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Popular Colorado photographer John Fielder is zig-zagging the state after spending a year with ranchers.
He’s touring to promote his latest book, “Ranches of Colorado,” which includes a stop for a slideshow and book signing tomorrow night on the Colorado State University campus in Fort Collins—an event that will help support the Legacy Land Trust, a nonprofit land-conservation organization, notes the Northern Colorado Business Report.
The ornate book is Fielder’s “most beautiful innovation so far,” writes the Estes Park Trail Gazette, with 232 pages and 375 color photographs of working cattle ranches. The book is meant to bring attention to the rapid loss of ranchland in Colorado to development. As Senior Editor Luc Hatlestad wrote recently for 5280, Fielder has focused his lens on the outdoors for more than three decades. Now, he’s beginning to recognize the value of putting people into the frame.
The Colorado Ski Train is back, but with a new name: the Rio Grande Scenic Ski Train. It’s expected to make an inaugural run on December 27 (h/t Huffington Post).
For many years, the National Weather Service has taken its weather readings for Denver from Denver International Airport—and before that, the old Stapleton airport. Trouble is the airports are far from where the people live: DIA is 18 miles from downtown.
Now, the weather service has established a new station at City Park golf course, writes The Associated Press, which notes the Denver Museum of Nature and Science will own and operate the facility.
The announcement comes just in time for the snow that’s set to fall on Denver and the Front Range this weekend.
A winter storm warning has already been issued for the ski areas west of Vail Pass, and the long stretch of sunny, warm days will disappear as of today, giving way to temperatures in the lower 40s, notes 9News. Later today, a mix of rain and snow could strike Denver. Two to five inches could accumulate, presumably at the new weather station, by Saturday night.
Either Shane Bauer, his girlfriend, Sarah Shourd, and their friend Joshua Fattal are a trio of spies who posed as American hikers in Iran on a botched mission or they’re simply naive. It’s been two months since the three were arrested after allegedly entering Iran from Iraq.
Shannon Bauer, Shane Bauer’s sister, a graduate student in psychology at Naropa University in Boulder, recent told the Daily Camera, “It was very much in character for him to go there. The day before it happened, I got an e-mail from him saying how safe it was. This is a part of Iraq that Western tour groups go to.”
It seems the hikers aren’t really spies, as Iranian officials have alleged. Rather, the three are being used as political pawns in the protracted battle between Washington and Tehran over Israel and nuclear weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Turkey that President Barack Obama must choose between Israel and relations with Iran.
The announcement came only hours after Tehran’s prosecutor announced spying charges against the three, although Ahmadinejad (pictured) said he hoped the three would not be jailed, while avoiding questions over whether he believed they were spies. (more…)
Vehicle exhaust and farm fertilizer are helping to warm the alpine lakes of Rocky Mountain National Park, creating unwanted algae that’s no more than “junk food for fish,” according to a study that will be released in the journal Science (via The Associated Press). Moreover, the problem—nitrogen—is worse than previously believed, says Arizona State University professor James Elser, the study’s lead author.
The lakes can lose biodiversity, a threat to fish like the rare greenback cutthroat trout, because the algae is less nutritious for the microscopic organisms that are at the basis of the food chain.
“It’s like eating marshmallows all day and expecting to grow. You can’t do it,” Elser says.
Colorado State University researchers are listed as co-authors on the reports, including U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist and Colorado State senior research scientist Jill Baron and Koren Nydick, a graduate of the CSU Graduate Degree Program in Ecology (via CSU).
Meanwhile, The Colorado Independent notes that the upper Colorado River and Front Range water resources are threatened by population growth and the energy industry.
The November issue of Outside Magazine touts the 16 best ski resorts of North America, with Colorado’s Silverton Mountain taking the fourth spot. Immediately after comes Breckenridge, and Aspen/Snowmass sits at number eight. Crested Butte lands at number 12, and Steamboat appears at number 14.
Silverton earns Colorado’s top spot for its low-frills approach, tons of powder, and epic riding. Big-mountain skier Chris Davenport says it’s “like a heli-ski operation with a chairlift.” Silverton also happens to be the place where Red Bull built Shaun White his own halfpipe (video below; hat tip to Westword.)
Meanwhile, as temperatures climb to the low 70s today on the Front Range, Keystone Resort is celebrating opening day in the high country. The Denver Post reports last week’s snowstorm helped Keystone bump up its opening day, which will include top-to-bottom skiing, along with two jumps and nearly two dozen features in its A51 terrain park.
Free Skier Magazine thanks the wonders of the iPhone and “a mole planted deep within the Keystone team” for a group of photos and video of the terrain park, which, the mag writes, will convince you to pony up the funds for a ski pass. Copper Mountain opens Friday, so find a way to ditch the cubicle and head to the state’s many slopes sometime soon.
The ski town of Breckenridge has voted by a margin of almost three to one to legalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. The ordinance also removes criminal penalties for the possession of bongs, pipes, and other drug paraphernalia, notes 7News.
“This vote demonstrates that Breckenridge citizens overwhelmingly believe that adults should not be punished for making the safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol,” says Sean McAllister, the Breckenridge attorney who proposed the ordinance.
Breck authorities, however, could still enforce state and federal laws that make possession illegal.
Meanwhile, voters in Denver overwhelmingly defeated Initiative 300, which would have required police to seize cars from drivers caught without a license—even if they simply left their ID at home (via 9News). (more…)
Last week’s two-day snowstorm got a lot of people jazzed for the ski season, says Ken Gart, president of Specialty Sports Venture, the parent company of Colorado Ski and Golf. So much so that over the weekend, you wouldn’t know that Colorado’s ski industry had been pinched by the recession.
“Literally, we have been packed since the doors opened this morning,” Gart told CBS4 on Saturday.
Ski resorts throughout North America, including Copper Mountain (Copper Peak pictured), have shifted their marketing strategies to focus on offering discounts, part of a broader tourism-industry trend to lure valuable customers who are expected to look for more bang for their bucks this year (via KUNC radio).
Several resorts are already open, and last week’s big snowstorm only helped perpetuate the many deals available, as First Tracks notes.
Kids across the Front Range are celebrating this morning (or maybe just sleeping in) as a second day of snow keeps them out of schools and instead sledding down hills, building snowmen, or just staying inside to eat soup and watch a movie. The list of closures isn’t limited just to schools. Many businesses have told their workers to stay home this morning, too, according to 9News.
Flights at Denver International Airport remain touch-and-go, and roads are slick after the storm covered a region spanning from northern Utah’s Wasatch Front to the Nebraska-South Dakota border (via The Associated Press). It’s the biggest October snowmaker in the Denver area since 1997.
A winter storm warning remains in effect for much of the region, and forecasters at 9News expect 10 to 18 inches of snow by tonight for Denver and the I-25 corridor from Monument Hill to Cheyenne.
As anyone who has driven Colorado’s scenic mountain highways can attest, there are large swaths of brown amid the green forests—dead and half-dead trees, ravaged by disease or bugs, or both. Finally, the Forest Service will take action to clear some of the dead wood out. Foresters have launched a massive effort to remove hazardous trees using contract laborers—even prisoners—to do the job, according to The Denver Post.
Cutting crews will use gas-powered chainsaws along trails and roads in the White River, Arapaho-Roosevelt, and Medicine Bow-Routt forests.
While those efforts are focused on lodgepole pine trees hit hard by bark beetles, many of the state’s aspen trees are fading because of “sudden aspen decline,” or SAD, notes The New York Times, which reports foresters hope timber harvests and prescribed burns in aspen stands will help the trees regenerate. As The Colorado Independent points out, “While Colorado’s fall colors don’t draw the crowds New England sees, they’re still a key economic driver.”
Though temperatures in Denver might soar above 70 degrees today, ski season officially began at 9 a.m. That’s when Chair 1 started its ascent at Loveland Ski Area, which has once again won the annual race to be the first resort to open in North America, reports 9News.
While there’s already been plenty of snow in the high country, Loveland cheated a bit, working its snow-making equipment hard since September 21 to give the area its earliest opening day in 40 years, according to the Denver Business Journal. Lift tickets are selling for $44.
Arapahoe Basin, meanwhile, will open on Friday—the earliest opening day in that resort’s history.
It’s that time of year in Colorado, when thousands of people flock to Estes Park in their SUVs, cameras and/or binoculars in hand. They come to watch the elk get naughty.
That’s right. It’s mating season, and the male elk are bugling and living a David Letterman-style dream by rounding up harems of numerous females. But in the end, just like any night at a bar in LoDo, the females ultimately pick the males.
What do they look for?
“Antlers that are symmetrical,” Bob Kreycik, a Loveland resident, retired veterinarian, and longtime volunteer to the National Park Service, tells The Aspen Times. (more…)
As the economy sputters along, ski resorts are pulling out all the stops to lure people to the slopes, offering some spectacular deals. The hitch is whether you can afford to take advantage of them. A deal at Keystone Resort tops today’s list.
If you’re engaged, love to ski, and always wanted to get married with the slopes as the backdrop, you just might want to go for it at Keystone. If you do, you’ll get complimentary ski passes for the 2010-11 season, a free stay at the resort, including champagne, and a special cake on your one-year anniversary (when you can finally use those passes) (via Gadling). It’s just one of many deals available as resorts aim to rebound from last year’s declines.
The four resorts that constitute Aspen/Snowmass saw a 7.3 percent drop in visits, but now they’re offering free and discounted lift tickets, among other perks, according to The Denver Post.
“We saw it coming last fall—not a gunshot across the bow, but more like a large missile,” says David Perry, senior vice president at Aspen Skiing Company. Look for deals in Vail and just about everywhere else, too.
Our most popular tourist destinations may also be our most endangered. Rocky Mountain and Mesa Verde national parks have made environmental groups’ lists of national treasures most vulnerable to climate change, says Stephen Saunders of the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Climate Organization.
The spread of bark beetles has caused the death of “virtually every mature lodgepole pine tree in Rocky Mountain National Park,” pointing to a warning by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that global warming will greatly increase pest and disease outbreaks in forests (via the Fort Collins Coloradoan). A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council scheduled for release today will highlight the specifics.
Despite such issues, Rocky Mountain National Park remains a beauty in fall. There’s snow on the peaks, the leaves are changing, and the bull elk—some as heavy as 1,000 pounds—are bugling their virility in an attempt to woo harems of females, writes Boulder’s Daily Camera.
In 2006, Vail Resorts announced that it would purchase the equivalent of 152,000-megawatt-hours of wind energy each year, making the ski company one of the top renewable-energy buyers in the nation. Although wind farms couldn’t deliver the power directly to Vail, the company smartly purchased credits, meaning the electricity it used was replaced on the power grid with wind power.
Now, the plan, which federal officials estimate would reduce more than 200 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year, is over, according to the Denver Business Journal. Vail Resorts Chairman and CEO Rob Katz says the resort aims to change its environmental focus to “more comprehensive projects, which help protect the climate and also offer habitat and watershed benefits to local communities, such as the Hayman Restoration Project.”
The Hayman project aims to help restore areas in Pike National Forest that were devastated by the 2002 wildfire, the largest ever to strike Colorado. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Vail Resorts will be joined by The National Forest Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service on the estimated $4 million project (via 9News).
Coloradans love to brag about the state’s skiing chops, and for good reason. We have some killer resorts. Ski Magazine’s annual list of Top 30 Resorts once again backs up our cockiness. Colorado claims 12 of North America’s top 30 resorts in the recently released survey of the magazine’s readers. The state’s top resort is Vail, ranked third on the continent, followed by Beaver Creek at number five, then Snowmass at number 6, and Steamboat at number 10.
But a few Colorado resorts actually slipped from last year’s list. The Aspen Times explains the three main reasons for that happening to Aspen-area mountains: costs, travel hassles, and bear problems. Snowmass’ respectable sixth-place ranking is down from its number four spot last year, and Aspen Highlands moved up the list to 17 from number 18. The Times counters that prices and the relatively remote location of Aspen-area resorts keep them ranked.
In reviewing survey comments, the Times writes: “It was clear that many visitors haven’t connected Aspen’s dots. They harped about the high prices and inaccessibility without realizing both contribute to the lack of crowds.” Makes sense. Nonetheless, season passes of up to $1,799 are a bit much for the average skier in this Great Recession.
After 69 years of service, earlier this year the Anschutz Company sold the Ski Train, which ran from Denver’s Union Station to Winter Park, to a company in Canada.
It was sad news for many local skiers, but now the Union Pacific Railroad has approved a request from Amtrak to operate a train this season, reports The Denver Post. The deal involves Iowa Pacific Holdings LLC, which runs seasonal railways and short-line freights in Colorado and elsewhere.
The company wants to take over operations of the Ski Train, and its president, Ed Ellis, is pleased Union Pacific approved Amtrak’s request. The new Ski Train will run from December 26 through March 28, Ellis says, adding Iowa Pacific still must finalize its deal with Amtrak for the upcoming season. But, he says, the proposed arrangement “would use our cars and locomotives and Amtrak crews.”
It seems a small measure, but, as the Denver Business Journal writes, the one-half percentage point decline in Colorado’s unemployment rate—to 7.3 percent—is “some of the best news” about jobs since the recession began. Even in the hard-hit Grand Junction area, unemployment was down from 9.1 percent in July to 8.7 percent in August, reports the Sentinel. Still, that’s a train wreck compared with a year ago, when the state unemployment rate was 4.9 percent.
Today, there are 110,000 fewer jobs across the state than a year ago and roughly 107,000 people are collecting unemployment checks, according to The Denver Post. What’s scary at the moment is that roughly 16,000 people will exhaust their benefits between now and the end of the year. Raymond Rapisand is one of them. The 59-year-old salesman collected his last check a week and a half ago as he continues to search for a job and relies on $6,000 in savings.
Though unemployment benefits in Colorado have been extended three times, Governor Bill Ritter’s efforts to secure a fourth extension for Coloradans might be unsuccessful due to the slight improvement in the state’s unemployment rate. Other states, it turns out, are faring much worse, and Congress could choose to pour resources into those places instead.
After police busted a massive illegal marijuana farm last month run by migrant workers in a national forest—the second big haul this year—the U.S. Forest Service called a press conference to tell hikers what to look out for.
Watch out for people eating tortillas, foresters said, as well as people who drink Tecate beer and listen to music with Spanish lyrics. They just might be armed marijuana growers, as several news organizations reported in August, triggering outrage from Latino communities. Foresters, Latino leaders say, were either highly insensitive or profiling.
Moreover, Polly Baca, co-chairwoman of the Colorado Latino Forum, said at the time that the U.S. Forest Service’s warning was “discriminatory” and could put “Hispanic campers in danger,” 7 News reported. Yesterday, the Forest Service took steps to put the matter to rest by apologizing for the “regrettable references,” according to The Denver Post.
“We sincerely apologize to the Hispanic community and anyone else we may have offended,” Rick Cables, a ranger with the U.S. Rocky Mountain Region of the Forest Service, says in a statement. “That was not our intent.”
The Forest Service has revised its warning to hikers, telling them to look for items other than beer cans and tortilla wrappers—and instead to be wary of items such as irrigation pipes, fertilizer, and large piles of trash.
Endurance bike races, by definition, are difficult. So difficult, The Denver Post writes, that a significant number of the 40 handpicked riders selected for last weekend’s fifth-annual Vapor Trail didn’t even finish the race.
VaporTrail125.com points out some “fun” aspects of the race: It is, as you might have guessed, 125 miles long and includes 20,000 feet of climbing and descending. The site’s authors also boast that participants start at 10 p.m. and will endure rides over several Colorado 14ers.
Bad weather, however, changed the circumstances, forcing organizers to downsize: The riders endured just 108 miles and 17,000 vertical feet of climbs and descents, and set out at midnight as opposed to 10 p.m. Josh Tostado of Alma was first to finish, completing the ride in about 10 hours and 43 minutes. The last rider to complete the race, John Fulton, crossed the finish line a little more than 18 hours after he set out.
There are perks, though, besides the self-satisfaction of completing one of the most demanding bike races in Colorado.
Riders pass through some of the best looking scenery in the state as they battle through the San Isabel and Gunnison National Forests near Monarch Pass, and the final descent in the morning leaves riders plowing through thick forests with trees “decorated with fresh snow melt and dewdrops shimmering from fir trees like tinsel on Christmas morning,” according to the Post. Sure hope that makes it worth it.
Sign up for 5280's weekly e-newsletters. Want the latest restaurant scoop? The latest happenings around town? Access to exclusive events and deals just for 5280 readers? 
Popular Colorado photographer John Fielder is zig-zagging the state after spending a year with ranchers.
Either Shane Bauer, his girlfriend, Sarah Shourd, and their friend Joshua Fattal are a trio of spies who posed as American hikers in Iran on a botched mission or they’re simply naive. It’s been two months since the three were arrested after allegedly entering Iran from Iraq.
It’s that time of year in Colorado, when thousands of people flock to Estes Park in their SUVs, cameras and/or binoculars in hand. They come to watch the elk get naughty.
After 69 years of service, earlier this year the Anschutz Company sold the 