Shark! Save the shark!

I'm a sucker for a good shark tale, so had to pass along this snippet from the AP:

When a Coney Island lifeguard spied a shark Monday near an upset group of swimmers, he did what he thought was right: He rescued the fish.

Marisu Mironescu, 39, said he was prompted to action after seeing about 75 to 100 people circling the 2-foot sand shark off the beach and "bugging out."

"They were holding onto it and some people were actually hitting him, smacking his face," said Mironescu. "Well, I wasn't going to let them hurt the poor thing."

He grabbed the largely harmless shark in his arms and carried it, backstroking out to sea, where he let it go. "He was making believe like he's dead, then he wriggled his whole body and tried to bite me," Mironescu said.

First, a kid slaps a bear in New Mexico, now a crowd slaps a shark in Jersey. What's next, people, a pine marten?

Mount Evans road closed

From the AP:

The upper section of the road to the summit of Mount Evans has closed for the season.

The road to the 14,264-foot peak, billed as North America's highest paved roadway, is often slammed by snow, ice and winds in winter.

The road is open to Summit Lake, about 1,200 vertical feet below the summit.

Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, which reaches over 12,000 feet, remained open Tuesday.

Stuck paraglider

I heard bits of this coming in and out of meetings earlier today. News side reports:

Rescue teams made their way this afternoon to an injured paraglider stuck on Mount Herman west of Monument.

About 11:30 a.m. today authorities got a call about a man in a yellow glider stuck on a rocky outcropping about three-quarters of the way up Mount Herman’s east side, said Capt. John Vincent of the Tri-Lakes Fire Protection District.

A Memorial Hospital helicopter located the man, who gave crews a thumbs up sign while walking around, apparently looking for his equipment, Vincent said. Crews decided to call off the rescue, but then the stuck man radioed his partner and said he needed help getting down the mountain, Vincent said.

The man is injured, but it is uncertain whether he’ll have to be airlifted off the mountain.

How did Dave write from the trail?

Ha! He didn't. It was me. We're not quite that high-tech yet. And the llamas would probably spit on his laptop if he tried.

Heading to world championships

The Denver Post has a profile of Twin Lakes mountain biker Cole Bangert, who is competing in the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Scotland. He's not exactly local, but in the scope of the world, Twin Lakes is just a stone's throw away.

And he rides here, so you may have seen him - probably his back - as he barreled down local trails.

I love this quote: "Apparently I broke my back at some point, too, although I don't know exactly when. As long as you break the right bones, they heal pretty fast."

There's some interesting stuff on why we don't support athletes at Cole's level - either with support or funding or prize money. Is it because it's bike riding? We sure throw our money behind other sports / athletes.

Steve Fossett reported missing

He's an Out There kinda guy of a different sort - waaaaay out there and up there - and now he may be missing.

A Nevada newspaper reports that rescue crews are looking for world-record holder Steve Fossett, who was reported missing Monday night.

The Nevada Record-Courier is saying Fossett, 63, was last seen taking off from a ranch south of Smith Valley, in a single-engine plane. It says 3 Civil Air Patrol planes have joined the search and more are coming.

Farmers' predicts snow

We got the Farmers' Alamanc on Friday, and its crack team is predicting heavy snows Thanksgiving week and Christmas week and again Presidents' Day weekend. They predict more snow, but I see nothing about snow in to March and April, just lots of showers.

Let us hope they'ev simply overlooked all the fun whiteness our resorts will get this season.

Fossilized visitors center needs makeover

Look for a story on Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Monday's Gazette by R. Scott Rappold.

Officials and friends of the fossil beds want a new visitor center and research area to assist visitors and researchers and to protect the 6,000 fossils stored there.

Where's Dave?

I'll be trekking with a llama or two until September 7, then off to run Imogene Pass September 8, then, hopefully, I'll be climbing the Wilsons September 9. Then I turn 30. That's how we roll in the 719.

NOTE: The photo at top is from the Avalanche Ranch out near Carbondale. You can stay there and you can hang out with llamas. You can even take your pet along on your vacay at the ranch.

Regarding the giant "Stop, Thief!" note: Apparently Dave used a photo of Tim and Cindie's to illustrate his travel plans. And, obviously, they didn't like it. I hope the note doesn't take up bandwidth.

What's the story with this fence

I was up on Sheep Mountain today and came across this old rail fence made of fallen timbers running up the ridge. Does anyone know the history of this region. The fence looks like it could be 100 years old, but may only be 20. Who knows? I'd like to find out more. Incidentally, it's a great hike to Sheep Mountain. We'll run it in Happy Trails in Out There in a few weeks.

They need more than Friskies

Our big kitty friends roaming the mountains are hungry and, apparently, finding easy prey in the yards of hillside homes.

The Gazette's Andrea Brown wrote last weekend about household pets going missing near Garden of the Gods park.

Today, the Rocky has a story about a guy whose impeccable timing probably saved his yellow Lab.

Ski deal weekend!

It's a Colorado tradition: every labor day the big sports retailers sell last year's gear at 40% to 70% off in huge parkinglot sales. If you need something, and you don't have a line on a pro deal, you better get it now.

The Sports Authority's holds its annuall Sniagrab sale. Saturday, September 1 through Monday, September 3 at the Sports Authority. Several ski resorts will also offer preseason pricing on their ski passes at Sniagrab.
Colorado Ski & Golf has it's own upstart version called Ski REX. REX also offers 40 - 75% discounts on last season's ski equipment, and also allows skiers a chance to buy season passes for the 2007 - 2008 season. Parents might want to check out the Junior Trade-In program, which allows youngsters age 4 - 18 to swap out outgrown ski equipment every year for a fee.

So, what about those season passes, and the awesome four-pack deals?

Most passes go on sale Labor Day Weekend.

Four-packs

Vail's $129 four-pack gives skiers four non-transferable days (restricted during peak holidays, not that you'd want to ski then anyway). You can pick them up at Colorado Ski & Golf or REI.

Copper/Winter Park also have non-transferable four-packs. They cost $119 for Copper or $129 for Winter Park. They're not good during Christmas week. Copper/WP also have a transferable fourpack for $179. New pass purchasers can visit Front Range Christy Sports stores beginning Sept 1.

Season Passes:

Vail's Summit Pass (formerly known as The Buddy Pas) provides unlimited lift access at Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin, the most skiing and snowboarding in Summit County, with no date restrictions, at $379 for adults, $299 for teens and $189 for children.For just $40 more for adults ($20 more for teens and $10 more for children 5-12), the Colorado Pass provides the benefits of the Summit Pass plus ten days at Vail and Beaver Creek (Vail and Beaver Creek days are restricted Nov. 23-24, Dec. 27-31, 2007 and Feb. 16-17, 2008).
Pass renewals are available at coloradopass.com and new passes are on sale this weekend beginning Friday at Colorado Ski and Golf (Aurora, Arvada, Colorado Springs and Littleton), REI (Denver Flagship, Fort Collins, Lakewood, Englewood, Boulder and Colorado Springs),

Copper/Winter Park have the Rocky Mountain Super Pass: $389
Offers unlimited skiing at Copper Mountain and Winter Park. .

NEW! Rocky Mountain Super Pass Plus: $489 70

“The Plus” pass offers skiers unlimited access to Winter Park and Copper along with six unrestricted days at Steamboat and free skiing and riding at Steamboat Friday afternoons.

Gore Canyon Video

In the Gazette's Out There section today, we take you down Gore Canyon, Class V whitewater that is one of the toughest commercial runs in the country. Here's another look:

My favorite is this one, where the guide gets sucked out of the boat on Tunnel Falls.

Although, this helmet cam of a flipping raft is pretty sweet too.

But perhaps the one with the most panic, is this raft surfing in a hole, with only one lone client left in it.

See 'Steep' free in Telluride

"Steep," a feature documentary about big mountain skiing, will show for free Saturday at 10:30 p.m. at the Abel Gance Outdoor Theater in Telluride. It's part of the Telluride Film Fest, which continues through the long weekend.

It was written and directed by Mark Obenhaus, and features Aspen resident Chris Davenport as well as Bill Briggs, Stefano De Benedetti, Eric Pehota, Glen Plake, Shane McConkey, Seth Morrison, Ingrid Backstrom and Andrew McLean.

The film will be released to theaters Dec. 21.

Trickster bikester

My brother sent this video link, which puts any idea of our "trick" riding as kids to rest.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mYIKfEU8yl8&mode=related&search

Not impressed? Send us your video!

I'm not above celebrity gossip

Perpetually stumbling starlet Lidsay Lohan is in outdoor-oriented rehab, including rafting and biking in Utah. People Magazine says the 21-year-old actress entered the exclusive Cirque Lodge program in Utah following her July 24 DUI arrest in Santa Monica after a car chase. Since then, she's been spotted in the Rocky Mountains on field trips from the facility. She and a group hit the road Aug. 16 for a 90-minute bike ride around Orem, Utah. The next day, Cirque took Lohan and others on an afternoon rafting trip on the Provo River, dressed in a pirate bandana, with some of her companions wearing black painted-on pirate moustaches.
While I'm a big believer in the healing and character-building power of the outdoors, I'd like to point out, if she was poor, her rehab would be sitting in jail.

Inversion alert!

An updraft may have made it cloudy and misty in Colorado Springs, but the mountains are clear and blue. It could be a great morning to hit the trail.

Rock tosser repentant

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Tears in his eyes, an Iraq war veteran recounted for the first time publicly the desperate remorse he felt after tossing a large rock off a cliff that killed a climber below.

“I’d do anything to change it,” 23-year-old Luke Rodolph said Tuesday.

On Aug. 11, Rodolph was sitting on the rim of a canyon with three others when he picked up a 15- to 20-pound rock the size of a bowling ball and looked over the edge. He said he didn’t see anyone below.

“I picked up a rock and threw it off,” he said. “Looked over just a little further to watch it fall, see where it was going to hit, you know, kinda leaned out further than what I was comfortable with normally, and watched it hit Pete Absolon.”

There was no time for a warning, Rodolph said. He said he didn’t see Absolon, 47, until the rock struck him in the head.

The group called 911 on a cell phone, then rushed down to Leg Lake Basin. Steve Hirlihy, a National Outdoor Leadership School instructor, had been climbing with Absolon, the school’s Rocky Mountain director, and asked Rodolph and his group what had happened.

“Luke looked him dead in the eye and said, ’I threw it,’” said his brother, Aaron Rodolph, who was with him. “I’ll never forget, as long as I live, that Steve looked Luke dead back in the eyes and said, ’I forgive you for that’.”

Absolon, who had a wife and daughter, had been climbing with Hirlihy along a new route up the cliff face of Leg Lake Cirque in the Wind River Mountains near Lander.

“It’s unbearable for them to have to go through this. It’s my fault,” Luke Rodolph said.

He stayed with Hirlihy and Absolon’s body in the basin overnight while the rest of the group went back to their campsite.

“Steve and I just talked for a while, sat around the campfire,” Rodolph said. “I told him I’d go into town with him and talk with the sheriff and give him a statement, and whatever happens, happens.”

The morning after Absolon’s death, Rodolph and Hirlihy hiked out of the area to Lander. Later that day, Rodolph spoke with Fremont County Attorney Ed Newell and an investigator before returning to his home in Casper. Absolon’s body was recovered the same day.

Eleven days later, Newell announced that Rodolph would not be charged. He cited several factors in his decision, including the fact that Rodolph took responsibility for his actions, was extremely remorseful, didn’t intend to cause harm, had no criminal history and served in Iraq.

In an e-mail to the Casper Star-Tribune, Absolon’s widow, Molly, said she didn’t have a comment on Newell’s decision not to charge Rodolph.

Gary Wilmot, an instructor at the National Outdoor Leadership School, said that while he feels compassion for Rodolph, throwing a rock from a cliff is irresponsible. “We recognize that he is hurting, but we are also working onfilling a big void in our community and a family here in Lander,” Wilmot said.

How interesting can watching ultra-running be?

There's not a lot of speed. There's not a lot of action. There's no interesting fights or crashes. I've always thought ultra-running was the ultimate anti-spectator sport. But now there's a documentary film, call The Distance of Truth, about one of the toughest races the Badwater 135, and one man's quest to beat it. Watch the trailer here.

Speaking of ultra-running. We need to give a belated shoutout to Tony Krupicka, who won the 2006 Leadville Trail 100 two weeks ago for the second year in a rock and knocked more than 47 minutes off his 2006 time, finishing in 16:14:35.

The 24-year-old from Colorado Springs has now run the second- and third-fastest times ever on Leadville's grueling course, which tops out at 12,600 feet. He's also closed within 32 minutes of the seemingly unbeatable record that Matt Carpenter set in 2005.

Wind and temperature on Pikes Peak

For those of you who, like me, are annoyed that you can't get real-time weather data from the Pikes Peak summit, especially since Colorado Springs Utilities has a weather station there, this may be the next best thing. A CSU meteorologist has created a site that uses airport winds aloft data to extrapolate what's going on up there. See it here.