Skiing and Whiskey, a History Lesson Throughout the history of skiing, people have never ceased to innovate and find new ways to have fun sliding on snow. From the first primitive designs used for transportation and hunting to the first metal bindings, the development of the twin tip and the snowboard, camber, rocker, carbon, etc. However, long before these high-tech developments, people wanted to combine some […] Friday Fun Jack Conroy | April 13, 2025 0 Comments
Which Ski Resort Will Open First This Year? #RaceToOpen Ladies and gentlemen, ski season is right around the corner! Temps are falling, we’re seeing the first snow of the season, and winter will be here before we know it. So, you know what that means; time to make your first chair predictions. Which ski resort will open first? Colorado is notorious for taking the title, with resorts like Arapahoe Basin, Wolf […] Industry News Jack Conroy | August 22, 2023 3 Comments
Where Did the Term “Dirtbag” Come From? These days the term “dirtbag” describes the most intense and dedicated portion of the outdoor community. Whether they’re a climber, skier, hiker, or biker, they’re a dirtbag if they dedicate their lives to the sport and sacrifice the luxuries of comfort and steady jobs to live their dream. Related: 7 Best Dirtbag Ski Resorts But this wasn’t always the meaning […] Climbing Jack Conroy | July 22, 2022 0 Comments
Are Cold Exposure and Skiing Healthier for Us Than We Thought? Winter is upon us! The first ski resorts have been opened and there is skiing for all of us to be had. With the snow and skiing comes the cold weather, so you know what that means, time to bundle up and stay warm… or does it? In a world where we’re constantly trying to find ways to make ourselves healthier, […] Brains Jack Conroy | March 21, 2020 1 Comment
Ski Resorts are Struggling to Find Workers Ski resorts are struggling to find workers. This is a problem that has been around for a long time now and is continuing to grow. One doesn’t have to look very hard or far to see the reality of this issue. There are fewer and fewer American workers at ski resorts. This has left many resorts relying on international workers. […] Industry News Jack Conroy | November 13, 2019 20 Comments
Colorado is Not a Square Colorado is not a square. The maps you’ve been seeing since elementary school have fooled you. They fooled us all. In fact, the Centennial state has a whopping 697 sides. That makes it a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon. Now that’s a mouthful. There are three states in the U.S. that appear to have all straight, rectangular borders on the map. Those would be Utah, […] Brains Jack Conroy | October 1, 2019 4 Comments
Is Skiing the Key to Living Longer? Life expectancy has been falling over the last several years. Since 2014 the average life expectancy at birth has fallen from 78.9 to 78.6. Seeing as life expectancy is an important measure of the overall health of the population, this is a rather concerning statistic. However, life expectancy does vary throughout the country. A recent analysis of numbers given by […] Jack Conroy | September 18, 2019 6 Comments
The Number of Ski Resorts in the U.S. is Growing Ski resorts have been going out of business for as long as they’ve existed. Running and operating a ski resort has always been a tough task. It is largely weather dependent and competition between resorts is stiff. If consumers decide that they prefer the neighboring mountain to yours, then you may be out of luck. Back in 2015, an article was […] Industry News Jack Conroy | September 5, 2019 0 Comments
Man Crosses the Pacific on a Standup Paddle Board San Francisco, California to Honolulu, Hawaii. The two places are 2,900 miles apart. A five-hour flight, or, to endurance athlete Antonio de la Rosa, a two and a half month paddle. On June 4th, de la Rosa set out from San Francisco on a paddleboard poised to cross the pacific and make it to Hawaii with the purpose of raising […] Surf Jack Conroy | September 2, 2019 0 Comments
Snow Droughts Projected to Continue to Increase in the United States This past decade has been a rocky one for skiers, both figuratively and literally. In 2012 we saw the beginning of what would become one of the worst snow droughts in modern history. California received historically low amounts of snow for almost 4 years in a row, wreaking havoc on wildlife, water supply, and its skiers. But this hasn’t just […] Jack Conroy | August 21, 2019 2 Comments
Street Skiing Legend L.J. Strenio to Work for NASA L.J. Strenio. You may know him from his 2017 X Games Real Ski segment that won him a Bronze medal and fan favorite, his appearances in Line Ski’s Traveling Circus, or from one of his awe-inspiring season edits. However, Strenio just recently put another impressive title to his name… Astronaut (well, sort of). Just about 10 years ago L.J. attended […] Brains Jack Conroy | August 16, 2019 0 Comments
New 6,000-Foot Vertical, 34-Mile Long Single Track Set to be Built in Colorado For the past 10 years, Colorado native Scott Winans has been hard at work trying to realize a dream. To be more specific, he and a small group of outdoor recreation advocates have been working in partnership with the community in Mesa County to clear 33.6 miles of single track from the top of Grand Mesa all the way down to […] Biking Jack Conroy | August 15, 2019 0 Comments
Is Heli-Hiking Worth It or Just a Gimmick? Heli-Hiking. That’s right folks. The Heli-skiing craze has now pushed its way into the summer months with this new phenomenon. The concept is quite simple and similar to that of Heli-Skiing and Heli-Biking. Put people in a helicopter, drop them off in a remote location to partake in an absurdly gorgeous hike, pick them up and take them back to a […] Jack Conroy | August 13, 2019 2 Comments
Lost New England Ski Areas… These days skiing is something that people in the United States look to the west coast to find the goods. With an abundance of snow, huge mountains and seemingly never-ending resorts to visit it’s easy to understand how it ended up this way. However, skiing in the States didn’t get its start in the Rockies, the Sierras or the Cascades. […] Industry News Jack Conroy | August 12, 2019 0 Comments
Breckenridge, CO is Planning to Install a New Lift on Peak 7 Breckenridge Ski Resort has submitted a proposal to the U.S. Forest Service to add a chairlift in order to increase accessibility to their intermediate terrain on Peak 7. If approved, the lift would take passengers from the middle of the intermediate Monte Cristo trail back up to. The top of Peak 7. This would cut down on lift lines and […] Industry News Jack Conroy | August 9, 2019 0 Comments
London Named the World’s First National Park City The city of London was recently named a National Park City. If this doesn’t sound like a familiar concept, that’s because it isn’t. London is the first city to ever be given this title. The brainchild of geography teacher Daniel Raven-Ellison, the National Park City Foundation is a nonprofit that aims to make cities greener, cleaner and wilder. Thus far, this […] Jack Conroy | August 2, 2019 0 Comments
89 Year Old Arizona Woman Becomes Oldest Person to Summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa 89 Year old Arizona Native Anne Lorimor just became the oldest person to Summit Mt. Kilimanjaro… again. Just four years ago, Lorimor summited the peak at the age of 85, making herself the oldest woman to reach the highest point in Africa. However, when she found out that an older woman had broken her record, and that a man had also […] Climbing Jack Conroy | July 31, 2019 0 Comments
Costa Rica Heading Towards Carbon Neutrality with Renewable Energy and Plastic Efforts Costa Rica is setting the example for environmental sustainability, aiming to be the first carbon-free plastic-free country. By the year 2021, just two years away now, Costa Rica hopes to rid itself of all single-use plastics as well as eliminate the use of fossil fuels in their public transport system, and they’re not messing around. In the last 5 years, […] Brains Jack Conroy | July 28, 2019 0 Comments
HAPE, The Killer You Didn’t See Coming High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE) is not only one of the top causes of death in high altitude mountaineering, but it is made even more dangerous by its unpredictable nature. HAPE has claimed the lives of even the fittest, most knowledgeable and most prepared mountaineers. While there are signs that susceptibility to the condition may be linked to genetics, this connection […] Climbing Jack Conroy | July 17, 2019 0 Comments
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