Vail

A federal agency has fined Vail Resorts $80,100 for violating the Clean Water Act during its development of new powder-skiing terrain, an amount environmentalists say is too low. The Environmental Protection Agency had said it was considering a $200,000 fine against the ski resort, but announced the lesser fine late Friday. "The fine is nothing. It should clearly be 10 or 20 times that much," Rocky Smith, of the environmental group Colorado Wild, said Saturday.

Always keen to make skiing as genteel as possible, Vail plans to install a snow-melting system on city streets. A banner headline in the Vail Daily on Friday reported the event this way: "Vail Says No to Snow." For traditionalists, there is no need to worry; some pockets of snow will be allowed to remain.

Laker guard Kobe Bryant is free on bail after turning himself in to police on suspicion of felony sexual assault at a resort hotel near Vail, Colo., Eagle County Sheriff Joe Hoy said Sunday night. Bryant surrendered to the Eagle County Sheriff's Detention Facility on Friday. He was booked, posted $25,000 bail and released. He has yet to be formally charged and an arraignment has not been scheduled, authorities said.

Pete Seibert, who founded the nation's largest and most popular ski hill, Vail Mountain, died Monday of cancer in Vail, Colo. He was 77. Although a relative newcomer to the ski scene, the Vail resort exploded in size and popularity after opening in 1962. The ski area today covers 5,200 acres, has 33 chairlifts and drew 1.5 million skiers last season, despite less than ideal snow conditions across the West.

Vail Resorts Inc. agreed to buy the Heavenly Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe on the Nevada-California border from American Skiing Co. for $96million to $99 million in cash. Vail, which owns resorts in Vail and Beaver Creek, Colo., said it will spend $25 million over the next five years to replace lifts, add restaurants and improve the snowmaking system at Heavenly. Vail, Colo.-based Vail Resorts shares rose 45 cents to $21.40, and American Skiing shares were unchanged at 26 cents, both on the NYSE.

Skiers can visit Vail, Colo., for a fraction of peak-season prices by scheduling their trips Nov. 16 to Dec. 14. For instance, six people can stay in a two-bedroom-plus-loft condo at Vail Landmark Properties for as little as $35 per person per night, if they stay at least four nights. By comparison, the rate from January to March is about $73 to $87 per person. Four people can share a two-bedroom condo for $53 per person per night, versus about $112 to $149 per person in the peak season.

Miller Hudson's monorail is no Mickey Mouse novelty from Disneyland 1959. He wants to build a monorail 163 miles from the Plains into the Rockies, and from the ski slopes back to the planes at Denver International Airport. Hudson, head of a state authority to build a $3.9-billion monorail from Denver to Vail, says Walt Disney's dream is getting in the way of his--too many people think of monorails as amusement park rides.

Fire forced dozens of guests to flee their rooms at a Vail ski resort during the night and caused millions of dollars in damage as firefighters were hampered by a frozen water standpipe. No guests were reported injured by the blaze that burned for six hours after breaking out late Saturday at the Marriott Vail Mountain Resort. One firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion and another for smoke inhalation.

A skier was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the 1997 death of another skier he ran into on the slopes in a high-speed collision, in the first criminal trial of its kind in the United States, officials said Friday. Nathan Hall, 21, of Chico, Calif., was found guilty late Thursday in the 1997 death of Alan Cobb, 33, of Denver. Prosecutors had urged the jury--made up of skiers and snowboarders--to send a message that reckless skiing will not be tolerated.

Vail in Colorado, which bills itself as the largest ski resort in North America, got even bigger last week when it opened the 520-acre Blue Sky Basin--its largest expansion since China Bowl in 1988. Vail Resorts' total skiable area is now 5,164 acres.