The once-invincible Epic Pass is down – except for Down Under
Vail Resorts boss Rob Katz this week gave investors the doom-and-gloom report with a dash of optimism. Company profits were down more than $90 million during spring break, February through April. Katz again blamed the historically warm and dry winter in Colorado and Utah, where the company’s largest and most profitable resorts prop up the rest, like […]
Summer fun and falling gas prices bring I-70 back to life
Gas prices were down and traffic was up big this past weekend on the I-70 mountain corridor. In three days, June 5-7, close to 122,000 vehicles traveled the Eisenhower-Johnson tunnels, making it the busiest three days since March 20-22. It was nearly 15% busier than the fifth and final weekend of May and close to 46% busier than the slowest weekend […]
Mountain town couple targeted by scammers with fake agents, porn and bars of gold
A Silverthorne couple nearly lost $150,000 to a complex fraud scheme involving undercover agents, child pornography and bars of gold. Hang in there – it’s a wild one. Summit County Sheriff’s Office reports the fraud began with an error message on the couple’s home computer. They called a help-line number on the message, which led to a scammer posing as a Microsoft tech agent. This person passed them off to another scammer posing […]
Alma murder suspect takes last-minute plea deal for killing roommate in Alma
A one-time Breckenridge chef accused of murder in Alma has taken a plea deal for manslaughter. Benjamin Rector, 36, was three weeks away from a jury trial in Park County when he signed the plea deal on May 27. He admitted to shooting and killing a onetime roommate, Thomas Harker Junior, 56, after a weeks-long […]
Lung-busting Vail Pass hill climb this weekend is part of a dying breed
It sounds straightforward on paper. 9.7 miles, 1,650 vertical feet, all of it on a paved recpath, and the first cyclist to the top is crowned King or Queen of Vail Pass. But paper doesn’t do this thing justice. The Road Bike Hill Climb at GoPro Mountain Games on Sunday, June 7, is one of the last cycling hill climbs in the Rockies. This is a dying breed of race, and not because it is cheesy, like […]
May weather was incredibly average in the High Country. We’ll take it.
After a winter of record-breaking heat and shameful snowfall, it felt good to wrap a month that was nothing more than average. Let’s start with snow. The final open ski hill in the state, Arapahoe Basin, claimed 37 inches before closing day on May 17. That was more May snow than the Basin has seen in over […]