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CultureVail Resorts Buys Kirkwood
Vail Resorts Buys Kirkwood
A look at Kirkwood, the newest member of Vail Resorts. Photo courtesy of Vail ResortsLast week, Vail Resorts added a seventh name to its roster of ski resorts in Colorado and California, acquiring Kirkwood Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe for $18 million. “We’re just thrilled to have Kirkwood in the family,” says Vail Resorts co-president Blaise Carrig. “It brings us something really different. We’re going to cherish the Kirkwood experience and make enhancements to it along the way.” Kirkwood pass holders will now have access to Heavenly and Northstar-at-Tahoe—Vail’s other Tahoe resorts—while Epic Passes are now valid at…...
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ResortsStorm Report: Steamboat Springs, CO
Storm Report: Steamboat Springs, CO
A closer look at the champagne powder. Photo by Sydney FoxLast week, the population of Summit Country shifted north. The draw? Steamboat received a healthy dose of powder, and snow-starved Summit locals came for a fix. We arrived Saturday night, in time for a foggy soak in Steamboat’s Strawberry Park Hot Springs to loosen up the legs in anticipation of the upcoming ski day. We drove up Buffalo Pass to spend the night in the car, forgoing real beds for a cheap ski getaway. (We’re Summit County locals on Summit County wages.) The next morning, we woke to a…...
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ResortsField Report: Crystal Mountain’s New Gondola
Field Report: Crystal Mountain’s New Gondola
Skiers gather under the new gondola at Crystal Mountain. Photo by Colin Meagher/Crystal MountainDraining the last of my morning coffee, I step out of the lodge at Crystal Mountain and look up at Washington State’s first and only gondola. The lift opened last year, and it whisks eight people at a time up nearly 2,500 vertical feet while keeping them warm and dry. But that’s not what most people here are raving about: it’s the easy access to higher, less-traveled slopes and the promise of an extended ski season that resonates. All that, and when conditions allow, the new gondola…...
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ResortsStorm Report: Canyons, UT
Storm Report: Canyons, UT
The Orange Bubble Express keeps you cozy even on storm days. Photo by Justin OlsenYou’re probably hatching your powder-skiing survival plan right about now. Which means you may be Wasatch bound. The Beehive State—according to cranky locals—started the month about 100 inches down, on average, compared to Februarys past. But in the early season the resorts did a lot with a little, getting a remarkable amount of terrain open and in decent shape for the storms to come. And come they did. This past weekend’s storm left more than 15 inches of new (plus another 10 inches in the past…...
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CultureMountain Games
Mountain Games
Sam Elias has been swinging ice axes and climbing in crampons all day. This is his 11th trip up a 50-foot face—a foam and plastic route equivalent to a 5.11 rock climb—in less than 10 hours. He clips in at the top to win the men’s mixed climbing event, then leans away from the wall and tips his head back to roar into the fat, wet flakes falling from the night sky. Elias turns to cheer his competitor, Stanislav Vrba, and the pair raise joined hands in a moment of shared accomplishment. “If he had beaten me I would…...
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CultureDay 3: Teva Mountain Games
Day 3: Teva Mountain Games
Sari Anderson won the Ultimate Mountain Challenge at the first Winter Teva Mountain Games. Photo by David Clifford / Winter Teva Mountain Games presented by Eddie Bauer/Vail Valley Foundation More Coverage: Day 1 • Day 2 Competing in the Ultimate Mountain Challenge at the Winter Teva Mountain Games is no small feat. The schedule: 10K Nordic race on Friday, ski mountaineering race on Saturday (20 miles and 8,000 feet of elevation gain), and finally a two-mile race up 2,200 feet on Sunday morning. The outdoor athletes vying for the UMC title in Vail, Colorado did all that—and in less than…...
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CultureDay 2: Teva Mountain Games
Day 2: Teva Mountain Games
Fire, big air tricks, and bikes on snow upped the ante at the Teva Mountain Games on Saturday night. Photo by Johnathan Greenham More Coverage: Day 1 • Day 3 Scroll to the bottom of the page for more photos from Saturday’s big air and best bike trick competitions. Saturday was an action-packed day in Vail, Colorado for the second day of competition at the inaguaral Winter Teva Mountain Games. It began at 7:30 a.m. with ski mountaineering, and wrapped up under the lights that night with a mountain bike and telemark skiing big air competition. Despite the cold,…...
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CultureDay 1: Teva Mountain Games
Day 1: Teva Mountain Games
Sam Elias (left) smiles back at the crowd after claiming the men’s mixed climbing title at the Winter Teva Mountian Games.Sam Elias of Boulder, Colorado claimed victory in the men’s mixed climbing event at the first Winter Teva Mountain Games on Friday night at Vail’s Golden Peak base area. “I just tried to climb well,” Elias said. “You just hope for a little bit of luck and just do your best.” Stanislav Vrba was second for the men. Dawn Glanc claimed the women’s title, with Emily Harrington taking second. Heavy snow fell throughout the mixed climbing finals, contested…...
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CultureWounded Warriors Learn to Ski
Wounded Warriors Learn to Ski
Click the image below to launch a slideshow. Photos courtesy of DSES Tom Hopkins was a strong expert skier. But during his fourth tour of duty with the U.S. Army, he suffered a traumatic brain injury. Back home in Wisconsin with his wife, Kristina, he adapted to life in a wheelchair and dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder. They stay focused. “We don’t use the word ‘try’ in our house,” says Kristina. “It’s do or do not.” Tom’s recovery didn’t leave much time for planning ski vacations. That’s where Wounded Warriors comes in. The organization funds programs that help servicemen…...
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Culture
Winter Teva Mountain Games
Winter Teva Mountain Games
The first-ever Winter Teva Mountain Games take place in Colorado’s Vail Valley this weekend, February 10–12. Professional athletes to weekend warriors will compete for $60,000 in prizes in ski mountaineering, mixed climbing, mountain biking on snow, telemark big air, and more. “I’ve been to the summer games several times to support friends,” says ice climber Sam Elias, a favorite to podium in mixed climbing. “This event can be even bigger.” Climbers are traveling from around the world to compete under the lights on an artificial wall in Vail’s Golden Peak base area Friday night. The athletes will use…...
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CultureStorm Report: More Powder Crazed than a Fat Kid in a Donut Shop
Storm Report: More Powder Crazed than a Fat Kid in a Donut Shop
Craig DiPietro samples the goods at Eldora. Photo by Lee CohenThere used to be a chicken ranch out in east Boulder. Egg wranglers by the looks of their outbuildings. The place was nasty to ride by on a hot summer day, but in the winter I loved catching the aroma of defecating poultry. The cloying scent meant a moist wind from the east was brewing. An upslope was on the way. A Front Range powder producer. Meteorologists call these storms Panhandle Hookers, which is only a slightly more appetizing term than, say, a Chicken Shit Clipper. They occur when…...
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EnvironmentResort in a Coal Mine
Resort in a Coal Mine
Aspen gets down and dirty in its effort to address climate change. By Paul Tolmé | Photograph by Karl Wolfgang No mountain resort has been more active in addressing climate change than Aspen Skiing Company, which generates its own solar and hydropower, heats buildings with geothermal energy, and employs state-of-the-art lighting and efficiency technologies across its four resorts. So it was startling to hear the news last summer that the greenest of ski resorts was considering investing in a coal mine. Had the recession forced the SkiCo to lay down with odd bedfellows? Not so much: Aspen plans to invest $6…...
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CultureBottoms Up
Bottoms Up
Mixing a Caesar in British Columbia. Photo by Brian IrwinOn a busy winter weekend, Killington’s Grist Mill is swimming in its popular Goombay Smash cocktail, with bartenders churning up five gallons of mix at a time. This tasty drink was not invented in Vermont, however; it was discovered by a traveling bartender in the ’80s and brought to the Green Mountain State directly from the tiny Bahamian island of Green Turtle Cay. The late “Ms. Emilie” created the blend at her pub—a small blue wood box that still stands on the island where her granddaughter carries on the tradition. …...
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ResortsField Report: Monarch Mountain, CO
Field Report: Monarch Mountain, CO
Plenty of snow, no one to fight for it. Photo by Gavin GibsonIt’s 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at Monarch Mountain, and I’m just slipping into my ski boots. The locals keep telling me that they wish there was more fresh snow. Undeterred, I venture through an empty lift maze and onto the chair. My first run ever at Monarch consists of slipping into the trees and skiing largely untracked boot to knee-deep snow. My next run, off the Panorama chair, yields more of the same. The coverage might not be perfect, but I struggle to find “bad” snow. In a…...
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ResortsHello Winter my Old Friend
Hello Winter my Old Friend
Click on image to launch slideshow. The post apocalyptic genre of fiction typically involves roaming bands of cannibalistic marauders (The Road and Road Warrior) chasing down Earth’s last good man through a dusty landscape robbed of all fertility. We’ve experienced that end-of-days dread these past few months. The warm dawn of Nuclear Winter. Skiers moping around like Cormac McCarthy on Percocet. And then the cursed ridge of high pressure dissipates and the storms stack up off the coast again (our coast), and everything is right with the world once more. Five feet in Lake Tahoe. Three in Utah with…...
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CultureDeep Winter Winner
Deep Winter Winner
Photo by Robin O’Neill Six years ago Whistler Blackcomb launched the Deep Winter Photo Challenge. Each January, a handful of photographers are invited to spend three days shooting at the resort. The competition culminates with slideshow presentations of their work to the public, with judges awarding $8,500 in prize money to the top three. Mother Nature threw a wrench in the works this year, serving up bluebird skis and hardpack during the competition window. But Robin O’Neill found inspiration in the Whistler community, snapping longtime locals and young pros alike to earn the title of Queen of Storms. From a…...
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CultureCarving for a Cause
Carving for a Cause
Hank (right) offers encouragement to competitors at the 24 Hours of Schweitzer event. Courtesy photoAt 24 Hours of Schweitzer, relay teams ride the lift and pile up vert from dawn to dusk and dawn again. Last year, Matt Gillis competed solo, logging over 200,000 vertical feet at the Sandpoint, Idaho ski area. His motivation? A five-year-old boy named Henry “Hank” Sturgis. Hank has cystinosis, a rare disease that damages kidneys, the liver, and eyes. To treat cystinosis, Hank takes medications every six hours. “The way the drugs make him feel is like being at your absolute most burnt-out moment…...
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Resorts
Field Report: Jay Peak, VT
Field Report: Jay Peak, VT
It’s a rare combination: Surf and ski in the same day. Who thought it would be possible to lasso that unicorn in Northern Vermont? On paper, Jay Peak’s 50,000-square foot Pump House Indoor Water Park is a headscratcher. How does that fit at a resort adored by core skiers? Then we visited in late December. Less than ideal conditions sent us inside for hot chocolate, poutine, and a trip to the new water park. The Pump House is in the Jay Hotel, meaning you can walk from your room to the cabana in a swimsuit. Inside, surfers…...
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