Elevation Outdoors August 2019

10TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ISSUE AUGUST 2019

FREE!

E L E V AT I O N O U T D O O R S . C O M

Celebrating

deep pow, badass womxn

festival jams,,

craft beer diversity and dissent,, public lands, alternative thinking,

family truckin’, faster times…

a decade of

long trails, local heroes, new summits,

wild rivers, elwayville, peak gear, happy dogs,

adventure travel, and it’s still free!

Blaze new trails

Zion

MEN’S

The Zion is a blend of 30+ years of hiking boot know-how. We’ve used some of the best materials: strong leather, abrasion-resistant mesh, and one of the stickiest rubber outsoles. But instead of a traditional stiff hiking boot, we borrowed the shape from our bestperforming trail running shoes. The Zion feels like a sneaker, but protects like a hiker. So you can add up the miles and memories.

Shop all of the colors at merrell.com/zion.

INATION T S E D ’S O COLORAD

P O H S G N I R CAMP FOR OVER 20 YEA S

BIG PICTURE

Our covers are key to why you pick us up on the newsstand. We run down some of our favorites here.

er m m Su rance Clea ale S NOW!

SEE PAGE 22

G ON STORE ONLY GOIN IN

AUGUST 2019

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COLORADO’S DESTINATION

MOUNTAIN BIKE SHOP WITH OVER 60 DEMO BIKES

DEPARTMENTS 7 EDITOR’S LETTER How did we get here ten years later?

9 QUICK HITS Colorado Mountain College wins the Top Adventure College Poll (again!), Tommy Caldwell and other pro climbers get in on POW, wilderness experiences for women only, a high-tech pet tracker and more...

14 FLASHPOINT The High Lonesome 100 has a plan to finally bring gender balance to the sport of ultrarunning.

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OUR DEMO PROGRAM HAS 60+ MOUNTAIN BIKES AVAILABLE TO RIDE!

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17 HOT SPOT Leave the fourteeners to the crowds and check out these four lower, but very worthy Colorado peaks that offer everything from wildflowers to summer corn skiing.

19 NUMEROLOGY Take a hard look at the facts of climate change here in Colorado.

21 STRAIGHT TALK Wendy Fisher still rips and finds the time to raise a family.

31 HEAR THIS Enjoy a week in the backcountry and a weekend at the Telluride Jazz Festival.

32 THE ROAD In the golden age of Yosemite climbing, Pat Ament rode the rails between California and Colorado to climb with Royal Robbins.

34 ELWAYVILLE From the Broncos to black labs, these are the things that change (and stay the same) in Colorado.

FEATURES

all the big happenings in this magazine and in the outdoor world since our first issue hit newsstands in February 2009—from Shane McConkey to “Transending.”

30 GEAR FOR THE HIGH COUNTRY Our favorite hip, tecnical stuff for the mountains.

ON THE COVER Longtime friend of the mag, artist, awardwinning filmmaker, badass climber dude and Meridian Line (themeridianline.com) founder Jeremy Collins gives us his impression of an eternal bro who may have every print issue of EO stashed away in his van.

by Jeremy Collins jercollins.com

22 A DECADE OF ELEVATION OUTDOORS To celebrate our 10th anniversary of encouraging you to get outside and play (and give a damn about saving it), we run down

WANT MORE? CATCH UP ON PAST ISSUES, YOUR FAVORITE BLOGGERS AND DAILY ONLINE CONTENT AT ELEVATIONOUTDOORS.COM

We believe in visionaries who can turn skyscrapers into mountains. Early risers who would rather cast a line than wait in one. Optimists who are only over-booked when they’ve packed too much to read.

We don’t believe in tourists.

We believe in explorers.

Explorers welcome.

VisitCOS.com

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A-BASIN SUMMER

JUNE 28–SEPTEMBER 15

AUG

EVENTS

3 SANCTION DISC GOLF TOURNAMENT

CONCERTS

YOGA AT A-BASIN WILDFLOWER HIKES DISC GOLF STRIDER RACES TRAIL RUNS

24 NAIVE MELODIES

17 COLORADO HARVEST FEST

31 TNERTLE

SEPT 7–8 DISC GOLF TOURNAMENT 14 OKTOBER FEST

CHAIRLIFT RIDES

Saturdays & Sundays, 11:00am–3:00pm

17 TBD

10 CIRQUE SERIES

8 CLAM BAKE

ACTIVITIES

SATURDAYS 1:00PM–4:00PM AUG 3 EMMA MAYES & THE HIPS

SEPT

7 TBD 14 THOSE AUSTRIAN GUYS

LUNCH & SHOPPING 6TH ALLEY BAR & GRILL

Fridays–Mondays, 11:00am–4:00pm

ARAPAHOE SPORTS

Fridays–Mondays, 9:00am–5:00pm

ARAPAHOEBASIN.COM A U G U S T 2 019 / E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S . C O M

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LIVING OUR BEST #VANLIFE

WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO HAPPEN IN THE OUTDOOR WORLD OVER THE PAST DECADE? E DI TOR-I N -CHI E F

DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

doug@elevationoutdoors.com PRE SI DE N T

BLAKE DEMASO

blake@elevationoutdoors.com PUBLI SHE R

CONOR SEDMAK

conor@elevationoutdoors.com CRE AT I VE DI RE CTOR

LAUREN WORTH

lauren@elevationoutdoors.com EDITORIAL + PRODUCTION M AN AG I N G E DI TOR

CAMERON MARTINDELL

cameron@elevationoutdoors.com COPY ASSASSI N

AUGUST 2019

TRACY ROSS

It’s been a wonderful summer so far. Although the snow keeps hanging on in high country, we’ve enjoyed the extra water and how green it is in the mountains. We’ve finally been able to climb some classic Colorado fourteeners, backpack to pristine alpine lakes, and camp in our van under the stars in many of our favorite (and secret) Rocky Mountain campsites. The fall is nowhere in site, so here’s to keeping cool and enjoying the ride!

AMELIA MCCONNELL

amelia@elevationoutdoors.com

CON T RI BUT I N G E DI TORS

Featuring the new Air Contour carry system that provides plenty of support and comfort during long days in the mountains, the Altus comes in three men’s sizes and three women’s sizes ranging from 30-57 liters. This do-it-all pack is great for all seasons and any outdoor pursuit—from ski mountaineering to fourteener scrambling. Ours proved comfy and stable on several long backpacking and peak bagging trips already this summer.

AARON BIBLE, ADAM CHASE, ROB COPPOLILLO, LIAM DORAN, JAMES DZIEZYNSKI, HUDSON LINDENBERGER, SONYA LOONEY, CHRIS VAN LEUVEN CON T RI BUT I N G WRI T E RS

PAT AMENT, KIRTSEN DOBROTH, M.T. ELLIOTT, NATE ETTER, KIM FULLER, TYRA SUTAK, MELANIE WONG

LEKI: MICRO VARIO CARBON BLACK SERIES

Leki’s lightest trekking poles got a facelift this year. As the name suggests, carbon fiber makes them extremely stable and super-light at just 7.3 ounces per pole. And the tri-fold design makes them easy to stash in your pack (or a crowded van). Plus, this year Leki updated their locking device (Core Locking Device or CDL) to a slimmer and more even lighter construction that’s easy to use on the trail.

ADVERTISING + BUSINESS SE N I OR ACCOUN T E XE CUT I VE

MARTHA EVANS

martha@elevationoutdoors.com BUSI N E SS M AN AG E R

MELISSA GESSLER

melissa@elevationoutdoors.com

SEA TO SUMMIT: SLEEPING MAT COUPLER KIT LOOPS

CI RCULAT I ON I N QUI RI E S

Sometimes the best gear comes in the smallest packages. The simple but effective Coupler Kit holds you and your partner’s sleeping pads together—perfect for those who want to sleep close but avoid that annoying crack between two pads. They weigh just 0.5 ounces each and they’re easy to stash. Pack them away and forget they are there until it’s time to snuggle.

circulation@elevationoutdoors.com DIGITAL MEDIA ON LI N E DI RE CTOR

CRAIG SNODGRASS

craig@elevationoutdoors.com

SCHEDULE

TELLURIDE, CO

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PETER KRAY

LOWE ALPINE: ALTUS BACKPACKS

8/9-8/11 2019

chris@elevationoutdoors.com

E DI TOR-AT-LARG E

G E A R W E ’ R E LO V I N G

TELLURIDE JAZZ FESTIVAL

SE N I OR E DI TOR

CHRIS KASSAR

8/17/2019

MOUNTAIN TOWN MUSIC FESTIVAL KEYSTONE KEYSTONE, CO

DI G I TAL M AN AG E R

8/31-9/2 2019

A TASTE OF COLORADO DENVER, CO

RADHA MARCUM

ELEVATIONOUTDOORS.COM 2510 47th Street Unit 209 Boulder, Colorado 80301 (303) 449-1560 P U B L I S H E D BY

©2019 Summit Publishing, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

SUMMIT

PUBLISHING

DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

Passionate advocates working to make outdoor spaces and businesses more diverse and inclusive for those who have been marginalized for far too long.

conor sedmak

The outdoor community increasingly using its strength and voice to effect political and economic change.

CAMERON MARTINDELL

The work being done by climate conservation organizations and activists.

TRACY ROSS

The terrifying acceleration of climate change. May we race to address it right now.

Chris Kassar

We have the ability and responsibility to use our voice and leverage our influence, money and numbers for conservation.

Hudson Lindenberger

The charge led by Patagonia and other outdoor companies to protect our public lands.

KIM FULLER

The sustainability efforts in the outdoor gear industry are snowballing.

AARON BIBLE

Wait, another decade went by? What year is it? Is it still free to park at Vail?

M.T. Elliott

California's continued efforts to curb emissions have proven economically feasible and become the country's blueprint.

Jeremy Collins

The reduction of Bears Ears National Monument was the catalyst that made many people pay attention to what is happening with public lands everywhere.

peter kray

The cynical sale of our public lands to extractive industries.

Absolutely un-American.

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SUMMER R E N TA L P R O GR A M

MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN T H ER E H A S B EEN A LOT O F P OS I T I V E C H A N G E I N T H E O U T D O O R SPAC E OV ER T H E PA S T 1 0 Y E A R S B U T W E H AV E TO K EEP WO R K I N G .

by DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

R

ecently I took part in a lifecoaching exercise during which I was asked to write down what I would do if I knew I was going to be struck dead by lightning in six months.

My first response was easy and primal: I would want to make sure that my family, my kids, wife, parents, all the people I love would be set up to thrive with me gone. I hope I am working to that end even now (and I think that was supposed to be the idea of the exercise). My next response was connected: I want to be sure that I make a difference in the world, on the planet. I want to be sure I don’t leave this earth without doing all I can to see that it also thrives and survives. I also think that goal is attainable. I believe in the biologist and conservationist E.O. Willson’s call for “Half Earth,” for us to dedicate half of this planet to providing habitat for the diversity of life on it beyond us. I believe we have the power to live up to our potential as human beings, to make use of our intelligence and compassion to ensure this world survives beyond our lives. Doesn’t that seem attainable?

There is a lot of negativity when it comes to the state of our planet, a lot of doomsaying. I am not implying that concern is not warranted. We do seem to be fucked if we keep headed down

ONLY YOU, BABY EO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SCHNITZSPAHN HANGS WITH ONE OF HIS CHILDHOOD HEROES. photo courtesy DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

some of the paths we seem incapable of veering off. But I also believe in us.

And I believe actually doing something is better than taking the easy route of smugly saying “We are fucked!” Because then we are. But we do need to act more. The biggest problem with the old what-would-you-do-if-you-knewyou-were-going-to-die question is that it makes us think and live as if each moment was our last... and then we slide back to just dealing with our day-to-day responsibilities. So I’m not asking you— or myself—to raise hell with the urgency of the Grim Reaper on our tails, just to try to cultivate actual change in this world, rather than fall victims to cynicism.

I have taken pepper spray to the face protesting for environmental protection and social good, but that radical action may not have had as much of a real effect as putting this magazine out every month. Over the 10 years we have been publishing Elevation Outdoors, I can only hope we have built something here that has made a difference. When I look back at all the powerful voices and stances we have taken in these pages, I am pretty proud of our work.

We have championed diversity, equality and inclusion in the outdoors.

We have spoken up against the willful ignorance of climate change deniers.

We have advocated for public land protections and tried to be open-minded in considering who uses and loves these lands. And we plan to keep speaking out, keep listening and, we hope, keep making a difference.

• tents • sleeping bags • backpacks and full overnight to multi-day packages • climbing shoes and bouldering pads • mountaineering equipment • see our web site for more details and pricing

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Climbers have a higher perspective on the importance of protecting our public lands. Join us in holding the line in conserving Colorado’s wildlife and wild spaces. livelifeoutside.co

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Š NORA LOGUE/CPW

Face time

Q U I C K HI T S | 0 8 .1 9

Higher Purpose CLIM ATE CH A NG E IS SOM E TH ING E V ERY OUTDOOR ENTH USI A S T N EEDS TO B E AWA RE OF —A N D N OW PROTEC T OUR WINTERS IS PROV IDING A N E V EN B IGG ER PL ATFORM TO DO SOM E TH ING A BOU T IT.

CHANGES IN THE CLIMATE DUE TO HUMAN ACTIVITY ARE EASIEST TO RECOGNIZE IN THE WINTER—by seeing how much snow falls or how quickly it melts out—but the effort to minimize the damage is a year-round effort. That’s why along with the American Alpine Club, Protect Our Winters (POW) has brought on climber Tommy Caldwell to reach out beyond winter to the climbing community via POW Climb. “As a climber and a father, I’m seeing the impacts of climate change first hand and feel the need to do everything in my power to protect my children's futures,” says Caldwell. “At a recent POW Alliance training, the team laid out a vision for a carbon-neutral future that I want to be a part of, which is why I’m joining POW and helping launch POW Climb. It’s time to give the climbing community a platform to speak up about climate change.” This isn’t POW’s first reach beyond winter. POW Trail was launched in August of 2017 to give the trail running community a platform to protect the places where we all play. —Cameron Martindell

CAUSE CLIMBER TOMMY CALDWELL HAS BEEN OUTSPOKEN ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON PUBLIC LANDS. / PHOTO COURTESY PROTECT OUR WINTERS

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EMPOWERED IN THE WILD WO M EN - O N LY P RO G R A M M I N G H EL P S B O OS T CO N FI D EN C E I N O U T D O O R SP O RT S NATURE AND THE WILDERNESS PROVIDE

the ultimate platform for instilling empowerment and provoking knowledge—from the courage it takes to climb a rock face for the first time, to the connection and stewardship that emerges from overnights in the backcountry. Several organizations in Colorado are teaching girls and women how to cultivate courage and connection to themselves, to their own outdoor community, and to uninhibited adventure. Here are some of the best.

Women’s Wilderness, a non-profit organization in Boulder, helps girls and women gain ability, strength and education from solid instruction in wilderness travel and outdoor skills. “Our programs are designed to be heart-centered, relational, collaborative adventures, while providing solid instruction in wilderness living, outdoor skills and backcountry safety,” says the organization’s Stephanie Vidergar. The courses are taught by skilled outdoor instructors who also serve as role models that participants can identify with directly.

“Though courses vary in terms of focus on technical skills or personal growth, we emphasize technical outdoor skills and time in the wilderness as a route towards greater self-confidence, self-efficacy and empowerment for our participants,” says Vidergar. “We want our participants to leave the course feeling that they have forged connections with new outdoor partners, and found a home in our organization.”

In collaboration with Aspen Alpine Guides, Leave the Boys Behind is a woman-led guide service out of Aspen that has set out to create a space where women can experiment freely outdoors without pressure or

COMMUNITY AND CONFIDENCE BOULDER-BASED WOMEN’S WILDERNESS SEEKS NOT JUST TO TEACH SKILLS BUT ALSO EMPOWER THE WOMEN WHO IT BRINGS OUT INTO THE WILD. / PHOTO COURTESY WOMEN’S WILDERNESS

intimidation. As its mission states: “The drive to create Leave the Boys Behind stems from our desire to host outrageously fun experiences in the wilderness where the pressure from the boys is left at home.” Women can explore backcountry adventure trips year-round through skiing, backpacking, road biking and more.

Since 1999, Chicks Climbing & Skiing out of Ridgway has offered climbing instruction for women.

“Our goal is to provide a positive learning environment that makes our participants feel welcome and open to ask questions that will help them gain a greater understanding of technical climbing systems on rock, ice and snow,” says co-owner Elaina Arenz. Chicks Climbing & Skiing holds instructional programs at worldclass climbing destinations across the country and a few graduate-level programs abroad in places like Japan, France and Iceland.

“Most of our programs run three to five days and are all inclusive packaging,” says Arenz. “We divide

TECHNOLOGY PAWSCOUT PET TRACKER This little tag for your pet harnesses the power of smartphones to help with a number of important functions. The tag uses Bluetooth so anyone with the app can pick up a lost pet within 300 feet and notify the owner of the animal’s location.

The tag and app combo can also store a log of walks the pet has been on, medical records, and a virtual leash. $20 | PAWSCOUT.COM

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the participants into small groups and pair them up according to their experience, ability and goals to teach them technical systems they would like to learn to become more independent, self reliant and confident climbers.”

In December, Chicks Climbing & Skiing will start up winter programming and hold backcountry skiing clinics in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, followed by ice climbing programs in Ouray the month of January.

—Kim Fuller

CRIMPING FOR GOLD I N D O O R C L I M B I N G I S CO M I N G TO T H E 2020 O LY M P I C S .

F O R M ER C H A M P I O N H A N S FLO R I N E W EI G H S I N .

sport to be reckoned with is the fact that in less than a year, climbing will make its debut as a medal event in the 2020 Olympic Games. To get a better perspective on how it will work and what it will mean to the sport, we reached out to Hans Florine, a living Yosemite diety, three-time X Games gold medalist in speed climbing (1995, 1996, 1997) and the executive director of USA Climbing from 1992 to 1996.

What are your thoughts about the Olympic Games adopting or sanctioning climbing?

I think it’s about time. I mean how long has curling been in the Games but not climbing? C’mon. Unlike others, I actually like the fact that they are giving a combined medal for three disciplines (speed, bouldering, and lead) this time. I think that it means it has a better chance to be watched and it rewards people with a large skill set. Hopefully in later games they will offer individual events, too.

CLIMBING HAS SEEN EXPLOSIVE GROWTH

in the last decade. Thank that surging popularity to the proliferation of climbing gyms, a recently announced contract with ESPN to broadcast climbing competitions on TV and even an Academy-Award winning movie last year—nice job Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, and Alex Honnold.

But cementing its emergence as a

What’s it going to take to win?

Someone who is open-minded and willing to try something they are probably not comfortable at. Look at Adam Ondra. He is jumping into speed to try and win. In my past competitive experience, someone talented and gifted in regular climbing won’t finish last on the speed route, they will do

GEAR WE LOVE MSR POCKETROCKET DELUXE Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, MSR significantly updated the iconic PocketRocket canister-fueled backpacking stove with a new pressure regulator, a durable push-start Piezo Igniter, and a bigger burner head. $70 | MSRGEAR.COM

BOOKS SOME STORIES: LESSONS FROM THE EDGE OF BUSINESS AND SPORT One of the most successful entrepreneurs and outspoken personalities in the outdoor recreation and conservation space, Yvon Chouinard has some burning stories to tell. In the 56 yarns, accompanied by 250 photos, in this volume, Chouinard provides fascinating insight into his experiences, triumphs and lessons learned from decades of gear building and adventuring. $45 | PATAGONIA.COM

DOWN THE DRAIN THE CROWN JEWEL OF LANDER, NEARBY SINKS CANYON STATE PARK BECKONS ARTISTS AND ADVENTURERS WITH 300 CLIMBING ROUTES, MILES OF HIKING AND MOUNTAIN BIKING TRAILS AND ITS FAMOUS RIVER THAT “SINKS” DOWN INTO THE GROUND. / PHOTO COURTESY W YOMING OFFFICE OF TOURISM

OK there, but someone who has only trained for speed may struggle in the other two disciplines.

Is there anything you would change about the format, which includes speed, bouldering and lead events?

I would switch the speed route up. I don’t like that it is always the same (the same speed climbing route has been used since 2007). That’s not what climbing is about. Climbing is about overcoming whatever obstacle is in your way, not just running the same route over and over.

Do you worry that the games will mean more crowds at the crags?

I love climbing and I think it should not be a secret, I want to see the sport spread. I manage a climbing gym and I can tell you that probably 90% of my patrons will never become outdoor climbers. It’s just too uncomfortable for them. But the ones that do head outdoors will help us in stewardship and advocacy. Is that bad?

—Hudson Lindenberger

EAT, SLEEP, PLAY: LANDER, WYOMING W ITH ONE OF THE MOS T CH A RMING M A IN S TREE TS IN W YOMING A ND SOME OF THE PL A NE T ’S BE S T CLIMBING IN THE W IND RI V ERS, THIS SM A LL TOW N PONIE S UP A ND DELI V ERS BIG RE WA RDS. Eat A wholesome, hearty breakfast is essential for any big adventure day, and that’s exactly what you’ll find at The Middle Fork (themiddleforklander. com)—a bustling Main Street eatery serving colorful culinary delights.

Order the Banana Bread French Toast, or a plate of Eggs Benedict—both highly recommended by the locals.

Post-adventure, settle in on the inviting patio at Cowfish (cowfishlander.com), and refuel with a juicy burger or menu composed of elegant pasta offerings, and an array of seafood and meatforward dishes. Cowfish shares a space with the Lander Brewing Company, so carbs on carbs.

SLEEP The Mill House Inn (millhouselander. com), built in 1888, is a former flour mill now beautifully renovated into a boutique hotel that blends the

building’s history with a modern farmhouse look. Rates start at $110 per night. If you want out-the-door adventure, head to the Sinks Canyon State Park campground (bit.ly/2Nthffj), just south of Lander. It’s small, open year-round, and overnight camping permits for non-residents run a very reasonable $18 per night.

PLAY Home to the renowned National Outdoor Leadership School (nols. edu), Lander and its surroundings are flush with natural beauty and ample opportunities for outdoor activities.

The landscape in the Lander area is rich in limestone and granite rock walls, which makes it a revered destination for climbers. Sinks Canyon State Park (sinkscanyonstatepark.org) is just a short drive from downtown Lander, and holds more than 300 trad and sport routes. Lander has garnered such a reputation amongst the climbing community that the town hosts the International Climbers’ Festival (climbersfestival.org) every July. Sinks Canyon State Park also offers a variety of mountain biking and hiking trails, with the three-mile round-trip Middle Fork Falls hike being a favorite to view the Popo Agie River melodiously cascading into Sinks Canyon. Avid anglers will also find excellent fishing on the Popo Agie River in the Park.

—Tyra Sutak

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ROLE MODEL WORLD CHAMPION PARACLIMBER MO BECK CRUSHES ON EMPIRE OF THE FENCELESS (5.12A) IN BOULDER CANYON, COLORADO. SHE WANTS TO MAKE CLIMBING MORE ACCCESSIBLE. / PHOTO

BY KRIS UGARRIZA

(RIGHT) OTHERWORLDY GEAR BOULDER’S NEPTUNE MOUNTAINEERING PLANS TO SHOWCASE CROWD-SOURCED BRANDS. / PHOTO BY GREG MIONSKE

LOCAL HERO: MAUREEN BECK

T H E C H A M P I O N PA R AC L I M B ER LO O K S TO T H E FU T U R E O F A DA P T I V E C L I M B I N G

SINCE MAKING A SPLASH IN THE CLIMBING

world after she was featured in the 2017 documentary “Stumped,” which chronicled her aim to climb a 5.12a route in Eldorado Canyon, paraclimber Maureen “Mo” Beck has continued pushing to new heights.

Beck was born without her lower left arm, which didn’t stop her from trying any sport she pleased, including competitive climbing during college.

In 2013, she competed in her first adaptive competition and she hasn’t looked back. After winning two IFSC World Paraclimbing Championships, claiming six national titles and earning the title of 2019 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, she now wants to remove barriers for other climbers who face challenges.

As an instructor at Boulder-based nonprofit Paradox Sports, she aims to make climbing more accessible for adaptive athletes by educating climbing gyms about how to better work with people with disabilities.

“The goal is that if someone comes into a climbing gym in a wheelchair, the person behind the desk won’t just give you a blank stare, but recognize that with a few adjustments, that person can climb like anybody else,” she says.

Beck, who is a member of USA Climbing’s Adaptive Committee, says

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TOP EDUCATION

she’s also excited to see the sport of competitive adaptive climbing blossom. She looks to reclaim her title at the next World Championships in Hachioji, Japan, this August among stiff competition.“It’s so cool,” she says. “There are so many strong competitors out there now.”

—Melanie Wong

CMC STUDENTS GET OUT AND AFTER IT. / PHOTO COURTESY COLORADO MOUNTAIN COLLEGE

GEAR LAB FOR DECADES, FRONT RANGE GEAR

junkies have gone to Boulder's Neptune Mountaineering to see and buy the latest and greatest in outdoor gear.

This August, the store's customers will also get to discover fresh, innovative products from a new generation of brands launched through successful crowd-funding campaigns.

The Neptune LAB features a rotating selection of 10 to 12 curated products that have taken off on platforms such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. LAB customers get to see and handle the products and learn about the original crowdfunding project through interactive videos and signage. Some products are outdoor gear while others are more unexpected, such as ingenious pet toys or beautifully designed tech gear.

See what the LAB is all about at the program’s launch event on August 7. Participating brands and the inventors will be in the store for a happy hour at 6 p.m., followed by a Q&A on product design, innovation, and crowdfunding at 7 p.m. Find out more and reserve tickets via the Events link at neptunemountaineering.com. —M.W

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OUTDOOR 4.0 COLOR A DO MOUNTA IN COLLEGE W INS THE ELE VATION OUTDOORS TOP A DV ENTURE COLLEGE RE A DER POLL FOR THE SECOND Y E A R I N A ROW. ONCE AGAIN, COLORADO MOUNTAIN

College (CMC) crushed the Top Adventure College poll that it won last year, beating out 32 other schools and prestigious programs (and former winners) including Western State Colorado University, Prescott College, and the University of Utah. Upstart Red Rocks Community College (rrcc.edu) took second place. But really it should be no surprise that CMC took top honors for a second straight year. With 11 campuses located from Steamboat Springs to Aspen to Breckenridge, the school puts a premium not just on experiencing the outdoor adventure in its mountain towns, but also on

building a career that can keep grads involved in and adding to the wider outdoor community—be that working as a ski patroller, life-flight nurse or CEO at an outdoor gear startup. CMC is even offering a new Avalanche Science program developed with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center to educate snow safety professionals.

The school maintains that outdoor education is good medicine for any profession. CMC President Carrie Hauser believes that more time in the wilderness can make for a better world. “Just imagine if every sixth grader, or college freshman, or new employee at a company spent a few days, or more, on a wilderness trip,” she said. “It is through such an experience that participants of any age come to appreciate and value our fragile planet, contemplate ways to make a difference, and rally others to do the same.” coloradomtn.edu —Doug Schnitzspahn

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F L A S HP O IN T | 0 8 .1 9

A finger on the scale THE 2020 HIGH LONESOME 100 WILL BE THE FIRST ULTRARUNNING RACE TO ACHIEVE GENDER PARIT Y.

T

by M.T. ELLIOTT

he starts to most 100-mile ultra-running races look very similar. Runners, barely visible beyond their headlamps in the rising dawn, slowly shuffle toward the start line. They twitch with excitement.

Their anticipation is sated by the bang of a gun, and they take off at a relaxed pace, mindful of the hours to come. For the first few hundred feet, the runners enjoy the cheers and sounds of bells and noisemakers in the hands of supporters and members of the public who have arisen this early to see them off.

The scene continues: Rows of runners, mostly white men, funnel onto a singletrack trail and disappear into the wilderness. They embark on a rite of passage. This is the world of 100-mile races, where the awards come in the form of belt buckles rather than medals. The appeal of such a grueling feat is whether and when the competitiors will arrive at their destination in 36 hours.

The pre-dawn start is one of the beautiful moments, when everything is going well and the absurdity of running 100 miles hasn’t kicked in. Soon the combined challenges of altitude, elevation gain, and digestion will cull large portions of the field.

There’s just one glaring problem with

14

“We can't solve society's problems as a 125-person race, but we can prevent our race from having a gender imbalance before we get too far along in the process,” Efta says.

this scene—there are not enough women.

The fields of these races have been overwhelmingly male since they began, with the rare race making a big show when a paltry one-quarter of its field are women. But one race in Colorado may change everything.

In late June, The High Lonesome 100 Endurance Run shook up the ultra status quo when its directors announced that next year’s race will have a lottery weighted to encourage and accept equal entrants from women and men. In essence, the start corral of the 2020 High Lonesome will likely hold as many women as men, making it look different than every 100-mile race that came before it.

A Changing Demographic

The High Lonesome 100 is a loop course that winds through the southern end of Colorado’s Sawatach Range, beginning and ending at the base of Mount Princeton. Only in its third year, the race’s directors, Kelsey Banaszynski and Caleb Efta, were reluctant to adopt a lottery process for such a nascent event.

But last November, the available slots for this year’s race sold out in eight minutes.

The waitlist, nearly as big as the field, filled up an hour later, and hundreds more were shut out—calling for a lottery process.

Before the organizers implemented one, however, they wanted to address issues that have been rumbling in the trail running community in recent years.

E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S / A U G U S T 2 01 9

These ranged from equity in sponsorship (podium spots, and prize money) to inclusion (low female turnout and gender determination).

Banaszynski says they had been watching their own registration and participation percentages hover around 20 percent for women and started to have conversations with the ultrarunning community on how they could get that number closer to 50 percent.

Banaszynski and Efta had partly avoided a lottery because they are often weighted toward past finishers or the number of years applied. “We didn’t want to create a system that perpetuated low female registration,” Banaszynski says. “If you have a point system put into place at a time when you have 20 percent or fewer females, that’s just going to stay in place.”

Data from Ultrarunning shows this is common. Races around 50K and 50 milers see female participation rates of 30 to 35 percent, but once the distance stretches to 100 miles, the participation dips to 20 to 25 percent.

So why aren’t women as likely as men to race more than 30 miles? Finding the time to train can cut into an already demanding family life, where by cultural norms or other factors women most often play the dominant role. More women are also likely to be raising children on their own, according to Census data. And pregnancy can cause a runner to defer a year or more.

Efta acknowledges that more women are interested in and A WOMEN'S PLACE have the capacity to INSTEAD OF THE run longer distance TYPICAL WHITE races yet they are MALE BRODOWN, impeded by reasons THE 2020 HIGH LONESOME well beyond a ENDURANCE RUN registration form.

WILL LOOK A “We can’t solve LOT MORE LIKE THIS. / PHOTOS society’s problems COURTESY 90 MILE as a 125-person PHOTOGRAPHY race, but we can prevent our race from having that imbalance before we get too far along,” Efta says.

The High Lonesome 100 is allowing women more time to register; that is the finger on the scale.

A welcome change

With a much smaller pool of women running 100-mile races, the odds to gain entry to the High Lonesome under the new policy will be far greater for women than for men, who make up the vast majority of participants of other ultras, including Bear, Leadville, and the Hardrock 100.

The High Lonesome 100 is a qualifier for the well-established Hardrock 100.

Along with Hardrock’s prominence in the ultra scene comes a large, multitiered lottery pool that weighs entries toward veterans and those who have entered multiple times. Some runners spend a decade waiting to “win” an entry into that race. (With this year’s Hardock canceled due to snow pack and avalanche debris, it’s current lottery and waitlist will carry over to next year’s.)

The couple also knew they had a popular race without the burdens of

success and precedent that races like Leadville, Bear, and Hardrock have. To qualify for the sport’s most prominent 100-mile races (or longer) runners must qualify at other 50-mile or 100-mile races. New runners have the odds decidedly stacked against gaining entry into those races. “By virtue of how many people enter and how long they’ve been around, they don’t have the mobility to make these kinds of changes,” Efta says.

The High Lonesome lottery weighs only gender, not past performances, and only for a week. When the lottery registration for the 2020 race opens up for a week November 4-10, the 124 entries will be divided into two pools— one for men, one for women. (Yes, there is a non-binary policy, but for this aspect of the registration process they are asking runners to use the gender they were assigned at birth.)

Based on last year’s registration, the 62 slots allocated for men should fill up within five minutes and begin accumulating reserves. What organizers will monitor closely is when the 62 slots allocated for women are filled. “The demand is there. We’ve got the female capacity to fill the spots, we’re not worried about that,” Efta says.

What that all boils down to is this: Next year’s race will give 35-40 more women than average a chance to qualify for the next season’s ultras. The math of that could start to counter the prevalence of locked-in imbalances in the sport’s most prominent races.

BEYOND THE STARTING GATE

Training for ultras takes up a lot of time, as do new additions to a family. The High Lonesome already allowed deferments for pregnant women and now the race directors have expanded its new child deferral policy to include both partners.

The policy also includes the adoption of children under the age of five.

This year’s race will also create more exposure and encourage more female participation through an aid

station fully-staffed by women, and not just those with previous experience running an ultra. The idea is to allow a small group of women to check out the community and be a part of the race and without running in it.

The race directors and their advisory board also brainstormed ways to address how transgender or non-binary runners could register but the team couldn’t reach a satisfactory conclusion. Then the Western States

Endurance Run (WSER) board adopted a policy to allow runners to compete under a self-identified gender, and the High Lonesome decided to adopt the same policy. (WSER does require trans women that finish in the top ten to provide documentation of undergoing hormone therapy). Non-binary entrants, while only eligible for place awards in their birth gender pool, can select a desired pronoun in the registration process.

Efta says the online feedback has been mostly supportive, though there are critics. Some have complained that the policy unfairly takes away race entries from men—though “taken away” is poor language, since none of the lottery entries have been awarded yet.

But such a male-dominated sector of the sport, anything to grow or shake up the status quo is seen as “taking away” spots from men.

“We’ll see where it goes,” Efta says.

“There’s already talk of some other races adding similar transgender and pregnancy policies. Not every race needs to make a hard 50/50 split, but races that have no risk of not selling out are the perfect ones to do this because they are not going to lose entrants.”

For more info on the High Lonesome 100 Endurance Run and the 2020 registration process, head to highlonesome100.com

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H O T S P O T | 0 8 .1 9

Four Colorado Summer Summits W H E T H ER YO U A R E SEEK I N G A C H A L L EN G I N G S C R A M B L E O R A H I K E T H RO U G H A L P I N E W I L D FLOW ER S , W E H AV E YO U COV ER ED.

S

by CHRIS KASSAR

ummer in Colorado means it’s time to head to the high peaks. But, topping out on a peak doesn’t have to mean reaching 14,000 feet and it doesn’t have to require an epic day when you start and end by headlamp (though those are super fun, too!). There’s more than just the top when it comes to most mountains. With that idea in mind, we suggest you try at least one of these four peaks.

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

TWIN SISTERS PEAKS

WHERE: The trailhead is across

Colorado Highway 7 from Lily Lake on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park, 6 miles from Estes Park.

WHY WE LOVE IT: Located in Rocky

Mountain National Park, this tough 7-mile roundtrip hike gives you the chance to top out on a peak and be back to town in time for brunch. A stiff jaunt through quaking aspens and abundant wildflowers turns into easy scrambling to summits offering panoramic vistas of Longs, Meeker, the Estes Cone, the Continental Divide and the rapdily shrinking Mills Glacier.

DO IT: From the trailhead, climb

steadily along the well-worn trail that ascends through lodgepole pine forest, crosses an old landslide, and ascends up a series of switchbacks. Keep an eye out for elk. After just 3.5 miles—but about 2,200 feet of vertical gain—and a short bit of talus, you will reach the top of East Twin Sisters Peak (1,428 feet), where expansive views of the park and Indian Peaks Wilderness reward your efforts. If you’ve got energy, scramble over to the less visited West Twin Sisters Peak (11,413-foot).

SCRAMBLING

NORTH APOSTLE AND ICE MOUNTAIN WHERE: Start at the South Winfield

foot West Apostle Peaks). It’s steeper and rougher than other Sawatch peaks. And if you like life lists, it gives you the opportunity to tick off two of Colorado’s centennial thirteeners.

DO IT: From the South Winfield

Trailhead, head up North Apostle’s southwest ridge, a Class 2 route that gains 3,600 feet. From the 13,860-foot summit, scout out the northeast ridge route (where you’re headed) on Ice Mountain. If you’re comfortable with what you see, return to the 13,460-foot saddle between Ice and North Apostle, gain the ridge, and then navigate your way to find the path of least resistance.

The trail is not well defined here and the rock is notoriously loose, so use caution and be prepared for routefinding, scrambling and navigating steep couloirs (that hold snow well into July, perhaps longer this year) to reach the summit of Ice Mountain.

from the Front Range puts you up on broad, sloping ridges and alpine meadows bursting with a dazzling display of blossoms. En route to the top you will enjoy panoramic views of Mitchell Lake, Little Pawnee Peak (12,466 feet) and Mt Toll (12,979 feet), and you can enjoy periodic glimpses of Longs Peak (14,259 feet) and Mt Meeker (13,911 feet). From the 13,233-foot summit of Audubon, which is the highest of the surrounding summits, drink in big vistas of the Indian Peaks, the Never Summers, Rocky Mountain National Park and even Pikes Peak to the south.

DO IT: Even if you start early, don’t

expect to be alone. Hiking enthusiasts of all levels love this moderately challenging, 8-mile round-trip adventure that delivers relatively easy access to the top of one of the state’s most breathtaking peaks. For the first 1.7 miles follow the Beaver Creek trail through the forest. Near treeline, pick up the Mount Audubon trail as it heads west, meanders over open tundra, and climbs a short talus section before reaching the stunning summit perch.

Trailhead deep in the Central Sawatch Range, approximately five miles south of the historic mining town of Winfield, 26.7 miles from Buena Vista.

BIG VIEWS AND WILDFLOWERS

WHY WE LOVE IT: This scramble offers

Trailhead in Brainard Lake Recreation Area in the Indian Peaks, 15 miles from Nederland. There’s an $11 fee for cars.

CORN SNOW

WHY WE LOVE IT: This easy day trip

from Aspen or 43 miles from Buena Vista.

fun class 3 climbing and the chance to explore the forbidding Three Apostles massif (13,951-foot Ice Mountain, 13,860-foot North Apostle, and 13,568-

MOUNT AUDUBON

WHERE: Start at the Mitchell Lake

GEISSLER MOUNTAIN

WHERE: Independence Pass, 20 miles

AWED ON AUDUBON HIKERS FOLLOW THE STUNNING SOUTHEAST RIDGE TO THE 13,233-FOOT SUMMIT. / PHOTO BY ANDREW BYDLON

WHY WE LOVE IT: Thanks to an epic

winter that kept on coming during a wet spring, there’s a good chance you can find sweet late-season corn turns here if you want to tick off the “skied in August” box (or save this one for next spring). The peaks of Geissler Mountain provide multiple touring and descent options for varied abilities, tons of vert if you want it and views for miles.

DO IT: From the Upper Hairpin Trailhead

(located on the last hairpin turn before the summit if driving up from Aspen) hike north up the Roaring Fork Drainage.

From here, depending on conditions, you can hit either the south face of 13,380-foot Geissler Mountain East—an open skiable slope with an intermediate pitch—or test your skills on the steep northwest face couloir, which may be your best bet in August. On 13,301-foot Geissler Mountain West, look for corn snow on the saddle on the east side or the skiable east-southeast-south facing terrain. For a real adventure, link the east, central and west summits.

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N U ME R O L O G Y | 0 8 .1 9

PHOTO CREDITS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): MATT LEMMON/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, JEFFREY BEALL/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, CAPTAIN DARIN OVERSTREET/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, JIMMY THOMAS/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, DAVID CLIFFORD

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Hard Facts C L I M AT E C H A N G E T H R E AT EN S T H E H E A LT H O F F O R E S T S , EN DA N G ER S P RO P ERT Y, AND DEGRADES THE Q UA L I T Y O F L I FE I N CO LO R A D O. H ER E I S W H AT T H E S TAT E I S D O I N G ( A N D N OT D O I N G) A B O U T I T.

by TRACY ROSS Not that the Elevation Outdoors audience needs convincing that global warming is both happening and on the increase, but to salt the potatoes, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says climate change is “unequivocally” happening across the entire globe. Yearly temperatures are getting hotter, sea ice is melting, atmospheric carbon is growing, and the whole global ecosystem is showing signs of suffering. But how is Colorado weathering the most disruptive climate cycles in recorded history? Read on for a sampling.

9 million

Tons of carbon dioxide Xcel Energy’s Comanche Generating Station, the largest in the state, produced in 2017 through its three coal-fired generating units.

2

ND

4TH 5TH

State rankings for DIA in terms of largest individual emitter of carbon monoxide, largest source of volatile organic compounds, and largest source of nitrogen oxides, according to Westword and the EPA.

ranking in the U.S. for the “urban heat island” effect, just after Las Vegas and Phoenix. Paved areas of Denver are, on average, 4.9 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than surrounding areas. Denver’s answer is to give building owners the option to install “cool roofs,” made from light-colored, reflective materials, which can reduce heat exposure risks, according to the nonprofit news organization Climate Central.

#1

$1 Billion:

Southwestern Colorado’s ranking, in terms of readiness to tackle climate change. Forty percent of residents in this area live in a county with a climate change-related plan according to the Colorado Health Institute.

3 million: Number of Coloradans who live in Wildland Urban Interfaces (WUIs), where neighborhoods and homes intermingle with natural areas with flammable vegetation.

250 Trees a coalition of community members and environmental groups in Denver’s Westwood neighborhood planted in 2017, with the goal of “reducing heat, cleaning the air, and beautifying the neighborhood.”

50% OF COUNTIES WITHOUT CLIMATE CHANGE PLANS

2030: The year Colorado and the rest of the country must cut carbon emissions in half in order to avoid “catastrophic levels of warming.”

2030: The year a new bill passed by the Colorado House of Representatives in April 2019 will do just that.

2030: The year the bill requires Xcel Energy to reduce its carbon pollution by 80 percent, a nation-leading number, according to EPA data SIX: Additional environmental and clean energy measures included in the April bill. Others include new clean energy standards for appliances and building energy codes, and a measure to collect more longterm climate change data.

Percent of counties in Colorado that do not have plans in place to tackle climate change, with the northeastern and southeastern regions ranking the lowest in terms of readiness.

Most Coloradans are aware that the state’s vegetation and wildlife are deeply affected by these changes, but less than half of residents consider their own health to be in jeopardy, according to the Colorado Health Institute.

Amount of revenue low-snow years cost the ski industry— including in Colorado— between 2001 and 2016. which set a record, climbing 15.6% over the previous year according to a report by Protect Our Winters

17,400: Number

of jobs the ski industry lost over the same time period according to a report by Protect Our Winters.

Number of degrees Fahrenheit that Colorado’s average temperature has increased in the past 30 years (the global average was 1.9 degrees during the same time period). That may not sound like a lot, but The European Geosciences Union, in a 2016 study, reported that a 1.5- to 2-degree Celsius increase, currently predicted by the end of the century, would cause heat waves that will last around a third longer, rain storms that will be about a third more intense, and an a sea level increase that will severely impact tropical reefs. Projections also suggest that in Colorado, we’ll experience a higher frequency of extreme weather events, increased water scarcity due to a shrinking snowpack, and unhealthier levels of ozone due to warmer temperatures.

2

410

CARBON DIOXIDE LEVELS The level of carbon dioxide in the air as measured by parts per million. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas releases this as well as methane into the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. According to Westword magazine, Denver’s emissions from transportation have been on an upward trend since 2009, and overall emissions have been flat since 2012. In April, the American Lung Association released a report saying that as a result, Denver’s known ozone problem is getting worse. A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions can curb the problem, and in July 2018, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration released a “Climate Action Plan” that commits Denver to achieving an 80 percent cut in citywide carbon emissions by 2050.

650

Percent increase in annual burn area in the Southern Rocky Mountain Steppe-Forest of central Colorado according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. The group claims that wildfires will continue to burn more land and property in the West as the temperature continues to rise, pointing out that snow melts sooner and forests are drier for longer, making them prime for fire.

3 MILLION The amount of tons of waste that passes through the Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site annually, making it the state’s 11th-largest emitter of methane and largest stationary source of fine-particle pollution, according to EPA data.

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E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S / A U G U S T 2 01 9

S T R A I G H T TA L K | 0 8 .1 9 Had you always dreamed of being a professional skier?

I remember I did two school reports about being a flight attendant when I was in elementary school because I had a fascination with traveling, and when I started ski racing and traveling more for skiing I just thought, “I love this and this is what I’m meant to do.”

You still travel a lot for work.

And you’re a mom to two teenage boys. And you’re a resort ambassador for Crested Butte Mountain.

How do you manage your busy schedule?

NEW KICK EXTREME SKIING LEGEND AND SUPERMOM FISHER RACED ACROSS THE SAND DUNES IN 2018 AT THE REBELLE RALLY IN THE CALIFORNIA DESERT. / PHOTO

BY RICHARD GIORDANO

Wendy Fisher B I G - M O U N TA I N L E G EN D A N D P I O N EER I N G SK I ER W EN DY FI SH ER S T I L L R I P S 25 Y E A R S A F T ER H ER FI R S T WA R R EN M I L L ER A P P E A R A N C E. H ER E’ S H OW SH E M A N AG E S TO D O I T A L L .

by KIRSTEN DOBROTH WENDY FISHER WILL BE THE FIRST TO TELL YOU: She still rips. That confidence should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the big mountain skier’s scene-stealing parts in Matchstick Productions and Warren Miller ski flicks throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, when she was widely lauded as the most dominant force in women’s freeskiing.

All that success came after her ski racing career, which culminated with a trip to the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. Oh and she also won the World Extreme Skiing Championships in Alaska. Twice. More recently, Fisher has been dubbed a “Supermom” by Salomon TV—a film bit she won a Powder magazine “Best Short” award for in 2014—and a resort ambassador for her home mountain of Crested Butte. The now 48-year-old mom of two sat down with us to talk about her philosophy of saying yes, what it’s like being choppered to the top of an Alaskan spine and her newest adrenaline kick.

I went to Europe twice last winter to help coach groups with [Austrian ski racer] Franz Weber, and I was also in Whistler, Utah and Steamboat skiing with private clients and groups. I spent International Women’s Ski Day at Silverton— it was really fun. I gave a talk the night before their women’s ski clinic, and I got to take my sons on their first heli-drop.

I had been dreaming of that day, but I didn’t think it would happen quite so soon! I’ve been teaching ski clinics at Crested Butte for the past 10 years, and if they need me to show someone around the mountain I try and jump on those opportunities when I’m free.

And you’re gone for part of August every year, too.

Yes, Chris Davenport spearheads a South American ski camp called the Superstars Camp in Portillo. Cody Townsend, Ingrid Backstrom, Mike Douglas, myself and Chris [Davenport] are all coaches, and it’s always a really good time. It’s a pretty advanced camp so we’re all ripping around and skiing really fun terrain, and it’s pretty much all off-piste.

What’s it like being flown onto to a massive mountain face you’re about to ski?

I’ll be in the helicopter and I’m heading to this face that looks 100 percent vertical, and in my head, I’m like, “What the eff am I thinking? Why do I do this?”

And then I get on top of this peak, and I have a mantra that I go through on almost every ski slope to build up my ego and get myself back in the game. I say, “I’m skilled enough to be here,” and I deserve to be on

this peak. But when you roll over that face, I mean, it’s still a mystery until you get to the bottom and you’re safe.

And you’ve gotten into offroad navigation rallies, most recently at the 2018 Rebelle Rally, where you spent 10 days driving a Jeep between Lake Tahoe and Glamis, California, without GPS or even a cell phone. Are there any parallels between that and skiing?

I understand lines, so driving in the sand dunes was pretty similar to skiing, and I could tap into that skier mentality and think, “Okay, I need to look ahead, I need to be spontaneous, I can’t stop in the wrong spot,” but it was also very different. My experience with skiing probably helped me get over fear or doubting myself in the rally, but there were times when I was asking myself, “Why do I say yes to this stuff?” It’s a different fear, but I still use what I’ve learned from skiing to get myself to the point of owning it.

Why do you say yes to those types of experiences?

I’m always so relieved that I did it, and I think the more power to you if you try something that scares you or intimidates you or pushes you out of your comfort zone and you get through it. I would regret it if I said no, and then I’d be bummed because I might never get that chance again.

And that’s how I am—not every decision is great and I might walk away thinking, “I don’t know if that was worth it,” but nonetheless, it’s getting me out of my comfort zone and my routine, and I like that.

Have you given the Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame any thought?

Yes and no. That would be an honor, of course, but it’s up to others to decide. I still look at the Powder magazine cover that I’m on with Sarah Burke, Mike Douglas, Glen Plake, Wayne Wong and JP Auclair, some of the top skiers in the world, and I think, wow, I’m really proud that I was mentioned among those people. If I get more milestones like that that’s awesome, but I can’t live my life waiting for that moment or wondering if I’m worthy.

A U G U S T 2 019 / E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S . C O M

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10 R E E L IN’ IN T HE Y E A R S | 0 8 .1 9

YEARS

2009

by JACK CASSADY

March 6 Unemployment in the U.S., which has been steadily growing for several months, reaches 8.1% in February 2009. This is the highest rate since 1983.

Slacking

January 20 Approximately 1.8 million people watch in front of the Capitol as President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are sworn into office.

Obama makes history as the first AfricanAmerican president.

Slacklines hit peak popularity in 2009 with Gibbon making the once fringe sport easier to access for anyone bored with hacky sack in the local park, thanks to a slackline kit with thick, 50-mmwide webbing and a built in ratchet.

Feel the Upslope One of the first advertisers in the first issue of EO also launched in 2009. Founded

by Matt Cutter, Danny Pages, and Henry Wood, Upslope Brewing Company has been growing strong and we have had a big bromance going on ever since.

Issue Number One Famed alpinist and Adventure Film Festival founder Jonny Copp shot the cover of the first issue of Elevation Outdoors, which hit stands in February 2009. His image of Luke Miller telemarking the A-Basin steeps, called out a “Stashes and Steals” package with inside beta on Colorado resorts.

The first contributors to the magazine included Dougald MacDonald, Erinn Morgan, Rob Coppolillo, Eugene Buchanan, and Bevin Wallace. Publisher Meredith Demaso used her home on Boulder’s Spruce St. as the first office, and editor-in-chief Doug Schnitzspahn began a decade haunting local coffee shops with his laptop.

Intern No More Intern Jayme Moye (then Otto) showed up and said she wanted to work on the magazine for free. By the time the first issue hit the printer she was already assistant editor on the masthead and getting paid.

She would eventually become EO’s first managing editor and go on to a successful freelance career winning awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and writing the book, On the Nose: A Lifelong Obsession with Yosemite’s Most Iconic Climb, with Hans Florine in 2016.

not busted In October, the federal government announced it will no longer prosecute those who use or sell marijuana for medical reasons, if they are complying with state law. Colorado had been a medical marijuana state since 2000, when voters approved Amendment 20.

WADE JOHNSON

JONNY COPP

MICAH DASH

Tragedy Remember Them?

Radha Marcum’s “What a Girl Wants” column in Issue One included Cloudveil’s Hoback jacket, “a marriage of Gore’s super light and breathable Pro Shell on the outside and warm, dry Primaloft insulation on the inside…” and Karhu’s Jiil ski. Both companies are now gone.

APR/MAY 2009

In early June, Boulder climbers Jonny Copp, 35, Micah Dash, 32, and Wade Johnson, 24, were reported killed in an avalanche on 21,713-foot Mount Edgar on the isolated Gongga Shan massif in China's Western Sichuan Province. In memoriam, we wrote: “Sure, they could climb far better than you, but they never held that against you. What set them apart, what made thousands of us across the globe mourn them and the Boulder Theatre post ‘Long Live Jonny, Micah and Wade’ on the marquee when they were gone was that they were like us. They were part of the tribe of those of us who live to be outside and value what we can bring to the world more than what we can take from it. Climbers, dirtbags, artists… they instilled their infectious joy in each of us who came into contact with them whether they were on the rock or sea kayaking or just downing espresso. They were our friends. Something feels absolutely irreplaceably empty in me now that they are gone, but, at the same time I feel them here with me, every time I’m outside living fully, every time I smile.”

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VELODROME PLUS:

PEDAL POWER: Spring’s Best New Bikes and Races PARTY’S OVER, OIL BARONS: Salazar Rolls into Town The Perfect BIKE FIT ANDY HAMPSTEN Dishes on Oil and Dirt AMGA Goes International

Everyone Deserves Music Michael Franti graces the cover of the first annual edition of EO’s Festival Guide (a tradition that had long been in place at sister publication Blue Ridge Outdoors). The guide includes listings for the Teva Mountain Games (now the GoPro Games), Jonny Copp’s Boulder Dirt Days, the now-defunct Monolith Festival at Red Rocks, 5Point Film Festival, and an essay about ducky boat racing by Charles Bethea, who is now at The New Yorker.

Legendary Colorado jam band Leftover Salmon reunited to celebrate 20 years of noodle dancing and tasty riffs with New Year’s Eve shows at the Boulder Theatre. “If any band defined the Colorado trend of taking traditional bluegrass and beating it over the head with rowdy long-hair revelry, it was Leftover Salmon. When Vince Herman walked on stage and yelled, ‘Festivaaaal!,’ it didn’t matter if he was in Town Park or the Fox Theatre,” wrote EO’s longstanding Hear This music columnist Jedd Ferris in the December 2009 issue.

A Big Win for Public Lands On March 30, President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 into law. The biggest public lands bill since the Carter Administration created 2 million acres of new wilderness and substantially increased federal funding for research into ocean science, including an ambitious ocean and coastal mapping program and interdisciplinary research into the causes and management of ocean acidification. It preserved 517,000 acres in Idaho’s Owyhee Canylands, a project EO editorin-chief Doug Schintzspahn had worked on in 2000.

Elwayville Scores The God of Skiing himself, Peter Kray begins to pen his beloved Elwayville column for the magazine. “I don’t like that this new Josh McDickless coach seems to think he’s so much smarter than the rest of the world,” he wrote in the August/September 2009 issue.

Elwayville has been an integral part of the mag ever since, with the Denverraised Kray telling New England fans to follow McDaniels back home, swooning over his dogs, dreaming of the untracked powder lines in his future, learning from his blue-eyed wife, chasing ghosts and bashing climate change deniers on the back page of the magazine with art from Kevin Howdeshell.

Mommy Rips “It was skiing that made my best friend Julia breastfeed my first son Scout,” wrote National Magazine Award winning writer Tracy Ross in the The Road column in the October/November 2009 issue of EO. The story focused on how mountain town women can shred and still raise kids if they believe in community. Ross, the author of the heartwrenching memoir The Source of All Things, has continued to write for EO for the past decade and joined the editorial team as our indispensable copy assassin in 2017.

PHOTO BY THOMAS O’KEEFE

The First of 16 Breckenridge-based photographer, Liam Doran shoots his first cover for Elevation Outdoors.

Doran, whose work has appeared on the cover of Powder and appears regularly on the Sigma photo blog (sigmaphoto.com/ photographer/ liam-doran/) has gone on to shoot 16 covers for EO in the years since… and counting.

Water on the Brain Off Yondering

Meet Devon Balet Photographer Devon Balet scores the cover for the magazine’s May/June 2010 bike issue with a shot of Jay Henry of Tokoyo Joe’s in the midst of the muddy Pro race at the Mountain States Cup in Crested Butte. Balet has continued to shoot covers for Elevation Outdoors, becoming a major part of the magazine’s look and ethos.

Freelance writer, videographer, photographer and adventurer, Cameron Martindell (who lives digitally at OffYonder.com) joins the team, earning a place on the masthead after a meeting in the then-EO world headquarters—a.k.a. publisher Meredith Demaso’s breakfast nook. Martindell has been a constant force in the magazine, eventually picking up the title of managing editor and running the Quick Hits section in the front of the book.

Cause Climbing Rocker Ruled The biggest mofo-ing legend in all of skiing, Shane McConkey —Pain McSchlonkey— may have passed away in 2009, but his leagcy lived on in rockered skis that float through powder.

McConkey not only made us laugh (often at ourselves), he also changed the way we skied. Everyone was building big floaty skis in 2010, and we gave an Editor’s Choice Award to the McConkeyinspired K2 Darkside in the February/March 2010 Backcountry issue of the magazine.

Author and conservationist Jonathan Waterman, one of the people whose life's work has inspired the mission of Elevation Outdoors, talked about the water crisis facing the West in the May 2011 issue of EO. “It would be unconscionable for any outdoor athlete today not to take a stand against further depletion of our compromised planet. The mountains and rivers and oceans we play upon are all changing for the worse and we have an opportunity to serve as role models to make the buck stop here,” he said.

Fort Collins climber Alan Arnette summits Everest in May 2011 in a quest to raise $1 million for Alzheimers research, and makes us reevaluate the reasons why people climb mountains and the motivation behind cause-based climbs. “I find myself not as concerned about his topping out on all eight summits as I am about his raising $1 million. But mountains, despite all the danger to them, have the ability to heal, to put us in the moment and away from death, disease, politics. So the summits represent something important in Arnette’s larger quest— the possibility of reaching seemingly impossible goals,” editor-in-chief Doug Schnitzspahn wrote of Arnette in the July issue.

2012 Legal Weed On November 6, Colorado voters approve Amendment 64, by 55.32% to 44.68%, making recreational marijuana legal in the state. Since February 2014, Colorado has taken in $1,043,961,209 in tax, license and fee revenue on marijuana.

Howdeshell Are You? Artist Kevin Howdeshell (TheBraveUnion.com), who provides the art for Peter Kray’s Elwayville column, illustrates the cover of the annual May Festival Guide, a tradition that’s still going strong seven festival guides later.

This Is What a Ski Town Looks Like In the first of an ongoing series of reader polls to determine local bragging rights, readers voted Crested Butte the best ski town in the state and local photographer J.C. Leacock proved why with this cover that is still an office favorite. It’s a reminder that we need to remember to keep shit weird in this outdoor world.

Peak Gear Awards In December 2013, we introduce the Peak Gear Awards, representing the best equipment we actually put to test in the field. To determine who got the hardware, we asked our contributors: “What was the best gear you used over the past year? What gear can’t you live without? What gear changed your life?”

The first winners included DPS’s Wailer 112 DPC ski, Flylow’s Labcoat shell, Evolv’s Cruzr shoe and Giant’s Defy/Avail Advanced SL1 road bike.

The awards have continued to be a staple of the magazine with summer and winter editions featured in following years.

The Dawn Wall

The God of Skiing

In Charge

EO’s editor at large Peter Kray publishes his novel The God of Skiing, a mash-up of fiction and nonfiction loosely based on Fritz Stammberger that the legendary Dick Dorworth called “a must read for all skiers” in a Backcountry magazine review. “The God of Skiing is a reverent, ribald, realistic mixture of fact, fiction and fantasy about what some refer to as the sport of skiing but which high priests and devoted acolytes alike know as a way of life.” he wrote.

In September advertising exec Elizabeth O’Connell becomes the publisher of Elevation Outdoors, guiding the business and sales end of the magazine for the next four years.

She says: “EO is real. Editorially it brings both masters of their trade and up and comers to the table sharing a diversity in voice and experiences that few other magazines achieve.

Our readers are loyal. You’ll notice I still say ‘we’ and ‘our,’ a habit I doubt I’ll ever breakbecause when you give your all to something and a team—it doesn’t end like a normal job.”

Badass The first person to ski all of Colorado’s 14ers in a year, Chris Davenport wins the snow category in the first ever edition of our Colorado Resident Badass poll.

But ultrarunner Stevie Kremer beats the ski legend out when the readers vote for Colorado’s Ultimate Mountain Athlete. One main concept that has endured in this poll is that there are no separate categories for men and women, all genders compete on equal ground.

Inclined for Speed On September 25, Joseph Gray sets the speed record on the Manitou Incline, racing up the brutal .88-mile, 2,011-vertical foot trail in 17:45. Gray, who has been named USATF Mountain Runner of the Year nine times, was featured on the cover of the September 2016 issue of the magazine, EO readers voted him Colorado’s Endurance Badass in the January 2019 issue and he wrote about overcoming injury in the June 2019 issue.

In January, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgesen free climb the Dawn Wall on Yosemite’s El Cap, capturing the imagination of the world on national news over the 19 days it took to pull off one of the greatest achievements in rock climbing. We said: “In the midst of ISIS, gun debates and partisan politics gone amuck, it proved that there is still something basic and good in dreaming in the American wilds, something inside us all, even if we can’t compete on Tommy’s level. Best of all, when he finished, Caldwell called for better protection of those wild lands that allow us to dream big.” EO readers voted Caldwell the winner of the Resident Badass title in January 2016.

Colorado Outdoor Rec In June, Gov. John Hickenlooper appoints Luis Benitez the first director of Colorado’s brand new Outdoor Recreation Industry Office. In an interview with EO’s Kelly Cassidy, he said: “Colorado has access that is unmatched in most other states for individuals, but, when it comes to trying to start an outfitter and/or potentially a wilderness education school, or a mountain bike guide service, basically anything that requires permitting, it’s incredibly hard. My goal is to help start this conversation for Colorado as a state, and, hopefully, federal level to see if we can have a different conversation about access.” Fifteen states now have offices of outdoor recreation.

Fourteener FKT In July, Andrew Hamilton blows away the supported speed record for climbing all of Colorado’s 58 mountains over 14,000 feet, ticking off the feat in 9 days, 21 hours and 51 minutes. In 2018, Hamilton becomes the first to climb all the Fourteeners in winter.

Stand at Standing Rock

PHOTO BY ARNIE PAPP/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

In April, indigenous people, many declaring themselves Water Protectors, and conservationists begin mass protests against the construction of the Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access Pipeline, especially on the Standing Rock Reservation. It is the largest concentrated gathering of Native People in the U.S. The protests run until February 2017, when the Obama administration denied a key permit for the pipeline. A few months later, the Trump administration reversed that decision and approved construction.

Joy in Elwayville On February 7, The Denver Broncos, led by an aging Peyton Manning and a lockdown defense, win the Super Bowl, beating the Carolina Panthers 24-10.

Best of the Rockies

Senior editor Chris Kassar’s story about climbing Denali with her partner and a group of vets recovering from PTSD in the March issue of EO wins silver at the North American Travel Journalists Association awards.

Kassar’s EO work also won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2014 and 2015 and won at the Travelers’ Tales Solas Awards in 2018.

Bear Ears national monument On December 28, 2016, President Obama proclaims the 1.3-million acre Bears Ears National Monument. Five different tribes (Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and the Ute Indian Tribe) consider the area sacred and joined together for the first time in their histories to advocate for the monument.

Best Rockies

OF THE The magazine premieres the Best of the Rockies reader 2 016 poll, which has become an ongoing tradition. The winners in the first edition included Steamboat Springs-based Big Agnes taking home the bragging rights as Best Outdoor Gear Brand, a title it also won in 2018 and 2019; Jackson, Wyoming’s Mangy Moose as Best Après Spot; the Hardrock 100 as the Toughest Race; Carbondale Colorado’s Backbone Media as the Best Outdoor-based Company to Work for and Leadville, Colorado, as the Best Place to Engage in Illicit and Nefarious Activities.

PHOTO BY LAUREN DANILEK

Women Rule

OR Goes CO PHOTO BY LIAM DORAN

REC Act

Determination on Denali

On December 8, President Obama signs the Outdoor Recreation Jobs and Economic Impact Act of 2016 into law. The bill ensures that outdoor recreation will be counted as a part of U.S. GDP by the federal government. In an insane election year, the bill saw bi-partisan support. Republican Sen. Cory Gardner said: “This bill would allow lawmakers to make informed policy decisions to further enhance the industry by understanding the impact recreation has on our economy, and I look forward to working to ensure this commonsense bill moves through the legislative process. Congress could use a little fresh air, and this bill shows the value of it.”

The Outdoor Retailer trade show announces it will move from its longtime home in Salt Lake City due to the state legislature’s and Gov. Gary Herbert’s anti-public lands policies that include selling off and overtaking federal lands in the state. The show, which accounts for $110 million in economic impact announces it will move to Denver, Colorado, in August.

Stand Down the River Morgan Tilton’s story about being the fist group to stand-up paddlebaord down Utah’s Escalante River wins bronze at the North American Travel Journalists Association Awards.

Boulder’s Margot Hayes becomes the first woman to climb 5.15, ticking off La Rambla in Spain.

We celebrate Hayes and other women climbers in the August Mountain issue of EO in a piece by Georgie Abel. She wrote: “In my experience, women’s climbing communities celebrate two distinct types of success—one, moments like Margo Hayes sending La Rambla, and two, a new type of triumph that the climbing world hasn’t yet seen in mainstream media. Women are not just celebrating the first female 5.15, but they are also celebrating their first lead after having a baby, their first solo-trip, their first trad lead and most notably, they’re celebrating each other.”

Trump Shrinkage President Donald Trump slashes the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments in Utah by 2 million acres. Bears Ears shrinks to just 15 percent of its original size and Grand Staircase, which was created in 1996 loses half of its land.

NOW OPEN!

WE A R E SKI ER S .

THES E ARE T H E G LOVE S W E U S E .

OUTLETS AT CASTLE ROCK FACTORY SHOPS BLVD CASTLE ROCK, CO

HAND BAKED IN COLORADO Our Tough Glove gloves are hand-baked and treated with waterproofing Sno-Seal bees wax so they’re ready for whatever the day brings.

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SILVERTHORNE, COLORADO Explore the heart of Summit County this summer and discover where art meets adventure. Bike along the Blue River or fly fish its gold medal waters, see a show at the Silverthorne Performing Arts Center or attend one of the signature First Friday community events. Find your next adventure in Silverthorne!

VISIT SILVERTHORNE.ORG

YOU CAN’T DO THIS IN THE MOUNTAINS. Not that you’d want to. The rivers are too cold, too fast, and too full of giant rocks. But that’s just fine because some river adventures have nothing to do with being cold, wet, and in constant danger. Some river adventures happen at a mosey. Just you, some friends, a cooler, and an unsinkable cattle tank.

It’s called tanking.

Invented in Western Nebraska.

You’re welcome.

TankWestNebraska.com

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Colorado Calling!

At the first Outdoor Retailer show in Denver, Elevation Outdoors hosts a party with The Motet at the Ogden Theatre, welcoming the industry and championing conservation, diversity and public lands. Polar explorer Eric Larsen serves as emcee and partner Colorado brands include Upslope Brewing Company, Nite Ize, Osprey Packs, OtterBox, Boa Technologies, Haibike, Lems Shoes, Native Eyewear, Copper Mountain Resort, Grand Junction Economic Partnership, Chocolove, Backpacker’s Pantry, Deuter, Ascent 360 and Lewis, Roca, Rothgerber and Christie Law Firm.

Outdoor Epicenter

In August, VF Corporation, which owns The North Face, JanSport, Smartwool, and Eagle Creek, announces that it has decided to move its global headquarters to Denver, bringing 800 high-paying jobs and making the city the center of the outdoor recreation economy. The company begins to hire Colorado outdoor luminaries including Luis Benitez of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Department, Amy Roberts of Outdoor Industry Association, and Kali Platt of Verde and Catapult Communications.

Brown Girls Climb Advocates for diversity, equality and inclusion continue to make their voices heard in the outdoor space. In June, Outdoor Afro puts the first team of Black American climbers on the summit of Kilimanjaro. In the August issue of EO, Brown Girls Climb ambassador Sasha McGhee writes: “Brown Girls Climb and other outdoor diversity organizations have exposed what some may have already known but others (me included) were shocked to learn: People of color, and specifically women of color, have been climbing and crushing for years. Only recently have they begun to see traces of a spotlight.”

Ikon Arrives The brand new Ikon pass gives skiers access to 26 (now 35) resorts.

The pass—which includes Steamboat, Winter Park, Eldora, Crested Butte—rivals Vail’s Epic Pass in the sheer amount of skiing and riding it offers.

Hoji

As ski touring continues to get lighter and faster with more powerful boots, Dynafit introduces its Hoji Pro Tour, representing years of collaboration, design testing and tinkering between freeskiing beast Eric Hjorleifson and Low-Tech binding inventor Fritz Barthel. The boot wins over EO’s hard-charging staff and wins a Peak Gear Award.

The New Gov

Jared Polis is elected Colorado Governor, the first openly gay man to be elected to the office in any U.S. state. In the March 2019 issue of Elevation Oudoors, our readers vote the environmentally and socially forward thinking Polis “Best Politician” in the annual Best of the Rockies poll.

PHOTO BY MIKE THURK

PHOTO BY ANDREA HITZEMANN/ENECCO OUTDOORS

TranSending

Massive Lands Bill

Climber Erin Parisi, the first openly transgender woman to attempt to climb the Seven Summits, stands atop Aconcogua in March and sets her sights on Denali, Antarctica’s Vinson Massif and Everest, documenitng her climbs on TranSending7.org. She tells EO: “I want an opportunity to stand high above North America on the 50th anniversary of Pride to celebrate the strides our society has made, and bring awareness to the fights we have ahead.”

In March 12, President Donald Trump (what?!) signs the biggest public lands bill of the past decade into law. We wrote: “The John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act … creates 1.3 million acres of new wilderness and 350 miles of wild and scenic river. It designates 700,000 acres of new recreation and conservation areas. It withdraws 370,000 acres from oil and gas development in Montana and Washington. It creates five new national monuments (a dizzying concept since one of Trump’s first actions in office when it came to public lands was to shrink monuments despite massive public support). It even expands the idea and the area of national monuments dedicated to the history of African Americans. It protects something in some way in every single state in the nation. No joke.”

Elevación Afuera!

Joshua Berman interviews Colorado Latino Outdoors coordinators Bianca Garcia and Natalia Ospina in Spanish and English, the first time the magazine has run bilingual content.

Big Move?

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces that it will move its headquarters from Washington D.C. to Grand Junction, Colorado, in order to be closer to the lands it administrates. “This announcement is a step in the right direction and a testament to the work of local leaders,” said Sen. Michael Bennett. “But the details released today also suggest more needs. To be done to establish a true national headquarters in the West.”

The New Boss

Conor Sedmak who has been working as an account executive since 2017 becomes the new publisher of Elevation Outdoors. With experience in the outdoor industry at Dynafit and Warren Miller on his resume, Sedmak is the mag’s biggest fan.

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MOUNTAINCRAFT IT’S HIGH SEASON TO GET UP IN THE HILLS AND EXPLORE THE HIGH PEAKS. THIS ROUNDUP OF ECLECTIC GEAR WILL TAKE YOU FROM BIG, OPEN MOUNTAIN PASSES TO TECHNICAL ROUTES ON ROCK WALLS.

by DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

Outdoor Research INTERSTELLAR A bomber rain shell is mandatory in the Colorado high country, where a bluebird day can transform into a downpour in less than an hour. Tipping the scales at less than 12 ounces and offering plenty of stretch so you don’t cramp your climbing style, it provides all the waterproof breathable protection of a much heavier shell. $299; outdoorresearch.com

Fjällräven KEB TROUSERS

Evovl KRONOS Comfy and easy to slip into a pack, these technical shoes can handle anything from bouldering on Mount Evans to a trip up Longs. The strap system adapts on the fly, the vegan synthetic upper molds to the foot and the VTR system helps alleviate hot spots. $130; evolvspports.com

We fell in love with these durable pants when we saw everyone hiking in them in Lapland at the Kebnekaise Fjällstation in Sweden. Tough, stretchy and made from sustainable fabrics, they can deal with everything from backpacking in Scandinavian drizzle to navigating a via ferrata to kicking back in the hut and enjoying a Norrlands Guld. $225; fjallraven.us

Ortovox FLEECE LIGHT GRID Five Ten FIVE TENIES If you can rock the Sex Pistol color scheme, these approach shoes will take you evrywhere from scarmbles up into the Indian Peaks to after-work scurries up the Flatirons. The retro throwback shoe still performs, thanks to the brand’s Stealth rubber outsole that will get you up low-level climbs. $125: adidasoutdoor.com

The Original Klettersack Back in the 1970s, dirtbag brothers Jim and Greg Thomsen took a break from their Yosemite climbing exploits to found a seminal outdoor brand called Wilderness Experience.

That brand may be gone, but this summer Jim brought back one of its core products, the sturdy Klettersack from 1974 and launched it to roaring success on Kickstarter.

It’s available now at a reduced price. $87-$150; wildernessexperience.net

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This cozy merino fleece is just the ticket for when the temps drop, whether you are sitting around a car-camp fire or soldiering through a final pitch when the wind picks up. It’s light enough to stuff in a pack and forget about and the grid pattern provides surprising warmth for its scant size. $190; ortovox.com

Brazos BACKPACKER OAK WALKING STICK Leave the high-tech trekking poles at home and make like Gandlaf with this sturdy staff next time you wander in the hills. Crafted in the U.S.A. from solid oak, the walking stick makes for a hip, functional companion no matter your age. $60; brazos-walking-sticks.com

La Sportiva TESTAROSSA Here’s your shoe for climbs that push your limits. With a toe shape that helps keep your foot in position and a sticky 3.5mm Vibram XS Grip2 sole—plus heel cups designed for better hooking—these machines will up your game on the rock. $199; sportiva.com

Edelrid SWIFT PRO DRY 8.9MM A good rope for alpine exploring needs to be able to deal with a wide range of activity.

Buffed out with Pro Shield and Dry Shield finishes to withstand abrasion and weather, this faithful companion is triple-rated— works as a single, half or twin rope— and comes in 60-, 70- and 80-meter lengths. $310; edelrid.de

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The Riffs of Summer T H E B E S T WAY TO C ATC H T H AT CO O L RO C K Y M O U N TA I N H I G H T H I S SU M M ER? C A P O FF A W EEK I N T H E B AC KCO U N T RY W I T H A W EEK EN D AT T H E T EL LU R I D E JA Z Z FE S T I VA L .

A

by NATE ETTER fter living and playing in the state of Colorado for just shy of a decade, there is one thing I’ve come to know for certain: Nothing cleanses the soul quite like the Colorado-only combination of a week in the backcountry followed by a music festival in Telluride. It’s the best of nature, followed by a slow return to the best civilization has to offer, followed by a reluctant but refreshed return to the everyday routine.

I discovered this ideal combination in 2014, when I was given the opportunity to cover the Telluride Jazz Festival for The Denver Post’s now defunct music blog Reverb. Enlisting the help of a photographer friend, we decided to link up the festival with a multi-day backpacking trip into the Ice Lakes region west of Silverton. It was perfect: three days and two nights on wildflower-laced, single-track trails smashed up against the bluest set of alpine lakes you’ll ever come across.

By the time we got to Telluride, spirits were sky high and we walked

A BLAST OF BOURBON STREET

into one of the better operated, better booked musical festivals in the country. It was my first introduction to Snarky Puppy, one of my favorite and most listened to bands ever since. As a drummer, it was where I first got to see my two biggest heroes play live, Stanton Moore and Adam Deitch. In short, it was an unforgettable trip, and the start of a pilgrimage going strong to this day.

As the years passed, the scale and difficulty of our annual “Backpack Telluride” trip increased. There was the Elk Park-Needleton loop in the Weminuche Wilderness, ending in the majestic Chicago Basin, surrounded by fourteeners; the Four Pass Loop into the Telluride Bluegrass Festival with a crew of five people; and the Capitol Peak loop with six more.

This year, we will celebrate a five-year anniversary with a plan to return to Chicago Basin, perhaps the most magical place in all of Colorado, followed by the Telluride Jazz Festival Aug 9-11. I have six people on board, from an ultra-running Boulderite training for the Olympics to the saxophone player in my band who has never been on an overnight hike. Things are bound to go wrong, but it’s not the perfection that has brought me back year after year. It’s the unpredictability, the camaraderie and the rugged beauty of sitting back in the San Juans in summer as music fills the air.

TELLURIDE JAZZ FILLS THE BEST MUSIC TOWN IN THE WEST WITH THE WORLD"S BEST MUSICIANS—AND NONE OF THE HASSLE OF BIGGER FESTS. / PHOTOS COURTESY SBG PRODUCTIONS (ABOVE AND INSET), COURTESY OF TURKUAZ (BELOW)

don't muss

TUNE IN TOTHESE FIVE MUST-SEE ACTS THAT WILL TAKE THE STAGE AT TELLURIDE JAZZ THIS MONTH. Turkuaz This color-coordinated, nine-piece Brooklyn funk outfit is the real deal.

Fresh off a Red Rocks performance with Umphrey’s McGee and led by Denver-based powerhouse drummer Michelangelo Carubba, they bring a party few bands can, and their horn section is off the charts.

Lettuce Another act that leans more funk than jazz, Lettuce is on the top of their game this summer after the release of their newest album, “Elevate.” Expect a set heavy on these new cuts, a tight pocket of psychedelic horns, trapinspired beats, and booming basslines from Erick “Jesus” Coomes.

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio Moving away from the headliners, this up-and-coming organ trio from Seattle plays music that just makes you smile.

Delvon Lamarr leads the way on the timeless Hammond B-3, but guitarist Colin Higgins and drummer David McGraw are both as tasteful as they come, playing a mix of choice covers and instrumental soul.

Victor Wooten Band Always on the short list of “best bassist in the world,” Victor Wooten is a legend. A five-time Grammy winner and founding member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, with Wooten you are guaranteed to be mesmerized, entertained and educated. To my point, he’ll host a nature walk to Bear Creek waterfall on Friday at the festival called “Music of Nature and the Nature of Music” in addition to his band’s set.

SPAGA A jazz festival might be the last place you’d expect to find Aron Magner, founding member of the trance jamband The Disco Biscuits, but classical and jazz music are where his roots lie. Stepping away from the jam world, Magner has enlisted fellow Philly musicians Jason Fraticelli on upright bass and Matt Scarano on drums for a project that explores improvisation through an avant-garde jazz lens. •

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Forget time I N T H E E A R LY 1 9 6 0S , A K I D FRO M B O U L D ER W EN T TO YOSEM I T E W I T H T H E L E G EN DA RY ROYA L RO B B I N S W I T H N O OT H ER WAY H O M E, H E L E A R N ED H OW TO R I D E FR EI G H T T R A I N S .

by PAT AMENT

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n the golden age of Yosemite climbing, Royal Robbins was the best climber in the valley—and the country—and he became my personal tour guide to those famed big walls. In 1963, we first met in Colorado and put up a new, difficult climb on Longs Peak. I was 16 and he was 28.

A year later, we climbed in Eldorado and Boulder Canyon and he invited me to travel with him and his wife, Liz, through the southwest desert and then to Yosemite. My parents trusted the two California bohemians. Royal was kind and assured my mother I would have a grand experience. Nothing was said, however, as to how I would return home.

After a rich month of Yosemite climbs and scrounging in Camp 4, I began to miss Colorado and my friends there, especially my climbing partner Layton Kor. I listened to Royal as he spoke with Chuck Pratt and Tom Frost about a new climb on El Capitan already named The North America Wall. Royal told me they had invited Yvon Chouinard, but he had not yet arrived in Yosemite. I could be the fourth man if Yvon didn’t show. I was excited but knew not to get my hopes too high. Nor would I feel any malice toward Yvon if he suddenly appeared in the Valley. When Yvon did slink up the dirt road into Camp 4, an air of both guilt and worry about him, I knew I would only be with them in spirit, the fifth man on the team—a designation as meaningful as the fifth Beatle.

When they set out for The North America Wall, my Yosemite odyssey came to an end. With little to no money left, I had only to figure out how to get home. Rick Horn, a fellow Colorado climber who I did a few routes with in the Valley, was also ready to leave and proposed that we travel by freight train. I had heard Royal talk about hopping trains in his younger years, about how, when he was in the Army, he caught them during weekend leaves, to get back to California to climb.

I gathered my gear, my pack, my rope, my sleeping bag and my small blue suitcase. I mailed home a large climbing scrapbook Royal had let me bring along—it had been a kind of Linus blanket to me. As the climbers started up El Cap, Horn and I stood by the road near Camp 4, thumbs out. A

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When Yvon slinked up the dirt road into Camp 4, an air of both guilt and worry about him, I knew I would only be with them in spirit, the fifth man on the team—a designation as meaningful as the fifth Beatle. couple of green-suited rangers with flat-rimmed, Smokey Bear hats, gave us a look. I had watched one of them roust two climbers from the comforts of Camp 4 due to their overly vagabond look or because they were mildly belligerent. The rangers felt contempt for climbers who pilfered leftovers from abandoned plates in the cafeteria. Sometimes a climber was classified as having “no visible means of support.” The phrase later became the name of a climb.

Horn and I must have looked tolerable, because we escaped unmolested. It troubled me, though, as we left Yosemite, that I would not get to say goodbye to Royal. I thought of the good food Liz always prepared.

I appreciated her desire to make sure my needs were met. I would never forget our climb of Shiprock, that 2,000-foot non-sequitur in the southwest desert, where I sat shoulder-to-shoulder with her in a shallow cave as Royal led above toward a star-filled sky. I remembered

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how the three of us stood together at sunset atop Castleton Tower in magnificent red solitude. It was the third ascent of that Utah spire.

A young man, who said he once raced cars for a living, picked Horn and me up. As we sped out of the Valley, passing beneath El Cap, I strained my eyes to see where I knew Royal was all business. Why didn’t I climb the Nose of El Cap with Horn?

It was time to leave, but I knew I would soon return. At the east end of Wawona tunnel, I glanced back at the waterfalls, monoliths and lofty trees.

I gripped the seat with my hands, as our driver sped around curves and gave us a wild, tire-squealing ride west down Highway 41 through Sierra forest to Fresno.

Sitting there, I carried with me all the emotion and memory of climbs I did in Yosemite. One of the first was when Royal sent me up on Sentinel Rock with Chris Fredericks. Royal wanted me to experience the route without the guarantee of his presence.

It was almost a test, although by now I had climbed quite a few big walls— including the Diamond and Diagonal on Longs. Fredericks moved slow, like a turtle, with all the time in the world to spare, while I was used to the speed demon Layton Kor. Fredericks made strange whimpers. He was not about to fall. He simply made those noises. I thought of the Camp 4 boulders, all the moves Royal shared with me, how he pulled with his right fingers as he pushed in opposition with his thumb. I remembered when we drove into Yosemite, how I thought an immense white cloud had filled the

DHARMA BUMS WHEN AMENT MISSED OUT ON A SPOT ON THE NORTH AMERICA WALL TO YVON CHOUINARD, HE AND FELLOW YOSEMITE CLIMBER RICK HORN (ABOVE) HEADED HOME VIA THE FLATBEDS AND RAILROAD YARDS OF CALIFORNIA, NEVADA, UTAH AND COLORADO. / PHOTO BY PAT AMENT

sky. A rare smile came to Royal’s stern face as he saw me realize that great cloud was El Capitan.

The race car driver dropped us off at the Fresno freight yards. We waited for hours as it grew dark for any sign of a north-bound train. We had gone from the clean air of the Valley of Light to air full of diesel. Long lines of lonely boxcars whistled with wind. An occasional switch engine puttered by.

Rick and I walked over to the edge of the yard a short distance and found a pay phone, where I called my parents.

I told them I was in the Fresno yard, and heard silence on the line. My mother had a friend who’d been killed by a train, and when at last she spoke, she said, “I wish you would do something else. Please be careful. I love you.”

It continues to amaze me the liberties my parents granted me through so much of my youth. My mother, a teacher and no less responsible than the best of parents, recognized that I was a free spirit. Beyond whatever wise counsel she and my father were able to offer, they knew they could not interfere with my dreams.

Rick and I waited in the smoky dark for a mass of moving steel that would take us north. A black man in

a suit, with no shoes, walked up. He asked the way to Chinatown. I said Chinatown was in Los Angeles, to the south, and another in San Francisco to the north. The man told us he had been jumped by two men. They stole his money, his new white Stetson hat, his shoes, and when he resisted they smashed his hands against the track.

He heard them mention the word Chinatown, his one clue in his search for the men. He shook my hand, and I felt his broken bones. He continued to converse and to hold my hand. “May the Lord strike me with lightnin’ if I’m lyin’,” he said, “I have a Christmas name, Wil Noel. Wilbur No...el.”

Wilbur told me he had been in the navy and once received a phone call from President Kennedy. The President addressed him as “Wil.” “May the Lord strike me with lightnin’ if I’m lyin’.” Bored, Rick wandered a short distance away. At last, our new acquaintance, Wil, told me I was the only person who ever had listened to him or cared what he had to say.

He continued to shake my hand and said he would find me when he got to Colorado. He found a discarded paper cup on the ground and with a cinder wrote my name on it. “A trick I learned when I was in the military,” he said.

Wil shook my hand one last time with his broken bones and wandered away in the dark.

flatcar, as it carried us out of Fresno.

At dawn, we arrived in Roseville and jumped off. The sun rose through smog to the east, an orange ball above the horizon. We changed to a boxcar. Inside, we used our packs and rolled-up sleeping bags as chairs to enjoy views of the Sierra Nevada out the open door.

Freight train travel can be slow at times. It may take days to cross three states, unless you catch a faster train, a “hot shot.” A train is a wonderful place to meditate or write, a place to forget time. If you could get a woman to go with you, as I would a few years later, it is a wonderful situation to be in another’s arms below the firmament and to leave behind your cares. There is no better sleep than on a freight, with those cradle-rocking undulations of steel, and not the hard bouncing, shaking, drunken stagger that happens with older boxcars or “flat wheelers.”

After Roseville, the train circled upward through forest on a steep grade with great views of the Sierra, toward Donner Pass. The clean granite and huge trees of those mountains reminded me of Royal and Liz. On the way to Yosemite, we had stayed a night at their winter chalet at Donner Summit.

Horn and I rolled into the yards of Ogden, Utah, the next afternoon. Rick

ick and I caught a freight which carried us a few miles north, to the end of the yard.

We waited here all the next day. As the sun fell to the horizon to the west, I caught sight of a man who sat in weeds not far from us. He stared down between his knees, into the dirt. His face was pink, rugged, and sunburned. He clutched a full, unopened bottle of wine he had resisted breaking into. I ambled over and sat with him a short while. We spoke. I hoped possibly to learn of a life such as his.

I returned to Rick, as a diesel pulled several flatcars south through the yard. Two men stood on one of the cars. With eagle eyes, they spotted the bottle of wine. One of them jumped from the moving train and sprinted toward my acquaintance who sat hypnotized to the weeds.

The runner grabbed the bottle and ran back toward the train. As the train sped up, he sprinted down the cinders. An outstretched hand received first the bottle, then the hand that held it. The other man pulled him onto the flatcar. I glanced back at my rugged, sunburned friend who sat in silence, his head hung low.

He shook his head slowly in disbelief.

At last, a Southern Pacific freight moved north. As I ran beside a flatcar, I threw my small, blue suitcase up and made a difficult mantel with my heavy pack. My legs dangled, nearly brushing the wheels. We enjoyed the first-class accommodations of that

A train is a wonderful place to meditate or write, a place to forget time.

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knew this to be a place where they trained “bulls,” railroad detectives, and as many as 35 bulls might be in the yard at one time. One had to learn the ropes—and there were other dangers. We had to block a boxcar door with a piece of wood, so we did not get locked inside or it slam shut and chop off one of our heads.

We jumped from our train before the yard, walked around the yard, and at its south end caught a train on the Union Pacific line to Salt Lake. Here, we would catch the Rio Grande to Denver.

In the Salt Lake yards, we leaned against our packs and at last drifted to sleep. A train to Colorado moved south. We had paid attention for hours, then, after we closed our eyes, did not see or hear our train start to roll. We awoke to the noise, as the train sped up. We grabbed our packs and ran. It became clear the train was now going too fast.

Then a wonder took place, one of those exclamation marks in life we call a miracle. The engineer saw us, slowed, and waved for us to get on.

To hear the domino bang of boxcars as they crashed together and see the train decrease speed gave us new

energy. We ran beside a piggyback, a flatcar that transports semi-trailer trucks, and as the train slowed, we jumped on. We settled under a truck between its huge rear tires. A piggyback was the ideal way to ride the freights in warm weather. The truck provided protection from rain yet allowed for a view out both sides— whereas in a boxcar often your view was only out the open door of just one side.

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ailroad workers were not our enemies. In fact, most of them were willing to help. They would fill your water bottles—as long as you were not a runaway. In the middle of the night, they might let you know the car you were on had to be uncoupled from the main train. Some of their fathers rode the freights during the Depression. The train roared and rattled over Utah’s Soldier Summit, the weather growing colder. Winter was about to arrive. It snowed and then stopped. We found ourselves in Grand Junction’s freight yards, where again we needed to change trains. We climbed onto a flatcar and rolled out our sleeping bags. This was asking for it, should we be caught out in the open in a storm. Our freight roared through the mountains, where any tunnel gave us warmth for a short spell.

We passed Winter Park. The upcoming, infamous, nine-mile Moffat Tunnel was near, and we held our sleeping bags open in the wind—to fill them with air. We crawled into them and—at the entrance to the tunnel— held our bags closed. To minimize the need to breathe, we didn’t move a muscle as we entered the blackness.

We were happy for the tunnel’s shelter out of the cold yet knew the danger of breathing too much diesel smoke. Some years later, they would place blowers in the tunnel. In 1964 there were few or none.

After four or five miles, we used up all the good air and began to inhale the dirty stuff. We emerged through East Portal, after a million ties through dark smoke for six miles under the Continental Divide. We gasped for the

FREIGHT TRAIN IDYLL THROUGHOUT THE 1960S, AMENT RODE THE RAILS BETWEEN HIS BOULDER, COLORADO, HOME AND YOSEMITE CLIMBING. / PHOTO BY PAT AMENT

untainted, cold air of the Rockies.

This would be the first of many freight train adventures (and probably the least problematic of them all). Not quite two years later, I would take the young kid Roger Briggs home from Western Colorado on the freights after an adventure in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. In 1967, I would jump off a train in Sacramento, roll down a hill, and break my elbow, then head to the Valley and, with that broken elbow, make the ninth ascent of the Nose of El Cap. In 1968, after riding the freights to California to visit a girlfriend in Berkeley, I would begin to return the same way. II had been suffering from a kind of PTSD and went into a crisis deep in the night where I considered jumping from a speeding train. Some kind of intervention of the gods saved me.

In the mountains west of Denver, Horn and I lay in our sleeping bags on our flatcar. We were exposed, and a hard snow fell on us. Each short tunnel gave us a moment’s respite from the frigid air. I squinted from my sleeping bag, eyes half blocked by my stocking cap, and between tunnels I saw a single, brilliant red line across the length of the eastern horizon. The sun would be up soon .

In the break between two more short tunnels, I could make out Eldorado Canyon below us. I could picture Layton Kor, that tallest gendarme on the mountain, like James Dean, the personification of restlessness and wild energy of American youth. Horn and I bounced, shook, and shivered. The snow let up.

The sharp point of the Yellow Spur was a black silhouette—Royal and I had stood on that pyramid summit.

He and his partners were far up The North America Wall by now, they too in a storm. I had returned from paradise on a snowy freight train and roared toward the morning of creation.

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The Highlight reel LE T ’ S CELEB R AT E A D EC A D E O F COV ERI N G D EN V ER, D O G S , G H OS T TOW NS A N D T H E CO LO R A D O LI FE O N T H IS PAG E.

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by PETER KRAY

ow, 10 years of Elevation Outdoors.

It’s been a privilege to contribute to this magazine, writing about the things that matter most to me, and I hope to all of you, including the Rocky Mountains, family, dogs, skiing, music, craft beer, being outdoors and of course, Broncos football.

I realize I may have lost a few (lot) of you with that last subject, since so many Coloradoans lived somewhere else before they moved. But when I was growing up here, Denver was considered a cow town, known outside the ‘303’ for little more than its beautiful mountains, mile-high elevation and Coors.

Our major league sports teams (all two of them) were also-rans for so long that the place lost its collective mind when John Elway became quarterback of the Broncos. Other than the tooshort Nuggets career of basketball legend David “Skywalker” Thompson, and the Broncos’ first-ever first-round pick, Floyd “The Franchise” Little, this state had never had a big-time sports star like Elway before.

More than anything, Elway’s athletic talents helped invite MileHighers to the communal sports-talk table, where BS’ing about hard-fought playoffs and dramatic overtimes sets the stage for the kind of conversation that might explore more pressing issues. Like how the hell we address climate change for a starter.

Elway’s rise also coincided with a series of progressive leaps for the Queen City of the Plains, including the arrival of the Colorado Rockies and Avalanche, downtown’s transformation from a landscape of vacant warehouses and dive bars into a thriving metropolis, and a truly international airport in DIA, as the former Stapleton strip only offered border-crossing flights to Canada and Mexico.

For good and bad, the change has only accelerated since. But some things stayed the same as well. Here are 10 of the biggest changes the Centennial State has—or hasn’t—experienced since the launch of EO:

#1 LEGAL WEED You thought this town was lit? One billion in state revenue and almost a dozen other states following suit later,

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Illustration by KEVIN HOWDESHELL / THEBRAVEUNION.COM

Colorado’s legal weed legislation set the Centennial State up as the new Pied Piper of unfettered pot smoking, kickstarting a North American phenomenon that went countrywide in Canada. Weed migrants followed. So did a mountain of previously un-taxed income to benefit the state. Just don’t trip that the recent legalization of magic mushrooms will do nearly as well.

#2 BEER STILL RULES From the gold-canned shadow of Coors beer to the more recent legends of Avery, New Belgium, Upslope, The Wynkoop and The Great American Beer Festival, you can pour something local in almost every Colorado zip code. And you can now can get regular strength beer in the grocery store. Isn’t beer what groceries are?

#3 OUTDOORS In maybe the biggest “DOH” moment in recent Rocky Mountain history, Colorado was the second state to legislatively recognize the economic value of its iconic outdoors. The Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry, established in 2015 by former Governor and present presidential candidate John Hickenlooper, mandated that the state support and market the recreation industries that brought most of us here. (Thanks, Hick!)

#4 I-70 Unfortunately, other than the creation of a pay-to-pass speed lane for highway highrollers, I-70 mountain access has changed about zero

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percent in the past decade. And I don’t know of any smart-guy solution for curing the granite gridlock. The Summit Daily News reported that 67 percent of the respondents to an I-70 Coalition poll said they are skiing less because of I-70 traffic. Which I still don’t think adds up to more tracks for me and you.

#5 THE SKI SEASON The 2018-2019 season was so deep, terrain-changing avalanches rocked the highway near Frisco as well as Aspen’s Highland Bowl. A-Basin was open through the Fourth of July for the first time in eight years. By Memorial Day 2018, high water was already gone; this year, it roared through June.

In the Rockies, you just never know.

#6 BRONCOS New head coach Vic Fangio is the Donkey’s sixth in the last 10 seasons.

In that time, they’ve also started seven quarterbacks, including current Syracuse Met Tim Tebow and Hall of Fame first-rounder Peyton Manning, and won one Super Bowl. Which means they remain as unpredictable as the ski season. Except Broncos’ game days are still the best time to hit the hills.

#7 ELWAY The one constant through all the Broncos mayhem? John Elway, the man who made the moves. Despite the consistent rise in lacrosse, indoor climbing, or fourteener topping, he’s still the most important sports figure here in Elwayville.

#8 THE CAMPUS LOUNGE It would be impossible to list all of the great restaurants and bars that dove out of Denver in the past decade, or all the new ones that moved in. And while I thought I would be toasting the second resurgence of The Campus Lounge, a 40-plus-year-old sports bar, where I had my first cold beer with my future wife, they closed again in early July. Dang.

#9 HIGH RISES Skyscrapers are eating up the downtown view, devouring independent coffee shops, momand-pop Italian restaurants and small corner stores. Which makes it more exciting than ever to support your own favorite new ventures, celebrating the independent spirit of living here.

#10 DOGS More than anything, Colorado is the place dogs would have invented if didn’t exist, filled as it is with big mountains, cold rivers and acres of snow. I've lost two pups to old age since I started writing this column, my Bella and Bettie Wonder. But I gained two more, Moses and Rose. (All were/are labs born in Colorado.) When your best friends live only a little more than a decade, you realize how quickly you need to start enjoying the next 10 years!

—ELEVATION OUTDOORS EDITOR-AT-LARGE PETER KRAY IS THE AUTHOR OF THE GOD OF SKIING. THE BOOK HAS BEEN CALLED “THE GREATEST SKI NOVEL OF ALL TIME.” DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE? BUY IT HERE AND READ IT NOW: AMZN.TO/2LMZPVN

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