Club Colorado  

I hop on the 8 o’clock chair with a few Ski Patrollers at Durango Mountain Resort (DMR). I ask one of the patrollers what he thought of a recent article that seemed to suggest Ski Patrollers across the state lack in training.

“That article made us sound like a bunch of un-trained monkeys!” exclaimed TJ, a veteran patroller at DMR. “I resent that. We’re highly trained monkeys.”

The vibe here is relaxed, even on dawn-patrol. The snow has already begun to soften up on this late-March day. Festivities at the base area, known to locals as “the Beach” will include snow bowling, a pig roast, and of course, beer. Did I mention it’s college day?

“That’ll bring the rabble out for sure.” remarks Scott Clements, director of the Patrol at DMR. I’ve seen closing day at DMR before. It usually means costumes, antics, and lots of fun, so I know it’s going to be a good day to shadow the patrollers.

It takes hard work and dedication to work for Patrol. And a sweet one-piece.

Despite the chucklings about the laid-back vibe of spring skiing in Colorado, Ski Patrol is diligent about their job. It’s business-as-usual in the Patrol Shack. The morning meeting begins with grooming reports, station assignments, and the typical razzing of the rookie. The only think significantly different today is sitting on a table in front of me… (continue reading…)

Colorado’s skiers and snowboarders were recently presented with a misleading article that stated:

“When someone dies or is seriously injured on a Colorado ski slope, it is ski patrollers — not trained police officers, sheriff’s deputies or forest rangers — who document and determine what happened.”

That’s true, and it’s exactly the way you, as a skier, should want it. Here’s why:

Allow me to extrapolate:

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Desert Island question: If you had to pick just one mountain, just one spot to ski or board for the rest of time, which one would it be?

It’s a tough question, and thankfully it’s one you can completely ignore because in Colorado, you simply don’t have that problem. Colorado has a mountain for everyone. With tons of resorts and ski areas, there’s something here for everyone – which begs the question: what’s your thing?

Are you a powder-hound? Park-rat? Mogul-gopher? Aprés-aardvark? We tried to cram as much of our glorious state as we could in to a 30-second video. So take a look: see if your thing made the cut:

Didn’t see your thing here? Then hop on our facebook page or tweet us (@ColoradoSkiUSA) and let us know. We’ll make sure your favorite thing to do in Colorado Ski Country shows up in the next video.

-Mountain Correspondent

Skiing with kids can be tough.

As a recovering ski instructor who seemed to always get stuck instructing about thirteen four-year-olds, I can tell you that skiing with kids can make the days stretch on forever, and not in a good way. And skiing with adults ain’t easy for the kids either, especially when they’re learning. Dad wants to rip turns, grom wants to chill on the magic carpet. So what do you do?

The smiles say it all

You head to a place where everyone can get their fix; you head to Monarch Mountain. (continue reading…)

[WARNING: This blog post is NSFW - Employees: if your boss sees you reading it, you can kiss your next powder day goodbye. Kids: do NOT let your parents see this unless they're very cool, or already have the Powder Flu themselves. Read with caution]

You don’t want to be sick, right? But you do want the conditions to be sick out on the slopes. So what happens when you’re not sick, but the conditions are? Colorado Ski Country has the answer. It’s called the powder flu, and it’s extremely contagious around here.

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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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It’s easy to summarize this season in a word because there’s one word that sums up skiing and snowboarding in Colorado: Snow. Until mid December it’s all we could think about – we waited, pining for snow, hoping, wishing, and praying for it.

Hollywood turns under the chair at Purgatory

Then it came. And it’s still coming. Multiple back-to-back storms have pummeled the state, with just about every ski bum and powder hound in worth their Goretex getting in on the action. What’s more is that it looks like there’s a lot more snow in the forecast too – my weather report’s showing 5 of the next 7 days with a high likelihood of snow. Down here in the southwest corner of the state I couldn’t decide where to go first. Usually you just head to whoever has the most powder, but this time well, everyone had great snow. I couldn’t decide. I know, total princess problem.

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