Archive for November, 2008

This comment amused me – the author had been reading our blog on “is this the world’s tallest bungee jump” and in her various comments made this one:

The drive to impress women with acts of sheer stupidity is universal.

The episode I saw? All about land jumping. That’s the ORIGINAL version of bungee jumping. Only it’s done from vines with very little spring. And the men jump from an eight-foot bamboo tower. Their heads actually hit the ground. Total Penis Contest. If someone plucked these guys out of the jungle, dropped them in the middle of a car dealership, and told them they could have whatever make they’d like … they’d totally choose Monster Trucks and Hummers. The winner of THIS particular contest won a handful of grass, which, judging from the looks on everyone’s faces, seemed just as impressive.

If you want to read more please follow the link below:

All the world’s a jungle. Some places just require less clothing <b>…</b>

Good for a chuckle…

Yesterday we talked about the many different winter activities that you can do in Colorado but of course it is not only skiing, snowboarding, ice racing, ice climbing and the like that attracts visitors, as well as residents alike to the great outdoors – a wonderful and inspiring playground.

Indeed Colorado has, according to several studies, the lowest obesity rate in the United States, at 18.7% of the population it is the lowest percentage in the nation – but this still equates to nearly one in five people. Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama score over 30% according to the CDC’s – the Centre for Disease Control & Prevention – 2007 survey – so perhaps you Coloradans do not have too much to worry about – just keep exercising.

And today we want to tell you about a small town where another great all year round activity can be practiced in Colorado – mountain biking. Well in a state that has 53 fourteeners (mountains with a height in excess of 14,000 feet) you would expect the word mountain to appear in front of bike!

In the biking world the northern Coloradan town of Fort Collins is well known and it is a reputation the town’s authorities are proud to protect and promote. It has just received the League of American Bicyclists ‘Gold Medal’ for being a bicycle friendly community.

Cathy Jones, the marketting director of the town’s Convention and Visitors Bureau says ‘ Cycling is king here – perhaps it is the wide open spaces, the record number of sunshine days or the high profile cycling events held here every year plus the fact that Fort Collins has invested so much into what makes cycling so popular – greenways and bike lanes – there are 90 miles of trails and paths in Poudre Canyon and more than 200 miles of bike paths in and around the city, and a new mountain bike park in Lory State Park to the west of the city’.

Annual cycling events include the Fort Collins Cycling Festival usually held in June, the New Belgian Brewery ‘Tour de Fat’ held in September and the USA Cycling Collegiate National Championships held in the spring.

And for the casual biker who doesn’t want to invest a fortune for their one bike ride of the year you can bob down to the Fort Collins Bike Library and ‘borrow’ anything from a cruiser to a mountain bike free of charge for up to 72 hours.

For more information visit www.ftcollins.com or call the Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau on 1-800-274-3678

Take a look at what you can expect at Fort Collins in this video from bikeskidino – sure looks like a playground!

The countdown is on – just 2 days to go before the ABA’s BMX Grand Nationals start at the Expo Square in Tulsa, Oklahoma and what a superb weekend it promises to be. Folk are real excited about the track that has been built and the weekend promises to be full of thrills and spills as the world’s best descend on OK.

Below is a schedule of the event – note in particular the race of Champions on Friday 28th and the Grand Nationals the following day. Further you should not miss out on the exhibition pro spectacular on the Friday evening.

There’s gonna be a lot of people down there so why not presign for your event – go online to www.ababmx.com and you will find all the information you need, it will save you a lot of time and frustration.

Finally a word of advice – take a lock and cable – a stolen bike is gonna ruin your fun, you’ll be mighty pissed off but every year it happens.

Below the schedule of events is a video from GMOSTL of some of the action from the 14x event in 2007 – more of the same.

2008 Schedule – ABA Grands

‘Just’ skiing did I say? There’s nothing ‘just’ about skiing. It is one of the most exhilarating sports in the world I think… although my son would beg to differ – his choice would probably be snowboarding or kite surfing.

But back to my question… why limit yourself to just skiing? With mountain regions becoming accessible to anyone with snowchains, resorts are getting more and more imaginative and offering more and more things to do for all adrenaline junkies out there.

Take COLORADO for example. We all know that some of the best skiing in North America can be found there. After all, they are lucky enough to have the whole spine of the Rocky Mountains running through their state. But this fabulous area now has a lot more to offer.

You can now dogsled at Snowmass, snowshoe hike at Bear Lake, four-wheel all-terrain Jeep ice race on frozen Georgetown Lake, climb frozen waterfalls at Ouray Ice Park … to name just a few alternatives. When it comes to extreme sports and the ultimate adrenaline rush, I think Colorado has most things covered come Summer or Winter.

You can actually dogsled at many other places besides Snowmass – that was just my first example, try Breckinbridge, Copper Mountain, Frisco, Winter Park, Vail, Beaver Creek, Durango to name just a few.

Then you can four-wheel, all-terrain Jeep ice race on frozen Georgetown Lake. When most other people park their toys in a garage in the winter, some in the Snow Belt don’t – they screw on studs and hit the lake! BRadOO7 put this video on to show us all what it’s about.

What’s next? Climbing frozen waterfalls… The Ouray Ice Park is a 2 mile long stretch of the Uncompagre Gorge that has been designated for public ice climbing.Thanks to bwadeocra.

But you could also go to East Vail and climb their 120 ft free standing pillar of ice – fondly nicknamed ‘The Fang’. Routes on this climb are prime examples of technical ice climbing and should only be attempted by the knowledgeable and well-trained. This enormous ice pillar forms from the cascading waterfall only in exceptionally cold winters. It can be up to 50 m high (120 ft) and has been known to have a base measuring 8 m wide.

You could also, of course, do a spot of snowshoe hiking. Snowshoeing can be the perfect escape – if you are desperate to experience some much-needed peace and quiet… or just a wild day out with friends. Try Bear Lake and Wild Basin. These two areas are particularly popular with the big shoeprint set, thanks to DrOfWax for the video. Most other areas of the park could be considered “ski mountaineering” rather than “ski touring” with steep climbs and descents, narrow routes and sharp turns. This area is also suitable for cross country ski-ing.

And then of course there are other such arbitary things as para-gliding, heli-skiing, back country skiing etc. to take in.

I started this article on the derogatory lines of “Why limit yourself to just skiing” and I will end it on a video from XTremeVideo to show that there is no such thing as “just skiing”…

“For the past few days, the Pacific has shown me an unsympathetic side but I try to take advantage of this odd situation which is part of the challenge. (I hope it won’t last too long!)”

We’ve had several articles over the past few days about extreme weather conditions and what they could mean to all of us.

Anne Quéméré, 3 weeks into her Pacific challenge, has had her very own extreme Pacific conditions hurled at her over the past week.

As we said in one of our first articles on this challenge: her voyage in the 5.5m purpose-built Oceankite will take her from the northern hemisphere into the southern, through tricky weather regions including the dreaded Doldrums which are caused by the ITCZ. Her arrival in Tahiti will be dependent on wind speeds and ocean currents.

All things considered, she’s had a difficult start. First not enough wind delayed the departure by more than a week, and then indifferent Tradewinds made sailing a challenge – just keeping the kite aloft became a challenge. There have been times in the last few days where she had to re-launch the kite at least 10 time a day “in spite of my navigating and my most energetic encouragements, it was impossible to keep the kite in flight when the wind dropped in intensity“. There have been other occasions where she has had to waste hours untangling 120m of line.

And now she is drifting in storms in the middle of the ocean.

Navigation was impossible on Sunday and she switched off all electronic equipment for fear of losing them in the storm. There was nothing she could do but hunker down inside her minute cabin and read a computer downloaded book.

In her own words: “It’s been a difficult weekend on the Pacific. I’m between a rock and a hard place, or rather, in the middle of low pressure zones with violent rain leaving me very little rest time under the incredible noise created by the rainstorms. It nearly had the best of me! ”

Crossing the Pacific Ocean in the Oceankite is an extreme challenge, but having rowed both ways across the Atlantic, and crossed from New York to France in the Oceankite she is certainly up to it and brushes off the weather inconsistencies. “That’s the name of the game! If I want to pursue my travel at any cost, I’ll have to get accustomed to these Aeolian tantrums!” she says.

This video is posted by annequem1 and is from her Atlantic crossing. Imagine being buffetted by gigantic seas in this little craft!

Check out the air in this video from  XTremeVideo Is it my imagination or are doing these tricks with skis on far more difficult than doing them with a snowboard? Feedback would be great…

Isn’t it great to think that it’s nearly that time of year again for us in the Northern Hemisphere?