Best Locals' Mountain 2008 | Loveland Ski Area | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Locals' Mountain

Loveland Ski Area

There are no hotels here. No jewelry stores, no $10 hamburgers. You don't have to pay to park, and you don't see many Texans on the hill. Most of the people who ski and ride "Lovie" do it with pride, a great deal of them professing their affection with bumperstickers. Sure, it's windy and the lifts are slower, but when the breezes blow the right way, the snow stacks up quickly, and without all the crowds. Loveland is our land.

Best Mammoth

Dan Carey

The pride of Buffalo, New York's modest Canisius College, forward Dan Carey has played in the National Lacrosse League for three years, and he's made the all-star game three times — an indication of his offensive dominance. In 2006, the Mammoth won the NLL championship, but the team wouldn't have gotten there were it not for Carey, who scored the winning goal against the Arizona Sting in the playoffs' second round. If Carey keeps racking up scores at his current pace, and if he gets some help from fellow all-stars forward Gavin Prout and goalie Gee Nash, the team has a chance to hit such heights again. Talk about a Mammoth achievement.

Best Mascot

Ralphie

She's outlasted two head coaches and hordes of players. She's seen bowl games and busted seasons. And now she's getting close to retirement. Ralphie IV, the University of Colorado's live buffalo mascot won't run with the football team this year (except for special appearances); she'll be replaced with the spryer Ralphie V, who was introduced last fall and is now in training says Ralphie program manager Gail Pederson. But Ralphie IV has carried the shaggy mantle of fame for a decade, and her graceful exit will allow the school to have two Ralphies for the first time, which will be easier on both and give college football's coolest mascot a chance to move on to greener gridirons.

Best Mile-High Hunt

Mile High Amazing Race

The second annual Mile High Amazing Race is scheduled for Saturday, May 17, in downtown Denver, which should give you enough time to gather your team of four and prepare for the adventure. For $55 a person (which, incidentally, counts as a tax-deductible contribution to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society), teams decipher clues requiring them to race to checkpoints throughout the city, overcoming challenges, detours and roadblocks and interacting with hired actors. Teams are awarded points based on speed, strategy and discovering hidden bonus challenges. It's not really a race, and it's not really a scavenger hunt: It's a challenge of technique and the ability to think creatively, all while vying for fantastic prizes. Last year's first-place package was worth $1,500, but every team had the chance to win free Chipotle burritos, airline tickets and massages throughout the game. On your mark...

Best Mini-Vacation

Colorado Chautauqua Cottages

Mostly built in the 1920s and '30s, the cottages that dot Boulder's Colorado Chautauqua grounds are a reminder of why Chautauqua was built in the first place. Designed in 1898 as an educational and communal summer respite, it was originally a place where folks could participate in the national Chautauqua movement while living in tents. Eventually, cabins replaced the tents; nearly 100 years later, they've been refurbished into nicely appointed cottages that can be rented year-round. Most are simple, with access to some of Chautauqua's other charms, including a gourmet dining hall, barn-like auditorium, community house and hiking trails, but a few come with their own unique historical narratives. Rates start at $99 a night.

Best Moment in Denver Sports

Rockies Win the Pennant

Starting on September 15, 2007, the Colorado Rockies took 21 of 22 games, going on the greatest winning streak of any team to get into the World Series. Four games back in the Wild Card race, they steamrolled the Dodgers; humiliated the Padres in a game that included the second-best moment in Denver sports when Matt Holliday, um, crossed home plate; rolled the Phillies; and shut up a too-cocky Eric Byrnes in a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks. And when Todd Helton lifted his arms in the air after recording the final out in the final game of that match-up and sent the Rockies to the World Series, the team gave this city one of the greatest sports moments it's ever seen.

Best Mountaineering Without the Bottled Oxygen

The Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum

It might have taken a while to get it, but the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum, which opened in Golden in February, was worth the wait. This is no mere exhibition hall; the cutting-edge, 3,000-square-foot facility, a joint venture of the Colorado Mountain Club, the American Alpine Club and the National Geographic Society, is the Smithsonian of mountaineering and a Disneyland for adrenaline junkies all rolled into one. Massive scale model of Mount Everest? Check. Legendary artifacts like the Schoening ice ax, used on K2 in 1953 to save five climbers from tumbling to their deaths? Check. Uber-realistic prefabricated rock crevasse on which visitors can finesse their technique? Check. Everything's here but the vertigo.

Best Name Change

Elitch Gardens

Old-time Denverites never quite sidled up to the idea of "Six Flags" Elitch Gardens. While it might not have made a difference to the typical thrill-seeking park-goer, anyone who remembers the real Elitch Gardens that once thrived near the now-redeveloped intersection of 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street must have smiled, at least a little bit, when Six Flags dumped the relocated Platte Valley amusement park and the new management company immediately reinstated the original name. Now, if they could only conjure up the beautiful flower-filled pathways and picnic grounds of yore, the once-renowned Trocadero Ballroom or the original Wildcat and Mister Twister roller coasters.

Best New Bowling Alley

The Falcon

Cassandra Kotnik
Bowling is the rock and roll of sports. It's loud, unabashedly rough around the edges and involves embarrassing fashion choices. It seemed like the perfect match, then, when the fading Sport Bowl Lanes & Billiards on South Broadway was snatched up last August by Steve Schalk, owner of the nearby Gothic Theatre. Sure enough, Schalk invested the same care and creativity into his bowling joint that he did into his theater, and now the alley, rechristened the Falcon (yes, the name refers to Han Solo's spaceship), features eight gleaming lanes, a top-of-the-line sound system, a 250-person live-music venue, an open kitchen serving Angus sliders and a fully stocked bar. May the force be with you.

Best New Ski Lift

Panoramic Express
Winter Park Resort

When Winter Park opened its Parsenn Bowl, it introduced skiers to miles of great new runs and untracked tree skiing but also the sort of lines it hadnt seen in decades, since there was only one very slow, two-person chair taking you to the top. But all that ended this year when the resort added the speedy, $8 million Panoramic Express, North Americas highest six-person chairlift. The name supplied by Winter Park fan Pat Barron, who was inspired by a train that once had that moniker is fitting, because the Panoramic takes you above 12,000 feet, where you get a stunning view of the mountains and the valley below.

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