Copper Mountain began making snow on the slopes of the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center Tuesday and announced a contest that will allow lucky season pass holders to ski those trails with U.S. racers.

The state-of-the-art speed center, which debuted last year, gives U.S. Ski Team athletes the best early season training in the world. The contest will provide VIP access with a venue tour conducted by a ski team athlete, followed by free skiing and lunch with the team.

Pass holders (Copper Mountain season pass, Copper Four Pack and Super Pass) can enter via Facebook (facebook.com/usskiteam).

“Copper Mountain stepped it up with the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center,” said giant slalom star Ted Ligety. “It will be cool for the U.S. Ski Team to hang out and interact with Copper Mountain skiers while showing them first-hand what the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center really means to us.”

Warren Miller Entertainment in Boulder has partnered with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project on an upcoming campaign that will highlight the impact on climate change on winter sports.

Warren Miller Entertainment’s 63rd annual film, “Flow State,” follows high profile skiers to regions impacted by climate change and the new Climate Reality Project “I Am Pro Snow” campaign will further that message. Gore, who founded the Climate Reality Project, will attend a showing of “Flow State” in November.

“Beyond the global scientific consensus about the climate crisis, we can now look in our own backyards to see the impact of man-made climate change,” said Gore in a statement released Tuesday. “Anyone who spends time on a ski slope or in the back country can see how this crisis is changing weather patterns and ecology, with major impacts on the outdoor activities we enjoy with our friends and families. Climate change is a reality that is here, today.”

“Flow State” starts a four-night, eight-show run at the Paramount Theatre on Nov. 15. Learn more at skinet.com/warrenmiller

A leisurely ride near Longmont last Sunday turned ugly for veteran cyclist Dirk Friel when a driver of a Ford Explorer – Colorado license plate 893 EKG – sat behind Friel and his buddy, laying on the horn. The irate driver, a male, is clearly visible in the video as he blasts his horn for several minutes while other cars pass him as he cruises behind the cyclists.

Colorado State Patrol has been notified and is apparently on the case. Friel posted to his Twitter feed yesterday that other cyclists have reported similar encounters with the exceptionally horn-y, buzz killing Sunday driver.

Updates to follow.

Update #1: Colorado State Trooper Nate Reid said a Boulder-based state trooper is meeting with the cyclists today and will make contact with the driver, who has never been reported to the state patrol before. The trooper will also contact the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office and, Reid said, “hopefully get charges filed.”

TNF Freeski Open of New Zealand 2012 | Mens Half Pipe Final from The North Face Australia & NZ on Vimeo.

The rambunctious Tanner Hall, the forefather of halfpipe skiing with seven X Games gold medals, returned to the snowy ditch last weekend for The North Face Freeski Open of New Zealand. Although the finals were called for weather after the first run, the 28-year-old Hall claimed the win in his first halfpipe comp after nearly four years absence due to injury. It was the first step in Hall’s audacious push for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. In the last Hall-free four years, halfpipe skiing has seen the emergence of a young cadre of halfpipe rippers – like Aspen’s Torin Yater Wallace and Kiwi Jossi Wells.

But Hall seems undaunted by the teens who could foul his comeback after blowing both his knees in a 2009 backcountry film shoot. The outspoken skier – his nearly 19,000 Twitter followers must endure ALL CAPS TWEETS, which sort of exemplify his larger-than-life, Rasta-elevating persona – will have to best teenagers who have pushed pipe skiing to new levels in the last few years if he plans to make the U.S. Freeskiing Team for 2014. It’s a daunting task, but Hall’s win in NZ certainly puts him on track.

The win Down Under came only days after Red Bull dropped their sponsorship of Hall after an 11-year partnership. In a post-win interview Hall, who has never held his tongue, got a dig on his former ally with a scathing “Look at me now Red Bull.”

Each Pro Challenge host was required to create some form of commemorative bike art. (Denver has a bike installation at DIA) Breckenridge jumped into the project with an emphasis on recycling. The town’s 30-foot, scale replica of the Eiffel Tower is latticed with parts from 150 scrap bikes gathered at Denver’s Western Metals recycling center. Designed by local artist-welder Tim Mitchell and built by a team from the Summit County Resource Allocation Park and Summit County Recycling, the sculpture reflects Summit County’s love for riding as well as its commitment to sustainability, said Pro Challenge organizer Lucy Kay.
The sculpture will soon be weatherized and Kay hopes the town can install the Bikeffel Tower on a new roundabout in town.

ESPN on Wednesday night announced it was cutting boardercross and ski cross events from the Winter X Games, ending two of the longest running X Games event.

Next year’s X Games in Aspen will be the first in Winter X history without a cross course, which features massive jumps and berms where ski and snowboard gladiators race in groups of six. Boardercross debuted in the 2006 Winter Olympics and ski cross followed in Vancouver’s Winter Games in 2010.

Boardercross – called Snowboarder X by the X Games – is one of three events that have been a part of every Winter X Games since 1997. Ski cross – or Skier X – debuted a year later. ESPN is also cutting Mono X – featuring disabled athletes competing in sit skis – which debuted five years ago at Aspen’s Buttermilk ski area.

ESPN.com reported the news late Wednesday.

“These decisions are never easy, obviously,” said Tim Reed, the senior director of content strategy for ESPN X Games, in the ESPN web article. “We understand the ramifications these things bring. We come up with what we believe are the best events to showcase to our fans on-site and obviously the networks, too.

Reed’s statement noted there “wasn’t one single factor that led to this decision.”

“It just comes down to filling the schedule with how much we believe we need to make the event enjoyable to the fans and deliver on what we need from a product standpoint,” Reed said.

Also, two snowmobiling events that were dropped from the Winter X Games 2012 show, Speed and Style and SnoCross, which ran 14 consecutive games, are returning for 2013.

Boardercross and ski cross athletes learned of the news Tuesday.

ESPN.com quoted Nate Holland, the boardercross king who has won six of the last seven boardercross contests and led an American sweep of the Boarder X podium at the 2012 Winter X Games, saying the decision was “a devastating blow to our sport and skiercross, too.”

“X Games has been our Super Bowl for years,” he said.

As kids growing up in the mining village of Red Cliff, brothers Sam and Leonard Sandoval would climb the girders beneath the iconic arched bridge and dangle their legs over their town. They’d scale the sharp, steep cliffs adjacent to the bridge and “screw around with water balloons,” said Sam.
“Wasn’t a lot to do growing up in Red Cliff,” Leonard said.

On Thursday, the Sandovals joined another brother and sister as well as their mom, who still lives in the tiny mountain hamlet, to watch Pro Challenge racers traverse the steel arched bridge that backdropped nearly every memory of their youth.

Sporting the “Team Sandoval” jerseys and socks they wear for every Ride The Rockies – they’ve ridden RTR 18 consecutive years, the Sandoval clan was jubilant not just for their reunion but the chance to show the world their homestead.

“When I heard the race was coming through, it was a vision of mine to watch the peloton come across this bridge,” said Sam, who calls the bridge the “Silver Bridge,” after the color of the girders before the bridge was restored and painted green in 2004.
The family arrived shortly after dawn to stake out an unfettered view of the bridge. By noon, several dozen more spectators had followed their lead and erected canopies along Highway 24 at the Red Cliff Bridge.
“We just knew this was going to be our spot,” Leonard said.

Vail Resorts has come up with a great new application for its EpicMix technology this coming ski season, offering users a way to race against each other and four-time World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn.

Two years ago, a tracking chip in VR ski passes allowed EpicMix users to track vertical feet skied over the course of a season on their Facebook page and earn virtual “pins.” Last year, it gave users a new way to share photos of their ski adventures.

This season it will enable users to ski up to a race course, race it and have their time recorded automatically on their smart phone and Facebook page.

“You have the chip in your pass, and you just ski up to the starting gate,” Vonn told me today. “They scan your pass and you compete. When you get to the finish, your time is automatically up on your phone. You have your time, and then it’s compared to my time. It’s your actual time, my time and your time with a handicap. Whatever your age and ability, you’ll have a time that’s comparable to mine.”

Users can compare their times to all who participate, or just their Facebook friends.

Vail also is creating the Lindsey Vonn Race Series. Racers will be ranked based on their best 10 races of the season, and the best from Vail’s six resorts will be invited to a final event at Beaver Creek in April, where they will get to race on the bottom of the world-famous Birds of Prey race course. Vonn will be there, and she will provide race tips throughout the season.

I love this idea. I love that Vail has come up with a fun way to involve more kids in ski racing, a cause that is close to my heart — and Vonn’s.

“I think it’s going to help so much with accessibility,” Vonn said, “the way it’s going to engage kids.”

I will be writing more about this when we get closer to ski season, but wanted to get the word out now. What a cool idea.

The sixth annual Gore-Tex Transrockies Run arrived in Vail on Saturday, with a limping army of 360 racers only one run away from victory. And yes, finishing this race means victory. The six-stage grunt climbs 20,000 vertical feet over 116 miles between Buena Vista and Beaver Creek.

By the end of Stage 5 in Vail, the winners were virtually locked. Team Run Flagstaff – Michael Smith and Rob Krar – were leading the men’s open division by more than 1 hour and 13 minutes. The women’s open division was led by Ooh la La Sportiva’s Pam Smith and Jenny Capel by more than 1 hour and 56 minutes. The North Face Bendites team’s Zach Violett and Stephanie Howe led the open mixed division by more than 1 hour 11 minutes.

Pacing is the key Smith and Capel, who are racing their first Transrockies race.
“You can’t go out 100 percent early. You have to pace and take care of yourself,” said the 39-year-old Capel of Reno, an accomplished ultrarunner venturing into stage running for the first time. “You have to always think hard about recovery. You have to take care of yourself because your body is so taxed already at altitude.”

Sixty-one self-supported mountain bikers pedaled through Waterton Canyon this morning, kicking off the 470-mile Colorado Trail Race from Denver to Durango. Climbing more than 65,000 vertical feet along singletrack that traverses up to 13,200 feet, the 6th annual race is Colorado’s most grueling for the knobby-tired set.

In the first day, Crested Butte ski patroller and all-round Tough Guy Ethan Passant was leading. Passant – who won the 2008 and 2010 race – was climbing Georgia Pass at 5 p.m. Monday, having notched more than 90 miles in the first 10 hours of the race.
Let that sink in. Passant, who finished the 2010 race in four days, 13 hours and 35 minutes, has another 360 miles to go and he’s hammering like it’s a sprint. Like I said, certified Tough Guy.

Last year’s winner Kevin Thomas is right behind him though.

CTR Racers are fully self-supported. They can use mail drops to towns but must travel under their own power. The race routes around wilderness areas, where bikes are not allowed. Winners get praise and diety-worthy respect, but no tangible prizes like cash or trophies.

Follow the Spot-toting racers at trackleaders.com or by clicking here.

Watch Passant and Durango’s Cat Morrison, the top female finisher in the 2009 and 2011 CTR, who was leading the women in the first day of the 2012 CTR.

The indefatigable Marsh Ulrich three days ago concluded his 18th Badwater Ultramarathon, finishing the 135-mile race across Death Valley in just shy of 42 hours. To celebrate, the 61 year-old iconic endurance athlete from Idaho Springs didn’t head over to Vegas for some well-earned A/C and R&R. Instead he joined 38-year-old California runner Dave Heckman in a 500-mile circumnavigation of Death Valley National Park.

In their first two days, the duo has logged solid 20-mile days and found their cache of water and supplies. Temperatures aren’t climbing to their typical 120 to 130 degrees during the day, but it’s plenty warm in what is known as the hottest place in the country. (Especially during this particularly balmy July.)

Follow Marsh’s amazing mission at his blog, marshallulrich.com/blog/
Follow the mission’s progress live via satellite SPOT Tracker here.

I visited Frank Shorter Wednesday at his home in north Boulder to interview him about the 1972 Munich Olympics, where he became the first American to win the Olympic marathon in 64 years, and when I got there he was entertaining four members of the cross country team at Yale. Shorter is a Yale grad.

The Yale runners were in town for some altitude training, and they went for a short run with Shorter Wednesday morning. What a thrill that must have been for them.

“He almost dropped us,” said sophomore Jacob Sandry, joking.

Shorter is 64 years old.

Heard a wonderful lecture Wednesday night by Jake Norton at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden. Norton and Charley Mace, both of Golden, attempted to follow in the footsteps of the great Tom Hornbein this spring on the West Ridge of Mount Everest, along with Brent Bishop and Dave Morton.

They failed because it was a dangerous year on Everest. Lack of snow over the winter and spring left bulletproof ice and persistent rockfall on their route. They tried several times to reach the ridge but failed each time and finally gave up. It was just too unsafe.

Hornbein, a legendary climber whose book, “Everest: The West Ridge” is my favorite book on mountaineering, was in the audience. His ascent of the West Ridge with Willi Unsoeld in 1963 was audacious and bold. They weren’t interested in the route Edmund Hillary climbed 10 years before. They preferred to risk failure pursuing the unknown, trying something that hadn’t been done before.

Read more…

Golden’s Jake Norton will speak tonight (July 11) at the AMC in Golden about his recent trip to the West Ridge of Mount Everest, as well as his four-year attempt to climb the Seven Summits three times to raise awareness about global water and sanitation crises. Norton hopes to raise more than $2 million for Water for People.

Also expected in attendance tonight are Charley Mace of Golden and Brent Bishop, who were on the Everest expedition with Norton, and Tom Hornbein, who pioneered the West Ridge route in 1963 on the first American expedition to Everest.

No way I’d miss this.

The AMC is located at 10th and Washington in Golden. Tickets are $5, and the event begins at 6 p.m. with a silent auction.

A commercial raft trip down the Poudre on July 7 shows the impact of those rains in the burn zone. That black water can’t be good for fish.

The kindness of strangers rescues this unnamed climber as he nears the top of the multi-pitch Kennedy’s Gully route in the Ouray Ice Park. This video has swept the interwebs in the last week. I love how the climber is so cool with nary a curse as the ice dissolves beneath his crampons. While he wouldn’t have decked if he fell – he appears to be dragging a lead rope — no telling where his last protection was placed and if it would have held a whipper on what looks like rotting ice.

It’s official. Man can now fly.

Winter Park’s Trestle Bike Park offers 40 miles of lift-served singletrack with hundreds of manmade features to challenge every rider, from expert pinners to downhill beginners like the one wearing this video camera. Rider in photos is Mike Taras.

A gaper on the downhill national championship expert trails at Granby Ranch Bike Park. I will never be a downhill champion.

Considering that nearly 8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes every year in the U.S., it’s a safe bet our nosy dogs get hit even more. Widely varying estimates start around 15,000.

Dog owners hoping to stack the odds in their favor with snake season well underway should consider attending the established dog “de-snaking” clinics hosted this weekend by Julian Weslow and the Colorado Gun Dog Association. Using two surgically defanged diamondback rattlesnakes, Weslow teaches dogs to recognize the sight, smell and sound of the deadly snakes through e-collar admonitions. Dogs are allowed to get up close and personal with the vipers before some minor shock therapy is applied, teaching them that sniffing out snakes is a no-no.

Since the snakes are live, there’s a good chance of a non-lethal strike to reiterate the message. But it’s one the dog is likely to remember to avoid when it counts, and maybe even help the handler do the same.

Bird hunters are obvious candidates for Weslow’s Snake Avoidance Clinics on either Saturday or Sunday, but anyone who spends time with a dog in the West’s vast snake habitat is invited to join in for a 10-minute session with the trainer and snake handler. That includes hikers, bikers, trail runners, ranchers, farmers and dog-loving desert dwellers of all walks.

The annual outdoor clinics will be held on Saturday and Sunday beginning at 8 a.m. at Quail Run Sports (35027 County Rd. 27) in Kiowa (303-646-3868). Cost is $55 per dog and the best contact for registration is Fred Prior at 303-450-2547 or fred_prior@comcast.net.