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Bike
Breck Epic: Stage 2
Breck Epic: Stage 2
Nick Truitt riding the Colorado Trail, part of the Breck Epic’s Stage 2. Photo by Daniel DunnStay tuned to the Mountain blog this week, where we’ll be previewing each stage of the Breck Epic. Read about Stage 2 below, and get more beta here: Stage 1 • Stage 3 • Stage 4 • Stage 5 • Stage 6 The legs are tired from yesterday, but today offers up possibly the best section of Colorado Trail in the state. The climbs are challenging, but the fast, flowing descents erase any pain. Never mind that today also includes Heinous Hill, whose name alone elicits…...
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Culture
Gear of the Future
Gear of the Future
Click on the image at the left to launch a slide show of gear from Summer Outdoor Retailer 2012. Photos by Olivia Dwyer The biannual Outdoor Retailer tradeshow in Salt Lake City just wrapped up. The Mountain mag crew ran the halls looking for innovative 2013 gear. Here are the highlights. Fabric Mountain Hardwear and parent company Columbia Sportswear share a valuable resource: The Performance Innovation Team, or PIT crew, if you will. PIT’s four-year effort to create clothing that keeps you cool in hot weather was on display in Columbia’s Omni-Freeze ZERO and Mountain Hardwear’s Cool.Q Zero material.…...
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Bike
Reveal the Path
Reveal the Path
Two veterans of the North American Tour Divide race venture farther afield in this film, exploring far reaches of the globe using their mountain bikes. Follow Matthew Lee and Kurt Refsnider on a far-reaching yet intimate exploration of communites across four continents. Visit the “Reveal the Path” website to find out when it screens near you. revealthepath.com...
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Bike
Ready, Set, Epic
Ready, Set, Epic
Sydney Fox (left) and Nick Truitt bomb through aspen tunnels on Stage 1 of the Breck Epic. Photo by Daniel Dunn Stay tuned to the Mountain blog this week, where we’ll be previewing each stage of the Breck Epic. Read about Stage 1 below, and get more beta here: Stage 2 • Stage 3 • Stage 4 • Stage 5 • Stage 6 Never heard of the Breck Epic? No worries. Here’s your primer for the six-stage, 240-mile mountain bike race held annually in Breckenridge, Colorado. Masochistic athletes battle through oxygen deprivation and 40,000 vertical feet of climbing through incredible scenery…...
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Culture
Freeriders Unite
Freeriders Unite
The ski and snowboard freeride competition scene simplified last Wednesday with the announcement that three big-mountain event series will combine to form the Swatch Freeride World Tour by The North Face. That may be a mouthful, but consider the alphabet soup it streamlines. Previously, the Freeskiing World Tour operated in North and South America, hosting big-mountain skiing contests. Across the pond, the Swatch Freeride World Tour hosted independent competitions for skiers and snowboarders on European steeps. And The North Face Masters of Snowboarding put on a trio of snowboarder-only events. Speculation about a merger gained steam as the…...
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Culture
River Report: Selway, ID
River Report: Selway, ID
Click on the image to launch a photo slideshow from the Selway. Photos by Lee Cohen. When it comes to your bucket list of rivers to run, the Selway River in Idaho is a must. It flows from headwaters in the Bitterroot Mountains along the Montana-Idaho border, dropping over 7,000 feet to join the Lochsa River near Lowell, Idaho. The only problem? It may be the hardest river permit to pull in the United States. Just 72 permits are issued each year, including private and commercial trips. During high season (May 15 to July 31) only one party…...
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Bike
Bikes All Over Breck
Bikes All Over Breck
Super D action above Breckenridge, Colorado. Photo by Liam DoranI clip in to my pedals and brace on a nearby tree, listening to the 10-second countdown. The starter gets to five seconds, and I’m free to go. My heart racing, I start pushing down Baldy Mountain’s flank for the four-minute descent. It’s my inaugural Super D, and this course does not let up. Racing through berms and over bridges, I opt out of crossing a bridge that drops a foot to a 45-degree ramp—the drop is small, but the consequences of missing either are high. I intersect with the drop…...
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Culture
Ski Film Trailers
Ski Film Trailers
“Choose Your Adventure” from Powderwhore Productions lives up to the company’s telemark roots and then some. Freeheeler Jake Sakson front-flips and hucks cliffs, leading a diverse cast of splitboarders and alpine speedsters seeking tall peaks, skinny chutes, and more from Alaska to France to Chile. Voleurz offers a mixed bag of crazy nuts in the best way possible in its 2012 release, available for free online November 19. It’s got a little of everything: Snowblades, snow racers, skiers shredding powder, snowboarders grinding rails. For more on Voleurz, a clothing company based in British Columbia, look for Mountain‘s Early Winter…...
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Culture
Closer Look: Summer Cover
Closer Look: Summer Cover
Get the Summer issue for your iPad here. At the moment, Garrett Grove is deep in the forest of British Columbia north of Whistler, riding singletrack and shooting frames. But before the Leavenworth, Washington-based photographer crossed the border, Mountain caught up with him to get the story behind our Summer cover photo. See more of Grove’s work here. That’s my wife in the photo. We hit the road a year ago in a truck and a camper. This was at the end of our trip, on the Boy Scout Tree Trail in the northern redwoods. It was…...
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Culture
Hey Bro, We’ve Got Kombucha on Tap
Hey Bro, We’ve Got Kombucha on Tap
Photographs by Timberland/Jeff Heimbach Photography “Om shanti,” I chant beneath blue skies at Vermont’s Stratton Ski Resort under direction from our hike leader. She teaches us the value of uddiyana bandha—or sucking in our guts while hiking. Repeating a mantra, she informs us, helps us become more mindful in our gut sucking. This is Wanderlust, a four-day affair of yoga, the arts, music, and environmentalism. Founded in 2009 at California’s Squaw Valley, this year’s tour kicked off with kombucha on tap and kale Caesar salad at Stratton. This past weekend Wanderlust visited Colorado’s Copper Mountain. The festival continues…...
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Culture
Southern Shootout
Southern Shootout
Capture skiing and sunsets at Valle Nevado Image Quest. Photo by Grant Gunderson“Chile is always a nice break from the summer heat,” says Grant Gunderson. But he’s not inviting you to Valle Nevado Ski Resort just to cool off in the Andes and drink pisco sours. Gunderson, a Mountain contributor and renowned ski photographer, will instruct at the Valle Nevado Image Quest this September. The photo camp provides an opportunity for amateurs and professionals to hone skills during outdoor shooting sessions with Gunderson (and photographers Nils Schlebusch and Tom Winter) on Valle Nevado’s 7,000 acres and nearby backcountry terrain.…...
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Culture
Calling Aidan Loehr
Calling Aidan Loehr
A rare snapshot of Loehr’s plane in repose. Photo by Aidan LoehrFor 20 years, Aidan Loehr has been a regular fixture in Alaska’s wilderness. There, he’s known as bush pilot, delivering fuel to remote villages and flying adventurers into the unknown, and a mountain guide who has stood on the summit of Denali many times. When he’s not in Alaska, Loehr can be found making solo first ascents in China or flying planes in African war zones. Mountain caught up with him to talk about mountains, risk assessment, and the recent climbing season in Alaska. Bush flying actually refers…...
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Culture
The Shapeshifter
The Shapeshifter
As the mercury approaches 100 degrees outside Mountain headquarters, we’ve got “The Shapeshifter” on repeat. Press play and immerse yourself in Quebec’s refreshing waters and the impressive acrobatics of whitewater kayaker Ben Marr. The short film takes a turn for the supernatural with watery visions that tame summer’s heat. Made by Forge Motion Pictures, this video is third entry in the five-part series “Of Souls + Water.” Catch the adventure films at NRS Films. ...
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Bike
The Tour Divide Races Through Bike Town USA
The Tour Divide Races Through Bike Town USA
Taylor Zimmerman averages 114 miles per day on the Tour Divide race, but he found the energy to pop a wheelie in Steamboat last Friday. Photo by Doug DavisThe premise is simple: Race your mountain bike, self-supported, across the spine of the Rocky Mountains. But finishing the world’s longest mountain bike race, all 2,745 miles of Adventure Cycling Association’s Great Divide Route from Alberta to New Mexico, is anything but simple. You must summit the highest peaks, brave the loneliest deserts, and wend through the wildest terrain in the continent, using only your wits and the power of your pedals.…...
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Culture
Calling Majka Burhardt
Calling Majka Burhardt
Climber Majka Burhardt. Photo by Holly WilmethThe migration pattern favored by most North American outdoor enthusiasts is to head ever westward. But climber and author Majka Burhardt moved from Boulder, Colorado to Conway, New Hampshire this winter. We caught up with her to talk geography, climbing, and how rollerblading—that icon of 90s zeitgeist—became part of her training routine. The thing that makes mountain communities similar is just the thirst to be outside—whatever the conditions are. In Boulder you can pretty much be outside in fair weather every day. In New England, you have to get burlier than that. I…...
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Culture
Alex Honnold Breaks More Speed Records in Yosemite
Alex Honnold Breaks More Speed Records in Yosemite
Click on the image below to launch a slide show from Honnold’s link-up. All photos by Peter Mortimer / reelrocktour.com. Last week, speed climber Alex Honnold reached the top of Yosemite’s Half Dome, nearby Mount Watkins, and El Capitan under 19 hours. Free soloing—no ropes or protection—roughly 95 percent of the routes, Honnold ascended 7,000 feet of vertical granite. Peter Mortimer of Sender Films and a crew captured the event for a film that debuts this fall at the Reel Rock Film Tour. Mountain caught up with Mortimer to hear more about the climb, staying safe on…...
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Bike
Ready, Set, Gather
Ready, Set, Gather
The scene at Washington’s Sasquatch Music Festival. Make your own festival magic this summer. Photo by Dave CoxSummer fun lies in trying to pack in the music, food, adult beverages, and outdoor adventure. See the Summer 2012 issue (out early July) for a report from Washington’s Sasquatch Music Festival and our picks for music events in the high country this season. For the best of the rest, keep reading. WanderlustVermont, Colorado, California, British ColumbiaSquaw Valley hosted the first yoga and music extravaganza in 2009, and now it’s gone continental. Visit Stratton (June 21–24), Copper (July 5–8), Squaw Valley (July 26–29),…...
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Culture
Whitewater Battle
Whitewater Battle
James Byrd, a lifelong kayaker, survived four dry years of college in Helena, Montana and then promptly moved to Boise, Idaho. He was drawn by the region’s whitewater, including its crown jewel, the North Fork of the Payette River. Now, he’s inviting the world to experience the river with the North Fork Championship, a whitewater festival in Crouch, Idaho this June 7–9. The NFC begins Thursday night in Boise with a whitewater film festival and athlete introductions. The event, complete with a sponsor village, live music, and food, moves to Crouch through Friday and Saturday. A shuttle service…...
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