Wanna Snow Ski in Colorado for Free?

Crested Butte Mountain Resort is offering free lift tickets from Nov. 25 to Dec. 15. The southwestern Colorado resort has revived its “Ski Free” series after ending the original program a few years ago. This year, lift tickets are “absolutely, positively, incredibly, 100 percent FREE with no strings attached,” according to resort promotions. Lodging and lesson discount packages are available to go with the free lift tickets.

The popular Ski Free program originally ran from 1991 to 2000, prompting crowds of Denver-area residents to make the nearly four-hour drive to Crested Butte and hit the slopes during what is typically a slow period between Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays. The program’s revival comes after a few years of improvements at the resort known for its steep expert terrain. In the past few years, Crested Butte has added more snowmaking and started grooming more trails to attract a wider range of skiers and boarders.

The return of the Ski Free program has many Coloradoan’s wondering if the formerly funky and rowdy resort will also revive what may be its most popular special program: Ski Naked. While never sanctioned by Crested Butte officials, skiing in the buff became a closing-day tradition among locals until a crackdown a few years ago.

The 07-08 snow sports season at Crested Butte runs from Nov. 17, 2007, through April 13, 2008.

For more details about the Ski Free program, go to Crested Butte Mountain Resort.
This post is from the blog, Vagablond.

Fly like a Sky Gypsy

By Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY

RODEO, N.M. — At sunrise, John McAfee guides his kite-winged aircraft between granite spires in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeast Arizona, then yells to his back-seat passenger: "Hang on now, and don't panic."

The winged tricycle dives into a slalom run through Cave Creek Canyon, skirting the tips of giant Ponderosa pines and dodging rock formations at 85 mph as it reaches the desert floor.

This is aerotrekking, an evolving new sport that brings human aviators almost down to earth, but not quite. The idea is to follow terrain, skimming a few feet above the ground, visiting wild and beautiful places that could never be reached on foot or by car.

To the chagrin of some environmentalists and neighbors, McAfee, founder of McAfee Software, has spent $12 million completing an airfield near Rodeo — midway between Tucson and El Paso — and is developing an 1,100-mile circuit of six more aerotrekking ports in isolated parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

"It's what Icarus dreamed of," McAfee, 62, says after landing. "This is really human flight. You are attached to the wing, and you feel every sensation, every movement, every breath of air that goes by."

Read the rest of this story in the USA Today

Visit the official website of the Sky Gypsies