SNOWBLOG

Beacon Bowl, Michael Franti in Summit County

By Bob Berwyn , 1-31-07

What a weekend we have coming up. Summit County should live up to its self-proclaimed status as “Colorado’s Playground” the next few days with a full lineup of killer winter events, not to mention a decent dusting of fresh powder.

For starters, a posse of backcountry enthusiasts, ski patrollers and avalanche experts will gather Saturday, Feb. 3 at Arapahoe Basin for the 5th annual Beacon Bowl, a fierce and friendly competition to determine exactly who is fastest at finding a buried avalanche transceiver.

A-Basin patrollers have dominated the event in recent years, but Breckenridge pros have vowed to break that streak. It’s all in good fun, but the point is that, in real-life burial, time is the crucial life-or-death factor. Avalanche victims rarely survive more than a few minutes under the snow, as their airways are blocked, when an ice mask forms around their face, or they simply can’t expand and contract their lungs under the weight of the debris.

Along with the beeper contest, avy experts will hold beacon clinics, a snowpit demo and other events aimed at boosting avalanche awareness and education. The $10 registration fee for the all-day event will be donated to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Here is the schedule; click here for a slide show from last year’s Beacon Bowl and here for A-Basin’s snow report. A foot or more new snow fell around the Colorado mountains Wednesday and more was expected, so check out the statewide snow report here.

And when you’re done bowling for beacons, you can head over to Breckenridge and catch DJ Logic, the Irie tunes of the Wailers Friday night (Feb. 2) or Blackalicous and Michael Franti on Saturday (Feb. 3). It’s all part of The Honda Ski Tour, billed as a fusion of mountain sports, culture and music. The tour includes ski cross racing and halfpipe comps, live music, a film festival, photography exhibits, fashion shows and more including plenty of inevitable product promos. Click here for a full schedule and ticket info.

The Honda Ski Tour is the brainchild of Kipp Nelson and Steve Brown, two business-savvy and ski crazy University of Colorado grads who both competed on the CU alpine ski team. With ski cross recently getting the go-ahead as an event for the 2010 Olympics, the Breckenridge contest could feature some future gold medal winners.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.