Sometime while driving south from I-70 towards Leadville last week on my way to Chicago Ridge/Ski Cooper, I found myself grinning and thinking again how lucky I am to live in Colorado. I’ve had a passion for the mountains since I was little, and I’ve seen and played in most…
She’s been training at Vail since the 1990s, and moved there from Minnesota to train. She and husband Thomas live there, and she serves as the skiing ambassador. Now, Lindsey Vonn, who won a gold and bronze medal at the Vancouver Olympic Games, has a trail named after her on…
Located in Rocky Mountain National Park just north of Emerald Like, a 60-minute hike from the Bear Lake Trailhead, the Squid (WI5/5+, M6) should be on every ice climber’s tick list, but climbing it presents multiple difficulties. For one, it’s one of the most ephemeral hard ice routes in Colorado,…
Hey boarders, have you been practicing in the terrain park all winter and feel you’re ready to start competing? This Saturday, Winter Park will host the TransWorld Trans Am Rail Jam. Previous competitions have been held at Wateville Valley, N.H., Big Boulder in Pennsylvania, and Buck Hill in Minnesota. After…
We’re finally seeing signs that the ski season may yet be salvaged. While we haven’t had an epic dump yet, the steady snowfall of the last few days had me enjoying multiple powder runs off Chair 9 at Loveland on Monday. Now there’s more good news: Arapahoe Basin will be…
Psst. Want to see some hardcore racers? How about racers who are ripping lines at high speed on non-releasable bindings, dropping the knee in a telemark turn at Mach 10? You’ll have a chance this weekend when the Telemark World Cup makes a stop at Keystone. The event will be…
The snow problems that have plagued the Front Range this season are fairly well documented at this point. While the snow has picked up somewhat in recent weeks, levels at the resorts are still below normal, and powder days have been few and far between. While the southwest portion of…
While kayaking can be an exhilarating sport and a great way to stay cool in the summer while pursuing adrenalin rush thrills, getting into it can be intimidating to the novice. Since 1995, Confluence Kayaks, a small shop in the Platte Valley area of Denver, has been the place to…
Yeah, we’ve all seen the Warren Miller films, and the many other ski movies out there. While some every now and then show a woman, such as Hannah Teter, the movies are usually about the guys dropping the big lines, hurting themselves on rails, and generally out having a good…
In the category of “reality really is fucking stranger than fiction,” the town of Telluride, home to some of the best skiing in Colorado, and some of the best music festivals in the world, has been targeted for invasion by a most unwelcome guest. Fred Phelps, of the Westboro Baptist…
Have you been checking out some of those rad backcountry ski videos and thinking to yourself, “Backcountry lines look like the bomb, but I’m not sure I want to fork over the dough for new gear or take the time to learn a new ski technique?” After all, traditionally, those…
Have you been watching ski porn type videos on You Tube featuring big air and tons of pow and wondering how they get that footage? Modern helmet cams, which also usually have an attachment mechanism for those riders and skiers who prefer to go sans lid, have come down in…
It has one of the more abrupt rises of any peak on the Front Range, and…
At the SIA show a couple of weeks ago, the Icelantic skis drew a lot of well-deserved notice. The graphics, which were based on a music theme this year, were stunning, and designed so that each ski made up half of a painting, a first for the company this year…
Psst, wanna get married, but can’t settle for giving up day of skiing during the season? Wanna ski for free? Loveland, appropriately, has the answer. This Sunday, February 14, Valentine’s Day (again, ridiculously sappy and appropriate), Loveland will host its 19th Annual Mountaintop Matrimony Ceremony. Couples are always looking for…
Amateur and professional backcountry enthusiasts descended on the Beacon Bowl at Arapahoe Basin on Saturday, competing in timed trials to locate a buried beacon, receiving instruction on how to dig a snow pit and read layers in the snow, and watching an avalanche rescue dog remonstration. The event raised $6,600…
Cross one off. At the beginning of the year, I wrote a five things to do this year list. The number one thing to do was ski Silverton, and that goal has finally been achieved. Let me just say, it’s all it’s been promised to be and more…
On Day two of my “Follow the snow tour,” I traveled to Crested Butte. This was the second time I skied at the Butte, and the same feeling struck me: The Butte is a skier’s mountain. Other places may try to claim it, but the Butte is the real deal…
Tuesday morning, I headed out in search of finding snow. First stop: Monarch Mountain…
This Saturday, Arapahoe Basin will host the 8th Annual Beacon Bowl, which takes place at A-Basin’s avalanche beacon park at the base of Lenawee lift. Contests are held to see who can find a buried beacon fastest. Professional instruction will be available in how to use a use a transceiver,…
On Monday, all the gear manufacturers moved their wares from the giant confines of the Colorado Convention Center to the base of Winter Park for the first of two demo days. All show attendees got unlimited demos of skis, snowboards, boots, and accessories…
Saturday brought snowsports fans out in force to the Colorado Convention Center for Day 3 of the SIA show, while Sunday had a much more relaxed atmosphere. Plenty of cool toys were on display, and buzzwords abounded throughout the weekend…
