Five lessons from the SIA Snow Fashion Show

Overheard at the SIA Snow Fashion Show: “On the lookout for FYB, blue steel, and the assured unintentional comedy” – Jonny Burns, proprietor of SouthOfTheNorth.com and, ahem, FuckYeahBro.com, irreverent snowboarding blogs tracking the trends at the SIA Snow Show this week.If the fashion show at the Wells Fargo Theater (the…

Believe it: Colorado skier/snowboarder visits are UP

The news keeps getting better: For one thing it’s actually snowing up in them thar hills this week, and for another — economyshmonomy — visits to Colorado ski resorts are up this year, according to Colorado Ski Country USA. A couple inches here, one lone percentage point there… We’ll take…

SIA Party Planner: Five fab Friday fiestas

The SIA Snow Show’s in town this week, and we’ll be helping you sort through the swag:  On Friday, start at the Fillmore for the 11th Annual TransWorld Snowboarding Rider’s Poll Awards ($17). Then hit Marc Frank Montoya’s party with DJ Crime at City Hall, benefiting Colorado’s Snowboard Outreach Society…

Ski Tuning, Part 4: How to Wax your Skis

In this final episode of our four-part series on ski tuning strategies, Matt Hupperts of the Edgeworks in Denver shows you how to hot wax your skis, using a waxing iron and a plastic scraper. On the slopes, you can crayon on a cold wax to improve performance of your…

Jamaica’s got a ski cross team

There’s a good chance Errol Kerr has heard all the bobsled jokes before. The mid-90s flick Cool Runnings did wonders for popularity of the 1988 Jamaican bobsled crew, and in a way he’s following in the footsteps of the four-man team. Kerr, who has a Jamaican father and an American…

Could Vail Resorts buy Whistler?

What if an Epic Pass got you access to Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin and Whistler? A Vail Daily report suggests Vail Resorts acquiring Whistler — it’s largest competitor — isn’t as far fetched as it might sound…

Ski Tuning, Part 3: Waxing strategies explained

In the third episode of a four-part series on home ski tuning technique, Matt Hupperts of the Edgeworks discusses waxing strategies. Ski waxes vary wildly in price, from $15 for basic waxes to over $100 for performance waxes. While those high-priced waxes may seem like an indulgence, for skiers looking…

Boulder climbers summit Nepali peak, make killer film

Boulder climbers Renan Ozturk and Corey Richards just bagged a new route on 21,320-foot Tawoche in Nepal — a mighty feat in any case, but this time made worse by crumbly rock and 36 hours without water. Even so, they managed to safely tag the summit and make this video…

Top 10 Winter Olympics scandals and screw-ups

It’s looking like the Vancouver Winter Olympics already has a scandal — a bad real-estate loan might leave the city on the hook for a cool billion — plus two fuck-ups — NBC is set to lose $200 million (Conan’s $45 billion buyout is kinda pitiful in comparison) and the…

Ski Tuning, Part 2: Sharpen those edges

Yesterday we kicked off the first of a four-part series on tuning your skis at home, talking about vice grips and base repair. Of course, that’s only the first part in getting the most out of your boards…

Ski Tuning 101: Home tunes, step 1

For the next four days, we’ll go over what types of things you can do to maximize the performance of your boards on the slopes. Check back tomorrow to learn how to deburr and sharpen your edges.While there are several places in town that can tune your skis or snowboard,…

Downhill slope: The Rathskeller

I suspect I would drink at Loveland Ski Area’s resident watering hole even if I didn’t have a pass to the mountain. That might be overstating it, but I definitely have a soft spot for the cavernous, vaguely German joint. There are near-daily beer specials, good mountain banter, and 50…

In praise of the winter 14er

14ers are both the Colorado hiker’s hallmark and his/her bane. You can’t help but want to tick them off your personal list and “collect ’em all!” like they’re toys or trophies. Problem is, you’re not the only one, and the tops of all but the hardest can seem like a…

Telluride adds night skiing in superpipe

Echo Mountain near Mt. Evans in the Front Range has long believed that offering park and pipe skiing — with night options — is a viable business model. To date, with the exception of Keystone, the bigger Colorado resorts have left night skiing alone. But last week, Telluride offered a…

Mountain party of the week: Mary Jane’s birthday

It’s Mary Jane’s birthday, and the people at Winter Park have come up with plenty of ways to celebrate, making it worth your while to make the drive this weekend. Always wanted to throw on a pair of skis and get towed around at 30 mph by a horse, but…

Looking to blaze up? Find a smoke shack on the hill

Last week, the Summit Daily reported on the efforts of two U.S. Forest Service officers to bust a pot smoker on the Snowmass chairlift. For the record, smoking any substance, whether legal or illegal, is generally frowned upon while riding the chairlifts. It’s especially vexing when cigarette smokers decide to…

Survey: Brits like to ski drunk

Almost a quarter of British skiers have hit the slopes drunk, according to a recent survey. In a poll of 1,072 skiers, 23 percent said that at some point during the season, they expected to have more than a dozen drinks in a night and ski the next day. Seventy-four…