UPDATED: This file was updated at 2:02 p.m. on March 16, 2020, to include the rates of COVID-19 infection in four Colorado mountain counties. People who recently visited or live in four mountain counties of Colorado should “minimize their contact with other people” because the new coronavirus is spreading so rampantly in those areas, state […]
Vail
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Vail Resorts, Aspen, Steamboat, Winter Park and others shut down their ski areas in response to coronavirus
VAIL — Vail Resorts chief Rob Katz on Saturday made the unprecedented decision to close all of the company’s North American ski resorts and stores, effective immediately, in response to the new coronavirus. Within an hour of Katz’s announcement, Steamboat and Winter Park resorts followed suit as Alterra Mountain Company announced the shuttering its 15 […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government
“A test of our Colorado character”: High country will be hardest hit by coronavirus, governor warns
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday issued a stark warning to the state and the high country in particular as the new coronavirus rapidly spreads. “This will get worse before it gets better,” he told reporters, calling the outbreak a “test of our Colorado character” that has no end in sight. He bluntly added: “There […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Ride with Jake: Burton impact felt over bittersweet weekend in Colorado’s mountains
By Eddie Pells, The Associated Press VAIL — One of Jake Burton Carpenter’s earliest sales trips didn’t work out so great. He loaded up his station wagon with 30 freshly built snowboards. He came home with all of them — plus five more from unhappy customers. Forty years later, most people hold onto their Burton […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors, Technology
Coroner clarifies circumstances of New Jersey man’s death on Vail chairlift
VAIL — The Eagle County coroner says a skier who died in an accident on a chairlift at Vail did not fall through a gap in the seat as was previously reported. Coroner Kara Bettis says 46-year-old Jason Varnish died of “positional asphyxia” when he became entangled by his clothing after it became caught in […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Outdoors
The snowbikers were prepared. But the “avalanche terrain trap” near Vail still stole two of their lives.
The three snowbikers were prepared with avalanche beacons, shovels and probe poles on Feb. 15. Two even carried avalanche airbag backpacks. They saw signs of avalanches on the slopes above the groomed Piney Lake Road as they throttled their machines up toward Red and White Mountain. They spent time in low-angle powder fields along the […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Two snowbikers die in avalanche north of Vail; danger rises as storm hits mountains
Two people riding snowbikes were killed Saturday afternoon in an avalanche north of Vail. The Eagle County Sheriff’s Office and Colorado Avalanche Information Center says a third person was also partially buried in the slide east of Red and White Mountain along Muddy Pass, but survived. Authorities said the bodies of the the two people […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors
New Jersey man suffocates to death at Vail after getting caught in chairlift
VAIL — A skier appears to have suffocated to death at a Colorado resort after he fell through an opening in a chairlift seat and became caught with his coat wrapped around his head and neck, officials said. Jason Varnish of Short Hills, New Jersey, died of positional asphyxia Thursday at Vail Mountain’s Blue Sky […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors
Entrepreneur buys Vail Mountain Lodge, Terra Bistro, Vail Athletic Club with plans to convert resort property to Gravity Haus Vail
Jim Deters had a busy December. Not only did the tech entrepreneur open his new hotel-slash-mountain country club at the base of Breckenridge, but he bought the iconic Vail Mountain Lodge in Vail Village and another hotel in downtown Winter Park to grow his Gravity Haus empire. Deters plans to convert the 28-room luxury Vail […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, News, Outdoors
The ski industry used to only be about operations. Women leaders are helping refocus it on experience.
VAIL — The U.S. ski resort industry started with a bunch of mustachioed dudes focused on uphill transportation. Sixty-plus years later, resort skiing has transformed from an operation into an experience, with attention paid to safety, snow grooming, speedy lifts, lessons, food and fewer hassles. The evolution of skiing can be attributed to a more […]