TIM WENGER

I barely know the guy. He has poured me a good amount of drinks over the past five years at Loveland's Rathskellar Bar, but Dave Tilley is not someone I am close to personally. He wouldn't recognize me at all. But on opening day at Loveland this year, my first thought upon walking into the bar was 'Where's Dave?' Turned out he was in a mountain biking accident over the summer and has been in a wheelchair, possibly paralyzed. Lucha Cantina in Georgetown hosted a fundraiser for

1. Be out of Denver by 6 AM It's early, I know. But you'll thank me when you're killing time drinking coffee and eating a breakfast burrito in the base lodge instead of sitting in the I-70 gridlock. The traffic heading into and from the mountains on weekends is worse than Denver's weekday rush hour, so do yourself a favor and wake up early. Wait to have breakfast until you are either at the resort or in Summit County. This is the perfect way to kill that extra time before the

Day 3 on the mountain this winter, at Loveland Ski Area. Approaching the top of lift 6, a horde of anxious skiers fly down a run just opened that morning. The night before, I waxed my board in anticipation of 20 inches of pow. Instead, we only got 6 inches. In mid-November, though, that is nothing to complain about. #loveland #snowboarding #powder

Four inches overnight made for a good early November morning and allowed a few more runs to open. An image taken from Lift 1 at Loveland, November 6 2015. #photo #snowboarding #loveland