2011 Teva Mountain Games
As summer comes and goes, I often reminisce and look back at the events that were most memorable for me. As my 2nd time attending the Teva Mountain Games (TMG), I am reminded of how much fun this event is for both athletes and spectators. If you like the outdoors even half as much as me, these games will provide you plenty of entertainment, whether you are participating, spectating, or checking out the latest gear by all the great outdoor gear manufactures.
The Teva Mountain Games caters to a variety of athletes and spectators. For water sports, they have a number of kayak events that are a lot of fun to watch. I personally don’t do a ton of white water kayaking, but I often find myself watching the kayakers competing doing flips, rolls, and all sorts of difficult moves. Another kayaking event includes a course where kayaker’s race down the river and to slow them down, TMG added the 8-ball kayakers and SUP’s to through them off course or slow them down. This was probably my most favorite event to watch because there were some pretty hard hits. It’s like American Gladiators on water and in a kayak. They also have events for the ever popular Stand Up Paddle Boarding (SUP). If you haven’t seen these yet, take a look at any local river or lake and you are almost sure to see someone on an SUP.
For the mountain bikers, they have slope side which is a course with a number of jumps in which athletes are encouraged to push the limits with flips, twist, and anything else they can come up with. For the road bikers, they have a time trial up Vail Pass. This is more of a solo sport and not as much a spectator sport. There is also a half marathon that goes up Vail Pass that I have run for the past two years. This is a fun, but challenging course. This one is one pavement, but there is a 10k trail run, a mud run, and a 5k run with your dog trail run too. If you love your dogs as much as I do, they have an event put on my the high flying Dock Dogs, which is super fun to watch and if you are up for it, you can enter your dog in to see how far he/she can jump into the water. One of the best things about participating in an event is the swag bag. The cost of entry into most events is pretty cheap usually and you get enough product in the swag bag to make up for the entry fee.
One of the main draws for the Teva Mountain Games is the climbing wall and the high caliber of athletes competing. For entertainment, the TMG always has amazing bands playing at night. This year, they had Xavier Rudd which plays a mix of blues, funk, reggae, and chill music. Often times you have to pay $30-$50 to see him in concert, but at the TMG it’s free! For the person that loves to geek out on gear like me, the TMG has gear town with companies like GoalZero, Osprey, Jansport, Maui Jim, Thule, GoPro, and more. Typically they either give away a lot of swag, or often cut some pretty good deals on gear.
While the Teva Mountain Games have passed for 2011, I highly recommend you put the 2012 games on the calendar for next summer. It’s become a weekend of amazing events that I have come to love and I think you will too. If you can’t wait for next summer to see what the events are all about, the Teva Mountain Games have also entered into the winter seen in Vail, CO. If the winter games are anything like the summer, they will be a blast. For more information on the winter and summer Teva Mountain Games, please visitTevaMountainGames.com/summer and TevaMountainGames.com/winter
