Outdoors

 

By D. Dion

(editor's note: Telluride Kayak School and Jagged Edge are very much involved in the Ridgway River Festival this Saturday, June 26. There are opportunities to try out kayaks, or just enjoy being on the river. In addition, Telluride Kayak School is holding a 2-day beginner clinic this weekend. Check out the website for information.)

If you think the only things landlocked Colorado can thank Hawaiian culture for are loud floral dress shirts and the ukulele, think again: Stand Up Paddling has made the migration from the islands to our rivers, and there are already a lot of whitewater junkies on board the new trend.

IMGP1229 The San Miguel River flowing through Telluride is important to Jagged Edge. So maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that Jagged Edge organized a river cleanup day last Wednesday, June 9.

IMGP1240 Erik Dalton and Cari Mackie were on the river in kayaks, representing the company. Connor Intemann and I were in kayaks, Travis Julia was manning a whitewater canoe as the "trash boat" and George Greenbank patrolled the left bank on his mountain bike.

We put in just upstream from the Town Park bridge. The river was flowing fast, bank-to-bank, but we were able to find small eddies to pull in along the way to pick up the trash we found.

[To listen to Erik Dalton talk about the Paddle-With-a-Pro day, click "Play"]

TSyle Spring 08 Fashion-013894 Work first. Fun after. The river clean-up hosted by Jagged Edge happens Wednesday, June 9. (See related post for details.) The very next day, Thursday, June 10, is pay back: Jagged Edge's 2010 Paddle-with-a-Pro Day.


Paddle-with-a-Pro Day is an opportunity to learn the tricks of the trade from the amazing Ruth Gordon, a Jackson Kayak-sponsored pro paddler. Spend the day with Ruth in the Gunnison Gorge, a great stretch of Class III waters just outside Montrose. Attendees also get to demo Jackson Kayaks. Transportation and shuttle costs are picked up by the San Miguel Whitewater Club for this all-day event.

By D. Dion

 

Greg Stump’s “Blizzard of Aahhh’s (1988) is perhaps the most beloved movie ever made about skiing. (Skiing Magazine ranked it #1 in its Top Ten Ski Movies of All Times, and a VHS recording of the film sits on the shelf of every self-respecting ski bum over the age of 30.) The movie also holds a special place in the heart of Telluriders, because it features lots of local footage from the 80s, from powder runs down Mammoth in neon-colored, one-piece ski suits to dreadlocked reggae musician Rasta Stevie waxing philosophical about his stint in Telluride politics and the vibe of the ski town.

It’s fitting, then, that the preeminent filmmaker would preview his newest work in progress, the ski flick “Legend of Aahhh’s,” here in his old Stump-ing grounds, at Telluride’s Mountainfilm festival this Memorial Day weekend. “I spent every winter from 1983 through 1988 in Telluride, with my brother Geoff. I really like it there,” says Stump.

[click "Play" to hear Erik Dalton talk about Jagged Edge and Mountainfilm]



Telluride's Jagged Edge is more than a store. It a gathering place for like-minded folks, from hardcore adrenaline junkies to weekend warriors with day jobs. It is the retail outlet those who support Mountainfilm in Telluride love to support.


Mountainfilm in Telluride is a local Festival with international clout. Ever year for the past 32, a cutting edge, Jagged Edge crowd of filmmakers, authors, scientists, environmentalists and adventurers, mountaineers and river runners alike, have gathered in town for a catchall celebration of mountain living and mountain arts.

By D. Dion


When Sender Films brings their superior brand of climbing flicks to Mountainfilm in Telluride, they know they are getting an appreciative audience—often one full of climbers and adventurers who have been through the ascetic conditioning of sleeping in the cold at high elevations, burdened with just enough food and water to make the journey possible, or who have scars on their hands from jamming them into a crack as they ascend a wall. Sender has managed to dazzle these likeminded folks at past festivals, winning awards for films like “King Lines,” “Return to Sender” and “The Sharp End.”

But the mountaineering world isn’t the only one sitting up and taking notice of Sender: National Geographic International contracted Sender to produce a television series based on the film company’s popular work “First Ascent.” The film company has finished the six-part series and will show four of the programs at Mountainfilm in Telluride this weekend. “In the past we’ve done a lot of television stuff, but we’ve never produced our own series. It was different working for National Geo, but also similar, in that a lot of our films are sort of episodic. But it was a much bigger budget, more storyline, and we were creating a product that wasn’t just for mountain film enthusiasts and the climbing community,” says Nicholas Rosen, who co-produced the series with his partner Peter Mortimer.

By D. Dion

Keystone gorge 1

 

It’s hard to hear my hiking partner as we try to chat over the growling San Miguel River, which is rumbling loudly, full of spring runoff. Late snow still covers most of Telluride’s hiking and biking trails, but not Keystone Gorge: This fun loop next to the river is one of the first ones to be clear of winter’s clutches. It’s also the latest addition to the list of great hikes around town.

Editor's note: For eight years, Telluride local/mountaineer Ben Clark and a few friends/professional colleagues have made Spring treks to the majestic mountains of the Himalayas. If you have missed any of Ben's posts, just type "Ben Clark" into Lijit Search to find them all. Sadly, this is likely to be the last dispatch of his most recent adventure.

Benbioshotlr-254x300 "Dispatch 10: So it is done, my ankle is broken

My ankle is broken after my fall yesterday. We iced 8 times, we went through 5 rounds of Ibuprofen and Tylenol and we kept it elevated almost 14 hours before I slept in a compression wrap and elevated for the night. Currently, I believe it wants to ski or hike downhill...because that's the only way it will point! Then I try to move it...ooooh. It looks like a baseball that has soaked in water staining the lower part of my foot with a purple and green base. Yuck.

So...I guess that this Spring, even after our initial and really charged foray onto the hill, we will not be going higher. Jon says so and I just nod. He's a great partner who despite ambition can see the facts. We have gone over every boot-cutting splinting option you can imagine...None will get me back across base camp even. Ha...ohh, we are climbers.