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The Bullwheel

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The Bullwheel

[ October 7, 2009 - 7:21pm ]
Signatures Soul Skiing
Oriental Theatre
Enlarge Photo
Photo by: Niall Bouzon
Dek: 
Sweetgrass Productions’ newest film, Signatures, enticed a full house last night at Denver’s Oriental Theatre. The bacon smell permeating the venue and the flick’s esoteric ski analogies delivered in Japanese reminded me of the two things I love most about skiing: powder turns and breakfast burritos.

Driving to the theatre we took a Denver superhighway, a wide street lined with pawnshops, taco shops, and Little Caesar’s. Then we saw the 50s-era theater, the line—about a half a block long—and the brightly colored Woodstock-style bus used by the Sweetgrass Productions crew for transportation. This is where Sweetgrass showed its down-to-earth film, Signatures.

[ October 7, 2009 - 6:36pm ]
Loveland Ski Area Opening Day
A reminder that it's still October.
Enlarge Photo
Photo by: Margaret Page
Dek: 
Loveland Ski Area is the first resort to open this season. And we were there.

Skiing in America officially started today when, at 9:07 a.m., the first riders loaded the chair at Loveland. Didn’t know that it was going to open? Neither did most people, including the folks at Loveland. “I didn’t find out until 2 p.m. yesterday,” said ski patroller Nick Regester.

Check out pictures here

[ October 6, 2009 - 6:52pm ]
Dear Sherry McConkey. Sorry I Stole Your Chair.
Shane in MSP movie
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Dek: 
At the MSP show in Squaw Valley over the weekend, it started to snow. A gift from Shane? Perhaps. Wes Berkshire makes a blunder at the screening, but quickly realizes his mistake.

The snow finally came to Tahoe. After enduring news of inches in Colorado and feet in Utah in previous weeks we residents of the big blue pill (also known as Lake Tahoe) finally got our first white.

[ October 2, 2009 - 5:00pm ]
Shocking News: Resorts Inflate Snowfall Numbers
Snowstake
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Dek: 
OK, fine. It’s no big surprise that ski resorts call for 12 inches when they really only got 10. But what is surprising is how iPhone apps can help curb the lies.

It didn’t really come as any sort of a shock to me that a recent study by a team of Dartmouth economists revealed ski resorts are inflating their snowfall numbers. The economists discovered that some resorts are exaggerating their snow report data by as much as 23 percent on weekends. The resort’s snow reports were cross-referenced with government weather stations from a similar area to determine the percent of inflation.

[ September 30, 2009 - 5:13pm ]
Doug Coombs 1
Doug Coombs Plaque
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Photo by: Mark Lesh
Dek: 
Remembering a legend.

The memorial plaque for legendary big-mountain and ski-mountaineering pioneer Doug Coombs is bolted to the limestone wall of the cave below Corbet’s Couloir at Jackson Hole. He was one of the most influential skiers of the 20th century. Coombs passed away on April 3, 2006 while trying to rescue his partner Chad VanderHam at the Couloir de Polichinelle in La Grave, France. He would have turned 52 last week. Rest in peace.

[ September 30, 2009 - 1:57pm ]
Taking it to the (White) House
which one spins faster?
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Dek: 
Aspen Skiing Company tells the Senate what’s up

Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry are proposing new legislation about climate change to the Senate today. Some surprising players have had a hand it in. One of them is Aspen Skiing Company. Known for their innovative environmental work, ASC is moving beyond greening their resorts to green up the government.   

[ September 28, 2009 - 5:58pm ]
Colorado Backcountry Hut Burns Down
Fowler-Hilliard Hut
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Dek: 
A well-known and well-used backcountry hut near Vail is destroyed by fire. Rebuilding efforts are underway.

I came across this Vail Daily article while surfing mountainbuzz.com the other day.

[ September 27, 2009 - 11:44am ]
The Meeting: A Marriage Proposal and More
Riley Proposes
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Photo by: Jeremy Swanson
Dek: 
People come to The Meeting in Aspen to watch ski and snowboard movies. The last thing they expect to see is a marriage proposal. But that's just what happened at a screening on Friday night high up on Aspen Mountain.

For the first time in the five years Aspen has hosted The Meeting—an annual gathering of ski and snowboard athletes and filmmakers—movies were show at the Sundeck on Aspen Mountain. So Friday night, we loaded the gondola and floated 3,000 vertical feet up to a high-mountain screening. Teton Gravity Research’s film Re:Session played first, with filmmaker Todd Jones and athletes Sage Cattabriga-Alosa and Seth Morrison introducing the flick.

[ September 25, 2009 - 8:16pm ]
The Meeting: The State of the Industry 1
Meeting Conference Room
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Photo by: Jeremy Swanson
Dek: 
Athletes, filmmakers, and corporate sponsors gathered at Aspen's Sky Hotel this afternoon for a discussion on the Olympics, lawsuits, and Wendy's fast food.

"I think the Olympics is a way to get people's mind around what we're doing," says Jen Hudak, a pro skier who specializes in halfpipe. "The Olympics, for me, is the way to grow our sport. I want the world to know about our niche sport." We're at a gathering at the Sky Hotel in Aspen, Colorado, as part of The Meeting, an annual celebration of ski and snowboard movies and a gathering of industry professionals. And we're talking about why ski superpipe isn't an Olympic sport yet. At this winter's 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, BC, skiercross will make its Olympic debut.

[ September 22, 2009 - 4:11pm ]
First Snow of the Year 3
First Snow of the 09-10 Season
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Dek: 
It's officially fall—but it feels a lot more like winter. Resorts in Colorado are already reporting snow—and it's only September.

The snow reports are rolling in. "It’s that time again—Aspen/Snowmass has a huge amount of snow on top of the mountains and has been snowing and ‘snaining’ (snowy rain) all day long with more expected in the forecast," says Aspen's PR Manager Melissa Rhines. At Steamboat, snow was spotted down to just below the top of Christie Peak at about 8,000 feet with between a trace to half an inch as you moved up from the top of the gondola up to the summit of Mt. Werner.