Re: A Swiss approach

John West Wrote:
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> Too bad the Cumbres highway does't lend itself to
> being used as a winter sled run. In Switzerland
> during the winter the highway over Albula pass is
> closed and turned into a long sled run, and the
> parallel HSB ng. hauls the sleds and riders up the
> hill. Or at least that was true some years ago.
> In my limited experience sledding down a looooong
> hill like that is about as much fun as you can
> have without taking your clothes off. And on
> weekends the railroad appeared to do a land office
> business.
>
> But more realistically, I sometimes wonder if
> there is any way to turn Osier into some kind of
> rail accessed ski, ski board, and/or snowmobile
> winter recreation destination. The isolation
> would be wonderful, but keeping the railroad open
> would probably be more costly than it is worth.
>
> But finding someway to generate (positive) cash
> flow during the winter would certainly be a step
> in the right direction of making the railroad self
> supporting (and creating some needed local
> business). When I was spending a lot of time
> during the winter in Chama the local businesses
> would talk about "cash fumes" by the time Spring
> rolled around. The need for some, almost any
> winter business was very apparent.
>
> JBWX

Well, even in a Jeep hwy 17 can be a winter sled run at times!