Published May 2, 2004 12:00AM
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Outside magazine, November 1997
Remember, They Scoffed at Aspen, Too
A Mexican developer’s enterprising plan to bring skiing south of the border By Chris Humphrey Like most of us at this time of year, chances are your thoughts are now turning to untracked powder beneath the trees. To well-groomed cruising runs and well-formed bumps. To…Mexico? Well, it appears that’s at least what Mariano Carrera, general comptroller of a local developer called Grupo Arfra, would like us to believe. Carrera is the man spearheading a grandiose plan to turn Nevado de Toluca, a 15,387-foot extinct volcano an hour and a half west of Mexico City, into his nation’s first opulent alpine playground (think Gstaad with fajitas subbing for fondue). If he gets his way, the fleece-clad masses will be schussing down Nevado by the winter of 1999. Surprisingly, the current roadblock impeding the plan is not the latitude at which the mountain sits. Above the proposed resort’s 12,470-foot base, in fact, the mountain is both cold enough to keep snow on the ground for three or four months each winter and gently sloping enough to accommodate suitable ski runs. “It would just be a small resort,” says Ted Farwell, a Boulder, Colorado, ski-area consultant hired by Grupo Arfra, “but it really is beautiful ski land.” Rather, the problem is the folks who live just down the mountain from the proposed resort. Part of the property that would be used sits on communally owned land, over which local farmers, or campesinos, wield veto power. Juan Popoca Ramírez, a town councilman in Raices, the village closest to the proposed development, says the campesinos mostly fear the man-made snow would blow down onto their land and freeze their crops. “We held a meeting just to talk the idea over, and people came from all the local villages, about 2,000 in all,” Popoca says. “They were ready to lynch us because they thought we’d already cut a deal with the company. But we are definitely opposed to this project.” Mexican environmentalists are also concerned that the resort will divert precious water from local supplies in order to support snowmaking operations. Carrera claims the ski area will use only a minuscule portion of the water coming off the mountain, but the conservationists are concerned nonetheless. “If Arfra does what it says it will, the project could be OK,” says Homero Aridjis, president of Grupo de los Cien, a Mexico City- based environmental group. “But in Mexico we’re used to companies promising they will respect environmental concerns and then not following through.” Despite the opposition, Carrera remains optimistic and will work throughout the winter to try to bring the campesinos on board, in hopes of gaining government approval by spring. But should he be able to win local support, will he have equal success in wooing an even more important constituency, namely skiers themselves? After all, though one of the world’s most populous cities is less than 70 miles away, most Mexico City residents can’t afford monocoque Rossignols and Bogner jumpsuits — and those who can are just as likely as their American counterparts to pick Vail or Aspen over Nevado. Carrera admits that the capital’s elite are still more likely to head north of the border, but says his resort will be able to tap Mexico City’s burgeoning middle class. “Our studies have shown that the market is growing so big, what we’re planning here won’t even be enough to handle it.” Illustration by Marcos Sorensen |