A 20 year-old snowboarder died in an avalanche yesterday afternoon in the sidecountry terrain known as The Beavers, just West of Arapahoe Basin, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC). For those of you familiar with the terrain, the slide and fatality occurred in The Beavers’ Gully #1 (they’re…
Yesterday we reported on the rock slide that has turned I-70 into a disaster zone, closed the Glenwood Canyon stretch of the highway indefinitely, and forced motorists onto alternate routes including a 200-mile detour loop on US 40. The bad news doesn’t end there: This morning a woman was killed…
While deep powder lines beckon many skiers in Colorado, when venturing into the backcountry, those lines have the potential to be exceptionally dangerous to the unaware. The unfortunate truth is that avalanche hazard is highest on slopes that are most attractive to skiers, in terms of the steepness. However, there…
Have you ever wished you could convince your friends and family to buy you a lift ticket and not come off like a dirtball in the process? Now’s your chance: Not only can you get a free lift ticket, but a free lunch and other free schwag like a $25…
Whoever first thought up that old t-shirt slogan “Life’s a Mountain Not a Beach” must have spent one unfortunate Spring Break in Miami Beach, as skiers and snowboarders from around the world know that the real party is right here in Colorado. If you’re staying close to home this year,…
In Crested Butte, both the pro- and anti-development forces await word on the future of Snodgrass Mountain from the U.S. Forest Service’s Region 5 Deputy Regional Forester Jim Peña, the Crested Butte News reports. After local U.S.F.S. honcho Charlie Richmond kiboshed the resort’s proposed expansion onto Snodgrass Mountain last fall…
After four years of skiing an average of 30 days a season, my poor ski boots were becoming looser and looser on my feet, as the liner boot was completely packed out. This required me to buckle the boots tighter and tighter to maintain some level of control while skiing…
Vail Valley’s Lindsey Vonn crashed and burned in everything but the Downhill (Gold) and Super G (Bronze), but that hasn’t stopped the post-Olympics marketing bonanza: A gold medal is a gold medal, after all. Last week General Mills unveiled its Lindsey Vonn “Breakfast of Champions” Wheaties box art, making her…
Legendary Telluride ski bum “Captain Jack” Carey passed away on Lizard Head Pass last summer after a truck hit his bike. The New Hampshire transplant and Ophir resident was an world-class hang-glider, skier, biker, and hiker, and beloved by the community he’d been a big, smiling part of for over…
On Wednesday, I wrote about Her Day, a night riding event at Echo Mountain on the first Thursday of every month. Her Day is designed to introduce women to playing on features in the terrain park in an encouraging and relaxed atmosphere.Though I’ve skied on and off for 30 years,…
Ready to live out those Dew Tour dreams and X Games fantasies and begin your Olympic odyssey? Your journey begins here: The United States Snowboard Association brings its 23rd annual Rocky Mountain Series to Copper Mountain this weekend, March 6-7, for the final event of the series before next month’s…
The good people over at Science magazine are blogging that too much ski wax is probably not a good thing. Apparently ski wax has a lot of stuff besides wax in it, including some nasty junk called perfluorinated octanoic acid (PFOA), and that’s not the best thing to have in…
Colorado ski/soft porn fans, rejoice: Breckenridge’s Alex Guras has brought the crown to Colorado, winning the Rocky Mountain Region for the Freeskier/Local Lange Girl contest 2010. And unlike some poseurs, this Lange Girl actually shreds.(Bikini shot after the jump, you dogs.)…
Local hero Steve Fisher’s been a busy dude since we last caught up with him for our Westword cover story at the beginning of the US Snowboarding Grand Prix series: That double cork got him in the end after all, and he missed another chance at the Olympics, but he…
An R2 unit for skiers looking to hone their skills without any of that pesky human interaction, the Moticon SkiGo consists of: A) a computerized brain (pictured above); B) insoles that detect your velocity and position, and thus whether you’re making good or bad turns; and C) an earbud that…
Gals, if you’ve ever skied or boarded past a terrain park and seen people throwing down jumps and tricks on the rails and wondered if you could do it too, Echo Mountain has a solution. This Thursday, March 4, is the second Echo Her Day. The event runs from 6…
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…
So CDOT was metering again yesterday, and I-70 again predictably turned into a parking lot at the tunnel, ending many a getaway with an interminably slow slog back to Denver. Critics are not too happy about the practice, claiming it turns a three-hour drive into a five-hour drive for no…
If you’re looking around your cubicle this morning and noticing that an unusual number of your colleagues have called in sick, you might want to check the ski report: The light dusting we got down here in Denver (I woke up to the sound of my neighbor sweeping her sidewalk)…
This year I’ve been going for the gold in the Winter Olympic sports of Fast Forwarding Through Commercials on the DVR, Snorting Hot Cocoa Out My Nose When People Fall Down and Get Hurt, and Falling Asleep On the Couch During Ice Dancing. If you’ve been watching religiously this month…
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…
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…
