My friends at YoBeat.com have been “making fun of snowboarding since 1997” and they’re also up with the first footage from yesterday’s U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix Finals at Copper Mountain, in case you want to see what those double corks I’ve been talking about look like in real life. Shaun…
This week’s Westword cover boy Steve Fisher finished in seventh place in qualifiers at Copper Mountain today, just making the cut for finals tomorrow. That skin-of-his-teeth finish underscores how hard his Olympic quest is going to be: He finished behind Shaun White, Louie Vito, Greg Bretz, Danny Davis and Scotty…
Not too surprisingly, industry trade group Colorado Ski Country USA will support Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s efforts to appeal the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to deny an expansion onto Snodgrass Mountain (see previous posts here and here), if the resort’s owners elect to do so, reports the Aspen Times. Writes…
For women looking for a unique ski experience, the Keystone Betty Fest might be the answer. The Fest gives women an opportunity to improve their skiing in the company of other female skiers, and to work with female instructors who can tailor their instruction to the demands of female skiers…
It’s actually been warmer in the mountains than in the city this week, which made for better snowstorm conditions on the hills. Some resorts got more than others, but pretty much everyone got at least a couple inches. Which means this week’s edition of our high-country highlights is neck-deep in…
The party has already started in Vail. But worry not, potential party-goer. Vail Snow Daze –Vail’s early-season mountain kick-off party — still has plenty to offer, including free shows by the Barenaked Ladies, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and the Warren-Miller-movie-staring rock collective Yukon Kornelius. Yukon Kornelius consists of…
Denver climber and Outside blogger Alan Arnette just compiled a handy list comparing prices for aspiring Everest summiteers from all guiding companies on both sides of the mountain. He also offers some analysis into the factors that make the total cost of climbing Everest fluctuate. (He’d know — he’s attempted…
Many more skiers have started to pursue backcountry skiing as a way to get virgin powder. But far too few of them have taken an avalanche awareness class, or practiced repeatedly with beacons and probes doing avalanche rescue, or even know how to dig a pit properly to examine the…
You’ve ignored your phone buzzing in your pocket for the last three laps. Who cares where your friends are, the lighter-than-a-hill-covered-in-cotton-balls snow is waist deep. But the lifts are going to close soon, so you check the text message. “Tap Room. Car bombs. 20 minutes.” Only problem is, you’re god-knows-where…
Whether you’re whisker-deficient or not, this is definitely one of the hippest looks for the slopes this season. From L.A.’s Bearded Apparel, the Beard Head combines the aesthetic appeal of a flowing beard with the cold-weather protection of a wool-acrylic blend in lieu of human hair. Pictured above is my…
This week I profiled snowboarder Steve Fisher and his Olympic quest for the Westword cover story (“Pipe Dreams: Steve Fisher’s Olympic hopes reach a cork in the road”). By the time the paper hits the racks this morning, he’ll be dropping in for his first runs at the U.S. Snowboarding…
In the last few weeks, my compatriot-in-bloggery Candace Horgan took you through a nice solid retrospective of climbing movies both good and bad. And, a few quibbles notwithstanding (K2 is good? Honestly? And where’s Cliffhanger?), I think she nails it. But she might have to make room for a new…
Denver’s a sports town, but for those of us who occupy the netherworld of the visual arts, our home team is the Denver Art Museum. And since January 1989, the DAM’s head coach has been Lewis Sharp. But Sharp will step down as the Frederick and Jan Mayer Director at…
Allen True’s West. Allen Tupper True was Denver’s premier muralist during the first third of the twentieth century. Sadly, many of his commissions have been painted over or were lost when the buildings they were in were demolished. In an act of cooperation, the three big cultural institutions on the…
Absurd Person Singular. The Denver Center Theatre Company should be applauded for selecting Absurd Person Singular, Alan Ayckbourn’s dark comedy, as one of its Christmas offerings. Ayckbourn’s trademark is intensely clever, laugh-out-loud farce capering over the surface of a sad and penetrating cynicism, and it’s the perfect antidote to the…
After undervalued supporting turns in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, North Country and Gone Baby Gone, dainty girl-next-door type Michelle Monaghan finally and deservedly snags a star vehicle to show off her chops. Against the roadside Americana of writer-director James Mottern’s well-shot desert drama Trucker, Monaghan flips the bird to vanity…
All’s Well That Ends Well Aside from Morgan Freeman, who makes a fabulous Nelson Mandela, there’s this to savor about Invictus, a rosy tale of racial reconciliation neatly wrapped in a triumphalist sports movie: The film is blessedly free of Obama parallels. Also, we could use a happy global moment,…
Standing O The most significant American artist before Andy Warhol to take “the media” as his medium, Orson Welles lives on not only in posthumously restored director’s cuts of his re-released movies, but as a character in other people’s novels, plays, and movies — notably, Richard Linklater’s deft, affectionate and…
I came to Spring Awakening a complete innocent, without so much as a quick Google to ascertain theme, genre, plot. I’d heard of Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play on which the musical is based, of course, since it pops up in all surveys of European theater, and I knew the production…
After undervalued supporting turns in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, North Country and Gone Baby Gone, dainty girl-next-door type Michelle Monaghan finally and deservedly snags a star vehicle to show off her chops. Against the roadside Americana of writer-director James Mottern’s well-shot desert drama Trucker, Monaghan flips the bird to vanity…
Some of the fashionistas in the Emily Griffith Opportunity School’s fashion design program have used their trendsetting skills to raise funds for fun activities throughout the year — but they’ve decided it’s time to give back now. Several members of the Fashion Group International’s Denver student group have banded together…
Sometimes the best way to stimulate creativity is to saddle yourself with limitations. “Once you put a seeming constraint on something, it seems to make people freer in how they think about it,” says Dea Webb, co-owner of Plastic Chapel. That’s the idea behind Square Footage, one of the gallery/store’s…
