VAIL — Registration is now open for June’s GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, which will feature 30-plus mountain events in more than 12 different disciplines.
The GoPro Mountain Games is expected to bring 80,000-plus spectators, 3,000-plus athletes and three nights of free concerts to the annual celebration of athletes, art, music and mountains from June 6-9 in Vail. People of all ages and abilities can participate in fishing, kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, rafting, climbing, mountain biking, road cycling, trail running, disc golf, dog events, yoga, photography and more.
Registration for all events opened Wednesday at noon. Organizers are offering early-bird pricing for those who log on and sign up for their favorite event soon.
“Vail is buried in snow right now and looks like the perfect winter wonderland, but as any Mountain Games veteran will tell you, this is also the time of year when mountain-dwellers from around the world start gearing up, training and looking ahead to the kickoff to summer at the GoPro Mountain Games,” said Dave Dressman, vice president of sponsorship and sales for the Vail Valley Foundation, the nonprofit that organizes the event.
What’s new
• The GoPro Mountain Games will welcome an all-new bike event when the Short Track Relay takes place at Golden Peak on June 7. This event will consist of two-person teams navigating a course-combination of dirt, short singletrack, grass and pavement, which means cross-country or cyclocross bikes are best suited for this event. Juniors, men/women and pro/elite categories are all available. The event has a total prize purse of $9,000, and the first five teams to register will receive two $50 gift cards to Sweet Protection or Craniologie. All registrants will receive a 20 percent discount to SweetProtection.com.
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Catch Wars: The best guides in the business can face off against one another at the Catch Wars competition on June 6 on the Edwards-to-Wolcott stretch of the Eagle River.
• Also, new this year, winners of the Costa Fly-Tying competition will qualify for June 9’s finals competition.
• Fly-tying winners will join winners from the Pro Guide Wars as well as winners from the Costa 2 Fly X-Stream casting competition on June 7-8.
Kids now have a fishing competition of their own with Kids’ Catch & Cast fishing event at Bighorn Park in East Vail. The pond will be stocked ahead of the event, in preparation for some catch-and-release fishing.
The grueling Pepi’s Face-Off hill climb will only have one wave (instead of two) and will include all GMC Ultimate Mountain Challenge competitors (see more about the GMC Ultimate Mountain Challenge below.)
• More prizes are now available in the Road Bike Time Trial. New timed segments are being added to the course, and the fastest men’s and women’s riders through those sections can win additional prizes.
Mountain Masters Disc Golf will have an additional round of competition added to its schedule, and the event will boast two 18-hole courses, a nine-hole course and a skills challenge.
• In addition to more than $120,000 in cash prizes at the Mountain Games, Yeti will provide all first place podium finishers, male and female, with a Yeti Panga 50 Duffel.
• Youth whitewater participants will now have their own category in the GMC Downriver Kayak Sprint and GMC Downriver SUP Sprint competitions.
• The free TIAA Bank Kids’ X-Country Mountain Bike will have a bit more elbow room this year with the addition of more categories.
• The 2019 GoPro Mountain Games will feature an all-new take on the GMC Ultimate Mountain Challenge. Each competitor will “choose their own adventure” by selecting five qualifying events of their choice June 6-8. On June 9, all UMC competitors will take on the Pepi’s Face-Off hill climb in a head-to-head showdown to determine who will take their share of the $11,500 prize purse.
To learn more about the 2019 GoPro Mountain Games or to register, go to MountainGames.com.