A week after Vaughn Fetzer was reported missing on Blanca Peak, the fourth highest mountain in Colorado, friends found his body in an unstable area. Rescuers spent several days in freezing temperatures searching near vertical cliffs and scree fields but suspended the mission after a search team member was injured by falling rock in a […]
kayaking
Posted inClimate, News, Newsletters, Outdoors, Outsider, Politics and Government, Water
Should river towns be forced to build costly parks to get recreational water rights?
American Whitewater floated a plan last year to expand protections for recreational river flows in Colorado. Maybe, the nonprofit protector of rivers thought, communities should not need to build whitewater parks to secure rights for recreational flows. “It definitely, you know, got some ears perked,” said Hattie Johnson, American Whitewater’s southern Rockies stewardship director. Colorado […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors
Two popular Colorado waterways are shut down amid raging currents, large number of rescues
While the Western Slope faces dangerous drought conditions, the urban stream and river corridors along the Front Range are flowing high and fast, so much so that officials are closing parts of the Poudre River and Clear Creek to limit people on the water. In Fort Collins, the Poudre Fire Authority has rescued more than […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Outdoors, Outsider
Bodie Hilleke follows family legacy, becoming youngest kayaker to navigate Grand Canyon
Bodie Hilleke didn’t have to run the Pearce Ferry Rapid on the Colorado River. He’d already paddled all 280 miles of the river from Lees Ferry without any issues, becoming the youngest person to ever kayak the length of the Grand Canyon. But he paddled on, joining his dad and brothers in the gnarly and […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Man, toddler still missing in separate incidents on Colorado’s runoff-swollen rivers
A man and a 3-year-old boy remain missing in Eagle County’s turbid, swollen rivers. Shawn Diaz, a 36-year-old from Denver, has been missing in the Upper Colorado River near Radium since May 31. And 3-year-old Sebastian Castro was last seen in an Eagle apartment complex near the Eagle River late on June 5. More than […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors
Colorado boat sales boom as people use rivers to keep adventure flowing during coronavirus
The rivers are rising and paddle shops and boat makers across Colorado are reporting record sales as more families dip a paddle in the state’s waterways. “It’s like strumming the perfect chord on your guitar. It just feels right,” said Mike McCormack, an Eagle dad who has two boys, 11 and 14. He just bought […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Environment, Health, News, Outdoors
Front Range kayakers, rafters blast Jefferson County’s extended coronavirus closure of Clear Creek
Jefferson County, like the rest of Colorado, reopened restaurants and loosened restrictions on people’s movement this week. But Clear Creek, one of its most popular draws, will remain closed. Sheriff Jeff Shrader extended a ban on all swimming, tubing and kayaking in the creek that bisects the 580,000-resident county. That troubles the Front Range kayaking […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, COVID, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Rafting season is ready to launch, but coronavirus worries are running high in Colorado
By Dean Krakel, Fresh Water News With warming temperatures in Colorado’s mountains and spring runoff in full swing, the whitewater boating season should be off to a roaring start. But Colorado’s stringent COVID-19 travel and recreation restrictions are forcing commercial rafting companies to create social distance on unruly rivers and face the potential for smaller […]
Posted inBusiness, Culture, News, Outdoors
Dragon boat racing, with its unlikely rise and massive Denver festival, is adapting to include everyone
Despite recent back surgery and a left leg lost in a military accident, Jataya Taylor can’t stop smiling. She’s one of the regulars on a recent evening at Sloan’s Lake as her team trains for the upcoming dragon-boat race. Taylor sits in a newly retrofitted blue stadium seat with a special leg strap to keep […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, News, Outdoors
“You fall in and you are not getting out”: Rio Grande in southern Colorado closed because of high runoff
DEL NORTE – Water is flowing so high and fast that recreational access to the Rio Grande river has been shut down indefinitely from near the headwaters around Creede through Del Norte, down to Alamosa and beyond. The river hit flood stage in Del Norte Wednesday afternoon, a condition that is forecast to persist at […]