Sweet Home Colorado

My name is AspenSpin and I'm a ski-a-holic.  It's been 120 days since my last confession. 

Southern California has plenty of positives, but soon the A-Spin mothership will be packing up and heading back to Colorado to prepare for the upcoming ski season.   Summer has flown by.  Aspen Spin's self imposed ski-hab visit to La Jolla is almost over. 

We look forward to returning to Aspen.  The Rocky Mountains, the roaring rivers, the lush greenery, the crisp alpine air, the wide open spaces, the crystal clear bluebird skies and even the afternoon showers.  While Summer is waning, it's not over yet and we are gonna get our Ya Ya's out at 3 HUGE events coming up in Aspen.

USA PRO CYLING CHALLENGE. 

128 of the world's best pro riders will be tooling through Colorado for 6 stages of racing. The second stage, the Silver Queen Stage...will finish in Aspen on August 24 after 131 miles and a vertical rise of more than 9700 feet. You can watch live TV coverage on Versus and NBC..but there's nothing like being there in person to see the peloton thunder through town.  There are plenty of activities, parties and events planned around the Challenge.

 Click to learn more about the USA PRO CYCLING CHALLANGE

MOUNTAIN SUMMIT. 

One of our favorite events of the year.  The 3rd annual Mountain Summit Film Festival is a unique collaboration between Teluride's Mountainfilm and Aspen's historic Wheeler Opera House.  Four days of painstakingly selected films that reflect Adventuring and Advocacy. These films are passionate stories that don't show up at the multi-plex.  It's an intimate festival with many of the filmmakers in attendance and free coffee talks and sessions relating to the films.  Do not miss Mountain Summit.

 Save the dates August 25-28.  Click for schedule and tickets;   MOUNTAIN SUMMIT

JAZZ ASPEN/SNOWMASS.

3 days of fun and music, and nothing but fun and music...."yeah New York stay thruway is closed man"....ooops wrong festival....and it's 2011, so join thouands at the Snowmass Town Park for 3 days of fun and music at Jazz Aspen/Snowmass's annual Labor Day Festival on Sept 2,3,4.   Big names on the docket include Thievery Corporation, Steely Dan and The Zac Brown Band. 

Click for LINEUP and Ticket info.  JAZZ ASPEN/SNOWMASS

Aspen Food & Wine / Duvine Style

The Aspen Food & Wine Classic kicks off the Summer social season in Aspen.  Why does AspenSpin.com always miss such an important event?  Cabin Fever, bruddah.

Luckily, A-Spin corespondent Andy Levine, founder of Duvine Adventures filed this video report from the 29th Annual Aspen Food & Wine Classic. Andy knows about luxury, travel and recreation as Duvine Adventures was named one of the 50 best tour operators in the world by National Geographic.  Duvine's Mission: BIKE, EAT, DRINK, SLEEP.  Mission accomplished in Aspen (except for the sleep).

Throw Down in A-Town

Aspen is a small town.  Sometimes you run into someone you can't stand.

Oh to be a fly on the wall at Cache Cache in Aspen when Lance Armstrong "bumped into" Tyler Hamilton.

Local sources in Aspen texted us a heads up about the  "heated exchange" that occurred between semi-local Armstrong and his rival Hamilton, who was visiting the glamorous resort town.  The former friends allegedly almost threw down near the rest room at the upscale restaurant and bar.  Its not the first time an argument has occurred at Cache Cache (appropriately pronounced Cash Cash).  It's usually a customer who's reservation got "lost" vs the management, or a Sugar Grand Dad vs Miss Right Now.  This time it was two of the most accomplished cyclists in the world face to face in the narrow, often over crowded bar area.

Lance Armstrong has a second home in Aspen, while Hamilton was in ZG to participate in Outside in Aspen a series of promotional events.  Our source was unsure if Lance's appearance at Cache Cache was pure coincidence or he got the word and quickly popped on his townie and sped over to initiate the contact.  It was no secret that Hamilton was in town, as advertising materials for Outside in Aspen touted the Olympic Gold Medalist and recent 60 Minutes interviewee.  See the original story on the OUTSIDE BLOG.  Kudos should go out to ACRA for devising such a viral PR campaign.  Best one since Charlie Sheen and the "most expensive town" stories.

Hopefully we'll find out what really happened, although we'll probably never really know.  The media has exploded the story and now the FBI is involved according to a report from the NY Daily News.   We're sure there's more to come. 

Lance was yoked in Aspen. Click to enlarge. Tyler Hamilton was in town 4 Outside in Aspen

Earning Turns in Aspen

Aspen Local and ski alpinist Ted Mahon is taking his game to the next level...on the mountain, behind the lens and with the keyboard.  He and fellow "peak-bagger" Chris Davenport (fresh off summiting Mt. Everest ) recently did a quick up and down on North Maroon Peak, one of Aspen's famed Maroon Bells.  Ted shares his experience here on AspenSpin.  

You can see more of his work at  STUCK in the ROCKIES.

The North Face of North Maroon   by  Ted Mahon.  Elev. 14,014

Good call, Dav.

Sometimes you just have to play the hand you’re dealt.

Not that skiing isn’t one of my favorite things to do, but after six or seven months of winter, the arrival of summer is definitely welcome. As we all know though, nature doesn’t always follow a set schedule and this year’s prolonged snowy spring was a good example of that– summer really didn’t seem to declare itself until just a few days ago. In fact there’s still so much snow, even Aspen Mountain is set to be open this weekend.

So rather than fight the trend, we’re still skiing. Earlier in the week, after some flakes fell in town on Memorial Day, Chris Davenport– just back from a successful expedition to climb Mount Everest that included a rare ski descent of the Lhotse Face– made the call to head up to North Maroon Peak, where we found conditions to be more like March than June.

Until things dry out around here, the ski season will likely play out a bit longer. And if all the days are like this one, we should have no problem making the best of it.

Stacked with snow, including a few inches from the night before, Chris approaches the big North Face of the "relatively" small mountain. Just ten days earlier Dav was atop Mount Everest, and it was great to catch up and hear all the stories from his expedition.

After catching up to a solo skier from Colorado Springs (seen below), we took the lead booting up the North Face. Despite being in front of Dav here, his acclimatization from the Himalaya was no doubt still working to his advantage. We managed to make the round trip climb and ski in five and a half hours.

Status Verfified: One of the 50 Classics. Stuck in the Rockies.

Summer Skiing in Aspen

Memorial Day Weekend is considered the official start to summer.  BBQ's, bikinis and white clothing get to see the light of day after a long winter in hibernation.  Just like your white bucks, AspenSpin has been in ski-hab since the lifts closed in April, but we've heard tales of the non-stop snow storms in Aspen.  We are under the impression that 2011 set a record for most snowfall in May in Aspen.

The Aspen Skiing Company decided to let their hair down and re-open Aspen Mountain for skiing over Memorial Day Weekend.  Apparently they are going to open Ajax every weekend until the snow melts. Sadly, we missed the summer-time skiing, but many of you didn't.  Thanks to social media we scored a few pix and a quick vid. for your enjoyment. 

Photos: Jeremy Swanson / ASC     Video: Mike Jahn

Aspen Mountain was open for skiing and riding over Memorial Day Weekend. Photo: Jeremy Swanson

I love the smell of fresh corduroy in the morning. 5/27/11 Photo: Jeremy Swanson Plenty of Snow on Independence Pass. Skiing on July 4....probably. Photo: Jeremy Swanson