My younger brother tried snowboarding for the first time yesterday, and I took him up to Loveland. The mountain is incredibly friendly for beginners who are just starting, and I highly recommend it for the following reasons:

• The area for beginners (Loveland Valley) is distinctive from the other areas of the mountain (Loveland Basin). The bunny hill has a dedicated lift leading to two short, easy green runs. Because just about everyone using this lift is new to the sport, the intimidation factor is low. Newcomers need not be embarassed as they work their way up the learning curve because everyone around them is in the same boat.
• Cost-wise, this is a no-brainer. Loveland offers tickets for Lift 7 at steeply discounted prices ($25 for adults, $18 for kids). This lift services only the bunny hill, so this is a great choice for beginners looking to get their feet wet. Time-wise, this is one of the easiest resorts to access from Denver. It’s on the Denver side of the Eisenhower Tunnel right off I-70.
• If you need some instruction to get started, ski school and private lesson prices are extremely reasonable. Kids in ski school can get a full day lesson, an all mountain lift ticket, lunch, and equipment rental for $90. Adult lessons are typically only for a half-day and are priced based on ability and needs, in the $70-$90 range with equipment. You can also book a private instructor for an hour and a half for $95. If you compare these rates to other family-friendly mountains like Keystone (where you’ll pay about $150 for kids ski school/lift ticket without equipment, $100+ for an adult lesson/lift ticket, and $435 for a three hour private lesson), you’ll see that these really are bargain prices. (All prices as of 4/1/09)
• For anyone accompanying a beginner, you can try the racing hill in Loveland Valley; it has about three blue runs with a couple green offshoots, and it’s easy to meet up with your group at the base of the hill. There’s also a shuttle over to the Basin if you’re looking for something more challenging.

We went in the middle of the week during spring break, had great snow, no lines, and class sizes of about 3-4 kids. Clearly, this will vary based on the time of year and day of the week, but we couldn’t have been more pleased with our experience.

Starting a new sport can be intimidating, but I think Loveland does a great job making it easy to be a beginner. Consider giving it a shot if you or a friend are hoping to try skiing or snowboarding out. And as always, let us know your thoughts and experiences here at CoSnow.

Ski movie stars from the 90s, detailed descriptions of big mountain skiing in Chamonix, deep reflections on skiing and mortality, seriously; what more could you want from a book? William A. Kerig’s non-fiction book The Edge of Never: A Skier’s Story of Life, Death, and Dreams in the World’s Most Dangerous Mountains
reads like a Krakauer narrative dedicated to big mountain skiing. The cover has a skier throwing a flip off a huge cliff, but that is not really what this book is about. Thoroughly researched and full of personal monologue, the book address questions such as: Why do we ski? What does it mean to be part of the interconnected tribe of skiers? What is important in life? How do the mountains give back through release? The book centers on the legendary big mountain skier, the late Trevor Peterson. Trevor died in an avalanche while skiing the Glacier Rond in Chamonix France in 1996. Nine years later Trevor’s son, Kye Peterson, a 15 year old world class new school skier, makes the trip back to Chamonix to learn what real ski mountaineering is all about, and potentially ski the same line that killed his father. This journey is all captured through the eyes of the author William A. Kerig, who is in the process of making a ski move that is true to the core soul of skiing, not just “ski porn.” If you grew up watching Greg Stump films such as “The Blizzard of ahhhs,” “License to Thrill,” “P-Tex, Lies & Duct Tape,” you can understand this approach. The book is full of skiing legends such as, Glen Plake, Mike Hattrup, Doug Coombs, and Greg Stump and provides a glimpse into their personalities and insight into what drives them toward the mountain life.

The Chamonix Valley is the Mecca that all real skiers should strive to visit once in their lives. I have been to Chamonix and the place absolutely blew me away; the trams, the glaciers, the jagged peaks, the crevasses, the chutes, the crepes, the people. It truly is the soul of ski mountaineering. It is not a pretentious town and the place gives off a real vibe. On the Edge of Never gives you the perspective of seeing the Valley through the eyes of experienced ski mountaineers. It also gives you perspective on mortality and the immense power and pull of the mountains.

For more information related to The Edge of Never
please see www.theedgeofnever.com

I was thinking to myself: damn, ski season is already over. Then something magical happened… it snowed. And it’s snowing a lot!

In the last 24 hours Vail has received over a foot of new snow. You read that right, 14+ inches. This gives me great hope that April will be a great month of skiing. It’s not over yet. Good call, Rippin Skiiers.

So keep those snow photos coming and if you want to write for CoSnow, just sign up on the contributors page.

When I first saw these I thought: holy cow that’s the best idea EVER! You simply slide the iPod Nano (first or third generation) into the headband and plug into the headphone jack. The headband has two (removable, for washing purposes) mini speakers that pump music straight through your headband.

This sounds good in theory, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work that way:

• My ears must be in weird places on my head. No matter where I pushed the mini speakers, they didn’t perfectly align with my ears. Even if I rotated the headband, the spacing didn’t work out.
• The sound quality is great. I had no problem hearing the music very clearly. Unfortunately, there is no enclosure so the sound is heard by everyone around you. Not usually a problem, but probably very annoying on the ski lift.
• The controls are on your forehead. You can feel the iPod sitting, slightly to the side, but you can’t easily access the controls without taking off the headband. Sure, if you memorize the menus (or turn on spoken menus) you can get where you need to.. but that’s a hassle.
• My head doesn’t fit the headband! Although a high-quality headband, my head doesn’t seem to fit. The headband is just a little too big and loose. I tried jogging with this instead and failed pretty miserably.

All in all, I’m disappointed with the music infused headband; at $40 I would’ve returned it immediately. I’m thinking the beanies or hats could avoid a number of these issues but I guess it’s not that easy to put iPods in headbands. Cheers to i360 for a damn good attempt, though.

Tramdock is like Woot for ski gear.  Go to the web page and they’ll have one item on sale at a ridiculously reduced price.  They’ll sell this item until it’s out of stock and then move on to the next item.  They have all the best brands at great prices.  For example, right now Tramdock is selling the Lange Freeride 110 Women’s Ski boot for $206, that’s 71% off of the regular price of $698.95!

There are a few different alerts you can set up on Tramdock to stay on top of the deals: a daily email, desktop alerts, Internet Explorer or Firefox plugins, RSS/XML, and IM.  My favorite is the Fiefox plugin, which adds a little line at the bottom of your browser showing what’s currently on sale.  You can ignore it if you want, or click to open if it looks like something you want. You can also follow Tramdock on Twitter (just like you can follow CoSnow).

A few caveats to keep in mind are that these items have a limited selling time and are often only for specific colors and/or sizes of gear.  I got really excited to buy a jacket yesterday but discovered there was only size XL left.  Regardless, if you’re living on a lifty salary but still want the best gear, check out Tramdock.

I use them with my G10 helmet, and they feel exactly the same as the original earpads.  You plug your MP3 player into one of the earpads (make sure to plug it in all the way for consistent sound) and you can enjoy tunes all day on the mountain.  The genius of this setup is the simply-designed volume control.  A small controller on the headphone wire clips on to your jacket and the volume can easily be muted or adjusted even with your gloves on! Unfortunately, the clip on my controller broke off, but it works just fine hanging free.

Giro also offers the helmets mentioned above with the audio system included and they have a Bluetooth model.  I haven’t used the Bluetooth set, but if Giro wants to send me one I’d love to test it out!

• Pros:  Good sound, great volume control, easy installation
• Cons:  headphone jack can be tricky, clip for volume control breakable
• Cost: Retails around $30, but REI has the Giro TuneUps for $10 (less then regular headphones!)