The 10 biggest adventure moments of 2006

Brian Metzler, Special to the News

Published January 2, 2007 at midnight

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How will you remember 2006? Did you get a record number of days on the slopes? Did you finish you first marathon or record a new PR? Check another Fourteener off your list? Or ascend a new climbing route? Here's a list of this year's most prominent achievements in action, adventure and endurance sports with state ties.

Action sports

The 10th edition of ESPN's Winter X Games in Aspen was chock-full of highlights, as usual. Two of the most compelling victories were turned in by snowboard king Shaun White and freeskier Tanner Hall. White won the Snowboard Superpipe event by nailing a 21-foot backside air followed by three 1080s. Hall won the Skiing SuperPipe 10 months after a backcountry accident in Utah in which he broke both ankles and was told he might never ski again.

Skiing

Toby Dawson, of Vail, surprised everyone but himself when he won the bronze medal in the moguls competition at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. While teammates Jeremy Bloom, Travis Mayer and Travis Cabral got more attention before the Games, it was Dawson who came home with the hardware. His medal-winning run included two 720-degree airs, including a variation of the off-axis Dinner Roll made famous by American Jonny Moseley at the 2002 Winter Games.

Cycling

Tom Danielson, of Durango, had a breakthrough year on the international cycling circuit. He finished second overall in the Tour de Georgia and won the overall title in the Tour of Austria. But his brightest moment came in September, when he finished sixth in the Vuelta a España - the best finish by an American in that event since 2001. Although he lost time early in the race, he came on strong and won Stage 17.

Trail running

The U.S. women's team won the World Mountain Running Trophy (trail running's de facto world championship) in Bursa, Turkey, in September, with help from Nederland's Lisa Goldsmith, who was fourth among American runners and 30th overall. Also of note, the top American male runner was Alamosa's Simon Gutierrez, who was 10th in the men's race and helped the U.S. men to a best-ever fifth-place showing.

Adventure racing

Colorado-based Team Nike-Powerblast continued its dominance in multisport expedition adventure racing by winning the world's three biggest events: Primal Quest (420 miles, Moab, Utah), the Adventure Racing World Championship (500 miles, Sweden/Norway) and the Raid World Championship (620 miles, Quebec). Included on the roster of athletes that competed were Mike Kloser (Vail), Ian Adamson (Boulder), Sari Anderson (Carbondale), Monique Merrill (Breckenridge) and Dave Wiens (Gunnison).

Misc.

In September, the multitalented Merrill completed an impressive string of performances in which she earned six top-10 finishes in six world championships in three sports dating to 2005. Included are adventure racing (a win with team Nike-Powerblast in 2006, plus a second and a third in 2005), ski mountaineering (two top-10 finishes in 2006) and off-road triathlon (ninth in 2005).

Swimming

In July, Matt Moseley, of Boulder, swam 47.5 miles down the Colorado River from Moab, Utah, to the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers in Canyonlands National Park - in less than 17 hours. "With about 6 miles left, my arms started feeling like meat grinders," he said.

Mountain biking

Nat Ross continued to make his mark in the increasingly popular category of 24-hour racing. The Vail resident posted victories in Temecula, Calif., Landahl, Mo., and Moab, Utah, and in July, he finished second to five-time world champion Chris Eatough in the U.S. championship race in Wausau, Wis.

Triathlon

Boulder architect Seth Wealing won the Xterra off-road triathlon national championship race in the Lake Tahoe region of Nevada in early October, then placed third at the world championship in Maui, Hawaii, later in the month. Also impressive was Vail's Josiah Middaugh, who placed seventh at nationals and fourth at worlds just four months after major knee surgery.

Marathon running

If he finishes the Run for the Ranch Marathon on Sunday in Springfield, Mo., Dane Rauschenberg of Virginia will have completed one marathon every week for 52 weeks. Among those races were the Estes Park Marathon on June 18 and the Leadville Trail Marathon on July 1. At Leadville, his slowest of the bunch, he finished 33 minutes ahead of Mississippi's Sam Thompson, who proceeded to run 50 more marathons during the next 50 days. Dean Karnazes, of San Francisco, also ran 50 marathons in 50 days in 2006 - including the Boulder Backroads Marathon on Sept. 23 - but then decided to run from New York City back to California.

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