Snowboarding

Burton Shreds at Vail

X Marks the Spot

Ruby Hill Rail Yard back in action as a winter playground, lack of winter notwithstanding

Denver hasn't had enough of a snow dump this winter for a proper sledding run, much less urban snowboarding jibs, but -- thanks to last week's temperature drop and a special agreement with Denver Water to facilitate artificial snowmaking -- the Ruby Hill Rail Yard ski and snowboard terrain park offi ... More >>

X Marks the Spot

Experts agree: Made-in-Colorado snowboards are the best

We've been championing the local shred-stick economy as it has grown over the last few years, and not just out of sheer locavore pride. This year several national media outlets have taken notice, too: In "Gear of the Year," Men's Journal just proclaimed that the Odin by Venture Skateboards is the Be ... More >>

Opening day at Breck, So-Gnar Shred Circuit at Copper, 'Obamney' storm on the way

Breckenridge opened for the 2012-'13 ski and snowboard season today, with two lifts and forty acres of terrain, joining Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, Keystone and Copper Mountain. And with the So-Gnar Snowboard Camp Tour kicking off tomorrow at Woodward at Copper and OpenSnow.com (a Westword Best of Den ... More >>

Get the edge on winter fun with The Edge!

Snowboarder Jeremy Jones brings Further to Denver, Boulder

Backcountry and big-mountain snowboarder Jeremy Jones is bringing his Teton Gravity Research film Further to the Oriental Theater tonight at 6:30 p.m. for the local premiere of the second installment in his Deeper, Further, Higher trilogy (tickets $13), and will also be screening the film on Friday ... More >>

Vail and Burton Snowboards confirm rumors: Burton US Open is coming to Colorado

Vail Resorts and Burton Snowboards yesterday confirmed rumors -- first reported earlier this month by the Breckenridge-based Angry Snowboarder blog -- that the Burton US Open is moving to Vail after thirty years in Vermont -- 27 of them at Stratton Mountain. The 31st annual Burton US Open will be he ... More >>

Throwback to the Future

USASA National Championships under way at Copper Mountain

Although this past weekend felt like the start of summer, there's still good riding to be had in Colorado -- and this week is also a prime opportunity to catch some of the country's best amateur snowboarders in action: The 23rd annual United States Snowboard Association's USASA National Championship ... More >>

Origin Snowboards caters to Colorado's youngest groms

I've written about almost all of Colorado's homegrown snowboard companies over the last year or so, but Highlands Ranch-based Origin Snowboards wasn't even on my radar until earlier this month when my kids discovered it. With grom-sized boards starting at just 85cm and the biggest board in the line ... More >>

Venture Snowboards ventures into skinnier snow boards

In January we reported on a handful of homegrown Colorado ski companies making handcrafted and custom skis that stand up to or surpass anything else on the market. If we'd waited a few weeks, we could have added another local brand to the mix: Silverton-based Venture Snowboards. For the last few y ... More >>

This Weekend in Stoke: Make the most of Denver's dump

To make the most of your snow day today, believe it or not, you're going to want to stay fairly close to home: Denver got more snow than most of the ski areas, and you might find more powder at your local sledding hill than at your favorite ski resort. This morning's Facebook post from Loveland Ski ... More >>

X Rated

The Art of Winter, SIA and the Winter X Games take over Colorado

Recent powder dumps across the state couldn't have come at a better time: This week the entire snow sports industry is in town for its annual SIA Snow Show confab at the Colorado Convention Center and related Mile High Snow Fest events all over town, all the top pros are in Aspen for the Winter X Ga ... More >>

Shaun White wows on Winter Dew Tour: Top moments from Breckenridge

Alli SportsShaun White sends it in Superpipe finals on Saturday at the Nike Open at Breckenridge​Shaun White's tight pants: After just four days on his snowboard this season, White dominated the Superpipe semifinals on Friday with a nearly perfect score of 98.00. In finals on Saturday he launc ... More >>

Happy Birthday To Breck

Copper Mountain opens first 22-foot superpipe in Colorado for 2011/2012 season

Copper Mountain opened its Olympic-sized 22-foot superpipe on Friday, in time for athletes competing in the The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) Sprint U.S. Grand Prix to work on their double corks before next week's competition, December 5-10. That makes it the first 22-foot pipe of the se ... More >>

Signal Snowboards brings iShred Steve Jobs tribute to Loveland

​Signal Snowboards has built a special tribute to Steve Jobs, complete with an iPad mounted in the nose of the board and a glowing LED Signal logo in the aluminum base (similar to Apple's iconic MacBook laptops). To test it, the California-based Signal crew brought the iShred to Colorado for s ... 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

The $1.2 million Big Air won't be back in 2012

Colorado Snowboard History Museum: The Westword exhibit

​This week's cover story on the new Colorado Snowboard Archive collection at the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Museum, and the history of the effort by snowboarders to get respect alongside skiing, sent us digging through our online archives dating back fifteen years as we covered the subject from ... More >>

Vail Resorts sways Shaun White with an Epic Pass in undisclosed (probably epic) deal

Photo courtesy Vail Resorts​Shaun White picked up his Epic Pass yesterday after signing on to make Northstar-at-Tahoe his home resort and agreeing to represent all six of the Vail Resorts properties (including Vail, Beaver Creek, and Breckenridge here in Colorado) in what Vail Resorts CEO Rob ... More >>

Grand opening of Trestle Bike Park at Barnum Park North delayed to August 6

​Commuters passing Federal on 6th Avenue on their way into Denver may have noticed construction on what is shaping up to be an epic new mountain bike and BMX skills park, designed by Gravity Logic and pro rider John Cowan. The park will be operated by Winter Park's Trestle Bike Park crew in pa ... More >>

International Olympic Committee brings Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle to Winter Olympics

​Yesterday the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board approved the addition of Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle events at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. The announcement came yesterday from the 123rd IOC Session in Durban, South Africa, and follows an April announcement tha ... More >>

Today in Stoke: Copper Mountain, freeskiing capital of the world?

​Last week the International Olympic Committee officially announced that Ski Halfpipe will debut as an Olympic medal sport at the 2014 Games in Sochi. That's big news for one local ski resort: For U.S. athletes the road to Sochi will begin at Copper Mountain, host of the first Olympic qualifie ... More >>

This Weekend in Stoke: $5 lift tickets and the top 5 ways to celebrate Spring

​Do you have any idea what the street value of this mountain is? Echo Mountain is celebrating its 5th birthday party this year with $5 Friday night lift tickets for the next five weeks, tonight through April 18. And wait, there's more! Echo's annual Liptricks Not Lipstick terrain park contest ... More >>

Colorado's top skiers and snowboarders rock Winter Dew Tour in Utah

AlliSports.comBreck Freeride team member Eric Willet, center, wins Men's Snowboard Slopestyle at the Toyota Challenge in Ogden, UT​Breckenridge Ski Resort is getting a good return on investment from its Breck Freeride Team and its stepped-up park & pipe programs: Yesterday, Breckenridge snowbo ... More >>

Today in Stoke: Live your Winter X Games dreams at the Aspen/Snowmass Open

​The park and pipe crew at Buttermilk is a well-oiled machine after a decade of hosting the Winter X Games, making crazy stuff like Torstein Horgmo's triple flip, Kelly Clark's 1080 and Shaun White's tight pants possible, year after year. And the best part? Each year, Buttermilk's left with a ... More >>

Today in Stoke: SIA Snow Show actually makes it to the snow

Photo by Colin BaneVenture Snowboards onwers Lisa and Klemens Branner at Winter Park during SIA Snow Show's On-Snow Demo Days ​Now that the SIA Snow Show is officially over, after two days of on-snow demos at Winter Park following the trade show at the Colorado Convention Center, it's hard to ... More >>

The top five locally made snowboards at the SIA Snow Show (plus a couple of sweet pairs of skis)

Photo by Sarah AustinNever Summer Snowboards co-founder Tim Canaday shows off his 2011/2012 line at the SIA Snow Show​We sifted through a mess of 893 snow sports brands representing at the SIA Snow Show to find the Colorado companies we love most, then asked them to show off their best boards ... 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 >>

X Marks the Spot

Last Night: American snowboarders get trounced at Denver Big Air

Photo courtesy US Ski & Snowboard AssociationZach Stone (Canada), Rocco van Straten (Netherlands), and Michael Macho (Austria) on the podium at Denver Big Air​More than 14,000 snowboarding fans turned out for the LG FIS Snowboard World Cup Big Air competition on the Denver Big Air ramp in Civi ... More >>

Last Night: Thrills and spills at Denver Big Air

Photo by Kate LevyThe Armada Skis team (left to right: Spencer Milbocker, Alex Bellmare, Ben Moxham) wins the Nature Valley Big Air Challenge on the Denver Big Air ramp ​Let's face it: If you build a 106-foot launch tower and then send competitors -- some of them as young as 14 -- careening do ... More >>

SIA Tradeshow and Denver BigAir: Things to do in Denver if you're not a pro or a badgeholder

Britt Chester​ By now you've seen the monstrosity that's been constructed at Civic Center Park. Turns out it wasn't a mini-skyscraper skyscraper after all. It's a ramp, as you can see here in the photo taken just a bit ago from the top of structure by our always intrepid scribe and resident d ... More >>

Today in Stoke: Nature Valley Ski Big Air Challenge at Denver Big Air

​The 100-foot launch tower erected in Civic Center Park for the Denver Big Air competition will see its first official action today at 5 p.m. (doors open at 3:30 p.m.) for the Nature Valley Ski Big Air challenge, a Battle of the Brands format that will pit the ski teams from Icelantic, Line Sk ... More >>

Go Big!

This Weekend In Stoke: 'One time, at snowboard camp...'

​If you're looking to try something new, this is the weekend for you: January is Learn to Ski & Snowboard Month and Winter Trails Month, it's been dumping in the mountains and there are more camps, demos and competitions this weekend than you can shake a snowboard at. Here are a bunch of good ... More >>

A Free Ride

Mountain Traffic

Today In Stoke: Icelantic team set to throw down in Denver Big Air Battle of the Brands

​We'll have some locals to root for when the Denver Big Air competition erects its 102-foot tall monument to skiing and snowboarding in Civic Center Park next month: In addition to the pro athletes invited to the Nature Valley Challenge Big Air Freestyle Ski event on January 25 and the LG FIS ... More >>

Today In Stoke: Forecast calls for snow all week

Photo via SkiCB.comGreetings from Crested Butte, reporting nearly a foot of new snow this morning.​If you're planning a holiday ski vacation, you might want to go ahead and start it early: It snowed all weekend at most Colorado resorts, and it's expected to keep coming down until Thursday, whi ... More >>

Today In Stoke: Winter Dew Tour returns to Breckenridge

​Breckenridge is hosting the first stop of the Winter Dew Tour this week for the third year in a row, and the event's Peak 8 festival village opens today. All of the main-event finals action will happen on Saturday and Sunday, but head up today anyway: The format for the Nike 6.0 Open lets new ... More >>

Today In Stoke: Behind the scenes at the Winter Dew Tour in Breckenridge

Photo by Sarah AustinBreck Freeride team rider Colby West tests out the Dew Tour superpipe​This week, Breckenridge is hosting the first stop of the Winter Dew Tour for the third year in a row. The Nike 6.0 Open runs December 16-19 and, since they've completely redesigned the Freeway terrain pa ... More >>

Snowboarding angels replace City Hall Nativity Scene: Kenny Be's Fotochop Friday

Snowangel catches big air over City Hall manger scene.​ The holiday lights of Denver's City and County building will stay on through Big Air, but the statues of the nativity scene will be replaced with edgier characters that appeal to snowboarders. A "Living Extreme" decorative theme will focu ... More >>

Today In Stoke: Top 5 must-see films at The Summit Action Sports Film Fest in Breckenridge

​Yet another reason to head for the hills this week: The new Summit Action Sports Film Festival in Breckenridge opens tonight at 5 p.m. at Brooklyn's Tavern, 500 South Main Street, with screenings of the People Crew's Cheers and five other ski and snowboard films. The festival continues tomorr ... More >>

Copper Goes for the Gold