Elevation Outdoors October 2019 by Summit Publishing

TAOS ESCAPE | LINDSEY VONN’S FINAL SEASON | CANMORE ADVENTURE OCTOBER 2019

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

the resort guide THE I NS I D E LI NES ON THE RO C KI ES ’ B ES T RUN S, AP RÉS, DE ALS , AND S TASHES

THE BEST SKIS AND BOARDS TO UP YOUR M O U N TA I N G A M E

CRESTED BUTTE’S HOT MUSIC SCENE

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W E ARE SKIERS . THESE AR E T H E G LOV ES WE US E .

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E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S / O C TO B E R 2 01 9

7 EDITOR'S LETTER Greta Thunberg and the burning of the Amazon. 9 QUICK HITS Lindsey Vonn and “The Final Season,” three ski-tuning mistakes you are currently making, a respite from I-70, Hanging Lake’s overcrowded woes, weatherproof ear buds, and more... 14 FLASHPOINT Will voters—especially young voters—rally around a popular ballot measure to reintroduce wolves to their ancestral range here in Colorado? 16 HOT SPOT No matter if the legendary steeps of New Mexico’s Taos Ski Valley horrify you or bring you to your happy place, you need to visit this winter. 17 NUMEROLOGY Avalanches—deaths and how to avoid getting caught in one.

18 STRAIGHT TALK Camille Fiducia may still live in her van—but she learned how to make a big difference in the world. 35 HEAR THIS Leftover Salmon and Matisyahu will break in the high-tech stage at Crested Butte's brand new Center for the Arts. 36 THE ROAD A high-school ski racer learns what matters in life when he signs on for commerical salmon fishing on the rough waters of Alaska’s Bristol Bay. 38 ELWAYVILLE What happens when the locals go loco?

FEATURES 20 MAKING A DIFFERENCE The snow is starting to stack up and it’s time to plan for a season of sick lines, secret stashes and good times on sunny decks at our favorite Rocky Mountain ski and snowboard resorts.

23 REAL LOCALS What does a booming outdoor recreation economy mean for the people who call mountain towns home? 32 THE BEST RESORT GEAR Drool over skis, boards, boots, bindings, apparel, helmets, gloves and more (CBD sunscreen, anyone?) that will up your game out on the slopes.

ON THE COVER TJ David finds the balance of light and shadow in the Red Mountain Pass snowpack. by Liam Doran / liamdoranphotography.com

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

and Action Issue

MEET FIVE OUTDOOR INDUSTRY CHANGE AGENTS WHO CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BUILD A BETTER WORLD

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ON LEAD

Through her non profit, Embark, Utah's Camille Fiducia is getting refugees out climbing in a safe, empowering environment.

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C O N T R IB U T O R S | 1 0.1 9

OUR FINAL MONTH

WHAT SKI/SNOWBOARD RESORT IS CLOSEST TO YOUR HEART?

DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN E DI TOR-I N -CHI E F

DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

doug@elevationoutdoors.com

Nothing beats Jackson Hole. See you there this winter?

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 MAN AG I N G E DI TOR

CAMERON MARTINDELL

cameron@elevationoutdoors.com

OCTOBER 2019

COPY ASSASSI N

TRACY ROSS

SE N I OR E DI TOR

Where has the time gone! October marks the end of another successful year for the Live Outside and Play program. It feels like just yesterday we were packing up our lives and moving into the original LOAP van. In reality, this was our third season living on the road. The end of every tour is bittersweet. Thank you to everyone who has helped us out this year. It means more than you know. We don’t like saying goodbye, so we’ll just say... see you soon! G E A R W E ’ R E LO V I N G

CHRIS KASSAR

chris@elevationoutdoors.com G RAPHI C DE SI G N E R

AMELIA MCCONNELL

amelia@elevationoutdoors.com E DI TOR-AT-LARG E

PETER KRAY

CON T RI BUT I N G E DI TORS

LOWE ALPINE: HALCYON The Halcyon series is a modern take on traditional mountain packs. Designed with winter in mind, these haulers make great companions while winter ski touring, ice climbing, or summer rock climbing. The 35:40 liter is large enough to carry your rack, rope, skis, and ice-tools. But it’s also available in a roomier 45:50 liter version.

MOUNTAIN HOUSE: CHICKEN FAJITA BOWL

Chicken Fajitas in the backcountry? What a time to be alive! The Mountain House Chicken Fajita Bowl has become a staple in our backpacking diet. It’s made with real pieces of tender chicken, rice, black beans, bell peppers, corn, onions, and seasonings. The best part is that there are no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. Plus, it’s gluten free!

SEA TO SUMMIT: BASECAMP II SLEEPING BAG (DOUBLE)

Being in the backcountry doesn’t mean you have to be uncomfortable. Case in point, we recently took a three-night backpacking trip to Colorado’s Chicago Basin. At night, it dipped to 35 degrees (in midAugust!)—but this double sleeping bag, packed full of 750 loft ULTRA-DRY down kept us warm and cozy every night.

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

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MARTHA EVANS

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CRAIG SNODGRASS

craig@elevationoutdoors.com DI G I TAL MAN AG E R

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E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S / O C TO B E R 2 01 9

PUBLISHING

conor sedmak

Sweet Mary Jane— always has been, always will be. If you know, you know.

CAMERON MARTINDELL

I learned to ski at a little area in Austria called Kirchdorf in the Tyrol region. I went back recently and I was amazed at how small it really is—my brother and I skied the whole thing in 30 minutes!

TRACY ROSS

When I was younger, I would have said Jackson Hole or Crested Butte. But Eldora is where my boys learned to ski and race, it’s where my daughter will start racing this year, and it’s where I get my five-days-a-week dose of Nordic heaven all winter long.

Chris Kassar

Without a doubt Monarch Mountain—real snow, awesome people, tons of stoke.

Dani Reyes-Acosta

It changes every year, but you might find me at Nevados de Chillán in Chile, Kirkwood in California or any off-the-radar small-town ski hill with lift-accessed backcountry.

Liam Doran

When deep snow blankets the southern Rockies, I will track a storm and chase it to Taos, New Mexico.

Scout Edmondson

Eldora may at times be the best East Coast skiing in the West, but the amount of laughter I’ve had with friends there keeps it close to my heart.

Aaron Bible

Eldora is my darling child and just two miles from home. Telluride is my never-ending inspiration. But Copper will always have my heart.

peter kray

Wherever I'm skiing... although Monarch always has that laidback, friendly feel like a family picnic that pulls at my heartstrings.

E D I T O R'S L E T T E R | 1 0.1 9

TIME FOR ACTION W I L L T H E G LO B A L C L I M AT E S T R I K E S USH ER I N A N E W ER A O F AC T UA L LY D O I N G S O M E T H I N G A B O U T C L I M AT E CHANGE? by DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

n the eve of this magazine going to press, I am planning on striking along with millions of others across the globe who have simply had it with governments that either pay lip service to attempting to slow climate change or sow misinformation and discord to prop up cheap profits and outdated political stances. I hope that our efforts will have been peaceful, effective and heard by those who have the power to actually do something. Meanwhile, the Amazon rainforest continues to burn as I type this letter, a tragedy that could upset the balance of the Earth’s atmosphere (all in the name of cheap burgers, and perpetuated by a cynical lack of government oversight). Also, the Trump administration is busy making sure that our water is more likely to kill us, opening the Arctic to drilling for fossil fuels that are proving to be the impending downfall of our species and converting precious desert lands that had been preserved as a national monument into non-native grazing lots and unnecessary coal mines. It seems that even those who once denied climate change have pushed their arguments to the side and simply busied themselves in a race to do the most destruction possible to the biosphere for no other reason than to stick it to their political

MAKING A STAND THE 16-YEAR-OLD ACTIVIST GRETA THUNBERG IS LEADING THE CHARGE FOR CHANGE. photo courtesy WIIKIMEDIA COMMONS

opponents (who reality is all-too quickly proving are right in this case). Speak up against this gleeful, willful ignorance and you are assaulted by a culture that has given up its ability to engage in critical thought and civil discourse and reverts to insults. In the words of skier and mountaineer Caroline Gleich, a Protect Our Winters (POW) ambassador and insistent voice for action on climate change: “In the past decade of my climate activism, I’ve been called a hypocritical ecoterrorist, a glacier killer, Little Miss Polluter, a dipsh*t, an egotistical stupid little girl and told to STFU for saying we need to act. At times, I allowed that name-calling and abuse to silence me. But I won’t be silent any longer. Don’t let those voices of dissent silence you, either.” It would be easy to fall into a numb resignation over the state of this world—but there is a tidal wave of change coming. Young people, who are quite simply fed up with their elders’ embarrassing inaction and cynicism are dead set on being heard and making changes. Led by the example of 16-yearold Swedish activist Greta Thunberg— who gracefully and firmly told the U.S. Congress, “This is not political opinion or views, this is science.”—the youth of the world (joined by some of us older souls) are looking at solutions to these all-lifethreatening problems. The message is clear: Our fate should not be about political parties or short term profit, it rests in our ability to act as reasonable beings.

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Our high-alpine runs, open bowls and steep chutes may cause fatigue and lapse of judgement.

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The Final Season

GOLDEN GIRL

T H E N E W H B O D O C U M EN TA RY P RO D U C ED BY T E TO N G R AV I T Y R E SE A RC H F O L LOW S T H E S WA N S O N G O F T H E G R E AT E S T A M ER I C A N SK I ER O F A L L T I M E — L I N DSE Y VO N N . NO AMERICAN SKIER HAS EVER SHONE ON THE WORLD STAGE QUITE LIKE LINDSEY VONN. OVER HER CAREER, SHE WON 82 World Cup races (the second highest number of all time), four overall World Cup titles and three Olympic medals (one gold), battling back from injury and adversity along the way. And now, HBO is showcasing her story. Produced in collaboration with ski-film icons Teton Gravity Research (TGR), the HBO documentary “The Final Season,” highlights the details of Vonn’s historic career and her intense last year of competition—during which she set her sights on breaking the record for World Cup victories. “This opportunity was made even more special by the cooperation and collaboration afforded to TGR by Lindsey and her team during what continued to become a complex and incredibly important year in her life and career,” said TGR co-founder and director Todd Jones. “The film reveals her sacrifices, her unrivalled commitment to success, and the personal highs and lows associated with her level of talent and drive.” It’s a fitting tribute to the grit of one of America’s greatest athletes. Look for it on November 26. —Doug Schnitzspahn

VONN WAS THE FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN TO WIN GOLD IN THE DOWNHILL AT THE 2010 GAMES IN TORINO, WHERE SHE ALSO WON BROZE IN THE SUPER G. SHE ALSO WON BRONZE AT THE 2018 GAMES IN KOREA. PHOTO COURTESY TGR SUPPORTED BY HBO

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LAST-MINUTE HUTS

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TUNE IN PAY AT T EN T I O N TO T H E SE T H R EE M I S TA K E S YO U A R E M A K I N G W H EN I T CO M E S TO SK I -A N D -SN OW B OA R D C A R E.

J US T B E C AUSE YO U WA I T ED TO O LO N G TO B O O K T H AT P O P U L A R B AC KCO U N T RY C A B I N , D O E SN ’ T M E A N YO U ’ R E O U T O F LU C K .

RACHEL SUNDE ADMITS SHE RARELY USED

IT’S HARD TO THINK ABOUT A HUT trip

to tune her snowboard. “The closest thing to maintenance was an annual free tune I got at a gear shop if I was lucky,” she says. That changed when she met her future husband, professional ski technician Leif Sunde, who was horrified that she didn’t tune her gear after every use. Leif started maintaining her equipment, which now included skis, and soon, Rachel decided she wanted to learn how to do it herself. After her first self-tune, she was converted. “Learning how to properly maintain my equipment completely changed my relationship with my skis,” Rachel says. “I understood the effect of snow temperature on wax, or how my edge might have caused me to catch during a turn. Begrudgingly, I realized the more you work on your skis, the more you get to know them and the less likely they’ll cause problems on the mountain.” When Leif launched his own tune and boot shop, Denver Sports Lab, in 2014, education was a focal point of the business. He and co-owner Sam Petty aim to offer World Cup- and Olympiclevel service to everyone and their equipment, but they also want their customers to understand the difference such care makes. Rachel wanted to give women a chance to learn tuning basics, too, without the typical ski shop mansplaining. So she launched Ladies at the Lab, teaching women at-home gear tuning and maintenance, all in a relaxed atmosphere over a drink and snacks. The sessions were so popular that men wanted in, and the Lab soon offered co-ed workshops. Check out the two-hour workshops, which run every few weeks during ski season, at denversportslab.com under “Learn to Tune,” and learn from these common gear-maintenance mistakes, courtesy of The Sundes.

when it’s barely Halloween. However, the truth is that if you’re just warming up to the idea of getting a group together for a weekend in the snow—especially if you’re hoping to get into one of the more popular 10th Mountain Division Huts—you might already be out of luck. But, those aren’t the only options in our great mountainous state. If you want to get a last-minute hut trip in, check out these great backcountry digs.

1. You only tune your skis or snowboard once a season. Infrequent tuners—you know who you are—often bring in their gear only when the damage has been done. Taking care of your gear in small ways on a regular basis helps it last longer and perform better. At a minimum, you should wipe moisture off after every use to prevent rust, and inspect the edges and base for damage. Even better, learn how to file and sharpen your edges, and get regular waxes. “You don’t wait for your car to break down before you get an oil change,” says Leif. “When you’re maintaining your skis well at home, it makes it easier for us to give you that perfect tune at the shop.” 2. You never check your edges Run your finger lightly along the ski or board edge, looking for spots where it catches (i.e. ruins your turn). These can easily be worked out with a file and correct technique, preventing

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E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S / O C TO B E R 2 01 9

WAX ON, WAX OFF LEIF SUNDE DEMONSTRATES HIS CRAFT DURING ONE OF HIS GOLDEN-BASED SHOP'S POPULAR LEARN-TO-TUNE WORKSHOPS, WHERE SKIERS AND SNOWBOARDERS LEARN THE BASICS OF CLEANING, EDGE FILING AND WAXING. / PHOTO COURTESY DENVER SPORTS LAB

further damage and preserving your all-important edges. 3. You put your skis or snowboard in the garage and forget about them until the next winter. The base of a ski or board is porous. Wax, besides helping you glide, soaks in and creates a denser base. This in turn protects your skis, making it less likely you’ll suffer a core shot. Getting a heavy-duty base wax at the end of the season allows all that wax to soak in over the summer, so that your skis are ready to go come winter, as opposed to being dry and brittle on your first day. —Melanie Wong

Weston Pass Hut This 20-person hut sitting at nearly 12,000 feet outside Leadville is at the epicenter of untapped backcountry potential. The winter approach is on the longer end—just under 7 miles one way with 2,250 feet of climbing—but the deep wilderness setting means hut guests are likely to have the peaks on either side of the pass to themselves. Look to the hillside west of the hut for everything from mellow, open bowls to perfectly spaced glades. Best of all, the hut, which opened in 2015, is still a relative newcomer and unaffiliated with any big booking systems so reservations are easy to snatch up, even later in the season. Seedhouse Guard Station The U.S. Forest Service is one of the biggest operators of Colorado huts that nobody knows about. Take the Seedhouse Guard Station, just north of Steamboat Springs en route to the Zirkel Wilderness. The tiny fourperson cabin may be minimal but it’s comfortable and puts skiers within spitting distance of powder turns through the ghostly burned slopes of Little Agnes Mountain and tours up the North Fork Elk Creek. But don’t stop at Seedhouse: Browse the myriad of options on recreation.gov for littleused winter escapes.

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Keep it simple with these truly wireless headphones. They’re water and sweat resistant, so you don’t need to worry about playing hard or bad weather and they come with a storage case that charges them up to keep the tunes pumping. Soft-touch buttons and audio control commands mean they are easy to operate, too. $130 | TIVOLIAUDIO.COM

BOOKS TRAINING FOR THE UPHILL ATHLETE

This groundbreaking manual offers a customizable, selfcoaching plan specifically aimed at non-climbers (Kilian Jornet’s idea). It’s a must-have for highaltitude athletes looking to level up, but does demand some effort. You won’t find quick fixes or magic bullets here—just a boatload of solid advice steeped in science-based, athlete-tested wisdom. $35 | PATAGONIA.COM

Serving the Front Range backcountry snow sports community with avalanche safety education, expert advice, amazing deals, and

photo by KYLE FROST

COLD-SEASON WINNERS

EVENTS!

THE WESTON PASS HUT SITS DEEP IN THE BACKCOUNTRY (ABOVE). MARCUS GARCIA HELPS KIDS EXCEL ON THE ICE (RIGHT).

Pass Creek Yurt The six-person Pass Creek Yurt is another system-of-one shelter. Tucked into a hillside at 10,287 feet in the Wolf Creek backcountry outside Pagosa Springs, the yurt is a basecamp for a diverse plethora of backcountry skiing, including tours along the yurt’s access road and the hillsides to the south. Hinesdale Haute Route On the eastern side of the San Juans, the Hinesdale Haute Route touts its status as the highest-elevation hut system in the state. Linking together its two backcountry yurts in a multiday out-and-back trip is a must-do tour with plenty of options for skiing the scenic alpine country along the way. If you reach out to the operators ahead of time, they’ll shuttle your gear to the huts, keeping your bag light and your focus on the turns. —Ryan Wichelns

LOCAL HERO: MARCUS GARCIA B U I L D I N G A FU T U R E F O R YO U T H I C E C L I M B I N G I N DURANGO WHEN ONE OF THE KIDS HE’D TRAINED

beat him at the Ouray Ice Festival competition in 2018 and again in 2019, core climber Marcus Garcia beamed with pride. “That was my biggest achievement yet,” he says. Garcia has put up over 200 first ascents in his decades long rock, ice and mixedterrain climbing career, and is currently ranked sixth in the world in the ultra-

OCT 24

Snow Stoke Social and Friends of Berthoud Pass fundraiser bash

NOV 21 DEC 12 JAN 9

Friends of Berthoud Pass Avalanche Awareness classroom

All events are at Wilderness Exchange at 8 pm photo by DAWN SEYMOUR

daring discipline of speed ice climbing. His real legacy, though, will surely be his contribution to youth climbing. Garcia bought The Rock Lounge in downtown Durango in 2017 because he wanted to see more young athletes excel in climbing. Donating lessons and used gear wasn’t cutting it, so this year, he founded Kidz Rock, a nonprofit aiming to “pick up the bill” for budding climbers who would otherwise struggle to enter into a costly sport like climbing. As a coach for Team USA Youth Ice Climbing, Garcia has helped dozens of youth excel athletically — but the big payoff has been watching mentees develop confidence, self-esteem and other “life” skills. Ice climbing is all about “finding out who is inside,” as Garcia puts it. “Here they are with sharp objects in hand, in a cold environment they can’t control, and the kids I train have to learn to persevere.” —Jamie Siebrase

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O C TO B E R 2 01 9 / E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S . C O M

photo by MORGAN TILTON

EAT, SLEEP, PLAY: CANMORE, ALBERTA HE A D NORTH FOR SNOW, S TE A K , A ND ODD UNDERGROUND A DV ENTURE S. CANMORE, ALBERTA, ABUTS A STUNNING

jigsaw skyline of local summits and sits just 16 miles east of 1.6-millionacre Banff National Park, making it adventure central in the Canadian Rockies. All those nearby peaks make the town the stomping grounds of hardcore icons like climber Will Gadd, but you don't have to climb WI16 to find fun in this region ringed by wilderness—mere mortals can enjoy everything from fat biking to hot toddies on a deck here come winter. Eat For a taste of classy Canadian cuisine with no attitude, head to the 22-yearold bistro, Crazyweed Kitchen (crazyweed.ca). Don't be fooled by the casual atmosphere—the 10-ounce grass-fed ribeye with gorgonzola, pickled mushrooms and cripsy onion strings outdoes showstoppers in far snobbier eateries. Sleep For a mellow vibe and space to play outside, book a room at the Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge (lodgeatkananaskis.com), south of Canmore, near Boundary Ranch and Fortress Mountain. Wind down from a day of adventure in the warm-cold

plunge pools, heated hammocks, exfoliation huts and oil-infused saunas at the lodge’s Kananaskis Nordic Spa, which opened in 2018. photo by TOM SANDNER

Play Jumpstart the morning climbing columns of ice in Johnston Canyon via ice climbing with Yamnuska Mountain Adventures (yamnuska. com), followed by afternoon fat biking on Canmore’s snowy singletrack with Ryan Draper, the General Manager of Rebound Cycle (reboundcycle. com). Draper, a former professional endurance cyclist and owner of Cycling 101 Coaching, knows the goods. The next day, explore the Rat’s Nest Cave, which is home to 2.5 miles of tunnels. An Alberta Provincial Historic Site, the cave protects 3,000-yearold prehistoric tools, the bones of dozens of creatures and geological wonders like speleothems, scallops and 900,000-year-old nub rocks that absorb and refract light. Canmore Cave Tours (canmorecavetours.com), the site’s sole commercial operator, guides spelunkers through the Bone Bed Pit, Laundry Chute, Hose-Pipe Passage, the Grand Staircase—with crystal clear pools—and the Grotto, where soda straws glimmer with purple and neon-green minerals above bright blue water. When you get back above ground, families and kiddos can head south to steer dog sleds with Mad Dogs & Englishman tours at Boundary Ranch (boundaryranch.com), owned by hunting guide Rick Guinn—star of the film “Buffalo Rider”—or snowshoe with White Mountain Adventures (whitemountainadventures.com) on Fortress Mountain. —Morgan Tilton

E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S / O C TO B E R 2 01 9

I-70S BEST BREAK CURSING THE HELL OF COLOR A DO SK I TR A FFIC ? PULL OV ER IN SILV ER PLUME. IT’S EARLY ON A FALL MORNING AS I DRIVE

west on I-70 from Denver. I get off one exit past Georgetown, and enter Silver Plume, a tiny mountain town that’s charmingly lost in time. Plume Coffee Bar sits on Main Street, snug against the mountainside, in the storefront of a beautiful late nineteenth-century Victorian building. Walking in, I’m greeted by Kent Martin, who co-owns the building with his two brother-inlaws, Jack and Brian Watson. As Kent whips me up a latte, I sit in an old wicker rocking chair next to a wood burning stove. Kent tells me that he and his brothers-in-law purchased the building in 2016. After converting the upper-floors into their own weekendgetaway spot, they had the idea of turning the storefront into a coffee shop. A few sips into my drink (made with Huckleberry Roasters’ beans), I feel the caffeine course through my veins. Sunlight is pouring inside the windows. Life is good. My Instagram update will have to wait because right now I am taking in everything this hidden gem of a cafe has to offer me. plumecoffeebar.com —Tom Sandner

ON THE WINTER HOT LIST SNOWSHOERS RAMBLE IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES ON FORTRESS MOUNTAIN (LEFT). PLUME COFFEE OFFERS A RESPITE FROM THE INSANITY OF I-70 TRAFFIC (ABOVE).

THE WOES OF HANGING LAKE A F TER Y E A RS OF HE AV Y IMPACTS, THE OV ERCROW DED L A K E GE TS A BRE A K—BUT HIK ERS PAY THE PRICE. COLORADO CONTINUES TO GROW.

Sometimes faster than we want it to. Case in point: The Forest Service implemented a fee-based access system for the hike to Hanging Lake outside of Glenwood Springs in May, as a way to lessen the destructive force of the lake’s popularity. Limiting access was inevitable: In the summer of 2018, up to 1,200 visitors hiked the 1.2 mile trail on any given Saturday. Parking overflowed onto the highway, and the heavy use, along with complete disregard for Leave No Trace practices, were trashing both the trail and the delicate riparian areas of the lake. With the need for a better management strategy apparent, the local Ranger District of the White River National Forest collaborated with the town of Glenwood Springs to award a concession contract to H20 Ventures. In

photo by LINDSAY DEFRATES

BOOK IT NOW YOU'LL NEED RESERVATIONS FOR BOTH HIDDEN LAKE (ABOVE) AND GRAVITY HAUS (BELOW).

return for exclusive access to the lake, the company has agreed to provide shuttle vehicles, an online booking platform, and employees for the storefront and photo courtesy check-in desk. The GRAVIT Y HAUS $12 permit fee goes almost entirely to H20 Ventures, with just $.60 allocated for the City of Glenwood’s marketing team to promote the hike. The Forest Service still staffs a full-time ranger at the trailhead, but does not receive any percentage of the fee. Permit systems are not new to the West, and neither is the privatization of services. Limiting access to delicate natural areas has become common practice in the last decade as underfunded land management agencies scramble to protect resources. Many destinations that have received an exponential increase in exposure do not have the infrastructure to safely support the number of visitors they have been seeing. Competitive permit lotteries and daily quotas have become a normal experience for outdoor enthusiasts, and are further restricting access to an already elite population of users. Hanging Lake is a unique example of this phenomenon, however, because the land itself has been transformed into a monopolized commercial product. Visitors must pay the reservation fee, which includes shuttle access regardless of whether they ride the shuttle or bike to the trailhead. But the alternative? Until we can create a major shift in our culture to value and respect the natural land, and better fund national parks and forests to protect and educate the public, the land itself bears the cost if no action is taken. —Lindsay DeFrates

WELCOME TO GNARNIA Sure, millennials may have killed the doorbell by way of texting (“L8 but OMW”), but they have given us a spirit of adventure that’s changing the way we work and play. Case in point: Breckenridge Ski Resort’s new Gravity Haus hotel at the base of Peak 9 will debut a new lodging concept this December that can only be described as “experiential.” Its 60 “curated” rooms—with clever names like The Betty, The Gnarnia and The Crashpad—offer a variety of bedding configurations for every kind of unconventional relationship and, of course, pour-over “farm-to-cup” coffee. The hotel’s Dryland Fitness center incorporates group cross-fit-type activities and its high-tech recovery center boasts a hyperbaric chamber and infrared sauna. Other amenities like guided backcountry excursions, duckpin bowling, a “Supertramp” trampoline, Japanese-inspired onsen, shared workspace and the Cabin Juice restaurant (we’re not sure about the name, but hope it has nothing to do with an outhouse) all add up to a totally new—way more social—take on your typical ski hotel. Regardless of what generation you claim as your cohort, it sounds pretty fun. gravityhaus.com —Kim Beekman

ADVENTURE TRAVEL PACKS

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F L A S HP O IN T | 1 0.1 9

COLORADO CRIES WOLF WITH NO MOVEMENT ON POLICY AFTER YEARS OF ADVOCACY TO FEDERAL AND STATE AGENCIES, SUPPORTERS OF THE GRAY WOLF ARE TAKING A L AST STAND IN COLORADO AND ASKING THE PEOPLE TO FOR VOTE FOR THE PREDATORS. by JENN FIELDS

early 25 years after wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park amidst a frenzy of controversy, wolf advocates in Colorado continues the fight to reintroduce them here with a tactic that hasn’t been tried elsewhere: Take the question of reintroduction directly to the people on the 2020 ballot. And they think they can win the vote. “Over the past two decades, poll after poll we’ve conducted statewide has shown strong support— over 60 percent of people— for the reintroduction of wolves. That includes people who live in western Colorado, Republicans, and Democrats—a majority of them, too,” said Rob Edward, president of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund, the political organization gathering signatures this fall to get an initiative to reintroduce gray wolves onto the Colorado ballot. “We know we have the numbers.” The proposed initiative calls

for the state to take steps to begin reintroducing the gray wolf by the end of 2023 on public lands west of the Continental Divide. It requires the state to hold hearings and develop and use a “science-based plan” for reintroduction, and to create a compensation fund for livestock producers who lose animals to depredation. Supporters have until Dec. 13, 2019, to gather more than 124,000 valid signatures to get wolves onto the 2020 ballot. Gray wolves once numbered in the thousands in Colorado, but government-funded trapping and killing of apex predators, including wolves, throughout the West in the early decades of the 20th century eliminated Canis lupus in the Rockies south of the Canadian border. Though one occasionally wanders through from Wyoming, Colorado hasn’t had documented resident wolves since the early 1940s. Wildlife biologists say gray wolves are a keystone species whose absence has set ecosystems from the Flattops to Wolf Creek Pass off kilter. The most visible side effect is an overabundance of another animal that once had to be reintroduced to Colorado—the elk. As hunters trawled the mountains and canyons to eradicate wolves and collect government bounties in the early 1900s, Colorado’s elk population was also in danger of disappearing from overhunting. So in 1916, the state brought in 50 elk from Wyoming to “re-establish dwindling herds,” according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife records. In 2017, CPW reported that Colorado had more than 280,000 elk and, in 2018, it estimated a deer

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population of 430,000. Wildlife biologists say that’s more than enough prey for both wolves and hunters. They also argue that it could be good for herds that suffer bouts of chronic wasting disease, because wolves cull weak and sick elk and deer. “Where people don't kill a lot of wolves, one thing defines their population dynamic: the abundance of food,” said biologist Mike Phillips, who was a project leader for the Yellowstone reintroduction and now serves as a Montana state Senator (D-Bozeman). “It ain’t complicated. There is a boatload of deer and elk in western Colorado.” But, he added, “Wolves are always about more than just wolves.”

A POLITICAL HOT POTATO

Phillips and Edward, along with many wildlife biologists and ecologists, have been pushing for wolves in Colorado for years. The state is a gap in the wolf’s range, which extends from Wyoming north to the Arctic and from New Mexico and Arizona southward. Phillips and other supporters are pushing for wolves in Colorado in part to help boost the genetic diversity of the southwest’s meager population of Mexican gray wolves. It would also give loners wandering down from Wyoming looking for love the opportunity to find a pack to join or to start anew. But the Department of the Interior views the success of reintroductions in the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region as enough. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced wolves in Arizona and New Mexico, starting in the late 1990s, but Phillips, who was also involved with that effort,

CALLING FOR A RETURN? IT HAS BEEN NEARLY 80 YEARS SINCE WOLVES MADE A PERMANENT HOME IN COLORADO AND 25 YEARS SINCE THE POLARIZING PREDATORS WERE REINTRODUCED TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. IS IT FINALLY TIME FOR THE CENTENNIAL STATE TO HEAR THAT UNFORGETTABLE CRY IN THE WILD AGAIN? / PHOTO COURTESY GRIZZLY CREEK FILMS/ ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOLF PROJECT

said it became clear the agency wasn’t planning on reintroducing wolves in Colorado. Advocates can’t wait for it to be legislated because politicians won’t touch it, Edward said. “It’s a political hot potato.” “The politicians are still very cautious of what they do or don’t say about wolves,” said Delia Malone, an ecologist who serves as the wildlife committee chair for the Sierra Club’s Colorado chapter. “I’ve seen a shift in the underlying foundation of how people think about science and how people think about taking care of our natural resources. I’ve seen a shift from the concept of dominating the Earth and being conquerors and harnessing all we have into stewardship and caretaking. But the specific willingness to step out there and say yes, we need wolves—I think it might be frightening for some. I can hear and I can feel the change, but the specific phrase, ‘I support wolves,’ I think is a difficult one for many politicians to make.” With advocacy stymied elsewhere for years, it’s hard to look past the timing of the fresh push for a ballot initiative. A blue wave swept over Colorado in the 2018 election, with Democrats claiming victories across statewide races. But, as the University

of Colorado Boulder’s 2018 Colorado Political Climate Survey pointed out, the state’s voters refuse to be pigeonholed. For example, Colorado voters gave Democrats a sweep but they also shot down a rule that would have created bigger setbacks on fracking operations. Wolf advocates say neither the blue wave nor the steady stream of people moving to the Front Range are factors in the ballot proposal. Edward reiterated that the polling shows that wolves have widespread, bipartisan support across the state, and that advocates have tried all other routes to reintroduction. “It's happening now because we’ve made sure that we exhausted all other options,” he said. The first poll advocates cite goes back to the 1990s, when Edward first became involved with fighting for wolves at Sinapu, a Boulder-based nonprofit that advocated for large predators in the West, including gray wolves. (Sinapu merged with Forest Guardians to form Wild Earth Guardians in 2008.) In the meantime, various organizations have run more surveys, and they’ve shown consistent support

for wolves, he said. “The conversation always shapes itself in a Front Range-Western Slope conflict, but our polling data doesn’t support that with this particular issue,” said John Murtaugh, Rockies and Plains representative for Defenders of Wildlife. “Sixty-one percent support it on the Western Slope, 68 percent of support from voters with hunters in the household, 64 percent from those who derive their income from ranching or farming.” Defenders has played a critical role in reintroducing wolves elsewhere in the U.S., including easing the financial sting ranchers felt when they lost livestock. Over the 22 years after the first wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone, Defenders’ compensation fund paid out more than $1.3 million to livestock producers who lost animals to depredation. In 2009, when the federal government started its own compensation fund, the organization switched tactics. It now offers ranchers free workshops and assistance for nonlethal coexistence programs. In March, Murtaugh was in Walden for a workshop on deterrence

“Supporters have until Dec. 13, 2019, to gather more than 124,000 valid signatures to get wolves onto the 2020 ballot."

practices, which include using range riders since wolves are people-averse, reigniting the herding instinct in cattle and using electrified fence and fladry, lines of brightly colored ribbons or flags that ripple in the breeze and seem to keep wolves at bay. Walden is the county seat of Jackson County, where a collared Wyoming wolf was caught on video in July. A number of people have seen wolves in Jackson County and other northern counties over the years, including Terry Fankhauser, executive vice president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. “There are wolves. Ranchers see wolves,” Fankhauser said, even if the association’s members don’t always report them. A decade ago, one of its members called in a wolf on his ranch in northern Colorado, close to the Wyoming border. “He was feeding cattle on a tractor, and he’d routinely seen a wolf on his feed grounds in the winter, and he sent us a video,” Fankhauser said. “So I went up and saw the wolf.”

HOWL AT THE VOTE

The Cattlemen’s Association is opposed to the proposed initiative, and it was involved in the Colorado Parks and Wildlife commission of multiple interest groups that recommended against reintroducing wolves in 2004. (CPW reiterated

its recommendations in 2016.) “My suspicion is that voters would trust heavily wildlife officials and trust what they had to say,” if they knew they’d already made a call about wolves, Fankhauser said. But he worried the simplicity of the ballot language, which contains no nuance about the complexities of reintroducing wolves, would make it seem like a good idea to many voters. “It’ll go to the ballot. It’ll be a yes or no question. There will be little information,” Fankhauser said. Young voters turned out in surprisingly high numbers for the 2018 election in Colorado. They could be a factor in getting wolves onto the ballot—and whether the wolf gets the vote. Murtaugh said young voters tend to vote on behalf of the environment, but zeroing in on one demographic wouldn’t be helpful for this issue. “I think we do have a lot of opportunity there, that could open up a lot in the future. But with these things, you have to have broad strategies.” Malone, the Sierra Club ecologist, also teaches at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs and said her students give her hope. “They’re involved, they’re engaged, they’re determined to change this around. And they’re anxious to get out there and vote. “I believe if we can get it before voters, the wolf is going to win.”

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Taos is Calling CO M E F O R T H E S T EEP S . C H I L L W I T H T H E SPÄT ZL E. N E W M E X I CO’ S WO R L D C L A S S M O U N TA I N D I SH E S O U T SK I A N D SN OW B OA R D S AT I SFAC T I O N . by CHRIS KASSAR

“DON’T PANIC—YOU’RE LOOKING AT ONLY 1/30TH OF TAOS SKI VALLEY.” The words may send a tinge of anxiety through you as I crane your neck to stare up the intimidating terrain above. But I don’t the view from the base send you running to the lodge for an early après. Taos Ski Valley may be famed for its spicy steeps, bumps and chutes—67% of the mountain is rated expert (30% Black diamond runs and 37% double blacks)—but it really does offer something for everyone with open bowls, screaming blues, 300+ inches of snow and a funky, authentic vibe. It’s also the perfect place to up your game. No matter what you are seeking, we suggest you pack a little courage and head south to experience the low-key spirit of our favorite resorts in the Rockies.

Earn Your Turns..........

No trip here is complete without exploring the mountain’s spectacular hike-to terrain. Though you can take the new high-speed lift to top of Kachina Ridge—which was bootpack-accessibleonly until 2014—you can still get the true ‘ridgehead’ experience via a 30- to 45-minute hike along Highline Ridge to the summit of Kachina Peak. From your perch at 12,481 feet, drop Main Street, a popular bowl often referred to as the mountain’s easiest double black

diamond (it’s all relative, right?). Or, if you’re feeling festive, hit the steeper, more technical gullies of K1 to K5. Plunging into any of the other chutes on the Highline Ridge traverse—Hidalgo, Juarez, Nino’s Heroes—will deliver a jolt of adrenaline. Those seeking even rowdier lines—think cornice drops and narrow chutes with 35-to-40-degree sustained slopes—should head to West Basin, a vertiginous, nuanced ridgeline that’s just a 10-minute hike from Lift 2. Head further down the ridge to float down Meatballs or Wild West Glades, a never-ending exploit through some thick-but-navigable forested terrain, where you’ll feel completely alone even though you’re in-bounds.

Lift-Served Stashes..............

Once you’ve Conscious exhausted yourself Company with laps on that Need another reason to love Taos classic hike-to Ski Valley? It was the first ski resort ever designated a Certified terrain, ride B Corp, which means it meets the the lifts. Don’t highest standards of verified social call it rest time, Soak It and environmental performance, however; both Up.................. sustainability, public transparency intermediates and legal accountability. You can Once your legs are feel good about choosing to spend and experts will toast, the resort has your precious time and money here. enjoy the sweeping you covered. Staying bcorporation.net turns in Hunziker at the new Blake Hotel Bowl, feeling the burn (skitaos.com/lodging/blake), while crushing the neverconveniently located right at ending bumps on Longhorn, and the base of the mountain, means you flowing through the steep groomer spend more time skiing and relaxing, Upper Totemoff to Lower Totemoff. and waste less dealing with parking. If you love trees, hit Walkyries Glade Grab your planks from the ski valet, and Lorelei Trees where perfectly walk out the door and hop on a lift— spaced ponderosas and lippy no stress. The Blake, a modern hotel rollovers offer a magical forest tour. rooted in New Mexican history and If you’re brave and don’t mind being culture, seamlessly combines luxury heckled by fellow skiers, show off with extreme comfort: A steam room, your stuff on the legendary Al’s Run. outdoor hot tub, fluffy robes and a The anxiety-inducing trail is one of huge bed with tons of pillows all make the most iconic bump runs in North you feel like Julia Roberts (who has a America. It’s steep, unforgiving, right place in Taos, natch). Each guest feels under the lift and offers no bailout at home thanks to the stellar staff who (the adjacent trails are every bit as tough). Some say no trip to Taos Ski VIEW FROM THE TOP Valley is complete without giving it a THE TOP OF TAOS OFFERS AN UPshot. You decide. CLOSE VIEW OF MOUNT WHEELER, NEW MEXICO'S HIGHEST PEAK. / PHOTO COURTESY TAOS SKI VALLEY

photo courtesy TAOS SKI VALLEY

each take time to chat and learn names, to dote on your pup (welcome to stay) and to make sure all your needs are met. From the Blake you can easily wander over to Tim’s Stray Dog Cantina (timsstraydog.com), a fun, upbeat bar and restaurant where the locals hang and discuss the day’s exploits. Enjoy delish Northern New Mexican fare, including flame-roasted red and green chiles and legendary margaritas, while chatting with folks who’ve lived and skied here for decades. Head over to the 192 inside The Blake for a drink and dessert by the cozy fireplace; don’t miss the big cookie—warm gooey goodness served in a small cast-iron pan with a scoop of ice cream. During the day, you can reach the Bavarian, a restaurant and beer garden located at the base of Lift 4 directly from the slopes. One of the best decks in skiing, hot pretzels, spätzle and German beers on tap make it the spot for lunch or dinner, especially if you can hit it on Swiss fondue night during the winter.

photo courtesy TAOS SKI VALLEY

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Safe Stats I T ’ S G O I N G TO B E A G LO R I O US W I N T ER O U T I N T H E B AC KCO U N T RY— B U T B EF O R E YO U G E T TO O CO C K Y, D I G I N TO T H E SE A L L- I M P O RTA N T S TAT S O N AVA L A N C H E S A N D H OW TO S TAY S A FE O U T T H ER E. by TRACY ROSS It’s early winter, when Ma Nature starts to layer the Colorado backcountry with sparkling white dendrites of snow, precious snow! And that means Colorado’s backcountry skiers will start chomping at the bit to slap on skins, hike, and make turns. But the state’s Rocky Mountain snowpack can be fickle, making outof-bounds shussing safely… tricky. In the 2018-19 season, Colorado led the U.S. in avalanche fatalities. Here’s more on what that means and how you can stay safe, with data from avalanche expert Dale Atkins, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), The American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) and Snowsports Industries of America (SIA).

276

Number of backcountry ski tourers who died between 1950 and 2017 nationwide, with 251 snowmobilers a close runner up. From the 2008-09 season to the 2016-17 season, however, snowmobilers jumped to the top of the list of winter users who die, with 88, and backcountry tourers dropped to second, with 79.

the 1990s The decade during which avalanche fatalities caused by people backcountry skiing, outof-bounds skiing, and climbing exploded in Colorado.

409 DOCUMENTED DEATHS Number of documented fatal avalanche accidents in Colorado between 1859 and 2006, according to a paper written by Dale Atkins (read it here bit.ly/2kR9T7x). These slides claimed at least 693 lives, but not all were skiers. When prospectors started coming to Colorado in the 1850s, avalanches were their nemesis in more ways than one. In 1859, for example, prospector Horace Tabor lost a gold mining claim to rumors of avalanches told to him by a fellow prospector. His wife Augusta, fearful of avalanches, made Horace move back to the safety of Golden City for the winter. After he left, the prospector jumped Tabor’s claim, and poor Tabor never retrieved that mother lode. But people also died in avalanches while traveling by horse-drawn sleigh over mountain roads, skiing the mail to remote communities and just while going about their daily lives in their cabins, when avalanches roared through and obliterated them and the buildings.

The standardized, threeday intro to avalanche hazard management course anyone wanting to travel in the backcountry in winter should take—regardless of whether they’re skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, or, in some instances, fat biking. The AIARE standardized course teaches recreators how to develop a plan for travel in avalanche terrain, how to identify avalanche terrain, how to effectively manage risks in making terrain choices in a group setting and how to execute a companion rescue.

photo by ARAPAHOE BASIN

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WOOF WFRS ARAPAHOE BASIN SHOWCASED SKIPATROL AND BACKCOUNTRY SKILLS AT ITS 17TH ANNUAL BEACON BOWL LAST FEBRUARY. THE EVENT RAISES FUNDS FOR THE FRIENDS OF CAIC.

1992

The year that standardized avalanche education curriculum came to the United States, via The American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) in Gunnison, Colorado. Although the American Avalanche Association (A3) had published avalanche course guidelines, there was no nationally recognized curriculum before this, says AIARE. Co-founded by Jean Pavillard and Karl Klassen, set about creating standardized education, just as backcountry recreation was becoming increasingly popular. Today, the organization provides avalanche education to more backcountry travelers than any other single avalanche education organization in the United States, with recreational avalanche courses, pro level courses and instructor training courses designed for anyone recreating in the backcountry.

Zero to very little

Data showing enrollment numbers and trends in avalanche education. This is a shame, says an avy professional who requested anonymity, because there would be a lot to reflect upon in terms of the demographics of students taking courses, trends in enrollment over the years, and the attrition rate for recreationalists coming back to take a Level 2 course.

one day The duration of the Avalanche Rescue Course that the curriculum AIARE recommends all backcountry travelers take to keep their skills current at least every other year.

People killed in an era called “Inter-war” in Atkins’ CAIC study, meaning the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. Atkins attributes the low number to a lack of cars and open roads, making the mountains inaccessible. This started to change in the mid1930s, when small ski runs with rope tows opened up across the mountains. Some skiers dove in, but World War II meant the new industry would have to wait another decade.

84, 18, & 24

Percentages, respectively, that sales of alpine touring bindings, alpine touring boots, and backcountry accessories— including avalanche transceivers—rose between 2017 and 2018 nationwide.

One day earlier, 2019 Day we hope to be skiing this season.

October 13, 2018 Unofficial start of last year’s ski season, when Wolf Creek started spinning its lifts.

Zero to very little

Data showing enrollment numbers and trends in avalanche education, according to an avy professional who requested anonymity. This is a shame, the avy pro says, because there would be a lot to reflect upon in terms of the demographics of students taking courses, trends in enrollment over the years, and the attrition rate for for recreationalists coming back to take an AIARE Level 2 course.

Av y Level 1 A course that builds on Avy Level 1 courses with a three-day immersive program that provides backcountry leaders the opportunity to advance their avalanche knowledge and decision making skills by applying their skills to new terrain and situations.

276

People who died in avalanches in Colorado between 1950 and 2017, 124 people more than any other state. However, there is no way to determine the total number of people caught or buried each year, because most non-fatal avalanche incidents are not reported.

Av y Level 2

photo courtesy DANI REYES-ACOSTA

S T R A I G H T TA L K | 1 0.1 9 How did you get involved in your non-profit work? On the expedition that helped bring one woman to the summit of Afghanistan’s highest peak for the first time in the country’s history, I helped the team apply Steve House and Scott Johnson’s uphill athlete training programs, mostly for base fitness. When I discovered Ascend, I found a way to use my skills in climbing and the outdoors and combine that with the human condition in various parts of the world. I started my non-profit LIFE GUIDE Embark, an outdoor IN AFGHANISTAN, recreation program CAMILLE FIDUCIA for refugees and LEARNED THAT newly immigrated SHE COULD USE teens, after my first HER CLIMBING SKILLS TO HELP trip to Afghanistan, BUILD A BETTER Now, I apply those WORLD. / skills I learned PHOTO BY with Ascend PARKER CROSS domestically, helping refugees between the ages of 16 and 24. What’s the hardest part of what you do?

Camille Fiducia T H I S P RO FE S S I O N A L SP O RT S M O D EL W I T H A FU L L-T I M E C L I M B I N G H A B I T S TA RT ED H EL P I N G A F G H A N WO M EN T R A I N F O R T H E M O U N TA I N S . T H EN SH E B RO U G H T T H OSE L E A D ER SH I P SK I L L S B AC K TO H ER H O M E S TAT E O F U TA H . by CHRIS VAN LEUVEN As a child growing up just outside of Zion National Park, Camille Fiducia had a front row seat to wild, towering sandstone walls. But instead of exploring the canyons surrounding her home, she spent her teens getting in and out of trouble. At age 19, while attending college at the University of Utah, she started climbing and everything changed. Fiducia fell in love with l aspects of the sport, from swinging a pick into the frozen waterfalls in Ouray, Colorado, to jamming into the sandstone cracks of Indian Creek, Utah. She became a full-time climber living in her van and a top-tier sports model for big, mainstream brands including Nike, Reebok and Adidas. She thought she had it made. But that dream lifestyle slowly lost its glow. So in 2018, she flew to South Asia to volunteer for Ascend: Leadership Through Athletics in Afghanistan and work as a nutritionist and fitness trainer for Afghan women planning to climb the country’s highest peak, 24,580-foot Noshaq. After she returned, she started her non-profit, Embark, with a goal to bring outdoor mentorship, climbing and mountain skills to Utah’s refugee youth. The young girls she now works with come to the Beehive State from the world’s highest conflict zones in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and South Sudan—and Embark teaches them athletic skills without the pressures of high school sports. Today, Fiducia, 26, spends most of her time running Embark (and pays the bills through modeling gigs). She still lives in her van.

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Balancing it all—balancing my non-profit work and my modeling career and also making sure I can climb and get outside. Sometimes I get so buried in work that I can't get out to climb for weeks. But even though I don’t get out as much as I used to, my enjoyment has changed from following my own pursuits to sharing the sport of climbing. I get me time in once in awhile but those times when I bring my girls out on a climbing or camping trip is fulfilling. Since my non profit work brings people outside, I still glean enjoyment from that. Where are you parking your van these days? I’m still basing around Salt Lake City because of the non-profit. I also have an office in town. When I’m not using my van, I rent it out to people visiting Zion. My dad runs an Airbnb there and he rents it as a dwelling unit on his property. And where are you traveling to for work and climbing? East Coast, West Coast. I recently had a shoot in Idyllwild, California, and one in Pinedale, Wyoming. In

Idyllwild, I was hanging out with old-school climbers and they showed me the area. I had no idea that Idyllwild is where [Patagonia founder] Yvon Chouinard used to climb. And I just got back from Squamish in British Columbia. I’ve been spending more time on granite lately. Granite’s so different from sandstone that I’m used to that it’s great new challenge. What are you favorite places to go climbing? Zion. I love Zion. I love sandstone trad climbing and alpine-style routes as well — and even bigger expeditions. I’ve also climbed in the Cordillera Blanca in Peru. But, honestly, I love ice climbing the most. Are you headed back to Afghanistan soon? I go back at least once a year. I’ll return in early and late winter this year. I go two times a year at minimum. I spend about six weeks a year there. I go as a personal trainer and nutritionist, and I work with women as a mountain skills instructor. This past winter when I came, it was mostly backpacking skills and ice climbing. I was also there to build fitness routines with the uphill athlete program. What’s one thing you want to share with the next generation? Recognize that your passions are sharable skills—these things you do in your own life you can share with others. There’s two parts to your life, investing in yourself and investing in others. I think the key to life is the yin and yang of learning and growing and sharing. In the past year and a half, I’ve really invested in the serving side and I’m definitely busier but more fulfilled. Sometimes I do miss the Instagram-model life and the ability to do whatever I want with my time, but today that’s so far at the bottom of my to-do list. There are times when I miss when my career was focused on modeling, but when I think about my life in 10 years and what I’ll be proud of, it’s my work with Embark and Ascend.

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T HE R E S O R T G UID E | 1 0.1 9

One Run, The Stash, Aprés LO V E L A N D One Run: Follow the line straight under

Chair 1—it’s one of the best continuous steep pitches in the state.

The Stash: The cat-accessed skiing

off the Continental Divide has no lift access, so it doesn’t see as many skiers. Sign up for a free pass at the base area.

Aprés: Don’t call yourself a football

fan if you haven’t watched a Broncos game in the Rathskeller.

E LD O R A M O UN TA I N R ES O R T One Run: Most people simply use

Muleshoe to get to Corona Bowl, but it’s one of the longest runs on the mountain and tosses in a few bumps between screaming groomed piste with a wide open view.

The Stash: The newly thinned Gully Glades thin out the crowds.

Aprés: Bring your laptop up from

Boulder and “work” over a marg in the Timbers Tap Room.

B R EC K E N R I D G E One Run:: Take the short hike to the

top of Peak 8 and ride all the way to the bottom (or just hop on the Imperial Express and repeat).

The Stash: Hike to the top of Peak 6 YOU DIDN’T SEE THIS

and head in either direction.

ANDERS GUSTAFSON DROPS INTO A SECRET STASH IN THE ASPEN SIDECOUNTRY. PHOTO BY DAVID CLIFFORD

Aprés: We are big fans of the bourbon

E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S / O C TO B E R 2 01 9

at Breckenridge Distillery.

WITH S O M ANY SKI AND SNOWB OARD RES ORTS IN THE RO C KIES, IT’S TOUGH TO FIGURE OUT E XAC TLY WHERE TO SPEND YOUR HARD-E ARNED C ASH AND WHERE TO SEEK THE BEST SNOW. IN THIS, OUR ANNUAL RUND OWN OF OUR FAVORITE SPOTS TO SKI AND RIDE, WE DEC IDED TO KEEP IT SIM PLE. WE TELL YOU THAT ONE RUN YOU HAVE TO HIT, WHERE YOU NEED TO GO TO FIND THE GO ODS, AND WHERE TO SIT BAC K AND ENJOY LIFE A BIT WHEN YOU ARE D ONE. by DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

T E L LURIDE One Run: Get yourself to Chair 7 and lap it.

The Stash: Hike Palmyra Peak. It offers

some of the best in-bounds bigmountain skiing in Colorado and boasts big cliffs, spines, and steep open faces.

Aprés: Get yourself into town and belly up at the Last Dollar Saloon.

C OPP ER MOUN TAIN One Run: You can’t go wrong “lapping

screamers under the new American Eagle gondola—no matter the weather.

The Stash: It may be obvious but you

won’t be disappointed if you ride the free Tucker Mountain Snowcat.

Aprés: Head to JJ’s Rocky Mountain Tavern for pizza and live music.

BE AVER C R E E K One Run: How do you call yourself a skier

to the Outback. The trees to the far skier’s right seem to go on forever and hold soft snow late into the day.

VA IL

if you have not schussed down the Birds of Prey World Cup course.

Aprés: You may have to wait in a long

One Run:

The Stash: Well-heeled Beaver Creek

SKI COOPER

Forever. In the words of Peter Kray, “I love the way the open slope falls down into the valley like a tilted meadow, and, yes, I love the hubris of making long, floating arcs right under the chairlift.”

The Stash: The trees on the skier’s right

of Riva Ridge, especially the tight ones lower down often get overlooked in the mad rush to get back to the base.

Aprés: We once had a longtime ski writer get offended when we suggested we go dancing at Vendetta’s. Sounds like a good recommendation.

skiers tend to keep to the respectable groomers. That leaves a lot untouched in trees like Royal Elk Glade.

Aprés: Pazzo’s in Avon serves one hell of a martini.

KEYS TON E One Run: It’s odd to recommend a green, but Schoolmarm is the type of beginner run that can turn nubes and kids into lifelong shredders.

The Stash: Get thee

TRAM LIFE JACKSON HOLE’S ICONIC RED BOX CAN HAUL 100 PEOPLE UP 4,139 VERTICAL FEET IN NINE MINUTES. / PHOTO COURTESY ALTERRA MOUNTAIN COMPANY

line but it’s worth it for The Crepe Stand.

One Run: Start with a few laps on Eagle,

Cat. From there I head up the Lenawee chairlift, hike to the top of the East Wall and then down North Pole.

on the backside of the mountain. Then Piney and Burnout are the runs to take for a more challenging high-speed run through the natural rolls and bumps.

The Stash: The newly opened terrrain

The Stash: We have not skied it yet but

Aprés: Grab a Bacon Bloody Mary at

we know that Cooper is adding a new lift, 14 new trails and new double black terrain to the mix this year. Or try Black Powder—because it’s in the trees on the front side, the snow stays good and cold, there are very few people on it, and you can make it a real burner to get back to the bottom of the double chair.

Aprés:

Everybody heads to Katie O’Rourke’s Irish Pub.

A R A PA H O E BASIN One Run: One hardened local gives us

this intel: “First, I go up Pali chairlift, for a warm up lap down Slalom or Wild COLORADO CHILLIN’ GET SOME PERSPECTIVE AT COPPER MOUNTAIN (LEFT). GRAB A BLOODY AT THE BASIN (INSET) / PHOTOS COURTESY ALTERRA

in the Beavers has lots of spots that get missed on a powder day—if you are wiilling to work for them. the 6th Alley Bar and then head to the Beach—there is always a party to be found.

M ON AR CH M OUN TAIN One Run: Monarch has a wide range of

diverse terrain with natural snow, huge sunny bowls, finger chutes, wide open groomed runs, stunning views, a terrain park and an amazing family friendly atmosphere. You can’t go wrong.

The Stash: Mirkwood Bowl. But bring an extra pair of lungs. Lap after lap here is the ultimate adventure for advanced skiers and boarders. . Aprés: Be here for the New Year’s Eve Torchlight Parade & Firework Show. An on-snow parade down the mountain, lit only by torches.

ASPEN One Run: The Silver Queen Gondola

takes you from the very streets of town and whisks you up over 3,000 vert to the top in under 15 minutes. That’s pretty hard to beat.

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The Stash: Pandora’s Box on Aspen

Mountain is a side country stash that’s not exactly a secret but always delivers.

Aprés: The Caribou Club where you’ll

see women with way too much botox and plastic surgery. Seriously terrifying stuff.

ASPEN HIGHLANDS One Run: Seriously? Head to the Bowl. The Stash: There’s literally stashes all

over the mountain—find a local and, if you’re lucky, they’ll show you what’s up.

Aprés: A cold craft beer at the Aspen

Brewing Company taproom is a must. Or class it up with a cocktail dreamed up by the talented mixologists at Justice Snow’s Restaurant + Bar .

SNOWMASS One Run: Anywhere. For those of you

keeping track, Snowmass offers 3,339 acres of skiable terrain and claims most guests won’t be able to ski it all in one visit.

The Stash: According to one local: “Frog Pond Glades is super out of the way and hard to find—but it offers some great tracks.”

Aprés:: At the base of the mountain, the

Base Camp Bar & Grill offers friendly and fast slopeside food service to get you fed and back on the hill, but beware of the over 30 hand-crafted Colorado beers on tap or in a bottle or lunch may turn into full-on après.

PURGATORY One Run: We suggest you ski Purgatory and mountain bike nearby Phil’s World for a classic Colorado pairing.

The Stash: Head to Bottom Chute when

it’s deep and you are first on the lift. Or try under Chair 5 when it’s not running. When the weather is great (puking snow), all of the Texans head for the lodge, leaving more untracked for the locals

Aprés: Stop at the Backside Bistro at

the top of Chair 5 for extended lunch.

CRESTED BUTTE One Run: The Butte is famed for its

steeps but you can’t go wrong warming up on the blues on the Paradise Express Lift.

The Stash: Teocalli Bowl. Plain and simple.

Aprés: Party with dirty telemarkers at

the Ice Bar. If you’re in town during happy hour, hit up Montanya Distillers. This longtime mountain distillery is producing three different kinds of barrel-aged rum using all-natural ingredients. Small tastes of each of the

photo courtesy ELDORA MOUNTAIN RESORT

PARTY PEOPLE POND SKIMMING AT ELDORA. FIREWORKS AT STEAMBOAT. LINDSAY YAW READY FOR A RUN AT ASPEN. THESE ARE GOOD TIMES.

smooth rum offerings are available at no charge, but chances are, you’ll want to order full pour on it’s own, or as a part of one of the many exceptional craft cocktails available in the tasting room.

WOLF CREEK One Run: The place to be on a powder

day, or in spring corn ego-snow, is the Alberta lift which accesses 1,000 acres of steeps, trees and stashes.

The Stash: The hiking’s the real highlight

and skill levels.

The Stash: Dash over to the West End and try to hit Mad Dog Glades if the pow is fresh.

Aprés: Save some energy to head out wine tasting in Palisade.

BIG SKY

Aprés: Sitting at the base of Jackson

One Run: It has to be a tram lap. From

Aprés: Best party spot has got to be

Aprés: Grab a post-couloir cold one at

POWDERHORN One Run: With five lifts—including The

Flat Top Flyer, a high-speed quad launched in 2015—serving 42 trails, two terrain parks, and loads of beginner and intermediate runs, Powderhorn is ideal for skiers and snowboarders of all ages

E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S / O C TO B E R 2 01 9

above photo by DAVID CLIFFORD

your gear, mountain judgement and current training). Pinedale is a magical spot if you want to head a little further off from the sidecountry crowds.

here: Bonanza Bowl, accessed from the top of Treasure chair is barely a hike and pays big dividends. The Peak Chutes off of Alberta offer the type of steep thrills you won’t find in Summit County. Horseshoe Bowl is a much longer hike from the top of the Alberta chair, but well worth the effort, and a good place to hunt for freshies post-storm. The Buffalo Inn or The Coyote Moon. Both have pool tables, bomb food and even better drinks.

inset photo by COURTESY ALTERRA

the top of Lone Peak, you can head out for an intermediate run down Liberty Bowl or test yourself in the Big Couloir.

The Stash: Lewis and Clark is far

enough out that it doesn’t get hit until late. But with so few crowds here, there’s plenty of pow on a big day. Beehive Basin Brewery.

JACKSON HOLE One Run: A drop down Corbets Couloir

is a right of passage for any skier or snowboarder. Better yet, be here during in mid-February 2020, when you you will be guaranteed to see insane air.

The Stash: Easy-to-access backcountry and sidecountry (be safe and have all

Hole, The Mangy Moose draws crowds ranging from van lifers hoping to make it in a ski flick, to investment bankers wanting to be van lifers, to EO’s Conor Sedmak “tasking remotely.” It’s a classic ski-town bar you need to visit at least once.

SKI SANTA FE One Run: Gayway is one of the best swooping blue runs around—with a panoramic view of town and the surrounding desert.

The Stash: When the snow is good head around the back to Cornice—but stay away from it if coverage is low. Or you can ask EO’s Peter Kray.

Aprés:: The locals all convene at

Totemoff’s on-mountain. And thhis is Neww Mexico, so find green chili. Anywhere. But try Tomasitas in town.

T HE L IF E | 1 0.1 9

LOSING THE LOCALS As outdoor recreation booms, mountain towns are changing drastically. What does that mean to the people who call these playgrounds home, and how can we retain the character and heart of these communities?

by DANI REYES-ACOSTA

photo courtesy DANI REYES-ACOSTA

dragged my snowboard bag off the bus, heavy speed in 2002 with $119 dollars in my pocket,” I too, doors clanking closed behind me, before walking landed in a mountain town, and like Jones, “fell in love to the French-owned lodge where I’d spend two with the mountains, and never left.” We came for the weeks looking for housing. Staring up the canyon vistas and escape from the hustle but stayed for the at the smoke-seeping volcano, I remembered why community (even if it was in Chilean Patagonia) and the I quit my corporate job to chase adventure: I belonged adventure—probably the same reasons you’re looking in these mountains. Cue contentment. Over the next forward to winter vacation at altitude, too. few days, I’d spend some time at a local bar, making friends who I hoped would help me find my first home in a mountain town. I was funemployed after quitting my perfect With years of living in mountain towns now under my corporate job in Oregon, and I was on a mission to belt, I’m questioning the meaning of “authentic” as it become a backcountry snowboarder—an enviable relates to mountain culture. How do we look beyond status that put me in the same boat as hygge-laden log cabins and chest-deep trustafarians and seasonal ski bums. The powder to understand the meaning of a bubble I’d chosen was perfect: I was place? Whether we visit or move there, following my dream, realizing my do we let it change us? destiny. Looking back, I realize the Even though rents average complete and utter oblivion of my To support local economies $1,440 (Ketchum and Truckee) to privileged bliss. in mountain communities, $2,000 (Jackson Hole), there will follow @nosopatches, always be locals that can make @coalitionsnow, @wild_rye_, it work. These people—many and @womenledwednesday of whom are “well-educated, on Instagram. Find @ well-traveled people that simply crestedbutteyoga on Crested Butte, the last great choose to live here year-round,” Facebook. American ski town, is dying even as says Kristi Murrin, co-founder of the it booms. Remote Sun Valley, the USA’s Crested Butte Community Yoga Cofirst destination ski resort, caters to either op. They’re the lifeblood and character hardcore mountain junkies or the wealthy elite, of any destination resort town. leaving out those of us in the middle. Sure, some are salty, but imagine Towns like “Truckee [are] in the process of being confronted with the ugly end of redeveloping, trying to answer the question of ‘What privilege every day. does it mean to play in the outdoors?’” says Jen The mountains, and the people that Gurecki of community-focused Coalition Snow and inhabit them have, for centuries, been Zawadisha. It’s an important question to consider as commodities to outsiders: “Mountains traveler expectations evolve. are historically repositories for Adventure in the mainstream and the ski town minerals, timber, water and hydropower, housing crisis often dominates this conversation, but unclaimed land and untapped markets, mountain town identity and its ties to thriving local wilderness, beauty, and peace—all of economics all too often get left behind. Consider which are in high demand and short supply among this: More than one in three leisure travelers will use flatlanders,” relates mountain culture scholar Sara a short-term rental that’s commodified the “local Neustadtl in Mountain People: A Searcher’s Guide. experience” (i.e. AirBnb’s “Live There” 2016 campaign) Translation: Each town’s history and heritage even though many actual locals will have to commute manifests in the small-town charm visitors seek to 30+ minutes to get to work. experience. Honoring their past, these gems create Like Kelli Jones, founder of gear rescue company community that goes beyond brightly colored main Noso Patches, who “landed in Jackson on [her] ten streets and restored frontier facades. Mountain town

Defining “Authenticity”

Reconciling with Reality

culture manifests the collective sentiment of each individual community. Cassie Abel, co-founder of the Sun Valley-based women’s mountain bike brand Wild Rye, says, “You really must want to be here—locals give up so many city conveniences.” We sacrifice those conveniences to create a community that reflects the essence of who we are—and tourists get to experience this because we’ve intentionally created it. Jones agrees. “Living like a local means working hard—it also means giving more than taking, and caring about your community, the environment and the people in it,” she says.

Invest in Community

If authenticity layers individual identities into a collective experience, then “living like a local” is, at its core, about community and conservation, no matter how you experience the outdoors. Jones, Abel, Murrin, and Gurecki all see community as foundational to the local experience, so much so that they use their businesses to cultivate more of what they want to see: inclusive, accessible spaces for adventurers of all backgrounds, identities, and skill levels to share in their little slices of heaven. “If locally-owned, womanowned safe spaces matter to you, then this is one couch you should sit on,” Gurecki says. From the sheep-herding heritage of Sun Valley that fed into the development of a serious mountain-biking community to the mining heritage that left Crested Butte with its Rockwellian Elk Ave, these communities, like all, cannot stop change. The question for locals and tourists alike is what role do you want to play in preserving and evolving local culture?" That door will always be open in these communities, if you’re willing you walk through it. And if you’re willing to give it a try, you just might leave the next mountain community you visit a better version of yourself.

How do we look beyond hygge-laden log cabins and chest-deep powder to understand the meaning of a place?

Dani Reyes-Acosta is brand strategist, entrepreneur, freelance writer and adventure-traveling athlete based in Colorado, California or somewhere inbetween (in her van). You can find her on Instagram as @notlostjustdiscovering. O C TO B E R 2 01 9 / E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S . C O M

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GRAND TARGHEE, WYOMING The opportunity to spend your day blasting through fresh pow draws people to Grand Targhee—but once they arrive, they quickly realize how much more the resort has to offer. A laid-back vibe coupled with a culture built around mountain adventure makes skiing and riding here a dream.

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Adventure Zone and an expansive system of Nordic, snowshoe and fat-bike trails, and you have the perfect winter escape. After a day out, head to the new inside/outside bar at the Branding Iron right at the base area for handcrafted cocktails and a tasty après menu. Best of all, Targhee offers numerous stay-and-ski deals to ensure that a visit does not leave you wondering where all You can spend the day here exploring your cash went. And if you are really away at your own pace, tucked looking to make a big splash, book a GRAND TARGHEE away on the western side of the trip for spring. The resort often gets AVERAGES 500 Tetons, free from endless lift walloped with deep late-season INCHES OF POWDER ANNUALLY AND lines and crowded runs. There’s storms and the Teton Surf Classic, 2,602 ACRES OF challenging hike-to terrain, and, a surf-inspired, snowboard-only UNCROWDED TERRAIN. best of all, endless secret stashes. event, cardboard box derby, and pondToss in Wyoming’s only cat-skiing, a Kids skim shenanigans.

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JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING As one of the crown jewels of the American ski landscape, Jackson Hole has been the promised land for skiers and snowboarders for over half a decade. Peppered with dramatic drops, ridiculously tight couloirs, and an innumerable number of powder stashes the resort is the ultimate winter playground. Due to its prime location in Wyoming’s Tetons, the resort averages a ludicrous 450 inches of snow a season (over 500+ last season), ensuring that any visit here will be epic. But there’s more than just sick skiing here, the resort also is loaded with top-notch facilities, programs and a bevy of on-mountain amenities. Plus, the surrounding landscape is cowboy country and that Western vibe is an essential component of Jackson Hole’s DNA. Stetson hats and stocking caps are equally represented here. Let’s face it, Jackson Hole should be on any serious snow lover’s to-do list every season. Knock out some runs with the Golden Ticket, which offers half-price lift tickets and demo rentals to passholders from any resort from November 28 to December 20 and March 26 to April 12.

LODGING You’ll find a variety of lodges, hotels, and cabins to choose from in Teton Village. Plus, the town of Jackson Hole with its B&Bs and hotels is only a short shuttle bus ride away. Taking the family to Jackson Hole has never been easier thanks to the resort’s outstanding Kids Ski and Rent Free Program. Book the First Turns Package by December 15 and save big on lift tickets and lodging. GETTING THERE Jet into Jackson Hole on non-stop flights arriving daily on three different airlines from 13 major airports. If you book your airfare, lodging and lift tickets through the resort’s website, you can grab a $300 per person air credit per ticket.

APRÈS Is there a better spot to unwind in the West? We doubt it. You can kick back with tasty margaritas and live music LESSONS on weekends at the fabulous Mangy The Solitude Station Learning Center Moose. Another gem in the base located mid-mountain is the place area is the RPK3, located right to learn to ski or ride, polish your IT’S A BUCKET LIST next to the iconic aerial tramway skills or advance so you rip like EXPERIENCE THAT ANY that shuttles skiers and riders the locals. It just celebrated its WINTER LOVER SHOULD up 4,139 vertical feet. An one-year anniversary and this VISIT AT LEAST ONCE IN expansive deck paired with state-of-the-art center allows THEIR LIFETIME. tasty treats and fresh brews its professional instructors a make this the place to be. place to work with folks away from the crowds at the base area. You can BACKCOUNTRY rent your gear here, eat in a private Venture out of Jackson’s inbounds bowls dining area or just relax while waiting via numerous marked gates for access to for the kiddos. If you are a more advanced steep chutes, untrammeled glades and skier, consider booking a one-day lesson. colossal hucks. Just be sure you have Besides the tips and tricks the center’s your avalanche gear, proper training professionals can impart, you also will get and obey all closures. Or better yet, hire a day of no lift lines and—better yet—an one of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s expert leading you to all the mountain’s professional guides. hidden powder gems.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JACKSON HOLE MOUNTAIN RESORT

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BOULDER ADVENTURE LODGE BOULDER, COLORADO

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LODGING The A-Lodge offers a wide range of accommodations that will appeal to all budgets and temperaments. Start with Boulder’s only hostel room: Its sturdy, comfortable, rustic-pine bunks sleep 12 in three connecting rooms and a connecting common area. And climbers and mountain bikers get a 15-percent discount when booking it direct. Private rooms include standard and deluxe doubles and queens, a wheelchair-accessible queen and a deluxe

The Boulder Adventure Lodge, or A-Lodge for short, is Boulder’s home away from home for the adventure traveler. Pumped up with a beautiful, recently completed renovation of the historic lobby, the A-Lodge now serves craft beers on tap at the front desk, and offers the comfort of a fire pit in the beer garden as well as a meeting room to host your next retreat or holiday party. Located just five minutes away from downtown Pearl Street’s shops and restaurants, the A-Lodge serves up an easy, refreshing vacation. Founder Asa Firestone calls his creation a cross between an urban boutique hotel and climber’s hostel. What else would you expect from the brainchild of a National Geographic Young Explorer and a restaurant management aficionado? Voted one of the top ten hotels for under $150 by USA Today, the A-Lodge offers everything from luxury campsites to bunk rooms to suites with full kitchens. New this year, the lodge has Mercedes Sprinter camper vans for rent, for the true #VanLife experience. With a stunning location along Fourmile Creek, the lodge is minutes from hiking, biking, rock climbing, fly fishing and Eldora Mountain Resort. It’s also become a community hub, hosting outdoor adventure film nights on a giant 25-foot screen, yoga classes and more. It’s the ideal basecamp for the Front Range’s world-class outdoor experiences.

queen suite. All have pet friendly (and petfeatures a private queen bedroom, a living hypoallergic) options and feature Jeremy room with a pull-out couch and a full Collins adventure artwork. Looking kitchen—great for a small family. Perfect for romance? The Jacuzzi Queen for a for a large group or family, LOCATED JUST FIVE MINUTES AWAY FROM Room is ideal for the Colorado The Sunset Cabin includes three DOWNTOWN, THE adventure couple: It features a private bedrooms, a living room, A-LODGE SERVES UP AN EASY, REFRESHING large in-room jacuzzi tub for two, a full kitchen and dining area, VACATION CLOSE TO THE a queen bed, private bathroom, a private bathroom and a private BUSTLE OF BOULDER. mini-fridge, microwave and a front yard with a grill. The lodge also hosts porch near the Fourmile Creek. Located the only camping and #Vanlife site on the second floor, The Adventure Suite options within five minutes of downtown provides the best view at the A-Lodge and Boulder.

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BIG ADVENTURE This is adventure central: The front desk will book tours ranging from snowshoeing to backcountry skiing to fly fishing. During the winter, guests can purchase discounted lift tickets to nearby Eldora and hop a shuttle to the ski resort on weekends. Feeling mindful? Come up to the A-Lodge Wednesday mornings at 6 p.m. for yoga or Thursday evenings at 5:15 p.m. for meditation and a trail run.

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MORE Ks... MORE DAYS Over 100K of groomed trails. Winter comes earlier and stays longer. Free trail passes are included with your stay!

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SNOW MOUNTAIN RANCH, COLORADO This is not the YMCA gym and swim of your youth. Snow Mountain Ranch is one of the premier family and fitness spots in the West. The sprawling property offers over 100 kilometers of groomed trails for Nordic skiing, snowshoeing and fat biking on 5,100-acres, nestled in the mountains in the heart of Grand County. While that should be enough to keep most folks busy, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still so much more here: Families can ice or roller skate, hit the indoor climbing wall, frolic in the indoor pool and much, much more.

PHOTO COURTESY YMCA OF THE ROCKIES

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out, the learn-to-ski package gives you trail access, rental gear and a group lesson for just $70 (adults), with an option for overnight guests at just $55, while kids are only $40. If you want to explore the ranch with a guide, sign up for periodic free skiing and snowshoe excursions that will fulfill your adventure itch. PASS PROGRAMS Trail passes run $25 for adults (ages 13+), $10 for children (ages 6-12) and free for children ages 5 and under. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re staying overnight on Snow Mountain Ranch property, your trail passes are included with your stay! Or, purchase a multiple day Nordic trail pass. Snow Mountain Ranch also offers up a five-time punch pass for $110, and it can be shared between family members.

FAMILY FRIENDLY A diversity of facilities and an impressive fleet of winter rental gear suited for LODGING any age (including tow-behind ski Snow Mountain Ranch gives you a chariots for toddlers) make Snow wide range of lodging options. Mountain Ranch the perfect There are three on-site lodges place for sharing the beauty with multiple rooms, private SNOW MOUNTAIN RANCH of the Colorado winter cabins that can fit the OFFERS BOTH GROUP with the entire family. whole family or rustic yurts AND PRIVATE NORDIC SKI Beyond the incredible that will give you the feel LESSONS EVERY DAY. snow sports, a day pass or a of the wilderness (just make stay at Snow Mountain Ranch sure you bring an extra warm gives a family access to the sleeping bag). indoor pool, the craft shop (crafts range $1-$25), the library and the BACKCOUNTRY Kiva recreation center (roller skating, The gentle rolling terrain of Snow volleyball, basketball, badminton, tennis, Mountain Ranch provides the ideal training pool, ping pong, etc.). ground for those interested in learning to backcountry ski. Intro to Backcountry A/T LESSONS Skiing is offered throughout the winter Every day the ranch offers both group and and is an un-intimidating experience for private Nordic ski lessons to boost your those who want to learn about skiing in the time on the trails. If you are just starting backcountry.

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4-PAKS ARE ONLY AVAILABLE THRO 4 OUGH GH 111-24 -24-19 AND D ARE NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUR UR RCHA CHASE SE OR PICK UP AT ANY TICKET WINDO DO OW. W

M O C . D N A L E V O IL

LOVELAND SKI AREA Loveland Ski Area is skiing and riding the way it’s supposed to be— independent, fun, real. Sitting astride the Continental Divide only 53 miles from downtown Denver, it offers skiers and boarders the chance to shred the steeps with no hassles. From the moment Loveland opened in 1937 to today, it has been the spot that draws locals who love the slopes. Straddling the Eisenhower Tunnel (and missing out on all that traffic), it exudes a Centennial State vibe that seems to be disappearing in the state as more resorts get snapped up by corporate entities. With short lift lines, 422 inches of annual snowfall, 1,800 acres of terrain, free cat skiing and a celebrated ski and ride school, Loveland offers everything you want out of a resort with no scene. As you bomb down run after run while looking at the traffic stacked up yet again on I-70 you will wonder why anyone would ever pass up this gem.

NEW THIS YEAR

The word you should get used to saying this year is Snowstang. It’s a new offering that Loveland is providing in conjunction with the Colorado Department of Transportation. Instead of sitting in your car cursing the traffic, you can kick back in a plush seat on a direct bus line that will be running every weekend from December 12 through mid-April. With pickup locales at Union Station and the Denver Federal Station it’s a no brainer. Round Trip tickets cost $25 with discounts for children, seniors and disabled passengers. Pair that with last seasons new lift Chet’s Dream, a highspeed quad that runs from the base and you can hit the hills quickly and simply.

FAMILY FRIENDLY

Tucked into its own special corner away from the crowds, the Loveland Valley area offers families and beginners the perfect spot to master the skills needed to tackle the steeper slopes up mountain. It’s a quick shuttle bus ride from the larger area at Loveland Basin and has its own restaurant and lodge.

TICKETS

Beholden to no one—Ikon and Epic passes carry no water here—Loveland relishes in

offering affordable day and season passes. At only $439 their season pass is ridiculously affordable and, get this, for first timers they offer an Adult 3-Class Pass. For the same low price as a season pass you also get three lessons to hone your skills before a winter of fun. If committing to a season seems too much don’t worry, they still offer their 4-pack at just $169. On top of all that their day pass only costs $89, with discounts available for advance purchases on skiloveland.com, so there really is no excuse not to hit Loveland this season.

holders get a whopping 102 bonus days at other resorts including Monarch and Purgatory in Colorado and Grand Targhee in Wyoming. It also includes spots further afield, such as Marmot Basin in the Canadian Rockies and La Parva in Chile (where you can ski in the austral winter).

APRÈS

The Rathskeller, one of the most iconic après spots in the state, is the place to head after a day shredding. The bar features eight different beers on tap, including its very own Pine Bough Pale Ale made in collaboration with the Tommyknocker Brewery located just down I-70 in Idaho Springs. There is a full bar, some serious snacks and big screen TVs galore to watch the Broncos game. You might even forget to head back to the slopes when you are surrounded by frantic fans.

THE ADULT 3-CLASS PASS GIVES NEWBIES THREE FREE LESSONS TO HONE THEIR SKILLS AS WELL AS A SEASON PASS SO YOU CAN FALL IN LOVE WITH THE SPORT FOR LIFE.

PASS PROGRAMS

In an effort to offer the best value to its loyal fans, Loveland has partnered with the Powder Alliance and several other areas across the globe. All told, pass

LOVELANDSKIAREA

@LOVELANDSKIAREA

BIG ADVENTURE

If you are seeking untracked lines, make sure to sign a waiver at the ticket office for a free Ridge Cat Pass. Yes, that’s right, we said free. Then head towards Gate 1 off Lift 9 where the Ridge Cat will pick you up. From there, enjoy free snowcat skiing along the Continental Divide and explore some of Loveland’s most exhilarating terrain. Take in the amazing 360-degree views as you are whisked along the north side of The Ridge in the comfort of the 18-passenger cat. Once there, you get access to chutes, steeps and couloirs at 13,000 feet. Quite often you can jump untracked lines on Field of Dreams, Velvet Hammer, Tickler, 13,010 and Marmot when conditions permit. Just remember, these expert shots can only be accessed via the Ridge Cat or a hike, not the lifts, which means they hold new snow longer. Ridge Cat access is provided on a first-come, first-served basis when conditions permit. Skiers and riders are required to have a valid season pass or lift ticket in addition to a Ridge Cat Pass. Want to earn your turns? Pick up a free Uphill Access Card, and you can skin two designated uphill routes on the mountain. Just remember, uphill access is not permitted during Loveland’s operating hours (8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

SKILOVELAND.COM

SKI COOPER

day, drinks from Katie O’Rourke’s Irish Pub to celebrate the stoke as the sun goes down.

CHICAGO RIDGE, COLORADO From its birthplace as a training site for the fabled 10th Mountain Division during World War II to today, Ski Cooper is one of Colorado’s true gems. Perched high upon the Continental Divide, it offers unparalleled views, deep powder and a laid-back vibe that’s sorely missing at many of today’s modern resorts. It’s possible to spend a day here and never stand in a lift line. Where do you find that anymore? It’s also one of the highest resorts in Colorado, with a base area that sits at 10,500 feet, so you are assured an authentic day here with soft, all-natural snow.

PHOTO COURTESY SKI COOPER

SKICOOPERCHICAGORIDGE

@TK

APRÈS Every Saturday evening from December 21 through March 28 they offer a reservation only dinner up top at the Mountaintop Yurt where their chef will serve a meal made from locally sourced ingredients and wines. You will be ferried there and back by snowcat all while soaking up the beauty around you. TICKETS With adult lift tickets at $62 and children’s at $39 Ski Cooper is one of the few spots left in the state where a day of skiing won’t break your bank.

NEW THIS YEAR LESSONS Just in time for this season Ski Cooper Cooper’s renowned Ski & Ride School is adding a new lift and new is here to help you love your time double black diamond terrain on the snow. Under the direction for the upcoming season. The of seasoned professional Bill Tennessee Creek Basin will McGinty, the instructors SKI COOPER IS cover the east-facing slopes are highly qualified, and ADDING A NEW LIFT, of Cooper with lift-served incredibly friendly. You’ll 14 NEW TRAILS AND steep trails, glades and feel comfortable in private NEW DOUBLE-BLACKtree skiing spanning across and group lessons and DIAMOND TERRAIN 14 new trails this season. multi-week programs. Cooper THIS SEASON. This will round out the terrain has acres of dedicated learning offerings at Cooper starting with terrain, served by Colorado’s amazing wide-open beginner runs, longest public Magic Carpet conveyor long blue cruisers and steep tree and lift, so you’re sure to have plenty of glade skiing. room to get comfortable on the gentle slopes. As your skills progress, head to some BACKCOUNTRY of the finest easier “Green Circle” terrain If you want to get after it then sign up for a in the country to practice your skills, until day on the Chicago Ridge Snowcat. It offers you graduate to smooth intermediate “Blue an all-inclusive package that includes the Square” cruising runs, and finally to advanced newest powder skis, avalanche beacons, “Black Diamond” slopes where you can lunch, snacks, and to finish off a memorable really put your skills to the test.

@TK

SKICOOPER.COM

GIVEAW AY DPS SKIS TOUR1 SKI

MSRP $1,099 | TOUR 1 LOTUS 124 FEATURED CHOICE OF ANY SKI FROM THE COLLECTION

Ski Grand

FLYLOW COPPER JACKET AND SMYTHE BIB

MSRP $460 PER PIECE

Colorado’s Grand Mesa

SWEET PROTECTION INTERSTELLAR RIG GOGGLE MSRP $219.95

Elev. 9,850’

NEPTUNE MOUNTAINEERING $50 GIFT CARD & FULL BACKCOUNTRY RENTAL

Learn more at powderhorn.com

MSRP $200 | RENTAL INCLUDES SKIS, SKINS, BOOTS, POLES, BEACON, SHOVEL, PROBE INCLUDED

*SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY. OTHER RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY.

POWDERHORN MOUNTAIN RESORT

PHOTO COURTESY POWDERHORN MOUNTAIN RESORT

program you are eligible for a season pass at only $69. Bring a friend along and learn something new this winter. Nestled on the edge of Grand Mesa the resort offers stunning views, over 1,600 acres of terrain, and 250 inches of powder a season. In a further effort to make skiing accessible to all, they are rolling out a Tiny Home village this year with six ski in/ski out micro homes located right in the base area. Plans call for over 100 in the next POWDERHORN few years. How’s that for forward STILL OFFERS ONE OF THE STATE’S thinking? Lastly, make sure CHEAPEST DAY you visit the new umbrella bar PASSES AT $79 PER DAY. located under the Flat Top Flyer lift for towering glass walls, serious snacks and a full bar.

Independently owned Powderhorn Mountain Resort is redefining value for skiers and riders in Colorado with their Mission: Affordable Program. To bring the slopes to the masses they offer one of the best valued day passes in the state at $79. Couple that with their free to learn-to-ski program that offers beginners three days of free rentals, lessons, and access to their Easy Rider Lift. Even better, once you have completed that

SKIPOWDERHORN

POWDERHORN.COM

ENTER TO WIN

ELEVATIONOUTDOORS.COM/CONTESTS

T HE G O O D S | 1 0.1 9

THE BEST RESORT GEAR OF 2019

IT’S TIME TO RESTOCK YOUR CLOSET WITH SKIS, BOARDS, BOOTS, SHELLS AND A BEVY OF ACCESSORIES THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR GAME, UPLEVEL YOUR LOOK AND KEEP YOU COZY ON THE SLOPES THIS WINTER. by DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

HARDGOODS A T OM I C

BENT CHETLER 100

Meet your new best friend no matter the conditions on the mountain. At 100mm underfoot this woodcore weapon can float powder and crush crappy snow but still has all the backbone to swoosh the blues. Bring it to A-Basin and Eldora. $600; atomic.com

VÖLKL

DEACON 84

Incorporating three distinct sidecuts into its shape, this frontside bomber with a full-wood core and titinal frame for supple strength can adjust on the fly as you change it up between GS arcs, slalom wiggles and straightlining, and as conditions change under your feet. It’s the perfect choice for Beaver Creek. $1,000; voelkl.com

T ECN ICA

MACH1 LV 130

With 130 flex, a heat-moldable liner and 98mm last, this is the choice for hard chargers who don’t mind using a vice to fit into their boot. But once it’s on—you will appreciate how it works as a precise and powerful tool to drive your ski. $700; tecnicasports.com

NOR DI C A

CRUISE 120

Yet.. who really wants to smash their metatarsals into a ski boot? The roomy Cruise provides comfort for those big, wide dogs but still dials in power and control when you are pointing it down the hill. $400; nordica.com

NOR DI C A

SANTA ANA 93

Here’s a woman’s ski that will take you anywhere on the mountain, with underfoot rocker that gives it stability in crud. Plus, it turns on a dime and feels fatter float-wise than it is. Full ABS sidewalls from tip to tail mean you can trust it at speed, too. $650; nordica.com

PARTY PLATTER

Fun and crazy stable

this is the ideal board for a wide range of conditions. K2’s Directional Rocker Baseline provides medium-rise in the tip and a lower rise in the tail—meaning the Platter can ride rails, navigate trees and levitate on powder days. $470; k2snow.com

C API TA

SPRING BREAK POWDER RACER

Here’s your board for big dump days. It sports lots of rocker and a wide platform underfoot that will keep newbies afloat

and let shredders push their limits. And you’ll ski better knowing the Capita Mothership manufacturing facility in Austria runs on 100% hydropower. $500; capitasnowboarding.com

DAH U

ÉCORCE

Drawing on Swiss design and tapping a

braintrust of former Black Diamond and Burton execs, this innovative ski boot promises snowboardboot comfort thanks to a plastic shell with a series of strategic cutouts, a hinged entry system, and a swanky Italianmade liner that takes the pain out of ski boots. $899; skidahu.com

F LY L OW

QUANTUM PRO JACKET AND CHEMICAL PANT

Flylow upped the performance on our favorite winter kit with OmniBloq, a new eco-friendly DWR that beads water off the shell and pant without messing

APPAREL

with the membrane, and doesn’t use the earthdegrading chemicals that go into usual DWR. Plus, you still get the same three-layer no-nonsense protection and breathabilty we have come to expect in these standbys. $420 (jacket), $360 (pant); flylowgear.com

OR TOVOX

230 MERINO COMPETITION

The right baselayer feels dreamy against your skin, wicks away sweat and stink and keeps you warm without overheating. That’s a lot of demands on a fabric, but merino wool is up to the task, especially in this body-mapped layer that fits like a second skin. $110;

J A CK WOLFSK IN BIG WHITE JACKET AND PANT

The brand of choice in Germany, Jack Wolfskin has just begun to make big inroads here in the U.S.—for good reason. Built with 100% recycled materials, this cozy combination of women’s jacket and pants can withstand a winter of hard use and weather but one up your friend’s ski kits as you are sipping a toddy on the deck. $400 (jacket), $250 (pant); jack-wolfskin.com

B L A CK YA K

CALVANA HOODY

A warm insulator that can serve as your primary shell on balmy days. Tested on expeditions in Tibet, its permeable Cordura material outer layer and warm, light Climashield insulation keep it breathing even when you are huffing and puffing. $230; blackyak.com

ortovox.com

H E S TR A

ERGO GRIP ACTIVE

While many gloves warm your fingers, you have to remove them to fiddle with gear. Not so here: Articulated fingers and a perfect fit mean you can adjust your bindings with them on, while goat leather and GoreTex Windstopper Breeze keep your hands warm. $100; hestragloves.com

PI C TUR E OR G ANI C HARVEST BIB

Built to go easy on the planet, this highly functional bib features recycled polyester and a bio-sourced membrane. That enviro-sensibility doesn’t take away from its breathability and power to keep out the elements, though, making it our top pant choice for the mountains. $300; picture-organic-clothing.com

ACCESSORIES

OS PR EY

KAMBER 16

Just big enough for what you need for a day of riding the lifts (with a few forays out into the sidecountry), the svelte, 16-liter Kamber carries your shovel, water, extra layer and recreational materials without getting in the way. $100; osprey.com

S POR T U B E

TOASTER ELITE

POC

OBEX BC SPIN

This helmet can save your life in more ways than one thanks to an integrated NFC (near field communication) chip that stores your medical profiles with lifesaving information that can be accessed by first responders during medical emergencies. The first hour following a traumatic injury is the most important to prevent irreversible damage and optimize the chance of survival. Having access to medical information guides first responders in making their first treatment decisions. $200; pocsports.com

We never thought much about a luxury like a heated boot bag—until we tried one. First, let’s point out that this big cube can swallow up a lot of gear, so that we simply keep it stocked and ready to go in the early hours. But the real kicker comes when we plug it in, and those boots, gloves, mid-layers and other essential gear is waiting there nice and toasty warm on a frigid winter morning. $250; sportube.com

MOU N T A I N F L O W ECO WAX

The wax on the bottom of your ski or board is truly horrific stuff that ends up back in the ecosystem when you just want to be peacefully one with the hills. But most soy-based waxes, while environmentally friendly, don't do the trick. So MountainFLOW Kickstartered this vegetablebased wax that will keep you sliding without the damage to the planet. mountainflowecowax.com

S UR F A C E

CBD INFUSED SUNBLOCK SHEER TOUCH CONTINUOUS SPRAY

Indeed, CBD is in everything—but it works here. Surface merges SPF50 sunscreen spray with CBD and a fragrence mix of coconut, mango and guava for a feel that’s smooth and rejuvenating on your skin. $24; surfacecorp.com

SWE E T P R OT ECT ION INTERSTELLAR

Between Retina Illumination Grading for low-light conditions, Gore technology that prevents moisture build-up between the lens and a carbon reinforced frame that keeps them snug on your face, these simply stylish goggles pack a lot of tech onto your mug. That’s a very good thing when you don’t want your goggles distracting you from turns. $219-$249; sweetprotection.com

JU L BO

G R A N G ER S

A collaboration between Julbo and Patagonia ambassadors Caroline Gleich and Simon Charriere, this goggle features a custom-designed band hand-drawn by Charriere that calls out to two of Gleich’s most treasured mountain locales—the Wasatch and Chamonix.

Down is a pain to wash and dry, which means we tent to avoid washing and drying it. No bueno. But this simple kit gives you a wash treatment that cleans and revitalizes your down as well as dryer balls that keep it from clumping up. $23; grangers.co.uk

FAMILY CAROLINE GLEICH

$240; julbo.com

DOWN CARE KIT

HE A R T HI S | 1 0.1 9

Ski All Day, Dance All Night C R E S T ED B U T T E H A S A B R A N D N E W V EN U E F O R M US I C—A N D A RT, A N D M O R E —T H AT W I L L B E H OS T I N G B I G - N A M E B A N DS A L L W I N T ER LO N G . by MOLLY MURFEE

hat's the perfect way to top off a full day shredding the steep and deep? How about a night full of dancing to your favorite band? All too often, mountain towns are just too far out of the big-city tour circuit to draw big names. But this winter, Crested Butte is raising the après-band bar. The laid-back hamlet, known for its extreme comp terrain and quirky locals (seasoned with a healthy dose of salt), has put its creative might behind its new Center for the Arts facility, a reboot for an organization that has been bringing live music and a host of other artistic opportunities to the wilderness-fringed valley for more than 35 years. This December marks the debut of the Center for the Arts spanky-new, intimate concert facility as well as a completely reimagined arts-oriented building. And live music will crank up as the lifts start turning. Bands are throwing in cards to be the first in the state-of-the-art venue, and the line-up is looking impressive, with Matisyahu and Leftover Salmon already on the bill. As you make your skiing plans, check out the Center’s concert schedule, and extend that day of perfect turn euphoria into an ecstatic night of live music.

ACOUS TI C S

Audiophiles take note. This new theater is not only wired for sound—its architecturally built for it. While the straight up-and-down 90-degree walls found in most theaters bounce sound around, making it cacophonous and uncomfortable, the Center’s walls are built for good listening. Textured bricks canted at 3 degrees, stepped woodwork balconies and curved ceiling panels capture and clearly reflect sound back to the listener, while dampening acoustical banners drop down for high voltage rock so you can turn up the volume, but not have your ears bleed. The theater itself is isolated from the rest of the arts facility with 16inch, fully insulated walls so that not a peep is heard from adjoining bar or classroom spaces. Anything with a low harmonic hum—motors, heating ducts, pipes—are additionally isolated so offending vibrations won’t translate into the theater. Outside racket doesn’t

FOR ART’S SAKE! CRESTED BUTTE’S NEW CENTER FOR THE ARTS FACILITY WILL BLOW YOUR MIND (BUT NOT YOUR EARDRUMS). / PHOTO BY NATHAN BILOW PHOTOGRAPHY

stand a chance, with solid 10-inch concrete walls separating you from the howling snowstorm on the other side. Wanna hear the subtle squeak of fingers moving over acoustic guitar strings? This is the place. The superior quality surround sound system boasts the same detailed technicality as the architectural foundations, with speakers throughout delivering full sound from every nook. Upper and lower mixing stations allow custom adjustments for both levels of the theater so that every seat receives a pristine experience. “Theatre equipment specialists on the project tell us they have designed this kind of complexity in stadiums of 3,000 people,” says project manager Crockett Farnell of Black Dragon Development, “but rarely have they encountered this level of sophistication in a theater this size.”

TH E V ISUA L S A RE JUS T A S GOO D

Are you just as captivated by the light show as you are by the musical notes? The theater meets the needs of even the most demanding shows. “Addressable” lights mean that each individual unit can be programmed for every color in the rainbow and can spotlight anyone from the stationary drummer to the roving lead guitarist. Twenty-five different line sets allow for

a myriad of backdrops and blow-yourmind special effects. Love the circus? Aerial artists can swing through from the six rigging points. The theater is beautiful, featuring mesquite wood on the floor and Douglas fir in the balconies, with fine-tuned illuminations highlighting the columns and other architectural elements. The Center theater is intimate, with less than 400 available tickets in any of its interchangeable configurations, allowing you to get up close and personal to each act, no matter your location. Got opera or dance performance tickets? Luxurious custom seats arc arena-style before a sunken orchestra pit. In for some comedy or fusion jazz? Cabaret table seating sets the mood with tiered-level options. For high energy shows, the sprung floor flattens for a no-holds-barred open dance space. The coveted upper balcony of 40 seats allows sitting or standing with an overlook of all the action. A full bar on each level, combined with a simulcasting screen, means your drinks will come in hot (while being cold) and you won’t miss a beat. During set break, you can check out the professional art gallery next door.

A N D BY GO D IT’ S G RE E N

LEED certified, the entire building is hyper-energy-efficient with almost exclusive use of LED fixtures and

bulbs; massive amounts of insulation; and low- to no-VOC materials used for finishes. Cool, dry mountain air circulates throughout the building, eliminating the need for air conditioning. Even during construction, project managers went beyond LEED standards typical in commercial buildings with 90% of all cardboard and plastic recycled and tons of materials repurposed into the community. So when you’re grabbing your quiver of skis and heading to the high country, throw your best boogie shoes into the pack. You’re gonna want to be one of the first to shake’ your thang on the shiny new dance floor of the Center for the Arts.

M A RK YOU R C A LE N DA R

Shows are constantly being booked, but here’s a sneak peek of what’s confirmed to hit the stage so far this winter. Check the Center’s website (crestedbuttearts. org) often for updates and changes on new live music as ticket prices are set and purchase dates released. THE WINTER LINEUP SO FAR: December 6 Matisyahu December 27 & 28 Leftover Salmon January 2 BoomBox

O C TO B E R 2 01 9 / E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S . C O M

T HE R O A D | 1 0.1 9

The first shower you take in the boatyard when you’re finished with your season is heavenly. Hell, just being on land is one of the best feelings ever after you’ve spent six weeks knocking around on a rocking boat.

An Epick Yarn W H EN A CO LO R A D O SK I K I D D ED I C AT E S H I S SU M M ER S TO CO M M ER I C A L FI SH I N G I N A L A SK A , H E L E A R N S A N A L L I M P O RTA N T L E S S O N: T H I N G S C A N A LWAY S G E T WO R SE. by SCOUT EDMONDSON

’m staring up at the sky, daydreaming as the boat gently rocks. Suddenly, the tow line attaching the net to the mast slices through my field of view, yanking me out of my thoughts and back into the moment. I’m sprawled out in the Alaskan sun on the back deck of the 32-foot, aluminum-hulled drift-gillnetter Epick, in the Nushagak district of Bristol Bay. It’s early July and hotter than usual in Alaska—an unsettling yet all-toofamiliar trend—and I’m tired from the long hours of trying to put fish in the net. A rap song pumps out of a speaker crammed into a cubby in the aluminum gunwale to the right side of my head. It's a surreal moment. I’m eighteen years old and this is my second season onboard the Epick, which is operated by my friends Jake Clemens and Mariah Colton. I’ve been spending almost all my time with two dudes, Jake and Pete. We only come into contact with other people when we unload our day’s catch to the tending vessels or on the rare chance we tie up to another boat in our radio group. It’s been weeks since I’ve spoken to my family and even longer since I’ve talked to my friends back home in Colorado. Before I get to asking myself why exactly I am here, I hear Jake’s voice on the deck hailer telling us we’re going to pull the net in, see what we have caught, and go make another set. I sigh as I get up, put the drum in gear, grab my fish pick and pull the lever that hauls the net in over the stern roller. Most days are like this when you are working in the constant rhythm of Alaksan salmon fishing.

o how did a Colorado high school ski racer end up working on a fishing boat? Back in the fall of 2017, I was pulling barbed wire near my home outside of Nederland, Colorado, with Mariah and Jake, then newlyweds. They asked if I’d like to spend the summer working with them on their boat during Bristol Bay’s famous salmon run. “It’ll be hard work, but you’re strong and we think you could do it. Plus, you’d be making more money than you would be working a summer job here in Ned,” Mariah said.

many friends with people in the fishing fleet. Jake had come to work for Jim a couple years prior and was about to buy the Epick (then named the Erin K, after Jim’s daughter) from him. With Mariah and Jake’s combined 19 years of experience, they were well suited to take up this task and continue building their life around Alaskan fishing. They introduced me to some of their friends on other boats who welcomed me with smiles and genuine interest in my story. Over the next few days, we prepared the boat to go into the water and get to work. While Mariah, Jake and Jim dealt with mechanical issues, I dealt with smaller jobs—painting the engine, running errands to the marine supply store in the yard and moving hardwear out of the shipping container behind the boat on deck and stowing it all away. Finally, the day came when we put into the water and made our way to the district where we’d fish for a couple weeks. After that, we would transfer to another district and spend the rest of the season there before we made our way back to the boatyard.

T After a few weeks of consideration, I realized they were right and I sent my resume to our (now former) skipper Jim Schwartz. I decided to take the job to go on an adventure, see new places, meet new people and make a little money while I was at it. Then before I knew it, it was June and I was sitting on the plane next to my new bosses on our way to the King Salmon airport. We stepped out onto a dusty airstrip with dozens of other people, all going to work either on boats or in a cannery for the season. The landscape oddly resembled Oklahoma—if Oklahoma had glaciated volcanoes rising out of the rolling grassy hills that then fell away to the gray, silty waters of the northern Pacific. I soon learned

E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S / O C TO B E R 2 01 9

RISE AND SHINE WORK ON AN ALSKAN SALMON FISHING BOAT SUCH AS THE EPICK REQUIRES LONG, HARD DAYS HAULING NETS AND STABBING FISH BEHIND THE EYES, BUT IT'S BROKEN UP BY MOMENTS OF PURE BEAUTY OUT ON THE OPEN WATER OF BRISTOL BAY. / PHOTO COURTESY SCOUT EDMONDSON

that the people here are as tough as their surroundings: gritty, hardy, and covered in dirt and oil from long days of mechanical tinkering. When we pulled into the boatyard, I got my first glimpse of our aluminum home for the coming season, and was met by a small, friendly, well-groomed older man who introduced himself as Jim. He had been fishing for 37 years, season after season, and had made

o be frank, I had no idea what I was in for. Being a kid from landlocked Colorado, I couldn’t comprehend what life on the ocean would be like. I had never experienced weeks on end of eating, working and living on a pithcing boat, in bad weather, with minimal sleep. I’m not really sure what I expected, either. Music, movies and books I read growing up romanticized life at sea. Working hard and being away from your loved ones while on a boat always seemed cool to me, just because it meant you were tough. But it was such an abstract concept— nothing could have prepared me for what it really takes to labor day after day on a fishing boat. Mariah, who grew up right down the road from me, had a similar experience her first season. She seined and gillnetted in southeast Alaska, then began fishing in Bristol Bay. When she started, she tells me, she was super curious and enthusiastic about everything that happened on a boat since she was a woman from a landlocked state who didn’t grow up with any relationship

WR18COADV0192 - Print - Multipack - CO - E

to fishing. Since then, she has simply been driven to prove how capable she is working in Alaska and how she can handle the same level of intensity and hardship that any man (or woman) who grew up fishing could. I admire Mariah for being able to not only hold her own up here in the boat, but also to thrive in the face of so much adversity. This past season, I told my coworker Pete that I thought Mariah is one of the toughest people I know. I still stand by that statement. I felt that same feeling of curiosity about how it all worked my first season, too, but I honestly wasn’t looking to prove myself. I didn’t even really know just how hard the job would be. But here’s the reality: There are hours upon hours spent waiting for salmon to entrap themselves in our net. You pry their silvery, slimy bodies out of the green webbing. You stab each salmon behind their eyes (so each fish bleeds out and improves the quality of the meat) before throwing them into the refrigerated fish holds. And you do all of this in less-than-agreeable weather and running on a mixture of caffeine and ginger pills (to combat seasickness and stave off fatigue). But you learn from it all— the smallest things, like a nice conversation with people onboard a tender, eating a Twix bar, geeking out over pictures from a skiing magazine, the rare bag of frozen veggies, a phone call from my family, or being able to hang out with our friends from another boat, all have a profound effect on my mood while fishing. The first shower you take in the boatyard when you’re finished with your season is heavenly. Hell, just being

MESSING AROUND ON BOATS THE EPICK (ABOVE) RECIEVES INFORMATION ON WHERE AND HOW LONG IT CAN FISH IN BRISTOL BAY ACCORDING TO SURVEYS OF HOW MANY SALMON ARE RETURNING TO ALASK A'S RIVERS TO SPAWN. A TYPICAL WEEK ON A BOAT FOR A HAND LIKE SCOUT (LEFT) CAN CONSIST OF SHIFTS OF EIGHT HOURS FISHING, FOUR HOURS SLEEP TO MAXIMIZE THE ALLOTED HARVEST TIME. / PHOTOS COURTESY SCOUT EDMONDSON

on land is one of the best feelings ever after you’ve spent six weeks knocking around on a rocking boat.

uring an opener (the period where we are legally allowed to have our net in the water), I stumble out on deck, only to be greeted by an enormous grayish-brown wave slamming the stern and Mariah saying, “The fishing’s incredible right now!” Already drenched, I jam myself into my neon-orange PVC rain gear, claw my way to the lever on the drum, and hang on for dear life while the rest of the crew pick fish out of the net. With the net in, I grab

one of our bleeders, a razor sharp hand chisel, and begin spearing fish and tossing them into the holds. Mumbling vehement obscenities while I’m thrashed around on deck, my stomach begins to roil with sea sickness. Finally done, I stand up, turn around, and empty my stomach over the starboard railing. I turn around, soaking wet and covered in blood and fish scales, look wearily at Mariah, Jake and Jim, and explode into tears. Mariah hugs me while I sob into her chest, and Jake and Jim try to make me feel better with words of sympathy. They tell me to take the rest of the opener off, and I go into the galley, choke down some pilot bread, and shed a few more sorry tears, before I fall into an uneasy sleep. Coming home and seeing my friends and family after being cut off from them for so long really makes me think. Ever since I have returned, apart from appreciating things I’d taken for granted before life on The Epick, I have been looking at my existence differently. If anything seems really terrible and uncomfortable, I just tell myself that it could always be worse. I could be puking my guts out in the middle of a storm in Nushagak. O C TO B E R 2 01 9 / E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S . C O M

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The Last Chad A SP O O K Y-SE A SO N S TO RY A BO U T W H EN T H E LO C A L S GO LO CO. by PETER KRAY

had thought the guy was driving too fast. That half the time, he was probably turning around to talk and point his finger, and didn’t even have his hands on the wheel. Chad thought maybe he should’ve waited for another ride. But it was too late now. “You don’t even know what you don’t know,” was the first thing the guy said when Chad was in the car. “You Kurt Russellwannabes, coming out here from California and thinking that just because you put on a cowboy hat and take a picture you’re all of a sudden some kind of Wyatt Earp.” The driver said, “I bet you never even rode a horse before.” Chad was from Connecticut, not California, just to be clear. And he wasn’t so sure about wanting to be Kurt Russell. Maybe more like Robert Redford, or Val Kilmer. Chad also knew who John Wayne was, which he thought was pretty old school. He had watched Wayne’s Western Classic, True Grit, on his i-Pad, and knew that the movie was filmed here in Colorado. But that stuff about having never ridden a horse before: absolutely true. “I bet you tell all your friends back in Los Angeles or San Fran-freakingCisco, that you’re ‘living the dream,’” the driver said sarcastically. “Well dream on, dude, cause you don’t even own a car.” Everyone brings their dreams to the mountains. About the legends

“You Kurt Russellwannabes, coming out here from California and thinking that just because you put on a cowboy hat and take a picture you’re all of a sudden some kind of Wyatt Earp.”

they might become, and who the world will think they were. Chad imagined he would be a famous writer, penning his own indelible observations about life in the Rockies with such cold-eyed clarity it would be like no one had ever written the West before. It was as if the driver had read Chad’s mind when he suddenly demanded, “You think you’re freakin’ John Fayhee?” from the front of the car. And suddenly he was driving faster. Swerving a little. Chad wished he could look out the window to see where

they were. “Do you think you’re the second coming of ‘sweet drug-eyed Jesus’ Hunter S. Thompson? Or Ed Abbey? Or goddamned Cam Burns?” Except for Hunter S. Thompson, Chad didn’t know who any of those guys were. And as for being a ‘Gonzo Journalist,’ like Thompson, it wasn’t

E L E VAT I O N O U T D O O R S / O C TO B E R 2 01 9

They think they can live on words and water, and paint pink and purple sunsets that last forever in deathless prose. Then they worry that they won’t ever make any money, and they get scared. It’s the same with living in the mountains. After two or three years of busing tables and browning bagels, most transplants think they’ve put in enough time to know just how sick a skier or badass a mountain biker they might be—and move back home. Sometimes they still ride on the weekends. And complain about the traffic. And for the next 30 years they tell the same “mountain town”’ stories while they’re sitting at the bar. But they also all change each mountain place while they live there. All of us do. Which may have been why the driver started getting angry about all the “true” local places in Vail that Chad had neverever heard of—like Donovan’s Copper Bar, the old Peeper’s Palace Illustration by KEVIN HOWDESHELL / THEBRAVEUNION.COM volunteer ski lodge off the Minturn Exit, the original downtown Vail a phrase that exactly rolled off his Gondola and The Swiss tongue. He hardly smoked weed. And Hot Dog Company—listing more than the only thing he ever protested in his a dozen faded ventures with rising whole life was when the campus gym urgency until he was straight up yelling, started closing the racquetball courts “But that’s all freakin’ gone now!” an hour early back at school. Chad wanted to tell the driver he “I knew you were a Chad when I was sorry about those places. And saw you,” the driver laughed. Which about anything else he thought he was true. He was laughing that might need to be sorry for. same laugh when he saw Chad’s He wanted to ask the driver if he thumb pointing towards Lionshead, knew anything about the body of the and stopped the car. “Come on in, young waiter from Georgia that had Chad,” he had said, pushing open the recently been found on the road to passenger door. Ski Cooper outside of Leadville or Chad thought he had seen the guy the liftie they found with her hands before, a perpetually raccoon-tanned tied behind her back in a snowbank in ski bum with red, white and blue Montezuma. sunglasses and a long, wild gray beard, But the car was slowing down as well as the sagging black Cutlass now. Chad could hear gravel grinding with a ‘Colorado Native’ sticker. underneath the wheels. And the only thing he really knew for sure—and e thought he should tell wondered, more than anything in the the driver how much he world—was how he had been hogwanted to be out of the tied and duct-taped, unable to say a car. Or about how once, single word, quivering in the trunk of in what was starting to the car. seem a very long time —ELEVATION OUTDOORS EDITOR-AT-LARGE ago, Chad thought he might be the PETER KRAY IS THE AUTHOR OF THE GOD OF Rocky Mountain version of Henry SKIING. THE BOOK HAS BEEN CALLED “THE David Thoreau. Like all East Coast GREATEST SKI NOVEL OF ALL TIME.” DON’T guys do. Right before they apply to BELIEVE THE HYPE? BUY IT HERE AND READ business school. IT NOW: AMZN.TO/2LMZPVN

Mark Fisher

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