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Powder Burn: Arson, Money, and Mystery On Vail Mountain
In October, 1998 an arson caused 12 million in damage at Vail, the country's largest ski area. A shadowy radical environmental group called the Earth Liberation Front claimed credit for what the FBI called the costliest act of ecoterrorism in U.S. history. But as it turns out, credible suspects were everywhere, since Vail was owned by a New York investment firm that had alienated a wide swath of Colorado's high country residents."Who couldn't have done this?" wondered a local sheriff's investigator. More than a clever whodunit, Powder Burn scrapes away the glitz of America's premier ski destination to reveal a cautionary tale about runaway opulance and rapid change in the New West. As the Denver Post put it, "Vail is a microcosm of the disputes over growth raging across the Rockies, and Glick's take on the fire helps to fan the flames."
Packed with odd characters and paranoia, with beautiful mountains and despicable actions, Powder Burn is about corporate greed, the environment, a small town and a mysterious unsolved crime. As Vail celebrates its fortieth anniversary with a full season of hoopla and self-promotion, this book makes compelling reading for skiers, true crime enthusiasts, or anyone interested in the environmental, social, and political issues raised by the evolution of the new West.
Packed with odd characters and paranoia, with beautiful mountains and despicable actions, Powder Burn is about corporate greed, the environment, a small town and a mysterious unsolved crime. As Vail celebrates its fortieth anniversary with a full season of hoopla and self-promotion, this book makes compelling reading for skiers, true crime enthusiasts, or anyone interested in the environmental, social, and political issues raised by the evolution of the new West.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 19, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 10, 2025
An interesting history, yet at the time it was written there was no conclusion.
April 19, 2010
The author's extensive research makes clear that Vail Associates committed a $12 million arson for insurance money, and then blamed it on "eco-terrorists". Vail Associates even went so far as to produce a "genuine" email from Earth Liberation Front (ELF) claiming credit for the fire. But the email was never traced back to ELF. No charges were ever filed against ELF and no one in the ELF claimed credit. The email was counterfeit. The arson damage was confined mainly to ski lifts that needed expensive replacements and were insured for far more than it cost to rebuild them. The rest of the money paid for an expensive enlargement of the ski area. The owner of Vail Associates was in Florida at the time of the arson, and expressed no surprise or concern. He planned it and paid for it. Read the book. It's over 200 pages of indicting material against Vail Associates and its owner. If you want to know the full story of how corporate America works, it's all here.
August 26, 2008
Good read about the ski industry and its impact on local communities. Unfortunately, it was published before it was known who set fire to Vail.
June 1, 2022
I thought Powder Burn, written by Daniel Glick in 2001, would be an investigative expose about the October 1998 arson fires on Vail Mountain. Instead, it was an investigation into the contentious relationships between Vail Associates/Vail Resorts and the townspeople who make the corporate resort possible. The arson fires were present in the book as a context, but neither local nor federal law enforcement agencies had found enough evidence for an arrest by the time Glick submitted his manuscript to his publisher.
The author didn’t reveal his book’s thesis until the final paragraph in which he unexpectedly dips his toes in a philosophical pool: “…the arson hasn’t been solved because nobody has yet to learn the lessons that the arson was meant to teach. Whoever set the fires was trying to send a message, it seems to me, however awkwardly and, ultimately, unsuccessfully. Whether or not it eventually turns out that a ragged band of anarchic ecoterrorists lit the gasoline-soaked sponges that caused so much damage at this glitzy ski resort, I’ve come to the conclusion that the worst ecoterrorism in the Vail area is far more insidious: it’s apathy.” Okay, but many of his chapters that profile residents, employees, police officers, owners, and other players expose his apathy claim as false. After reading this book, I didn’t perceive a sense of apathy about Vail (the town, corporation, or mountain) at all.
A quick Internet search found several articles that complete the story with information about the ecoterrorists arrested and convicted of arson for these fires. Those articles were more satisfying than this book because they delivered a complete story about the incident cited in the title. This book did not.
The author didn’t reveal his book’s thesis until the final paragraph in which he unexpectedly dips his toes in a philosophical pool: “…the arson hasn’t been solved because nobody has yet to learn the lessons that the arson was meant to teach. Whoever set the fires was trying to send a message, it seems to me, however awkwardly and, ultimately, unsuccessfully. Whether or not it eventually turns out that a ragged band of anarchic ecoterrorists lit the gasoline-soaked sponges that caused so much damage at this glitzy ski resort, I’ve come to the conclusion that the worst ecoterrorism in the Vail area is far more insidious: it’s apathy.” Okay, but many of his chapters that profile residents, employees, police officers, owners, and other players expose his apathy claim as false. After reading this book, I didn’t perceive a sense of apathy about Vail (the town, corporation, or mountain) at all.
A quick Internet search found several articles that complete the story with information about the ecoterrorists arrested and convicted of arson for these fires. Those articles were more satisfying than this book because they delivered a complete story about the incident cited in the title. This book did not.
November 15, 2021
Did you know Vail's Blue Sky Basin is one of the most debated ski resort expansions in North America? Apparently, the elusive lynx enjoys Blue Sky's backcountry feel as much as the skiers do. In 1998, a radical environmental group took matters into their own hands and set 4 chairlifts, the original Two Elks Lodge, and other mountaintop buildings ablaze in an effort to cease Vail's Blue Sky Basin expansion and protect the lynx's habitat. Despite a group claiming credit, the arson went unsolved for years. Glick explores a varied cast of characters, from small business owners to ski bums, who were openly against Vail's corporate mentality at the time and could have easily found themselves on the suspect list.
I enjoyed this page-turner for the mystery, but even more so for its crash course into the social, economic, environmental, and cultural growing pains of Rocky Mountain ski resorts that ring true even 20+ years later.
I enjoyed this page-turner for the mystery, but even more so for its crash course into the social, economic, environmental, and cultural growing pains of Rocky Mountain ski resorts that ring true even 20+ years later.
November 15, 2021
Apparently, the elusive lynx enjoys Vail's Blue Sky's backcountry feel as much as the skiers do. In 1998, a radical environmental group took matters into their own hands and set 4 chairlifts, the original Two Elks Lodge, and other mountaintop buildings ablaze in an effort to cease Vail's Blue Sky Basin expansion and the clear-cutting of old-growth forest. Despite a group claiming credit, the arson went unsolved for years. Glick explores a varied cast of characters, from small business owners to ski bums, who were openly against Vail's corporate mentality at the time and could have easily found themselves on the suspect list.
I enjoyed this page-turner for the mystery, but even more so for its crash course into the social, economic, environmental, and cultural growing pains of Rocky Mountain ski resorts that ring true even 20+ years later.
I enjoyed this page-turner for the mystery, but even more so for its crash course into the social, economic, environmental, and cultural growing pains of Rocky Mountain ski resorts that ring true even 20+ years later.
March 21, 2023
Bit niche to read as I know Vail and have skies there many times over the last 15 years. I didn’t know they had a fire and I didn’t know they were so viled. Well not until I was skiing this year and the Vail Corp where mentioned as “the evil empire” that post this book now own Park City/The canyons and a week for ski pass holders in Telluride.
Nobody likes Vail still so this was an interesting background read. The final chapter for me bringing home the corporate, development, urbanisation of the mountains which was or is ever thus. Progress or an eco disaster? Enjoyed this author take.
Nobody likes Vail still so this was an interesting background read. The final chapter for me bringing home the corporate, development, urbanisation of the mountains which was or is ever thus. Progress or an eco disaster? Enjoyed this author take.
November 18, 2025
very interesting true crime story of an arson on Vail Mountain in the fall of 1998. such a niche CO history tale, but so good! shout out Boulder Bookstore for the always excellent CO section and introducing to me this one!
June 28, 2015
Still Accurate, 14 years later.
A longtime Vail Valley resident recently lent me a copy of Daniel Glick’s 2001 book “Powder Burn: Arson, Money and Mystery on Vail Mountain.” This eighty-year-old woman and I had just finished up a dinner at the Northside Kitchen, a local favorite in Avon, CO, just down the road from Vail.
This woman had built one of the very first houses in Avon. In the beginning, she stood alone on a plain, a modest house with a huge yard, next to the scenic Eagle River. A highway ran past, a few hundred yards away, but that was a small price to pay for the unique mix of solitude and accessibility.
Now her house is almost impossible to find, if you do not know where to look for it. It sits squashed between huge apartment complexes and hotels, shrouded by a wall of shrubbery. Beaver Creek ski resort looms above, a ski resort even more exclusive and boutique than Vail. People come and go all around. Most of them probably do not even notice her house— assume it is simply another luxury rental with an absent owner. Vail Resorts has built its empire around her, suffocating her views and her community in order to house as many impressionable young workers and incredibly rich tourists and as they can. The idea of a private plat existing in between all that artifice is laughable. I’m sure, if they could, Vail Resorts would buy her out for an exorbitant sum of money, and call it a win.
But she was there first; and she has no plans to leave.
This situation is exactly what is explored in Daniel Glick’s 2001 nonfiction book, “Powder Burn.” Ostensibly about the 1998 Two Elk Arson which caused $24 million in damage to Vail Ski Resort, “Powder Burn” quickly jumps off its premise into a wider exploration of the harsh class divisions present in the Vail Valley. In fact, the book concludes without ever really wrapping up the arson angle; when the book went to print, the case still had not been solved. A newspaper clipping slipped into the copy I borrowed reveals the latest conspirator was charged in 2014, 16 years after the arson that consumed several structures and damaged chairlifts atop the Vail Mountain Ski Resort.
Although Glick may not have solved the arson mystery, he paints a pretty powerful picture of the inequality which even today cleaves the Vail Valley in two. On one side: Vail Resorts and the exclusive clientele they attract; on the other: naïve or disillusioned workers, underpaid, undervalued, and overlooked. Vail Resorts cannot function without the workers, and the workers are generally only in the area to ski Vail Resorts.
The relationship is simultaneously symbiotic and toxic— a simmering powder keg of resentment and reliance.
Glick does a great job of accurately portraying both groups. An Amazon review of the book mentions distaste for the “vulgarity and profanity” and complains that Glick isn’t fair to the rich when he uses phrases like “trophyest of the trophy homes.” This, to me, proves just how accurate Glick’s work is: the ski bums really are prolifically profane and immature, and the rich do construct monstrous homes which they occupy for perhaps a month a year. Vail IS a place of such extremes.
Any writing which glossed over this would not be honest; it would be marketing material for Vail Resorts.
I’d recommend that anyone thinking about moving to Vail should first read Glick’s “Powder Burn: Arson, Money and Mystery on Vail Mountain.” Although Rob Katz has now replaced Adam Aron as the CEO of Vail Resorts, not much has changed from what is told in the book. Katz recently raised minimum wage for employees to $10 an hour, a move which might seem generous but is basically an insult in a place where cost of living is just as high as Los Angeles County.
And through it all, Vail Resorts continues making money. The company is good at what it does, and only getting better.
In the end, it comes down to the question of people versus money.
The woman who lent me the book, an old family friend, still refers to Vail Resorts by its previous name, Vail Associates. “Back in the day,” she said, “I used to own a fair bit of Vail Associates stock. Now though, I just can’t justify it.” I told her that owning Vail Resorts stock has treated me very well, and she said, “I’m sure it has.”
And we sat there, the 22-year-old and the 80-year-old. The kid who has spent a year in the Vail Valley, and the woman who has been here since before I was born. Money, and people.
We would be right at home on the pages of “Powder Burn.”
Originally posted at: http://thisisyouth.org/2015/06/28/pow...
A longtime Vail Valley resident recently lent me a copy of Daniel Glick’s 2001 book “Powder Burn: Arson, Money and Mystery on Vail Mountain.” This eighty-year-old woman and I had just finished up a dinner at the Northside Kitchen, a local favorite in Avon, CO, just down the road from Vail.
This woman had built one of the very first houses in Avon. In the beginning, she stood alone on a plain, a modest house with a huge yard, next to the scenic Eagle River. A highway ran past, a few hundred yards away, but that was a small price to pay for the unique mix of solitude and accessibility.
Now her house is almost impossible to find, if you do not know where to look for it. It sits squashed between huge apartment complexes and hotels, shrouded by a wall of shrubbery. Beaver Creek ski resort looms above, a ski resort even more exclusive and boutique than Vail. People come and go all around. Most of them probably do not even notice her house— assume it is simply another luxury rental with an absent owner. Vail Resorts has built its empire around her, suffocating her views and her community in order to house as many impressionable young workers and incredibly rich tourists and as they can. The idea of a private plat existing in between all that artifice is laughable. I’m sure, if they could, Vail Resorts would buy her out for an exorbitant sum of money, and call it a win.
But she was there first; and she has no plans to leave.
This situation is exactly what is explored in Daniel Glick’s 2001 nonfiction book, “Powder Burn.” Ostensibly about the 1998 Two Elk Arson which caused $24 million in damage to Vail Ski Resort, “Powder Burn” quickly jumps off its premise into a wider exploration of the harsh class divisions present in the Vail Valley. In fact, the book concludes without ever really wrapping up the arson angle; when the book went to print, the case still had not been solved. A newspaper clipping slipped into the copy I borrowed reveals the latest conspirator was charged in 2014, 16 years after the arson that consumed several structures and damaged chairlifts atop the Vail Mountain Ski Resort.
Although Glick may not have solved the arson mystery, he paints a pretty powerful picture of the inequality which even today cleaves the Vail Valley in two. On one side: Vail Resorts and the exclusive clientele they attract; on the other: naïve or disillusioned workers, underpaid, undervalued, and overlooked. Vail Resorts cannot function without the workers, and the workers are generally only in the area to ski Vail Resorts.
The relationship is simultaneously symbiotic and toxic— a simmering powder keg of resentment and reliance.
Glick does a great job of accurately portraying both groups. An Amazon review of the book mentions distaste for the “vulgarity and profanity” and complains that Glick isn’t fair to the rich when he uses phrases like “trophyest of the trophy homes.” This, to me, proves just how accurate Glick’s work is: the ski bums really are prolifically profane and immature, and the rich do construct monstrous homes which they occupy for perhaps a month a year. Vail IS a place of such extremes.
Any writing which glossed over this would not be honest; it would be marketing material for Vail Resorts.
I’d recommend that anyone thinking about moving to Vail should first read Glick’s “Powder Burn: Arson, Money and Mystery on Vail Mountain.” Although Rob Katz has now replaced Adam Aron as the CEO of Vail Resorts, not much has changed from what is told in the book. Katz recently raised minimum wage for employees to $10 an hour, a move which might seem generous but is basically an insult in a place where cost of living is just as high as Los Angeles County.
And through it all, Vail Resorts continues making money. The company is good at what it does, and only getting better.
In the end, it comes down to the question of people versus money.
The woman who lent me the book, an old family friend, still refers to Vail Resorts by its previous name, Vail Associates. “Back in the day,” she said, “I used to own a fair bit of Vail Associates stock. Now though, I just can’t justify it.” I told her that owning Vail Resorts stock has treated me very well, and she said, “I’m sure it has.”
And we sat there, the 22-year-old and the 80-year-old. The kid who has spent a year in the Vail Valley, and the woman who has been here since before I was born. Money, and people.
We would be right at home on the pages of “Powder Burn.”
Originally posted at: http://thisisyouth.org/2015/06/28/pow...
October 12, 2016
Powder Burn
By Owen Cope
Powder Burn by Daniel Glick Is Riveting book about the Money, Mystery, and Arson in Vail and Eagle Valley. The Whole book revolves around The arsons at vail mountain on the night of October, 19 1998 the day before the final step of their expansion.
The book starts off with a quote from the Lorax “And for your information, You Lorax, I figuring on biggering and BIGGERING and BIGGERING and BIGGERING. - The Ouncler. The first chapter begins with talking about the Lynx and how they are on the mountain and the people pro lynx in their habitat this leads on to the main and my favorite part of the book, The fires. A few hunters talk about waking up from their campsite and seeing the whole mountain on fire. The nation reacts to it as Federal agents rush to the scene as are the Media outlets the Book goes on talking about the people behind the scenes in from ski bums to Hispanics. About The ELF (Earth Liberation Front) the people who did it to even conspiracy theories of a inside job. This book has great characters like Adam the Vail Resorts CEO at the time to Fred the fire Chief to our crazy cat driver Roby to even the Activists themselves. This was an mystery non Fiction with mystery in the Title and an Index in the back. With the narration interviews and the an great theme of Sometimes bigger isn't always better.
I loved this boom it had a great plot and was funny at some points it showed all parts of this valley and ski areas I know and love so when my dad gave me this book I had to read it was great there was a couple slow parts and confusing talks of business but it shows an interesting side of Vail that I think people would want to read about. This is maybe one of my favorite books it was just an great and very interesting book. I would Probably read 1 or 2 more of this author's books but you need a pretty good understanding of the ski Industry and business. This book was great and exciting.
To conclude Powder Burn is a must read and is very good this book we keep you on the your edge of your seat. I would easily give this book 4 ½ stars this book was overall fantastic.
By Owen Cope
Powder Burn by Daniel Glick Is Riveting book about the Money, Mystery, and Arson in Vail and Eagle Valley. The Whole book revolves around The arsons at vail mountain on the night of October, 19 1998 the day before the final step of their expansion.
The book starts off with a quote from the Lorax “And for your information, You Lorax, I figuring on biggering and BIGGERING and BIGGERING and BIGGERING. - The Ouncler. The first chapter begins with talking about the Lynx and how they are on the mountain and the people pro lynx in their habitat this leads on to the main and my favorite part of the book, The fires. A few hunters talk about waking up from their campsite and seeing the whole mountain on fire. The nation reacts to it as Federal agents rush to the scene as are the Media outlets the Book goes on talking about the people behind the scenes in from ski bums to Hispanics. About The ELF (Earth Liberation Front) the people who did it to even conspiracy theories of a inside job. This book has great characters like Adam the Vail Resorts CEO at the time to Fred the fire Chief to our crazy cat driver Roby to even the Activists themselves. This was an mystery non Fiction with mystery in the Title and an Index in the back. With the narration interviews and the an great theme of Sometimes bigger isn't always better.
I loved this boom it had a great plot and was funny at some points it showed all parts of this valley and ski areas I know and love so when my dad gave me this book I had to read it was great there was a couple slow parts and confusing talks of business but it shows an interesting side of Vail that I think people would want to read about. This is maybe one of my favorite books it was just an great and very interesting book. I would Probably read 1 or 2 more of this author's books but you need a pretty good understanding of the ski Industry and business. This book was great and exciting.
To conclude Powder Burn is a must read and is very good this book we keep you on the your edge of your seat. I would easily give this book 4 ½ stars this book was overall fantastic.
July 27, 2016
This book chronicles the 1998 Vail Fires. Lodges in the expansion area of Vail were burned down right before they opened. There was a great deal of controversy surrounding the Vail expansion and the suspect list is quite long. Its an interesting look at environmental and ski issues in the West.
March 22, 2009
Interesting exploration of Vail and the fires that occurred there in 1998, as well as the areas economic and environmental concerns. for anyone who's interested in skiing and its impact on the environment.
January 29, 2010
Unsatisfying and dated. I'm not sure it's a "mystery" if you never know the culprit. Also, the events (ecoterrorism at Vail)took place before September 11 and the economic crisis, and the world described feels naive and idealistic (even if we were naive and idealistic then). Don't bother.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2007
Interesting book. Vail is pretty messed up.
Read
January 8, 2009interesting thoughts on enviromental impact of skiing and story about the fire
August 3, 2011
an interesting story - especially if you lived in colorado at the time - of course, since readin this, the story has come to a close...
Read
February 13, 2016a book that takes place in your hometown--vail, colorado
March 6, 2016
Very interesting.....it is all happening to Park City.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews