Explore Summit Magazine by Colorado Mountain News Media

winter 2015

to the

RESCUE! Hero dogs of Summit County

portrait of a

SUMMIT SLED DOG

Skiing with

KERI HERMAN

SNOW SCULPTURES celebrate 25 years in Breckenridge

All dressed up & ready for snow. slopesidecowboy.com Progressive Western Style

133 S. Main Street Breckenridge, CO 80424 970.547.1100 â&#x20AC;˘ slopesidecowboy.com

CONTENTS

features

HERO DOGS OF SUMMIT COUNTY

Avalanche rescue dogs and their handlers train tirelessly to be ready for emergencies

FROM SNOWFLAKE TO SCULPTURE

departments 08 CAPTURED ON CAMERA Local photographers share their notes 10 CELEBRATING SUMMIT HUTS Francie’s Cabin in Breckenridge turned 20 this year 14 MUSH! Summit’s sled dogs offer winter adventure 16 SLED DOG LIFE A snapshot of what it's like to be a Snow Caps dog 22 MADE IN SUMMIT Unity snowboards at home in Silverthorne 24 SKIING WITH KERI HERMAN The Breckenridge-based Olympian takes to her home slopes 26 KEEPING SCORE Judges need a keen eye to rate moves at Sprint U.S. Grand Prix 2

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34 THE BAKERS’ BREWERY Silverthorne welcomes Summit’s newest craft beer spot 38 PRE-APRÈS Starting the day at Cuppa Joe in Breckenridge 40 WINTER COCKTAILS Recipes from Breck Distillery’s own liquid chef, Billie Keithley

46 ‘COLORADO DOGS' M. John Fayhee’s book is dedicated to Colorado canines 48 SKI HILL HISTORY How some of Breckenridge Ski Resort's ski runs got their names

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56 ACROSS GENERATIONS Meet a few of Summit’s proud locals 58 MOUNTAIN HOME Historic cabins offer glimpse into the past 60 CONSTRUCTING A COMMUNITY CENTER Historic Breckenridge building gets made over once again

84 POT ON TOUR Company offers marijuana-centric tours 86 MARIJUANA FAQ Helpful information about legal marijuana in Summit County

OTHER 72 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

79 LOOK WISE, NOT WIZENED Top 5 tips for dry winter skin 80 LIVING AT ALTITUDE Elevation's health effects 82 SWEAT IT OUT Hot yoga turns up the heat while the snow falls

96 QUANDARY A wise old mountain goat answers questions about Summit County

PHOTOS FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY KEYSTONE RESORT // PHOTO BY JESSICA SMITH

25 years of international snow sculpting competition in Breckenridge

E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

WELCOME TO THE WINTER EDITION OF

November 2014 - February 2015 Vol. 3 : No. 3 PUBLISHER

Matt Sandberg msandberg@summitdaily.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Ben Trollinger btrollinger@summitdaily.com MANAGING EDITOR

Jessica Smith jsmith@summitdaily.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

with yours truly) mushes a team of sled dogs through Swan River Valley near Breckenridge, Jack London style (pg. 14).

Jessica Smith and her mini-dog (also known as a “cat”) Garbage. Jessica found this little guy on the streets of Shanghai, China, and, though a staunch dog person, he somehow managed to steal her heart, so she whisked him away with her when she moved back to the States. Now they can be found walking the streets of Frisco together, Garby on a harness, ready to take on the world.

hat is it about four paws, a wet nose and a furry tail that we love so much? Whatever it is, this magazine is full of it. Here at Explore Summit, we happily present you with the Dog Issue. Coloradans love their dogs, and in the High Country we’re no different. They work with us, play with us and sometimes even rescue us. Our feature story, Hero Dogs of Summit County (pg. 50), focuses on an elite membership of canines — avalanche rescue dogs, highly trained to charge into the field at a moment’s notice and put their miraculous noses to work. Our book review, M. John Fayhee's “Colorado Dogs” (pg. 46) also focuses on beloved canines of the Rocky Mountains. Or read a first-person account by Summit Daily News sports editor Sebastian Foltz as he (along

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And that just scrapes the surface of what this issue — and Summit County in winter — has to offer. Whether you’re curious what Olympic skier Keri Herman does in her off time (pg. 24), what brewmaster Cory Forster is planning for his new Silverthorne brewery (pg. 34) or the secret to Breckenridge Distillery master mixologist Billie Keithley’s killer winter cocktails (pg. 40), Explore Summit has the answer. This magazine is meant to be read, and you can decide how to do it — cover to cover, section by section or luck of the randomly opened page. Tear out a page, circle your favorite line, tack that sweet photo up in your cubicle, whatever you need to do to absorb the all the amazing, quirky, funny and touching stories that Summit has to offer.

JESSICA SMITH Managing Editor

Maggie Butler mbutler@summitdaily.com NICHE MEDIA SALES MANAGER

Ashley Kujawski akujawski@summitdaily.com ACCOUNT MANAGERS

Cindy Boisvert, Geof Gibason, Ian Donovan Meredith Metz, Tim West MARKETING

Josilynn Reynolds, Kirsten Sherwood SUPPORT STAFF

Susan Gilmore DESIGN TEAM SUPERVISOR

Afton Pospisilova ART DIRECTION & DESIGN

Malisa Samsel DESIGN TEAM

Carly Arnold, Darin Bliss, Ashley Detmering CONTRIBUTORS

Jasmine Bible, Scott Brockmeier, Krista Driscoll, Brandon Evans, Sebastian Foltz, Kevin Frazzini, Kim Fuller, Rick Hague, Ashley Kujawski, Alli Langley Uncredited photos from Thinkstock PRINTING & PRE-PRESS

Publication Printers, Denver, CO DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

On the cover:

Keystone Resort avalanche rescue dogs (left to right) Annie, Zoe and Flash.

Shawn Butler COLORADO MOUNTAIN NEWS MEDIA Jim Morgan

General Manager

PHOTO BY SCOTT BROCKMEIER

108 S. Main St. Breckenridge, Colo. 80424 970-453-9307

T H E N O R T H FA C E B R E C K E N R I D G E 322 SOUTH MAIN STREET BRECKENRIDGE, COLORADO

CONTRIBUTORS

Jasmine Bible is a seeker, adventurer and explorer. Keeping Colorado as her home base, she enjoys traveling with her husband in a sportsmobile van and their two fur babies, Peanut the Chihuahua/French bulldog and Zoe Belle, the Rottweiler. When she's not hitting the road, she's trail running, skiing, or enjoying a boozy beverage in a cozy mountain lodge.

Scott Brockmeier of Scott-Images.com is a nationally recognized photographer passionate about capturing the images of our Summit County avalanche rescue dogs. An active volunteer in the ski community Scott continues to be in awe of the dedicated avalanche rescue dog teams for their service to the winter sports community.

Krista Driscoll is the arts and entertainment editor for the Summit Daily News. When she isn’t chasing down stories from cocktails to critters, she enjoys hiking, rafting, reading, cooking, skiing and snowshoeing with her dog, Nika.

Sebastian Foltz has been the sports and outdoor editor for the Summit Daily since early 2013. When he’s not keeping up with pro skiers, prep sports and all things outdoors, you’ll find him on a river, out on his bike or hiking somewhere with his dog Ike.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS:

Brandon Evans

Susan Gilmore

Kevin Frazzini

Mark Imanuel

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WINTER 2015

Kim Fuller is a freelance writer based in Minturn, and she loves coming over to Summit County for even more mountain culture and outdoor adventure. She grew up with big dogs, but has now found a special place in her heart for little dogs like her friend Jack, a rescued Maltese. When she’s not working with words, find Kim playing outside or practicing yoga, sipping local libations or lounging with Jacko.

Rick Hague has lived in Breckenridge for roughly 12 years with his wife, Linda. He has been very active in the local historical scene with both the Breckenridge Heritage Alliance and the Summit Historical Society. A graduate mining engineer and mining geologist, he lived most of his adult life in San Francisco with stints in South Africa, Australia and Texas along the way. Moving to Breck enabled him to join his interests in history, mining, skiing and the outdoors into a great and interesting life.

Ashley Kujawski hails from the other side of the Summit Daily team and heads up advertising sales for all special sections. She has been a Breckenridge resident since August of 2010 and doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon. While the Australian cattle dog in her photo named Drover isn’t hers, she enjoys dog sitting him when owners Amanda and Greg Day are out of town. When Drover is lucky enough to join her, Ashley enjoys finding new backcountry ski spots, hiking, and attempting to bake at altitude.

Alli Langley is the Summit Daily’s often barefoot, always intrepid reporter. When not interviewing, writing or shooting, she can be found exploring backcountry trails, searching for powder and enjoying live music. The temporarily grounded vagabond has yet to commit to a dog of her own, but she loves playing with the family golden retriever, Indie, when she visits her hometown on Florida’s east coast.

BRECKENRIDGE ARTS DISTRICT DISCOVER | CREATE | EXPLORE

Discover the creative side of Breckenridge with classes, workshops, and community events in the new Breckenridge Arts District. Presented by Breckenridge Creative Arts.

E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

breckcreate.org

Captured Landscapes, wildlife and special moments in Summit County as seen through the lenses of its photographers.

After I spotted this red fox hunting, I got down in the snow and did all I could to approach without distracting. With my camera ready I began to slowly stand up when suddenly the fox peered out from the other side of a snow berm. Fortunately I was ready! Shooting in snow can be challenging as the bright snow fools the camera's automatic exposure, so I tend to overexpose a stop or two when shooting in snow.

Snow always creates white balance challenges, as the camera thinks it is gray, not white. In addition, contrast between bright white snow and dark shadows can be difficult for the camera to recognize. I used low ISO, manually set the white balance to get white snow, and used a medium range F-stop to ensure I had the full shot in focus. I especially like the texture in the surface of the snow in this shot, taken long enough after sunrise to get full lighting on the ground, but early enough in the day to ensure long shadow lines. 8

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I was trying to capture the silhouette so I set the camera to a fast shutter speed and left the ISO low. Since I was shooting into the sun I got some flare in the image which I removed in post. I used continuous focus and followed the subject until his shadow was long and he was still large enough.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: PHOTOGRAPHER: Bill Linfield CAMERA MODEL: Canon EOS 70D LENS (focal length): 270 mm SHUTTER SPEED: 1/500 sec APERTURE: f/8 ISO: 100 LOCATION OF SHOT: Eagles Nest Wilderness TIME: 6 p.m., April

PHOTOGRAPHER: John Mirro CAMERA MODEL: Nikon D300 LENS (focal length): 18mm SHUTTER SPEED: 1/800 sec APERTURE: f11 ISO: 200 LOCATION: Breckenridge Ski Resort, base of Peak 8 TIME: Morning, Dec. 2011

PHOTOGRAPHER: Bill Linfield CAMERA MODEL: Canon 60D LENS (focal length): 73mm SHUTTER SPEED: 1/640 sec APERTURE: f/9 ISO: 100 LOCATION OF SHOT: Eagles Nest Wilderness TIME: 9 a.m.

E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

SUMMIT HUTS

Hut is where the heart is Francie's Cabin in Breckenridge, one of Summit's most popular backcountry huts, celebrates 20 years by ALLI LANGLEY

THE MOST COMMON route to Francie’s Cabin is uphill, about 2 miles, wearing skis or snowshoes and carrying a pack full of everything needed for an overnight stay. People visiting the backcountry hut just south of Breckenridge on winter afternoons pass lodgepole pines and spruce trees as they travel through the White River National Forest. They’re more likely to see wildlife than other people as the sun approaches the western mountains. After an hour or two, visitors on what may be their first of many “hut trips” arrive at Francie’s. Inside, they notice light-colored wood everywhere they look in the large, rustic log cabin. They see cozy couches, huge bay windows and a wood-burning stove. They set up their things at one of the cabin’s 20 beds, and because the cabin doesn’t have running water, they melt snow. This winter Francie’s Cabin turns 20 and continues to bring people together around the backcountry hut experience. The skiers and hikers who spend the night at Francie’s every year might not realize they’re sleeping in a monument. The cabin is named for Frances Lockwood Bailey, a former Breckenridge resident who died 25 years ago in a plane crash 600 miles away. On July 19, 1989, United Flight 232 was traveling from Denver to Chicago when the DC-10 lost all hydraulic power after the rear engine exploded. The crew used the remaining two engines to steer a winding course to Sioux City, Iowa, where the massive plane crash-landed, cartwheeling down the runway and bursting into flames before breaking apart in a cornfield. The crash still is considered one of the most impressive life-saving efforts in aviation history. Of the 296 people onboard, 184 survived. That day, Bailey was traveling with two of her three sons, and both 6-year-old Brandon and 3-yearold Spencer survived. Brandon Bailey, now 31, said although the hut began as a tribute to his mom, it has since evolved and taken on life of its own. Staying at Francie’s Cabin unites people, he said. 10

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ALL PHOTOS COURTESY SUMMIT HUTS ASSOCIATION

SLEEPING IN A MONUMENT

The kitchen at Francie’s Cabin.

Francie's Cabin is a popular winter destination for backcountry skiers looking for a rustic overnight shelter. Completed in 1994, the hut is celebrating 20 years with a BBQ hosted by the Summit Hut Association, which operates Francie's and three other huts in Summit County on a fee-based reservation system.

The hut sleeps 20 people and is almost always fully booked. A couple backcountry explorers who share the cabin’s common space with more than a dozen others for a weekend often walk away with a bunch of new friends. Summit County locals and visitors alike bond over the shared experience of staying at Francie’s. “That’s ultimately what the hut is about,” he said. “It’s all about bringing people together.”

IN THE BEGINNING

The Summit Huts Association, which built and manages

Francie’s was started in the late 1980s by Breckenridge Mayor John Warner, Tim Casey, Abbie Cobb and other residents, said Leigh Girvin, the nonprofit association’s former executive director. The nonprofit operates four huts on a fee-based reservation system. People staying at Francie’s last season paid $35 a night. The idea was inspired by huts in Europe, where the largest shelters in the Alps can sleep 100 people and are staffed by full-time caretakers who sometimes serve meals. In 1990, the association built a hut, Janet’s Cabin,

near Copper Mountain, then decided to build one on land managed by the Forest Service south of Breckenridge Ski Resort. Francie’s namesake had deep family roots in Breckenridge, and the project was funded by her widower, Brownell Bailey. Several sites within a halfmile of the Crystal Lakes drainage area were considered for the hut, said Paul Semmer, community planner at the Dillon Ranger District, who was involved with the Forest Service permitting process. Officials ultimately chose the hut’s current location because the other sites looked like they might be home to Canada lynx. Breckenridge resident Kent Sharp, who also worked on the project from the Forest Service side, said the hut’s construction was a community effort. “We all worked together to make sure that the footprint for the hut was really kept to a minimum,” he said. Mike Zobbe, now the association’s executive director, remembered dragging tools behind him on a sled to build the hut. He said construction was challenging after a couple tough winters, but the hut was completed in 1994 and

hosted its first visitors in January 1995. Planners thought Francie’s would be an overnight shelter for people traveling through the backcountry from hut to hut. It quickly became a place where people wanted to stay for several days. Now Francie’s is the busiest hut in the Colorado system, which includes about 60 huts and yurts. Thousands visit every year.

FAMILY FRIENDLY

Though its supplies are basic, Francie’s 20 single and bunk beds have mattresses and pillows, its lights are solar-powered lights and its kitchen is well equipped. The cabin is heated and even has an attached sauna. Unlike other huts, where users have to bundle up and trek through the cold to an outhouse, Francie’s has indoor composting toilets. “That’s the kind of thing that would’ve gotten Francie on a hut trip,” Brandon Bailey said. She also would’ve liked the cabin’s short distance to trailheads, a draw for everyone from hardcore skiers and backcountry enthusiasts to people putting on AT skis or snowshoes for the first time. “One of the great things about Francie’s is that it’s E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

A view of the interior of Francie’s Cabin.

There’s a great sense of accomplishment and reward when you arrive at the hut under your own power carrying your own stuff.” - Leigh Girvin relatively easy to get to compared to other huts in state,” Girvin said. That makes it great for families. Shelly Grail Braudis, the Dillon Ranger District’s snow ranger, said she once went to the hut with several families for Easter, and they left the toys and electronics at home. The kids enjoyed wandering around with their skis on, she said, “having the sort of adventures kids like to have.” It’s not unusual to see three generations of a family at the hut. Visitors still need a good degree of avalanche awareness, but Francie’s is perfect for introducing kids and beginners to backcountry skiing because of the wide variety of nearby terrain. Because the hike to the hut isn’t as far as others, the hut also draws more people snowshoeing in to snowboard. Brandon Bailey, who now lives in Boulder, said he’s spent a weekend with friends and family there every year for the last eight years. “It’s been really fun for me to see or hear about friends going on hut trips or their very first hut trip, especially,” he said.

BEYOND RECREATION

For some people, the trek to the hut might be one of 12

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the hardest physical and mental things they ever do. Zobbe said he’s glad the hut can provide that challenge. “It’s more than just recreation,” he said. “People really come to learn that they can do different things.” Girvin agreed about the hut’s psychological benefits. “There’s a great sense of accomplishment and reward when you arrive at the hut under your own power carrying your own stuff,” she said. Because the hut sits at around 11,300 feet in the middle of national forest, Francie’s also gives people a chance to appreciate the nature around them. “This is a way of slowing people down a little bit,” Semmer said. A few years ago, the association hosted an avalanche awareness clinic, and participants saw a lynx right where the Forest Service vetoed a location for the hut. That was like a nice pat on the back, Semmer said. Like nature was saying, “You made the right decision 20 years ago.” It’s also proof that people staying at Francie’s have plenty of opportunities to see wildlife. “We’re moving into Mother Nature’s backyard,” he said. “If you wait long enough,

WINTER 2015

she’ll give you a present.” In the summer, the cabin has a different feel but is still busy with reservations. People sometimes have intimate weddings at the cabin. “It really is a beautiful place to just go and enjoy the outdoors,” Grail Braudis said.

20 MORE YEARS

The hut’s popularity makes it feel well used and well loved. Francie’s draws plenty of families with young children, and the cabin’s large windows have taken abuse over the years. “They’re just old,” Zobbe said. “Some of them don’t close completely.” In July, Summit Huts Association held a 20th

anniversary celebration and window replacement fundraiser. The group raised about $1,500, but the fix could cost $20,000 or more. In hindsight, Girvin, who directed the nonprofit for 14 years and oversaw Francie’s construction, said she wished the organization had spent more money on the original windows so they wouldn’t need to be replaced so soon. Though she wouldn’t call it her favorite of the huts, “Francie’s is definitely one of my babies,” she said, and she breathes a sigh of relief every time she visits. “It’s kinda like coming home again.” “Francie’s Cabin, at 20 years old, she’s an enduring girl,” she said, “and I hope she’s around for many years to come.”

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY SUMMIT HUTS ASSOCIATION

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LOCALS KNOW THAT THE BEST PLACE TO ice skate and play puck & stick in the winter is Silverthorne’s North Pond Park. With a warming hut, restrooms, parking, and access to the biggest and best natural pond skating in Summit County, skaters will be in paradise. The best part about North Pond is it’s free! Bring your own skates and hockey sticks to play all day. Non-skaters can watch the fun from the heated warming hut or outside on one of two docks. North Pond Park is located directly across from the Silverthorne Elementary School at Hamilton Creek Road and Highway 9. A Summit Stage bus stop is also available at the site.

SLEDDING AT RAINBOW PARK RAINBOW PARK’S SLEDDING HILL is the perfect place for families to play together in the snow. The sledding hill offers a variety of pitches and heights for all ages and wraps around the multi-purpose field, which is an ideal place to build a snowman or challenge your friends to a snowball fight. Public restrooms, a warm lobby, and a variety of low priced snacks are available at the Silverthorne Recreation Center, which is adjacent to Rainbow Park. Parking is available at the Recreation Center, 430 Rainbow Drive. Or, take the Summit Stage; a bus stop is conveniently located right in front of the Recreation Center.

NORDIC SKIING AND SNOWSHOEING AT THE RAVEN HEAD TO THE RAVEN AT THREE PEAKS GOLF CLUB for a nordic experience that offers spectacular views in a pristine setting. Skiers and snowshoers can choose between two courses that present a variety of trails with varying difficulties. The North Course offers more challenging terrain with plenty of elevation changes. Novices will be comfortable on the South Course, which is flatter but still offers an abundance of twists and turns. Parking is located at the clubhouse and admission is free. The courses are maintained for skiing and snowshoeing only, and pets are not allowed. So, please leave your hiking boots and furry friends at home. The Raven Clubhouse is located at 2929 North Golden Eagle Road in the Three Peaks neighborhood.

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SLED DOGS

Summit’s Iditarod Husky pups sleep in the Snow Caps yard.

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|| by SEBASTIAN FOLTZ

AS OUR DOGSLED rounded the corner and started to tip up on one ski, I found myself wondering, “What did our guide say to do if we flip the sled?” At the time he’d said it, I didn’t think it was that important. We’re not going to flip on some casual jaunt on a cross-country ski trail, I’d assumed. It wasn’t the Iditarod. But as the ground started to get closer to my face and our sled’s driver — staff reporter and newly established dog musher Jessica Smith — proceeded to abandon ship, I started to wish I had. Our eight-dog team definitely kicked into a higher gear than I’d expected as we made our way down a small hill. I remembered our guide saying that sled drivers should lean into a turn, but sitting there — now driverless — in the passenger seat that rule didn’t much apply. That’s right. “Elbows in,” I thought. Then just as soon as I’d noticed we were tipping, the sled was sideways and my face was an inch or two off the ground, which would have been fine except that the eight dogs that didn’t seem to mind a sideways sled.

ALL PHOTOS BY SEBASTIAN FOLTZ

Newly minted mushers Sebastian Foltz and Jessica Smith go for a ride

Pulling a sled makes for happy, hungry dogs. Snow Caps sled dogs take a break from their excitement to chow down on some grub.

Snow Caps Sled Dogs wait their turn to run with the sled.

A curious sled dog peeks over the railing at Snow Caps Sled Dogs in Breckenridge.

Leaving Jessica — who later described her dismount as something akin to a penguin sliding on its belly — lying on the ground laughing hysterically, the sled continued to lunge forward with reckless abandon. While I contemplated how to perform my own dismount as the sled scraped its way down the trail on its side, our guide, Dave Zajac, hopped off the snowmobile he was riding and grabbed the trace lines of our dog team, finally slowing them to a stop. For 28 years Snow Caps Sled Dogs — now together with Good Times Adventures — has been guiding Summit County visitors on dogsledding adventures. And for 17 of those years Dave Zajac has been one of the guides. What keeps him coming back? “I get to dogsled every day,” he said with a smile,

explaining the challenges and joys in managing a team of eight dogs at a time. “Every one of their personalities are different.” For Snow Caps manager Sarah Spalla, it’s the enthusiasm the dogs have that keeps the job interesting. She describes it as contagious. “Working with the dogs is pretty darn neat. They show up ready to go every morning,” she said. “It’s hard not to be fired up every morning with them. It’s hard to have a bad day.” We spoke with Spalla while she showed us around Snow Caps’ kennels and play pens, located in the woods up the hill from Good Times Adventures. While guests can’t tour the facilities in the winter time, Spalla said they’re welcome to check it out in the summer when the company runs wheeled dogsled tours.

The company has close to 150 dogs at any given time. Each team of eight runs two tours a day. What’s sets Snow Caps and Good Times Adventures apart from other operations is that their guests get to be mushers for the day, alternating control of one of the sled teams. And their dog teams are almost 100 percent purebred huskies. Our morning started in the parking lot, with the sounds of dogs barking in the distance. As we approached though the woods three or four teams of eager huskies appeared through the trees, barking happily and interacting with their guides and guests. Zajac, a tall goateed man who looks like he just stepped from the pages of a Jack London novel, introduced himself to us and the four other members of our party. One of the other guests looked nervously at two dogs on the team that appeared to be snarling at each other. Zajac assured the nervous tourists that the two dogs — brothers Rev and Marly — were just posturing, and what they

really wanted was to be pet. Zajac encouraged a young boy in the group to approach the two dogs. Sure enough, as he approached the dogs both closed their mouths and looked toward the boy eagerly. Marley even rolled over hoping for a belly rub. After some quick instructions on properly using the brakes and operating the sled, we were off. Zajac drove a snowmobile that towed four of us in a sleigh while the other two piloted the dogsled. Jessica and I waited our turns as the other pairs of newly trained mushers had their chance at leading the team. When our turns came it really was just like being transported to the Yukon. Our crash and a grazed tree notwithstanding — the latter courtesy of my attempt to make sure our GoPro was turned on while attempting to steer — our trip passed without incident. We returned to the staging area feeling ready to take on the Iditarod. Their work done, the dogs sat down with smiles that looked just as big as ours. E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

SLED DOGS

PORTRAIT OF A

SLED DOG by JESSICA SMITH

IT’S NOT HARD TO TELL

when you’ve arrived at Good Times Adventures in Breckenridge. Several miles down Tiger Road, into the Swan River Valley, the recreation company runs snowmobile tours and dog sledding adventures throughout the winter. Teams of eight sled dogs take up to eight people and a guide through a six-mile course on snowy trails. The kennel, Snow Caps Sled Dogs, is home to 152 Siberian and Alaskan huskies, none of which are hesitant to voice their excitement at the chance to get out and run. Their enthusiastic barks, yips and howls echo through the trees and stir the blood of arriving adventurers. Although the majority of the dogs are purebred Siberian huskies, no dog looks exactly alike. They run from light gray to solid black, and all shades of red. Some have dark circular masks over their eyes, or stripes or spots on their muzzles. Many have the famous ice-blue husky gaze, while others regard visitors with multi-colored eyes. Just as their looks vary, so do their personalities. “Every dog is different,” said Dave Zajac, who has been working as a sled dog guide for 17 years. When introducing his tour group to the dogs, he calls each by name and gives some tidbits about their personalities.

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TRAINING

Most of the sled dogs are bred at Snow Caps, and training for sled running begins at an early age. When the pups are ready, they’re taken on frequent walks, said kennel manager Sarah Spalla. When they get a little older and faster, they are trained to run loose behind a snowmobile. Dogs get their first taste of harness running between the ages of 8 and 10 months, and when they’re around a year or just a little older, they’ll start becoming part of a team. Socialization, with dogs and humans, is also a critical step. “It’s really important for us that our dogs are friendly and outgoing to everybody that they meet,” Spalla said.

ADOPTING

When a sled dog reaches the age where it can’t comfortably run on a team anymore, it is retired. The retirees range in age from 7 to 10 years or so, depending on the dog. Many of the retired dogs are then available for adoption. “We’re always looking for good adoptive homes,” said Spalla. “Our dogs still love to go. They definitely need active homes.” Although there is no adoption fee, potential adopters are required to come in person to the kennel, so they can meet personnel — and the dogs — face to face, to determine the right match. Even though they may not pull a sled anymore, the dogs are still quite active, and would be great for people looking for a companion to take on walks, hiking and biking, Spalla said. For more information about adoptable dogs, visit www.SnowCapsSledDogs.com.

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DOG PROFILES

Here’s a glimpse of a few of the dogs one might meet at the Snow Caps yard.

Here’s a glimpse of a few of the dogs one might meet at the

MARLEY

TYRA

Age: 4 Gender: female Status: Working sled dog Details: Tyra is a slender, reddish girl. Her lineage is half Alaskan husky, which means she has a lot of speed. She took lead with her partner, Bullwinkle, during this reporter’s sled ride, and spent much of it with her tongue lolling out and a blissful look on her face. Spalla describes her as “the feistiest female we have.”

Age: 6 Gender: male Status: Working sled dog Details: Marley comes as one in a pair. He and his brother, Rev, took the back “wheel” position on this reporter’s sled ride, and they hammed it up the entire time. Marley’s coat is heavy and furry like Bullwinkle’s, but his ears are floppier, which add to his already-expressive face. Spalla likes to describe Marley and Rev as football players who have fun bashing their helmets together. When not running or getting petted by visitors, Marley is jumping all over his brother to show him who’s boss.

BULLWINKLE Age: 7 Gender: male Status: Working sled dog Details: Bullwinkle is a big, fluffy guy who likes to run in front. Spalla calls him a “goofball” and he is always up for a pat on the head or a scratch behind the ear. Bullwinkle also enjoys summer activities such as pulling visitors on “diggling” scooters or a specially rigged up golf cart.

HAWK

Age: 9 Gender: male Status: Retired Details: When Hawk was working, he was one of Snow Caps’ best lead dogs, Spalla said. Hawk is the spitting image of what one imagines when hearing the word “husky,” with his gray striped face and blue/brown gaze. He's always eager for attention, said Spalla. Hawk was successfully adopted earlier this year.

MAVERICK REV

Age: 6 Gender: male Status: Working sled dog Details: Though Rev and Marley are brothers, they don’t look all that alike. While Marley is black and tan, Rev features darker shades of gray, one blue eye and one brown eye. Rev loves roughhousing with Marley, but he’s also the kennel’s biggest sucker for belly rubs. “He loves belly rubs more than anything,” Spalla said.

Age: 9 Gender: male Status: Retired Details: Maverick is a true ladies’ dog. He does best with a female companion that he can impress, Spalla said. He served as a wheel dog for much of his time running sleds. He’s mostly black, with tan marks over his eyebrows, giving him a constant alert expression. Maverick was successfully adopted earlier this year.

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MADE IN SUMMIT

A Summit County Original Unity snowboards have been designed, built and shipped out of Silverthorne since ‘95 by SEBASTIAN FOLTZ

IN A WORLD where snowboards and skis come off assembly lines in massive numbers, it’s hard to be the little guy. Almost every year new independent ski and snowboard companies enter the market, and almost every year they fall out of it. But for nearly 20 years now one small company has been holding its own in the highly competitive world of snowboard production, and their building process from start to finish happens right here in Summit County. Founded in 1995, they’re Unity Snowboards, the brainchild of Pete Wurst22

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WINTER 2015

er and former partner and childhood friend Paul Krikava, and the entire company runs out of a small section of a two-story warehouse in Silverthorne. Wurster — now sole owner of the company since buying out Krikava in 2001 —recently took a break from base grinding some new splitboards in his shop to chat with Explore Summit about what it takes to stay relevant year after year. “For me it’s just a labor of love thing. I love working with my hands,” he said. But it’s also a meticulous process that didn’t come

overnight. Wurster, now 42, said it took him and his five employees around six years to get truly dialed in to a point where they’re now at their most efficient, and cost effective. This year the company produced 1,000 snowboards across its six models, down from around 2,500 in 2008, prior to the market bottoming out. While currently at what he called an acceptable profit margin, that 2,500 mark is a number Wurster would like to get back to in the future. He’s hoping to continue to expand on direct sales from

PHOTOS BY SEBASTIAN FOLTZ

Unity Snowboards co-founder Pete Wurster base grinds a splitboard in the Unity factory in Silverthorne. The company, founded in 1995, currently produces 1,000 snowboards a year for worldwide distribution.

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cautioning any prospective ski or snowboard builder. “I would say don’t do it, and I have many times to lots of people and none of them listened to me. And all of them are no longer in business.” Beyond simple attention to detail, Wurster credited volume of production as a necessity to success in the industry. “You’re not going to survive if you’re only doing 100 or

hunting has put Unity a little out of the running against more mass-produced, cheaper boards. His boards typically range between $475 and $900, the latter of which is his line of splitboards. “Everybody likes the idea but when it comes time to pull out the checkbook, they don’t care as much,” Wurster said of the consumer tendency. The core in every Unity board is made of a combination of aspen and maple to provide strength and flexibility.

his website in order to do so. He credited industry-wide overproduction for part of the market’s struggles, but said he believes it’s rebounding. And with the recent push towards increasingly creative designs, he also thinks snowboarding is in a good place. “It’s a cool time in the industry. You can do some funky looking things and nobody’s going to laugh,” he said. Unity’s popular surf-inspired Whale powderboard might best fall within that description. At 1,000 boards, his current production rate equates to churning out about 20 snowboards a day during the summer months. Then it’s all research, design sales and demo touring during the winter. “It is an ass load of work,” he said of the process, also

500 skis a year. You’re not going to make any money until you make 1,000.” Surprisingly, in a country that takes pride in the “made in America” and “buy local” mantras, the U.S. only accounts for about 20 percent of Unity sales. The other 80 percent is international, much of it in France and Russia. “I think the industry is in a healthier position aboard,” Wurster explained. “My international business is very strong.” Unlike Europe, he said the American market’s tendency toward tent sales and bargain

But for the added cost — which in the independent snowboard market is fairly commonplace —Wurster assures you get the quality of a board that’s going to outlast the mass-produced competition. He said his boards are designed to make it through more than a 100 days of riding, when the low budget board won’t. “Our boards are known for being strong. A lot of the bigger mass-produced boards weren’t designed for that kind of use.” He personally oversees and helps build every board his company produces.

TAKE ONE FOR A TEST DRIVE Want to take them for a spin? Unity offers free demos from their factory supply. Simply call or email to make arrangements to pick one up. A number of area retailers and rental shops also have some Unity boards in stock. Check Unity’s website for details. Unity’s 2014/15 line includes something for every riding style, from park to reverse cambered to their surfinspired Whale powderboard. He also offers boards in larger and wider sizes geared toward taller men like himself. Wurster said each board— while specialized — also offers a versatility for everyday use. Unity’s board cores are made from a combination of aspen and maple which gives them both flexibility and durability. The company also offers two models as splitboards for those interested in getting into the backcountry. Wurster said they initially got into the splitboard market seven years ago, but stopped for a few years because the quality of bindings were not adequate at the time. “The bindings were a joke. You lost so much performance back then it wasn’t worth it,” he said of the decision. But four years ago, with the rise of Spark’s splitboard binding, Wurster decided to give splitboards another go. For more on Unity’s line of snowboards check out www.unitysnow boards.com. PHOTO COURTESY OF UNITY

E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

SKIING PROFILE

Keeping up with Keri Breckenridge Olympian embraces life after Sochi and looks forward to skiing ‘till I’m a hundred’ by SEBASTIAN FOLTZ

AFTER A QUICK “let’s do it” at the top of the slope, it doesn’t take long before Olympic slopestyle freeskier Keri Herman’s gone, weaving in and out of some of Breckenridge Ski Resort’s tightest tree lines at speeds most on the mountain would find unsettling. But for the 10-year Breckenridge resident it’s more like second nature, even if she leaves the mountain’s terrain park only for the occasional powder day. Minutes earlier a ski patroller had dropped the ropes to open the resort’s double-black diamond “Windows” run — a heavily gladed portion of Peak 9 — granting access to the 7 fresh inches of snow 24

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that had fallen overnight. Occasionally a glimpse of Herman’s purple ski pants and black jacket peeked through the trees and then were gone again. She was off at her own pace, in her own world — keep up if you can. “She’s always been that way,” Herman’s mother, Diana, said, busily preparing dinner in her Minnesota home but still insisting on taking the time for a phone interview. “She’s always kind of liked to march to her own drum.” As a kid that meant anything from climbing trees in the backyard to joining the first girls’ hockey team in her hometown. “I’d just about die seeing how high up she was,” Diana Herman said, recalling looking out the window into the backyard and seeing her daughter climbing a tree at age 4 or 5. “She says she’s afraid of heights. I have a hard time believing that. She’s

WINTER 2015

always been a daredevil.” Herman’s father, John — also an avid skier who once also called Colorado home — echoed the sentiment. “If there’s something crazy and fun to do she’ll be the one to do it.” Back at the bottom of E-Chair, Herman headed straight for the line to jump back on and do it again. “That was sick,” she said with the signature smile that rarely leaves her face when she’s clicked into her skis. On the chair the multiple Dew Tour and X Games

medalist already was thinking about the next line, one that doesn’t usually get tracked right away on a powder day. After a morning of charging fresh lines — stopping only to buy a coffee to drink on the chair — it’s hard to imagine that the longtime pro skier once had her sights set on a finance or marketing career on Wall Street. “I never thought that would match with her personality at all,” Herman’s mother said. Her father agreed. “She wasn’t the personality to be a CPA.”

KERI PORTRAIT PHOTO COURTESY US SKI TEAM ALL OTHER PHOTOS BY SEBASTIAN FOLTZ

Sports editor Sebastian Foltz spent a day skiing the slopes with Keri Herman after her return from Sochi earlier this year.

Something in marketing maybe, he explained. But when Herman came to her parents and told them she was going make a career of skiing, Diana didn’t exactly see that either. “When she said she wanted to be a pro skier I rolled my eyes,” she said, adding that in her mind the cartoon thought bubble said, “Really? Why don’t you get a real job?” John on the other hand, a self-described ski nut whom Herman clearly seems to take after, said go for it. “I had no idea that she was going to turn into an Olympic skier,” he said, looking back at a time when X Games and Dew Tour weren’t the Keri Herman is just one of the many athletes you might find yourself sharing a chair with this winter. From Olympic gold medalists and other pros to the next generation of aspiring competitive skiers and snowboarders, it seems at times like Summit and neighboring Eagle County are full of them. In fact there’s probably a good chance that one may have just served you your morning coffee or sliced your bagel. You can follow Keri on Facebook and Twitter or find out more on her ussa.rallyme.com fundraiser site.

spectacles they’ve become. “I just thought why not go for it, try your passion.” Diana has since come around. “When I saw how happy it made her, that's all I cared about," she said. "I'm her biggest fan (now). I’m so happy she did it. I was wrong, she was right.” With an appearance in the inaugural Olympic slopestyle competition in early 2014 in Sochi, Russia, it’s been a crazy season for the 32-year-old Herman. But as the 2013/14 season drew to a close, she said not a whole lot has changed — a trip to the White House to meet the president and first lady and invite them to Breckenridge not withstanding.

“I was there (in Sochi) the entire time, so I felt like it didn’t even happen when I came home. When I got back all the hype was done. Life just eased back into normal Keri living.” That normal also included a quick trip to Italy for the annual Nine Queens women’s slopestyle competition, where she took third. But around town she said she doesn’t get recognized any more or any less. “It doesn’t feel like anything’s really changed. People around town say what’s up, but that’s how it was before. It’s just stayed pretty mellow.” While she didn’t come back from Sochi with a medal, that didn’t seem to matter much.

the same approach to training. “I don’t train,” she’s quick to respond. “I try not to train, or call it training, or act like it’s training. To me that takes the fun out of it. I want to just keep that easygoing fun-loving attitude, cruising around having a blast at all times, without the serious aspect. It’s just another day with your friends. It’s just playtime; it’s like recess at school 100 percent of the time.” Before qualifying for Sochi she told the Summit Daily News that if she managed to make it and medal, great, and if it didn’t happen she was just as happy about the opportunity. That seems to have rung true through the Olympics, according to her mother.

“I’m going… oh, yeah, for sure.” After a pause, she repeated, “For sure.” She tensed noticeably at the mention of her age, clearly frustrated at the notion that it’s even an issue. “I hate having to always talk about it. I don’t see my age as a challenge at all. I think it’s stupid. I mean our sport’s so young, you don’t know how old you can be. Look at BMXers in the Dew Tour, skateboarders in the Dew Tour. They’re in their 40s and still on top of the podiums. That’s going to be me.” And she’s right. Last year at age 40, skateboarder Bucky Lasek won his fourth consecutive X Games gold medal.

As long as I’m having this much fun skiing, there’s no reason to do anything else." - Keri Herman

She finished 10th in the finals in Sochi — a mistake on her first run, followed by two rough landings on her second, cost her a higher placing. But money, competition results, that’s not what skiing is about for her. “That’s not why she does it,” Herman’s mother said. “She does it because she loves it.” For Herman, it’s just fun. “You always have to have fun. I try to have fun every single day of my life. As long as skiing is helping me do that, I’m going to continue. It keeps a smile on my face all day long, and all night waiting for the next day. Skiing is just the best,” she said with a big smile. And she continues to take

“I think I took it harder than she did,” Diana Herman said of her daughter not medaling. “She seems just fine with it.” Herman’s so at ease with it that she elected not to compete in the Association of Freeskiing Professionals World Championships held last April in British Columbia, even though she was ranked No. 4 in the world in slopestyle — a ranking she wasn’t even aware of. She decided instead to enjoy some time with friends. As for the future? While some past sponsors might not have much faith in the seasoned star coming off of one of her best years in competition, she’s already got her sights set on 2018 in South Korea.

Herman’s mother said that’s been the hardest part in the last year. “Unfortunately, the sponsors don’t see it that way. They don’t seem to embrace that.” Time will tell, but betting against Herman wouldn’t appear to be the smart choice. She thrives on challenges and said she plans to show people they shouldn’t count her out, and that she hopes to set a precedent for future skiers going forward. “I’m going to ski forever. I’m going to ski till I’m a hundred,” she said with conviction. “That’s just the facts. As long as I’m having this much fun skiing, there’s no reason to do anything else. I’ve found my place.” E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

SKI/SNOWBOARD

'Dew' the Math Judges for events like Dew Tour rely on experience, practice to get the job done

A SNOWBOARDER DROPS into the halfpipe, climbing the first wall and rocketing into the air. She spins and twists and lands cleanly, launching into the next trick, board rotating, hand grabbing, a blur of motion and controlled, chaotic movement. Trick after trick, she continues her run down the pipe until it spits her out at the bottom. From their perch, the judges frantically map the run. In those brief moments, years of experience and hundreds of clips of previous runs go through each of their heads, as notes are scribbled, rotations determined, style 26

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taken into account. They ultimately agree on a score and the announcer bellows it out to the crowd, which roars its approval.

IN THE BOOTH

At events like the Dew Tour in Breckenridge and the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, score calculations happen so quickly that they almost seem robotic to the average spectator. But the process of judging halfpipe, slopestyle, big air and the like is less an empirical science and more of a collection of experiences fitted to a rider and applied to paper. Judges use steno

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sheets to map an athlete’s run, marking each maneuver with cryptic shorthand that tracks difficulty of trick, amplitude, grabs and other elements of style, number of rotations and, finally, landing. “We record the runs as they’re live in progress on our steno sheets,” said Steele Spence, a five-time X Games competitor in slopestyle who switched to judging competitions after injuring his neck on a filming trip six years ago. “This is what we use to compare runs and then rank them. So all the top-level judges have a great skill in this because it takes a lot of practice, especially to be able to

record as much information as possible.” An accurate steno is crucial, Spence said, especially with high-level events like the Dew Tour, where the difference between first and second place could come down to a missed grab. In the booth, each judge is doing his or her own thing, looking back at previous runs and deciding where this particular run will sit, said Tom Zikas, who for the past decade has been judging snowboarding events ranging from X Games and the Dew Tour to Olympic qualifiers. “There might be a question or two: Did he grab or did he not grab?” Zikas said, describ-

PHOTOS: TRIPP FAY / COPPER MOUNTAIN RESORT

by KRISTA DRISCOLL

It’s Better Together!

ing how a particular judge might complete his notes. “He’ll ask the head judge. They get their score, and that’s about it.” Training to become a judge is a process of practice, rather than memorizing specific point values, Spence said. “I give presentations to certify judges and created all the materials to certify,” he said. “Even for the top-level judges, we do it all with video. I have almost 200 video clips. It’s more important to be able to recognize it than to be able to describe it on paper.” From there, ranking is a matter of comparing runs to one another.

FAR LEFT: Annalisa Drew performs a Japan grab during competition at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain Resort. “I like to see a variety of grabs in every run,” said Steele Spence, a five-time X Games competitor in slopestyle who now judges freeskiing competitions. “It’d be kind of boring if they just did a bunch of mute grabs.” ABOVE: Gus Kenworthy performs a true tail grab during competition at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain Resort. “We’ll award for really grabbing the true tail of the ski,” Steele said, pointing at this as a good example. “But anything reaching back and grabbing the tail counts, again looking for them to hold it throughout the whole rotation.”

Photograph by: ToddPowell.com

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IDE

“With halfpipe, if you do a hard trick and you’re doing it, like, 2 feet above the lip, then we’ll score it as an easier trick than 10 feet, way higher,” Zikas said. “Going big in the

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with your landing; you don’t want to be falling, scrubbing, hand drags.” Spence said athletes are also rewarded for progressing the sport, doing new or unique tricks or variations of tricks, and It takes a lot of riders are constantly pushing the envelope. practice, especially to Tricks have become more and more able to record as much difficult, with more information as possible.” rotations and bigger amplitude. - Steele Spence “In the last couple of years, the best halfpipe is hard, so if you’re examples have been X Games doing hard tricks combined big air,” Spence said. “The last with good amplitude, good couple of seasons in big air, style, you’ll do pretty well. we’ve seen multiple tricks Combined with that is done that have never been landing; you want to be clean done before.”

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SCORES DON’T MATTER

The most important thing for spectators to know is that the judges are ranking complete runs, not comparing trick for trick. Though a few competitions start with set point values for particular tricks, most events like Dew Tour and the Grand Prix don’t use that kind of system, Zikas said. “There’s definitely not a set score,” he said. “There isn’t really a set value for each trick, per say. It’s an overall evaluation of the run combined. With that, we’re looking at each individual trick, breaking them down really meticulously.”

PHOTOS: TRIPP FAY / COPPER MOUNTAIN RESORT

Judges get a feel for what an average-level run looks like by watching the athletes practice, and that sets a mid-level score, usually somewhere in the 70s, from which a ranking system can be built, Spence said. “At each competition, we’ll watch the full day of practice or two days of practice beforehand and watch these runs, for that particular competition field, identify what an average run is for that level of competition and start noticing the above-average runs and below-average runs,” he said. “That’s where we get our starting point for building a ranking.” Average-level runs in competition provide an anchor, giving the judges room for

higher and lower scores, depending on the difficulty and execution of subsequent runs. Because of this, there could be a gap of 10 or more points between medalists with comparable runs where the judges left space for other riders to potentially squeeze in. Spence said there’s a fair amount of subjectivity to this form of overall impression judging, and sometimes even within the judging booth, the panel of five scoring the run will disagree on a ranking, in which case majority rules. Scores and rankings are often questioned, which is something the judges actually encourage, Zikas said. “We have their whole run documented and each person

skiloveland.com skiloveland.com E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

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that finished in front of them and try to give them a good explanation of why exactly we put them where we put them, their score and ranking,” Zikas said. “That happens, and we love talking to riders when they have questions.” Spence said that when discussing scores with athletes and coaches post-competition, they often wonder why a run was given what they felt was a low score, and the judges must reiterate that the numbers really mean nothing. “They’ll see a number come out for this run, and they’ll say, how can you give her a 75? Well, the score is irrelevant,” Spence said. “Look at the two scores that ranked above her. And explain this is

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why I gave it a score; I didn’t believe it was as good as this score. We constantly have to remind people that it’s about the ranking, not about the score.” There’s also no point in comparing scores from competition to competition or year to year of the same event. “With snowboarding, it’s progressing every day, every week,” Zikas said. “If someone has a 95 as their average score one year and they get a 95 again the next year, even from competition to competition, it’s a whole clean, new slate because it’s impossible to place a point value on a particular run because it’s constantly evolving.” As televised events have

launched halfpipe and slopestyle into the world of primetime public scrutiny, the job of a judge has gotten even more difficult. “One of the hardest parts about judging, especially X Games and Dew Tour, is the live TV factor,” Spence said. “We watch the run as it happens live, record all our steno marks and have about 30 seconds to get all of our scores in. You have the TV producers yelling at you. There’s a lot of money on the line for these athletes, and we really need to work quickly; it can be pretty stressful. A question we get a lot is, do you get to see replays? No, we don’t, we watch the run live once and that’s it.”

PHOTOS: TRIPP FAY / COPPER MOUNTAIN RESORT

Simon Dumont holds a mute grab during competition at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain Resort. With a mute grab, Steele said judges are looking for the athlete to be “holding onto the ski and not the binding or the boot, holding the grab throughout the trick, through as much of the rotation as possible.” Letting go early on a grab can negatively affect a score — “if they go for mute and barely touch it, compared to the guy who’s holding the mute grab throughout the rotation.”

WHAT WAS THAT TRICK? Snowboard judge Tom Zikas (TZ) and freeskiing judge Steele Spence (SS) break down a few of the tricks commonly seen at events like the Dew Tour and Grand Prix. SNOWBOARD • The trick (halfpipe): Front side double cork 1080 — 1080 degrees of rotation (three complete rotations) combined with two off-axis cork spins TZ: They’re spinning on two different axes, doing the 1080, and corking their body two separate times throughout that spin. Coming in straight forward, with the 1080, they’ll be coming out switch. One with that many spins, it’s difficult to hold your grabs, so you’re looking at the rider to hold their grabs. The more that it’s corked is a factor, definitely a clean landing and, most of all, their amplitude above the wall with it, as well. • The trick (slopestyle): Rail slides TZ: Variables include the direction you’re spinning onto the rail and the side you’re getting onto the rail

from. Sometimes, you’ll see riders air on and maybe slide 3 feet of a 10-foot rail, tap on and tap off. What we’re looking for is riders really locking on and sliding the majority of the rail, good takeoff, good landing. The direction that you spin onto the rail and direction that you spin off the rail could potentially up your score. • The trick (big air): Backside 1440 triple cork — 1440 degrees of rotation (four complete rotations) combined with three off-axis cork spins TZ: It’s a similar explanation to the pipe, where an easier trick would be a straight backside 1440, now they are doing it triple corked. Corking their body, getting off axis three times throughout that 1440. You’re counting rotations and looking at what direction they come in, which direction they come out, how many times they get off-axis. You can kind of count those rotations; it happens fast, but if you’re on it, you can do it. For any type of corked trick, it definitely has a way different look as compared to a flat 1440.

SKI • The trick (halfpipe): Double cork 1260 — 1260 degrees of rotation (three and a half complete rotations) combined with two off-axis cork spins SS: The first thing we look at is the direction of takeoff, which is switch or forward. For this one, you’re coming in forward, then the amount of rotation. We just know with a 540, you’ll take off forward, you’re going to land forward; 900, you’re going to land forward. If you do a 1080, you’ll be taking off forward and landing switch. And one of the reasons we can so easily identify the tricks is the direction of takeoff and the direction of landing. • The trick (slopestyle): Switch 270 — Taking off backwards, rotating 270 degrees (one and one third complete rotations) and landing on the rail sideways SS: When you jump on a rail, you rotate 90 degrees to be on the rail. You can spin 270, 450 or 630 —

there’s a whole other set of rotations on the rail because you’re landing perpendicular to the rail. With the switch 270, it’s taking off backwards, 270 degree rotation, to land sideways on the rail. • The trick (big air): Switch double flat spin 900 — Taking off backwards, 900 degrees of rotation (two and a half complete rotations) SS: Flat spin is a different axis. It can be done in pipe and slope. Taking off switch, two and a half rotations, they’re going to be landing forward. The flat spin is an axis where the feet rotate around the head with the body parallel to the ground. It’ll be done twice.

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WINTER 2015

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BREWING

Building a Brewery Cory Forster, former brewmaster of Dillon Dam Brewery, is the driving force behind the Baker’s Brewery, Summit’s newest brewpub

IT’S NO SECRET that the craft beer industry is thriving in the U.S. In 2013, the industry experienced an 18 percent growth, according to the Brewers Association. It turns out that Summit County is no stranger to this trend, with four established breweries — Dillon Dam Brewery, Pug Ryan’s Brewing Company, Backcountry Brewery and Breckenridge Brewery — and a fifth, the Broken Compass Brewery, which celebrated its opening weekend in June 2014. And it doesn’t stop there. Cory Forster, formerly the head brewmaster at the Dillon Dam Brewery, is planning to open the doors to his own brewpub this winter. 34

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THE BAKERS’ BREWERY

Forster found what he believes is the perfect location in Silverthorne — the former Village Inn restaurant, overlooking Interstate 70. “We feel great about the neighborhood, and the response that we’ve gotten has just been amazing,” said Forster. The ‘we’ refers to his fellow co-founder, Stephanie Sadler, a local small business entrepreneur and homebrewer. Forster and Sadler had their ideas for a brewpub independently, each with their own cadre of backers, and then decided to combine forces. The two met when Sadler entered the Dillon Dam Brewery’s homebrewer competition several

WINTER 2015

years ago and she won the experimental category. The name Bakers’ Brewery came from an idea that Forster has had for years. “One of my good longterm friends from back in Minnesota owns a bakery and he makes some amazing sourdough breads,” Forster said. “Many years ago, we had already started talking about how we should open a brewery up and we should have homemade breads and make these awesome sandwiches on this awesome bread that he bakes.” They’ve made plans for him to come to Summit County to train the bakers on how to replicate his breads at high altitude. “A big portion of the menu is definitely focused on the fresh homemade

bread,” Forster said. They will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with plenty of on-the-go options from the deli counter up front. There will be a long bar, with beetlekill wood elements, and then a side bar that will face the brewery equipment. The four fermenters will be visible through glass, “like soldiers in a row,” Forster explained. The rest of the restaurant will be taken up by seating, with an emphasis on the view of Buffalo Mountain and Red Mountain across the valley.

FROM CHAIN RESTAURANT TO ORIGINAL BREWPUB

When Forster and Sadler first took over the building, almost nothing had changed. Left-behind tables and chairs cluttered the interi-

HAT PHOTO AND CORY FORSTER PHOTO BY JESSICA SMITH. OTHER PHOTOS COURTESY BAKERS' BREWERY

by JESSICA SMITH

Cory Forster, cofounder of the Bakers' Brewery, points out several features of the building's renovations, including trusses that will go over the east, west and south entrances. BELOW: Forster's crew took out an entire wall and drop ceiling in the old Village Inn building to open up the view of Buffalo Mountain and Red Mountain across the valley.

A construction crew worked to transform the old Village Inn building into Summit's newest craft brewery.

THE BAKERS’ BREWERY Updates and info online at www.TheBakersBrewery.com Connect on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ thebakersbrewery

or, which featured a generic green/blue color scheme and patterned carpet. But that didn’t matter to Forster. When giving tours of the project early on, he walked around with the vision of the future already in his head, pointing out elements of the bar along the bare white walls, where the tables and people would go and the workings of the kitchen’s inner maze.

“It was cheaper to start with a building that was already here,” said Sadler. “There are definite benefits.” This included much of the kitchen structure, tons of stainless steel, as well as plumbing, walls, ceilings, etc. “A lot of the grading and the flow have already been designed, the snow storage is already designed, the sign, we’re just going to paint that and refill it, it’s already good to go,”

said Forster. “There’s definitely a lot we’re going to re-use.” Anyone who spent any time in the building when it was Village Inn certainly won’t recognize it when it’s done. After clearing out the tables and furniture, everything was stripped down, from the walls to the floor, taken down to the bare bones in order to be built back up again. One of the biggest differences is the ceiling. The low drop ceiling

was removed, opening the space vertically to accommodate larger windows, which showcase typical Summit County mountain views. “It’s a little bit of a natural, industrial combination,” said Forster of the overall design concept. “We’re thinking about doing an old mining cabin feel for part of the dining room. … The idea is you’re standing on an old deck on the side of the old mining cabin, looking up at a beautiful view of the mountains.” Months into the demolition, Forster said that he still felt that every day made considerable progress. “It’s amazing,” said Bakers’ Brewery bar manager Eli Snell, who has been friends with Forster for a long time. The two even moved out to E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

THE BEER

Forster has plenty of ideas for the beer that will be made on site. “One of the new pushes that’s happening in the brewing industry is session beers,” he said. He calls it a “gateway beer” for people just getting into craft brews, neither bitterly hoppy like an IPA nor

sweetly malted like a stout. “I’ve been thinking about an imperial red ale fermented on a Belgian yeast,” he mused, “where the fruity hops and the fruity yeast esters can kind of play together.” The building is roughly 5,000 square feet total, 1,000 of which will be dedicated to the brewery. With four serving tanks, Forster estimates he will produce just under 1,000 barrels per year. The brewery will also be a place to taste the latest and greatest of Summit Coun-

ty’s homebrew efforts. The kitchen will feature an area specific to homebrewing, where local amateur brewers can gather to learn more about the art of brewing, as well as try their hand at some beers of their own. “We’re also going to have a small batch system so we can experiment. We have several homebrewers who are investors in this as well so it will be fun to bring some of their recipes in and brew them in a 12-gallon batch and have a 1-keg test batch of some

We want to further the brewing industry as a whole, and a

big part of that

is education.”

- Cory Forster stuff,” Forster said. “Obviously, we’ll turn those over pretty quick most of the time and it will keep things fun and exciting for the guests too, and keep people coming back to see what’s new on the tap.” Sadler said she would probably try her hand at some experimental beers in the future, something she’s had to put on hold in favor of mountains of new business paperwork. “Collectively (the homebrewers) will be able to provide inspiration for new, different beers that no one’s ever had before,” she said. Forster is considering things like how-to homebrew classes in the future, “to build that community bond,” he said. “We want to further the brewing industry as a whole, and a big part of that is education.”

Large trusses waited in the parking lot to be raised above the entrances of the building during its transformation from the Village Inn to the Bakers' Brewery.

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WINTER 2015

BUH-BYE BARLEYWINE As a farewell gesture, the Dillon Dam Brewery came out with its Buh-Bye Bar-

leywine this summer, which head brewmaster Mike Bennett wrote is a “hoppy tribute” to Forster and the time he spent at the brewery. Bennett and Forster have been friends for around 17 years. At the Dam Brewery, Bennett worked a variety of jobs, eventually coming beneath the management of former brewmaster Matt Luhr and then Forster, working his way up to assistant brewmaster. Bennett said he learned a lot from Forster, and has plenty of memorable moments attending beer festivals, particularly the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. He recalled something that Forster would always say to him — which Luhr had said to Forster before — if a mistake had been made: ‘Well, I guess you’re not going to do that again!’ Bennett laughed. “He was always pretty patient with me and didn’t get too fired up over much.” Forster said he’s enjoyed watching the Dam Brewery’s progress under Bennett. “Mike and JJ took over in the middle of January already and they’ve kept a strong lineup of awesome beers on tap all winter long through the ski season. They’re kicking some butt over there. The Dam beer is very good.” Bennett, for his part, is awaiting what the Bakers’ Brewery will bring to the table. “I’m looking forward to having another brewery to go drink at when I get off work,” he said with a laugh. “The more good beer we have in Summit County the better. I’m looking forward to it.” As for himself, Forster is excited to finally realize his dream project in one of his favorite places. “I love Summit County,” he said. “This is my 20th year here. I still absolutely love where I live.”

PHOTO BY JESSICA SMITH

Summit County from Minnesota simultaneously. “I mean, my only concern is that I’m not taking enough pictures to document the whole process, because it’s really, really exciting,” he said during construction. “Every day we come to work and there’s something new. It’s transforming right before our eyes.”

craft

BEER HERE'S THE SKINNY ON TAPS TO GO

PUG RYAN’S BREWING COMPANY: located in Downtown Dillon specializes in European Style Craft Lagers. Stop by and fill your Growler with our Deadeye Dunkel, Peacemaker Pilsner or our Hideout Helles. Other choices include Pale Ale, Wheat, Scottish, and Stout. Often there are additional specialty brews our Brewers have concocted. Check out sour canned beers and our 12 pack mixed pack called the “Pack of Thieves”. Pug Ryan’s is not just a brewery but an award winning Steakhouse and restaurant, serving Summit County since 1975. Happy Hour 3 to 6 PM daily. Cheers! GO GET IT: We are located at 104 Village Place in Dillon, Colorado. Stop by, give us a call at 970-468-2145, or log on to pugryans.com

BROKEN COMPASS BREWING: a small craft brewery located in Breckenridge. They are lost in the right place while making beer specialities daily for locals and tourists to enjoy together. Find them and their delicious offerings at 60 Continental Court in Breckenridge. Their tap house is open daily and your furry friends are welcome too! CHILI PEPPER PALE ALE: Don’t let the addition of five types of chili peppers fool you, this is an easy drinking, smooth beer. All the flavor and aroma of spicy chili's without burning your face off. 36 IBU, 7.0% ABV COCONUT PORTER: A robust porter loaded with so much roasted organic coconut, it transports you to a tropical island. A beer so good, its not just for breakfast anymore. 27 IBU, 6.5% ABV

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COFFEE

A cuppa community Breckenridge coffee shop awakens tastes by KIM FULLER

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CUPPA JOE Located at 118 S Ridge Street in Breckenridge. For more information, call the shop at 970-453-3938.

every shot is perfect, and because I generally strive for perfection, there are a lot of shots that just don’t work.”

A CUPPA PERFECTION

Cuppa Joe sources their beans from Boxcar Coffee Roasters out of Denver, and Hirschboeck explains their product provides a flavor that is pleasing for all palates. “We do everything from the little cortados and macchiatos — when people are really focusing on the taste of the espresso itself — all the way up to, you know, the 16-ounce white chocolate mochas. So it’s an espresso that appeals to a broad range of tastes,” she says.

AND DRIP COFFEE? THEY’VE GOT IT DOWN

“We’ve got everything dialed with the drip,” she says. “Our drips are always rotating, so it allows me to continually taste coffee from different regions. We just got a Kenyan in that is promising to be excellent, and if it’s anything like the last Kenyan I got from

WINTER 2015

PHOTOS BY KIM FULLER

JOHANNA HIRSCHBOECK has a taste for good coffee. She usually starts her day with a traditional cappuccino, a cortado, or joe from the drip. “I think there is a lot of bad coffee out there,” says Hirschboeck, who opened Cuppa Joe coffee shop in Breckenridge three years ago. “So when people finally have a great cup of coffee, it’s like this revelation.” The upstairs space of Cuppa Joe is set back just slightly from the bustle of Breckenridge. It’s a cozy refuge on Ridge Street with plenty of mountain-view seating, offering guests an atmosphere to be relaxed or productive, introspective or social. It’s a place of creativity and community connection, with top-notch coffee and cuisine. “I would definitely consider us a craft coffee shop,” Hirschboeck says. “We really put time and energy and care into everything we do. We make sure everything is the best that it can possibly be.” She explains that being just a touch away from Main Street gives the shop more of an opportunity to give every order the attention it requires. “We like being a little bit hidden, because of the way we do things,” she shares. “We craft every drink individually; we grind our espresso and pull every shot per drink. Not

Cuppa Joe is a place of creativity and community connection, with top-notch coffee and cuisine. GO FOR A COFFEE, STAY FOR THE FOOD

While Hirschboeck says she did not envision Cuppa Joe becoming a restaurant, more and more people are coming in for the food. “I really wanted to provide food that matched the caliber of the coffee,” she says. “I wanted to take your standard deli fare and make it a little better, so we make everything

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to order, and all of our ingredients are as fresh as possible.” The Cuppa Joe kitchen is pretty small, so Hirschboeck says efficiency and teamwork keep the food firing. You will see her in the shop most days, greeting guests, running the register and preparing orders. She says the support of the community is a big bonus to opening up in Breckenridge.

“It’s a really wild feeling to have people appreciate something that you have created and put your heart and soul into,” she shares. “People are here every day. Even when town closes down and it’s off-season, we have a really good local following, and because of that we draw a lot of visitors up here as well.” The shop gets busier and busier every year, and while Hirschboeck says the volume can sometimes be hard to keep up with, the quality of a Cuppa Joe will never be sacrificed. “It’s an indescribable feeling to have the support of a community and to see that people understand what we are doing here,” she says, “and I am so appreciative of that.”

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Boxcar, it’ll be awesome.” There’s more to “the perfect cup of coffee” than there ever has been, as fantastic flavor must now be matched with presentation. If latte art is something you have only seen on Instagram, head into Cuppa Joe to get your live dose. “When people see latte art for the first time, that reaction is priceless — it never gets old,” says Hirschboeck. “I try to stick to traditional designs, and for me it’s improving on those. The rosetta is what I have gotten really good at, and it’s fun to get better and better — to make it more symmetrical, make it more detailed, make more layers, so on and so forth.”

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COCKTAILS

Master of mixology

Billie Keithley, liquid chef for Breckenridge Distillery.

Breckenridge Distillery liquid chef Billie Keithley shares her passion for cocktails “It really grabbed me with the different smells and colors and flavors, and I was just like, wow, like a raccoon seeing a shiny thing,” she said, her eyes lighting up at the memory. “I knew then I wanted to learn more and I was not really going to stop.”

After pouring drinks for five or six years, she thought she knew everything there was to know about bartending — until she attended a seminar in Vail led by Francesco Lafranconi, one of the world’s foremost masters of cocktails. “I was blown away,” Keithley said. “I had my head down taking 10 pages of notes. I wanted to Still Broke II is a winter cocktail made take it to 100 times with Breckenridge more. I was looking Bourbon and Broken Compass Black IPA. into bar tools I had never seen before, and I knew that was what I wanted to do after that.” She paused and took a deep breath, feeling that first surge of passion all over again. “Phew, I almost cried.”

CAREER PATHS

A few years after her revelation, Keithley was slinging drinks at Cecelia’s in Breckenridge when Breck-

enridge Distillery founder and CEO Bryan Nolt, master distiller Jordan Via and marketing manager Maya Berthoud walked through the door. “I was bartending, and I made them some cocktails and took them into the walk-in humidor,” Keithley said. “They told me they were thinking about opening up a distillery. I didn’t know what to think of it at the time. When someone says they were opening a distillery, back then, there were only six or seven licenses in the whole state of Colorado, so I was like, we’ll see.” The hooch purveyors persisted, and when their plan for the distillery came to fruition in 2009, Via invited Keithley to spend some time there and take a tour, ultimately recruiting her to the team.

ON THE ROAD

If you come across Keithley at a festival, you’ll experience her powers of persuasion when it comes to hawking Breckenridge Distillery products.

|| by KRISTA DRISCOLL

“When people meet me, they have no choice; they’re going to try it,” she said with a laugh. “As far as a neat sample goes, I pour a little bit, educate them on it and then follow up with a cocktail. Also, if someone refuses to try bourbon, I mix up something that I know will be pleasing at first to break them into it. And they say, oh, that’s not what I thought it would be, then they try the bourbon by itself and they are blown away by it. “I like when people try our stuff neat, by itself, but I like to enhance everything by making craft cocktails, to show people the versatility of it.” By the end of her spiel, she almost always inspires a new fan, and with the distillery’s award-winning bourbon, vodka and bitters now available in bars, restaurants and liquor stores in more than 40 states, it won’t be hard for those new customers to find a follow-up cocktail or pick up a bottle for their next soiree.

PHOTOS BY KRISTA DRISCOLL

BILLIE KEITHLEY LOUNGED against the front bumper of the Breckenridge Distillery’s iconic green Land Rover, soaking up the sun on an unseasonably warm fall day on Airport Road. The door to the distillery was propped open, and a tour group could be heard shuffling through, sipping samples and scooping up souvenirs. Chico, the resident Chihuahua, stretched out on the pavement at Keithley’s feet as she started her story, saying she didn’t intend to become a bartender when she arrived in Breckenridge more than 15 years ago.

LEARN HOW IN THE BAR

Between social gigs, Keithley said she’s most at home in a bar or restaurant, educating her colleagues across the country by rolling up her sleeves and demonstrating her craft. “Usually when I’m on the road, I’ve just met people behind the bar, but I’m behind the bar making cocktails by the time I leave,” she said. “I’m very comfortable with the scene and talking with people about bartending and cocktails — you can’t shut me up. I’m definitely a geek about it.” Whether it’s constructing imaginative recipes, creating pairings for a dinner event or getting a restaurant started with a barrel-aged cocktail program, Keithley tailors her input based on the degree of comfort the staff has with the products and their knowledge of mixology. “That goes from very new bartenders, where I don’t want to overwhelm them with crazy concoctions, just two or three ingredients, on up to let’s start flaming this and foaming that,” she said. “I will work with the bartenders and work with the cocktail menu to balance it out with the food menu. I love working with chefs because I learn just as much from chefs as I do bartenders about flavor profiles and building drinks.”

been in full support of me to get this thing rolling.” Breckenridge Distillery has given her the title of liquid chef, but Keithley said she’s still proud to be a bartender and that’s how she refers to herself when acting as a brand ambassador for the distillery. She said when she looks back on being a full-time bartender, there were times it was stressful and she felt burnt

out, but she was always able to take a step back and realize that she loved what she was doing — and she still loves it. “I’m very passionate about my job,” she said. “I always want people to know that. My biggest thing is making sure that person is happy with the cocktail I made for them and putting a smile on their face. I’m very serious about it. I feel like it’s my craft.”

Served warm, the Winter Warm Up showcases Breckenridge Bourbon, with only an allspice dram and orange zest for accompaniment.

Breckenridge Distillery liquid chef Billie Keithley created these elegant cocktail recipes, perfect for your next winter get-together. FALL INTO BRECKENRIDGE (serve hot or cold) 1½ ounces Breckenridge Bourbon* ¼ ounce Breckenridge Sipping Bitters* ¼ ounce mulberry, tart cherry and fig shrub Spiced apple cider Garnish: cranberry rolled in caramel, pecans and citrus sea salt STILL BROKE II 1 ounce Breckenridge Bourbon* Broken Compass Black IPA** Sparkling apple cider Garnish: apricot-graham cracker whipped cream (homemade with an iSi Cream Whipper) and a drizzle of Dude, Sweet Chocolate Bourbon Sauce* ROCKY MOUNTAIN GRIZZLY PEAR (serve hot or cold) 1½ ounces Breckenridge Vodka* Teakoe pear tea ¼ ounce honey, cardamom, Lapsang Souchon* simple syrup (Lapsang Souchon is an organic black tea smoked with Breckenridge barrel staves) Juice of half a lemon Garnish: diced pears rolled in cinnamon and vanilla sugar WINTER WARM UP (serve warm) 2 ounces Breckenridge Bourbon* ½ ounce allspice dram Orange zest

DOWN THE ROAD

When the Breckenridge Distillery first opened, there were only about seven other distilleries in Colorado, Keithley said, and as the industry has grown, so has the little distillery on Airport Road. Keithley said she’s become good friends with the members of her little hooch-making family, and like any good family, they have returned the love through support of her newest endeavor. “Hopefully for the start of the holiday season, I’m going to be launching Psycho Billie’s Cocktail Syrups, Shrubs and Bitters, and the distillery has

BE AN AMATEUR LIQUID CHEF

*These products are available at the Breckenridge Distillery, 1925 Airport Road in Breckenridge, or at the Main Street tasting room, 137 S. Main St., across from the Breckenridge Welcome Center. ** Broken Compass Brewing offers 32- and 64-ounce take-home growlers of beer at its tasting room, 68 Continental Court in Breckenridge.

Served hot or cold, Fall into Breckenridge is a cocktail featuring Breckenridge Bourbon and Sipping Bitters.

Have questions about obtaining other special ingredients? Email Keithley at billie@breckenridge distillery.com E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

BRECKENRIDGE

BURKE & RILEYS

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BRECKENRIDGE

DOWNSTAIRS AT ERIC’S

Breckenridge’s favorite late-night kitchen. Come for lunch, stay for dinner – and check out our patio to enjoy the best views of Breckenridge’s famous mountain peaks. 970.547.2782 520 S. Main St. – La Cima Mall www.burkeandrileyspub.com

BRECKENRIDGE

CZECH IT OUT

THE FLATBREAD PIZZA CO.

czech & american cuisine

Delicious pizza, juicy burgers, tasty sandwiches, fresh salads, spicy wings and more. 20 beers on tap and 100 beers by the bottle. 14 flat screen HDTV’s, satellite coverage of all your favorite sports and an arcade with over 25 games. Open daily 11 a.m. - midnight.

Located in beautiful Breckenridge with one of the best views Join in town. FeaturingPlease fine EuropeanCome and American cuisine,Us we are open dailyfor forthe lunchGrand and dinner. Enjoy our signature dishes Opening of our Czech restaurant located at 500 Main Street, unit 2A&B, and excellent cocktails such South as the Prague Smash Becherovka. Breckenridge, Colorado, 80424 Reservations recommended.

A rustic, family friendly atmosphere to enjoy quality, Neapolitan style pizza. Baked in the only wood fire brick oven in Breckenridge, our pies are great for lunch or dinner. We also serve fresh salads, and beer and wine is available. Open 7 days a week at 11am with happy hour daily from 2-6pm.

970.453.1401 | 111 South Main St. www.downstairsaterics.com

970-423-6033 | 500 S.Grand Main St. UnitOpening 2A-B | La Cima Mall www.czechitoutbreck.com Wednesday, July 2nd at 11:30am

970.423.6693 | 520 S. Main St., La Cima Mall Above Park & Main | www.theflatbreadpizzaco.com

BRECKENRIDGE

THE GOLD PAN SALOON

Legend has it that in 1861, on this very spot Long's Saloon was open for business, likely pushing Taos White Lightning. Today, locals and visitors alike come for the camaraderie, to tell a few ski stories, listen to music, fill their bellies and enjoy libations. So come on in, enjoy a piece of Breckenridge's history. We feel honored to be considered "the oldest operating bar in Summit County and one of Colorado's Oldest & Finest.” 970.453.5499 | 103 N. Main St. www.thegoldpansaloon.com

We will be open 7 days a week for lunch & dinner Phone:BRECKENRIDGE 970-423-6033

THE HUNGRY DOG 2 GO BAR & GRILL

Great food, fun people! Stop by The Hungry Dog in Breckenridge; a Chicago Style Bar & Grill with happy hour daily from 3-5pm and late night dogs until 2am Monday - Saturday! Visit our website for a full menu and more info! 970-453-2434 | 500 S. Main Street, Unit 1L | La Cima Mall www.hungrydogofbreck.com

BRECKENRIDGE

MONTAÑAS MEXICAN CANTINA

The heart of the menu at Montaña’s is street-style tacos, served with veggie escabeche and fresh limes. The burritos are wrapped then smothered or naked. This Baja California-inspired cuisine is a step off pace with other Mexican restaurants in town. Come in early and grab brunch 10am-1pm on the weekend. Happy hour happens daily 2-5pm. 970.453.1341 | 520 S. Main St., La Cima Mall www.facebook.com/montanascantina

BRECKENRIDGE

MUNCHEEZE CAFE

SPENCER’S RESTAURANT

ULLR'S SPORTS GRILL

beaver run

Only restaurant next to Breckenridge Free Ski and Ride Parking! Come enjoy our laid back, fun atmosphere at the Local’s Bar and Grill where it’s Always Happy Hour! Serving only the freshest ingredients. Stop in after your day on the slopes with the crew or bring the Family! 970.453.1475 | 1900 Airport Rd Unit A3A4 www.muncheezecafe.com 42

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WINTER 2015

Spencer's sits right at the base of the Beaver Run Superchair on Peak 9. Featuring a convenient breakfast and lunch option with full buffet style or order off the menu for a relaxed dining experience. For dinner, enjoy a Colorado fish and game focused menu, also serving Certified Angus Beef. Breakfast served 7-11am, lunch served 11:30-2:00pm, dinner served 5:00-9:30pm. 970.453.6000 | 620 Village Rd. | www.beaverrun.com

Lunch, après ski, or late night, come have a cocktail, grub and play some games. Happy Hour from 2-6pm daily and a $3 Bloody Mary Bar every day. Offering a full menu and the best cheesesteak in town. Tell us your best story, we’ll tell you ours! Open 11am- 2am daily. 970.547.5950 | 505 S. Main St., Suite B1 www.ullrsbreck.com

DILLON

JERSEY BOYS

LAKE DILLON TAVERN

LAKE

DILLON TA V E R N

Voted one of the best pizza and sandwich restaurants in Summit since 2005. Pizza, calzones, cheesesteaks, pastas, subs, beer & more! Just minutes from Keystone Mountain, ideal location to grab some dinner after a long day on the slopes. Too tired to come by? We offer free delivery to any lodge or room at Keystone Mountain as well as anywhere in Dillon or Silverthorne. Open 11am –10pm everyday. 970.513.1087 | 149 Tenderfoot Street

Located in the heart of downtown Dillon, located one block from the Free Summit stage and minutes from Keystone and Frisco. We offer authentic stone baked pizza and calzones, as well as wings DILLON and sandwiches. Every Thursday, T Friday A VandESaturday R N we feature live music from local musicians and DJ's!

LAKE

KEYSTONE

RED MOUNTAIN GRILL

SNAKE RIVER SALOON & STEAKHOUSE

970.468.1010 | 703 E. Anemone Trail www.redmountaingrill.com

your trip to Summit County

970.468.2006 | 119 E. La Bonte St. | www.lakedillontavern.com

DILLON

Nightly dinner specials highlighting the variety of local cuisine we have in Colorado. Sunday Brunch starts at 10am on the weekend with bloody mary’s and bottomless mimosas. Enjoy the Best Happy Hour in Dillon from 2:30pm-6:30pm Mon-Fri with 2 for 1 select drafts and $5 Pizza. Summit County’s coolest and most unique atmosphere.

FUEL

Over 40 years of great food and service. Voted BEST live music and dancing. Menu includes, Prime Rib, Filet, Ribs, KC Sirloin, Lobster, King Crab, Salmon, Pasta and a kids menu.

970.468.2788 | 23074 US Hwy 6 www.snakeriversaloon.com

SILVERTHORNE

BLUE MOON BAKERY

FIESTA JALISCO

bakery

Kim and Ben Reil opened the Blue moon bakery 10 years ago on May 16th 2004. Ben began his baking obsession when he was just a child and continued learning about his passion at Johnson & Wales in Providence RI, where he earned a degree in pastry arts. ”We are happy that we are a hot spot for locals and visitors alike, with our quality food at a reasonable price!”

A real authentic Mexican restaurant in Summit County. Offering an extensive menu and affordable prices, which ensure that every diner will find something they love, from appetizers to an eye-popping array of entrees. There is also a pleasing variety of salads, vegetarian meals; children's choices, and American or "Gringo" dishes."

970.513.0669 | 253 Summit Place Shopping PL www.bluemoonbakery.net

970.468.9552 | 269 Summit Place, Shopping Center www.fiestajalisco.net/silverthorne.htm

SILVERTHORNE

J.J. CHINESE AND THAI

THE MINT

Summit County

RESTAURANT Fine Cantonese, Mandarin, and Spicy Papaya Thai cuisine. Dining in and take out available. Open every day at 11a.m.

970.468.2509 290 Summit Place Shopping Village www.jjsummit.com

Come dine in one of the oldest buildings in Summit County. The Historic Mint, having been in business since 1862, is the locals' choice for steaks, seafood, & fun! The Mint is where you, the only person who knows how you like your steak, prepare the steak and flame-broil it on our specially seasoned lava rock grill. 970.468.5247 | 347 Blue River Parkway www.mintsteakhouse.com

DIRECTORY

SUMMITDAILY.COM/ RESTAURANTS E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

Historic Frisco

Main Street (Paid Advertising)

FRISCO

THE BOATYARD

304 Main St 970.668.4728 www.boatyardgrillandpizza.com Specializing in contemporary American cuisine including Mediterranean, Southwestern, and Pacific Rim influences, the Boatyard Grill is a perfect place for a mid-day pick-me-up or a hearty dinner. Be sure to try one of their fresh specialty pizzas. They’re also a favorite for brunch every Sunday at 10:30am. Selections from their classic cocktails and their extensive wine list serve as the perfect complement to any dish.

FRISCO

FOOD HEDZ WORLD CAFÉ & CATERING 842 Summit Blvd 970.668.2000 www.foodhedzcafe.com

lunch : tue .- sat. 11am -3 pm

FRISCO || BRECKENRIDGE

Chef David sources organic & all natural foods from Thailand to the Heartland. Celebrating our 10th year, Chef David continues to make everything in house, from "scratch" using old school methods. From our freshly baked organic bread to hand crafted desserts, Chef David creates flavorful foods all made to order. Book our private dining room any evening of the week! Hosts 25-45 guests. Voted #1 Best of Summit Caterer 2012-2014 - Let us cater your next party! Chef David awarded Best Chefs America 2013 & 2014

FRISCO

PROST

313 Main St 970.668.3688 www.prostfinebeers.com

Fine Beers and Sausage

Prost: purveyors of the finest German and Belgian beers in Summit County. In addition to their coveted selection of libations, Prost serves some of the best sausages in Colorado in a cozy beer hall environment. Whether you’re looking for a full stein or dinner with friends, Prost is the perfect place on Frisco’s Main Street for any kind of fun, any time of the day.

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WINTER 2015

OLLIE’S PUB & GRUB

620 Main St. -Frisco | 970.668.0744 401 S. Main St. -Breckenridge 970.453.9148 www.olliespub.com Rob Pantle and Alan Bullock along with the staff pride themselves on creating an “everybody knows your name” type of atmosphere. Customers are friends and family and treat them accordingly! The food at Ollie’s is classic American bar fare that far exceeds peoples expectation of “bar food.” Every item on the menu is prepared fresh and is never frozen. Ollie’s is also proud to offer something for everyone. Attached to the dining room is an arcade for the kids while the parents benefit from being able to spend some time with each other and their friends. For the sports enthusiasts we have 16 HD TV’s throughout the restaurant.

E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

BOOK REPORT M. John Fayhee, author of 'Colorado Mountain Dogs.' Malibu in the lawn chair on the deck of her human companion, Sue Feldmann, in Frisco.

Book embraces community’s passion for pets and their propensity for the good life

|| by KRISTA DRISCOLL

THE LIFE OF a dog in the High Country, especially one lucky enough to live in Summit County, is one to be envied by other canines across the country and around the world. From skiing and snowshoeing in the winter to hiking, biking and paddling in the summer, our furry friends have it pretty good. So good, in fact, that photos of their exploits have become the inspiration for author M. John Fayhee’s latest book, “Colorado Mountain Dogs.” As a long-time resident of Summit County who helped get the Summit Daily News going in 1989 and then started the Mountain Gazette a decade later, Fayhee is familiar with our community’s passion for its pets and their propensity for the good life. “As I say in the introduction, if you’re a dog and you somehow find yourself living in the Colorado High Country, it doesn’t guarantee you have a good life, but it in-

information for them.” Fayhee said when he was originally collecting the photos for the Mountain Gazette, a book project wasn’t on his mind, so he hadn’t been particularly vigilant about retaining email addresses and phone numbers of the submitters. After culling the out-of-state submissions and ones that were missing contact information, it became more subjective. “Everybody thinks their photo of their dog is the best in the world,” he said. “A lot of them weren’t really good.” By the time he’d fully committed to the project, Fayhee had about 500 photos in his pool, at which point he started working on further cuts, being careful to represent all kinds of dogs from all kinds of locales across the state. “I really wanted to make sure that I got a diverse quantity of photos,” he said. “That appears on several levels: big dogs and small dogs, mutts and huskies and Labs

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creases the odds,” said Fayhee, who has since relocated to New Mexico. “You see a lot of happy dogs chasing sticks at Rainbow Park.” Fayhee said the book allowed him to revisit a time and place in his own life. The author found his mountain canine companion of 13 years, a Summit Daily Pet of the Week, at the Summit County Animal Shelter long ago. “I’m not sure dogs register the concept of beauty, but I think that they do,” he said. “It’s nice to revisit that. My dog in Colorado, we went canoeing on Lake Dillon, snowshoeing up French Gulch. I was living in New Mexico when I worked on (the book), but it was nice to take that stroll down memory lane.”

FINDING THE PHOTOS Fayhee said “Colorado Mountain Dogs” started off as a “project of convenience.” “For five straight years, we did an annual mountain dog

WINTER 2015

issue” in the Mountain Gazette, he said. “We were going to do it one time and it was so popular we did it for five straight years. I found myself in possession of literally 2,500 dog photos.” Graphic Arts Books had published one of Fayhee’s recent books, and the conversation began about the next project. Fayhee said he thought, well, I’ve got all these dog photos, and Colorado dogs are so much a part of the local landscape, so he proposed doing a photo book. “I thought it would be an easy thing to do, whip it out in a few weeks — that’s not how it turned out,” he said. “I started out with 2,500 photos, and first of all, we decided to just do Colorado, not the Rockies or the West or anything like that. One-third of the photos were eliminated because they were from other places besides Colorado, and about one-third were eliminated because I no longer had contact

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: PHOTO BY SUE FELDMAN // SPECIAL TO EXPLORE SUMMIT // PHOTO BY MELISSA SHERBURNE // PHOTO BY CHRIS JOHNSEN

Former local pens ‘Colorado Mountain Dogs’

Bulluck, rescued from the Larimer County Humane Society and resident of Frisco, out on a backpacking and fly-fishing trip in the Lost Creek Wilderness. Human companions are Melissa and Christian Sherburne.

This photo was taken of Lola and human companion Chris Johnsen of Frisco by Damon Pascual.

— we got a lot of Labs; Labs and golden retrievers really dominate the book. I wanted to get a diverse array of dogs, activities — dogs in water, dogs in snow, dogs hiking. I wanted to get geographic diversity, so we have everything from Boulder to Durango, dogs from all over the state. I wanted to get a stylistic mix of photos, portraits, action, scenic, the whole nine yards. “So it wasn’t purely choosing the 160 best photos. I wanted to preemptively navigate this thing so it had a lot of diversity in it.”

ADDING THE WORDS

“Colorado Mountain Dogs” is about 60 percent photos and 40 percent words, Fayhee said, and Summit County is represented more than any other place in the book. Though it’s marketed as a photo book, the text certainly makes the book as much as the photos do, and when it came to providing the stories to accompany the photos, the author found help in a handful of places. “I solicited essays from some of the Mountain Gazette alumni, people who wrote for me for years that I knew were dog people; there’s probably six or seven essays from them,” he said. “I probably wrote five or six things for the book, the introduction, chapters on how

to photograph dogs, how to name dogs, how to train dogs. “When I contacted all of these photographers to get permission to use these photos in the book, I asked them to send cutline information. A lot of them sent ‘this is a photo of Fido hiking,’ but a lot of them wrote these long photo cutlines. The cutlines almost end up being as big a part of the book as the photos themselves. They cover the gamut from who what, when, where, why, all the way to Bob Winsett, a longtime photographer in Frisco. Bob wrote a twopage poem for his girlfriend’s dog. We said what the hell; we ran the whole poem.” Most of the work Fayhee did on the book was logistics, he said, and as much of a pain as it could sometimes be gathering everything together, when you get up in the morning for a month straight and spend your day going through dog photos, “it really doesn’t suck too bad.” The project had an aggregate of highlights, Fayhee said. “There are a lot of people in the world who work the graveyard shift at 7-11,” he said. “When you deal with dogs photos for a month, that’s a pretty sweet gig. The organizational process was a pain, but in the end, it was dealing with people and their dogs — that end of it was really nice.”

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Your Breckenridge or Keystone lift ticket is valid here. Take the FREE Summit Stage to Arapahoe Basin.

FIND WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR

ARAPAHOEBASIN.COM | 888.ARAPAHOE

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E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

10/17/14 7:57 AM

HISTORY

What’s in a name? Trygve Berge is featured on an early Peak 8 Ski Area poster.

Each ski run at Breckenridge Ski Resort has a name and a story all its own

WHEN IT COMES to ski run names at the Breckenridge Ski Resort there’s no meaningless Heartbreak Hill or Whoopee! — more like Briar Rose, Silverthorne, Springmeier and C.J.’s. Breck is somewhat unique among U.S. ski areas in that most of its run names actually mean something and came from somewhere. Many came from local history, many from early ski area characters or events and some from the personal whims of early locals.

Little John (Johnny) Sheron in the early 1970s. Sheron was a high-living, party-loving lifty in the 1960s.

THE ORIGINALS

Bill and Callie Rounds in about 1958. Bill was a principal in Rounds and Porter of Wichita, Kan., and was the main force behind the development of the ski area in 1960-61. Callie was his wife.

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WINTER 2015

Let’s start with some of the original runs, plus their lower run-outs, when the Peak 8 Ski Area (its original name) opened in December 1961. All of these names refer to the early ski area history. Four O’Clock was probably the first run cut through the woods. It ran in its current location from about the present Vista Haus down to Park Avenue. Its name, appropriately enough, derived from the fact that it was the way down to town at closing time, 4 p.m. Springmeier (the correct spelling was actually Springmeyer) was named — for reasons only the forest knows — after a colorful local character of the 194060s: Alva Springmeyer. His origins are shrouded in mystery, except that he came

from Oklahoma and had made quite a bit of money in oil. Springmeyer married Agnes Adams, who owned a millinery shop in the current location of the Skinny Winter gift shop on Main Street. Springmeyer kept his herd of goats in the rear of the building in the winter. The couple lived in the log cabin next to the Gold Pan Saloo. Springmeyer also invested big time in local real estate and probably made a killing when the ski resort developers needed space for ski-related lodging, retail and similar facilities. Maybe that’s why his name graces one of the runs. Rounders and Callie’s Alley were named after the resort’s first developer — Bill Rounds (nicknamed “Rounder”), owner of Rounds and Porter, a Wichita, Kan., lumber, oil and real estate development firm, and his wife, Carolyn (whose nickname was Callie). Callie still lives in the Denver area, while Bill passed away some years ago. And then there is Little Johnny, named for Johnny Sheron, a fiery, party-loving, height-challenged lifty of the mid to late 1960s who lived in Fairplay. Who knows where Little Johnny is today, but his name lives on in the snows of Breckenridge.

FROM THE TOP: BRECKENRIDGE HERITAGE ALLIANCE // SPECIAL TO EXPLORE SUMMIT COURTESY ALDEN SPILLMAN AND ROBIN THEOBALD // COURTESY LAURIE ROUNDS AND BRECKENRIDGE LANDS LLC

by RICK HAGUE

Sigurd Rockne in action in the 1960s. One of the unsung heroes of the earliest days of the Ski Area is Sigurd Rockne. He, along with Trygve Berge, was instrumental in assisting Bill Rounds in the 196061 planning and development of the Breck ski area.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: COURTESY ROCKNE COLLECTION/WENDY WOLFE; SIGURD AND CAROL ROCKNE COLLECTION // SPECIAL TO EXPLORE SUMMIT // SPECIAL TO EXPLORE SUMMIT

PEAK 8 RUNS

Most of Peak 8’s names relate to early ski-area persons. Duke’s, just to the south of Northstar, was originally named Tenderfoot (when cut in the mid-1960s) but was renamed in 1972 after Paul Duke, mountain manager in the mid-1960s. Duke was also a local hero after he rescued two employees, despite being badly burned himself, from the explosion and fire disaster that took place on Jan. 10, 1966, in the main ski-area building and ticket office near the current lift ticket and ski/ ride school sign-up office at the base of Peak 8. On the southern side of Peak 8, besides Southern Cross, we find names such as Frosty’s Freeway and Tiger. Frosty was an actual person — Frosty Cooper — who was an early snowcat driver in the winter and one of the crew that cut new trails in the summer. Alas, Frosty is no longer with us — he passed away a number of years ago in Grand Junction, but his widow lives today in Canon City. And we can’t forget the learning areas on lower Peak 8. Trygve’s is named after Trygve Berge, one of the two original ski school co-directors. Berge and his partner, Sigurd Rockne, were Norwegian Olympic skiers and were instrumental in designing and developing the early ski area. Both are still alive and well in the Breck area. Dyersville was named after the 1880s mining town — located in the woods to the southeast of Breckenridge — founded by local evangelist Father Dyer as his retirement home near the Warriors Mark Mine.

LOCAL FAVORITES

Longtime local CJ “Crazy John” Mueller — a three-time world-record speed skier and participant in the 1992 Winter Olympics demo debut of speed skiing — tells of many backcountry ski outings in the

Sigurd Rockne prepares for a ski run in the 1960s.

C.J. Mueller racing in the 1990s. Long-time local CJ (Crazy John) Mueller was a three-time world-record speed skier and participant in the 1992 Winter Olympics demo debut of speed skiing.

North Bowl and Imperial Bowl areas between and around the peaks that he made with friends in the early to late 1970s. For ease of reference, they came to informally name some of the bowl areas where they skied — our future runs. This was long before the bowls were a part of the ski area, of course. Fellow hiker Wacky Tim Tucker loved extremely steep and narrow runs with rock walls on each side, hence Wacky’s Chute. Wacky Tim was a house painter who removed snow and ice from rooftops during the wintertime. He currently divides his time among Breck, Wisconsin and Chamonix, France. Tough life. CJ, as many readers know, is alive and well and living in Breck; he works as a heavy equipment operator and is very active in the community. Among CJ’s group was a girl named Deb Mason. Having vanished shortly after her mid1970s skiing adventures, Deb

Mason Thorlakson recently re-surfaced. Turns out, Deb went on to cooking school, traveled the world with her husband Thor and enjoyed a career as a professional chef. Now retired, Deb lives in the Methow Valley of Washington state, has two grown children and is still a very active outdoor sportswoman. Debbie’s Alley bears her name to this day. (The group decided that “Debbie’s Ally” sounded better than “Deb’s Ally,” for some reason.) And then there is Art’s Bowle on the north end of the ski area. This was named after Art Bowles, mountain manager between 1977 and 1991. Art now lives in Basalt, and, at 83, is still skiing several days a week at Snowmass (which he used to manage, as well). And did you ever notice that two of Art’s runs are named Tele and Sadie? They were Breck’s original avalanche dogs, who did their time on the slopes

looking for avalanche victims. The group ventured farther out into the bowl and skied what is now called Y-Chute due to its shape. The group originally named the southern-most of the two chutes CJ’s. Meanwhile, Mike Priest, a fellow backcountry skier, had named a chute further to the north My Line. When CJ presented his initial map to the patrol for naming purposes, management had a problem with CJ naming a run after himself. But then the powers-that-be saw My Line and thought that CJ had claimed that run for himself, not realizing that Mike Priest had actually named the chute. So management decided to let CJ have his run and renamed My Line CJ’s. Y-Chutes became Y-Chutes. True story — from the lips of CJ himself. Many thanks to Maureen Nicholls, Robin Brown and CJ Mueller for many of these early oldies but goodies. E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

Avery Jones is an avalanche rescue dog at Copper Mountain Resort. PHOTO BY SCOTT BROCKMEIER

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WINTER 2015

hero DOGS of summit county

HE COLD SLIPPED IN

with the stillness. In the tiny space of the snow cave, silence became solid, weighing me down as frigid tendrils curled up from all sides. Even the light was cold, casting a white and blue glow, filtered down through several feet of snow. My breath came steady only through effort. Curled up on my side, I wiggled my slowly numbing toes, thinking back to just over an hour ago, when I’d been warm and above the snow, sitting at a table at The Outpost, chatting with the Keystone Ski Patrol about the logistics of getting buried as part of an avalanche rescue dog training drill. Ski Patrol is not in the habit of burying people — quite the opposite, in fact. But in order to get personnel (both two-legged and four-legged) certified for rescue operations, as well as keep sharp through training, nothing beats a live body under the snow. So I signed the waiver, hopped on the back of a snowmobile and headed out to my burial site — the Erickson Bowl, which is known to occasionally experience snow slides.

TRAINING TO SAVE LIVES

Avalanche rescue dogs patrol the slopes at every resort, trained in the art of lifesaving by JESSICA SMITH

The Colorado Rapid Avalanche Deployment (CRAD) program certifies dogs and dog handlers used for search and rescue missions. Dogs start training at a young age, and in Summit County, are owned by their handlers, meaning the dogs spend nearly all their time with the same person in both work and play. “By living with the dog and having it be yours, and a dog you work extremely closely with, you develop a bond and you learn to read each other. The dog learns to read your emotions and you learn the dog’s body language,” said John Reller, an avalanche dog handler for Copper Mountain Resort and CRAD coordinator. “The bond is incredibly important in how you and that dog work.” Not just any dog can be an avalanche rescue dog, however. They have to be the right size — no more than around 100 pounds, preferably smaller. Bigger dogs will have trouble going through the snow pack, and handlers need to be able to pick up and carry their dogs in case terrain becomes too treacherous. Trainers also consider personality when picking out a rescue dog, said Reller. “Just like people, dogs have different personalities and you want the right personality dog,” he said. “We want the dog that wants to work, or that has the drive to do something when we give it the command.”

There are several levels of certification, each with an increasingly more difficult testing process. In general, the first level starts out as a timed test of a search in a 100-by-100 foot area. The team has 20 minutes to locate one to three buried people as well as two to four buried articles, such as a backpack or jacket. It can take several years to fully train an avalanche rescue dog, and then re-certification happens every two years. Training occurs even more frequently, with once-a-month practice loading and unloading from Flight for Life helicopters, plus continual training runs. The tests are anything but easy, with the goal of recreating unpredictable real life situations. “We don’t train them into a pattern, so they get used to every drill being: one person buried, it’s going to take me five minutes, and then we’re done,” Reller said. Sometimes, for example, two people will be buried directly on top of each other, or snowmobiles will be placed upwind to give the dog’s nose a challenge. Although the search command is “Are you ready to work?” the dogs don’t think of it as work in the same terms as humans do, said Reller. “To them it’s a fun game. To them going to work is a lot of fun, that’s what they get trained to do and what they get rewarded to do.”

CRITICAL TIME

It was hard to keep track of time under the snow. After the footsteps of the Ski Patroller who had buried me faded away, my world shrunk to the few inches of space in front of my face. A handheld radio and an avalanche beacon, my only links to the outside world, leaned against the snow, silent. In an actual avalanche emergency, time becomes incredibly important, and the clock starts ticking the second the snow stops moving. “Your best bet is companion rescue — everyone having the 52

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right equipment, knowing how to use it and being there with the right people,” said Reller. After an avalanche, a call usually goes in to 911. The sheriff’s office is then notified and requests Search and Rescue and Avalanche Deployment, consisting of avalanche technicians as well as CRAD dogs and handlers. In 1992, Flight for Life teamed up with the sheriff’s department, Ski Patrol and Search and Rescue to create the Rapid Avalanche Deployment team (RAD). The collaboration allows for the swiftest response to an emergency, pairing Flight for Life helicopters with an avalanche rescue team consisting of one dog, one handler and one avalanche technician. In an emergency situation, the nearest available helicopter is sent to pick up the nearest available RAD team and fly them to the site of the accident. Under the snow, my ears picked up a dull chopping sound as the helicopter flew overhead, seeking a safe place to land. After a few minutes, the sound faded away. Later, I learned that conditions were too difficult for the helicopter to land on-site. The team had to land further away and take snowmobiles in to the site before beginning the search. According to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, about nine out of 10 people survive burial after 15 minutes. Once the time hits 30 minutes, however, only 50 percent of people are likely to survive.

MIRACLE NOSE

A dog’s nose is at least 1,000 times stronger than a human’s, and some scientists argue the number is much higher. The reason is that dogs have around 300 million smell receptors, compared to a mere five million for humans, according to Vanessa Koehler, a veterinarian at the Frisco Animal Hospital. She’s sure a dog’s nose is around 10,000 times more sensitive than a human’s. To illustrate what this

WINTER 2015

Copper, an avalanche rescue dog, assists a Copper Mountain Ski Patroller during a training drill.

actually means, she offered this comparison: “You and I can smell a teaspoon of sugar in a cup of coffee, whereas a dog can smell a teaspoon of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools.” If sense of smell translated to sight: “What you would see at a third of a mile clearly, a dog would see that exact same thing 3,000 miles away, just as clearly,” she said. This incredible sense of smell is what makes dogs so crucial to the avalanche rescue process. When a person is buried under the snow, their scent eventually makes its way to the surface, where the dogs are able to

pick it up and indicate to their handlers. “The dogs are able to distinguish between the scents on the surface and the scent of the person underneath the snow,” said Patti Burnett, who worked as a ski patroller at Copper for more than 20 years. The dogs work through the scents of their handlers, the other rescuers, plus any nearby machines like snowmobiles and helicopters, to find the buried people. “The dogs are so smart that they’re able to figure out the difference and hone in on the scent that they need to find,” Burnett said. A faint scratching sound

Left to right - Ruby, Mia, Kioni, Rio and Tane have all been avalanche rescue dogs at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.

PHOTOS BY SCOTT BROCKMEIER // TOP RIGHT PHOTO, COURTESY OF BRIAN YORK

INCREDIBLE IMAGES Every year, photographer Scott Brockmeier puts out an avalanche rescue dog calendar, featuring his best shots of Summit’s canine heroes. Calendars, notecards and individual photographs, can be purchased on Brockmeier’s website: www.scott-images.com. A large portion of the calendar and notecard proceeds are donated to CRAD for further dog training.

started above my head. It increased in intensity as small showers of snow sifted down. A few seconds later, I saw what must be one of the most beautiful sights in the world to someone trapped in an avalanche — a delicate snout poking down, snuffling through snow-packed whiskers. I had been found by Loki, a cattle dog/lab/pit mix, and her handler, Breckenridge Ski Patroller Bob Northnagle. Loki wiggled with excitement on hearing my voice. As volunteers took over digging me out, she bounded back out over the snow, in search of other potential victims, quickly pouncing on the scent of the

second buried volunteer. “I was super pleased with how she did,” said Northnagle after the exercise. “She did great.”

READY IN TIME OF NEED

“I describe it as one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed,” said Scott Brockmeier, who has spent the last several years photographing Summit County’s avalanche dogs in action. “It’s amazing to watch them.” When people are considering potentially dangerous backcountry activities, Burnett advises them to think of others. “When a person gets buried

in an avalanche, it’s not just them at risk, it’s suddenly a lot of other people putting their lives at risk to try and get that person out alive,” she said. “That’s the whole reason we do skier safety and avalanche education. You want people to have fun in the backcountry, but you want them to do it with the right equipment, the right knowledge and the right experience so they’re not placing other people at risk.” The risk of avalanche rescue is one that Burnett knows well from both the human and canine side. She spent 23 years as a ski patroller at Copper Mountain Resort, and

Copper Ski Patroller John Reller hugs his avalanche safety dog, Recco, during a training exercise.

owned Summit County’s first ever avalanche rescue dog — a golden retriever named Hasty.

JOINING THE GUYS AT COPPER

A transplant from New York, Burnett moved to Colorado in 1978, and fulltime to the mountains a year later. In 1980, she joined the Ski Patrol at Copper, where she was one of only two women. “It was not a totally acceptable thing to the guys, especially when I got promoted as a foreman and a supervisor, but you know eventually, I think that the E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

guys, and probably the rest of the ski area and the public, got to accept the fact that a woman helps round out the ski patrol,” she said. Her experience growing up around four brothers helped her fit in with the mostly male ski patrol. There were the occasional pranks — taking off a boot and coming back to find it filled up with snow — but Burnett said, “Overall, most of what was done was good-natured, but every now and then you could tell that there was a bit of resentment there. I feel I was well received, and maybe it was because I grew up in a family with four boys and just was always used to being around boys and because my dad was pretty demanding. I was tough back then. Not so tough anymore,” she said with a laugh, “but I was tough back then.”

Keystone Ski Patrol member Addie Smith and Flash.

TRAINING HASTY

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to his working adult days, filled with successful finds. Burnett had two other working rescue dogs after Hasty — Sandy and Magic — and each of Summit County’s ski resorts now has avalanche rescue dog teams on hand. Some time after Hasty’s death, Burnett wrote a book on avalanche dog training, titled “Avalanche! Hasty Search: The Care and Training of Avalanche Search and Rescue Dogs.” “I realized that there were no books specifically dedicated to avalanche dogs,” said Burnett, who would often get requests to share her knowledge at schools and ski areas. “There were books about various other areas of Search and Rescue, but nothing that was just avalanche dogs and I thought, ‘Hmm, maybe we should have a book about it,’ so I just started writing.” Burnett’s book is a mix of practical dog-training advice (puppy selection, dog health, certification) and

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Recco, a Copper Mountain avalanche rescue dog, digs during a training run.

anecdotes of her career with Hasty, Sandy and Magic. One of the most important things she learned, Burnett said, was this: “You have to believe in the dog. You need to believe in all the training that you put into them, that all of that has brought you to a point where you can trust this dog. He’s got the nose — you don’t.”

IN MEMORY

Burnett has many memories — of search and rescue, ski patrol, Copper and Summit County — to look back on. Retired from her Copper job, Burnett works at a local chiropractor’s office. Magic, now gray-muzzled, often accompanies her. “He’s a service dog there, too,” she said. “People will come in

there and be sad or in pain and (when he approaches them) you can see them light up. Their whole countenance changes.” People will even lie down on the floor next to him, she said. “He’s definitely turned things around for them. He’s still helping people now, even retired.” Anyone can go visit Hasty in Dillon. He’s always there, right next to the tennis courts, atop a boulder, looking vigilantly outward, a statue, forever held in noble pose. In Summit County, Hasty is a canine celebrity. Since him, many patrollers have followed their dogs’ noses to seek the lost and help those in need. “To me, it’s amazing what they can do,” said Reller. “They’re a heck of an asset and a wonderful tool, definitely, to save a life.”

PHOTO COURTESY KEYSTONE RESORT // ABOVE: COURTESY SCOTT BROCKMEIER

Three years later, in December of 1983, a fellow ski patroller, Mickey Johnston, was buried and killed in an avalanche at Copper. That event was the catalyst in the decision for Copper Mountain to get its own avalanche rescue dog, for the sake of the patrollers and the safety of the public, Burnett said. Burnett traveled to outof-state ski areas and visited other Search and Rescue groups with dog training programs to learn all she could. Then, in the spring of 1986, she picked out a male golden retriever puppy. This was Hasty, named for the first crew that gets sent into the field in a rescue. Hasty was Summit County’s first rescue dog. Over his unusually long 12-year career, he went on more than 100 missions. He was certified in water, avalanche and wilderness airscent through the Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado organization. Burnett has many stories of Hasty, from his rambunctious puppy days (he once unexpectedly rode the Sierra chairlift by himself, with a nervous Burnett one chair behind)

HERO-IN-TRAINING Mason, the golden retriever puppy, is Copper Mountain Resort’s newest avalanche rescue team member Born in a kennel in Phoenix, Arizona, Mason the little golden retriever pup had never seen grass, let alone snow, until he traveled to Colorado with his new owner Chris Gray, a ski patroller for Copper Mountain Resort. As the 2014/15 ski season gets underway, Mason is training for his future. Gray took a few minutes out of his day to answer some questions about what it’s like to raise an avalanche rescue dog. HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED AT COPPER? I am a professional alpine ski patroller. I am a senior route leader, and this will be my sixth year, sixth season at Copper, coming up. I’m from Boulder, born and raised, and went to CU in Boulder, and then moved up here about 8-10 years ago. … It’s awesome. I love being outdoors. And it’s active, it’s physical, and I love skiing, I love helping people, and I love snow, I’ve always been obsessed with snow since an early age.

COURTESY COPPER MOUNTAIN RESORT

“

TO THEM IT’S A FUN GAME. TO THEM GOING TO WORK IS A LOT OF FUN, THAT’S WHAT THEY GET TRAINED TO DO AND WHAT THEY GET REWARDED TO DO.” – JOHN RELLER

HAVE YOU TRAINED AN AVALANCHE RESCUE DOG BEFORE? I have not done the training from puppy up to a certified dog, but I did handle an already certified trained dog for the last 18 months before I got my puppy. That trained dog was teaching me, so to speak, what to do, what not to do, how to act, how to react, how to be comfortable. I’ve had dogs that are family pets my whole life, so I’ve had a dog, but never had a working dog. WHAT DOES MASON’S TRAINING CONSIST OF? It’s all about familiarizing and getting him comfortable. Repetition is the name of the game, you have to do something 20-30 times before the dog is really comfortable with it, and unaffected by some minor change in the situation. The more you can get him comfortable with it, the better he will be. I’ll be trying to bring him and work him and have him be comfortable and familiar with patrol life. … It’s all about socialization. It’s what we’ve been doing all summer, it’s obedience, learning

to be a good dog, to play well, to meet other dogs nicely, to play nicely and be well behaved. … It seems simple and basic, but that’s the most important foundation. For the avalanche search dog, it’s basically a glorified game of hide and seek. We start with that real basic (training) — I’ll go run into another room with his favorite toy while someone else holds him, he gets a command to come get me, and he has to come find me. It’s go to a target and see what you can find, then you add complexities to that: make it a different person, go up to the second floor, hide the person under a blanket. As the dog keeps succeeding, you keep adding to that. …. For the dog, it’s an awesome game. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT WORKING WITH MASON/ ANY AVALANCHE RESCUE DOG? It’s the satisfaction you get seeing that dog succeed and be happy and kind of, you’re almost on the same level, you’re almost on the same page of, hey this is our task, let’s go accomplish it and when we’re done we get to have a party. So it’s really cool seeing that dog succeed and be happy. You can see it in their face and their body character and their reactions to things. They know they’re doing a good job. … I want him to think snow is the best thing to be in and play in and have fun in and it’s a good thing. … I want to transfer my passion into what he’s got a passion for too. Hey we love being outside, we love getting up and going to work, we love playing in the snow, this is the greatest thing ever. E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

PROFILES

The Mountain of Youth by JASMINE LISTOU BIBLE

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SUBBERWAL

ZABEL PARROTT “Hugs and high-fives” is the sign-off for his blog, The Adventures of Zabel, on the Keystone Resort website. This is the kind of adorable awesomeness that Zabel Parrott has been exuding for the entirety of his 5 years on the planet. Born in Fort Collins, this Colorado native has been cruising down the mountains on a snowboard since he was 20 months old. The youngest son to outdoor enthusiast parents Todd and Jill Parrott, he’s been a Summit County local for the last four years. Being born into a family of snowboarders, a love for the mountains is in his blood. His older brothers and sisters, all more than 20 years older than Zabel, have actively encouraged his love of the sport. When I ask who’s the fastest boarder in the family, it’s no contest — older brother Kyser holds that title. Zabel looks up to his older siblings and loves being on the mountain with them — almost as much as he loves macaroni and cheese in the lodge at lunchtime. Learning to jump on his board is also pretty fun, and you’ll most often find him on his favorite run at Keystone, Jackwhacker. Hiking at Safire Point is a favorite summertime activity, along with swimming and skateboarding. Keep an eye out for this little shredder as he ushers in a new generation of cool.

To call the future bright for 17-year-old Kaeli Subberwal would be an absurdly dim understatement. This Summit High School student has been receiving accolades for her academic achievements throughout her high school career. As a 10th grader, she was recognized by the Board of Education for achieving the highest score on the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) test for reading. Now a senior, she recently earned the highest possible scores on the reading, writing and math sections of the SAT, and was named a semifinalist for the 2015 National Merit Scholarship program. She’s currently applying to Ivy League universities where she plans on studying physics. Kaeli’s interests reach beyond academics though; this wellrounded teen embraces the mountain lifestyle. Winter is her favorite season, where you’ll often find her skiing at A-Basin. She’s hiked three 14ers: Quandary Peak, Grays Peak and Torreys Peak. She loves traveling and visits her grandparents in India at least once a year. She’s been studying piano for 11 years, has performed with the Summit Community Orchestra and was recently featured in a senior piano recital at the Colorado Mountain College. While she may not reside here for much longer, she’ll always have her mountain gal roots.

PHOTOS COURTESY PARROTT AND SUBBERWAL FAMILIES

THE AIR IS thinner, the sun is brighter and the adventures are epic. In Summit County, our simple existence is an elevated experience. So what’s the secret? What makes our locals survive and thrive? I sat down to chat with six Summit residents who inherently know that the mountains are more than something you gaze upon. They’re a thread in the cloth that weaves us together. We ski them, hike them, summit them and flatter ourselves that we have conquered them. They keep us young, vibrant and active. These locals span multiple generations that are all finding their own ways to climb the mountain of youth.

KAELI

BILL LINFIELD

PHOTO COURTESY ANITA OVERMYER // PHOTOS BY JESSICA SMITH

ANITA OVERMYER The Rocky Mountains were calling and Anita Overmyer answered. Originally from Elmore, Ohio, she traveled the country seeking the perfect place to settle down. She recalls the lure of Summit County, something about the ski town felt like home. Now serving as the development and volunteer director for the Family & Intercultural Resource Center (FIRC) in Silverthorne, Anita appreciates the beauty of Summit County and the beauty of the people who reside here. She loves the connection to nature she feels when ripping down the hill at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area. Anything off the Pali chair gets her adrenaline going, and nothing beats the feeling of a big powder day for this avid skier. Though winter is her favorite season, she finds each season fantastic in its own way. In the summer, Chihuahua Gulch is her hike of choice. When I ask if she’ll stay forever, there’s no hesitation — a resounding YES.

If you don’t know his name, you’ll probably know his images. Bill Linfield is a local photographer extraordinaire who’s been documenting the sights of Summit County for decades. With his camera in hand, he explores the landscape in search of the perfect shot. Bill’s appreciation for the splendor of the mountains began in Boulder, where he grew up alongside nine brothers and sisters. An industrious brood, the family built a cabin in Mesa Cortina near Silverthorne, where Bill lived after graduating from Colorado State in 1976. With a degree in civil engineering, he worked for a local engineering firm, then went on to become the Public Works Director for the Town of Silverthorne. Nearly 40 years later, he still enjoys the magic that the mountains offer. He’s completed the Pikes Peak Marathon 18 years in a row, convincing wife Sherry to join him for the last 11 years. The couple recently celebrated their 36th anniversary, and are the quintessential mountain family. They ski, snowshoe, trail run and hike. The Gore Range is among their favorite hiking spots, with Elliot Ridge, Willow Lakes and Lower Cataract Lake at the top of their list. Summer and fall are Bill’s favorite seasons, not only for the activities, but for the chances at capturing the perfect wildlife image. Recently selected as a Tubbs Snowshoe Ambassador, Bill continues to climb his mountain of youth.

DORIS SPENCER and KENT WILLOUGHBY Shortly after turning 50, Doris Spencer entered the lodge at Keystone, eager to find the Over the Hill Gang, a weekly ski club open to those over the age of 50. Instead she found Kent Willoughby, a helpful and charming Keystone greeter who lent her his eyeglasses, and eventually his heart. Doris giggles as she retells the story that started their romance 18 years ago. Since taking that first ski run together, Doris, now 68, and Kent, now 77, have become an incredibly inspiring dual-sport power couple. Though their records are staggering, averaging 120 ski days per season and having climbed over 400 mountains worldwide, calling them a power couple sounds a bit harsh after hearing their sweet chuckles and the gentle way that Kent speaks of Doris. Their love for each other, and the mountains, is palpable. In the winter they wake at 4:30 a.m., pack their skis, two thermoses of coffee and hit the road. They swing by City Market to grab the paper and arrive at the Arapahoe Basin parking lot by 6 a.m. Packs on, headlamps glowing, they begin the cardiovascular feat of skinning up the mountain. Less than an hour later they’ve arrived at Snow Plume Refuge, the Ski Patrol Headquarters and warming hut located 1,800 feet above the base area. They enjoy their coffee, read the paper, and alpine ski back down to the parking lot before most people have crawled out of bed. This dedication and routine is what keeps them happy, healthy and ready for their second mountain centric love — hiking. In the summer you’ll find the pair traveling to various corners of the earth, bagging peaks along the way. Doris introduced Kent to the sport, having developed an affinity for the thin air while living at the base of Quandary Peak in Breckenridge. She’s climbed the 14,265-foot peak an astonishing 177 times. Together the pair has conquered all of Colorado’s 14ers, the centennials and nearly all the bicentennials. They’re currently marking Utah’s peaks off their list. Pretty impressive for a couple flatlanders — Doris is originally from the Washington, D.C. area, and Kent from Virginia. Regardless of the sport or season, they’ve found their mountain of youth in Summit County and have no plans of leaving anytime soon. The only plan they’re mapping out is which mountain to conquer next. E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

MOUNTAIN HOME

Summit’s architectural past Historical cabins give a glimpse into High Country housing before modern conveniences || by JESSICA SMITH

Interior of the Myers Cabin.

LONG BEFORE THE days of electric fireplaces and radiant floor heating, people still eked a living out of places like Summit County. During the winters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the main focus wasn’t exactly “comfort” or “convenience” so much as “survival.” Early residents of the area had to get creative with their methods and materials to make sure that the harsh climate didn’t get the better of them. Thanks to efforts by the local Summit Historical Society, examples of cabins and homes during those times are still around today, and can be toured to give people an understanding of what it took to live in the High Country years ago.

THE HONEYMOON CABIN

The name for this Depression-era cabin comes not because it’s a desirable place 58

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WINTER 2015

for a newly wed couple to stay — it isn’t — but from the story surrounding its origins. The cabin was built in the 1930s by a lumberjack whose name has faded into obscurity over the years. His motivation for building was supposedly his fiancée, who stated she would not marry him until he provided a house for them to live in. This lumberjack was not a rich man, so it’s believed that the majority of the materials he used to make the cabin were obtained illegally. He didn’t own the land he built it on either, and is reported to have tapped into the wires running power to lamps in the mines for his own electricity. The cabin’s roof and four walls must have been enough for the fiancée, however, because they moved in and lived there for at least a year. And that’s all it is — a roof and four walls. The cabin is

PHOTOS BY JESSICA SMITH

Interior of the Honeymoon Cabin

a single room 12 by 12.5 feet. It’s made out of lodgepole pine logs, with smaller aspen logs in the gaps on the outside and alder logs on the inside. The even smaller gaps and chinks were filled in with mud, clay and bits of old cloth. A wood stove heated the room, which featured a single bed, a braided cloth rug and probably a few other furniture items like a dresser or small table. A chamber pot in the corner shielded by a folding screen served as the bathroom. The couple’s only luxury, it seems, was an old Victrola, which they relied on for entertainment. The Honeymoon Cabin was moved from its original position in Keystone, at the base of the resort where the gondola is now, to Dillon, behind the old Dillon Schoolhouse museum. Tours are available (call 970-468-2207).

THE MYERS CABIN

Though just a few yards away, the Myers Cabin represents a definite step up from the tiny Honeymoon Cabin. Two stories tall and 16 by 24 feet in size, the Myers Cabin represents what a couple of comfortable means could afford in Summit County in the late 19th century. Charles Delker, a Dutchman who had some business with the local mines, built the cabin in 1885. He got the land through the Federal Homestead Act, which allowed a person to eventually own 160 acres of land so long as the head of the household built a live-in structure within five years of receiving the claim, and 50 acres of it were improved in some way (such as developing them for agriculture). The family was required to occupy the land within six months of building and couldn’t leave for more than six months out of the year, to receive the claim. The Delkers sold the cabin to the local Myers family in 1920. Lula Myers lived in the cabin from 1924 until 1966. “She was quite a hardy woman,” said Polly Koch, a docent with the Summit Historical

Society, board member and who occasionally gives tours of the two cabins. Originally from an area near Castle Rock, Lula Myers, née Orsburn, moved to Summit County to be the Frisco schoolteacher. Her time there was not without controversy — upon returning from a trip home over Christmas, she discovered, much to her surprise, that she had been fired. Apparently, though it was common in those days for women teachers to remain unmarried, Lula had been courting Jim “Dimp” Myers (her future husband). This did not please the all-male school board members, one of which may have fancied her himself. Somehow, Lula cleared up the controversy and returned to teaching. The Myers cabin features a front sitting room, which leads into the kitchen/dining area. In the ceiling of the kitchen is a window with a dual purpose — to let in light, and to serve as a sort of “escape route” for when the snow piled up too high against the front door, Koch said. To the left of the front room, a narrow, rickety staircase leads to the second floor, a small loft area just big enough to house a bed and chest of drawers. This was the sleeping area for the adults and youngest children of the household. Lula Myers remained in the house into her 80s, before moving to Denver to live with her daughter. “It was quite fancy for its time,” Koch said. Just like the Honeymoon Cabin, the Myers Cabin was moved from its original site in Keystone and now sits behind the Dillon Schoolhouse, where it can be viewed through tours with the Summit Historical Society. The importance of preserving buildings like these cabins “is to show how people lived in the past and how, in a short period of time, society has advanced so much,” Koch said. “I think it’s important to teach that history.”

121 S. Ridge Street • Breckenridge For Tickets, call 970.453.0199 www.backstagetheatre.org

5 OFF $

ADMITTANCE

FOR ONE ADULT INTO ONE OF OUR 41ST

SEASON’S SHOWS Must present coupon at time of ticket purchase. One time discount.

DOG PARK: THE MUSICAL November 25 January 3, 2015

THE HOUND OF BASKERVILLES March 12 - April 4, 2015

CURVES AHEAD January 9 - 25, 2015

THE LION, THE WITCH and THE WARDROBE: TBD, 2015

THE ROADHOUSE February 6 - March 1, 2015

RUDYARD KIPLING’S, THE JUNGLE BOOK at Riverwalk Center, September 3 - 12, 2015

E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

COMMUNIT Y

What was old is new again Workers gather outside the schoolhouse building in 1908 during construction

THE BRECKENRIDGE GRAND Vacations Community Center and South Branch Library renovation project, a collaborative effort between the town of Breckenridge and Summit County, is completely transforming a century-old building on Harris Street in Breckenridge, creating a new gathering space for the Summit County community. The original brick schoolhouse structure was built in 1909, with an addition at the rear of the building added in 1921, including an auditorium, gymnasium and an indoor swimming pool. Since then, the building has been home to Breckenridge Town Hall and Colorado Mountain College, accumulating various layers of history as part of the town’s National Historic District.

COMBINING PAST, PRESENT

It’s not always simple to seamlessly meld the past and the present, but that is the goal with the community center renovation. Due to be completed in early December, the architectural firm in charge of the new design, Anderson Hallas Architects, PC, describes the project as “a state-of-the-art 60

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WINTER 2015

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SUMMIT HISTORICAL SOCIETY ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING COURTESY ANDERSON HALLAS ARCHITECTS, PC

Community center in Breckenridge will combine architectural history with modern-day conveniences || by KRISTA DRISCOLL

A rendering of the schoolhouse building

E G D I R N E K C BRE TOURS MUSEUMS &

ance

t. Main St.

)(3) nation ons are

FRENCH GULCH GOLD MINE AND DREDGE SNOWSHOE TOUR Join one of our experienced guides for a snowshoe tour in French Gulch, the location of dozens of early mining operations. Reservations required by 8 pm on Friday. Allow 2.5 hours to complete the tour. Saturday, 10am

REDUCING CARBON FOOTPRINT

Reusing the existing schoolhouse building, rather than creating a new structure from scratch, not only celebrates a vital piece of the community’s history, but also eliminates the need to manufacture and haul new materials to the site. This allowed the project to reduce its environmental impact from the start. “The greenest building is one that’s already been built, and this project in particular already speaks to that in many ways,” said Liz Hallas, of Anderson Hallas, principal in charge of the project. “The fact that the building is being reused is reducing the carbon footprint of demolishing a resource and building from the ground up.” Graham Johnson, assistant project manager for Spectrum General Contractors and project engineer for the Harris Street renovation, said gutting the building and removing interior walls opened it up and brought back some of its original efficiencies. “It’s pretty typical of a lot of historic buildings — ones that were built before air conditioning had been invented or anything like that — they were

tour. inquire about a private fit your needs, please If our schedule doesn’t

enhance them for modern needs. From reusing materials to tearing out walls and floors to improve airflow, the architects and contractors have slowly brought the building back to its former glory. The finished community center will have three levels. The lower level is home to the new Speakeasy Theater and includes an addition housing the theater’s concessions, restrooms and a new entrance. The majority of the remaining space on the lower level is consumed by a general-purpose room, which can be used for events and receptions and has its own set of restrooms, a catering kitchen and a coffee shop. On the main level of the building is the Summit County Libraries’ South Branch Library, with book stacks in the large, open portion of the room that used to be home to the gymnasium, plus study rooms around the edges and access to the mezzanine level. The mezzanine is divided into office spaces for The Summit

IOWA HILL GOLD MINER’S SNOWSHOE TOUR Mining relics and interpretive signs tell the story of Iowa Hill and how gold was extracted from the surrounding hills. Allow 90 minutes to complete the tour. Reservations required by 8pm Sunday. Monday, 10 am

Foundation, the Breckenridge Heritage Alliance and the Breckenridge Film Festival, as well as a few nooks and crannies for small lounge areas and causal meeting places.

TOURS THIS WEEK

ote blending and of historic preservation and sustainability.” Once thought ough a to be mutually exclusive, these two philosophies are actually quite complimentary, the firm said. rograms The building was originally designed to utilize assets such as daylight for lighting and courages natural ventilation and to minimize energy consumption. The projectlife aims to reclaim what these historic techniques and

BARNEY FORD VICTORIAN HOUSE TOUR Home of escaped slave turned prominent Breckenridge businessman, and black civil rights leader. Tuesday – Sunday, 11 am – 3 pm

HISTORIC WALKING TOUR Take a tour through Breckenridge’s Nationally Recognized Historic District. Along the way hear stories of the gold seekers, rough individuals, and other hardy souls who lived in Breckenridge over 100 years ago. Allow 90 minutes to complete the tour. Wednesday – Sunday, 11 am & 1:30 pm BEHIND SWINGING DOORS SALOON TOUR Taste the spirits of the Breckenridge Distillery and learn about the historic saloons of Breckenridge. Tour includes Distillery tasting when available. Reservations required, space is limited. Friday, 5 pm (reserve by 4 pm) BRECKENRIDGE HAUNTED TOUR The eerie, the unexplained and the creepy will be experienced as you stroll the historic streets of town. Upon entering the homes of Breckenridge’s former citizens, you’ll wonder…was it a draft or did you just meet Mrs. Briggle? Reservations required by 5pm, space is limited. Saturday, 7:30pm. SUMMIT SKI EXHIBIT Celebrating the first ski town in Colorado and the first 100 years of skiing in Summit County. The Summit Ski Museum is a colorful look into the history of skiing in Summit County. Watch a ski documentary, see vintage skis, and read about sitting at its root. The museum features time period clothing, equipment, and a special exhibit about the 10th Mountain Division. 11am-3pm Tuesday-Sunday.

For more information or to make a reservation, call 970-453-9767 x2 Tickets may be purchased online at

BreckHeritage.com E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

The original brick schoolhouse structure on Harris Street was built in 1909, with an addition at the rear of the building added in 1921, including an auditorium, gymnasium and an indoor swimming pool.

Many of the original railings in the 1909 section of the building are being refinished.

(It's) a state-of-the-art blending of historic preservation and sustainability.”

Wood framing material was pulled out and reused for temporary shoring, scaffoldinglike structural support that allowed the crews to do work in different areas of the building.

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said. “For a long time, there’s been a really big push for not having operable windows, to control temperatures in a sealed environment. Those windows were sealed shut or closed shut, and you have a mechanical system to make up for what you’ve taken away from the original building.” With the new design, the windows are operable again to allow for ventilation, and the removal of the drop ceilings and the second floor over the main library area provides more airflow. “You’ll get back the historic volume, an accurate historic representation of the space, but it’s also practical and

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functional for helping keep it comfortable,” Johnson said. “It’s a very common thing when renovating this kind of building where changes made 20, 30, 40 years ago hurt the original design.”

HOLDING ON TO HISTORY

After the initial abatement to remove hazardous materials such as asbestos in the drywall, other elements of the existing structure were evaluated to see where materials could be reused or recycled. Where possible, areas of stone walls at the lower level that were in good condition were exposed, which helped contribute to the character of the building,

as well as reducing the drywall, paint and trim materials needed, the architects said. Additional materials were also retained to add to the historic look and feel of the new community center, including a tin ceiling from one of the old classrooms, flooring from the original school built in 1909 and elements from the theater. Most of what the architects intended and planned has been pursued, said Liz Hallas, of Anderson Hallas Architects, PC, principal in charge of the project. “The tin ceiling, that work is starting to proceed,” she said. “We’re putting that back into what will be the Breckenridge Heritage Alliance space.”

TOP PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE BRECKENRIDGE HERITAGE ALLIANCE OTHER PHOTOS BY KRISTA DRISCOLL

built with features to keep the buildings comfortable,” he said. “Operable windows, natural ventilation, high ceilings that allow for natural air flow through the building — those are all characteristics of older buildings.” Over the years, as the building went through its many iterations, it was easier to add drop ceilings to run new wiring and piping, rather than running it through the walls, and the structure lost many of the features that made it efficient. “In doing that, you lower the original ceiling and you lost some of that height that allows for good air flow,” Johnson

- Anderson Hallas Architects, PC

local theater for reuse, and old theater chairs were shared with interested parties for reuse in a variety of places,” Johnson said.

REFINISHING FLOORING

The tin squares formed the ceiling of the northeast classroom in the 1909 section of the building and are some of the only intact, historical ceiling materials that could be saved. “We asked Spectrum to carefully remove, salvage and inventory it,” Hallas said. “Due to the acoustical properties, we’ll put it back in the second floor, a different classroom. The story can be told a little more easily in that space. The Breckenridge Heritage Alliance can point to it as a salvaged item. “It’s currently getting cleaned up and will be repainted and reinstalled in that area. We’re using creative strategies to retain as much as possible. There’s a little bit of a soffit at the perimeter, a smaller footprint that will be installed, because there were some pieces that weren’t able to be salvaged.” The historic windows, which were in fairly good shape for this climate, are being restored for reuse with all new weather stripping for energy efficiency, the architects said, and several of the Speakeasy murals were salvaged for reuse in the new theater, as well as other bits and pieces, said Graham Johnson, assistant project manager for Spectrum General Contractors and project engineer for the Harris Street renovation. “The old stage curtain rigging was shared with a

Part of the gym floor will stay right where it is in the teen area on the north side of the main library room by the main elevator, Johnson said. “It will be repaired and refinished,” he said. “It was pulled up and salvaged, reinstalled as a border all the way around the main room of the library; it’ll be going back in its original place as a border with carpet in the middle so foot traffic is quiet. Upstairs in the fireplace nook, we’re using a small section of the floor up there to differentiate that space.” All the carpets and steel are made of recycled-content materials, and the sheet flooring is also a sustainable material, the architects said. Hallas said adding the gym flooring to the fireplace area is a recent update to the building plan. “We’re going to be able to reuse some of the existing maple floor up there to highlight that as a special zone within the building,” she said. “It’s a new opportunity to use some of the existing materials that were salvaged.” Other flooring will also be reused, such as the Douglas fir from the second floor of the original 1909 school building, which will be refinished and reinstalled in the nonprofit offices and the flex space conference room. The maple dance floor that people remember from the Colorado Mountain College dance studio has also found a new home. “It’s in the Robert Whyte House in the Arts District project,” Johnson said. “We have some extra maple floor from the gym that will be leftover, also. Not sure if there are plans for it, but we’re certainly not going to get rid of it.”

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$500,000 donation is presented for the restoration and naming rights of the Breckenridge Grand Vacations Community Center

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E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

B R E C K E N R I D G E C E L E B R AT E S 2 5 Y E A R S O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L S N O W S C U L PT U R E CO M P E T I T I O N BY JESSICA SMITH and KRISTA DRISCOLL

SPECIAL TO EXPLORE SUMMIT

F s e r u t p l Scu in snow

irst come the giant blocks of snow. When the 12-foottall, 20-ton giants appear in Breckenridge’s Riverwalk Center parking lot, they look like a strange, icy Stonehenge. Then the snow carvers arrive with their tools and get to work. Over the next five days, the blocks transform, growing appendages, caverns, textures, developing depth. The teams work through the night, squinting in the harsh strung-up electric lights, racing to make the deadline by morning of the fifth day. This is the Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships, a competition with global pull that takes place each winter in Breckenridge. This year, the event celebrates an important anniversary — 25 years of artistic creation, fierce competition and international acclaim.

“We flipped a coin to decide if we’d do a snow sculpture, which we’d never done before, or do a float for the Ullr Parade. It came up heads, so we did a snow sculpture.” Neyland and his team from Breckenridge Associates Real Estate continued to compete in the small, local competi-

nationals?’ That, then and there, was when we were set on the course of: We need to elevate this art form for Breckenridge to make Breckenridge become known for this art form.” Bringing an international-level snow sculpture competition to Breckenridge was no small task. In order to

SPECIAL TO EXPLORE SUMMIT

ROB NEYLAND, AKA CARVIN’ MARVIN

Every year, sometime in mid-winter, Rob Neyland’s mind is taken over by his alter ego, his evil twin, Carvin’ Marvin — Marvin calls the shots, and Marvin is smitten with whittling away at piles of white gold. “Oh my god, he is totally focused and pushes aside and makes a complete mess of the rest of my life because he figures the snow sculpture is the most important, so I have to stuff him kicking and screaming back into the closet after each competition,” Neyland said. Neyland has been feeding Marvin’s obsession with sculpting snow in Breckenridge since 1980, when the championships were still a no-name event, a sidebar to the town’s annual Ullr Fest. “The whole thing came from a coin toss from Ullr Fest in 1980,” Neyland said.

Team Breck stands atop its block of snow before carving it for the international snow sculpture championships in Breckenridge. The teams handcarve enormous works of art from a 12-foot-tall, 20-ton block of machine-made Colorado snow.

tion, winning back-to-back awards with different pieces. “We won quite a few years in a row,” he said. “Then one day in 1985, a gentleman came along while we were working on our piece out in front of what is now Ember and he said, ‘Hey, you guys are pretty good. Have you ever thought about going to the nationals?’ And we said, ‘Holy crap — there are

drum up support, Neyland and his team — dubbed Team Breck — spent four or five years establishing Breckenridge as a name associated with world-class snow sculpting. The piece Team Breck constructed in 1987 for the newly sanctioned Colorado State Championships was titled “Earthlings” and depicted a woman swimming with a

dolphin. A similar piece was constructed in 1988 at the U.S. National Championships, but with temperatures in Milwaukee hovering around freezing, the snow collapsed 20 minutes before the judging deadline. “That was a crushing blow, I have to say, because we were in a dead-on lock to win the nationals with that piece,” Neyland said. “We dragged our sorry butts on back to Breckenridge and said next year we’re going to go back.” The following year, in 1989, Team Breck again won the Colorado event and returned to nationals with a new sculpture concept titled “The Frozen Moment,” featuring a watch with exposed gears. The piece won a gold medal and the artists’ choice award, sending the local sculptors to the Carnaval de Québec, one of the largest and oldest snow art festivals in the world. Word of the team from the little town in the Colorado Rockies spread, bolstered in the following years by gold-medal wins at the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan and the world championships in Finland and a silver medal at the world championships in Moscow. “All the while, we’re wearing Breckenridge from head to toe and telling everyone that we’re putting together a competition in Breckenridge and y’all need to come so we can whip up on you in Breckenridge,” he said. “We were out to establish Breckenridge as a liable venue for an international competition. We were on the march to collect names and numbers to build a database.” After years of compiling resources and contacts, Team Breck was ready to bring the international competition home. They put together a slide show of their work and presented it to “every organization that would sit still for it,” Neyland said, from realtors and lodging

E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

TOM DAY, THE ARTIST

In 1996, five years after the championship began, co-founders Rob Neyland and Ron Shelton asked Breckenridge local Tom Day to join Team Breck based on his artistic background. Day agreed and that year the three of them created “Cold Fusion,” a sculpture of a man and a woman rising out of a coil, leaning in for a kiss. That sculpture kicked off Day’s love affair with the art form, and from that date on, he competed in

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every Breckenridge chamand I said, ‘I’m going to do pionship except one. that someday,’” Martin said. “I love it,” Day said. He Not only has he kept his estimates that he’s created word, but Martin is also the around 23 snow sculptures captain of Team Breck. during his 18-year-career. Martin’s love affair with He loves the fact that comsnow and ice sculpting started petition doesn’t get in the way even before he arrived in of making friends and having a good time. Team Mongolia's sculpture last year, entitled "Fight," featured “That’s the best thing legendary heroes destroying a about this competition, three-headed monster. is we don’t offer big money for first, second and third place,” he said. “You do that, people don’t talk to each other.” Tool sharing is commonplace at the Breckenridge championships. Competition rules prohibit power tools; everything must be done by hand. There really aren’t any official tools for snow sculpting, so sculptors need to get creative. Day has modified everything from floor scrapers to cheese graters to create just the right effect. Working alongside other teams is a great way to pass on or pick up tips on techniques. Summit County. He can recall In fact, the atmosphere of exactly the moment when he the event is his favorite part knew he wanted to be a sculpof the sculpting process. tor. While attending culinary “The camaraderie of school in Pennsylvania, he was everybody out there working given a block of ice to carve to achieve what they have set as a table decoration. Having forth, and just hanging out been drawn to the culinary with the people and sharing field by its artistic opportunithe tools,” he said. “It doesn’t ties, the icy challenge intrigued really matter if I win or not or him and he was hooked. place, whatever. I just enjoy “I knew it right then,” the whole process of the he said. competition. It’s really fun.” Martin spent years working for Hearthstone Catering, imKEITH MARTIN, proving his artistic and presenTHE CAPTAIN tation skills and keeping an eye When Keith Martin moved out for ways to follow the pasto Breckenridge in 2001, his sion that was calling to him. balcony looked right onto the In 2006, he got his big parking lot where the snow chance. The team from sculptures go up every winter. Germany that year had only “I told my wife — we were two people, and needed a sitting right there on the patio, third to have any hope at overlooking the parking lot, competing. A colleague

WINTER 2015

connected them with Martin. “The dynamics just clicked,” said Martin. It turned out that it was the first snow sculpture for the Germans as well, so everyone started out on equal footing, working together

and finding a rhythm. “None of us had ever sculpted snow before and we won a bronze medal,” said Martin of the result. “What a great accomplishment!” Working with the Germans jumpstarted Martin’s snow sculpting career. Not long after his debut, the town revived the Breckenridge Snowflake Challenge, a snow sculpting competition for amateurs. Ecstatic, Martin teamed up with a friend to enter. They shoveled out a stranger’s driveway for snow and got to work. They won. The next year, as winner, Martin was able to make his sculpture in the middle of downtown, and won again. It was then that he was approached by Neyland and asked if he’d be inter-

PHOTO BY JESSICA SMITH

properties to the town council. All the hard work paid off in 1991, when Breckenridge hosted its first International Snow Sculpture Championships. Though the sculptures are self-supported, it still takes an entire community to hold them up. The gigantic event wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without the initial help and continued support from the people of Breckenridge, Neyland said. “It is a tremendous tribute to this community that everyone steps up to do that — the ski area gave us the snow, the town gave us the machinery and the machine time, the concrete company gave us the concrete forms, the crane people gave us the cranes, the lodging people and restaurants all weighed in,” Neyland said. The International Snow Sculpture Championships have become imprinted on the identity of Breckenridge, which was precisely the goal from the very beginning. “You can’t see any story or brochure or electronic imagery about Breckenridge in any venue in the world that does not include some sort of image of the snow sculpture that happens in Breckenridge every year. It’s become indelibly associated with Breckenridge, and I think that’s just splendid,” Neyland said.

Tom Day chips away at snow on a previous Team Breck sculpture, called "Discovery." The finished product featured two dogs peering into a mirror.

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ested in joining the team. ”Thanks to them for having that competition, because I’d never have been able to get my name out there,” Martin said. Working with Team Breck was Martin’s dream, and allowed him to join in on competitions all over the world. “It opened the door of why I loved it,” he said. “It gives me a great way to travel and see different parts of the world. I had never been to Japan and would never had had a reason to go there.” Now, Martin’s winters are nearly entirely taken up by snow and ice sculpting. He does a couple competitions each year, and spends the rest of his time doing sculpting for events, such as the ice podium for an ice-climbing event in Ouray, Colorado. Creating a snow sculpture, especially for an international competition, is a team effort.

“Dynamics of the team really make a big difference,” Martin said. “I think we all respect each other’s talents.” Being able to explain his artistic vision for the sculpture is a key component, he added. In a way, giving directions for the sculpture is like giving directions as a chef. “You have to make the people in the kitchen envision what the thing’s going to look like out on that banquet table.” And, in the end, minor details “really make the difference between the gold and the bronze.” Martin’s favorite part of the process is the beginning, before any snow is packed or tools readied. “Coming up with the ideas might be the most fun, and at the same time it is the most challenging,” he said. The design not only has to evoke the right emotions from

the viewer, but also stand up against designs from some of the best snow sculptors from around the world. Breckenridge also provides snow of a very high quality, which allows sculptors to become more creative and daring with their designs. The most successful sculptures are not only artistic, but challenging in an engineering aspect as well. “You want people to actually get into it, so they’re feeling what you’re trying to put into that sculpture,” Martin said. “In our sculpture there’s emotion. We want people to see that and feel that and relate with it to work with the story that we’re portraying.” Martin’s favorite sculpture that he’s done with Team Breck is the underwater sculpture they carved for the Breckenridge competition in 2011, winning them a bronze medal. “It was something different

that no one else had come up with before,” he said. It was also the first time competitors could use colored LED lights. “It gave it that underwater feel and that look,” said Martin. “People walked up to it and felt like they all of a sudden stepped out of where they were standing and got into this underwater cave. There were so many aspects of it that I really really loved.” Martin hopes to do more with his sculpting in the future, whether it be for competitions or as involvement with winter sporting events like the X Games or the Olympics. He also expressed interest in working with some of the nearby parks on creating some interactive designs for people to ski and ride over. “I’ve got a gazillion ideas for designs in my head,” he said. Whether he’s sculpting at home or abroad, Martin is happy. “I think it’s awesome to get out there and tell people what we’re doing and inspire other people,” he said. When spectators tell them that he has the coolest job ever, he responds that it’s not a job. “This is truly just love.”

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The gallery is operated by the Summit County Arts Council. This non-profit organization is dedicated to supporting the local arts community in Summit County as well as providing children's art programs in the community and the popular "Meet The Artists " outdoor festivals, June 28 & 29 in Breckenridge and September 6 & 7 in Frisco. Located on the second floor of La Cima Mall, next to the Park & Main restaurant, you will find one of our artists working at the gallery every LOCATION! day, so come in and talk local art.

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Our annual LDTC Theatre Season offers diverse, professional theatre in our intimate venue. Whether we are presenting the classic, who-done-it Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure or the musical extravaganza La Cage Aux Folles, we promise our patrons an evening of laugher, suspense, awe, or even a chance to see things a bit differently. Our commitment to diversity drives us to deliver a theatre season of comedies, dramas, and musicals. We are Colorado’s most intimate, professional theatre company.

The Lake Dillon Theatre Company is committed to nurturing arts & youth in Summit County. We offer in school enrichment programs, supported by Colorado State Education Standards, infusing arts into existing curriculum. We offer guidance to administrators and educators to extend our efforts further, impacting hundreds of students. Our youth programs provide music, art, literacy, and theatrical education and are offered year round, including four Summer Theatre Workshops. Embracing our community through our programs directly supports our organizational core values of impact and diversity of programming.

The Lake Dillon Theatre Company offers free and affordable live music entertainment throughout the entire year. Our Free Sunset at the Summit Concert Series provides ten summer nights of free, live music with exceptional performances by a variety of award-winning bands and artists. And our annual LDTC Cabaret Series offers more than twenty unique concert engagements throughout the year celebrating the music of Broadway and beyond while introducing Summit County to local and New York-based artists in residence.

EVENTS

Calendar dozens of events to choose from this winter

NOV. 14 TO DEC. 14 || ‘1940s Radio Hour,’ Lake Dillon Theatre Company, 176 Lake Dillon Drive, Dillon. This show will run Tuesday through Friday. For more information including show times and ticket prices visit www.lakedillontheatre.org. NOV. 22 & 23 || Colorado Days, Copper Mountain. Gear up for the 4th annual Colorado Demo Days by celebrating the state with Colorado homegrown skis, boards, beers and bands. NOV. 25 TO JAN. 3 || ‘Dog Park: The Musical,’ Breckenridge Backstage Theatre, 121 S. Ridge St. 6:30 p.m. on Sundays and 7:30 p.m. on select weekdays and Saturdays. For more information including ticket prices visit www.backstagetheatre.org. NOV. 26 || Thanksgiving Breckenridge Mountain Camp mini-camp, Breckenridge Rec Center, 880 Airport Road. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. For additional information visit www.breckenridgerecreation.com.

NOV. 29 || Welcome Winter Family Carnival, Warren Station, Keystone. 3-6 p.m. Parents can cozy up in the ballroom while the kids enjoy carnival favorites like face painting, a bounce house, crafts and wacky indoor games. Treat yourself to a complimentary bag of kettle corn and a tasty cup of hot chocolate. NOV. 29 || Christmas Lighting, River Run Village, Keystone. 6-7 p.m. Visit with Santa and enjoy hot cocoa and cookies before the tree lighting at 6 p.m. NOV. 29 || Woodward ReMix, Copper Mountain. Enjoy progressive rails during Copper’s annual Yam Jam by bouncing/ skating to your heart's content at a free barn session.

DECEMBER DEC. 1-6 || Sprint U.S. Grand Prix, Copper Mountain. Top freeskiers and snowboarders from around the

NOV. 27 || Turkey Day 5K, 110 Third Ave., Frisco. 9:30 a.m. Come out and burn a few calories before celebrating with food, family and fun at the second annual Turkey Day 5K. NOV. 27 || Adventure Park Tubing Hill Opens, Frisco. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The tubing hill opens for the season 7 days a week. Call (970) 668-2558 for reservations.

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WINTER 2015

globe will compete in the halfpipe at America’s largest competitive winter sports tour, which also serves as part of the Olympic selection process. Read about Grand Prix judges on pg. 28

DEC. 5-14. Wassail Days, Main Street Frisco. Stroll down Frisco’s Main Street while sipping wassail (apple cider) and shopping for unique holiday gifts. Vote for your favorite wassail.

DEC. 4 || Lighting of Dillon, Dillon Community Church, 371 Labonte St. Santa, Mrs. Claus, friends and neighbors will gather to usher in the Christmas season. You can also enjoy a free hot dog, homemade cookies, hot cider and coffee all provided by members of the Dillon Business Association.

DEC. 5 || Frisco’s Tree lighting, Historic Park. 6 p.m. Sing along with carolers and welcome the holiday season.

DEC. 4-7 || Après Ski Weekend, Copper Mountain. Rendezvous on the mountain and join an elevated weekend full of endless runs, exclusive parties and the carefree après-ski spirit. For more information about this event and and to reserve your spot visit ApresSkiWeekend.com.

DEC. 6 || Open House, Gold Run Nordic Center, 200 Clubhouse Dr., Breckenridge. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Come by the Nordic Center to see the facilities. For additional information visit www. breckenridgerecreation.com.

NOV 30 TO DEC 19 KIDS SKI FREE, ARAPAHOE BASIN. Kids 14 and under ski for free. For further information please visit: www.Arapahoebasin.com/events

PHOTOS BY DAVE CAMARA/ARAPAHOE BASIN

NOVEMBER

DEC. 6 || Full Moon Snowshoe Party, Gold Run Nordic Center, 200 Clubhouse Dr., Breckenridge. 4:30-6:30 p.m. Party under the light of the full moon with this snowshoe trek. For additional information visit www.breckenridgerecreation.com.

DEC 2 RISE AND SHINE RANDO SERIES Arapahoe Basin. 7 a.m. For further information please visit: www.Arapahoebasin.com/events.

DEC. 6 || Holiday Bazaar, Silverthorne Pavilion, 400 Blue River Parkway. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Shopping, entertainment and visits with Santa. DEC. 6 || The Nutcracker Suite and Holiday Showcase, Warren Station, Keystone. 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Parents and kids are also welcome to join in the Holiday Showcase, starring community singers and a jingle bell parade. Performance tickets are just $10 for adults and $5 for kids ages twelve and under. Children five and under are free. Proceeds benefit the Summit School of Dance.

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EVENTS DEC. 6 || Lighting of Breckenridge, Main Street, Breckenridge. Town “officially” transforms into a holiday scene with the Lighting of Breckenridge and Race of the Santas, when runners and walkers don Santa suits to benefit Adopt an Angel. DEC. 7 || Never Summer Demo and Rail Jam, Arapahoe Basin. For further information please visit: www.Arapahoebasin.com/ events. DEC. 7 || Soup Cup Classic, Frisco Adventure Park. 4-6 p.m. Sample soup and vote for the best. Admission includes tubing, two beverages and unlimited soup. DEC. 9 || Santa’s Calling, Frisco. 6-8 p.m. Santa will call the good boys and girls of Summit County. Santa’s calling cards can be found at drop off locations throughout Frisco.

DEC. 11-14 || Winter Dew Tour, Peak 8, Breckenridge. Top off the snowboard and freeski competitions with bigname concerts in town. www.gobreck.com. Read about Dew Tour judges on pg. 28 DEC. 11 || Free tubing sessions, Frisco Adventure Park. Explore the trails for free. Lessons and rentals are available for an additional fee. Call (970) 668-0866 for details. DEC. 11 || Free sleigh ride, Frisco Nordic Center. Two Below Zero will offer free sleigh rides. Call (970) 453-1520 details. DEC. 12 || Winter Ice Skating Show, Stephen C. West Arena, 189 Boreas Pass Road, Breckenridge. 7-9 p.m. This year’s show will be ‘That was Then, This is Now.’ For more information visit www.breckenridgerecration.com.

JAN 11-17 ULLR FEST, BRECKENRIDGE

DEC. 12 || Wassail Night at the Museum, Historic Park, Frisco. Enjoy a reading of T’was the Night Before Christmas while you sip wassail. DEC. 12 || Country Western Dance, Silverthorne Pavilion, 400 Blue River Parkway. 7-11 p.m., Lessons with Mike ‘Tex’ DeGarie followed by open dance at 8 p.m., tickets $5. DEC. 13 || Breakfast with Santa, Backcountry Brewery, Frisco. 8:30-11 a.m. Make memories with a cozy breakfast with Santa. Benefits Summit County Preschool. DEC. 13 || Santa visit, Historic Park, Frisco. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Visit with Santa and let him know all you are hoping for this holiday. Please bring a personal camera for photos. DEC. 13 || Ugly Sweater Challenge, Main Street, Frisco. 4 p.m. Break out your favorite ugly sweater and dash down Frisco’s Main Street completing fun holiday obstacles along the way. Prizes awarded in several categories for outrageous outfits.

For over 50 years, the Breckenridge community has paid tribute to Ullr ,the Norse god of snow. Grab a Viking helmet and join the town-wide snow dance, which includes the iconic Main Street parade, pond hockey tournament, Ullr talent show, Ullympics and more.

mountain

SOIRÉE COMING DECEMBER 2014 PHOTO BY DANIEL DUNN

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WINTER 2015

SHOP SMART. SHOP SMART. SHOP SHOPOUTLETS SMART.

DEC. 16 || Rise and Shine Rando Series, Arapahoe Basin. 7 a.m. For further information please visit: www.Arapahoebasin.com/events.

Get your tickets at www.keystonefestivals.com

DEC. 18 || Cupcakes and Canvases Après Party, Warren Station, Keystone. 4:30-6:30 p.m. During this 2 hour class, your kids will be guided by an art teacher to create an artistic masterpiece while enjoying delicious cupcakes. Class includes canvas, art supplies, cupcakes, juice and guidance. $15 per canvas.

JAN. 1 || New Year’s Day Nordic Race, Gold Run Nordic Center, 200 Clubhouse Dr., Breckenridge. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Get a start on those New Year’s resolutions with this race to kick off the year. More information can be found at www.breckenridge recreation.com.

JANUARY

DEC. 18-22 || 'Holiday Follies', Lake Dillon Theatre Company, 176 Lake Dillon Drive, Dillon. For more information including show times and ticket prices visit www.lakedillontheatre.org. DEC. 19 & 20 || Keller Williams and His Compadres, Warren Station, Keystone. Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 8 p.m. Ticket prices available online at www. keystonefestivals.com.

JAN. 6 || Rise and Shine Rando Series, Arapahoe Basin. 7 a.m. For further information please visit: www.Arapahoebasin.com/events.

DEC. 22 TO JAN. 5 || Holiday Breckenridge Mountain Camp Mini-Camp, Breckenridge Rec Center, 880 Airport Road. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will be no camp session on Christmas, Dec. 28 and Jan. 4. For more information visit www.breckenridgerecreation.com. DEC. 27 || Eminence Ensemble fifth annual Holiday Party, Warren Station, Keystone. 8 p.m. Eminence Ensemble is a five piece Progressive Electronic Rock group based out of Boulder, Colorado. Advance tickets $10 per person. DEC. 31 || New Year’s Eve with Head for the Hills, Warren Station, Keystone. 9 p.m. A unique Indie-Bluegrass sound. $20 in advance, $25 day of show.

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JAN. 4 || Full Moon Snowshoe Party, Gold Run Nordic Center, 200 Clubhouse Dr., Breckenridge. 4:30-6:30 p.m. Party under the light of the full moon with this snowshoe trek. For additional information visit www.breckenridgerecreation.com.

DEC. 20-31 || Twelve Days of Copper, Copper Mountain. Skiers skiing, riders sliding, holiday shopping, happy hours hopping – twelve days of events, discounts and holiday surprises.

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Discover our FREE DiscoverCard our FREE JAN. 9-25 || ‘Curves Ahead,’ Savings for Breckenridge Backstage Savings Card for Theatre, 121 S. Ridge St. 6:30 special discounts FREE specialour discounts p.m. on Sundays and 7:30 p.m. on Discover atatover 50 stores. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. over 50 stores. For more information including ticket prices visit www.backstagetheatre.org

JAN. 14 || Breckenridge Ascent Race #1, Breckenridge Ski Resort, Peak 8. 6:15-8:15 a.m. Race #1 begins at the Peak 8 base. Use any means to get up the mountain whether it be snowshoes, Nordic skis or AT setups. For additional information visit www.breckenridge recreation.com.

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JAN. 15 || Cupcakes and Canvases Après Party, Warren Station, Keystone. 4:30-6:30 p.m. During this 2 hour class, your kids will be guided by art teacher to create an artistic masterpiece while enjoying delicious cupcakes. Class includes canvas, art supplies, cupcakes, juice and guidance. $15 per canvas.

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E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

Let the Wild Game Begin

EVENTS JAN. 16 || Country Western Dance, Silverthorne Pavilion, 400 Blue River Parkway. 7-11 p.m. Lessons with Mike ‘Tex’ DeGarie followed by open dance at 8 p.m. Tickets $5. JAN. 16 || Curves Ahead, The Breckenridge Backstage Theatre, 121 Ridge St., Breckenridge. 6:30 p.m. Champagne Opening Night. Free champagne from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Show time is 7:30 pm. Written by Carisa Peterson: A tapestry of local women's stories – gathered from neighbors and friends in Summit County - is spun to create a funny and captivating story of life and times in the high country. Some adult language.

GAME SEAFOOD WOOD FIRED PIZZA WHISKEY & BEER

JAN. 17 || Met Opera Live in HD, “The Merry Widow,” CMC, 107 Denison Placer Road, Breckenridge. 10:30 a.m. The Metropolitan Opera, NRO, CMC and Lake Dillon Theatre Company join forces to bring you another season of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD. Admission: $10 Students, $16 Seniors, $20 Adults.

ALL YOU CAN EAT

JAN. 17-18 || Celebrate NSAA Safety Month, Arapahoe Basin Safety Village in the Base Area. For further information please visit: www.Arapahoebasin.com/events.

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JAN. 17-19 || Copper Mountain Safety Fest. Copper is proud to recognize and support the National Ski Area Associations’ Safety Awareness Week with Copper’s Safety Fest, featuring a month of safe skiing and riding education, demonstrations and giveaways. JAN. 20 || Rise and Shine Rando Series, Arapahoe Basin. 7 a.m. For further information please visit: www.Arapahoebasin.com/events.

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WINTER 2015

JAN. 24 & 25 || WinterBike, Copper Mountain. Join Copper and the Cloud City Wheelers for WinterBike, part of the Leadville winter mountain bike series. Competitors will ride into the night for this cross-country race slipping, sliding and riding on the mountain

and throughout the Village. JAN. 29 TO FEB. 1 || 'Broadway Now', Lake Dillon Theatre Company, 176 Lake Dillon Drive, Dillon. For more information including show times and ticket prices visit www.lakedillontheatre.org. JAN. 31 TO FEB. 8 || Breckenridge International Snow Sculpture Championships, Riverwalk Center, Breckenridge. Throughout the five days (65 hours) of sculpting, teams create enormous works of art from 12-foottall, 20-ton blocks of machine-made Colorado snow. www.gobreck.com Read our feature article on 25 years of snow sculpture championships on pg. 66.

FEBRUARY FEB. 6 || Second annual Companion Rescue Workshop and Benefit Dinner, Arapahoe Basin. For further information please visit: Arapahoebasin.com/ events. FEB. 7 || 13th annual Beacon Bowl, Arapahoe Basin. For further information please visit: www.Arapahoebasin.com/events. FEB. 8 || Basil Vendryes in Concert, Lord of the Mountain Church, 56 US Highway 6, Dillon. 4 p.m., Summit Music and Arts welcomes the return of violist Basil Vendryes with pianist James Howsmon. Basil Vendryes has been Principal Violist of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra since 1993. $15 in advance. $20 at the door. Children under 17 - free. Tickets: www.summitmusicandarts.org or (970) 485-2916. FEB. 11 || Breckenridge Ascent Race #2, Breckenridge Ski Resort, Peak 9. 6:15-8:15 a.m. Race #2 begins at the Peak 9 base. Use any means to get up the mountain whether it be snowshoes, Nordic skis or AT setups. For additional information visit www.breckenridgerecreation.com.

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GOLD RUSH, FRISCO A winter celebration including Nordic Races, a community bonfire and fireworks.

FEB. 12 || Cupcakes and Canvases Après Party, Warren Station, Keystone. 4:30-6:30 p.m. During this 2 hour class, your kids will be guided by an art teacher to create an artistic masterpiece while enjoying delicious cupcakes. Class includes canvas, art supplies, cupcakes, juice and guidance. $15 per canvas.

PHOTO BY TODD POWELL

FEB. 13 || Broadway at the Summit Gala Fundraiser, Silverthorne Pavilion. 6 p.m. For more information including ticket prices visit www.lakedillontheatre.org. FEB. 14 || Valentine’s Day King/Queen of the Hill Tennis Challenge, Breckenridge Rec Center, 880 Airport Road. 2-3:30 p.m. Hold the court and find love at the Rec Center. For more information visit www.breckenridgerecreation.com. FEB. 14 || Barkus Parade, Main Street, Frisco. Dress up your 4-legged friend and join this second

annual Mardi Gras Parade on Frisco’s Main Street. Benefits LAPS. FEB. 15 || Copper Uncorked, Copper Mountain. Singles ready to mingle, couples wanting to cuddle, wine and wings for everyone. Come enjoy Copper no matter what your status. FEB. 20 || Country Western Dance, Silverthorne Pavilion, 400 Blue River Parkway. 7-11 p.m. Lessons with Mike ‘Tex’ DeGarie followed by open dance at 8 p.m. Tickets $5. FEB. 22 || Special Olympics, Copper Mountain. Copper is proud to be the official winter training site for all Colorado-based winter Special Olympics athletes as well as the official host resort for the Winter Games. FEB. 27 || CFPA Fire Hose Relay, Arapahoe Basin. Children’s Hospital Burn Camp Benefit, for further information please visit: www.Arapahoebasin.com/events.

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Skin Dry? DIY! 5 quick tips for great winter skin

|| by ASHLEY KUJAWSKI

t’s no secret that the winter months bring a whole new set of rules to the skincare game. Here’s a quick and easy guide to combating the cold and keeping your skin in top shape all winter. You’d be surprised to find what you can concoct right in your kitchen.

Humidify! – Living and playing at over 9,000 feet plays a big dryness role, but the hot air blasting from your heating system isn’t helping either. Temperature regulation systems can cause humidity levels to drop and make it harder for your skin to produce necessary oils. Plugging in a humidifier is an easy fix that will hydrate the air around you and give your skin a break. Wear What You Eat – Applying generous amounts of coconut, avocado and olive oil directly to the skin will provide benefits equal to when they’re part of your salad. Fight cracked fingertips by applying olive oil

daily to the tips and cuticle area, and cover with a cotton glove while you catch up on "Game of Thrones". Coconut oil with a few drops of Vitamin E oil will work wonders when applied around the eyes, and provide an additional barrier to this delicate area. Winter Bright – When your summer glow starts to fade, don’t go tanning. You’ve got options right in your kitchen. Brighten and even your complexion with lemon and honey. Lemon is a natural exfoliator due to the alpha-hydroxy acids found in citric acid. When applied to the skin, these acids break down dead skin cells and stimulate new growth promoting an even tone. Organic raw honey is a naturally occurring humectant, meaning it retains moisture and assists in hydration.

These two “super foods” are a perfect combination for your skin’s winter woes. Warm Showers Work Too – Long and frequent exposure to hot water can strip the skin of its naturally occurring oils. We know you crushed pow all afternoon, but try to limit bathing to once a day. Apply fragrance-free cream or body oil after every shower. Dr. Heidi Worth, MD, owner of Allure Medical Aesthetics in Frisco, recently worked with the chemist who formulated Obagi products, the first cosemceutical company, to create a skincare line for her clients’ dryness issues. “I incorporated products that are deeply penetrating, but gentle, such as Vitamin C, E and A … Replenish is a deep moisturizer that is perfect for our winters or for before skiing to prevent chapping.”

Spritz And Smile – The easiest way to moisturize your face throughout the day without ruining your smoky eye is a facial mist. Just one or two pumps of the spray bottle will keep you hydrated without the greasy feeling of your moisturizer. The lack of hand-to-face contact is a plus too as we don’t like to think about where the $5 bill we paid for our latte with has been. Try rosewater; the soothing scent alone will pick you up from any midday slump.

E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

HIGH ALTITUDE HEALTH

Breathing thin air Local doctors are studying the health effects of living and visiting at altitude by ALLI LANGLEY

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A local backcountry skier peers out into the seeming abyss between big mountains along the Continental Divide while on a ski outing just below the summit of Mount Morgan in Summit County.

findings, she recommends making two changes in health care standards for children living at high altitude.

GOT A COUGH?

The first change has to do with a severe, potentially life-threatening form of altitude sickness called high altitude pulmonary edema, or HAPE — the medical term for fluid building up in the lungs at high elevations. Symptoms include congestion, breathing problems, extreme fatigue, poor judgment, confusion, collapse

WINTER 2015

and coma. Treatments are descending in elevation and receiving extra oxygen. In children living at altitude, Ebert-Santos worries HAPE sometimes goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed as pneumonia, which involves antibiotics and sometimes a trip to the ER. Ebert-Santos worked as a pediatrician on the tropical Pacific island of Saipan for 20 years, where she treated pneumonia often. She thinks some Summit pneumonia cases aren’t pneumonia because though

the kids have low oxygen levels, they’re not as sick as normal children with pneumonia and “their x-rays are not very impressive.” In six months of 2014, her practice saw 37 cases of HAPE, and she thinks many of those fall into a lessknown category of the illness she calls resident HAPE. Ebert-Santos has been trying unsuccessfully to collect records from other local clinics to add to her eight years of data on this new kind of HAPE. She said research on

PHOTO BY DAVID GIDLEY

WHEN IT COMES to altitude and health, the people living in Colorado’s High Country have no one else in the world with which to compare themselves. Genetically, Ethiopians are the most adapted to high altitude after about 70,000 years living in the highlands there. The Tibetans are next, after about 5,000 years, and then the Andeans, after 1,000 to 2,000 years. Then us. For Summit County visitors, tips on preventing and treating altitude sickness come standard in the informational packet in every condo and hotel room. But what about the roughly 50,000 of us who live full time in Colorado above 9,000 feet? After we’ve acclimatized, or after we were born here, what does living at high altitude do to our bodies? One local pediatrician has been trying to chip away at that question. Dr. Christine Ebert-Santos has run the Ebert Family Clinic in Frisco for the last 15 years, and she has been researching the effects of altitude on her young patients. Her practice sees about 100 kids a week, she said. Every year, she treats about half the children in the five-county area of Summit, Clear Creek, Grand, Lake and Park counties. For years, she has been collecting and analyzing data from her young patients’ records. Based on her

high-altitude health in general is limited because too few people — about 140 million of the world’s 7 billion people, or 2 percent — live high enough to warrant much funding for interested scientists and health care providers. The implications of her research could save time and money and lead to better care for kids who may have this type of HAPE, she said, because it is easily prevented. She encourages High Country residents to buy pulse oximeters, small devices placed on the finger to measure their blood-oxygen level, and says people should take advantage of supplemental oxygen when needed. Wearing oxygen is like wearing pajamas, she said. “You feel it when it first goes into your nose, and then you forget about it.”

TINY TOTS

For decades, science has known that women who are pregnant and give birth at high altitude are more likely to have babies born earlier and smaller. Ebert-Santos has found that high-altitude kids stay smaller than world averages into the first few years of their lives. She has analyzed data from patients over the last 10 years, and said most kids catch up to world height and weight averages by age 2 and almost all catch up by age 4. In the meantime, she said, not understanding that can mean a complicated diagnosis of “failure to thrive” and lots of doctors visits, blood and stool tests and dollars spent on nutritionists. Using data from her patients combined with the power of electronic medical records, she hopes to help establish a standard growth chart specifically for high-altitude children that will ease fears and save money. One thing Ebert-Santos would like to research more, she said, has to do with the 50

percent or more of the babies born in the High Country who are put on oxygen for the first few weeks of their lives. Doctors worry about how low oxygen affects newborn heart and lung development, she said, but they don’t know if babies living in Alma should be treated slightly different than babies living 1,500 feet lower in Frisco.

ALONE IN THE WORLD

One Summit County cardiologist likes to focus on the uniqueness of the Summit residents and other communities above 9,000 feet. Dr. Warren Johnson, the cardiologist at St. Anthony Summit Medical Center in Frisco, said that except for during the mining heyday, fewer than a couple thousand people lived in Summit County until the ski industry boomed about 40 years ago. Now, more than 50,000 Coloradans live at high altitude, he said, and people here will need at least hundreds of years to genetically adapt. “I don’t want to necessarily scare people that this is the problem,” Johnson said. “If we can help this population to be proactive with their health, that would be great.” Johnson explained that heart irregularities and pulmonary hypertension, or increased pressure in the blood vessels of the lungs, grow more common among people in Summit and other high-altitude communities. Like any kind of high blood pressure, altitude-related pulmonary hypertension can damage blood vessels and increase the risk of localized clotting. He said the medical community doesn’t yet know the prevalence of high-altitude pulmonary hypertension. “There are so many genes that get turned on for hypoxia,” he said, or oxygen deficiency.

Johnson said he has heard anywhere from more than 27 genes activate to more than 800, so researchers don’t quite know how many genes turn on or what they do. The medical community is also far from understanding all the effects of high altitude on healthy people or how long a healthy person can live in a low oxygen environment without seeing negative health effects.

CHOKING IN YOUR SLEEP

People spend a third of their lives sleeping, so what happens during sleep has a huge effect on every other aspect of our lives. Pulmonologist Erik Swenson, of Seattle, gave a presentation in Breckenridge with Ebert-Santos and Johnson in September and spoke about altitude’s effect on breathing during sleep. At altitude, he said, “that restful state of our lives may not be so restful.” For people who don’t experience sleep apnea (periods of not breathing during sleep) at low elevations, traveling or moving to high altitude can be the first thing that makes the condition obvious to a bed partner. Seemingly healthy people can experience altitude-related periodic breathing, where they cycle through deep breathing and no breathing up to once or twice a minute throughout the night. Swenson said he thinks it happens because of a “vicious cycle of confusing signals to the brain.” Basically, the brain overreacts to lower oxygen in the air and lower carbon dioxide in the body. The apnea contributes to pulmonary hypertension and exacerbates most other health conditions, especially heart problems. Luckily, the problem goes away when people sleep with extra

oxygen or carbon dioxide. “It’s like descending to low altitude when you sleep,” he said. Acetazolamide, better known by the brand name Diamox, also works as treatment as do sedatives, but only in low doses as too much can worsen breathing issues. These conditions grow more common as people age. About one in 20 people under age 35 experiences sleep apnea, but once people reach 55 and older, the prevalence grows to about one in five. For people who already have sleep apnea at low elevations, treatment isn’t as easy. General treatments include losing weight, quitting smoking, avoiding sleeping on the back, avoiding sedatives and using a device that helps open the airway or regulate breathing.

SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

After Ebert-Santos, Johnson and Swenson finished their presentation, they took questions from the audience. One person asked EbertSantos if everyone who’s lived in the High County more than 20 or 30 years should be using supplemental oxygen. “That’s a question that’s still out there,” Ebert-Santos said. Johnson said he often tells patients experiencing altitude-related health issues that they need to relocate to a lower elevation. Many refuse. He understands where they’re coming from, he said, especially when they’ve lived in the High Country a long time and have friends and supportive social networks here. But he tells patients who are facing serious health issues and are tired of wearing oxygen to consider moving. Simply moving to lower altitude often improves their conditions, he said, but not all conditions are reversible. E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

YOGA

Embrace the Heat Hot yoga keeps students sweating year-round

Students settle into child’s pose during a hot yoga session as instructor Latonya Hill looks on.

… perseverance with other people in their lives,” Hill said. You read that correctly — these students pay money to flow steadily from pose to pose with variations of

STRIKE A POSE

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ASTAVAKRASANA Eight Angle Pose

WINTER 2015

movement for a whole 75 minutes at 95 degrees. Crazy right? Not really. The level of strength and balance many have gained from a regular hot yoga practice has

PHOTOS BY MARK IMANUEL

BELOW FREEZING TEMPERATURES can be a daunting characteristic of a Summit County winter. You can layer fleece blanket upon down sweater upon wool leggings and still feel every drop of the mercury. But some Summit residents have found a solution, seeking refuge from their chills at the Summit Hot Yoga studio in Frisco. While outside the wind blows and snowflakes fall, inside the temperature climbs. As students settle into child’s pose on their mats in the studio, instructor Latonya Hill repeats mantras to calm the space and create energy within her class. For the next 75 minutes, she will guide a group of men and women through Hot Power Flow — a version of Vinyasa yoga set in a room at about 95 degrees with elevated humidity. “I want my students to step off their mats with a sense of empowerment and peacefulness. Maybe they discovered something new about themselves, … maybe they learn to take their yoga off the mat and share patience, love, understanding,

|| by ASHLEY KUJAWSKI

TRANSITION

THE HOT LIST brought worlds of benefit to their already active lifestyles. For these yogis, it all circles back to attaining balance between life on and off their mats. Deby and Jim Curcio, the owners of Summit Hot Yoga, have made that happen by providing traditional and varied hot yoga classes, seven days a week. Their reach expands well beyond the studio as they offer workshops featuring well-known instructors, teacher trainings and even outdoor practices welcoming the change in seasons. “We have students who are downhill skiers, cross-country skiers, snowboarders, runners (trail and road), bikers (mountain and road), weightlifters, etc. Yoga builds strength and endurance in all parts of the body, which keeps most people safe and makes them effective in other activities,” said Hill. Increased strength and efficiency in all movement is a common goal for most of her students. No one is completely immune to injury; however with the proper conditioning, it can often be avoided. Practicing in a heated room accelerates detoxification through sweat, the body’s natural response to elevated temperatures. The muscles become warm and the heat allows students to practice safely at a deeper level. In turn, tension is released

from the body and the physical healing process is stimulated. “We try to keep people strong and flexible so when they do take those spills, they hopefully aren’t hurt and recovery time is shortened if there is an injury.” said Hill. Physical benefits are not all that yoga practice brings to these students. The idea of disconnecting from their everyday lives, and spending an hour or more in a room of presence and focused movement is a very powerful thing. Students aspire to balance the body and the mind with the breath. “The mental discipline alone has really helped me focus on the things I need to do on and off my mat, and what is important to me in life,” said Shannon Murray of Frisco, a Summit Hot Yoga student. “I’m so thankful for the amazing teachers and the friends that have become family at the yoga studio.” Hill began her yoga practice in 2004 to help her stay flexible and limber after many years as a ballerina. “Yoga helps me do all those things we love (about) Summit County safely, and pretty much injury-free,” she said. It is something she does year-round to keep in shape for her favorite activities: skiing, road biking, hiking and running. “My core is strengthened through

EKA PADA KOUNDINYASANA 1 Pose Dedicated to the Sage Koundinya 1

yoga and that helps me in everything I do off my mat. I have met so many amazing people through SHY and it has made Summit County a great place to live.” Core strength is something many outdoor enthusiasts recognize as a necessity but have a hard time improving upon without proper instruction. Michelle Dorak, also an instructor at Summit Hot Yoga, specializes in core focused movement and arm balance progressions. “In a Vinyasa class, we’re engaging our core pretty much the whole time. We take that out of the classroom and into anything else we do, and that helps us promote balance. We come to yoga to get away from those imbalances and core strength is huge for that. Imbalances lead to injury and instability. Yoga practice gets us back to finding our center,” Dorak said. With much to do beyond four walls in Summit County, hot yoga and the people who teach it have a dedicated following.

Top 3 HOT classes you’ll find at SHY

1. Hot Fusion Yoga blends powerful elements of Hot Yoga and Vinyasa; encompasses the meditative and detoxifying qualities of Hot Yoga with the intensity of Vinyasa 2. Hot Yoga (Hot Standing 26 Postures) - designed from the hot yoga lineage in Calcutta, India developed by Bishnu Ghosh; postures are done in a systematic way (particular sequencing); there is an exact position for everyone at every level, which trained instructors will help to find 3. Hot Power Flow combines the power of Vinyasa with the safety of effective alignment to build muscle tone and ﬂexibility; the heat in the room, combined with concentration on the breath allows the muscles to open up and ﬂow continuously

SIRSASANA II VARIATION Tripod Headstand Variation

E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

MARIJUANA TOURISM

The Wolf of weed tours A CADILLAC ESCALADE stretch limo winds around the road on the south side of Lake Dillon. Light fades during sunset, reddening the western horizon over the Gore Range, while deep purple stains the sky above the Continental Divide to the east. The lights of Frisco and Dillon flicker like stars on opposite shores of a cosmic abyss. And inside the limo, lighters spark over bowls, illuminating faces in a flash, followed by billowing clouds of sativa smoke. The scenic, marijuanainfused drive around Lake Dillon is but one part of a series of luxury cannabis tours conducted by a Summit County company. “This is definitely a oneof-a-kind experience,” said Philip Wolf, director of development for Cultivating Spirits, the company hosting the tours. Although several other entrepreneurs from Colorado and elsewhere have also started conducting cannabis tours, Wolf said Cultivating Spirits has set its trips apart by putting the focus on luxury.

WE’VE GOT EVERYTHING YOU NEED

Is the legalization of marijuana leading to more tourism in the state? The question is not easily answered. The Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting reported the state received $19 million during the first half of the year in tax revenue 84

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|| by BRANDON EVANS

The chefs at Cultivating Spirits pair gourmet meals with top shelf marijuana.

from the sale of recreational marijuana and more than $34 million total. However, it’s difficult to know statewide what percentage of those recreational sales figures can be attributed to tourists. One state study found that tourists are responsible for as much as 90 percent of recreational pot sales in some ski towns. Recreational sales certainly spike at Breckenridge dispensaries when flocks of tourists are in town, according to tax revenue data. Colorado also has posted a record ski season and a record summer tourist season since legalization. Even college applications are up. Colorado State University has seen a 30 percent increase in out-of-state appli-

WINTER 2015

cants since the beginning of the year. And a recent study released by Massachusetts-based travel firm Hopper found a marked increase in traveler interests. Its results showed traveler interest in Colorado has increased by 20 percent since recreational marijuana first hit the market Jan. 1. “The early data overwhelmingly demonstrates that Colorado’s program is a success,” Mike Elliot of the Marijuana Industry Group said in a statement this August. “The dire predictions of our opponents have failed to materialize. Colorado is seeing record tourism, record real estate and increases in tax revenue and jobs.” Ralf Garrison is a senior analyst at DestiMetrics, a

Denver company that studies lodging patterns in the Mountain West. While he confirmed that he can’t find a direct correlation between the legalization of recreational marijuana and the increased tourism, he said he believes there is definitely a connection between the two. “We can’t draw a clear correlation with the research we have, but we do know when more tourists are in town, recreational marijuana sales increase,” Garrison said. “The three busiest days of marijuana sales in the Denver area have coincided with the biggest sporting events of the year.” He said while marijuana might not be the primary reason tourists are visiting Colorado, it’s become a secondary activity. “It’s like if someone takes a trip to the mountains to go biking, they might later decide to go fly-fishing, too,” Garrison said. “The tourists are traveling here for one activity, but many are adding a stop by the dispensary to their itinerary.”

COMING TO TAKE YOU AWAY

While Garrison finds tourists might not be flocking to Colorado exclusively for marijuana, Wolf wants to change that with his company’s high-end tours. Cultivating Spirits offers several types of tours. The day-long excursion features trips to grows, dispensary tours and glass blowing. The “Sensational Fusion Experience” includes a gourmet

PHOTOS BY BRANDON EVANS

Summit County company offers luxury cannabis tours

dinner, wine tastings and pairings of marijuana strains with particular meals. The “THC Fusion Experience” provides instruction on cooking with cannabis. The company also hosts and caters private events, such as weddings and corporate retreats, and can customize the experience depending on what the client wants. The tours have been up and running for a couple of months now, attracting a variety of tourists. On a tour last Saturday, the group was treated to an in-depth discussion of how to cook with cannabis by Jessica Catalano, author of “The Ganja Kitchen Revolution: The Bible of Cannabis Cuisine.” The tour group included some people well versed in cannabis culture and others with little to no experience. The group gathered at tables set up around a professional kitchen while Catalano shared knowledge and answered questions that proved helpful to novice and expert alike. “I had a lot wrong,” said Nick, who was on the tour with a couple of friends from Denver and asked that his last name not be used. “As far as the cooking goes I learned a lot. I had the cooking times and temperatures wrong. It was good to know that in just an hour you can get the cannabis profile locked into the butter, which can then come through in the meal. We’re going to experiment with this.” After the educational segment and a gourmet appetizer, the group loaded into the limo to visit a local dispensary, High Country Healing, in Silverthorne. There the budtenders spent time discussing strains, in particular Casey Jones, a sativa with an earthy and citrus-like flavor

“Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour Roll up (We’ve got everything you need), roll up for the mystery tour

Brent, of Denver, examines Casey Jones, the marijuana strain being paired with a gourmet dinner.

Roll up (Satisfaction guaranteed), roll up for the mystery tour

Miles Kennedy, a budtender at High County Healing in Silverthorne, weighs out various strains for the tour group as it visits the local dispensary.

The magical mystery tour is hoping to take you away Hoping to take you away” — from the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” Philip Wolf pours a glass of wine to accompany the steak and asparagus paired with cannabis.

that was being paired with the gourmet dinner and dessert to be served later. “We educate about the history of the strain and how to pair it with food,” Wolf said. For instance, one of the tours featured Durban Poison, a strain native to the South African port town. It was paired with pan-

seared halibut, incorporating flavors and geography into the pairing. Following the trip to the dispensary, the limo cruised around the lake, while the group was able to sample the cannabis in the back. While smoking cannabis in public and on public roadways is against the law, the partition

dividing the driver from the activities in the back makes it perfectly legal. It’s the same way the law applies to drinking alcohol inside a limo. Everyone is provided with a new glass pipe and a lighter. After sampling the wares, and strong appetites start to kick in, the limo made its way back to the kitchen where Catalano was adding the final touches to a meal featuring steak and panseared wild Alaskan salmon. A dessert of chocolate mousse covering soft butter cookies highlighted by a sprig of fresh mint and a raspberry, capped the experience. Then the limo dropped the tourgoers back at their condos and hotels. E X P L O R E S U M M I T. C O M

Phil Wolf hands out fresh pipes to patrons in the back of a limo while conducting one of Cultivating Spirits' cannabis tours.

By the end of the night, most of the tourists had a greater appreciation for marijuana and the future of the industry. “I think this kind of thing is going to become even more prevalent,” said Brent, of Denver, who asked that his last named not be used. “For example, I think you’ll see more marijuana-themed weddings. Obviously we’ve had that happen already. I think cannabis-themed events and cannabis tourism is a rising industry.” One man on the tour was interested in starting his own marijuana-based business, possibly a bed and breakfast, and was on the tour to learn all he could about this nascent industry. 86

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Cultivating Spirits isn’t the first to hold cannabis tours. A company in Denver has started a similar business, but not as high-end as the Silverthorne tour. My 420 Tours conducts tours every Saturday with prices ranging from $150 for a day tour to more than $1,200 for a three-day tour on which patrons stay in marijuana-friendly hotels. Even some out-of-state entrepreneurs are getting involved. Rick Moore owns R.L. Moore Bus Tours of Dallas. Since February he’s been orchestrating marijuana tours. He takes passengers on the 12-hour drive from Dallas to Denver, where they then visit dispensaries and spend a

WINTER 2015

night or two at a hotel before trekking back to a non-cannabis region. And these tours actually provide a critical need for marijuana tourists by providing a safe and legal place to use herb. The biggest issue tourists face is finding a place to smoke. According to the law, marijuana cannot be consumed in public. It’s very difficult to find any private establishment that will allow it. And most every hotel has a no-smoking policy. Consequently, hotel rooms with balconies are in much higher demand. “Hotel managers and owners have noticed this and are taking advantage by setting higher rates on rooms with balconies,” Garrison said. “More than ever people want to be part of Colorado cool.” Meanwhile, Wolf is focused on growing his burgeoning tourism business. For a couple of years he’s worked as a consultant for grows, helping growers increase their yields and potency. His background in the industry gives him a deeper experience and understanding, which he then uses when designing the tours. And the company is giving 5 percent of all profits back to local charities. “We’re just trying to create a safe, comfortable and fun setting,” Wolf said. “And you don’t have to consume cannabis to enjoy this. It’s still enjoyable to come along and learn about the process while sampling gourmet food and wine and learning about the history and the laws. It’s a really awesome experience.” While the debate continues on whether the record number of tourists is marijuana-related, there’s no question tourists are taking advantage and so are entrepreneurs.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MARIJUANA IN THE HIGH COUNTRY WHO CAN PURCHASE RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA? Anyone 21 and older, with a valid government ID, is allowed to purchase, smoke and possess marijuana in Colorado. Much like in a liquor store, individuals need to show an ID in order to make purchases. You can share with a friend, as long as you aren’t getting paid in the process. (Colorado Department of Revenue: Permanent Rules Related to the Colorado Retail Marijuana Code, p. 36, 48, section C)

WHERE AND WHEN CAN PEOPLE PURCHASE MARIJUANA? Licensed retail shops began selling recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, 2014. The shops were previously medical marijuana dispensaries and may or may not have chosen to continue to sell medical products in addition to retail products. The earliest brand-new retail shops could open was Oct. 1, 2014. Shops have hours mandated by the state, much like liquor stores, so no purchases can be made before 8 a.m. (Colorado Department of Revenue: Permanent Rules Related to the Colorado Retail Marijuana Code, p. 42, 48, section A; The Denver Post)

HOW MUCH CAN INDIVIDUALS BUY? In a single transaction, Colorado residents can purchase up to 1 ounce, while out-of-state visitors can purchase 1/4 ounce. All adults 21 and older can possess up to 1 ounce on their person. Researchers have concluded the average joint contains slightly less than a half-gram of marijuana. An ounce is slightly more than 28 grams, so 1 ounce equals approximately 60 joints. (Colorado Department of Revenue: Permanent Rules Related to the Colorado Retail Marijuana Code, p. 48, section D; The Denver Post)

CAN PEOPLE TAKE MARIJUANA OUT OF COLORADO? Definitely not. It is still illegal to transport marijuana across state lines, even if it was purchased legally in Colorado. Denver International Airport announced it is against the law to take marijuana into the airport, as well. (www.colorado.gov; The Denver Post)

PHOTOS BY BRANDON EVANS

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226 S. MAIN ST., BRECKENRDIGE (970) 453-4900 BACKCOUNTRYCANNABIS.COM BRECKENRIDGE’S FIRST LICENSED RETAIL MARIJUANA STORE

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Breckenridge Cannabis Club is proud to announce their new name, Backcountry Cannabis Company! As they spread to mountain towns all over the state, they are excited to continue bringing quality cannabis and service to the original Breckenridge location.The Backcountry Cannabis Co is a locally owned and operated retail marijuana store that has been established in the heart of downtown Breckenridge since late 2009. Located directly across the street from Starbucks, you can find the cannabis lined counters just at the top of the stairs once you step off of Main Street. Visitors are greeted by knowledgeable and welcoming bud tenders who are proud to educate customers and the general public alike. Backcountry Cannabis Co is proud to be on the forefront of the cannabis movement, and has always advocated for the rights of both Colorado’s citizens and its’ visitors. The BCC is a time honored installation on Breckenridge’s Main Street and worth a visit from all adults (21+ only)!

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WIDE SELECTION OF EDIBLES Working with an ever increasing list of vendors across the state of Colorado, the Backcountry Cannabis Co carries one of the widest selections of marijuana edibles available. At the BCC customers choices are not limited to smoke-able products! Those who prefer not to smoke can opt to vaporize or eat their cannabis. The cannabis retailer offers an array of edible products, including sodas, candies, tinctures, chocolates, baked goods, oral sprays, THC drops, and more. For the vaporizer connoisseur, BCC carries shatter, wax, and oil as well as other concentrates and accessories Backcountry provides a one stop shop for all your cannabis needs.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH The Backcountry Cannabis Co grows entirely organic cannabis, ensuring your ‘Rocky Mountain High’ is as pure as it gets. Looking to leave a small footprint, Backcountry employs the most environmentally friendly techniques available such as wind and solar power; just when you thought your cannabis couldn’t get any greener! Every plant at Backcountry’s garden is given just the right amount of TLC, providing for one of the most flavorful and potent products on the market.

A MESSAGE FROM BACKCOUNTRY CANNABIS CO

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While here, there are a few things to keep in mind about legal cannabis. Please remember to consume responsibly and exercise restraint, especially with concentrates and edibles. Please do not drive under the influence and do not smoke in public. If you have any questions-ASK! The BCC never tires of educating the public about safe cannabis consumption. It will take the effort of everyone to make this legalization effort a success.

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SITUATED ON AIRPORT ROAD, Organix provides easy access and convenient parking for everyone. Our large parking lot and proximity to the 'Free Satellite Parking Lot' make us the perfect stop on your way to the slopes. Free parking and quick access to Highway 9 make it a simple decision to visit Organix Breckenridge, whether you're coming or going!

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Organix Breckenridge first opened their Medical doors in January 2010, as the city's oldest Medical Marijuana Dispensary, and happily began welcoming recreational customers in January 2014. They cater to both medial and recreational customers 21+ in the same convenient location. Organix is locally owned and operated; their team of knowledgeable and friendly budtenders have been providing premium quality customer service for over 5 years. The shop is cash only and has an ATM on site. Your visit will be nothing short of memorable and enjoyable at Organix.

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Organix carries a large and varied line of topicals, tinctures, cremes, lotions, edibles and trans-dermal patches that are high in CBD on the medical and recreational side. Treating medical conditions and aliments has never been more accessible as an adult 21+. The well educated and helpful staff can always point you in the right direction for your specific needs. Every customer is paired with their own budtender to ensure the highest quality service is being provided and that each individuals needs are met.

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1795 Airport Rd. Unit A-2, Breckenridge (970) 453-1340 www.myorganix.com Facebook â&#x20AC;&#x153;f â&#x20AC;? Logo

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RETAIL MARIJUANA 21+ Locally owned, grown and operated

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Call ahead for daily deals! ORGANIC IS THE WAY AT ORGANIX: Organix prides themselves on growing the highest quality organic flower in Summit County. Their vast rotating selection of over 50 strains means they have something for everyone. Whether you're looking for Indicas, Sativas, or Hybrids, Organix has the flower for you. Daily specials make it affordable and smart to shop here and the taste and potency leave you coming back for more. Don't forget to check your recreational 1/8ths for a GOLDEN TICKET!

CONCENTRATES AND EDIBLES: As the industry grows and changes, so does the consumption method of our clients. More and more individuals are seeking out edibles and concentrates, and for those that are, Organix is the clear destination. Medical and Recreational customers can enjoy the world of infused chocolates, gummies, cookies, drinks, candies and snacks, not to mention, waxes, shatter and vape cartilages with a coconut oil base!

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RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA SALES

HERBAL BLISS CARRIES ALL YOUR FAVORITE EDIBLES. Try a new spin on the traditional brownie with Caviar Kings’ Toffee and Butterfinger brownies! Not into chocolate, how about hard candies or laughy taffy; they’ll make you do just that! Our Blue Kudu and Dr. J’s Star Barz will have you seeing stars, in all the right places! Dr. J’s is made with rich imported chocolate and in an assortment of flavors, you’ll be sure to find just the right sweetness.

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HEADED TO THE SLOPES?

HOP ON THE SUMMIT STAGE! FREE, CONVENIENT BUS SERVICE TO TOWNS AND RESORTS THROUGHOUT SUMMIT COUNTY

Our FREE public buses take you right to the slopes, so you can focus on skiing and riding, not on the hassles of traffic and parking. The Summit Stage offers convenient service to towns and resorts throughout Summit County, with buses on most routes running every 30 minutes all day, and every hour during the evening. Check out our morning express routes to Keystone, Copper and Breckenridge. Whether youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re hitting the slopes, here for a special event, or out for a night on the town, you can LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE BEHIND AND LET THE SUMMIT STAGE DO THE DRIVING.

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For maps, schedules and route information visit SUMMITSTAGE.COM, or CALL 970-668-0999.

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QUESTION 1 Why is Breckenridge known as “the Kingdom”? Such a simple answer: it looks down on everyone around. Kidding, of course! In fact the answer to this question is quite the opposite. You see, Breckenridge came into being as a town in 1859. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to put it on the map … literally. Some United States maps from the time period forgot the poor little hamlet. When this error was discovered in 1936 by local residents, they found cause to rejoice. The 1930s were a difficult time in Summit — the population fell to one of its lowest points in history and people and animals alike were looking for a way to break away from the grind. The intrepid Breck residents decided the lack of acknowledgment meant Breckenridge was separate from the States, its very own Kingdom. While it’s believed the map that didn’t show Breckenridge is an anomaly, or at least one of a small percentage, the townspeople still party. For decades the people of Breckenridge have used this snub as a jumping off point for the Kingdom Days celebration each June. The celebration focuses on Breckenridge’s mining history with free mining tours, outhouse races and gold panning championships.

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QUESTION 2 Are all of the trails that are open for use in Summit County during the summertime open in the wintertime, too? And what do the colored signs along the trails mean? Quandary knows that getting off into the woods can do an old goat a lot of good — and it doesn’t matter if there’s snow on the ground or not. All of the trails and wilderness areas you can use during the summertime are open in the wintertime, too, according to a Dillon Ranger District spokeswoman. “The trails are open; it’s more a matter of accessibility” — and the ambitiousness of the skier or snowshoer, she said. The list of wintertime recreational uses of wilderness areas — like Eagles Nest, near Frisco — is pretty much the same as the summertime list: hunting, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, backpacking, camping, nature study, photography, skiing, climbing, etc. Just remember that, winter and summer, all forms of mechanical transport are prohibited in wilderness areas. Quandary has been around long enough that he doesn’t pay much attention to trail signs. But he understands that for visitors

and others new to the county’s trail systems, a reminder that you’re on the right path can do a lot to ease a worried hiker’s mind. The signs you see on our Forest Service trails here in Summit do several things: identify routes; let you know about distances and destinations; point out safety features, like shelters; provide route reassurance; warn of hazards and restrictions; and provide information about resources. Trailhead and directional signs are probably the ones you’ll see the most, but other common signs are the so-called routereassurance markers and difficulty symbols. Reassurance markers are the blue diamond-shaped signs you see especially on trails designated for cross-country skiing. They’re often mounted on trees near the trail, and they let you know where the trail is. They’re not used in wilderness areas. The difficulty symbols are green circles (easiest), blue boxes (more difficult) and black diamonds (most difficult) — just like you see at ski areas. They’re usually placed at trailheads, though you’ll see them along a trail if the terrain suddenly changes. “Difficulty levels are based on a national set of characteristics and standards, not on a comparison of trials against one another,” according to the Forest Service. So while you’re out in the woods, keep an eye out for signs — just try not to leave any sign you were there.

ILLUSTRATION BY JEFF SAMSEL

uandary, an old and wise mountain goat, has been around Summit County for ages, and has the answers to any question about life, love and laws in the High Country.

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