Desert Towers: Fat Cat Summits and Kitty Litter Rock

Desert Towers: Fat Cat Summits and Kitty Litter Rock

by MG Admin December 9, 2010 Books

I know it’s ski season, not climbing season, but this is my favorite book to come across my desk ever since I started doing this column. And climbers need something to read in the off-season. Boulder climbing legend and desert tower connoisseur Steve “Crusher” Bartlett has put together a masterpiece: The history of tower climbing [...]

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TeleVision

TeleVision

by MG Admin December 9, 2010 December 2010

The guys at Powderwhore are defi nitely not taking themselves too seriously with their sixth telemark fi lm, “TeleVision.” In the fi rst 10 minutes, a scraggly skier asks during a parody commercial for TeleMatch.com, “Does your wardrobe consist of plaid, tiedye and corduroy? Are you sick of going to fancy restaurants and granola’s not [...]

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Australis: An Antarctic Ski Odyssey

Australis: An Antarctic Ski Odyssey

by Brendan Leonard December 9, 2010 December 2010

You have to respect Chris Davenport’s ingenuity and creativity, as a skier and a businessman. He went from downhill skiing, to extreme skiing championships, to being a ski fi lm star, to skiing all of Colorado’s 14ers in a single year, and somehow along the way, has not had to hang it up and get [...]

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Mountain Mama

Mountain Mama

by Dawne Belloise December 9, 2010 December 2010

In the spirit of tenacious mountain folk living in the newcomer pioneer days of Telluride’s wild 1970s era, innovation was as essential as duct tape. Helen Forster was one of a handful whose vision and talent helped to create the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and shape the town’s embryonic radio station and community theatre. Today, she, [...]

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Life on the Mountain Music Road

Life on the Mountain Music Road

by Kimberly Nicoletti December 9, 2010 December 2010

Drunken encounters of the psychedelic kind It’s no newsfl ash that musicians put up with their share of drunken patrons. But it gets a little trippy when hallucinogens are involved. Springdale Quartet, a band out of Boulder, overlays its upbeat funk with progressive rock. It’s no surprise the outfi t attracts people seeking God via [...]

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Facing The Storm

Facing The Storm

by Brendan Leonard November 2, 2010 Film

I’ve liked the work of the folks at High Plains Films ever since I was a grad student at the University of Montana and saw “This Is Nowhere,” their documentary about the RVers who travel around the country, only “camping” in Wal-Mart parking lots. Their documentaries have covered a range of topics, from the asbestos-caused [...]

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Soundtracker

Soundtracker

by Brendan Leonard November 2, 2010 Film

One of my favorite stories from the nonprofit I work at is about the city kid on his first trip into the wilderness, who kept telling one of our adult volunteers to “listen” for a noise he was hearing. After a few minutes, the adult figured out that the teenager had never heard the sound [...]

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Trout Streak Revival

Trout Streak Revival

by Brendan Leonard November 2, 2010 Mountain Music

Sometime just before the pilot turned our plane around over Wyoming and headed back to DIA and rang the death knell on any chance of my flight to Portland getting in within five hours of its advertised arrival time, Travis, the guy sitting next to me mentioned that he was in a band. Nice guy, [...]

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Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, 50th Anniversary Edition

Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, 50th Anniversary Edition

by Brendan Leonard October 8, 2010 Books

Most of us who have gone look- ing for enlightenment in the big hills, armed with crampons or ropes or ice axes or other implements — but without paying for professional mountain guides — have a worn copy of one of the first seven editions of “Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills” somewhere on our [...]

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Ranger Confidential: Living, Working and Dying in the National Parks by Andrea Lankford

Ranger Confidential: Living, Working and Dying in the National Parks by Andrea Lankford

by Brendan Leonard October 8, 2010 Books

If you’ve spent any amount of time in our beloved national parks, you’ve probably seen some pretty bizarre stuff. A friend of mine who guides in the Grand Canyon once saw a woman actually pick up and throw a squirrel over a cliff at one of the South Rim viewpoints after it scampered up to [...]

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