In the Beginning

I was there at the beginning.

But I think I can be forgiven my fuzzy memories of the earliest Mountainfilm festivals.

The Gand Old Game

I was grateful they moved the mini cannon a ways down the left-field line.

Before Civil Unions, A Gay Takeover

Colorado’s recent acceptance of civil unions reminded me of a social experiment in little Alpine County, California, shortly before Ellen and I moved there in 1973.

Road Visions

One. Nevada. A few miles from the California line, heading into the setting sun on U.S. 6, I have to put my hand up in front of my eyes occasionally, so bright is the starflash on the windshield.

Signs have warned, wordlessly in silhouette, of horses on the highway,

Drought Happens

Two weeks ago I listened in on an “open media call” regarding Colorado’s continuing drought.

April Showers Bring . . . Déjà vu

A late-season storm rolls through, a big one, the day after the Telluride ski area closes. A cruel irony? A classic bit of ski-bum lore?

Hot Buttered Corn Snow

Powderhorn’s closing day on Easter Sunday delivered perfect corn. Corn snow, that is.

All That Jazz

“The saddest blues song of all,” Mike Gwinn told his audience last Saturday evening, strumming an improvised few notes on the guitar, “is the one that starts out, ‘I didn’t wake up this morning . . .’”

Le Raid Blanc, Troisième Stage

Every mountaineering stage race needs its villain, and ours became the team from Piau Engaly.

Le Raid Blanc, Part Deux

From the sound of it, the randonée course Janelle Smiley faced at the World Championships in Pelvoux, France last month was fiendishly difficult. But it was just one day, or part of one day.

Rando races in this country are similarly staged as one-day events. The Grand Traverse leaves Crested Butte at midnight, with the fast teams arriving in Aspen for breakfast. The Sneffels Half Loop departs at sunrise from Last Dollar trailhead and finishes at beer-thirty in Ridgway.

But when we, Team Smugglers’ Notch, did Le Raid Blanc in 1987, we raced for six days straight, with a couple of “specials,” or stages, each day, the times accumulating like they do on the Tour de France.