The Colorado Springs Parks board is considering adding a new, mtn. bike-friendly trail that would connect Bear Creek to Section 16. This will allow riders to join a number of long, popular trails with minimal pavement time.
The Parks Board would like your input. If you’d like to hear about the plan and make comments you can show up at the Parks Headquarters Thursday, Sept. 11 at 7:30 a.m.
No big terrain changes this year, but there are some infrastructure updates.
Here’s the press release: Read the rest of this entry »
Copper Mountain, Steamboat Springs and Winter Park have announced their early season pass prices. Looks like prices are holding steady for now. Read the rest of this entry »
Open thread on today’s story: What’s your favorite non-incline workout?
We thought about including a few other hikes in the list - Stanley Canyon, Mount Cutler, Devil’s Playground. But we thought five would be a nice, round number.
So which hikes would you add to the list?
The Summit Daily News reports there have been nine rescues this summer on Quandary Peak, the Breckenridge area fourteener known as one of the easiest in the state. That includes an 11-hour rescue Tuesday when three hikers apparently got stranded on a cliff when they tried to descend via a “short cut” on west side.
“The peak is known as one of the easier fourteeners in the state, but easy is really a relative term here,” Summit County Search and Rescue Group spokeswoman Anna DeBatiste was quoted in the newspaper.
Just goes to show, even a hike described by most as an easy walk-up can turn dangerous when you aren’t prepared and don’t stay on the trail.
Colorado already has Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle, now the folks in Crestone are pushing to change the name of Kit Carson Peak to Mount Crestone.
I sorta like Kit Carson, because a tiny subpeak is already called Kat Carson, and losing the Kit would ruin everything.
Read the story here: http://www.alamosanews.com/V2_news_artic…
The agenda for today’s Colorado Springs Trails and Open Space Working Committee must have been a typo: It listed an hour for discussions on Corral Bluffs, the eastern El Paso County parcel that almost became a dirt bike park, which TOPS is considering buying.
The discussion lasted all of three minutes, as TOPS director Chris Lieber updated the committee on the “visioning exercise” for the area’s future. Lieber said officials are looking at a wide range of options for Corral Bluffs, including how it might link in with a larger recreation area, including the proposed Jimmy Camp Creek Reservoir.
“There are a lot of things that can be accomplished with that project, a variety of interests that can be addressed,” Lieber said.
The Trails and Open Space Coalition is working with TOPS on the “visioning exercise,” holding meetings to talk about the future of Corral Bluffs. Coalition director Dan Cleveland said some participants wanted to “plunge immediately into some things we need to do more research one.”
For those who want quick action on Corral Bluffs, the “visioning exercise,” it appears, will have to be an exercise in patience.
If, like me, you paid the $49 this spring to reserve your Colorado Pass - unlimited skiing at Breck, Keystone and A-Basin and 10 days at Vail and Beaver Creek - it’s time to pay the piper.
Vail Resorts is sending out notices that you owe the other $390 by Sept. 17. Don’t worry, they’ll charge the account you used to pay the $49, assuming you have any money left on there after the Labor Day gear sales.
VR is mailing everyone new passes this year, because they are equipping passes with RF Technology, a spiffy new radio device that, supposedly, lets the ticket scanners check your pass without taking it out of your pocket. Let’s see how much it cuts down on the lift lines at Breck on a Saturday…..
If you didn’t have a pass last year, but still want to get in on the best ski deal anywhere (IMHO), click here for details.
My vote is for this one, at Knowles Overlook in Rabbit Valley, pretty much on the Utah border.
And what’s ridiculous is that we showed up there at about noon Saturday on Labor Day weekend, and we had the place all to ourselves. Yeah, it’s a long drive, but look at the place: It’s gorgeous. A camping spot maybe 200 feet above the Colorado River, surrounded by red rocks and cliffs.
The mountain biking is pretty good out there, too - primarily the Western Rim, which rides right along the edge of the cliffs for six of its 15 miles.
I kinda feel like I should keep something secret, but plenty of people know about it and obviously none of them bother to go there.
You do need a four-wheel-drive to get out there, but we took our trailer and, the next day, saw a Honda CRV in the area, so it’s not like you need a jacked-up Jeep.
Summer’s warmth is already gushing out of the area like so much hot air in a Labor Day balloon. And people are starting to think skiing. A friend was asking where he could get good skis cheaply. I said get a bro deal from one of your friends who works in a shop. Failing that, we have some ideas.
First, the folks at www.steepandcheap.com, the addictive outdoor gear close-out Website, just unveiled www.tramdock.com, a site devoted only to ski stuff. (It joins www.chainlove.com, the bike-specific site). If Steapandcheap is any indication, prepare for amazing deals hidden amidst lots of schlock.
I’m also a big fan of buying used. www.craigslist.com is a great resource. The trick is to keep your focus local. If you’re driving up to Denver to check out skis, it gets old real quick.
Finally, if you don’t have to have the latest and greatest, but want new gear, try Denver Discount Skis. This Limon company sells overstock and older models at great prices.
Just wanted to dig up one of my favorite stories:
Nothing should grow here.
Late-summer storms hurl hail against the granite slope.
The dawn air freezes all but six weeks of the year. There is no sign of soil.
But on this lonely ridge, the oldest known tree in the Pikes Peak region, a Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine, has been growing for 2,040 years.
Read the rest here.
Here’s the official list of improvements from Colorado Ski Country USA: Colorado is known for providing skiers and snowboarders unparalleled winter getaways thanks to Colorado’s superior snow, diverse destinations and opportunities for exceptional experiences. For the 2008-09 ski season, Colorado Ski Country USA resorts will further this reputation by investing millions in resort enhancements. The results will include acres of new terrain, several new chairlifts, numerous lodging rooms, massive snowmaking improvements, loads of new parking spots, some new restaurants, and a cabriolet. There’s more Read the rest of this entry »
We just caught up with this great photo album from David Lien, a local connoisseur of high places. I profiled him a few years ago on a failed attempt to climb Mount Everest. That trip obviously didn’t turn him off to mountains.
Lift ticket prices will start to creep up after this weekend, in their yearly rise to peak season, deals still abound. For 2008 lift ticket and season pass prices (at least estimates) click here.
The ski resorts are always cagey about what there actual prices will be, but since a walk-up lift ticket at Vail topped out at $92 last year, it won’t take much to reach the three figures.
Take comfort though, in the fact that Colorado is still the cheapest place in the world to ski, at least for locals.
Oh, and did I mention Monarch is dropping its prices? If you order on-line, a day ticket is $44. Last year it was $54. If you go to the window, it’s still $54 this year, plus you have to wait in line, so why would you?
The final event in the 2008 Freestyle Kayaking World Cup begins today in Thun, Switzerland, and Colorado Springs’ own Michael “LP” Palmer is in the mix in the mix. Palmer is currently in second place in the junior men’s competition.
The competition runs through Sunday. Good luck LP!
That You Tube is Palmer at the 2007 Fibark in Salida.
Today’s Out There has the story of how Luke Ward and his 11-year-0ld daughter, Dani, recently unicycled down Pikes Peak. There’s cool video of Dani in the Red Rock skills park too.
The story started when I passed Ward on the Incline. He had his muni (mountain unicycle) strapped across his back. I said that was pretty impressive. He said, “That’s nothing, my daughter and I rode down Pikes Peak the other day.” I told him to give me a call when he did it again. For the story, I followed them down Barr Trail on my bike. I fell over and hurt myself, they didn’t. Astounding. Read the story here.
Anyway, I thought they were the only ones unicycling down fourteeners, but it turns out there’s also this guy.
As for one-wheeled cyclists in Colorado Springs, the Wards said they only knew of one or two. Other muni-riders were quick to e-mail a correction. Mike Krug wrote:
“We have a group of over 10 people at HP (on Rockrimmon Blvd) that have been Muni riding for anywhere from 1-2 1/2 years. We have ridden Ute Valley park (2-3 times per week), Cheyenne Mountain Park and as a matter of fact some of the guys have been talking about doing the Barr Trail from the Peak down this summer. We are actually hiking up the incline this afternoon and riding down that section of Barr trail on our Uni’s. We have had 3 broken bones so far that I know of in our group. We also have met several other Muni riders around and I would suspect that there are between 30-50 in the Springs.”
Havasu Canyon, the hidden paradise of waterfalls and gardens in Grand Canyon that was ravaged by floods August 16 won’t reopen to visitors for at least six months, according to the A.P.
The Havasupai tribe initially had planned to allow visitors back to the area next month, but said Tuesday that more time is needed to repair the miles-long trail that leads visitors through Supai village to the canyon’s splendid blue-green waterfalls.
The famous, turquois, travertine pool below Havasu Falls that gives the water its blue-green color is dried out, and Watahomigie said the flood damaged other waterfalls that lure thousands of tourists to the area each year.
Until then, the only access is by helicopter or a long, very expensive dream raft trip.
The western slopes of Pikes Peak from Mueller State Park, Oct. 16, 2006.
For a story in the Out There section, to run Sept. 11, I’m looking for area photographers - amateur and pros - to share their favorite times and spots to shoot Colorado’s fall foliage.
Send email to srappold at gazette.com. Please attach your best picture, and include the time and place, and we may publish it along with the story. Sorry - we can’t pay you, but you will get credits for the photo, and the joy of sharing your work with the world.
Please get in touch with me by Tuesday, Sept. 2 at the very latest.
Thousands of hi-res images of old United States Geological Survey photos and drawing, like this 1869 sketch of Pikes Peak, have been digitized and made available free on the Web. More are in the process of being scanned. Much of the stuff is mundane, but there are important old photos too.
For anyone eager to see what Colorado looked like before it became a state of 4 million people, it’s a nice compliment to other great, online photo archives from the Pikes Peak Library District and the Denver Public Library.
Manitou residents have been 
