Winter Teva Mountain Games: Report 1

Day one of the Winter Teva Mountain Games is winding down. We are back from parties, and ski races, time spent watching ice climbers on an artificial wall, and a visit to “Gear Town,” a tent city with outdoor companies exhibiting new products for the thousands of people attending the festival here in Vail, Colo.

This morning, Stephen Regenold, editor of GearJunkie, participated in the first of three weekend events that are a part of the Ultimate Mountain Challenge. A 5K cross-country ski race was a fast and relatively painless introduction to the event, which digs in full tomorrow with a multi-hour ski mountaineering race.

In the 5K, Regenold pushed hard along with a couple dozen additional racers on a sunny course. His time of 20:17 earned third place in his age group, netting a solid score for the Ultimate Mountain Challenge, which will cumulatively rank the three events.

Watch this weekend as we cover the Teva Games, including the Ultimate Mountain Challenge and other events. One of our correspondents, Sean McCoy, will be racing in an on-snow bike crit tomorrow night.

For now, it’s after midnight and snowing hard in town here. Tomorrow promises to be a white, fresh new day for the ski-mountaineering race, the bike course, and the other events and competitions taking place for this first winter-themed Teva Games in Vail.

—Follow GearJunkie editors as they compete in the “Ultimate Mountain Challenge” and “Teva On-Snow Bike Crit” events this weekend. See more information on the Winter Teva Games at www.tevamountaingames.com.