Outdoor Reads: Lessons from Kilimanjaro; plus slopes for celebrity spotting

What did the SNEWS team read this week that other industry insiders might find interesting? Read on to find out!

• If spotting celebrities is your thing, then you might want to check out any of the resorts featured in this story. A few of our Colorado favorites were on the list, including Lindsay Vonn’s native Vail. Apparently Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have all been seen on the slopes. Other resorts include Telluride, Whistler/Blackcomb in Canada and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

• Ah-ha! There is some hope for our young people to start loving outdoor and winter sports. At least in Colorado. According to this story, some elementary schools in Boulder County are teaching kids the basics of snowboarding in their physical education class. The class was a collaboration between Skate Pass and Burton Snowboards. We also heard that some schools in southern Colorado offer a free snowboarding program for their youth.

• Turns out the brain’s structure is not fixed by the time we’re adults. Things like exercise and not being active can alter it. This New York Times blog post reports that in a study of rats, the neurons of the brains in the active ones were functioning normally, whereas the neurons in the brains of sedentary rats were overactive, which contributes to heart disease.

• Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro isn’t for everybody, but this Newsday story will make you feel like it’s for you. One woman describes her journey — at the end of which she didn’t reach the top — climbing the mountain and what she learned. She even gives props to Eastern Mountain Sports for helping to guide her though her shopping trip.

• The SNEWS team was able to meet Ryan Sutter of “Bachelorette” reality TV fame in 2012 at the TransRockies Run. We didn’t meet his wife, Trista, but after reading this Mountain Diva Q&A with her, we feel we know her a little better. The woman uprooted her life to move to Vail, Colo., with Ryan Sutter, a Vail firefighter, marry him and raise their two children. She dishes on what it’s like to live in a resort town and how to raise outdoor-loving children.

• Some sad news in this Climbing Magazine story: Longtime Colorado climber and wilderness educator Mark Hesse was found dead in the Boulder Rock Club on Monday. Dougald MacDonald reports Hesse was found alone and unresponsive next to the bouldering area of the gym. This story recaps Hesse’s career highlights and what some of his friends had to say about the loss.

• While many people in the country hunkered down during the polar vortex, two brave souls decided to embark on a backpacking trip in minus 40-degrees Fahrenheit weather in Ely, Minn. This video captures the experience and also shouts out some gear the two buddies used to stay warm in the bitter cold.

• Embracing our inner nerd while practicing yoga just got easier now that there are Dungeons and Dragons yoga classes. Apparently the first class was so crowded some folks couldn’t even get a mat, according to this story. The teacher led yogis through poses while offering a narrative about swashbuckling through a forest.

• We’re pretty sure you already knew this but Black Diamond’s Peter Metcalf has recently been named to the Salt Lake City Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. This article reports that Metcalf is up to snuff for the job because of his time at the helm of Black Diamond, which has recently made several acquisitions, including helmet maker POC.

• The outdoor industry is getting super posh. Even Esquire made it a point to cover last week’s show. This article wraps up what the author thought was rad and ridiculous at the show. He also seemed to have gotten the message of the fall 2014 outdoor apparel: “A number of brands seem to be catching on — finally — that just because you’re being active in the fresh air doesn’t mean you need to look like you’ve lost your blue ox and ax,” he wrote.

Did you read anything awesome this week? Email us because we want to read it too!