by The Editors on December 17, 2008
Squaw Valley lost three seasonal workers on Tuesday when a security guard discovered the women dead in their running car in an employee parking lot at 1:05 PM. They had apparently died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Lacey Louann Sutton, 22, of Marysville, Sara Alice McCullah, 21, of Marysville, and a 17-year-old from Loma Rica whose name was not released because of her age, were pronounced dead. Investigators found no evidence of alcohol or other drug use, and there were no signs of foul play. It snowed 10 inches the night before, and Giovannini said the exhaust fumes probably got blocked and then seeped through the floorboards. Exhaust you can smell because of the other chemicals in it. Carbon monoxide has no smell, no taste, no color,” he said. “If it’s slow and starts building up you will get drowsy, you might get nauseous and you begin to lose consciousness.”
Our thoughts are with their families and friends.
[Link: San Francisco Chronicle via Transworld Business]
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
Mammoth Mountain, LA’s favorite snowboard resort, has been fighting for years to become a destination resort.
Now, for the sixth time in its history (Desert Airlines, Sierra Pacific Airlines, Wings West, Alpha Air, and United Express have all failed), the mountain is pleased to announce that an airline will begin daily flights to Mammoth Yosemite Airport (or Bishop airport if it’s storming) staring tomorrow December 18, 2008. This time around it’s Horizon Air. And the flights leave LAX at 2:20 PM every day.
Mammoth’s master of hyperbole CEO Rusty Gregory is over-joyed. . . obviously:
“Horizon’s inaugural flight to Mammoth Mountain is one of the most pivotal moments in the history of the resort and the town,” said Rusty Gregory, CEO of Mammoth Mountain. “The air service transforms a five-plus hour drive from Southern California into an hour’s flight, making Mammoth even more convenient to experience.”
Well, let’s do the math: to get on the flight most people will have to drive at least an hour to get to LAX and park. Then they have to be there an hour early to clear security. The flight takes one hour, and the drive into town is 15 minutes, unless you’re forced to land in Bishop, then it’s an hour. So best case flyers could save one hour, or if it’s storming, no time at all. Also, flying requires packing and un-packing all the gear four times and when you get there, you don’t even have a car.
But, ah, good luck with that Horizon Air.
[Editors’ Note: We couldn’t pass this addendum regarding the new route’s first flight: “The plane landed about a half an hour late, as leaving Los Angeles had been slowed down by weather and other connector flights. —Examiner.com]
[Link: MarketWatch]
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
Citigroup analyst Kate McShane sent out a note to investors today in which she outlined some stocks to watch and some to run from. Her favorites:
Those include sports apparel and footwear maker Nike Inc., apparel maker VF Corp., sporting goods retailer Dicks Sporting Goods Inc. and sports apparel and footwear retailer Foot Locker Inc., all of which McShane rates “Buy.”
But she’s not, however, a fan of Zumiez.
Names to avoid include Liz Claiborne Inc. and Zumiez Inc., McShane recommended, due to what she considers “elevated credit risk and uncertainty of business fundamentals.”
We’re not so sure we agree with your police work there, McShane.
[Link: Money.cnn.com]
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
According to reports ASA Entertainment, the action sports event marketing company, has made at least four staff cuts in recent days.
Their director of marketing, senior producer (who produced all of the events and television for the last three years), athlete coordinator and one sales person out of the Indialantic, Florida office were all laid off. As our source says:
It seems the company is changing direction away from competitive events and more into “customized corporate marketing solutions” or as the rest of the industry calls them . . . demos.
And maybe some of that direction change is showing up at BFD.com.
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
We’ll probably hear more about this in the conference call tomorrow, but ASR is reporting that Quiksilver (and all its brands but DC Shoes) will “miss the January event for the first time since ASR was held in Long Beach,” according to a Shop-eat-surf.com.
Today Quiksilver told organizers that the brand will miss the January event for the first time since ASR was held in Long Beach,” the statement said. . . . “ASR continues to look for ways to work with Quiksilver and the industry as a whole through these hard times.”
Anyone want to buy a great surfwear brand?
[Link: Shop-eat-surf]
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
According to a story on CBC.ca, the cause of the Whistler Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola tower failure was “water seeping into a welded and bolted joint and cracking the metal as it froze.”
Thirteen people suffered minor injuries on Tuesday when one of the towers that supports the cables on the Excalibur Gondola near Fitzsimmons Creek partially collapsed, leaving three gondola cars dangling in mid-air. . . . People were left stranded in the cold for about three hours while fire crews went gondola to gondola removing the 53 passengers from the 30 trapped cars.
Good thing it was only on the lower section of the gondola.
[Link: CBC.ca]
by The Editors on December 16, 2008
Just days after the world-famous Peak-2-Peak Gondola opened Whistler is having a little trouble on one of its other gondolas.
At least a dozen passengers were trapped inside two dangling gondolas at Canada’s Whistler ski resort Tuesday after a tower partially collapsed. . . . Police said there were no serious injuries in the accident about 2:30 p.m. local time. But the passengers remained stranded as emergency officials worked on a plan to evacuate them from the gondolas on the Excalibur lift.
Maybe the resort (which is barely hanging on) was putting a little too much money into the Peak-2-Peak. Click here for video.
[Link: LA Times via YoBeat]
by The Editors on December 16, 2008
Going up against Tony Hawk in the video game world requires an army and EA brings one with this amazing opener to Skate 2, all to the beat of ELO’s Showdown. We want to play it right now.
[Link: Skateboardworks]
by The Editors on December 16, 2008
