A treasure trove of useful (and just plain fun) information about Colorado's mountain country. A handy-dandy, comprehensive, wide-ranging reference guide to settling (good-naturedly) any arguments about Colorado's high country. We're not just talking about population figures, elevation stats, or lists of Fourteeners and rivers, although these are included. You will learn far more including mountain lexicons (so that you'll know what a gutter bunny, potato chip, and prune really mean), Colorado as a movie set, Colorado songs, skiing, fishing, avalanches, geology, historic districts, hiking and biking, snakes, Superfund sites, strange festivals, weather miserability index, and much more.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
With his signature wit and inimitable style, Fayhee lays out a wealth of information about Colorado in this wonderfully readable pocket guide...an essential text for those who'd like to dig a little deeper into what it means to be a Coloradan-and what our state is all about.
-Alex Miller, managing editor, Summit Daily News
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co
Produkt-Hinweis
Maße
Höhe: 216 mm
Breite: 140 mm
Dicke: 19 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-87108-960-1 (9780871089601)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
M. John Fayhee is the editor of the Mountain Gazette. A one-time contributing editor at Backpacker magazine, Fayhee's work has also appeared in Forbes-Life Mountain-Time, High Country News, Aspen Sojourner Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Men's Fitness, New Mexico Magazine, America West Airlines Magazine, Horizon Air and many other local, regional and national magazines and newspapers. He is the author of many books, including Along the Colorado Trail, A Colorado Winter and Bottoms Up. Fayhee has also hiked the Colorado Trail and the Colorado section of the Continental Divide Trail.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction
7 The "Icebox of the Nation" Designation Not So Simple
13 Why Are Gunnison and Alamosa So Cold?
13 Windchill and the Weather Miserability Index
17 How Are Sunny Days Measured?
18 Non-Possessive Place Names
19 A Sense of Scale
20 Just Exactly How Big Is Colorado?
24 Colorado Mountain Lexicon
32 How Colorado's Mountain Towns Got Their Names
42 Highest Towns a Matter of Perspective
47 Establishing Colorado's Lowest Point
48 States Whose Highest Points Are Lower Than
Colorado's Lowest Point
49 How Does Colorado Compare?
51 Mountain License Plates
53 Mountain Area Codes
56 Avalanches in Colorado
60 Impotence Drugs Reach New Peaks
61 Colorado Lakes and Reservoirs
66 Lakes and Ice
67 Safe Ice Thickness and Cold-Water Hypothermia
70 Lightning: The Fearsome Flash from Above
73 Monsoon Season
75 Cloud Seeding
80 Just How Much Water Is That?
83 Global Relations
84 "America the Beautiful": Colorado's Most Famous Musical Summit
87 Bates Not the Only Famous Person to Summit Pikes Peak
88 Rocky Mountain High
90 "Where the Columbines Grow"-The State Song That No One Knows
91 Colorado Songs
97 Colorado As a Movie Set
105 The Great Demonymic Debate: Coloradans or Coloradoans?
109 Colorado Olympic Athletes
123 Colorado: King of the Ski Industry
126 Colorado's Early Ski History: Highlights
137 Mountainspeak: Skiing Lexicon
145 The Naming of Colorado's Ski Runs
148 Colorado's "Lost" Ski Areas
153 The Colorado Ski Safety Act
155 Words for Snow-Eskimo and Colorado
159 "Texas" Ski Areas
160 Mountainspeak: Cross-Country Skiing Lexicon
163 Mountainspeak: Snowboarding Lexicon
165 Most Common Mountain Recreational Injuries
166 High Country Emergency Room Admission Statistics
167 Colorado Mountain Pathogens
169 Native Americans in Colorado
175 Colorado Geology: The Laramide Orogeny
176 Colorado Geology: The Rio Grande Rift Valley
178 Colorado Geology: The Aspen Anomaly
179 Colorado Geology: Colorado's Highest-Ever Mountains
180 The Naming of Geographic Features
186 Gorges Versus Canyons
189 The Fourteeners
192 Colorado Fourteener Records
195 Peak Prominence and Isolation
198 The Most Dangerous Fourteeners
203 Mountainspeak: Climbing Lexicon
207 The 3,000-Foot "Rule"
209 Colorado's Steepest Points
210 The Peaks of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech
211 Headwaters Hill and Colorado's Closed Basins
214 The Naming of Challenger Point
216 Some Noteworthy Colorado Uphills
216 Colorado's Long Hiking Trails and the National Scenic Trails
219 Mountainspeak: Hiking and Backpacking Lexicon
227 Mountainspeak: Mountain Biking Lexicon
228 Public and/or Protected Land in Colorado
230 Colorado's Wilderness
238 Colorado: Birthplace of Major Rivers
242 Mountainspeak: Fishing Lexicon
244 Colorado's Endangered Rivers
247 Wild and Scenic Rivers
252 Colorado's Highest Roads
253 Mountainspeak: Road Biking Lexicon
257 Colorado Wildfires
261 Other Large Wildfires in Western North America
263 All Firewood Is Not Created Equal
265 Endangered and Threatened Species in the Colorado Mountains
273 Colorado Mountain Birds
277 Fatal Bear and Mountain Lion Attacks in Colorado
278 High Country Snakes
280 The Colorado State Flower: What Exactly Is It?
281 The Colorado State Quarter
284 Superfund Sites
290 Strange Colorado Festivals
301 Aspen: The Brand-Name King
302 Smoking Bans: It All Started in Colorado's Mountain Country
303 Colorado's Mountain Historic Districts
310 Legalized Gambling in Colorado
312 Mountain Counties Most Often Vote Blue
318 Changing Your Name
322 Home Away from Home (Extradition)
325 Listing Colorado
331 Index
341 About the Author
