From mindfulness to stand-up comedy, learn all about various topics at the CoLab stage during GoPro Mountain Games

There’s a lot of ground to cover during the GoPro Mountain Games. In between spectating or competing in the events, listening to live music, gathering some free SWAG and trying some tasty samples, make sure you make time to head over to the CoLab stage in the BFGoodrich Gear Town in front of Solaris.

The CoLab made its debut at the 2023 GoPro Mountain Games and since then, it has become a must-do experience for event attendees. There are so many topics and activities to choose from like educational presentations, Q and A sessions, mindfulness demonstrations, live music, comedy and more.

Start your day off on Saturday with some mindfulness and breathwork. Angel Collinson used to tackle huge terrain as a professional big mountain skier. She’s starred in ski films, won the Freeskiing World Tour twice and was given Powder Magazine’s “Best Line of the Year” award. Now, instead of adrenaline she lets silence and mindfulness fill her space. She’s traded in the snow for the sea and isn’t looking back. Let her take you on a journey that calms you, yet still lets you find your inner warrior no matter what your battles are. She takes the stage at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Stick around for Beau Martino at 11:45 a.m. This social media influencer calls himself an amateur climber, but a professional dirtbag. He’s climbed in Yosemite, many iconic places in the Western United States, Southeast Asia, Patagonia in South America and more, so he’s a bit more “pro” than “Joe,” but he’ll share his philosophy about being a dirtbag and answer all sorts of questions about being out on climbs. He also has his film screening of “Not Just an Influencer” in Moon Rabbit Lounge at Chasing Rabbits. Doors open at 5 p.m. Get your free ticket at MountainGames.com/Art.    

Other sessions at the CoLab stage on Saturday include Grilled By Groms at 12 p.m. with five-time Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour champion Brandon Semenuk, who will be asked questions by five-year-old wonder kid biker Elliott Honeycutt and others. Stick around, at 12:30 p.m. there will be Flash Tattoos from Colorado artists Amanda Coy Kendall and Liana Joy and amazing face painting by Abby Wren. Music is also a big part of the lineup at the CoLab, and Saturday brings LAERZ to the stage at 3 p.m. with his amazing and groundbreaking approach to electronic music by just using his voice, synthesizer, drum pad and a loop station.

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The CoLab is hosted by long-time emcee for many of the World Cup Alpine ski racing events, Uncle E, who knows how to fire up and bring a crowd together. Joining Uncle E is Chris Davenport, a world-renowned big mountain skier, adventurer and storyteller.

“The best way to explain the CoLab is that you’ve got a lot of people from different walks of life here and the stage is a center point where they can all get together, learn about what each person does as a strength, who can contribute what, and the energy and the thought that goes into each session and comes out of it is exactly what collaboration is,” Uncle E said.

Each afternoon, the CoLab stage hosts the Mountain Game(s) Show, a fun way for athletes, artists and influencers to interact while answering trivia questions or doing zany games. There are three members on two teams and they go through a best-of-three series of mental and physical challenges.

“We may start with trivia for the first round and then the second challenge, like the one we did on Thursday, was a physical round where one team member had to sit in a cold plunge for 30 seconds. After that, the other two team members had to grab a frozen t-shirt from a YETI cooler and try to defrost it and put it on and the first team to get the shirt on wins that round,” Uncle E said. “It’s super entertaining.”

The last session on Saturday at the CoLab will get everyone cracking up because it is being led by comedian and podcaster Eddie Ifft. Ifft has been seen on Comedy Central, Last Comic Standing, Showtime and more. He’s been coming to Vail during the wintertime to be part of the Vail Comedy Show, but this time his role is different. He won’t be doing his classic stand-up routine. He’ll be teaching an athlete how to be a stand-up comedian while the athlete takes Ifft into the depths of their sport.

“I got this idea from a famous Jerry Seinfeld bit, where he basically says that man’s greatest fear is speaking in public. And the number two fear is death. That means that the man giving the eulogy at a funeral would rather be the one being eulogized,” Ifft said. “So, I’ve got this idea for a TV show where I take on my biggest fears, be it snakes or haunted houses, and the expert teaches me how to handle snakes or face ghosts, and then I teach them how to do stand-up comedy.”

Ifft’s athlete he’ll be working with is Nick Troutman, the current World Freestyle Kayak silver medalist. The duo will have an exchange of knowledge with Troutman taking Ifft out on the water. Ifft is a surfer and is a pretty good athlete but he said it all changes once you go out with a professional.

“When you go out with the pros, they take it to a whole new level, especially if they know you’ve got some experience with the sport. They’re like, ‘hey, you’re not afraid to do this. Come on.’ So, then, it’s not a big deal for them to really scare me, they just say, ‘oh, you’ll get it.’ I sure hope the rapids aren’t that big,” Ifft said.

Ifft said he may also be getting people from the audience to come up on stage and try stand-up comedy during his session as well, so come on out to the CoLab at 5:15 p.m. to chuckle a bit and you may end up being a part of the show. To learn more about the CoLab and the full schedule, go to MountainGames.com/Colab.