Ski | UltraRob's Adventures

2010/2011 Ski Season has Begun

October 25th, 2010

Colorado ski resorts were beat out by Sunday River in Maine to be the first ski resort to open in the US for the 2010/2011 ski season. Sunday River opened on Friday afternoon and had a couple runs open for the weekend. They’ve closed for the week so they can make more snow.

Loveland opened yesterday and was the first Colorado ski resort to open. As you can see from the video above, they actually had some natural snow instead of just icy, man made snow. They had 8 inches of fresh snow and are to get more today. OutThereColorado has more on Loveland’s opening day. A-Basin is also set to open today.

I’ll most likely be waiting until the backcountry has enough real snow before I do any skiing. I’ve only been to a ski area once in nearly 15 years. They are good for working on technique before going into the backcountry so there’s at least a chance I’ll go to a ski area again.

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Tags: Colorado, skiing
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Ortovox Introduces New Avalanche Beacon

September 22nd, 2010

An avalanche beacon is an essential piece of gear for backcountry skiing and snowshoeing that I hope I never need to use. Minutes are crucial when someone is buried in the snow. If they don’t have an air pocket, they can suffocate fairly quickly.

Ortovox is a popular brand of avalanche beacon and I have one of their F1 Focus avalanche transceivers. Now they’ve introduced the 3+ Avalanche Beacon. The 3+ is the first 3-antenna device with Smart Antenna Technology™, intelligent positioning system that analyzes the position of the antennas and automatically switches to the most optimal transmission. In short, the 3+ makes all other avalanche beacons more efficient at finding you.

The 3+ Avalanche Beacon represents a significant and important forward step in backcountry safety technology. Utilizing Smart Antenna Technology™, the 3+ is the first avalanche beacon to automatically recognize which of its two primary antennas is best positioned to emit the strongest flux line for rescuers to pick up. “There’s never been an avalanche beacon like this,” said Ortovox USA CEO Marcus Peterson, “A lot of energy and investment has been spent making transceivers get better at searching. The 3+ is undoubtedly the best at being found.”

The 3+ is no slouch at finding people either. A large real-time display with directional arrow and distance to the victim helps hone your rescue quickly and intuitively. The display deck also allows for a visual, easy-to-use overview of multi-burial situations that allows the rescuer to flag a victim once they are found. Additional features include rubberized housing for added protection, lighted display for night searches, switchover in case of a follow-up avalanche, optimized search acoustics and visual representation of victim proximity (in addition to metric distance).

All the features sound great for the Ortovox 3 Plus avalanche beacon so hopefully it performs as well in real life situations as the company says. I’ve been on backcountry hut trips where the group has had a few different avalanche beacons. We’ve practiced finding buried beacons and there are differences in how well they pick up the signals and how easy they are to use.

Related Links

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Tags: avalanche beacon, skiing, snowshoeing
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Looking for Aspiring Warren Millers

August 9th, 2010

You’ve become a video maniac. Here’s your chance to cash in on your best work. Upload your original video of you or someone you know engaging in an action sports activity and submit it to Bonnier Mountain Group. Then get your friends to vote on your video between now and Aug. 13. The winner of this contest will be awarded a Ralph Lauren gift card and a pair of Kastle skis. For information, go to http://bit.ly/WMEContest

– Deb Acord

Related Links

It’s (Warren) Miller Time – Warren Miller’s Dynasty Review

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Good News for Fifth-Graders

July 5th, 2010

The Colorado Ski Country fifth-grade passport has always been one of the best deals around – three days of free skiing at each Ski Country resort for all Colorado fifth-graders.

Now it’s even better, with a new perk – one free ski lesson, including rental equipment, for all passport holders. Watch for applications in the fall on the Ski Country website.

– Deb Acord

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Tags: Colorado, skiing, snowboarding
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Skiing with Warren

October 26th, 2009

Admit it – you’re getting excited about skiing. And one of the indicators of a new season is coming up – the annual Warren Miller movie. This year’s film, called “Dynasty,” is a celebration of the 60th anniversary of Warren Miller ski movies. It opened a bit over a week ago in Utah, and will hit Colorado Springs at the Pikes Peak Center Nov. 20 and 21. It features new film footage alongside gems from the past six decades of Warren Miller films. “Dynasty” is narrated by free skier Jonny Moseley; one segment features Chris Davenport and another shows monoskiers tackling last winter’s X-Games skier cross course.

To further celebrate 60 years of Warren Miller films, Ski magazine and Skiing magazine have joined with the ski industry to offer 60 days of giveaways. Every day from Oct. 1 to Dec. 1, one person will win one of 60 prizes, including skis, lift tickets and resort accommodations. The grand prize is a four-day trip for two to Snowbird, Utah. To enter, go to Skinet.com, log in and enter by answering a trivia question or performing a Facebook task.

Even if you don’t win a prize in the contest, at some Colorado locations including Colorado Springs you will “win” a free lift ticket when you buy your Warren Miller tickets. As in past years, ticketholders will get a ticket to Winter Park, Copper Mountain or Steamboat. There are various promotions at other locations across the country.

– Deb Acord

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Tags: Colorado, skiing
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What’s next? Robot Olympics?

October 23rd, 2009

At a recent International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, scientists presented hundreds of papers on how robotics can come into play in such diverse tasks as making energy technologies more affordable, assisting with hearing aid implantation and teaching Braille, and controlling unmanned helicopters.

That’s all important stuff, but here’s what’s really cool: A skiing robot, presented by Bojan Menec from the Jozef Stefan Institute.

The robot uses the carving ski technique, according to Menec’s abstract, and “is capable of autonomous navigating between the race gates, avoiding obstacles and maintaining a stable position during skiing on a previously unknown ski slope.”

According to CNET News, Nemec says the robot could test ski equipment or be a model for virtual-reality skiing. The robots probably won’t be clogging ski areas any time soon, although they probably could replace ski instructors.

– Deb Acord

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Tags: skiing
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The Perfect Ski Boot?

October 14th, 2009

$1,295. That’s the price you’ll pay for the newest ski-boot technology. Billed as the world’s most expensive ski boot (Dynafit and SCARPA have pricier AT/randonee boots), the Apex Sports Group’s Apex boot caught my eye not because of its price, but because it promises comfort as well as control (and will help eliminate the clompy Frankenstein walk to the lifts).

The Boulder-based company’s Apex looks like the offspring of a snowboard boot and ski boot, with heat-moldable walkaway inner boots paired with a 100-percent carbon-fiber outer shell. “Soft shell” ski boots have been on the scene for a while (Rossignol offered a Soft 3 which combined some snowboard boot characteristics with traditional ski boot technology, but it’s not in its roster of new boots this year); none had the form and function of the Apex.

The Apex also made the October issue of Outside magazine, in an article celebrating the newest technology. Other cool new winter-ready innovations in that article: Isaora’s Matrix Plaid Insulated Shirt ($229), which looks like your grandpa’s old flannel but performs like a mountaineering jacket, and Alite Designs’Monarch Butterfly Chair, a two-legged (that’s right – two-legged) camp chair ($59) that weighs only 18 ounces and keeps your butt off the cold ground on those winter camping trips.

– Deb Acord

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Tags: gear, skiing
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Ski the 14ers Book

December 9th, 2007

A few weeks ago I posted about Chris Davenport skiing all 54 fourteeners in Colorado in 363 days. He has a book with over 200 pictures that supposed to start shipping tomorrow according to the Ski the 14ers website. Amazon has Ski the 14ers available for pre-ordering. I think it would make a great Christmas gift. If you don’t know who to give it to, you can send it to me.

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Tags: Colorado, skiing
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Skiing the Fourteeners

November 19th, 2007

In January Chris Davenport finished skiing all 54 fourteeners in Colorado in 363 days. I have hiked all of them and done winter climbs or skiing on a few of them. I certainly couldn’t ski most of them and have trouble even imagining anyone being able to. A couple that seem really tough to me are Little Bear and Pyramid.

The Forest Service has said that no video can be used that was shot in wilderness areas from a helicopter. I’ve read several places that no video from wilderness areas can be used without any mention of a helicopter. I don’t understand use of video taking by someone skiing but I agree helicopters shouldn’t be hovering over wilderness areas.

Out there posted a link today of a video clip that’s been on YouTube for a couple months. It shows some really good shots of how pretty it is in the backcountry in the winter. It also shows some shots of crazy skiing. There are also a lot of great pictures on his website for the project.

Update: The video was removed from YouTube.

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Tags: 14ers, Colorado, skiing
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Skiing Has Begun in Colorado

October 14th, 2007

A-Basin opened on Wednesday making it the first ski area in the country to open. Dave from the out there blog was there and has posted some pictures. Even when I skied at ski areas, I never expected good snow until at least late December. I get enough of an adrenaline rush mountain biking to not need to go ski on icy, man made snow.

With the temperatures here mainly in the 70’s and 80’s the last couple weeks, I haven’t even really been thinking about skiing. Today has been colder and there’s a chance of rain or snow tonight. My 4 year-old has already been asking to go skiing. We took her for her birthday last spring. I cross country skied while she was in her class. After her class they let me take her up the Puma lift on the bunny slope. That was a bit of a challenge especially since I had my cross country skis.

Last year I went skiing at a ski area for the first time in over 10 years. The conditions weren’t good and I got injured. I think I should just stick to skiing in the backcountry. I really don’t enjoy skiing at ski areas any more but I do like to in the backcountry. It’s really as much about being in the backcountry as it is about skiing.