I happened upon ColoradoSkiHistory.com on the intertubes last night and found it pretty addictive. I got especially hooked on the comprehensive ski lift database, with stats on every lift in the state, and the “Lost Resorts” coverage. Random stuff I learned: Defunct Colorado resorts outnumber operating ones 145 to 30,…
In this week’s Westword, I wrote about the Adventure Film Festival in Boulder this weekend (and the tragic death of AFF founder Jonny Copp in an avalanche earlier this year). The AFF has a full schedule of great films this weekend — including First Ascent: Point of No Return, a…
Recession or not, Colorado’s ski resorts were plenty busy this off-season. The cranes that went idle in Dubai and Vegas were still running in high gear at many of the base villages, and the list of on-mountain improvements is long. In my estimation, the top five improvements at Colorado resorts…
A momentarily abandoned mountain bike somewhere over the Tennessee Valley. Photo courtesy of jaydoubleyougee’s Flickr page. To have your photos featured in Morning Dew, send them to edge@westword.com or post them to the Westword Flickr pool…
Have you ever skinned your way up a hidden backcountry stash, only to wipe the stinging sweat from your eyes and think to yourself, “There’s GOT to be a better way!”Um, there is: Ken Block’s Subaru WRX-based Trax ST1 is probably the fastest snow cat ever built, and roaring along…
As we anxiously wait for the winter snow, it’s important to remember the building block of a blizzard — the humble snowflake — is not necessarily a unique individual.Scientists now believe that of the million billion cubic feet of snow that annually falls on the planet, some might well be…
Keystone opened last week, and the above video should have you jonesing even more to make it there this winter…
[jump] On Saturday, the Basin opened the Norway lift, offering top-to-bottom skiing via Lenawaee Face and Dercum’s Gulch on the upper mountain, and Ramrod and High Noon on the lower mountain. All of the trails are intermediate runs. Skiers raced to be the first ones to get up Norway on…
Heads up, tree-hugging tree skiers: Aspen Mountain Ski Resort ranked number one out of all western ski resorts on the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition annual environmental impact report cards for the 2008-2009 ski season. Three other Colorado resorts — Buttermilk Mountain, Aspen Highlands, and Telluride — made the Coalition’s top…
Copper opened on November 6, and photographer Soren McCarty — who also shot Keystone’s Opening Day — was there to capture the snowy goodness. See more photos after the jump…
The view from Chataqua Park in Boulder, courtesy of erunder’s Flickr feed. To have your photos featured in Morning Dew, send them to edge@westword.com or post them to the Westword Flickr pool…
Keystone opened for the season on Thursday, and photographer Soren McCarty was there. We’re a little jealous, are you? See more photos after the jump…
Via Visit Colorado’s YouTube channel comes this segment from Ski Scene, hosted by Johnny Morris. It’s basically a promo video for Steamboat from forty years ago. Highlights include: Cowboy hats, full body jumpsuits, harmony, more bad puns, some shockingly inane conversation and a mildly creepy ski commercial. Noticeably absent: Snowboards,…
Here’s the best thing about living in Denver in the winter: Snowy and cold up in the mountains, sunny and warm down in the city. Snow/Sun … Wet/Dry … see how that works? Then, in 2007, Winter Park and the City of Denver’s parks department had to go and come…
Each week, we’ll tell you which three resorts should win your weekend. Last week, it was also the only three running lifts. This week, however, we had to actually make a decision or two to bring you the choicest mountains. Spoiler alert: you’re looking at one of them. 1. Copper…
Is it us, or do these folks have a slightly skewed understanding of how large rocks work?…
Forget the traffic on I-70 and the hours-long liftlines at Keystone. Head out for a long weekend this winter to poach the secret stashes at Colorado’s small-time mom-and-pop resorts. There’s Cooper (not Copper!), Monarch, Sunlight, the bad-boys down by Telluride and more. Everybody would love to ski Aspen — there’s…
Snowshoeing allegedly has merits of its own — REI calls it “one of the fastest growing sports in Colorado” and my folks are nuts for it — but for me its real value has always been as a stepping stone.I grew up snowshoeing/snowboarding in the Colorado backcountry alongside a few…
I don’t know why anyone would want to do 10,000 squat thrusts in a day — guess some people are just gluttons for punishment. But that’s exactly what I decided to do a few years ago when I decided to learn to telemark at the oft-overlooked California resort of Kirkwood…
A great shot of A-Basin, which is making the beige of Officeland even less palatable. Photo from Josh Gray’s Flickr. To have your photos featured in Morning Dew, send them to edge@westword.com or post them to the Westword Flickr pool…
Copper Mountain is doing its opening Lift Off! weekend up right this weekend, November 6-7, with the premiere of the new Teton Gravity Research flick RE: Session on Friday and a screening of Matchstick Productions’ In Deep on Saturday, plus chair prizes and aprés ski parties all weekend and a…
Judging by the video above, Shaun White woke up one day and said, “I would like a private, giant half-pipe in the San Juan Mountains, accessible only by helicopter.” And Red Bull said, “How giant would you like it?” More dramatic foreplay can be found on the Project X website…
