Today in Stoke

Spring snow brings extended ski season

By Colin Bane Wed., Apr. 17 2013 at 12:32 PM
Categories: Skiing, Snowboarding, Today in Stoke

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Courtesy Vail Mountain
Face shots like this one on closing day -- and more than two more feet of snow since Sunday -- inspired Vail to open up for an additional weekend.
Never mind those epic closing-day celebrations last weekend at Vail, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, and Powderhorn: All four resorts have announced they'll be spinning the chairlifts again this weekend and reopening Friday, April 19 through Sunday, April 21, to make the most of massive dumps of late-season snow.

See also:
- Best of Denver - Best Place to Train for the Winter Olympics: Woodward at Copper
- Best of Denver - Best Halfpipe: Vail
- Best of Denver - Best Terrain Park 2013: Breckenridge


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Tags:

Arapahoe Basin, Aspen Highlands, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Loveland, Vail, Winter Park
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Roller Derby

The Amazing Race's roller derby moms compete against each other tomorrow

By Colin Bane Fri., Apr. 5 2013 at 2:00 PM
Categories: Roller Derby, Today in Stoke

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Dave Wood, courtesy Rocky Mountain Rollergirls
Westword Best of Denver winner Fiona Grapple jams for the RMRG Sugar Kill Gang.
Beth "Fiona Grapple" Bandimere and Mona "Triple Shot Misto" -- the roller derby moms of The Amazing Race fame -- are teammates on both the CBS reality TV series (still hanging in there as of this writing) and the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls' 5280 Fight Club traveling squad, but they'll be rivals tomorrow when RMRG's intra-league teams Sugar Kill Gang and United States Pummeling Service go head-to-head at The Fillmore.

See also:
- Best of Denver 2013: Best Roller Derby Name - Fiona Grapple
- Rocky Mountain Rollergirls Triple Shot Misto and Fiona Grapple to take on The Amazing Race
- Best of Denver 2013: Best Under-Eighteen Roller Derby Team - Rocky Mountain Rollerpunks


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Rocky Mountain Rollergirls, Roller Derby Moms, The Amazing Race
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Today in Stoke

Closing time: An end-of-season ski and snowboard splash-down countdown

By Colin Bane Fri., Mar. 29 2013 at 6:00 AM
Categories: Skiing, Snowboarding, Today in Stoke

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Photo by Tripp Fay, courtesy Copper Mountain
A competitor at Copper Mountain's Eenie Weenie Bikini Contest foreshadows the end.
The 2012-2013 ski and snowboard season begins winding down this weekend -- with the first round of closing-day parties at Ski Granby Ranch, Powderhorn and Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort -- despite the fact that snow conditions are actually quite good, with more snow in the forecast. Here's a rundown of when and where to get your last licks in over the next month.

See also:
- Best of Denver 2013 Readers' Poll: Meet this year's Sports & Recreation winners
- Competitive skiing kept Army veteran Joel Hunt from going downhill
- Level 1 Productions' Sunny wins Movie of the Year at 2013 Powder Awards


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Month of Photography

Month of Photography: Dave Wood's The Art of Roller Derby

By Colin Bane Fri., Mar. 1 2013 at 11:54 AM
Categories: Month of Photography, Photography, Roller Derby, Today in Stoke

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David Wood Photography
The Oly Rollers at the Fillmore.
Photographer Dave Wood's new show, The Art of Roller Derby, coincides with the city-wide Month of Photography celebration and also kicks off a new monthly artist showcase series at Herman's Hideaway. Wood has been photographing roller derby for the last three years, and will be featuring a selection of his black-and-white images -- made into large prints on aluminum sheets -- when the show opens on Sunday, March 3.

See also:
- Rocky Mountain Rollergirls Triple Shot Misto and Fiona Grapple to take on The Amazing Race
- Denver's eleven best roller derby nicknames
- Rocky Mountain Rollergirls at the Fillmore

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Tags:

Dave Wood, Herman's Hideaway, Month of Photography, Rocky Mountain Rollergirls, Roller Derby
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Roller Derby

Denver Roller Dolls' new Orange Crushers to sport Broncos colors

By Colin Bane Thu., Feb. 21 2013 at 3:37 PM
Categories: Roller Derby, Today in Stoke

Orange Crushers.jpg
The Denver Roller Dolls rolled out a familiar color scheme for a new home team this week
The Denver Roller Dolls roller derby league expanded this week with the addition of a new local squad, bringing the home team total to five: the Orange Crushers will be joining DRD's Bad Apples, Green Barrettes, Shotgun Betties, and Electrocuties (the 2012 DRD Home Team champions) for the 2013 season. But the ongoing explosion of growth in the Denver derby scene isn't the only news here: sports fans will also notice the tribute to a certain other Denver team when the Orange Crushers debut at the March 23 season opener at the 1STBANK Center.

See also:
- Rocky Mountain Rollergirls Triple Shot Misto and Fiona Grapple to take on The Amazing Race
- Denver Roller Dolls channel grits and glory at WFTDA Championships in Atlanta
- Denver's eleven best roller derby nicknames


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Roller Derby

Rocky Mountain Rollergirls Triple Shot Misto and Fiona Grapple to take on The Amazing Race

By Colin Bane Wed., Jan. 23 2013 at 1:45 PM
Categories: Roller Derby, Today in Stoke

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Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS
"Roller Derby Moms" Mona Hinman-Egender and Beth Bandimere will compete on The Amazing Race.
CBS confirmed today that two stars of the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls' 5280 Fight Club will be among the contestants for the $1 million prize on the 22nd season of The Amazing Race, premiering February 17. While local roller-derby fans know them best by their noms de derby, Triple Shot Misto and Fiona Grapple, CBS is introducing the skaters (aka Mona Egender and Beth Bandimere) to the world with the reality TV shorthand, "Roller Derby Moms."

"We each have three children, so we're sort of not your traditional roller-derby girls," Bandimere explains in the team introduction video released today. "I'm sure they were looking for tatted-up, pierced... and they got us."

See also:
- Denver's eleven best roller derby nicknames
- Our roller girls can beat up your roller girls: Rocky Mountain Rollergirls, national champs
- Roller disco is alive and well at Down & Derby


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Tags:

5280 Fight Club, Rocky Mountain Rollergirls, The Amazing Race
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Snowboarding

Ruby Hill Rail Yard back in action as a winter playground, lack of winter notwithstanding

By Colin Bane Wed., Jan. 23 2013 at 11:30 AM
Categories: Skiing, Snowboarding, Today in Stoke

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Colin Bane
Ruby Hill Rail Yard at Ruby Hill Park opened Monday.
Denver hasn't had enough of a snow dump this winter for a proper sledding run, much less urban snowboarding jibs, but -- thanks to last week's temperature drop and a special agreement with Denver Water to facilitate artificial snowmaking -- the Ruby Hill Rail Yard ski and snowboard terrain park officially opened on Monday. The Rail Yard will be open daily during Ruby Hill Park hours -- starting at 5 a.m., with lighted night riding available until 9 p.m. -- from now until all the snow is gone.

See also:
- Level 1 Productions' "Sunny" wins Movie of the Year at 2013 Powder Awards
- So-Gnar Snowboard Camp Tour and Shred Circuit contest highlights from Loveland
- Experts agree: Made-in-Colorado snowboards are the best


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Tags:

Christy Sports, Ruby Hill, So-Gnar, Winter Park
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Colorado Film

Level 1 Productions' Sunny wins Movie of the Year at 2013 Powder Awards

By Colin Bane Fri., Jan. 18 2013 at 6:00 AM
Categories: Colorado Film, Film and TV, Skiing, Today in Stoke

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Powder Magazine, via Facebook
Josh Berman of Level 1 Productions claimed Best Movie and Best Editing honors at the 2013 Powder Awards for Sunny.
"Wow. Lucky number 13, I guess? Kind of at a loss for words here," stumbled Denver-based filmmaker Josh Berman of Level 1 Productions, accepting the prize for Best Movie last night at the 2013 Powder Awards in Park City on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival. "To actually spend the last twelve years watching the movie producers that I grew up with being inspired by taking all the prizes, it's kind of mind-blowing to be up here."

Sunny is Berman's thirteenth film for Level 1 Productions in as many years -- but his first to win top honors at the annual Powder Awards ceremony, presented by Powder Magazine. The film, which Berman co-directed with Kyle Decker, beat out The Eighty Six, from Boulder-based Stept Productions; The Dream Factory from Teton Gravity Research; and Few Words, from Process Films. Sunny -- edited by Decker, Berman and Freedle Coty -- also won in the Best Editing category.

See also:
- Colorado ski-porn purveyors nominated for 18 Powder Awards
- Level 1 Productions, Stept, MSP clean up at 2012 IF3 International Freeski Film Festival
- Sweetgrass Productions, Level 1, Stept win big at IF3 International Freeski Film Festival

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Tags:

Level 1 Productions, Powder Awards, Sundance Film Festival
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Colorado Film

Filmmaker Anson Fogel on Cascada and his hellish kayaking "vacation"

By Colin Bane Tue., Jan. 15 2013 at 1:10 PM
Categories: Colorado Film, Film and TV, Outdoors, Today in Stoke

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Photo by Tim Kemple, courtesy Forge Motion Pictures
On Monday filmmakers Anson Fogel and Skip Armstrong of the Carbondale-based collective Forge Motion Pictures released Cascada, a new adventure short produced in partnership with NRS, the Idaho-based gear brand. The film documents a trip to the jungles of Mexico with photographer Tim Kemple and some of the world's top kayakers -- Erik Boomer, Tyler Brandy, Galen Volckhausen, and Blake Hendrix -- in search of spectacular waterfalls. The 7:40 short stands as proof that they found adventure-film gold, but Fogel tells Westword it took a lot of misadventure to uncover.

See also:
- Sender Films, Forge Motion Pictures win big at 2012 Banff Mountain Film Festival
- Anson Fogel, Colorado filmmakers top 2011 Banff Mountain Film Festival awards
- Filmmaker Skip Armstrong concludes Of Souls + Water series with The Elder


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Anson Fogel, Forge Motion Pictures, NRS Films, Skip Armstrong
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Colorado Film

Colorado ski-porn purveyors nominated for 18 Powder Awards

By Colin Bane Tue., Jan. 8 2013 at 7:25 AM
Categories: Colorado Film, Film and TV, Skiing, Today in Stoke

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Josh Berman's "Sunny" from Level 1 Productions is a Movie of the Year nominee at the 2013 Powder Awards.
The nominees for Powder Magazine's 2013 Powder Awards were announced last week, and Colorado film crews -- including Denver-based Level 1 Productions, Boulder-based Stept Productions, and Crested Butte-based Matchstick Productions (MSP Films) and Two Plank Productions -- are heavy in the mix in just about every category, including Movie of the Year. The awards will be presented on Thursday, January 17, opening night of the Sundance Film Festival at Park City Live in Park City, Utah, and will be webcast live at www.PowderMag.com/Powder-Awards.

See Also:
- Level 1 Productions, Stept, MSP clean up at IF3 International Freeski Film Festival
- Sender Films, Forge Motion Pictures win big at 2012 Banff Mountain Film Festival
- Get the edge on winter fun with The Edge!


More »

Tags:

Level 1 Productions, MSP Films, Powder Awards, Powder Magazine, Stept Productions, Two Plank Productions
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