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CultureThat’s a Wrap
That’s a Wrap
See more photos from the weekend on Mountain‘s Facebook page. A cheering crowd lined the cobbled streets of Vail Village yesterday morning, clapping and hollering as 400 runners crossed the start line of the 10K Spring Runoff race on the last day of competition at the Teva Mountain Games. The noise quickly faded to the quiet rhythm of running shoes on paved path as we ran through the shuttered tents of the sponsor village. The pack found its stride on the dirt road leading up the mountain from Golden Peak. Then we stalled, bunched, and slowed to a hike…...
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Culture
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CultureHigh Country Health Care Crisis
High Country Health Care Crisis
Mountaineer Robert Link on the summit of Mount Visson in Antarctica. Courtesy photoIt was 2007 when Robert Link decided he needed a new hip. The longtime Mount Rainier guide—he’s summited more than 300 times—and design consultant with tent manufacturer SlingFin hobbled along for a few years, but his long-stressed hip finally caught up to him. “It was slowly degrading. I could walk off the pain,” Link says. “Then, around August of last year, it was like I hit a cliff. I had trouble standing, and by December I couldn’t lay down.” One problem, though—Link didn’t have medical insurance. …...
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CultureJay Peak Acquires Burke
Jay Peak Acquires Burke
Jay Peak Resort in Vermont. Courtesy photo Last week, the owners of Jay Peak Resort finalized a deal to purchase Burke Mountain Resort. The two ski areas are located a 45-minute drive from each other in a rural area of Vermont known as the Northeast Kingdom. “We feel there’s terrific synergy between Jay and Burke,” says Bill Stenger, Jay’s president and co-owner. “Both areas have a lot of authentic flavor and great community support.” Reaction to the sale was similar at Burke, which was owned by the Ginn Company (See “Same As it Ever Was” from the Winter…...
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CultureMountain Media Internship
Mountain Media Internship
Mountain Media is seeking applicants for an editorial internship. The intern will work closely with editorial staff on Mountain magazine, custom publications Ski Town USA and SQUAW, and digital content over the course of 10–12 weeks. The position is full-time, with occasional weekend hours required during deadlines. Duties include creating editorial and video content for our digital channels, proofreading, fact-checking, reporting, research, and other tasks as required. There will be opportunities to contribute to the magazines. We offer a stipend for undergraduates and an hourly wage for college graduates. Interns must be able to work in our Boulder, Colorado…...
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Bike
Beginners Ride Free at Catamount
Beginners Ride Free at Catamount
The nonprofit organization known as the Fellowship of the Wheel (FOTW) completed a beginner trail in early May at the Catamount Family Center in Williston, Vermont. The new trail—part of the 20-plus mile Catamount network and FOTW’s 100-plus mile trail web—connects several existing sections of flowy, obstacle-free trail with new singletrack. And it’s free to ride. “There is no better place for a beginner trail than Catamount,” says Steve Fischer, FOTW’s president. “It’s minutes from Burlington, Vermont. And it has all the amenities—parking, food, water, and restrooms.” The novice circuit is the latest link in a chain of…...
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CultureGet the Kids Out
Get the Kids Out
I’m usually leery of guidebooks claiming to encompass everything I need to know about any particular subject, but The Down and Dirty Guide to Camping With Kids, by Helen Olsson, comes pretty close to family camping omniscience. The book isn’t for the type A parent force-marching the kids up 14ers. Instead it’s geared toward those who are OK “just hanging around the campsite and letting the kids play with pinecones.” A blend of seasoned tips, family lore, and advice to make camping a truly green endeavor, the guidebook reminds parents that family camping requires a retooling of expectations and…...
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BikePark City Earns IMBA Gold
Park City Earns IMBA Gold
Park City’s vast network of trails earned it IMBA Gold-Level certification. Photo by Mike TittelIt offers more than 350 miles of singletrack, terrain suitable for everyone from beginners to pros, and because the town is only 30 minutes from Salt Lake City off an eight-lane highway, it’s accessible. Utahns have always thought of Park City as a great place to mountain bike in high summer when Moab is an inferno, but now the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) is saying Park City is the best town in the country to mountain bike. IMBA recently awarded Park City with its…...
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BikeSweet Duds. Great Cause.
Sweet Duds. Great Cause.
Click on the image below to launch a slideshow. Photos by Dave Cox. The Trail Builders Show up as a volunteer at a multi-use trail building day anywhere in the country, and you’ll be surrounded by dozens, if not hundreds, of mountain bikers, a handful of hikers, and a couple of lazy equestrians (gross generalization based on writer’s personal experience). Mountain bikers are trail builders. And they know how to build trails that flow and last. Today, much of that expertise resides within the nonprofit that is IMBA. Their Trail Solutions division is one of the largest trail…...
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Culture
The Spearhead Huts Project
The Spearhead Huts Project
In May of 1964, Karl Ricker pointed his Head skis—over 200 cm long—into the Coast Mountain Range of British Columbia. Over the next nine days, Ricker and two others completed the Spearhead Traverse, traveling through what would one day become the backcountry of Whistler and Blackcomb ski areas. They were the first to travel the route, which has since become a classic of Canadian mountaineering. Today, Blackcomb’s chair lifts help parties access the glaciated terrain that makes up the traverse, most of it above 2,000 meters. Fit parties complete the route in a few hours. Others take several days,…...
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CultureTexas Interlopers, Lazy Narrators, and the Meaning of Escape
Texas Interlopers, Lazy Narrators, and the Meaning of Escape
By Jill Davis | Photo by Sandra Salvas Last year, my dad excavated one of my old ski jackets from his storage unit and kindly sent it to me. The jacket is a celebration of early 1980s garishness. It’s three fruity shades of purple and reversible, with stripes on one side and geometric cutouts on the other. Ski pins on the collar are little signposts of the places we’d been: Vail. Breckenridge. Park City. I loved that jacket, and holding it after three decades apart was like flipping through a grainy photo album of the Davis family spring ski vacations…...
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CultureTransients
Transients
By Rob Story | Photo by Lee Cohen They come, like hordes of hedonists, down from the mountains in great waves to the Ottawa River Valley. Every May, Canada’s freeskiers, snowboarders, telemarkers, and jibbers turn their backs on an alpine off-season and roll into the cornfields of Ontario, hunting for the flotation that has so recently left them. These are your Ottawa River rafting guides, and they’ve discovered an unlikely wellspring of glissé—a French word that Canadians of English descent would not appreciate, but one that captures the fluid nature of their migrations nonetheless. Whitewater is a special commodity in…...
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CultureRiding the San Rafael Swell
Riding the San Rafael Swell
Click on the photo to launch a slideshow. Springtime in Utah’s San Rafael Swell is perfection. It looks like Canyonlands or Moab but it’s less developed, less restricted, and less hectic. No hordes of tourists chasing their recreational nirvana. Cottonwoods are lighting up bright green in the washes as the desert comes back to life. Soon it’ll be hot. Spring is the time for some rootsy camping and chilling with friends and doing a bit of climbing. We camp in a little wash, all private and nooked in. Firewood is not plentiful, but the adjust-a-grill doesn’t need…...
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CultureSki, Fish, Repeat
Ski, Fish, Repeat
In spring, while the rest of us are trying to get our bike legs back, pro skier Cody Townsend can be found in the wild mountain ranges of Alaska, sending big lines in front of the camera for Matchstick Productions‘ next rollicking ski film. But you probably didn’t know he packs his fly tackle along with his fat skis. AK rivers and lakes are opening up and on down days Townsend is going after dollies and graylings. I learned to ski when I was two years old, and I was pretty obsessed with it from a very young age.…...
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Culture
Closer Look: Spring Cover
Closer Look: Spring Cover
The cover photo for the Spring issue came courtesy (well, not really, we’re going to pay for it) of prolific ski and outdoor photographer Scott Markewitz. We caught up with Scott in his home in Salt Lake City to find out how he got the shot. Michael Hernandez is a really strong NorCal road racer—I believe he’s a pro. We were shooting up in the hills above Watsonville, which is near Santa Cruz. There’s great road riding as well as great mountain biking in that area, especially when you get closer to Santa Cruz, which is a little Mecca…...
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CultureCalling Peter Croft
Calling Peter Croft
Peter Croft leading the way. Photo by Lisa RandsRock climber, mountaineer, and guide Peter Croft is famous for completing long routes in Yosemite National Park, the Sierra, and Squamish, BC. He’s made first ascents around the world, written several guidebooks, and was featured in Fifty Favorite Climbs: The Ultimate North American Tick List. Mountain talked to him at home in Bishop, California. As a kid, I was never really that interested in climbing. The media makes it seem like a super macho, dangerous sport, and that didn’t intrigue me. Then a friend gave me I Chose To Climb [by…...
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CultureEcotourism with Blisters
Ecotourism with Blisters
Trail crew at work in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Courtesy photoWant to run a two-person, six-foot crosscut saw to fell trees in the wilderness? Well, now is your chance. The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation (BMWF) needs volunteers to complete 50 projects this summer. “The Bob is home to one of the largest intact ecosystems in the U.S.,” says Keagan Zoellner, executive director of the foundation. The area encompasses 1.5 million acres of Montana backcountry, straddling the Continental Divide just southeast of Glacier National Park. Within its boundaries you’ll encounter steep mountain passes, fishing and rafting in the Flathead and…...
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BikeMountain Download: Wilderness Trail Bikes
Mountain Download: Wilderness Trail Bikes
By Rob Story | Photograph by Tai Power Seeff Were it not for the soft dirt of Northern California, mountain biking as we know it may not exist. From leftist Marin County north through bongwater-drenched Arcata, all the way to the flannel-shirted Oregon line, the trails are verdant, moss-weeping wonderlands carpeted in pine needles. They’re so appealing, ’70s hippies rode them on cruisers, frying brakes and cracking frames. So the hippies founded the original mountain-bike companies. Gary Fisher. Ritchey. And Wilderness Trail Bikes, the supergroup formed in 1982 by Mountain Bike Hall of Famers Charlie Cunningham, Steve Potts, and Mark Slate.…...
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