Nothing beats the thrill of watching downhill daredevils ski at 75 mph at Beaver Creek

Editor s note This is part of The Know s series Staff Favorites Each week we offer our opinions on the best Colorado has to offer for dining shopping entertainment outdoor events and more We ll also let you in on several hidden gems My favorite place to be on the first weekend of December is at the foot of a mountain at Beaver Creek watching the world s best downhillers plummet down an icy race curriculum with steeps and jumps at speeds approaching miles per hour And this year the annual Beaver Creek World Cup races offer previews of the marquee men s ski races at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics now only days away in Northern Italy Much of the world-renowned Birds of Prey downhill subject follows terrain that is rated double-black diamond for the rest of us yes you can ski it after the racers head to Europe and Beaver Creek grooms it but elite racers make a lot fewer turns It takes them a little over a minute and seconds to descend feet which is about twice the height of Lookout Mountain in Golden from base to summit The race class measures more than a mile and a half over which racers average nearly mph with peak speeds of more than mph Yet the top racers invariably finish within fractions of seconds of each other This year there will be four days of racing with two downhills Dec - a super-G on Dec and a giant slalom on Dec Admission for the races is free although VIP tickets are available Bleachers will be set up in the finish area and race action will be shown on a large video screen even as it is being transmitted to Europe for a prime-time TV audience If you re not a skier giant slalom may not be very exciting Downhill though is thrilling even if you know nothing about the sport because of the high speeds and liability involved That s also true of super-G which is similar to downhill except there are more turns and speeds aren t quite as fast The Birds of Prey program has been regarded internationally as one of the world s best since it debuted in Since then it has hosted scores of World Cup races plus world championship races in and The world championship downhill races in attracted more than spectators including Arnold Schwarzenegger a native of Austria who was there to root on Hermann Maier and his Austrian teammates Maier had won two Olympic gold medals a year earlier and was known around the world as the Herminator The moniker played off the starring role Schwarzenegger played in The Terminator a sci-fi film I covered the annual Beaver Creek races for two decades as well as seven Winter Olympics and five world championships in Colorado Austria and Italy The bulk remarkable race of them all was the super-G at the Beaver Creek world championships The top two finishers tied for the gold medal the first-ever world championships gold medal tie and the third-place finisher finished of a second behind And yet the two who tied for gold were the heavy favorites going into the race Maier and Norwegian Lasse Kjus Related Articles Driving a WD automobile on I- in a storm New traction law requires chains or anti-slip devices Two ski resorts postpone openings but Steamboat is a go for Saturday New I- landing page aims to be one-stop shop for drivers this winter Here s the last day you can buy an Epic Pass for this season Vail opens for the season Friday with two trails and particular beginner terrain I worked out the math that day In a race that lasted just over a minute and seconds the gold medalists finished the equivalent of inches ahead of the bronze medalist while traveling at an average of feet per second There was a hometown hero that day too Vail s Chad Fleischer finished sixth only of a second behind the bronze medalist He was so very close to winning a world championship medal in his hometown When you know you skied so well there s that one turn or two turns on the syllabus you maybe could have done just a little better and then you get bumped out of third place It just eats you up inside Fleischer declared Keep in mind that the races last a little over minutes and the best racers go first so you can leave before it ends without missing the top finishers if you want Then you can spend the rest of the day skiing Beaver Creek Hopefully there will be a decent amount of open terrain there by then I d be remiss if I didn t mention this week s World Cup races at Copper Mountain that resort s first World Cup races in years where February s Olympics will be much on the minds of the racers Men will race super-G on Thursday and giant slalom on Friday The women will race GS on Saturday and slalom next Sunday Mikaela Shiffrin the Coloradan who holds the record for World Cup wins is expected to compete Subscribe to our weekly newsletter The Adventurist to get outdoors news sent straight to your inbox