Winter Sports

Competitive skiing kept Army veteran Joel Hunt from going downhill

See also: Joel Hunt, vet turned ski racer, recounts his struggles: "I wished that I had died in Iraq"

Joel Hunt, vet turned ski racer, recounts his struggles: "I wished that I had died in Iraq"

This week's cover story, "Competitive skiing kept Army veteran Joel Hunt from going downhill," details the story of Hunt, who in a five-year span has gone from being a recently discharged Iraq war veteran struggling with debilitating injuries to a pro skier with a shot at the 2014 Paralympics in Rus ... More >>

Skiing deaths confirm old proverb: Mother Nature can be a real bitch

Three times now, I've received a phone call that I never anticipated I'd get even once in my life. Two times, the call was from a friend who delivered the news; one time it was my mother. Though all three were different voices, each had a similar, haunting pitch and carried the same devastating mess ... More >>

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 >>

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

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

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.

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Colorado's smallest ski companies are going big

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 >>

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 >>

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

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 >>

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 >>

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

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 >>

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 >>

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: 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.

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>