Singin’ in the Snow

You don’t have to be a flake to enjoy the snow – or Caroling Through the Woods, Theatre-Hikes Colorado’s second production-on-the move in Boulder’s Chautauqua Park, 900 Baseline Road. The hour-long, family-friendly, participatory holiday jaunt across Chautauqua’s main lawn features carols, poems and stories. You’ll want to bundle up, but…

Go Nuts at This Sale

If you love giving homemade gifts but don’t have the time (or talent) to create your own, tonight’s one-time-only, deeply discounted Art for Peanuts sale is just what Santa ordered. “There will be prints and stuff as low as two dollars,” says artist Bob White, who is helping to organize…

A Real Turn-On

Plug in, DIYers: Local designer Lynne Bruning, whose own creations include a sonar garment for the visually impaired, says that wearable computers — “eTextiles” fitted with usable electronics, such as conductive thread, LED lights and microprocessors — not only make in-the-moment fashion statements, but are a boon to science. And…

Sweet Victory

We all know that gingerbread tastes good — but how well would your family recipe support a bucket full of sand? That’s the question behind today’s Gingerbread Bridge Competition, at which engineering and architectural firms battle it out for the title of best (if not most delicious) bridge. Over the…

A Stitch in Time

“A lot of our vendors said it was the best craft fair they’d ever done,” says Fancy Tiger’s Jaime Jennings, reminiscing about 2008’s inaugural Holiday Handmade Alternative Craft Fair. And this year’s fair will be twice as big – literally – because Jennings has changed its location to the South…

Free Daze

Over the last few years, Vail Snow Daze has evolved into one hell of a party. “The big difference from other years is that this is the first year all the music is free,” says Natalie Fandrey, public-relations manager for Highline Sports and Entertainment. “One reason we’re doing this is…

BALLS! to the Walls

When Melanie Owen Padilla and Mare Trevathan decided to put on a holiday show — the amusingly titled BALLS! A Holiday Spectacular (PG-16) — they gave their idea an extra bounce. “We just kind of wanted to throw a big, interesting, party-type event,” says Padilla, “so there will be lots…

Chip Off the Old Block

Snow sculpture, an integral part of Breckenridge’s annual January Ullr Fest for a good twenty years, has come a long way since its early days as a community effort, according to Rob Neyland, a co-founder of the frosty mountain burg’s International Snow Sculpture Championships. But as Breckenridge’s profile rose in…

Guy Fieri Dives Into Denver

Celebrity foodie Anthony Bourdain recently appeared on the dignified stage of the Buell Theatre — but the cosmic balance will reassert itself when Bourdain’s polar opposite, Guy Fieri, chews up the Paramount Theatre tonight with his Guy Fieri Road Show. As one of the Food Network’s most visible (read: garish)…

What it feels like to paddle off a 90-foot waterfall

I’ve never launched off a big waterfall in a kayak, but I think I have a vague sense of what it feels like: I once jumped off an 80-foot cliff into a pool of water. (It felt like I unplugged my brain. Also, I had a bruise the size and…

Q&A with Winter Dew Tour’s Simon Dumont

We’re just now getting the full scope of everything Simon Dumont got up to last year, now that his footage for Riley Poor’s Transitions, Poor Boyz Productions’ Every Day Is Saturday, and Matchstick Productions’ In Deep has been unleashed on the world (as if winning the Winter Dew Tour event…

More local boards for locavores: Silverton’s Venture Snowboards

This week, Silverton Mountain announced new early season mid-week dates, effective for today’s December 2 opening date, to help meet demand on the Western Slope now that Purgatory has gone to a weekend-only (Friday-Sunday) schedule. If you’re heading to the San Juan Mountains for some of the sickest powder Colorado…

Top Five: Evergreen town parks

Not far outside of Denver lies the town of Evergreen, a quaint little hamlet probably best known as the place where your parents go to drink when Morrison’s too busy. But Evergreen has more than overpriced Chiantis: Thanks to the excellent stewardship of Jefferson County Open Space Parks and Denver…

Echo Mountain opens tomorrow

Taking advantage of two recent storms, Echo Mountain will open tomorrow with an early-season deal that gets you twelve hours of skiing for just $29. And Echo isn’t just cheap — it’s close. So close, in fact, that you might be tempted to head up for a few runs during…

Outdoor DIVAS, Loveland partner up for Demo Day

Gone are the days when burly women skiers and riders needed to make do with poorly fitting gear designed for men. At one time, women athletes could just bask in the condescension from retail stores and gear companies, who felt women didn’t need strong gear because few of them really…

Skiing drunk and/or high is still illegal in Breckenridge

This story in Saturday’s Summit Daily News makes it clear: Aggressive skiers and riders are a higher-priority law-enforcement target in Breckenridge this year, and the Colorado Ski Safety Act will be enforced. But the story also notes that the Breckenridge police department’s jurisdiction ends 150 yards up the mountain, and…

Classic Descent: North Maroon

Part of the fun of alpinism comes from knowing its history. Climbing and skiing are both very well-documented, and the stories create a timeline in sport that might be unrivaled by anything except baseball, with its legions of devoted statisticians. The year 1971 proved to be a landmark year for ski…

Bad climbing movies: Take a peak (peek)

Hollywood and climbing generally don’t go well together. While there are occasional climbing-themed films that don’t suck, more often than not Hollywood movies centering on climbing are written by some desk-bound moron who probably doesn’t know the difference between an ice screw and an ice axe. The scripts are concocted…