Skiing

Joseph Shematek's death means 2012 Colorado ski season tied for most lethal ever

On Sunday, Joseph Shematek, a 71 year old from Windsor, died at St. Anthony's Hospital following a skiing accident in Loveland. By our count, he's the seventeenth person to pass away as a result of injuries on the slopes of a Colorado resort this season, tying it for the deadliest on record.

On Aspen Mountain, visiting memorial shrines is a tradition

On Sunday, Joseph Shematek, a 71 year old from Windsor, died at St. Anthony's Hospital following a skiing accident in Loveland. By our count, he's the seventeenth person to pass away as a result of injuries on the slopes of a Colorado resort this season, tying it for the deadliest on record.

Ski resort "smoke shacks" have the bowls that really count

On Sunday, Joseph Shematek, a 71 year old from Windsor, died at St. Anthony's Hospital following a skiing accident in Loveland. By our count, he's the seventeenth person to pass away as a result of injuries on the slopes of a Colorado resort this season, tying it for the deadliest on record.

Joshua Allen's Copper Mountain death adds another fatality to lethal ski season

Update: Sadly, the number of ski deaths in Colorado this season has grown again. On Sunday, 24-year-old Joshua Allen of Tampa, Florida, was found in the trees of the Elk Run underneath the Outback lift at Keystone and airlifted to Summit Medical Center, where he later died.

Second skier death this week brings season total to eleven: On track for a record?

Update: For the second time in less than a week, a skier has been killed while schussing the slopes at Keystone. The death brings the total skier deaths this year in Colorado to eleven, just six shy of a macabre record set in 2008.

Paraplegic skier Josh Dueck learns Sit Ski backflip at Woodward at Copper

Salomon Freeski TV's clip of paraplegic skier Josh Dueck hucking the first-ever Sit Ski backflip has us as stoked as any other trick we've seen filmed this season. Dueck -- formerly a competitive freestyle skier before a T11 spinal chord injury in 2004 -- won bronze in the Mono Skier X event last we ... More >>

Colorado's smallest ski companies are going big

Salomon Freeski TV's clip of paraplegic skier Josh Dueck hucking the first-ever Sit Ski backflip has us as stoked as any other trick we've seen filmed this season. Dueck -- formerly a competitive freestyle skier before a T11 spinal chord injury in 2004 -- won bronze in the Mono Skier X event last we ... More >>

X Rated

Salomon Freeski TV's clip of paraplegic skier Josh Dueck hucking the first-ever Sit Ski backflip has us as stoked as any other trick we've seen filmed this season. Dueck -- formerly a competitive freestyle skier before a T11 spinal chord injury in 2004 -- won bronze in the Mono Skier X event last we ... More >>

Snow shortage postpones Junior Freeskiing Tour stop in Crested Butte

Snow Show fashion.​A blizzard of snow business is about to hit Denver with the start of this week's Snow Snowconvention, and it's now snowing in the high country. But it's too little, too late to keep the Junior Freeskiing Tour on schedule.

Vail Resorts Epic Pass holders get snowed by Montana rustlers

MT, not CO.​While Colorado skiers keep watching the skies and the weather reports, hoping to see some of the white stuff, other states aren't sitting idly by on their snowboards. Montana's Big Sky, for example is trying to rustle Colorado skiers...by honoring the Epic Pass issued by Vail Resor ... More >>

This Weekend in Stoke: Birds of Prey World Cup and the Hartford Disabled Sports Spectacular

The wind beneath your wings! The Birds of Prey World Cup -- the only men's FIS World Cup alpine skiing event in the U.S. this year -- begins today at Beaver Creek, with the Men's Downhill competition beginning at 11 a.m. and a U.S. Ski Team autograph session tonight at 5 p.m. Tonight is also the 13t ... More >>

Five best places to catch the U.S. Ski Team in Colorado

Colin BaneBode Miller lets loose over the new U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper​If you live in Colorado and love alpine ski racing, get ready for a season of unprecedented access to the best of the best, thanks to Tuesday's grand opening of the new U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper Mount ... More >>

The Edge: Westword's winter activities guide helps you sort out the 2011-2012 season

​Welcome to the online version of The Edge 2011-2012, Westword's annual insider's guide to winter activities. This season has already seen plenty of snow, and that's just the beginning, as the 25 resorts profiled below have added new terrain, lifts, features, events and restaurants. To sort it ... More >>

Skiers may scoff, but snowboarders are finally being accepted by the slopes' old guard

​Welcome to the online version of The Edge 2011-2012, Westword's annual insider's guide to winter activities. This season has already seen plenty of snow, and that's just the beginning, as the 25 resorts profiled below have added new terrain, lifts, features, events and restaurants. To sort it ... More >>

Three Colorado athletes named to first-ever U.S. Freeskiing National Team

​The new U.S. Freeskiing National Team announced its first official team roster today, following April's news that Ski Halfpipe will be an Olympic medal sport at the 2014 Games in Sochi and that Copper Mountain will host the first Olympic qualifier for the event in December 2013. Three of the ... More >>

This Weekend in Stoke: Cruisin' for a bruisin' (and a brewsin') in Spring ski season

​Damn ams! The USASA Nationals competition moves from snowboarding to freeskiing this weekend at Copper Mountain, with opening ceremonies on Saturday and competition running Sunday through Wednesday, pitting amateur skiers against each other in Superpipe, Slopestyle and Skiercross events. An ... More >>

Today in Stoke: Winter Park hosts 2011 U.S. Alpine Championships today through April 3

​The 2011 U.S. Alpine National Championships kick off today at Winter Park with the Men's Giant Slalom Nationals, and continue through the weekend with Women's GS tomorrow, Men's and Women's Super G on Saturday, and Men's and Women's Slalom on Sunday.

Today in Stoke: U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championships at Crested Butte this week

​Crested Butte Mountain Resort celebrates 20 years of hosting the U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championships this week, a truly extreme action sports event that predates the X Games and other extremism in sports lexicography by about four years. The resort bills itself as "the birthplace of Big Mou ... More >>

Over the weekend: The Winter X Games wrap up at Buttermilk

Sebastian Toutant's decision to skip Denver Big Air pays off in X Games gold​Denver Big Air organizers at the Denver Sports Commission and the LG FIS Snowboard World Cup were right to be upset that top riders like Canadian Sebastian Toutant (aka "Seb Toots") stood them up in favor of getting i ... More >>

Om The Slopes

Sebastian Toutant's decision to skip Denver Big Air pays off in X Games gold​Denver Big Air organizers at the Denver Sports Commission and the LG FIS Snowboard World Cup were right to be upset that top riders like Canadian Sebastian Toutant (aka "Seb Toots") stood them up in favor of getting i ... More >>

Leftover Yam Jam fashion: skiers and snowboarders face off

​At the leftover Yam Jam on Friday, skiers and snowboarders alike gathered to face it off freestyle in a casual post-Thanksgiving competition. They were facing off against each other -- the skier and snowboarder events were separate -- but the real rivalry was, of course, between those who fav ... More >>

No Way, Norway!

​At the leftover Yam Jam on Friday, skiers and snowboarders alike gathered to face it off freestyle in a casual post-Thanksgiving competition. They were facing off against each other -- the skier and snowboarder events were separate -- but the real rivalry was, of course, between those who fav ... More >>

The Edge: Westword's Winter Activity Guide 2010-2011

​At the leftover Yam Jam on Friday, skiers and snowboarders alike gathered to face it off freestyle in a casual post-Thanksgiving competition. They were facing off against each other -- the skier and snowboarder events were separate -- but the real rivalry was, of course, between those who fav ... More >>

Skiing to Win

​At the leftover Yam Jam on Friday, skiers and snowboarders alike gathered to face it off freestyle in a casual post-Thanksgiving competition. They were facing off against each other -- the skier and snowboarder events were separate -- but the real rivalry was, of course, between those who fav ... More >>

Quiet Time

​At the leftover Yam Jam on Friday, skiers and snowboarders alike gathered to face it off freestyle in a casual post-Thanksgiving competition. They were facing off against each other -- the skier and snowboarder events were separate -- but the real rivalry was, of course, between those who fav ... More >>

The Edge: A handy calendar of winter events

​At the leftover Yam Jam on Friday, skiers and snowboarders alike gathered to face it off freestyle in a casual post-Thanksgiving competition. They were facing off against each other -- the skier and snowboarder events were separate -- but the real rivalry was, of course, between those who fav ... More >>

The Edge: Our guide to the season's best skiing, boarding and more

​At the leftover Yam Jam on Friday, skiers and snowboarders alike gathered to face it off freestyle in a casual post-Thanksgiving competition. They were facing off against each other -- the skier and snowboarder events were separate -- but the real rivalry was, of course, between those who fav ... More >>

On Your Marks

Pre-ski in your armchairs before you hit the slopes.

Pantsless Vail skier gets viral fifteen minutes of fame

As reported with merciless pix on TheSmokingGun and with keen analysis by our own intrepid Joel Warner ("New Ski Move Spotted at Vail"), a 48-year-old skier at Vail got depantsed on the chair lift yesterday, dangling upside down for fifteen minutes while rescuers tried to get him down and fellow ... More >>

Win a ski day with Cosmopolitan's 2008 Most Eligible Bachelor

I have to admit: I always thought the men Cosmopolitan magazine chooses for its annual Most Eligible Bachelor contest were cheeseballs. Every year, fifty eligible bachelors (one from each state) pose shirtless in the mag, next to a brief description and quote, in the hopes of being crowned the Most ... More >>

I have to admit: I always thought the men Cosmopolitan magazine chooses for its annual Most Eligible Bachelor contest were cheeseballs. Every year, fifty eligible bachelors (one from each state) pose shirtless in the mag, next to a brief description and quote, in the hopes of being crowned the Most ... More >>

The Edge

Winter Activity Guide

Snow Time

Winter Activity Guide

Cookie Monsters

Winter Activity Guide

Snow Job

Will the real Bobby Fenton please stand up?

An Uphill Climb

Coors brews up another terrain park.

Ticket to Ride

After thirty years, Squaw Pass is ready to make a comeback — as Echo Mountain Park.

Torino It Off

This horrible Winter Olympics game doesn't even medal.

Skier, Beware

Vail hits back when an injured woman sues.

Slippery Slopes

Ashley Stamp's deadly accident should look familiar to Vail.

Drunk of the Week

Red Lion

Slippery Slopes

Western State seeks to save its ski team with a dash for private cash.

The Ride of Their Lives

These women are going downhill fast.

Boys Gone Wild

Breckenridge has a bad-boy image, but is there truth in advertising?

Best Out-of-Bounds Skiing

The Beavers
Arapahoe Basin

Off Limits

Disappearing act

Best Way to Feel the Breeze

Ski-A-Thong
Telluride Ski Resort

Schuss!

A family resort like Winter Park should have no secrets.

Winter Park Grows Up

After years as a family-themed ski resort, Denver's mountain tries super-sizing.

Risk-Ski Business

Can Aaron Brill's single lift save Silverton and earn salvation for the sport?