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 ...

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 ...

Not every skier or snowboarder prefers to wear hats. I actually know a lot of ladies that prefer headbands on the slopes. Like most people, I also enjoy listening to music (at an appropriate level) while skiing. That's where the i360 Music Infused Headband steps in. 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, ...

I just had to write about the Giro TuneUps audio kit because I love it so much.  Compatible with the Giro Omen, Fuse, G10 and G9 helmets, this kit is basically two earpads with built in headphones that you can just pop into your helmet.  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 ...

This weekend has been great for the mountains. Most resorts saw at least half a foot and Breckenridge was one of them. There are plenty of bare spots all over the mountain but if you search hard enough you could find some great, untouched snow over on Peak 8. We found that most people stuck around at Peak 8 which meant crowds. That's always been the case, though, with two high-speed chairs at the bottom of the mountain. So, we hung out at Beaver Run (Peak 9) and never saw a line more than a few minutes long. In fact, most of ...