💰 $175M for forests

Good morning, Stoke Crew. Happy October 🍂 Arguably one of my favorite months in Colorado! The weather's perfect, the mountains are in transition, and there's just a good vibe to it.

November on the other hand? The short days absolutely kill me. That's right about when I head down to South America for some surfing to keep the STOKE alive.

Here's the report! Stay STOKED - Tyler

In today's report

• 🥇 Asa's one race from the overall
• 🌵 A bike race though Arizona
• 🚆 Steamboat scouts for train stops
• 💰 Colorado Dems say no to Prop 137
• 🎿 This week in Skiing

Biking

🏁 Records and routes

🥇 One race stands between Asa Vermette and history. The 19-year-old from Durango heads into the Lake Placid finale leading the downhill World Cup overall. If he holds on, he's the first American to win it since Aaron Gwin in 2017.

• The math is friendly. Vermette sits at 1,347 points, 96 up on Britain's Jordan Williams. France's Amaury Pierron is third, 174 back.
• Fourth or better locks it up for Vermette, whatever happens to Williams. For Williams to steal it, he has to win while Vermette slips to fifth or lower.
• The most recent race in Whistler flipped everything. Vermette showed up second in the standings, won qualifying and the final for the max 300 points, and watched Williams finish 21st.
• Asa has two elite wins this season, in his first year out of juniors.
• Qualifying is Saturday, October 3, at Whiteface. The men's final drops Sunday, October 4, at 2:10 p.m.

Why It Matters: A Colorado kid is one good Sunday away from a World Cup overall. Durango has always punched above its weight in mountain biking, and this would be one of the biggest results ever to come out of that town!

🌵 The Arizona Trail Bike Race rolls out this morning, and the Grand Canyon is still in the way. Start time is 6 a.m., from a spot near the Mexico border line. The full traverse runs 853 miles this year.

Quick beta if you don't follow bikepacking. The AZTR is unofficial. Outside help isn't allowed, and there's no entry fee or prize. You just show up and ride.

• Finishing in Flagstaff, athletes have to hike a bike through the Grand Canyon. Bikes go on their backs for a hike down from the South Rim, and then it's back up and south to Flagstaff.
• The route shifts so much year to year that the race quit tracking FKTs.

Recreation

🌲 Trains and tax dollars

🚆 Steamboat is scouting spots for a train station. The city kicked off a six-month study to figure out where one or more passenger rail stations could go, and how they'd actually work. CDOT, Steamboat Ski & Resort, and Union Pacific are partners.

Some beta on the bigger picture. Mountain Rail is the state's long game, a passenger line linking Denver and Steamboat. Trains would duck under the Divide at the Moffat Tunnel, then hook north at Bond toward Steamboat. The first leg only goes as far as Granby, with a single out-and-back run each day. The state has been aiming to start that in November 2026.

• The study doesn't decide whether trains ever reach Steamboat. It plans for the day they might. It'll weigh what surrounds each site, how riders would reach the platform, and what a station should include.
• In April 2025, council said it wanted two stations at most, one downtown and one at the ski area.
• Locals get a say now. An online questionnaire stays open through November 1. A guided tour on October 28 kicks off from the Historic Depot and swings by Emerald Park and the Howelsen Hill rodeo grounds.
• "We want to hear from the people who know this community best," said city planning director Rebecca Bessey.

Why It Matters: I'll believe a train to Steamboat when I'm drinking coffee on it. Granby comes first, and Steamboat doesn't even have a date yet. But Winter Park Express ridership jumped 153% when the state added more trains. Build it and people will ride!

💰 Prop 137 has some surprising enemies. The Colorado Democratic Party is officially a no. The measure would point roughly $175 million a year in sporting goods sales tax at wildfire work, conservation, and outdoor access. The vote is November 3.

Quick refresher, since we covered it in August. You won't pay more at the register. The money comes from tax Colorado already collects on gear. In a surplus year, it comes out of your refund. State analysts figure a single filer's 2027 refund would shrink by somewhere between $26 and $83. In a year with no surplus, it comes out of the general fund instead.

• GOCO's slice would be about $83 million a year. State wildfire and watershed programs would get the same amount, about five times today's budget for that work.

Why It Matters: Every time you buy skis, a bike, or a tent in Colorado, you already pay this tax. The question is whether a slice of it comes back to the forests and trails where that gear gets used. That's about as direct a line as you'll find between what we spend and what we care about.

Skiing

⚡ Quick hits

🎿 Vail's private lessons now come with a concierge. Book a private at Vail or Beaver Creek for 2026-27 and you're in Epic Ascent, which went live September 29. Along with the instructor, you get a planner who books dinner, rides, and rentals, plus lift-line skipping and a flexible start time. Bring as many as five friends without paying more, and Vail says pricing will only track inflation. More resorts join in 2027-28.

🏂 BOA's new H5 dial turns both ways. Until now, BOA dials on snowboard boots only tightened, so loosening meant letting all the tension go. H5 backs off a click at a time. It lands this winter on select K2, Ride, and Burton boots, alongside more boots using BOA's PerformFit Wrap. BOA's own lab says the wrap beats laces by up to 9% on stability and control.

🚠 Schweitzer is losing its longest-serving leader. President and COO Tom Chasse says this winter is his last after 20 years at the North Idaho resort. On his watch, more than $100 million went into the village and five old lifts got replaced, and he still skis 80 days a year.

For 2026-27, the hill added Learn to Ski in 3, a $405 beginner bundle that comes with unlimited skiing in March and April. Parking for about 1,400 cars is coming with the new Creek Village base, penciled in for 2027-28.

🏔️ South Bowl is in trouble. Grand Targhee's 694-acre expansion got a rough hearing September 24 in Victor, Idaho, where speaker after speaker wanted South Bowl cut. Bighorn sheep winter in that terrain. Wyoming Game and Fish looked for a way to protect them with lifts in there and came up empty. Four local and state agencies working on the review want it gone. Nobody from the resort spoke, and a final decision has no date.

🔥 The STOKE VOTE

What else is going on

• Yosemite's Dome Fire, which two helicopter pilots died fighting, began as an abandoned campfire near Chilnualna Falls.
• Colorado euthanized 294 bears through August and is now spending $1 million on bear-proof trash across 17 projects.
• Italy's Stefano Carnati is first to repeat Torture Physique Integrale, the Swiss 5.15 Adam Ondra put up 13 years ago.

📚 Trailhead Trivia

Lake Placid, where Asa could lock up the overall this weekend, has hosted the Winter Olympics twice. Name both years.

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Answer!

1932 and 1980. The 1932 Games were the first Winter Olympics held outside Europe, and alpine skiing wasn't even on the program yet. In 1980, every alpine race ran on Whiteface, the same mountain hosting the downhill finale, and the U.S. hockey team pulled off the Miracle on Ice.