Club Colorado  

Skiing is inherently silly. As stated by Dexter Rutecki in Aspen Extreme: “We’re not curing cancer here, we’re sliding down a mountain with sticks on our feet.” Skiing is fun, it’s silly, and it’s not to be taken too seriously.

Unless you’re a member of Colorado’s Ski Patrol.

For Ski Patrollers, skiing isn’t just a fun activity; it’s their job. Colorado’s Ski Patrol represent one of the most comprehensively trained groups in all of outdoor recreation. Medical training, mountain travel, search and rescue, evacuation, incident response and evidence gathering – you name it, the Ski Patrol is trained for it and ready to respond.

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For decades, the mere utterance of the word “Telluride” has conjured up visions of jagged peaks, crusty miners, an authentic western main street, and the mystique of some of the best skiing in Southwest Colorado.  And the myth holds up: even an average day at Telluride is anything but, well, average:

How was my day? Eh, the usual.

The totally average Telluride experience continues…

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Ski season’s in full swing in Colorado Ski Country USA. Yes, we had a slow start, but it’s really turning around; every single one of our resorts and ski areas got dumped on at some point over the past week. That’s huge! In my neck of the wods, it loked like it was snowing potato chips at one point. And while it’s NOT Colorado’s first snow, I think that the calming melodies of the good Hank Williams Sr. sum this up:

And while there’s been plenty of snow falling, there’s been something else falling on the slopes in Colorado: us. Falling is part of skiing, and while the twitter-verse and face-spaces are full of photos of all the glorious powder falling in Colorado, I thought I’d change it up a bit with some photos of crashes. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you: Augerfest, February 2013. Enjoy!

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One of the most amazing winter carnivals, hands-down, no-doubt, bet-your-season-pass is Steamboat Springs’ Winter Carnival. It’s coming up Feb 6-10. Do. Not. Miss. It. And when you get there, be sure to put on some warm socks, fill a thermos with some piping hot <ahem> cocoa, and head out for a night at the signature event, the Night Extravaganza.

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Parking in Colorado has its risks, as this poor damsel in distress recently realized after leaving her car unattended for a day a Durango Mountain Resort lot. The resort is reporting a whopping 22 inches in the last 48 hours. I believe it:

No, it's not a mogul. It's my car.

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Most of us think we know our snow. We know what kind makes a good snowball. We know what kind we like to ski. We know not to eat it if it’s yellow. But even if you know our snow,  do we know how deep it is, just from a photo? Well Colorado Ski Country USA is testing how well you Know Your Snow with a little quiz!

The rules: Look at the photo below. 4 Colorado ski resorts are represented, each with a photo from a recent powder day. Your job is to guess how deep the snow is, just from the photo. And no cheating – anyone caught looking at snow reports on resorts’ websites with be forced to ski the rest of the season on snowlerblades. Consider yourself warned.

If you think you know one, or more of the answers, post it on our Facebook page. The correct Answer will be posted at an undisclosed time in the future, most likely tonight when my plane lands. First one with the correct answer wins ultimate bragging rights, and gets to keep their dignity through another snowlerblade-free ski season. Good luck!

Post Your Guesses: http://www.facebook.com/ColoradoSkiCountryUSA

Remember, just like you can’t ski without a lift ticket, you can’t win unless you play. Post your best guess on our Facebook Page and hold your breath for an undisclosed amount of time until entries are tallied and answers are posted. Good Luck!

<UPDATE: THE ANSWERS>

Okay, sports fans. If you missed out on the Sunday Funday Quiz, you’ve officially missed your chance at everlasting glory. The results are in, and here they are:

Thanks for playing! Now get out there and ski!

-Mountain Correspondent

I’ve been out with the kids several times this year but for our first official family ski outing of the season, with the core four, we headed up to Loveland. It’s one of the areas we frequent for a few reasons: location, terrain and atmosphere.
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