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A tanned man, muscles rippling in the sun, clings to the side of a cliff in Spain while waves crash beneath him. In another photo the sun rises behind the jagged Torres del Paine mountain range in Patagonia, Chile, to create a picture so stunning it doesn’t look real. A log shack in Murren, Switzerland frames a third photo; in the background, clouds swirl in the crevices and white-capped peaks of the Alps.
Three photos taken on three disparate parts of the planet by three men. What’s the connection? The images are finalists in the Teva Mountain Games annual photo competition. Eighteen photos were culled from nearly 400 entries and chosen as finalists. The winners, who will split $5,000, will be announced at Teva’s Flix & Pix night on Thursday. Along with the announcement of the photo competition winners, films from Telluride’s Mountainfilm Festival, which takes place every Memorial weekend, will be shown.
“We get to see the lifestyle we all appreciate on video and on film. It’s one of my favorite nights of the year — it’s not huge crowds, and it’s a great place to get a feel for the mountain games, have some good wine from Yellowtail and just hang out before the athletes get all strung out on the hard-core competition,” said Joel Heath, president and CEO of Untraditional Marketing, the company that began the Teva Games six years ago.
“We get to see the lifestyle we all appreciate on video and on film. It’s one of my favorite nights of the year — it’s not huge crowds, and it’s a great place to get a feel for the mountain games, have some good wine from Yellowtail and just hang out before the athletes get all strung out on the hard-core competition,” said Joel Heath, president and CEO of Untraditional Marketing, the company that began the Teva Games six years ago.
Teva Mountain Games Entertainment Schedule
At next weekend’s Teva Mountain Games in Vail, over 2,000 pro and amateur athletes are expected to compete in more than two dozen kayaking, rafting, running, biking, climbing and fishing competitions. However, outdoor competition is only half of the story at the Teva Mountain Games — there’s a nightly line up of art, music, awards and films to complement the competition.
“The Teva Mountain Games is a total celebration of mountain culture and the athletic competitions are just a warm up to the parties, films and concerts we’re hosting every evening,” said event organizer Joel Heath of Untraditional Marketing. “From the Everest Awards, to our Flix & Pix event, to the new Zest Mud Village, we’ve got a terrific lineup of lunar entertainment.” Here are the details: Tuesday, May 29 7:30 p.m. East vs. West Awards and After-Party at Finnegan’s Wake in Avon Wednesday, May 30 3:30 p.m. PaddleCross Awards and After-Party at the Saloon in Minturn featuring Schwing Daddy Thursday, May 31 1 p.m. Dagger Steep Creek Championship Awards and After-Party at Mango's in Red Cliff featuring Laughing Bones 8 p.m. Mountain Games Flix & Pix Night featuring the Zest for Adventure Photo Comp and Telluride Mountainfilm on Tour at Donovan Pavilion Friday, June 1 7 p.m. Everest Awards presented by Zest at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater featuring Jay Nash, and live DJs 10 p.m. Teva Mountain Ball at Samana in Vail Village — The theme of the Ball, as always, is ‘Tevas and Tuxes.’ The Mountain Ball provides a unique opportunity to mingle and party with professional and amateur athletes alike, while enjoying music, dancing and ridiculous outfits. Free admission. Saturday, June 2 6 p.m. Zest Mud Village in Golden Peak featuring D.J. J Boogie 6:45 p.m. Teva X-1 Mud Fun Run 7 p.m. Purina Diving Dog Challenge Finals — The Purina Diving Dog Challenge features pooches launching upwards of 30 feet into a pool and gives amateur canines a chance to compete against the big dogs. 7:30 p.m. Freeride Slopestyle Competition 8:15 p.m. Live performance by Banyan — this LA.-based band made up of former Jane’s Addiction and Snoop Doggie Dog musicians, will play with back up from San Francisco D.J. J Boogie. Sunday, June 3 3:45 p.m. Volkswagen Garage Band — The Samples — Free at Checkpoint Charlie Colorado hometown favorites, The Samples will wrap up the Teva Mountain Games with a free concert in Vail Village at Checkpoint Charlie. For more information on any of these events, check out www.tevamountaingames.com. |
A match made in adventure heaven
This is the first year the renowned mountain-themed film festival has teamed with the adventure-fraught Teva Games. It was a good match up, Heath said.“We were looking at creating our own film festival but the timing was so dead on with Mountainfilm being the week prior. We thought it’d be good to team up from mountain town to mountain town, rather than duplicate what’s already out in the world.”
It’s a big deal to have Mountainfilm coming to town, Fraidy Aber, director of the Vail Symposium said. The Symposium brought Mountainfilm to Vail two years ago and teamed up with Teva to bring it back this year.
“They get very high-level submissions and these movies rarely hit the major circuit so it might be your only chance to see these award-winning films,” Aber said. “It should be an exceptional evening because it has award-winning photography and award winning film in one place.”
What you’ll see and how it was chosen
Entries for the photo competition were almost double last years, said Heath. A jury of national professional photographers narrowed down the hundreds of photo entries for the competition — the judges names weren’t disclosed this year because in past competitions they were “picked on,” he said. New this year was online voting for photos. Untraditional Marketing took the judges’ picks and matched it up with the online votes to choose the finalists, Heath said.
As for the films, Heath said to expect about an hour-and-a-half of films — some of them winners and honorable mentions from this past weekend’s event and some will be highlights from years past.
The Donovan Pavilion doors will open at 7:30 p.m. and the event is scheduled to start at 8 p.m.
Caramie Schnell can be reached at 748-2984 or cschnell@vaildaily.com.
