Story by Parker Yamasaki and photos by Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun

Flashes of red and gold, the official colorway of the Lunar New Year, can be seen throughout Colorado in January and February. The symbolic colors — red for good luck and to ward off evil, gold for wealth and success — adorn dancing lanterns, crisp envelopes and ornaments hung from branches of forsythia and cherry blossoms. 

“It’s kind of like decorating our Christmas tree,” said Mimi Luong, owner of Truong An Gifts.

Luong’s business is a cornerstone of the Little Saigon district in Denver, located in the Far East Center, a U-shaped shopping center on South Federal Boulevard. Her father started the shop in 1975 after fleeing the Vietnam War. These days, Luong is known for throwing big, cultural celebrations, like Lunar New Year. 

Though Asian communities around Colorado have celebrated Lunar New Year for as long as they’ve been here, this is the first year that it was celebrated as an official state holiday. The designation is mostly symbolic — it’s not a paid holiday off — but that acknowledgement is meaningful, especially to people like Luong’s parents, whose quiet family tradition has since expanded into a weekslong slate of programming and festivities at the Far East Center.

Or people like Nga Vương-Sandoval, who also fled the Vietnam War as a child, and spearheaded the passage of the holiday into state law.

“When we went to the designation ceremony, I didn’t understand at that time why my mom was crying so much,” Luong said. “She was just so happy. It’s the feeling of America accepting you — you look different, you speak a different language — and they’re accepting your heritage, culture, traditions and embracing that and wanting to learn more. That’s huge to her.” 

Here are a few things to know about the culturally important and visually stunning holiday.

Colorado’s Lunar New Year fell a week before the actual holiday

The Lunar New Year, as the name suggests, is based on a lunisolar calendar, which integrates moon phases into the 12-month solar calendar. Because of this, Lunar New Year falls on a different date every year. This year, it falls on Feb. 10. Next year it will be on Jan. 29, a few days before the state holiday. 

Rather than try to educate the public about the complexities of a different calendar year, organizers who helped write the holiday into state law decided to mark the holiday on the first Friday of February every year. 

From left: Chance Horiuchi gives out packs of noodles and red envelopes, which traditionally contain money and are gifted to family during the Lunar New year. In the next photos, decorations line vendor tents and a lion dance takes place on stage. (Photos by Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

“It’s a complete paradigm shift for those of us in the Western Hemisphere who are used to the Gregorian solar calendar,” Vương-Sandoval said. “The more complex the process is, the less likely the understanding and appreciation it would get, which takes away from the holiday itself. We chose something more digestible. We chose addition over trigonometry.”

The first Friday will always fall within the same window of time that the Lunar New Year occurs, though it won’t often overlap perfectly. 

This year, the state-designated holiday landed a week before the actual holiday, which felt unusual to some, since the weeks leading up to the holiday often involve intense preparation, like house cleaning and cooking big family feasts. “You wouldn’t celebrate New Year’s Eve on Dec. 20, would you?” Luong said. But she’s still happy to see the holiday receive so much recognition. “I guess we just have to party double time.”

Lunar New Year will look different for future generations in Colorado

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing population in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. In Colorado, there are almost 300,000 people of Asian descent, a population that has been steadily growing for over a decade and which has almost doubled since 2010. 

That number makes up a continent’s worth of Lunar New Year traditions that don’t typically intermingle in Asia. In Colorado, though, those traditions exist side-by-side. For instance, the Far East Center’s programming features K-pop dance classes, Japanese taiko drumming, Filipino singers, Vietnamese cooking and Chinese medicine all lined up under one festive banner.

From top: Chance Horiuchi gives out packs of noodles. Under that, bubble tea and other beverages are served as attendees peruse a Lunar New Year Festival event. (Photos by Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

“Here in the United States, there’s something really beautiful when you see multiple ethnicities and cultures melded together for one united message and one united celebration,” Vương-Sandoval said. But she also worried about what the holiday could become without the right education surrounding it. 

“It’s really important to ensure that the focus is on these cultures and traditions and not things that are going to be mass marketed, commercialized,” she said. “The intangible things are always the most significant. Especially coming from a background where my family and I did lose everything tangible, the holidays are one of those really special aspects that will forever be with us.”

There will be fireworks and dancing lions 

Most of the traditions during Lunar New Year are about welcoming what you want in the upcoming year and fending off what you don’t. Qualities like health, luck and fortune are summoned through richly symbolic food, decorations, clothing and performances. 

During the lion dance, duos of dancers draped in red and gold mimic the movements of a lion, spinning and stomping around, often telling a story while also ridding the upcoming year of bad energy. “(Lions) are big and mystical and they’re supposed to be scary looking,” Luong said. “So, it scares away all the negative energy. And then the beat of the drums and the stomping of their feet is what shakes the bad vibrations out.”

To see for yourself, the Far East Center has a schedule of lion dances around metro Denver through February.

As for the fireworks, those are also about scaring away “bad juju,” as Luong put it. “The louder the better.”

OURAY — Every winter, when the temperatures drop, the Ouray Ice Park farmers start dribbling water down the sheer cliffs of the Uncompahgre River Gorge, building fangs of ice that lure thousands of climbers to the region.

Those climbers stir a vibrant winter economy for Ouray. The peak of the park’s season comes with the Ouray Ice Festival and Competition. The 29th annual event this year drew nearly 50 of the world’s top ice climbers who competed in an internationally sanctioned contest. They scaled specially designed routes that combine both ice and rock, earning points for international rankings with the UIAA governing body.

The park hosted a test UIAA-like event in 2021, proving to the international governing body that the Ouray Ice Park was capable of developing an in-person and livestreamed international contest for the world’s top ice climbers. The next year the Ouray Ice Park hosted its first UIAA-sanctioned North American Ice Climbing Championship, the only sanctioned event in North America. It was livestreamed in 24 countries, drawing 330,000 views.

There are 250 ice climbing routes in Ouray with 17,000 feet of vertical feet, making it the world’s largest human-made public ice-climbing specific park. 

“There’s no other place where you can literally walk up from town and throw a rope down and try ice climbing or you hire a guide and come up and climb in the park,” said Peter O’Neil, the park’s executive director.  

In mixed climbing, the climber uses tools to ascend a mix of rock and ice. Their boots are strapped with crampons and they use pairs of ice axes, each wrapped for better grip in both their gloved hands and teeth. (For when they swap hands on their tools.)

Nearly 50 high level ice climbers ascended competition routes Saturday that finished with a push through a complex, overhanging puzzle that looked like it belonged in an indoor climbing gym.

“It’s such a unique sport,” O’Neil said. “It takes a lot of mental stamina and mental energy and it takes commitment and you gotta be tough. It’s a different kind of problem-solving, but it makes the high mountains, which have both rock and ice, more accessible.” 

Colorado-based Tyler Kempney won this year’s UIAA Ice Climbing Continental Open event in Ouray with the fastest time to the top. Shirley Catalina, of Boulder, won the women’s division. 

The climbers battle against “barfies,” an intensely painful lack of blood flow in their arms as they ascend quickly. They are problem-solving with limited holds, from natural rock, ice and man-made materials. They must be creative with their balance and movement while racing against the clock.

 The climbers can take the lessons learned from competing on manmade mixed walls to the backcountry and explore remote wintery mountain ranges across the world, O’Neil said.

“If you’re going to be a good alpinist, you know, being in the high mountains,” he said, “you have to be a good rock climber, as well as a good ice climber.”

Story by Parker Yamasaki & Photography by Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun

Parking Lot B on Blake Street in Denver usually smells like the backside of a city — industrial and greasy. But on the morning of the Stock Show Parade, as close to 60 trailers fill in the rows outside of Coors Field, it smells like horses, hay and for a brief moment, like fruit-scented hairspray. 

“Who wants some show glow?” Erin Michalski asks her horses. Michalski is here to ride with the Cowgirls Forever, a group that her mother started in 2012. Without responses she starts spraying their coats with a clear aerosol that makes no noticeable difference. “It does more in the summer,” she said, patting the haunches of her young, red-headed horse named Franny. It’ll make their coats shine if the sun comes out today, she explains. 

Since the 1950s the Stock Show Parade has signaled the start of the National Western Stock Show. This year’s parade featured the 30 longhorns, one calf, five chickens, a few bunnies, a goat, pack of dogs and around 350 horses, according to Debbie Mills, parade coordinator. There’s also “usually a donkey,” Mills said, but couldn’t confirm whether or not said donkey had shown up. The longhorns led the way, followed by 59 groups in their finest Western wear, and rounded out by a herd of street sweepers. This year’s grand marshall was former Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar, who also is a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

TOP: A pair of Percheron draft horses nudge each other during the National Western Stock Show Kick-off Parade. BOTTOM LEFT: Delsa Aghili, 5, center, watches the parade. BOTTOM RIGHT: Cowboys drive longhorn cattle past the historic Equitable Building on 17th Street.

Though the longhorns are the stars — and the pacesetters — of the parade, they weren’t added to the event until about 20 years ago as a way to “add to the Western heritage aspect” of it, Mills said. 

The parade is capped at 60 groups, and Mills is deliberate about who participates. The challenge of getting people to line the streets in the beginning of January means the parade has to present something unique. And the fact that it’s the start of the Stock Show means she has to “keep it very ‘Western,’” Mills said. “Which means not a lot of vehicles,” though horse-drawn carriages and wagons are allowed.

By noon, when the parade started, the skies were still cloudy and the temperature hovered around 30 degrees. Ten women have shown up to ride with Cowgirls Forever — 20 degrees warmer and their numbers would be closer to 30, said Jean Gottenborg, Erin’s mother and the founder of the group. 

The women say that one of the telltale signs of a “real” cowgirl is someone who goes out for a ride when it’s below 50. The other signs are a level hat, dirty chaps and worn-in boots. 

Erin’s daughters, Adeline and Harper, also rode with the Cowgirls Forever. Harper, who is only 7 years old, spent the first hour or so of staging in Lot B getting chased by her older brother in circles around the trailers, which unhinges the silk scarf around her neck and leaves it dangling from her shoulder. Repeatedly, one of the adults notices, calls her over, and knots it back up. 

LEFT: Seven-year-old Harper Michalski, wearing knee-length chinks made from her great-grandmother’s fur coat, for the first time rode in the National Western Stock Show parade without someone guiding her horse from the ground. TOP RIGHT: Cowgirls Forever members Erin Michalski and her daughter, Adeline. Erin’s mom, Jean Gottenborg, founded the women’s riding group. BOTTOM RIGHT: Carla Holst and David Michalski share a horse.

Harper is a real cowgirl. For the parade, she’s wearing chinks — knee-length chaps — made with fur from one of her great-grandmother’s coats and is riding Mister, a 26-year-old horse that her grandfather first rode in the Stock Show parade in 2011. 

This year Harper rode without a leader, someone to guide her horse from the ground. She has made this decision herself. With about an hour until the parade start, Harper strapped on her ridesafe helmet shaped like a Western Stetson and popped onto Mister’s back, making faces and hanging out while the rest of the women tacked and mounted their horses.

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From the release of wolves to ground-breaking legislation, it’s been another interesting year in Colorado. Thousands of migrants from Venezuela made their way to Denver while the new mayor worked to address the city’s homelessness crisis. Rural areas waded through water rights issues and the fickle water supply, and mountain towns continued to see visitors wanting adventures and their workforce struggling to live in the communities they serve.

Our team at The Sun has been to every corner of the state in the past year to bring news and feature stories of statewide significance. It took plenty of conversations, serious mulling and a lot of emails and messages, but we’ve narrowed down our picks of some of the best photos and stories of 2023. Did we hit them all? Not by a long shot. But we hope our selections help remind you of the best and most important moments of the year and convince you to stick with us for the future.

Wolves

Just last week, 10 wolves from Oregon were released in Colorado, launching the voter-approved reintroduction of wolves in the state. It was a long haul, from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife finalizing its plan to find wolves to Monday’s release. It’s the start of a 3- to 5-year process that has already seen plenty of dissension and conflict.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife released five gray wolves onto public land in Grand County on Dec. 18, including wolf 2302-OR, a yearling female from the Five Points pack in Oregon that weighed 68 pounds. (Provided by Colorado Parks and Wildlife)

While we’re talking about wildlife

Horse roundups continued on the Western Slope and hundreds more were removed, meanwhile wildlife officials also this year dealt with a couple of invasive species. But one thing we can all agree on: Colorado high-country pikas are cute. 

ABOVE: A Pika pokes out of the rocks, bottom left, while volunteers go through Colorado Pika Project training near Trail Ridge Road on July 24. (Kristi Odom, Colorado Pika Project, Special to The Colorado Sun) BELOW LEFT: Crews with CPW spray mussel-killing chemicals into Highline Lake near Loma on March 1. The invasive species was detected at the lake last September, marking the first time they were found in a body of water in Colorado. (Barton Glasser, Special to The Colorado Sun) BELOW RIGHT: Cindy Day keeps an eye on a small group of wild horses while holding a dart gun on the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area on June 21 near Meeker. Day, in collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management, fires fertility-control darts at wild mares in an effort to control the overpopulation of mustangs. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Diversity in the outdoors

Millions of people, mostly white, get out into the Colorado outdoors every year. But there are people and groups who continue to help open roads to underserved groups.

ABOVE LEFT: Nelson Holland at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge on Dec. 14. Holland moved to Colorado around 2014 and now has over 70,000 TikTok followers under his account @fatblackandgettinit. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America) ABOVE TOP: Skiers dance at the MidVail pavilion following a BBQ during the National Brotherhood of Skiers summit Feb. 8 at Vail. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) ABOVE BOTTOM: Canyon River Instruction’s Elisha McArthur puts on glitter before putting in the Arkansas River on July 19 near Salida. McArthur has been a raft guide since age 15 and started Canyon River Instruction offering women-specific whitewater rowing courses. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) BELOW: Andrea Ramos with her daughter, Jimena, during a hike Oct. 16 in Avon. “She can smell the difference,” her father, Mario, says of the 10-year-old with cerebral palsy on a nature walk. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Adventure

For those with the means to roam — and a tolerance for risk — Colorado serves up an endless supply of outdoor adventures, from adrenaline-spiking thrills to moments of seclusion and serenity. But the secret’s out, and carving out a private nook in the playground can take patience and planning.

Laura Kottlowski ice skates on an high alpine lake inside Rocky Mountain National Park on Feb. 18 near Estes Park. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Agriculture

Producers of some of Colorado’s best-known crops scrambled to keep ahead of the unexpected. Drought and hail brought thin profits to wheat farmers. Tiny worms infested Olathe’s famous sweetcorn fields. In southern Colorado, heavy rains dampened, but didn’t decimate, the annual chile harvest, while the grape growers of Fremont County helped float a resurgence in little-known wines.

ABOVE: Justin Lewton removes stalks of feral wheat with a pocketknife in a field south of Fort Morgan on July 28. The presence of feral wheat, an annual grass weed, can result in lower yield and grain quality of a harvest of red winter wheat. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America) BELOW: A worker moves yellow onions from a truck to a storage facility in Olathe on Oct. 20. (William Woody, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Education

Strained budgets, a persistent teacher shortage and sharp divisions over issues of race, gender and sexuality made for another charged year for Colorado schools, even as they grappled with continuing fallout from the pandemic. Amid the tumult, the state’s largest teachers union showed its political muscle, helping to get most of its preferred candidates onto local school boards. 

LEFT: Naomi Peña Villasano, a senior graduating from Grand Valley High School in Parachute, stands for a portrait wearing her Mexican-American sash at the state Capitol building in Denver on May 5. Peña Villasano’s school threatened to not let her walk if she wore the garment. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun) RIGHT: Elfreida Begay teaches a Navajo language class at Durango High School on Nov. 2. (Nina Riggio, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Arts & Culture

Arts patrons and concertgoers are getting back into the seats after the pandemic silenced much of the entertainment world. Yes, Colorado was part of the Taylor Swift spectacle, but we learned Coloradans also are still feeling the old school vibe at drive-ins.

ABOVE: Anthony Pages, left, readies himself to catch his airborne wife, Vanya, 60 feet above the ground during their trapeze act Aug. 27 at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo. The High Flying Pages, like most fair entertainers, perform multiple shows a day. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun) MIDDLE LEFT: Rita the Rock Planter, made out of wooden planks and dead tree branches by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, finds new home outside Victor on Aug. 4. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) MIDDLE RIGHT: Madeline Dannewitz, Zane Masslic and their dog, Dasher, watch previews before the screening of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” at the Holiday Twin on July 11 in Fort Collins. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America) BELOW: A dancer performs on the floor in sync with the drummers during the 47th annual Denver March Powwow on March 17 at the Denver Coliseum. Native American dance groups representing nearly 100 tribes from U.S. and Canada converged as a kickoff to the summer’s powwow season. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Michelin comes to Colorado

For nearly a century Colorado cuisine has flown under the radar when it comes to the Michelin Guide — that star-studded bible of fine dining — but no more!  In September, five Colorado restaurants were awarded Michelin stars, a mark of excellence in the culinary world poised to bring new attention to the state’s thriving restaurant scene. 

Guests mingle at Colorado’s first Michelin Guide ceremony Sept. 12 at Mission Ballroom in Denver. Michelin inspectors assess a restaurant based on five criteria: product quality; mastery of cooking techniques; harmony of flavors; voice and personality of the chef as reflected in the cuisine; and consistency over time across a menu. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

Sports (high highs and low lows)

Fans watched as professional sports in Colorado went in opposite directions with the Nuggets claiming their first NBA title and filling the streets of downtown Denver, while the Rockies endured their first 100-loss season in team history. And if that wasn’t enough, there was plenty going on as Coach Prime started a new chapter for CU football. 

ABOVE: Denver Nuggets fans celebrate at Civic Center park in downtown Denver on June 15 following the team’s NBA championship win earlier in the week. MIDDLE: Denver Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray, left, sprays champagne on the parade float with the NBA finals MVP Nikola Jokic, right. BELOW: Colorado Rockies fans watch in disbelief late in the game against Arizona on Aug. 15 at Coors Field in Denver. (Photos by Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

High Cost of Colorado

What do grocery store staples like chicken breasts, laundry detergent and breakfast cereal have in common? The price you pay for them at the register shot up double-digits in the past five years — and that’s only a snapshot of how the rising cost of living has made being a Coloradan an expensive proposition. 

Angeles Gutierrez cleans her kitchen after making scrambled eggs and toast for Galilea, 8, and Isabella, 6, on Nov. 10 in Lafayette. Gutierrez, who says cancer runs in her family and has caused deaths of multiple loved ones, prioritizes saving money for family trips and vacations. “I save money and then I take them on trips. I have this mentality of me saving to live it now — not to save it for later, because I don’t even know when I’m going to die,” Gutierrez said. “God will say what my future is like, so I will save my money.” (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

Equity

Reform in the criminal justice system continues to help those who often don’t have a voice. One Colorado program is helping parents stay connected with their children. Another movement is limiting the isolation for incarcerated people and recognizing the “moral injuries” clinicians can face after sending them there.

Erin Schneiderman and her 13-year-old son play with the family dog, Ernie, on May 3 at their home near City Park in Denver. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

Housing

The pandemic-era spike in housing prices kept home ownership out of reach for many Coloradans, sharpening the state’s high-country housing crisis and adding to the growing homeless population in Denver. Renters and policy makers together pushed for improved conditions in the rental market and more tenant protections. And urban homeless shelters struggled to meet demand, as people without homes took to living in RVs parked in long-term lots, in tents under mountain town overpasses and in makeshift communities on Denver streets.

ABOVE: On Feb. 23, former Purple Cliffs resident Thad Newhouse looks out a car window. He has been living under a tarp on snowy ground outside Durango since the shelter closed in October. “A lot of the people in town just ignore us. Like, they’re trained not to even look at you. It’s weird,” Newhouse said while catching a ride to a store with a homeless advocate. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) BELOW LEFT: Jason Pettit hangs his graduation gown in his room May 3 in Durango. Pettit was a homeless, nontraditional student at Fort Lewis College before being offered housing assistance. He graduated May 6 with a degree in psychology. (Josh Stephenson, Special to The Colorado Sun) BELOW RIGHT: Dozens of tenants and residents, joined by Colorado Homes for All, gather with signs opposing the Apartment Association of Metro Denver on June 22 in Playa del Carmen Park. Demonstrators held an anti-award ceremony, dubbed the “Slummy Awards,” in which a “Corporate Greed” character was awarded for practices that disadvantage those who are currently living with unmet housing needs. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

Migrant crisis

Thousands of migrants who made their way to the southern U.S. border found themselves in Colorado. Many of them left Venezuela to escape the economic crisis and authoritarian rule. We reported that some who were bused from Texas to Denver got another bus ticket out of town while others have taken refuge under a bridge in Carbondale.

ABOVE: María, last name not given, and her son, Sebastian, 8, embrace each other outside a Denver Quality Inn near Speer Boulevard and Zuni Street on Dec. 5. Migrants from Venezuela who have arrived in Denver in recent weeks have stayed in and around the hotel that is being used as a temporary shelter by Denver Human Services. BELOW: Luis, last name not given, gives a razor shave and haircut to Charlie. (Photos by Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

Colorado River

Colorado became drought-free for the first time in four years and snowpack was plentiful — a boon for the Colorado River and a break from the poor planning, political agendas and hot, dry weather that nearly pushed it into crisis. 

ABOVE: Stand-up paddle boarders explore the Dillon Reservoir as it is 101% full July 6 in Summit County. The Denver Water reservoir holds 257,304 acre-feet of water when full. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) BELOW: Using safety ropes, climbing gear and crampons for safety, a snow removal crew from Pinnacle Construction clears the roof of Town Hall in Crested Butte. The town received over 180 inches of snow by early February, making it a challenge to keep roofs, streets, sidewalks and storefronts snow free. Too much snow can cave in roofs and creates a snowfall hazard for people walking below. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun.)

Environment

Colorado grappled with oil and gas industry emissions while state and federal authorities looked for ways to blunt the effects of climate change. Carbon sequestration — the practice of isolating carbon and storing it underground — drew attention and grant money. So did a municipal experiment aimed at tapping geothermal energy to power entire city blocks. Consumers looked to electric vehicles and underground heat pumps in the hope of reducing greenhouse gases. 

The discharge of processed water tainted with minerals including sulfur, potassium and metallic elements from the Climax mine’s pipeline flows toward stored water pools Aug. 7. The mine uses an intricate system of channels to divert clean water away from the tailings until it is released downstream. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Wildfires

Thankfully, Colorado did not see any many major wildfires this year as the rainy spring set up the summer to be less dry. But, that doesn’t mean Coloradans didn’t prepare and aren’t still struggling from previous fires, including the 2021 Marshall fire. 

ABOVE: Looking west from Ohio Creek Road a plane drops retardant July 26 as smoke billows and flames rise from the Lowline fire northwest of Gunnison. (Don Emmert, Special to The Colorado Sun) BELOW LEFT: Peter Dente inspects a windowsill for residual ash that continues to seep through his house’s walls and foundation April 18 more than a year after the Marshall fire. “We really wish the house had burned down. It would have been much easier on us,” Dente said. “They would have come in with a big dump truck, and a bulldozer would scrape it clean just the way they’ve done for the houses around us next door. And because of our insurance policy, whatever it costs — they would pay for.” (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America) BELOW RIGHT: Crew members of the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control bury fire lines that were dug for practice near the Sawmill Trail in Golden. Fire lines, or fire breaks, are dug into the ground to slow a wildfire. Fire breaks expose bare ground or mineral soil that act as combustible fuels for a fire to spread. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

Health care

A Durango hospital stopped performing tubal ligations months after the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to abortions. Cities and mountain towns grasped for new ways of treating mental illness. And the breakup of a major hospital system, Centura Health, brought the potential for changes to 20 hospitals in Colorado and Kansas. 

Jacob Walter grew up on his family’s cattle ranch in Thatcher. Walter’s father died by suicide in 2016. In Walter’s high school class of 31 people, two others also lost a parent to suicide. A bleak nationwide trend saw rural suicide rates increase 48% from 2000 to 2018. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Trust)

Mountain living

Most of the folks who live in the high country feel blessed and lucky to be there. But that doesn’t mean it’s all powder days and big rapids. We have our struggles (don’t get us started on getting mail), but when the sun goes down on those 14,000-foot mountains, that hint of appreciation comes back in. 

ABOVE LEFT: Luis Gaspar, of Lake and Company, uses a cart from the post office to carry a load of packages to the store across the street Feb. 2 in Steamboat Springs. Lake and Company has a brick-and-mortar store, but also does online sales. ABOVE TOP: An explosive triggered by the Colorado Department of Transportation was part of the avalanche mitigation process May 2 above Highway 82 on Independence Pass near Twin Lakes. ABOVE BOTTOM: Tim and Rita Ryan kiss after reciting their vows during the Marry Me and Ski Free annual event Feb. 14 at Loveland ski area. BELOW: A hot iron is branded onto the calf’s hip with the owner’s logo May 19 near Merino. The neighbors and friends get together annually to help brand the cattle to identify the owner’s cattle in case it wanders away. Branding is the only marking that lasts for an animal’s lifetime. (Photos by Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Cops & Courts

A teen who shot a faculty member at Denver East — before fatally shooting himself while on the run — reignited a debate about whether police belong in Denver schools. Victims of a 2022 mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay and lesbian club observed the anniversary of the attack with a somber vigil at the scene of the crime, months after the shooter was sentenced to life in prison. And several police officers were charged with crimes for on-the-job conduct, reinforcing a push for police accountability. 

LEFT: A student, right, hugs a man after a school shooting at Denver East High School on March 22 in Denver. (David Zalubowski, AP Photo) RIGHT: Stephanie Clark, center, wipes a tear from Alexis Clark’s eye as Brayson Hochevar, right, and Norman Clark (not pictured) honor Ashley Paugh, Stephanie Clark’s younger sister, who was killed in the Club Q shooting in November 2022. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

Politics

The failure of a major property tax cut proposal at the polls dealt a blow to Gov. Jared Polis and Democrats and set up a push at the Capitol to pass some type of relief in 2024. And while voters brought big changes to the mayor’s offices in Denver and Colorado Springs, some aspects of Colorado politics stayed the same — like Rep. Lauren Boebert’s knack for drawing headlines. (Psst … google Boebert and “Beetlejuice.”) 

ABOVE LEFT: Gov. Jared Polis signs Senate Bill 169 into law April 28, which raises the minimum age to 21 to purchase firearms, and makes it illegal to sell a gun to someone younger than 21. ABOVE RIGHT: Amber Swain of Golden holds a sign advocating for gun control Monday morning at the Colorado Capitol. BELOW LEFT: Colorado Springs mayoral candidate Yemi Mobolade cheers as he runs onto the stage May 16 during an election watch party at the COS City Hub in Colorado Springs. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP). BELOW RIGHT: Mike Johnston takes the stage June 6 at Union Station in Denver. (Photos by Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

Business

Colorado businesses continue to regroup after the pandemic put them in a whirlwind of emotions. For some business owners, it was time to move on. But we found others who are keeping the legacy alive or ready to start new ones.

ABOVE: Jessica McCormick, chief administrative officer, interacts with a camel rescued from a zoo in Puerto Rico at The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg on May 4. The Wild Animal Sanctuary — a 1,214-acre facility for the rescue and care of wildlife — is the new home for bears, lions and a camel after the permanent closure of the Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. (Jeremy Sparig, Special to The Colorado Sun) BELOW: Greeley Hat Works hatmaker Trent Johnson, right, demonstrates how he measures the head size and shape of an employee’s head using a 19th-century conformateur tool at the shop March 15 in Greeley. Johnson is the fourth hatmaker at the company since 1909 and still uses Parisienne hat-tools to make hats by hand. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

This story first appeared in Colorado Sunday, a premium magazine newsletter for members.

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Credit

Photography: Hugh Carey, Olivia Sun. Special to The Colorado Sun: Kristi Odom, Barton Glasser, William Woody, Eli Imadali, Nina Riggio, Mike Sweeney, Josh Stephenson, Dean Krakel, Don Emmert, David Zalubowski and Jeremy Sparig
Editing: David Krause, Lance Benzel, Dana Coffield
Design: Danika Worthington

BRECKENRIDGE — The horns are everywhere.

For 60 years Summit County locals have gathered in Breckenridge to celebrate Ullr, the Norse god of snow. They parade and dance on Main Street, hoping for a snowy winter. Nearly everyone is wearing a Viking-esque helmet with horns.

Ullr Fest, formerly known as Ullr Dag, or ULLR Day in Norwegian, was started in 1963 by Trygve Berge and Sigurd Rockne. The pair also founded Breckenridge ski area. 

The horns have been a part of Breckenridge’s Ullr Fest for 60 years.

But they don’t have much to do with Ullr. Or Vikings. Or Norway.

“Apparently, Vikings did not wear horned helmets. It’s not necessarily a Norwegian thing at all,” said Leigh Girvin with Breckenridge History, noting that historians have traced the horned Viking helmets back to the earliest productions of Wagner’s The Valkyrie operas in Germany in the late 1800s. “Not that anyone cares at Ullr Fest.”

The horned, caped, furred and festive celebrants at the 60th annual Ullr Fest on Thursday lined their chins and broke the record for world’s longest shot ski with 1,377 for the most people slamming a shot-ski at one time. 

The parade, the participants and all their horns-first regalia “immediately creates a sense of place and time,” said Girvin, who is a former Ullr Fest queen.

“You know you are in Breckenridge in winter at Ullr Fest,” she said. “It defines Breckenridge. Loving snow — you have to if you live at 9,600 feet in the Colorado Rockies. Loving winter sports, especially gliding over snow. Ullr was the best skier in the Norse pantheon, a lover of winter. Ullr Fest shows that Breckenridge is creative, resourceful, whimsical, up for a good time. And fun. A lot of fun.”

Perhaps it’s impossible for us to recreate the mindset of a new arrival to the pristine high meadows of the Rockies in the late 1800s. Surrounded by 13,000- and 14,000-foot peaks buried in snow, trekking untouched stands of Douglas fir and lodgepole pine, startling grazing herds of deer and elk, those settlers looked up and immediately thought of what to start tearing down. Mining was the draw for Easterners, the rich layers of gold, silver, and eventually, tangentially, molybdenum that had bubbled up with the precious metals in ancient lava. 

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A winding road between 40-foot vertical benches allows machinery to load and haul out rock for processing on Sept. 18 as the Climax mine atop Fremont Pass plunges deeper into the earth. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

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A combination of natural algae and minerals left after ore has been processed to extract molybdenum turns water stored in tailings ponds along Colorado 91 a vibrant green. The water in the ponds may be reused in the future or recycled to reclaim the remaining minerals. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

The damage that mining did, and is still doing, in Colorado’s high country is evident from the comfort of a drive-by in vehicles that rely on all those metals, as travelers climb from the flowing slopes of Copper Mountain ski area up Fremont Pass toward Leadville. The Climax molybdenum mine has for a century gouged, pummeled, poured and drained the majestic Tenmile Range and the valley floors below. 

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Molybdenum gathered from the Climax mine is added to stainless steel to make it more durable in such applications as transportation, construction and agriculture. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

There’s a simple explanation for the unnatural colors, the exploded horizon, the artificial contours that catch the eye between Leadville and Copper Mountain: It takes 2,000 pounds of ore to get 5 pounds of molybdenum. And our appetite for metal — not “someone else’s appetite,” but all of ours — appears endless. The steel-strengthening, lead-colored powder is essential not just for “old” industries, but for solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars, train rails — the list is as long as the regulations that control modern mining. 

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The discharge of processed water, filled with minerals mixed with sulfur, potassium and metallic elements, from a Climax mine pipeline flows toward retention ponds. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

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Topsoil rich in natural iron content, which colors it red, is salvaged from the Climax mine stockpiled nearby. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

While Climax will clearly be a centurieslong reclamation project, it’s also very much a current, thriving, round-the-clock economic engine for the central Colorado mountain communities. Moly demand has 24/7 shifts of 370 people digging and pulverizing rock 365 days a year, under the direction of multinational mining giant Freeport-McMoRan. Climax says the mine and its sister moly mine at Henderson have an annual economic impact of nearly $450 million in Colorado. 

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A stockpile of topsoil awaits for reclamation process at the base of Climax mine. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Surely it can’t be great that all those heavy metals and industrial chemicals flow downhill toward Summit County’s biggest towns. In a state where we’re warned not to put one foot on Alpine tundra for fear of setting arid plants back a decade, how many years will it take to reclaim tiers of hard rock benches pulled down in 40-foot increments?

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The Climax mine began operating nearly a century ago. It fills ponds along Colorado 91 with tailings waste left over after molybdenum is milled. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

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A stream of minerals flows into the tailing ponds from the mine in the former town of Kokomo. Though many people know molybdenum as an essential component of stainless steel, it also is a trace element found in foods such legumes and grains that helps the body process proteins, alcohol, drugs and toxins, nutrition experts say. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

The state says it is watching carefully, with numerous water monitoring requirements on Climax and updated mining reclamation bonds of $92 million. Climax is building new environmental containment projects below its tailings ponds, and “multiple reclamation test plot projects” are underway, according to state health regulators. Climax is in compliance with the water quality permit that controls discharges into Tenmile Creek, the state said.

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Tailings storage areas have sludge cells used to contain water as it is being treated. The storage cells with red colors are a result of iron removed from the water, while the yellow-colored material is typical tailings, which is ground rock that remains after molybdenum has been removed. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Climax says the evidence of an ongoing commitment to reclamation, even as they dig deeper and deeper into the mountain, is in each of these aerial photos. New scars of red, iron-rich soil in high meadows are places where healthy topsoil is scraped and stored to eventually cover spent tailings piles. Geometric road grids in tan fields of crushed rock are for spray trucks to keep the dust down. One valley floor habitat is being regrown with a mix of biosolids from Summit County’s human waste, wood chips from local beetle-killed pines and that red-tinged topsoil. 

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The mine salvages the available topsoil after it is dug up from mountain sides during the mining operations. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

The average hiker or camping tourist may have to squint hard to see the future of reclamation atop Fremont Pass. The scars are deep. What we can hope for, years if not decades from now, is a follow-up aerial photo shoot that can pinpoint hope in the “before” and “after.” 

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Mine managers say their tailing pond design, seen here, takes a proactive approach to protecting natural waters. An intricate system of channels diverts storm runoff and snowmelt around the pond and discharges it downstream. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Designed by Eric Lubbers.

MONTROSE COUNTY — The warm late October sunshine brought good fortune to farmers working long hours to harvest Colorado’s last major row crop of the year with a deadline to make red, yellow and white onions available for Thanksgiving recipes and Christmas dinner tables across the country.

Colorado is one of the largest producers of onions by volume in the U.S., due in part to state’s ideal climate for growing and storing the kitchen staple throughout the fall and winter months.

In Montrose County, the threat of fall freezing temperatures, combined with the deadline for foreign labor to return to Mexico, has increased the push to turn hundreds of acres of onions into a bagged commodity, ready for transport to markets across Colorado and the United States.

“The onions are doing very well this year, we’re behind getting them in, but the good Lord has given us a big window to finish up without problems. We’re all pleased that we are getting this kind of October,” said John Harold, who with his son, David, is one of about six large onion producers on the Western Slope.

Onion farmer David Harold looks just under the top layer of soil for signs of onion seedling growth in May 2023.

ABOVE: Onion farmer David Harold looks just under the top layer of soil for signs of onion seedling growth in May 2023.

A worker walks behind a large mechanical harvester crossing a field of yellow onions, kicking up debris from a field on Oct. 20.

BELOW: A worker walks behind a large mechanical harvester crossing a field of yellow onions, kicking up debris from a field on Oct. 20.

This time last year, Harold said his workers were “balls to the walls,” with only hours to spare between 7 million and 8 million pounds of onions harvested and multiple days of hard freeze.

Onions can handle a little frost, but much more beyond that and the crop could be too damaged to harvest. 

Harold, whose company Tuxedo Corn grows the popular Olathe Sweet brand sweet corn, this year expects to move 8.5 million pounds of onions from 200 acres of soil into bags and storage facilities, which works out to about 42,500 pounds per acre.

Onions are usually planted beginning in late March through mid-April and harvested beginning in late September and into October.

“It’s been a long season, but it needed to be because we had a late spring,” Harold said.

Dozens of onions are seen in a reflection on the glasses of a worker in an onion field near Falcon Road near Olathe.

Workers sort rocks from onions as they are harvested from a field.

Farmer John Harold watches as freshly harvested red onions are bagged at a sorting facility in Olathe on Oct. 16.

ABOVE: Dozens of onions are seen in a reflection on the glasses of a worker in an onion field near Falcon Road near Olathe. MIDDLE: Workers sort rocks from onions as they are harvested from a field. BELOW: Farmer John Harold watches as freshly harvested red onions are bagged at a sorting facility on Oct. 16.

According to the National Onion Association, farmers in the United States plant approximately 125,000 acres of onions each year and produce about 6.75 billion pounds of onions annually. Colorado’s higher altitude and colder winter months keep insect and plant diseases at bay, thereby reducing pesticide use and ensuring high-quality onions, according to Colorado State University.

This year David Harold installed miles of drip irrigation tubing in some onion fields as a way to use water more efficiently. The drip irrigation system was imported from overseas and is designed to put each water drop directly onto the seedling as it matures into a bulb onion plant. As the seeds began to sprout in early May, David was out on his hands and knees daily to make sure the fragile onion seedlings were growing as they should.

David said the fields with drip irrigation didn’t perform as well as he would have liked, but added he is open to the idea of trying again to see whether drip irrigation can be incorporated in the operation long term. Of course, adding anything into the growing process only cuts into the already thin profit margins farmers like the Harolds face on an annual basis.

Back under the warm fall sunshine, workers harvest by either bagging the onions into retired 50-pound burlap coffee bags or by using a large mechanical harvester that is pulled behind a tractor. The harvester uses a conveyor system to lift the onions from the soil and into a truck. Workers on top of the machine work to pull rocks from getting into the onion stream.  

Every so often rocks will jam inside the machine bringing production to a halt. Sometimes the stoppage is for five minutes, other times, these breakdowns can last for hours. Time is a commodity the Harolds don’t have much of as all their workers from Mexico are days away from returning home.

Once the truck is full, the onions are then shipped to Harold’s sorting shed.

Workers sort rocks from onions as they flow from a truck into a storage facility.

ABOVE: Workers sort rocks from onions as they flow from a truck into a storage facility.

Farmer John Harold walks past bags containing 50-pounds of yellow onions.

BELOW: Farmer John Harold walks past bags containing 50-pounds of yellow onions.

“It’s going to be a tight squeeze to get it all done before the labor heads back to Mexico,” John Harold said. “Hopefully we’ll finish up around (October) 28, 29, then they have 10 days to get home. After the 31st they can’t work anymore.”

Just as quickly as they are harvested, pallets of 50-pound bags are loaded onto trucks for shipment across the country. The Harolds will keep about 7 million pounds in their storage facility to be shipped throughout the winter. Colorado storage onions are generally harvested and shipped from September through March, with other specialty varieties available seasonally.

David Harold said the company will work through the storage of onions until about March, then the whole process will start again.

Most onions produced by the Harolds are bound for restaurant suppliers who buy and ship millions of pounds of onions around the country. But many they grow will likely end up in holiday recipes on dinner tables across the United States.

Story and photography by William Woody, Special to The Colorado Sun. Design by Danika Worthington.

More than 700 runners raced in the 40th annual Leadville 100 Run last weekend, loping 100 miles across the Sawatch Range.

The runners lined up at 4 a.m. Saturday on Harrison Street in downtown Leadville and trotted along pavement for several miles around Turquoise Lake before digging into singletrack along the Colorado Trail. They climbed 15,000 vertical feet in their 100-mile push, with two notoriously brutal climbs, including an ascent of the 12,600-foot Hope Pass.

Known as the Race Across the Sky, the high elevation ultramarathon is one of the sport’s most storied and grueling challenges in endurance sports. It’s a cherished trophy for the world’s top ultra runners. This year Boulder 29-year-old JP Giblin finished in 17 hours, 7 minutes to win the men’s race. And 38-year-old Jacquie Mannhard, also from Boulder, won the women’s race with a time of 21 hours, 24 minutes.

Leadville 100 runners cross a creek on the return trip to Leadville during the race near Twin Lakes. The course challenges runners to climb at least 15,000 feet of vertical throughout the 100 miles. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

An adaptive Leadville 100 Run participant crosses Hope Pass, at 12,532 feet above sea level, during the 100 mile run event. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

A Leadville 100 participant, with blood streaming down from the knee, crosses a creek on the return trip to Leadville. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

ABOVE: A Leadville 100 runner cools down in a creek as a fellow participant walks past. BOTTOM: People cheer on the Leadville 100 runners in Twin Lakes. Fans and friends of the racers show up in support throughout the 100 mile run course between Twin Lakes and Leadville. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Ken Chlouber and Merilee Maupin founded the Leadville 100 race in 1983 with hopes of sparking Leadville’s struggling up-and-down mining economy. The nearby Climax Mine had closed in 1982, leaving nearly everyone in town without work. 

That year, Chlouber lined up in Leadville with about 45 other runners for the first Race Across the Sky. Only 15 finished within the 30-hour time limit. Today, that 30-hour limit remains and is a goal for many of the racers. Nearly 200 runners finished in the final two hours Sunday morning. Hundreds did not make the 30-hour mark. 

The legendary Chlouber, who finished the Leadville 100 run 14 times, joined Maupin at the finish line Saturday night to congratulate the speediest runners on their accomplishment. They stayed through Sunday morning to high-five and hug every equally stoked runner who finished in under 30 hours.

The two founders have been at that finish line for every Leadville 100 Run race since 1983. Maupin, the race director from 1993 to 2010, to this day is the person to hang a medal around the neck of each person who crosses the finish line.

ABOVE: Leadville 100 race founders Ken Chlouber and Merilee Maupin congratulate a finisher Sunday morning. The pair has been to every race since its inception in 1983. BOTTOM: Leadville 100 Run participants, from left, Michele Perez-Lopez, of Broomfield, Ivan Schwendt, of Colorado Springs, and Don Brown, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, react after crossing the finish line on Sixth Street. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

As Saturday night stretched into Sunday morning, Maupin was stationed in a chair, looking west on Sixth Street for runners finishing the last, uphill leg of the punishing race. As each person emerged, she got up from her chair, dozens of medals hanging from her left forearm, and prepared to hug the exhausted athletes and help celebrate their part in Leadville’s high country legacy.

Colorado mountain travelers, start your engines. 

It’s taken weeks for crews to clear the winter’s snowfall from high-country passes, and several connectors are opening in time for Memorial Day drivers.

Snow scrapers across the state have cleared not just the winter’s snow but recent accumulation from spring storms to get roads open by the holiday weekend. On Rocky Mountain National Park’s Trail Ridge Road, which tops out at 12,183 feet, they plowed through drifts as deep as 12 feet. On Highway 82’s Independence Pass between Aspen and Twin Lakes, avalanche teams used explosives to mitigate danger before road-clearing teams began carving through the winter’s bounty earlier this month.

“We didn’t have a lack of storms,” Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Stacia Sellers said, noting a spring storm that dumped 12 heavy inches of snow on Colorado 82 above Aspen. “Also, the snow has had a lot of water in it, which makes it heavy and harder to clear from the roadway. The heavy snow has also meant that sometimes the avalanche danger is too high for crews to be out plowing on the roadway.”

CDOT opened the 12,095-foot Independence Pass to cars on Thursday. Rocky Mountain National Park opened Trail Ridge Road on Thursday as well. Gunnison County Public Works earlier this week announced its crews had cleared the pavement that climbs to 12,126 feet on Cottonwood Pass connecting Gunnison County with Buena Vista and the road opened Thursday. The county did not announce an opening for Kebler Pass, a dirt road that connects Crested Butte with Delta County. (The other Cottonwood Pass between Gypsum and the Roaring Fork Valley opened May 15.)

CDOT expects to have the Mount Evans Highway to the 14,265-foot summit open by Friday, as well as Guanella Pass, which reaches 11,669 feet above Georgetown. 

“Clearing the road is a sign of spring,” said Rocky Mountain National Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson, describing the Estes Park locals who pedal and stroll Trail Ridge Road in the weeks before it opens to cars. 

It’s the same for Independence Pass, with Aspen locals flocking to the pavement in the weeks before cars crowd the narrow mountain pass. The annual Ride for the Pass drew more than 125 pedalers on May 20. Dozens of backcountry skiers ride e-bikes up the pass in the weeks before cars, offering rare adventure access. 

“A super great gift we locals have this time of year,” said Mike Tierney, a Roaring Fork Valley legend who races his unicycle up the pass every spring. 

This story first appeared in The Outsider, the premium outdoor newsletter by Jason Blevins. In it, he covers the industry from the inside out, plus the fun side of being outdoors in our beautiful state.

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TOP: Models Chelsea Floyd, left, and Dexter Stallworth, model on-mountain gear. BOTTOM: Boots and coats set the mood for après-ski fun in high-end Western style .

TOP: Henri Rivers, president of National Brotherhood of Skiers, wears the 2001 Winter Carnival shirt. MIDDLE: Models wait in the dressing room for their turn on the runway. BOTTOM LEFT: “50 Shades of Chocolate” was the theme of the fashion show this year. BOTTOM RIGHT: Western and city chic intersect in model Ron Coleman’s ensemble of denim pants and a fur bomber.