-February.