Why is it that booze goes down so much smoother after a day on the hill?And why does all that smooth booze go down even smoother when you’re at the right mountain bar? Sometimes the right atmosphere makes it go down so silky smooth that getting up the next morning…
It’s not a stairway to heaven, but it’s close.Canada-based Heliqwest airlifted a pair of steel staircases and a bridge onto Palmyra Peak to span between Gold Hill Chutes 8 and 9 Wednesday morning. Telluride flacks say the getup will open up new in-bounds terrain once the staircases open for business…
It’s black-ice season on the trails (not to mention the Denver sidewalks) for the foreseeable future, and there are plenty of uphills that will put you flat on your ass if you try to climb them in your Chuck Taylors.Since 2001, Sweden’s Icebug has been solving that problem with sneakers…
Some Crested Butte locals are looking to breathe life into the state’s first resort, Pioneer Ski Hill, which closed over 50 years ago after a two-decade run. Located near CB South on Cement Mountain, the idea is to put in a new lift or two on the old run, but…
I just got back to Mile High from a couple of days skiing the three feet or so Ullr bestowed on Monarch the last few days. Hitting the mountain Sunday afternoon, crashing in Salida Sunday night, and skiing all day Monday proved to be the thee best decisions I’ve made…
I settle into a barstool for lunch at Loveland’s Wedge Bar and order a can of Red Stripe to go with my overpriced chicken fingers ($5.75 for three chicken fingers, make that chicken pinkies).Plunked down in the middle of Loveland’s cafeteria, the bar is busy on this particular weekday. The…
National Canadian paper The Globe and Mail is reporting today that Broomfield-based Vail Resorts is leading the bidding for Whistler-Blackcomb as current owner Intrawest angles to keep it in hand by restructuring its debt.”There is a standing offer on Whistler from Vail Resorts, but Intrawest isn’t willing to engage, with…
The Austrian-made Snowbull merges sledding and skiing with…wait for it…a sled on skis.The sled is basically a cozy seat mounted atop a pair of Atomics, making for an easily luggable weight of 13 pounds. Steering is accomplished by pushing your foot against the pedal on the front of your turning…
Today the Washington Post tackled the question how skiers can hit higher speeds than a skydiver without a parachute.Depending on which sources you trust, the record is somewhere between 145 and 156 mph. That’s sort of amazing, because it’s faster than the terminal velocity of a human body free-falling through…
So it probably won’t be until the 2012 London games that we’re watching the Olympics on 3-D TVs (presumably while sitting on 4-D couches), but until then at least we have Google Earth.Boulder-based EarthvisonZ is behind Olympicsin3D.com, a Google Earth-powered site with a 3-D directory of all things Vancouver 2010:…
A dry goods shop in the 1880s and a saloon since 1907, the West Winds Tavern in Idaho Springs is a longtime locals’ joint that’s not unfriendly to outsiders, at least not as unfriendly as the Pagosa Bar. Looking a cross between a log cabin and a cave, there are…
For those of us not inclined to celebrate Valentine’s Day for one reason than another, there’s no better collective way to drown our sorrows than an old-fashioned collective bender. And thankfully the resort towns are throwing all sorts of Mardi Gras shebangs for us to practice our debauchery.Breckenridge and Winter…
Nobody wants a wipeout to land them on the disabled list for the rest of the season, but for some reason we humans love to watch one another literally crash and figuratively burn. (Almost as much as we love to watch one another commit even more unseemly acts.)It follows that…
It pretty much goes without saying that you don’t need to make snow at home unless you have a mountain in the backyard, in which case you probably don’t need to make snow at home.Nonetheless, you can now buy a home snowmaking system from Connecticut-based SNOWatHOME for a few hundred…
Gray wolves were exterminated in Colorado in the first half of the 20th century by misguided federal agencies and their proxies. A few lone wolves have wandered into the state from points north in the past few years, but didn’t survive. (Check out stories here and here.) Now the High…
A rafting bill working its way through the state legislature that would allow for rafters to float through private land — and even portage on private land in the event of low water — faces a key test in the House Judiciary Committee today.A response to a Gunnison County landowner…
As announced in December, Arapahoe Basin is replacing the 32-year-old Exhibition triple chair in its first high-speed quad this summer. The resort decided to name it with a contest and got some interesting ideas from the peanut gallery. We have a winner…
7NEWS reports that the U.S. Forest Service relocated Stickers, Telluride’s resident porcupine, Wednesday because he had taken to aggressively begging every passing skier and ‘boarder for food. Since the story hit Denver TV news, the little guy has become a YouTube sensation. Perhaps the friendly porcupine could be the next…
If you leave Loveland when the lifts grind to their halt for the day, then you might be able to sneak back into Denver just before the main brunt of rush hour. But not if you stop for beers at the Silver Plume Saloon. …
Better than yellow snow but still not recommended for human consumption, pink snow is a fairly common springtime sight in Colorado. It has nothing to do with an explosion at a food coloring factory, as was the case in Buffalo, N.Y., a couple of weeks back. Our pink snow is…
In a recent column in the Denver Post, Bill Husted parses the theories of a CU prof who’s positive Avatar is a metaphor for Crested Butte’s battle against molybdenum mining on the Red Lady. (James Cameron apparently has a house in the area.) It got me thinking of other sci-fi…
The Snow Show has traded the Colorado Convention Center for the slopes at Winter Park, and the demo orgy is now in full swing. On the convention floor, unnecessary but super-sweet gear was in bountiful supply, including the Zipfy sled profiled in this space a few weeks back. (I bought…
