Andrew McLean on Colbert tonight (Wed.)

This could be cool... or it could totally suck. Expeditionary skier extraordinaire Andrew McLean will be on "The Colbert Report" tonight. I think that's 11 p.m. for Comcast subscribers, 9 p.m. for those of us with satellite.

He'll be talking about the ski doc "Steep," which I wrote about last week (and will have a review of on Friday in Go - I give it a B+, if I recall correctly).

McLean sort of serves as the film's voice of reason, after the death of Doug Coombs and the ever-greater extremes extreme skiers go to. It's a little ironic, given that, that the film's most harrowing scene captures McLean and his party being caught in an avalanche in Iceland. It's seriously intense - you've never seen anything like this on film before.

I talked to McLean for a few minutes after the film's premiere at Telluride. He was pretty positive about the film, having a record of extreme skiing's history and honoring its pioneers. He said his mom was always wondering what exactly it is that he does and, with this, he could just show her the movie.

Can't imagine what he and Stephen Colbert will have to talk about, but I'll be watching.

Drilling for gas near the Sand Dunes

(National Park Service photo by Patrick Myers of an autumn view of the dunes and Sangre de Cristo Mountains from Zapata Falls Recreation Area)

Did you catch this story in The Gazette over the weekend by R. Scott Rappold? It's got our commenters hopping.

In a nutshell:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to let a Canadian energy company drill for natural gas in the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, which is in the San Luis Valley, within 2 miles of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

Environmental groups are worried about the impact on wildlife, air and water quality, and the nearby national park, but federal officials say their hands are tied.

Toronto-based Lexam Energy Exploration owns mineral rights and wants to drill 2 test wells, which would involve bulldozing and clearing 14.5 acres.

Again, you can read Scott's story here.

He'll update the story in this Sunday's Gazette.

You can read the environmental assessment here.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting comments through March 2, which may be submitted to baca_ea@fws.gov or to San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex, 9383 El Rancho Lane, Alamosa, CO 81101.

Snow on the sage

Driving through the sage-covered hills around Gunnison yesterday, I was amazed how much snow there is. I would guess 24 inches of dense, heavy stuff covering prairie hills I don't think I've ever seen hold more than a dusting. No wonder the Division of Wildlife is feeding deer and elk in the area. They can't get through to browse.

A real survivorman

Talk about one tough dude. Check out this story from Reuters:

A Canadian man survived 96 hours pinned under his all-terrain vehicle in the Rocky Mountains by eating rotting animal carcasses, drinking melted snow and thinking of his grandchildren, he said today.

Ken Hildebrand was trapped face down for 4 days and 3 nights in the Crowsnest Pass area of southwestern Alberta, where he tried numerous ways to free himself in below-freezing temperatures.

Throughout the ordeal, he kept wolves and coyotes away by blowing on an emergency whistle.

He was rescued from the wreck by hikers, and has spent a week in a hospital.

He said he was checking animal traps Jan. 8 in an area where ranchers had complained of wolves preying on livestock. The vehicle hit a rock, throwing him off and settling on his legs.

He tried for hours to pry the ATV off, but his awkward position made that impossible.

He stayed alive by eating the animals he had collected, although the rotting flesh made him sick, the Calgary Sun newspaper reported.

Snowboarder dies attempting trick

It appears the 33-year-old snowboarder who died at Breckenridge yesterday was attempting a trick at the Park Lake Terrain Park.

Denver news stations and newspapers say James McLean, a podiatrist from Leawood, Kansas, died after landing on his head just before 2 p.m. He was wearing a helmet. The coroner said he died of a fractured neck.

Here's an UPDATE to this post. McLean was starting a career in physical medicine and rehabilitation, not podiatry, as previously noted.

Peace be with James and his family and friends. Man, you just never know when it will happen.

Where's Dave

I'm off to Telluride for the next three days to look at the new Black Iron Bowl, some of that inbounds backcountry-type terrain that has become so popular.

Too cold to run? Not an excuse

A good column from the NYT on getting out in the cold. Read on.

Zebra mussels found in Pueblo Reservoir

Enter the Borg. These guys are the invasive bane of fresh water lakes everywhere. I remember when I lived in Vermont, zebra mussels were slowly taking over the floor of Lake Champlain. It was big news, because apparently Champ won't eat shellfish. Let's hope the creatures in Lake Pueblo aren't as picky.

Katie Compton gallery

Today Out There has a profile of top cyclocross rider Katie Compton who left Colorado Springs this week to compete in the World Champs in Italy. Here's the story.
Here's some more images and vid:



Here's video from a small American race that gives you an idea of the courses.
Here's video from last year's World Cup Championships in Belgium.

Off-piste in Austria

Michael Hagen, who we featured in our spread on randonee racing in last week's Out There section, sent a couple pix from his recent trip to Austria, where the children start ski touring before they're out of diapers. The snow's looking pretty decent, eh?

Stroke of luck leads to Mt. Hood rescue

Talk about lucky.
Achance encounter with a plastic bottle early Tuesday helped two lost climbers find their way off the lower flanks of Mount Hood after a night spent huddled in a hastily built snow cave.

The bottle, apparently left by someone playing an adventure game, held map coordinates giving their precise location. And the two Portland men spotted it just as searchers called their cell phones -- which they mistakenly believed had stopped working for good the night before.

Read more here.

Surf in the City

We bloggarians love posting these stories about futuristic indoor sports parks where people can ski in Texas or kayak in the desert. The latest is London's proposed surf park, where for 30 quid you can hang 10 for an hour. It plans to open in 2011.
My bet: ain't gonna happen. I've written about a snowless terrain park set to open in Castle Rock, or a ski resort in Texas. We note how they have plans, investors, and proposed opening dates. Then nothing happens. To this day there is no artificial snow park in the United States.

Climber on Little Bear presumed dead

20-year-old University of Norther Colorado Student Lygon Stevens is presumed dead after an avalanche on the southwest face of Little Bear Peak on Thursday swept her away as she hiked with her brother, Nick.

Nick Stevens, 23, survived, stumbled down the mountain and called authorities when he got cell-phone reception shortly before 9 a.m. Friday.

Authorities searched with ground crews and helicopters but called off the search Saturday due to the increasingly dangerous weather conditions and the presumption that Lygon Stevens had died.

Lygon Stevens and her brother scaled several mountain peaks including the tallest in North America, Mount McKinley in Alaska.

Mount Hood climbers safe

You may have heard/read earlier that two climbers were missing on Mount Hood (11,239 feet), although they had talked to rescuers via a cell phone.

They're down and safe now, after spending a night in a snow cave.

Justin Votos, 27, and Matthew Pitts, 28, said they'd summited twice before, and thought they had a good climbing window but got caught in whiteout conditions at about 10,000 feet.

They started hiking down toward Timberline Lodge, but missed it and said they built the cave at about 5,000 feet.

Walking down today they found a geocache with GPS gear that allowed them to report their location to rescuers via cell phone. They were near Enid Lake and less than a mile from U.S. 26.

Great news for those two, and a reminder to the rest of us to be prepared for the worst.

Mountaineer promotes peace

Former Out There writer Deb Acord talked to Greg Mortensen of Montana a few times in her career at The Gazette. She helped shine a light on Greg's campaign to improve the lives of people in the remote villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The co-founder of the Central Asia Institute met the people while climbing in the region.

You can hear about Greg's efforts tonight at 7 at Shove Chapel at Colorado College. Doors open at 6:30. I imagine the seats will quickly fill up.

The event is sponsored by Univ. of Colorado at Colorado Springs' Center for Homeland Security (educated kids become adult workers, not terrorists), and comes on the heels of Greg's success as an author. Check out his book, "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time."

Greg decided to help the villagers after they nursed him back to health after a climbing mishap. His efforts have resulted in construction of at least 64 schools.

Practice dodging blowdown

A new report says pine beetles will likely kill every mature lodgepole pine in Colorado in the next five years. That will likely leave millions of acres of forest standing dead. The dead forest will then eventually fall over, probably during storms and high winds. The blowdown can be a big danger for hikers because, if a tree falls in the woods, and you're under it, you may not ever make a sound again.

Another weekend trail report

Hiked in Red Rock Canyon on Saturday with my mom, who's visiting from the San Diego area. She falls more deeply in love with the park every visit.

Stretches of trail that see a lot of midday sun have some snowmelt and resulting mud, but most of the trails were snow-covered.

Trails that follow roads were the slickest where tires had tread - or hundreds of feet had walked the tread tracks. Walking the ridge between the tracks was easier going.

Remember, even if it's a bit muddy, stay on the trail. Going off trail does not help the trail system.

Areas of the Goddesses/Contemplative trial were slick, too. Yaktraks help. We saw a few people using trekking poles, too, for added balance.

We hiked Red Rock Canyon to Roundup to Goddesses. Gorgeous. With today's sunshine and relative warmth and Wednesday's predicted freeze, however, look out. It could make hikes a bit more treacherous.

A LOT of unleashed dogs running around. All of them friendly to us, but that's not the point. More than one eager pup jumped up, which could have been a problem if we'd been standing on an icy section of trail.

And while I'm on the topic of dogs -- take along waste bags. There was a fair amount of dog poop in the middle of trails. Frozen dog poop is not more aesthetic nor easier to get off your hiking boot than it is in dry conditions.

Avalanche deaths running high

As Dave noted below, 1 more Coloradan was killed in an avalanche over the weekend.

Another 3 people were killed in Wyoming, bringing to 21 the number of people killed in avalances in the West since Nov. 12. The national annual average for avalanche deaths is about 25.

35 people were killed nationwide in avalanches in the 2001-02 season, the most on record, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Before heading into the backcountry, experts advise you recognize the signs of avalanche danger and take a course -- or courses -- in avalanche survival. You can get regular updates on general danger at the Colorado Avalance Information Center. If you go to the Web site now, you'll see a good portion of our mountains are posted as "considerable" danger to avalanches.

You can look up classes at the site, too.

The Wyoming victims were snownmobilers. The Coloradan was a skier. Skiers also are said to have triggered 3 avalanches Saturday on Loveland Pass.

And 2 skiers were caught in but survived a slide Sunday near Cache Peak in the Gros Ventre Wildnerness in Wyoming. One suffered a broken leg.

Powder and No Crowds

Here's a weekend ski report from Out There friend and Biz editor Joanna Bean:

I skiied Winter Park/Mary Jane on Sunday after a years-long hiatus (too long of a day trip for me from Colorado Springs). I'd heard and read about some of the changes there, particularly the condo development around the base.

I was pleasantly surprised that Winter Park still "feels" like it used to, for the most part.

I didn't ski Jane as much as I would have liked (had the kids with me) but we found plenty to keep us busy at Winter Park. (And I snuck in a few trips through the bumps on Retta's Run and Outrigger.)

If you're an intermediate skier, head over to the Pioneer Express lift, on the Vasquez Ridge of Winter Park. We found plenty of powder and no crowds. Views were great, too.

Also new this year off Jane's Parsenn Bowl is what they're calling North America's highest six-person chairlift, along with new glade terrain. That's high on my list for my next no-kids ski day.

"Please do not urinate on the peak"

So says the sign atop Alberta Peak at Wolf Creek, the final stop on our weekend swing through southwest Colorado. My wife and I left Thursday morning and hit, in order, Kendall Mountain, Silverton, Purgatory (DMR), Hesperus and Wolf Creek.

It was an interesting excursion. Wolf Creek Pass didn't reopen until Wednesday afternoon, after being closed since Sunday. We'd originally planned to take the northern route through Gunnison and makea loop out of it, but Red Mountain Pass didn't open until Thursday night.

We arrived at Silverton at about 3:30 p.m., just enough time for my wife to catch a few runs at Kendall Mountain. It's Silverton's local hill - about 200 vertical feet, $15 lift tickets and one, newly installed chairlift. With just a few school kids on the hill, Carrie caught some powder turns and said there were some fun little tree shots.

Friday we were skiing Silverton Mountain, the all-expert, double-diamond-only backcountry legend. The only thing legendary about our day there was how bad the weather was. The area didn't open until 11 a.m. - at one point, they called all the ski patrollers together to hold a vote on whether they'd open at all. We only got three runs in, two of which were nothing special. The last, down the Stooges, was knee-deep powder. So the potential was certainly there.

Probably the worst thing was listening to people who had skied on Thursday say "Yesterday, this was all powder" as we skied across bullet-proof wind-blown crust. Our guide, John, had to stop us a couple times because the wind and cold were causing white spots on our faces - incipient frostbite.

Silverton's a great town, though. I've never been in a place so quiet. At one point we saw a coyote running down main street.

Saturday we hit Purgatory, or, as it's called these days "Durango Mountain Resort." Purgatory is a way cooler name. For a resort that aspires to be a Breckenridge or a Copper, DMR was nothing special. If you've skied the blues at Breck, you won't find anything very interesting at Purgatory. The place was pretty well skied out, too. We found a trace of powder in some of the trees. Pretty scenery, though.

We got bored with Purgatory around lunch time and headed to Hesperus. A lot of people haven't heard of this place. It's Durango's local area - one lift and a couple hundred acres of converted cow pasture 20 minutes outside of town. I kid you not: the boundary rope was barb wire fence. The "slow" sign at the base of the lift was borrowed from a construction site.

Don't let any of this deter you: Hesperus rocked. The only people there were kids and dudes in camo or coveralls. And, god bless them, they stayed on the kiddie hill. With maybe 500 feet of vertical, Hesperus had some steep sections and, a week after the big dump, those steeps were still covered in powder. There were even some miniature cliff shots.

I'm not kidding: We found better powder at Hesperus than at Purgatory (and we both took harder crashes at Hesperus than we did at Silverton). We had a lot of fun spending an afternoon there. I'm not saying it would be worth a 300-mile drive, but if you're in the area, it's sure as heck worth $32.

Finally, we stopped at Wolf Creek on Sunday. We'd debated blowing off Wolf to save some cash and get home a little earlier. We actually stopped at a gas station in Pagosa Springs just to ask somebody with skis on their car what the conditions were. They advised us to stick around and that was sound, sound advice. We got up there at 9 a.m. and were one of the first cars in the lot. All day long, we were skiing runs without seeing another soul.

First run, we hiked up Alberta Peak. It was pretty wind-blown and cold up there, but two turns on the crust and it was powder the rest of the way down. It looked skied out, but it was actually really, really good. The entire rest of the day, we did laps on the Alberta Lift (which, despite the name, doesn't go back up the peak). It was a beautiful sunny Sunday, a week after the last storm, and we were skiing shin-deep powder. It was amazing. Just fantastic, fantastic conditions.

Mostly, we were dropping down off the Coyote Loop cat track -the further back we went, the better the powder got. We stared down our vertigo for one run off the Knife Ridge. That traverse is just plain scary, but the powder provided soft landings off the ridge line.

We skied until 2:30, didn't have a bad run and were back in the Springs four hours later.

Anyway, I hope to do a story about the southwestern ski areas at some point (got the headline already: "Western Slopes"), but I wanted to throw this out there for anyone planning a trip this winter.