New iPhone app aims to augment your reality on the slopes

Avon-based Resort Technology Partners has developed the “first augmented reality iPhone app for skiers and snowboarders” in REALSKI,  slated for release today in the iTunes Store. The initial app will be free and include overlays mapping five resorts, including Copper Mountain. A full version will come out later in the…

Photos: Men’s FIS World Cup at Beaver Creek

The Men’s FIS World Cup went down at Beaver Creek on Friday. Photographer Scott Limbird was there. Here’s his dispatch: American favorites Ted Ligety and Bode Miller both put up pretty good downhill times at Friday’s Men’s FIS World Cup races at Beaver Creek — and then both failed to…

Top five retro ski videogames

I got all nostalgic a few weeks ago and downloaded an Atari 2600 emulator and the old Activision Skiing game. Then I remembered Ski or Die on the Nintendo NES. Then I was just three old-school games away from a top five list!…

Are you (or is your girlfriend) the next Lange girl?

Snow bunnies and Backcountry Betties everywhere, take heed: Freeskier and Lange are launching the Local Lange Girl ’09 contest. Four regional winners — two from each coast and two from the mountains in between — will be chosen to represent Lange at on-snow events across the country. In return, they’ll…

Q&A with Winter Dew Tour’s Simon Dumont

We’re just now getting the full scope of everything Simon Dumont got up to last year, now that his footage for Riley Poor’s Transitions, Poor Boyz Productions’ Every Day Is Saturday, and Matchstick Productions’ In Deep has been unleashed on the world (as if winning the Winter Dew Tour event…

More local boards for locavores: Silverton’s Venture Snowboards

This week, Silverton Mountain announced new early season mid-week dates, effective for today’s December 2 opening date, to help meet demand on the Western Slope now that Purgatory has gone to a weekend-only (Friday-Sunday) schedule. If you’re heading to the San Juan Mountains for some of the sickest powder Colorado…

Top Five: Evergreen town parks

Not far outside of Denver lies the town of Evergreen, a quaint little hamlet probably best known as the place where your parents go to drink when Morrison’s too busy. But Evergreen has more than overpriced Chiantis: Thanks to the excellent stewardship of Jefferson County Open Space Parks and Denver…

Skiing drunk and/or high is still illegal in Breckenridge

This story in Saturday’s Summit Daily News makes it clear: Aggressive skiers and riders are a higher-priority law-enforcement target in Breckenridge this year, and the Colorado Ski Safety Act will be enforced. But the story also notes that the Breckenridge police department’s jurisdiction ends 150 yards up the mountain, and…

Classic Descent: North Maroon

Part of the fun of alpinism comes from knowing its history. Climbing and skiing are both very well-documented, and the stories create a timeline in sport that might be unrivaled by anything except baseball, with its legions of devoted statisticians. The year 1971 proved to be a landmark year for ski…

Beyond Midnight trailer whets appetite for more

The above trailer for Beyond Midnight: The Grand Traverse, a documentary covering the most recent Elk Mountains Grand Traverse, the annual backcountry ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen, makes me want to see more. Based on mining-era mail routes, the race’s course covers forty miles with plenty of elevation…

Mind-blowing Thanksgiving video: Parachuting away from an avalanche

This year, instead of bringing some crappy side of green bean casserole to Thanksgiving, I’m just going to just show people this video, which is way more tasty. Herein, French speed rider (that’s skiing with a parachute on) Antoine Montant avoids a massive avalanche by taking to the skies. It’s…

Mayor says Snodgrass expansion controversy in Crested Butte “not over”

Earlier this month, the U.S. Forest Service killed Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s plan to enter the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process to expand onto Snodgrass Mountain with an additional 276 acres of predominately intermediate terrain that has been pegged for skiing in Forest Service plans since 1978. The denial…

Thanksjibbing: 8th Annual Leftover Yam Jam at Copper on Friday

Go easy on the Thanksgiving feast this year, skip the Black Friday shopping melee, and head for the hills instead: Copper Mountain is tentatively scheduled to open its Superpipe later this week, in advance of the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, December 9-12, and is also hosting its 8th Annual Leftover…

The Ski Journal: Ski porn for the rich

They’re only three volumes in, but The Ski Journal has already distinguished itself as the type of publication that takes a deep-think approach to the sport. Like The Alpinist for mountaineering, it ditches copious ads in favor of luxurious paper stock, drool-inducing photography, and thoughtful articles that reflect on the…

Level 1’s Refresh: 10 years in the making

Level 1 – Refresh Teaser from Level 1 on Vimeo. Level 1 Productions’ new flick Refresh is a celebration of the Denver-based production company’s decade of badass freeskiing filmmaking, a simultaneous look back and glimpse of the future. Native New Yorker Josh Berman, Level 1’s mastermind, started shooting his buddies…