​Westword -- thirty-plus years your weekly, ink-stained guide to Denver -- now lives in your iPhone. The Westword iPhone app went live last night and is stocked with much of the same content you get here at westword.com.

More specifically, you'll find:

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Image from Sierra Designs

​Now based in Boulder, Sierra Designs was on the front end of the ultralight tent category before it had a name. Evolving from classic 1980s models like the Meteor Light, this year's latest and greatest, weighing in at 3 pounds, 6 ounces, the LT Strike 2 features 29 square feet of sleeping space plus a pair of 9-square-foot vestibules on either side.

I set up a demo in my yard last night and didn't even need the directions. The poles -- their are only two -- feature an intuitive, patent-pending design that saves weight while increasing space. And not a drop of the red rain that drifted in from Utah overnight made it into the inner sanctum.
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SeaShell awnings are one of your many options to make your backyard more like your living room.

​Those of us who love the great outdoors often love it precisely for the reasons other people hate it -- namely, it's not a climate-controlled environment. It's nature, damn it!

But there are others who won't venture outside their man-made boxes for a breath of fresh air until all the snow has melted and the sun is shining -- and even then, there are still reasons to complain about all that stuff out there that we can't control. The wind -- there's too much of it. The bugs -- ditto. The sun -- it's shining too bright, and you can't keep the shade from moving with the time.

Or maybe they've already spent all day outside, hiking and biking and rock-climbing, and would simply like a little bit more comfort as they enjoy an evening cocktail on the patio, watching the sun go down.

Regardless, here's some of the latest technology in three different options for your own backyard:

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David Silver

Summit Lake with Sunrise Couloir looming above

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While many people put their planks or boards away come April, the core know that you can ski all over Colorado well into summer. Usually, this means hiking, but if you are lazy, and willing to get a big enough group together that two cars makes sense, then skiing Mount Evans is one of the best ways to get summer turns in.
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​Leo Seltzer never lived to see the realization of his dreams for the sport he invented, which most modern roller derby scholars trace back to his 1935 Transcontinental Roller Derby at the Chicago Coliseum.

Seltzer had Olympic ambitions for his roller guys and dolls, and he dared to dream of derby bouts going down in 6,500-seat venues like Broomfield's 1stBank Center well into the 21st century. Alas, the sport had pretty much fizzled out by the time he died in 1978.

His son Jerry figures dear old dad would have liked what he would see if he could have hung in there another 32 years to join him for this weekend's May 8 Denver Roller Dolls doubleheader (Bruising Altitude vs. Utah's O-Town Derby Dames, Mile High Club All-Star Team vs. Texas Rollergirls): On the cusp of its 75th anniversary (the first Transcontinental Roller Derby was held on August 13, 1935), roller derby is alive and well after all.

"We're working on some way to commemorate it," says Andrea "Kendra Blood" Hill, spokesperson for the Denver Roller Dolls. "As a marathoner, I love the idea of trying to hold a true endurance event like it used to be."

Full interview with Jerry Seltzer after the jump:
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Jeff Clark

The Diamond

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While the Front Range has a plethora of moderate rock climbs, including several classics, the options for those pursuing very difficult climbs are nearly as unlimited. In fact, several of Colorado's most famous climbs are exceptionally difficult. If you're wanting to push your limits, here are five routes that will get the adrenaline pumping and get you way up there. More >>

​Vail Resorts Inc. closed the deal today to buy out the remaining 30 percent share of Specialty Sports Venture (total consideration, $31 million), which means Ken and Thomas Gart - best known around these parts as the Gart Bros. - are effectively out of the sports retail game. The SSV shops and rental businesses generate an estimated $180 million annually.

Here's Vail's press release on the buyout.

For those of you keeping score, that means Vail now has full ownership of Breeze Ski Rentals, RentSkis.com, and Colorado Ski & Golf, as well as the slopeside shops Vail Sports, Beaver Creek Sports, Keystone Sports, Breckenridge Sports, Copper Mountain's Peak Sports, the Ski Depot Sports locations at Winter Park and Sol Vista, Aspen Sports, Telluride Sports, Boulder Ski Deals, and the Mountain Sports Outlets in Silverthorne and Glenwood Springs, plus five Bicycle Village shops, four Gore Creek Fly Fisherman stores, the Taylor Creek Fly Shops in Basalt and Aspen, and more, a total of 145 shops in Colorado, Utah, and California, according to the report in today's Denver Business Journal.

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​After much back and forth over the last few months, including a showdown in the middle of the Winter Olympics, Intrawest has repaid its lenders and completed a new loan. Locally, that means Winter Park and Steamboat may be staying the course until at least 2014, though the $107 million sale of Copper Mountain late in 2009 suggests other Intrawest properties may still be on the chopping block.

Intrawest is the parent company of Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. and operates Winter Park Resort in partnership with the city and county of Denver. The company has been struggling to restructure a reported $1.4 billion in debt.

Via PRNewswire:

Intrawest, a leader in the development and management of experiential destination resorts, today announced that it has successfully completed the refinancing of its corporate debt which was due in December 2009. The Company repaid its prior lenders in full and has completed a new loan, which is scheduled to mature in 2014. Terms of the new loan were not disclosed.

For more on the story, check out the local angle reports at SteamboatPilot.com, SkyHighDailyNews.com, and VailDailyNews.com (Intrawest CEO BIll Jensen was previously COO at Vail Mountain).

Image from www.trainweb.com

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Image from www.jakpak.com

​Weighing in at a mere three pounds, the JakPak is the Swiss Army knife of outerwear, tripling as a jacket, a one-person tent, and a sleeping bag. The Seattle-made product incorporates a waterproof jacket with a hood and visor, a sleeping bag, a basic tent, and insect netting into its design. Its market is twofold: 1) the ultra-light, fast-packing crowd who want to get their gear weight down to the bare minimum; and 2) people who like to be prepared for anything.

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