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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.

Best New Ski Lift

Panoramic Express

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 hadn't 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 America's 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.

Best New Ski Terrain

Montezuma Bowl

Granted, Arapahoe Basin is still teeny tiny compared to its sisters in the Vail Resorts umbrella. But this season marked the largest expansion of its sixty-year existence. With 400 acres and 36 blue, black and double-black runs, the opening of Montezuma Bowl made the ski area 80 percent bigger. Accessed by the new fixed-grip quad Zuma lift, the area is wide open, with lots of different terrain options — from soft bumps and moderate steeps to rocks and drops and trees. You can spend the whole day there and never go down the same way twice.

Best New Sport

Recreational Tree Climbing

After "Ponderosa" Harv Teitelbaum saw an arborist on television talking about a new sport he'd just invented — recreational tree climbing — his life was never the same. Recreational tree climbing uses a harness, arborist rope and special techniques to safely climb into trees. Teitelbaum met the arborist and trained under him, and now he's the Evergreen man behind Tree Climbing Colorado, an affiliate in good standing of Tree Climbers International. Private climbs are available for booking at $25 to $30 per person; individual basic tree-climbing courses, which are designed to teach potential climbers everything they need to know to climb on their own, are $450. You could use the tree in your mom's back yard, of course; just try not to break any limbs — yours or the tree's.

Best Nostalgic Sports Signing

Peter Forsberg

In the course of one week, the Rockies re-signed former fan favorite Neifi Perez, the team's shortstop from 1996 to 2001, and the Avalanche brought back Adam Foote and Peter Forsberg. All inspire good memories for sports fans, but the Forsberg deal was clearly the best. Not only is Foppa, who skated for the Avs from 1995 to 2004, the player who could have the biggest impact on his team, but he's a reminder of the two Stanley Cups he helped the Avalanche win. Welcome home, Peter.

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