Posted inBusiness, Culture, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government

It’s not just Colorado’s mountains: Outdoor industry brands, climbing routes also targeted for name changes

The shifting consciousness behind the renaming of peaks is spreading into marketing and other aspects of the outdoor culture.   “It’s interesting, when we hear people talk about the stories of the land they never are telling the original story of the land,” said Renee Hutchens, a Denver mountain biker of Navajo descent who recently started […]

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 inColoradans, COVID, Health, News, Outdoors

Coronavirus is forcing a whole new social contract on Colorado’s city sidewalks and suburban open space

Gov. Jared Polis’ instructions about when to wear a mask upon leaving home were pretty all-encompassing: “At all times,” he said.  And Coloradans mostly have accepted that the governor meant we should wear masks to the grocery store, the pharmacy, to pick up dinner or while zipping through Home Depot. (Whether people do it is […]

Posted inColoradans, News, Newsletters, Outdoors, Outsider

In the zen zone high above Minturn, slackliners traverse the state’s longest highline

MINTURN — Ben Donnelly basks in his creation, admiring a web of slings, carabiners and ropes strung between a trio of trees atop a towering cliff above this former mining and railroad town. “This is my art,” he says. “It’s meticulous and beautiful and elegant. It’s a masterpiece.” Far away, his friend Mauro Poletti’s arms […]

Posted inColoradans, Culture, Outdoors

Climbing gyms are hot, but longtime climbers worry gym rats aren’t learning basic real-world safety

Long before Marcus Garcia had scaled the frozen faces of some of the largest mountains on Earth, he was an 18-year-old kid in a Dallas climbing gym. A fit athlete with little adventure climbing experience, Garcia was approached by an experienced climber who offered to take him on a trip to Eldorado Canyon, near Boulder. […]

Posted inEnvironment, Growth, News, Outdoors, Water

Ouray’s iconic ice park has a plan for its future that could be a blueprint for other troubled Western wonders

OURAY — The glassy tentacles of blue ice are ready. The cantilevered finish line — with some American Ninja-type obstacles to challenge the world’s top ice climbers — teeters over the edge of the frigid Uncompahgre Gorge. Not only is Ouray and its ice park ready for this weekend’s 24th running of its celebrated ice […]