Welcome to the weekly blog that reports my adventures throughout the general area of the Vail Valley.  I am recently new to Vail and have a passion for exploring the beautiful nature while also informing anyone planning to visit the Valley, or even current locals, of the incredible activities the Valley has to offer.  Every week I plan on going somewhere remote to experience the Rocky Mountains by participating in activities including hiking, mountain biking, fishing, rock climbing, kayaking, rafting, tubing, cliff diving, and whatever else I can think of.  During these activities I will be capturing the nature around me with my camera to produce breathtaking photos and informative videos if possible.

Recently, the idea of hiking Red Buffalo Pass was drifting around our office.  This idea was generated by our supervisor, for he hiked it himself only a few weeks ago.  A group of nine people volunteered to attempt this14 mile trail running from Silverthorne to East Vail.  I was both excited and hesitant when I signed myself up for this adventure.  Luckily, I had most of the gear I needed to attempt this hike.  The night before I made sure I was all packed, had enough food for the trip, and got a good night sleep.  Gear crucial for a backpacking trip is:

• A-frame backpack
• Sleeping bag
• Tent
• Plenty of thick socks
• Sharp knife or a Leatherman of some sort.
• Plenty of dry food
• Seasonal clothing
• Sunglasses
• Water!!!! A purifier is clutch
• Matches
• Compass
• Map
• Flashlight
• First Aid, just in case
• Plastic bags to keep the trail clean

The trick is to bring everything you need to survive comfortably while packing as light as you can at the same time.  Food is another item that needs to be closely considered when packing.  Any dry and sealable food items are good to bring backpacking, such as:

• Tuna packages
• Trail mix
• Nuts
• Fruits
• Bread
• Oatmeal
• Energy bars
• Peanut butter
• Chocolate

Really the idea is to bring food that will not go bad in your backpack and has little odor so it won’t attract wildlife.

I woke up to meet my troop in Vail at the same time the sun peaked its head over the mountains. Once I got to our prearranged meeting spot, I discovered that the veteran of the trail was not going to be able to join us, which allowed for us to truly discover the trail for ourselves.  We took two vehicles to the Gore Creek Trail to drop one off to have when we completed the trail, and then we all headed to Silverthorne.  The seven of us (we lost another one of our troops to supposed insomnia) started the journey at the Mesa Cortina Trail.

Hiking Red Buffalo Pass was a blast!

The first half of the trail had some tough terrain, including wild trees we had to bob and weave through.  The trail became steeper the farther we hiked, but we were met with amazing views, like a 360-degree view of all the surrounding mountains.  The trail also offered some great snacks: wild blueberries and raspberries.  One should be careful when consuming wild produce, as some things are not meant for human consumption.  7.1 miles and 3,262 vertical feet later, we reached the base of the mountain we were planning to summit, a perfect place to camp.  I didn’t notice how surreal the landscape was at first, as I was exhausted, but once I got some rest I explored the little valley we found ourselves in.  There were two pools west of us past a small creek.  The bottom one was a crystal blue that looked like the perfect place to go for a dip if the weather allowed.  The top pool seemed to be a lot smaller and probably a good fishing hole, but I unfortunately did not get to test out my theory.

We set up our tents and took a quick nap after a long day of hiking.

The next morning, after a long night’s rest, we all arose from our slumber, got some breakfast in, and packed all our belongings making sure to leave nothing behind. After some self collection, we were ready for day two of our adventure.  The only uphill we had to conquer was the first thing in the morning, climbing the pass.  By uphill, I mean we climbed a mountain.  Once we conquered the pass, it was all downhill from there!  I’m glad we decided to come from Silverthorne, because the steepness of the other side was treacherous on our legs, as we had to brace ourselves from sprinting down the mountain.  The trail followed a creek, which allowed for great spots to stop to take a break.  We forced ourselves to continue forward, which wasn’t the easiest task at the time.  Through great fortitude we all made it to the Gore Creek Trailhead.  I don’t think I have ever been happier to see blacktop and highways.

Please be properly prepared before venturing into the wilderness for your safety and my piece of mind.  If you are planning on visiting the Rocky Mountains, make sure to contact Rocky Mountain Vacation Rentals at 1-888-866-2305, your friendly, knowledgeable locals. Getting to the end was a great feeling of relief and accomplishment.  The total mileage turned out to be 18 miles and 6,680 vertical feet, as we found ourselves off the trail a few times.  It was difficult and crippled me for a few days afterwards, but was completely worth it and gave me an urge to cover more ground throughout the Rocky Mountains.  I wonder where my next adventure will lead me?

The first night of the Free Friday Night Concert Series for the month of September will be one of several events hosting live music this weekend. The shows will take place every Friday night, free of charge, throughout the month of September at the Newpark Amphitheater, where local Park City musicians are featured. This weekend, the reggae band Patwa will be playing. In addition to free music at the Newpark Amphitheater, Rick Gerber and Jon Davis will be playing at Zoom Restaurant for the Zoom Patio Series, from 6-8 p.m. as well.

The Friends of the Park City Library Book Sale will be taking place throughout the weekend, starting Friday night with a Members Preview Night, where memberships may be purchased. On Saturday, the Library will host a General Book Sale to the Public, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on Sunday the General Book Sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The used book sale will have current best-sellers, children’s books, games, history books, science books, foreign language books, travel books, coffee table books, and cookbooks available. The proceeds of the event will go toward funding the library’s literacy programs for adults and children, library services and the collection of books. As the weekend wraps up on Monday, it will turn into a Blow Out Bargain Sale from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with large book bags available for $5.

If you like winning free stuff, the Park City Point 2 Point fundraiser for Mountain Trails will be going on from 3-7 p.m. on Saturday. Taking place at The Canyons Resort Village, the event will be raising money for local trails in the Park City area before the 78 mile mountain bike race this Monday.  The raffle will be held at the finish line in the forum at The Canyons Resort, and tickets can be purchased at 3 p.m. Raffle tickets are $5 for one ticket, or $20 for five. At 6:30, the drawing will begin for some sweet prizes, like a Cannondale Bad Boy Café (town) bike, Rossignol skis, a 5-day Cherry Picker Pass from the Canyons, a Crazy Creek Chair set, and more!

For a quaint, family-oriented activity in Park City, check out the Park Silly Sunday Market from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m on Main Street. The open-air market is an eco-friendly street festival where people in the community can come together to purchase local organic produce and experience live music, as well as visual and performance art.

To set up comfortable lodging for the weekend in Park City, make sure to call Rocky Mountain Vacation Rentals, at 1-888-866-2305, and check out more information on dining and services in Park City from our website, as well as other ski town destinations for this Labor Day Weekend.

As it stands, all Vail Resorts season passes already have a chip inside them. This will be utilized now to track your location and tell you a number of statistics about your day on the slopes. At the end of the day you can login to your EpicMix account and see everything from your vertical feet skied, to the location of other approved pass holders while they’re on the mountain, to which lifts you rode.

Taking it a step further, Vail Resorts brings a game-like competitive sense to the program with goals to accomplish, such as visiting a chairlift a certain number of times. When you complete a goal, you get a “pin” to add to your collection of Vail Resorts mountain accolades.

[Credit: EPIC Mix]

For those of you not thrilled by this new sense of location tracking, worry not. You can opt-out of this service if you feel uncomfortable. Then again, if that isn’t a big draw, feel free to let the world know. One of EpicMix’s perks is that you can share your stats or any of the information provided with your social media accounts. Just a push of a button is needed. If you have an enabled smartphone, you can do this while sitting on a chairlift or at the top of the run. While Vail Resorts has been gaining strength in their social media for the past few years, this takes things to a whole new level. To read more about this, check out Vail Daily’s article on the subject.

Speaking of passes, Rocky Mountain Vacation Rentals can get you all setup with your Epic Pass for the coming winter season, as well as help you to find out about any other information regarding the Epic Pass and EpicMix.  That’s one of the perks of being Friendly, Knowledgeable, Locals–Click here to check it out.

]]> http://rockymountainvacationrentals.com/blog/vail-events/vail-resorts-enhances-the-slopes-with-epicmix/feed/ 0 http://rockymountainvacationrentals.com/blog/group-travel/epic-mix-an-innovative-social-experience/ http://rockymountainvacationrentals.com/blog/group-travel/epic-mix-an-innovative-social-experience/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:40:38 +0000 Holly Balogh http://blog.rockymountainvacationrentals.com/?p=2672 “EPIC Mix – Capture. Connect. Share.” What a slogan! Who else to come up with such a slogan, such a campaign, other than Vail Resorts, owners of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly resorts in Colorado and California. True, this EPIC day announces yet another EPIC breakthrough in technology, specifically in the world of social media. The “EPIC Mix” is what Vail Resorts is calling it, and a truly epic mix it is, of all things new in interactive social media. The Epic Mix is the Foursquare and Nike+ of the mountain, and has updates for both Twitter and Facebook.

Vail Resorts kept the EPIC Mix a secret until they debuted the mobile and web-based application today at a press event at the Ace Hotel in Manhattan. But then, out of nowhere, they unleashed the “EPIC Mix” to the world, announcing that the skiing and snowboarding would be so much more social this season, because of their innovative location-based gaming application.

[Credit: EPIC Mix]

So what does the EPIC Mix do? The EPIC Mix is somewhat like Foursquare, but instead of unlocking Foursquare “badges”, you unlock EPIC Mix “pins.” Everything from tracking your vertical drop, to how many runs, or how many days on the mountain. This is a game of multiple location-based programs all rolled into one.

The key to letting the EPIC Mix become a reality is the RFID chip that is inside the card that you get when you purchase your season pass. The cool thing about this is that you don’t have to be on your phone checking in. Your RFID chip gets scanned at the lift, and automatically put into the “EPIC Mix” of things, if you like the pun.

What I would have really enjoyed to see was a summary of what I did last year. Yeah, I know I got 50 days on the mountain, but I would have liked to have relived it somehow. The EPIC Mix will give me what I’ve always wanted, and more. I can log in to the website, check my stats, see my scores, view my friends, and so much more.

What else can the EPIC Mix do? The EPIC Mix links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, letting you compare your pins with friends, see who’s got the most days on the mountain, or vertical feet passed, or even WHERE your friends are!

Vail Resorts is always open to new ideas, new trends, and new methods of interaction. Their EPIC Mix is the next best thing out there, fellas! I’m definitely downloading the app on my android after I buy the EPIC Pass, and racing all my friends for the most pins, most days, and most vertical feet.

Congrats to Vail Resorts for providing me with an EPIC Mix of social media interaction, and giving me the drive I’ve needed to get back out on the mountain!

The tradition of beer drinking is something that I take pretty seriously.  The first evidence of a beer recipe was found on Babylonian clay tablets from over 6,000 years ago, and beer has since been embedded in culture around the globe. With the simple yet delightful ingredients of water, malted grain, the cannabis cousin hops, and yeast, many different styles of beer can be made by using more, less, or external ingredients of the above mentioned. It is possible to live off of beer (although I wouldn’t recommend it for the long term), and was used to treat illnesses in Egypt in 1600 B.C.

The celebration of Oktoberfest traces back to 1810, commemorating the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese in Munich, Germany. The wedding took place in October, and a great horse race was organized to accompany the celebration. In 1819, it was agreed that Oktoberfest was an annual event and continued to be celebrated throughout the 19^th and 20^th century. Celebrations in Munich today are the Mardi Gras of Germany, and Oktoberfest traditions can now be recognized anywhere, including the ski towns of Colorado.

Following Oktoberfest in Beaver Creek and Vail, Breckenridge will be featuring a Munich meets Breck weekend with traditional costume, dancing, keg-tapping and cuisine. The Brewmaster’s Dinner will be held Friday night, the 17^th, and the first course out of six will begin at 6:00 pm. The cost to participate in this dining experience is $70 per person, or $130 per couple.  Saturday events include the Main Street Party from 11 am to 6 pm, and a 5k run to be held during the day. The event is pet-free due to extensive food and drink offerings, and the road will be blocked off for beer-drinking pedestrians. Volunteer opportunities are available if you are over 21 and want to be part of the work that goes into the festivities. Volunteers receive a free t-shirt and a choice of a meal or drink.

Stay tuned for upcoming events commemorating the tradition of Oktoberfest and imported and local beers in the Rockies. For more information regarding the festivities or to book a comfortable place to crash after drinking, check out our website or call 1-888-866-2305.

Adding to the wide array of Labor Day events occurring this year in Colorado is the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Festival.  The festival is sponsored by Jazz Aspen Snowmass, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving jazz music by hosting festivals, performances, and educational programs.

The festival kicks off this Friday, September 3^rd, at 4 pm with Calexio on the Main Festival Stage.  Performances will continue throughout the weekend, with appearances from popular artists including Wilco, Lubriphonic, The Stone Foxes, The Black Crowes, and more.  The festival will come to a close Sunday with a performance by my personal favorite (hitting close to home—I grew up playing in the Ronnie Van Zant playground in Middleburg, Florida), Lynyrd Skynard, at 7:15 pm on the Main Festival Stage.

For those who can’t seem to keep their toes from tapping after the festival, there will be a FREE DJ dance party nightly at 10 pm at the Eight K Restaurant at the Viceroy Hotel.

General admission for the festival is $56 on Friday, $75 each on Saturday and Sunday, or $190 for a three day pass.  Students showing student ID will receive 50% off admission, and children 13 and under will be admitted free of charge.

To book your last minute lodging for the festival, contact Rocky Mountain Vacation Rentals at 1-888-866-2305, and until then, keep jammin’!

As of last Thursday, Beaver Creek’s Vilar Performing Arts Center is selling passes for the fall season’s “Underground Sound” concert series. The art center’s venue will provide a warm and comfortable atmosphere for concert goers, and the artists lined up for the series will indulge listeners with music holding a story-telling feel. As described on the Vilar Performing Arts Center’s website, it’s “music with a message.” Musicians include Martin Sexton, Elephant Revival, Colin Hay, Dala, Taylor Carson, and Susan Werner. Kicking off the series will be Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers from Western Massachusetts.

The art center’s Love for the Locals Underground Access Pass includes seven concerts and seven drinks for $98 – a pretty sweet deal considering single shows will range from $15-30. Maybe I speak for myself, but I’m generally inclined to packaged deals that include a tasty beverage (not to mention the rich and intimate experience of the series). Passes are transferrable, for those of you with the fear of committing to all seven shows, so if you can’t make it, it’s cool to let a friend borrow the pass. Passes will be on sale from August 26 to September 19.

On the first night of the series, pass holders will be entered in a drawing for an ultimate winter prize pack giveaway. Prizes include two sets of 2011 Atomic TI skis with bindings, two First Light First Tracks invites, and two tickets to the Warren Miller movie “Wintervention.”

Stephen Kellogg and the, more affectionately known as, the SK6ers have been producing their unique sound since coming together at UMass Amherst in 2003. Sounds from keys, bass, tuba, accordion, drums, mandolin and banjo contribute to the band’s authentic personality, which will be a suitable debut for the Underground Sound Series. Special guest Aslyn will be making an appearance, and individual ticket prices are $25.

Stay posted for more shows and upcoming events by checking out the Rocky Mountain Vacation Rentals website, or call us at 1-888-866-2305.

There are five passes available ranging from $390 to $3900; The Cinephile Pass ($390), The Acme Pass ($520), The Festival Pass ($780), The Patron Pass ($3900), and The Sponsor Pass.  Each pass has its own benefits and a calendar for what events are available; obviously you’re paying for more benefits and more shows the higher the price becomes.

The Telluride Film Festival is one of the highest-rated film festivals in the world, and produces visitors from around the country and the world.  Volunteers are always needed and would be a good way to get into the festival for free.  Why not enjoy the festival while helping others enjoy it as well?  Telluride is always looking for companies or individuals to sponsor the event.  Sponsors are recognized by the World Wide Patrons, receive a complimentary sponsor pass, and other benefits as well.

When planning to attend the 37^th Annual Telluride Film Festival, make sure to book your vacation rental to make sure you have a perfect place to stay during this incredible festival.  To plan your perfect getaway, give Rocky Mountain Vacation Rentals a call at 1-888-866-2305.

Just Enjoying Another Day at Belle's Camp on Vail Mountain

Getting sucked into this vortex I speak of just…happens.  Looking back, my bucket list once stated, “live in a ski town for a winter”.  As I approached college graduation it evolved into “find a legitimate job in a ski town”.  Those “legitimate,” high paying jobs are not as easy to come by in a small community that thrives on tourism.  It’s sad, because so often vacationers to the area wrongfully assume that their bartender, front desk agent, lift operator, whoever it may be, is just an uneducated ski bum.  They couldn’t be more wrong:  Nearly everyone I meet in the Vail Valley has a college education and could easily be making good money working in a city…if that’s what they wanted.

However, people live here because they put true value on their Quality of Life.  If you don’t have that, you should maybe  reconsider your life decisions, my friend.  Vail is a renowned tourist destination for a reason;  We’re just lucky enough to experience its glory every day of the year.  Why not live some place where every day feels like a vacation?  I’d rather make next to nothing than save my pennies all year just for that one vacation that lasts merely a week.

Living here is easy because both the summers and the winters are amazing, yet locals still look forward to the off-seasons of May and October.  For the wise and able, these off-seasons equate to two months away from work, allowing for the opportunity to travel or spend time with family. The possibility to free yourself like that just isn’t an option with jobs elsewhere.  I once read that stress is related to 99% of all illnesses.  I think waking up in the mountains every day gives people a sense of peace and appreciation that creates balance.    It’s hard to let stress get to you when you’re surrounded by laid-back people taking each day as it comes, in no real hurry to get to the next best thing.  Because for many; this is it. Why keep searching when you’ve already found it?

Trying to put a definition on “mountain mentality” doesn’t make sense.  It’s something you have to experience for yourself and create your own definition.  Mine is as simple as staying true to myself and the rest seems to flow seamlessly.

Cali A.

There are a plethora of volleyball courts to choose from in Vail, so there’s probably one closer to you thank you think, no matter where you work.  Volleyball isn’t just for the athletic either…none of us were especially skilled, and some were downright uncoordinated.  And by ‘some,’ I mean myself.

To schedule lodging in Vail, or to challenge us to a game of volleyball, contact Rocky Mountain Vacation Rentals at 1-888-866-2305.