Archive for November, 2011

Riding a Wacky Little Planet

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Take a ride in Moab from your desk. A team of three picked up six Sony phones and a panoramic holder for them to create this interactive site. You can cruise through Moab in “tiny planet” mode feeling like you’re taking laps on a tiny moon where the mountain biking is great (but the trail is short).

via Gizmodo

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Found: One Mountain Range, Size of Alps

Monday, November 21st, 2011

What if there were a mountain range the size of the Alps that happened to be lurking somewhere besides the Alps? Turns out there is, in Antarctica. And although it’s twice the age of the beaten-down Appalachians, the billion year-old Gamburtsevs are just as jagged as the day they were born, because they’ve been protected by miles of ice, so they’ve never eroded. Now scientists have mapped the Gamburtsevs and can see that they’d be massively ski-worthy — but they haven’t been unburied since T-Rex shredded the planet. If earth continues to warm, future skiers (should humans survive) may have new peaks to bag we’ve never even seen.

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GoPro, GoSchmo — Real Men Have Real Cameras on Their Chests

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Photographer Justin Olsen was frustrated by the limitations of helmet cams, particularly with their lower resolution vs. DSLRs. So instead he rigged a custom chest mount for a DSLR that athletes could wear and that could be remotely fired to capture something closer to the rider’s field of view, from behind the bars, and that would include their hands in the frame. His primary aim: Make the weight secure. And, uh, yeah, he’s risking some pretty fancy hardware, hanging a Canon 5D Mark II onto riders flying through the air. So far…no damage. Next up, Olsen’s going to try the setup on skiers and snowboarders.

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Stevens Pass Ski Area Sold for $20 Mil

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Washington State’s Steven Pass ski area was sold for $20.5 million — about what NBA hoopster Kevin Garnett makes in a year — to the Florida company that owns Snoqualmie Pass. New owner CNL said it will continue running the 74-year-old resort as is, though it might add a new mountain bike park (which would be assisted by the new federal law making non-skiing activities at resorts easier to implement) and replace a lift or two. And there are no plans to sell a combined lift ticket or season pass or share staffs between the Stevens and Snoqualmie.

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Condors Lead to Body in Grand Canyon

Monday, November 21st, 2011

A couple of circling condors have led to the discovery of a body in Grand Canyon National Park. Rangers noticed the birds near Lees Ferry and two of them went to investigate finding the man’s body below Navajo Bridge. This is just one more reason people don’t like condors. If they would find people before they died, they’d be as well-liked as golden retrievers.

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