Outdoors & Rec

The Winter Dew Tour soared into Breck on Thursday, and photographer Soren McCarty was there. See more of his photos after the jump…

The Dew Tour is downright democratic compared to the X Games and other invitational pro snowboarding events: Any Fred Shred or Insane Jane who fights their way through the Open Qualifiers gets to throw down in Prelims, against the likes of Shaun White and Kelly Clark (last year’s Dew Cup…

Welcome to our weekly mountain buyer’s guide, because skiing or snowboarding is much more fun than shopping. 1. Wolf Creek Yes, it’s far away. Do you know how much snow they’ve had since December 6th? Suffice it to say it would bury Yao Ming up to about his nose. That’s…

On Monday, my colleague Ted Alvarez posted a video link to Erik Weihenmayer ascending the Naked Edge. The Edge, as many people call it, is a truly striking line that grabs the eye of every climber entering Eldorado Canyon. From the road at the parking lot, it looks much like…

OK, so this one’s on the Front Range, but it’s hard to pass up all-you-can-drink Avery beer, a chance to support a good cause, and a shot at winning jackets, goggles, pants, packs, a tent, and a complete avy gear setup. Tonight at 7 p.m. Avery Brewing in Boulder is…

Here’s an Olympic event you’re not going to want to miss. No, it’s not biathlon. (It’s hard not to appreciate the combination of skiing and shooting a gun, though, isn’t it?). Check out Snowboardcross at this year’s Vancouver Olympics. This relatively new Olympic event puts four snowboarders on a course…

Last weekend, spectators got a chance to check out the Snowboarding Grand Prix at Copper Mountain. If you didn’t manage to make your way up to Copper to see death-defying leaps of life and study potential mechanisms of injury, you’ll have another chance this weekend in Breckenridge…

It’s a hallowed skiing tradition, but probably not a favorite one: Miles and miles of skitards saddle up and drive into a blizzard, risking life, limb, and Subaru for a shot at once-in-a-season freshies. This results in highway pileups and automotive carnage galore — but ya gotta earn your turns, right?…

In their song “Fear of Falling,” the Badlees sing “I have no fear of falling, but I hate hitting the ground.” Those sentiments have been semi-embraced by an increasingly crazed set of daredevils who huck off cliffs…

Last week we gave you the story of a woman claiming she was getting a sex change to try and use her boyfriend’s ski pass at Keystone. She got busted — but compared to Vail, that was a relative rarity…

In our sparsely populated neighbor to the north, Yellowstone National Park opens up for winter use today. If you haven’t been to Yellowstone in winter — or alternately have been turned off by the park’s summer crowds — it’s an entirely different world after the snow falls. Not only are…

Year-round backcountry skier and a professor at the University of Nevada-Reno, Kam Leang is on the forefront of innovation in ski and snowboard technology. He currently is teaching a mechanical engineering class where his students are incorporating nanotechnology into skis they’re building. One set will somehow fold down to fit…

The U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix took place over the weekend at Copper Mountain, with Shaun White and his hair going home winners. See more photos from Soren McCarty after the jump…

Skiers are a conservative lot by nature, telemark skiers even more so.  While skis have gotten shorter and have more sidecut than they did 30 years, the shape hasn’t changed too drastically from the first wood planks that people strapped on their feet millennia ago.There is one brand of skis,…

Gentlemen,If you have a woman in your life who will make out with you on the chairlift and then give you a run for it on the slopes, I submit that you, like me, are a lucky, lucky man. Take care of that woman, hold on tight, and do everything…

That’s no longer an insult: Boulder’s Erik Weihenmayer just crushed the Naked Edge, a 5.11b (that means f-ing hard) climb in Eldorado Canyon. None of this should be surprising, since Weihenmayer’s also the first blind person atop Everest and the first to top out on the 7 Summits. But seeing…

My friends at YoBeat.com have been “making fun of snowboarding since 1997” and they’re also up with the first footage from yesterday’s U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix Finals at Copper Mountain, in case you want to see what those double corks I’ve been talking about look like in real life. Shaun…

This week’s Westword cover boy Steve Fisher finished in seventh place in qualifiers at Copper Mountain today, just making the cut for finals tomorrow. That skin-of-his-teeth finish underscores how hard his Olympic quest is going to be: He finished behind Shaun White, Louie Vito, Greg Bretz, Danny Davis and Scotty…

Not too surprisingly, industry trade group Colorado Ski Country USA will support Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s efforts to appeal the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to deny an expansion onto Snodgrass Mountain (see previous posts here and here), if the resort’s owners elect to do so, reports the Aspen Times. Writes…

It’s actually been warmer in the mountains than in the city this week, which made for better snowstorm conditions on the hills. Some resorts got more than others, but pretty much everyone got at least a couple inches. Which means this week’s edition of our high-country highlights is neck-deep in…

The party has already started in Vail. But worry not, potential party-goer. Vail Snow Daze –Vail’s early-season mountain kick-off party — still has plenty to offer, including free shows by the Barenaked Ladies, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and the Warren-Miller-movie-staring rock collective Yukon Kornelius. Yukon Kornelius consists of…

Denver climber and Outside blogger Alan Arnette just compiled a handy list comparing prices for aspiring Everest summiteers from all guiding companies on both sides of the mountain. He also offers some analysis into the factors that make the total cost of climbing Everest fluctuate. (He’d know — he’s attempted…