Vail – In the ball sports world, it’s known as “field awareness” or “court vision,” a description of the instinctive consciousness employed by team athletes to absorb peripheral action in the chaos of the moment.
In the adventure sports world, it might simply be considered the Teva Mountain Games.
Participants and spectators alike once again will find themselves absorbed in the outdoor adventure sports “zone” Wednesday through Sunday as several of the world’s elite climbers, kayakers, rafters, mountain bikers, endurance racers and more converge upon the mountains and rivers surrounding Vail for the fifth consecutive year.
Billed as the country’s largest celebration of mountain sports and culture, the Teva Mountain Games at Vail combine 10 disciplines of six adventure sports into a five-day frenzy of action and adrenaline found nowhere else in America.
“In just five short years we’ve built the Mountain Games into one of the country’s pre-eminent outdoor festivals,” event producer Joel Heath said.
The event’s overall prize purse expanded 40 percent this year to $85,000 distributed among competitors.
Truth be told, the paddling sports of whitewater rafting and kayaking have had a head start as the foundation of the Teva Games, with a history spanning more than a decade as the Champion International Whitewater Series and then the Jeep Whitewater Festival dating to the early 1990s. Formerly used to determine members of the U.S. canoe and kayak’s team representing America in Olympic competition, the races and associated freestyle contests now set the bar among an ever-increasing cadre of multi-discipline paddlers making a career of competing in the nation’s most challenging whitewater.
“It’s full-on, for sure,” professional kayaker Jay Kincaid said of Wednesday’s kickoff event, the Dagger kayak paddlecross through the Eagle River’s Dowd Chute. “There’s nothing really wrong with the race other than I’m about to cry when I finish it.”
While Wednesday and Thursday are dedicated to kayaking and rafting events, the action expands into a wide array of adventure sports over the weekend, beginning with bouldering and “dyno-climbing” competition on Friday, fly-fishing, road cycling, free- ride mountain biking, adventure racing and the 10K trail running national championship race on Saturday, and the culmination of competition in all those disciplines, plus cross country mountain bike racing and even a “mountain dog” contest, among other events on Sunday.
Sprinkled throughout are cultural activities, such as film premieres, a photography competition and concerts. Several events are open to amateur and professional athletes alike. For more information, log onto
www.tevamountaingames.com.
Teva Mountain Games schedule
Wednesday
AT DOWD CHUTE
Noon – Raft paddlecross semifinals
12:30 p.m. – Kayak paddlecross semifinals
1:30 p.m. – Raft paddlecross final
1:45 p.m. – Kayak paddlecross final
Thursday
AT HOMESTAKE CREEK
9 a.m. – Extreme creek race
AT VAIL VILLAGE
5:30 p.m. – Big trick competition
6:30 p.m. – East vs. West amateur kayak rodeo qualifier
Friday
AT VAIL VILLAGE
11 a.m. – Bouldering women’s practice
12:30 p.m. – Bouldering men’s practice
1 p.m. – Kayak pro rodeo qualifier
2 p.m. – Dyno climbing practice
3:30 p.m. – Speed bouldering practice
5 p.m. – Freeride challenge demonstrations
Saturday
AT VAIL VILLAGE
9 a.m. – 10K trail running championships; 10K Spring runoff
Bouldering citizens competition
10 a.m. – Kayak pro rodeo semifinal
11 a.m. – 5K Mud Run trail run
Noon – Adventure sprint championships
Women’s bouldering qualifier
1 p.m. – Fly-fishing competition qualifier
Vail Pass Hill Climb
1:30 p.m. – Freeride challenge qualifiers
2 p.m. – Women’s bouldering final
3 p.m. – Freeride challenge final
Bouldering men’s qualifier
4 p.m. – Bouldering men’s final
4:45 p.m. – Kayak pro rodeo final
Sunday
4 a.m. – Adventure sprint championships
9 a.m. – Fly-fishing competition
10 a.m. – Dyno climbing qualifier
Cross country mountain bike championship
10:30 a.m. – Family adventure race
11:30 a.m. – Dyno climbing final
Noon – Kayak sprint rounds begin
1 p.m. – Freeride big air competition
2 p.m. – Speed bouldering qualifiers
2:30 p.m. – East vs. West amateur rodeo final
3 p.m. – Kayak sprint final
3:15 p.m. – Fly-fishing competition weigh-in
3:30 p.m. – Speed bouldering final
Note: Schedule subject to change
