Skippress - Index

Skippress - SkiPress US Vol.7 No.3 - Index

SNOLIFEBY
EUGENE BUCHANAN
Green
GOING Green
EXTREME SKIER ROB DESLAURIERS LAUNCHES NEW ECO-LODGE IN JACKSON
Even when stomping big landings, extreme skier
Rob Deslauriers is used to leaving a light footprint.
It’s what’s helped propel him to fi lm-star
status and ski away from drops that routinely
devour others.
Now he’s hoping to devour the hospitality competition
by applying this same philosophy to a new
line of green hotels. Developed by the Terra Resort
Group, the fi rst Hotel Terra, which opened slopeside
this December in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is
one of only six LEED-certifi ed hotels in the US (a
rating standard conferred by the US Green Building
Council). The 72-room, six-story hotel is one
of 12 enviro-lodges the group hopes to develop
worldwide by 2015.
“It’s a rare opportunity to bring your passion into
your work, but I’m able to do that with this
hotel,” said Deslauriers, a former skier for The
North Face who has starred in 25 ski fi lms and
skied Mt. Everest with his wife, Kit, in 2006. “I
have deep respect for the natural surroundings
that have been so good to me, and I can honor
that by being environmentally responsible in my
business efforts.”
Adhering to Terra’s premise that luxury and sustainability
can ride the lift together, its fi rst ecoboutique
hotel is using renewable energy sources
(wind, hydro, biomass and geo-thermal); 100percent
recycled roof shingles; low VOC (volatile
organic compound) carpets, pads, sealants and
paint; zone-customized heating and cooling; a
new process to recoup 81 percent of its interior
air heat; Energy Star-approved windows; waterless
urinals; 80 percent recycled steel; coal-byproduct
fl y ash for 50 percent of its cement; and even
custom-built “natural” mattresses.
And, of course, it’s all happening at the base of
Jackson, where Deslauriers spends his lunch breaks
leaving the kind of marks he’s eliminating from his
hotel. “Ideally, you can leave graceful tracks in
whatever you do,” he says. “And sometimes it’s over
more technical terrain, which is what we’re trying
to do with sustainable development.”
ALSO GREEN: THE INN AT HICKORY RUN
WHITE HAVEN, PENNSYLVANIA
What’s it take to open a cutting-edge eco-friendly inn? A pair
of engineering degrees is a pretty fair start. The Inn at Hickory
Run — between Jack Frost, Big Boulder and Camelback
— was designed by engineers David and Nancy Pfeil to be
environmentally friendly through technology. Underlying
its stone pillars and fi replaced rooms lies state-of-the-art,
super-green engineering. Geothermal heating and AC. Computerized
thermostats. Motion-detector- controlled inside
lighting. Computer-controlled outside lighting. This old-fashioned-looking
B&B may well be a harbinger of the future.
innathickoryrun.com, 1 877 797-3618 — Jules Older
14 THE LOOK BOOK 2008 more news on skipressworld.com
Photos : Courtesy Rob Deslauriers/Terra Resort Group
Photo : Courtesy of White Haven