Ear to the ground

“I’m definitely getting cut. I just don’t want it to ruin my mountain biking season.”

-Durangoan explaining the early-winter timing of his forthcoming vasectomy

Coloradoan scores 600 days

While the rest of us sweat out yet another dry and hot summer, at least one Colorado resident is still linking turns. Rainer Hertrich, a Snowcat driver at Copper Mountain Resort, is still skiing, and he has skied every day for nearly two years.

At more than 600 days in a row, Hertrich’s stint easily surpasses the only other record that he is aware of, the 366 days (it was a Leap Year) that British ski journalist Arnie Wilson logged in 2004.

Hertrich skied this year during ski camps after Copper’s conventional closing, then drove to Utah’s Snowbird for a few days, then on to Idaho’s Tamarack, where he skied a snow patch of less than 400 feet to keep his string intact.

The Vail Daily reported that Hertrich this summer has been living in a tent at the foot of Mt. Hood’s Palmer Glacier. It has been a drizzly or worse summer on Mt. Hood, and Hertrich was tempted to quit to several times. But he hung in there and plans to go well beyond 600 days. When summer winds down, he plans to continue his skiing with a trip to South America, as he did last winter.

“He may some day go down as the quintessential ski bum, the guy who took the concept of an endless winter and ran with it like no one else ever has,”The Vail Daily wrote.

It should be no surprise, by the way, that Hertrich is a free-heeler.

The return of Mature Men

If you like your meat perfectly aged, you’re in luck. Operation Healthy Communities has announced that it will be unveiling a second Mature Men of La Plata County Calendar. But you better be quick. Last year’s calendar sold out in record time.

As a result, Operation Healthy Communities is currently taking preorders for the 2006 calendar. The actual calendar with a scantily clad grandfather or great uncle accompanying each month will be released on Thanksgiving.

Inspired by the film “Calendar Girls,” prominent community members older than 50 will again be caught in action by area photographer Paul Boyer. All proceeds go to support Operation Healthy Communities. For more information or to lock up your copy of Mature Men II, call 382-0585 or e-mail ohc@gobrainstorm.net.