Colorado Rocky Mountain School

CRMS Graduate Competing on the World Mountain Bike Stage

2010-08-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

Mitch Hoke, a 2006 graduate of Colorado Rocky Mountain School from Evergreen, Colorado, has been nominated by USA Cycling to represent the United States at the UCI World Mountain Bike Championship Races in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec. He will join the five other top U23 cross-country riders the race on September 3, 2010. The weekend before the Championship races, he will compete in the final World Cup race of the season at Windham, New York.

Mitch, who made the podium twice at the recent US National Mountain Bike Championship in Sol Vista Colorado, was a member of the CRMS state championship team during high school. He began his racing career at the school and continued to compete competitively while a student at Colorado College where he will graduate in December of this year with a degree in Environmental Science. During high school Mitch did his three-week senior project working with an organization that provides bikes for people without cars in New Orleans just a few months after the Katrina disaster. Mitch is sponsored by Tokyo Joes as well as Cliff Bars for his cyclocross racing. He currently works for Bicycle Outfitters in Evergreen and spent two summers with Ute City Cycles in Aspen and Carbondale.

CRMS Alum Sprouting the Future of Agriculture in the West

2010-06-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

CARBONDALE — From a plot of tilled earth outside of Carbondale could sprout the future of agriculture in the West, not to mention an environmentally friendly fuel source.

So far, though, it looks like dirt with a few weeds poking through.

The plot at Flying Dog Ranch off Prince Creek Road has been carefully planted with the seeds of a variety of low-maintenance perennial grasses — four mixes of plants like switchgrass, orchardgrass, timothy, wheatgrass, tall fescue and others — in a scheme that's being duplicated in Rifle and Fruita. Cacti are also part of the experiment in Fruita.

This summer is the first of five growing seasons for a project spearheaded by the Carbondale-based Flux Farm Foundation. The nonprofit is part of the Western Colorado Carbon Neutral Bioenergy Consortium, also involving Colorado State University, Colorado Mountain College and the city of Rifle.

For the project, CSU faculty selected crop varieties not typically considered for bioenergy production. They are, however, ones that could do well in the region's marginal soils, said Morgan Williams, Flux Farm executive director.

Simply put, the four growing sites will be carefully controlled to determine which plant mixes do best with varying degrees of irrigation and fertilizer.

“We're really trying to minimize irrigation requirements, fertilizer requirements and tractor time in the field because each of those requires resources,” Williams said.

The idea is to produce a healthy crop of plant material that can be converted to butanol as inexpensively as possible.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also involved, monitoring how much carbon is absorbed by the plants and transferred into the soil. The hope is a carbon-neutral fuel — one that doesn't add to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide has been identified as a greenhouse gas linked to climate change, but the Flux Farm Foundation's emphasis isn't on what's in the atmosphere. Rather, it's about what's in the ground — hopefully a new, viable agricultural opportunity in the West, Williams said.

The foundation was founded in 2006 by Williams and former Woody Creek resident George Stranahan, now of Carbondale. Williams was irrigating Stranahan's property in Woody Creek (also called Flying Dog Ranch) when the two got to talking about what could be done with agriculture and energy, said Williams, who grew up in Carbondale and attended Colorado Rocky Mountain School. He holds degrees in biology and chemistry.

The biomass project will send the crop to CMC's Western Garfield campus in Rifle, where processing equipment has been built to convert it into butanol and train students in its Integrative Energy Technology Program simultaneously.

Williams anticipates experiments in blending gasoline and butanol, though vehicles can run on straight butanol without any modification to their engines, he said.

The city of Rifle has agreed to use the fuel in its vehicle fleet. The project is of interest to Rifle both because it presents an opportunity for area farmers and ranchers to diversify their incomes, and because it could lead to job creation through a new industry centered on turning the biomass into biofuel, said Charlie Stevens, the city's utilities director.

Because the cost of trucking the grass a long distance would likely make growing it uneconomical, Williams envisions small, regional production facilities, and possibly mobile ones.

“Potentially, you could process it on site,” he said.

Flux Farm Foundation has received a $50,000 research grant from the Colorado Department of Agriculture and $25,000 in matching funds to start up the growing trials in Carbondale, Rifle and Fruita. That money will pay for the first two years, but a $1 million USDA grant is being sought to fund research, conversion and education for five years, he said.

Growing plants that can be converted into fuel is nothing new — ethanol from corn is an example, but that effort uses valuable farmland better suited to food production, according to Williams.

“It certainly can be done — you can grow your own fuel,” he said.

The question is, can places like Colorado grow perennial grasses on land with marginal soil, variable precipitation and lingering cold, and then turn it into fuel that can be profitably pumped into a gas tank.

Williams intends to find out.

janet@aspentimes.com

CRMS Graduation 2010

2010-06-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

The Colorado Rocky Mountain School Class of 2010 graduation ceremony took place at 10 am June 5th, on the lawn outside the Barn on the CRMS campus. Head of School Jeff Leahy presented the school’s traditional leather diplomas to 41 boarding and day seniors, and announced the senior Academic and Community awards (Courtney Bender of Basalt, CO was the recipient of both) as voted on by faculty. Once again, 100 percent of CRMS seniors have been accepted to college, matriculating to schools as diverse as University of Pennsylvania, Duke, University of Colorado, Vassar, Pomona and Middlebury College.

Click here for a link to Coffee House and Graduation slide shows, commencement speeches and more.

Interview: CRMS seniors experience Gulf Oil Spill firsthand

2010-05-27T07:56:00.001-07:00

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continue to leak and looks to be the worst environmental disaster in the nation's history. Colorado Rocky Mountain School seniors Jared Carlson and Luke Newbury are working on a documentary about the spill. KDNK's Conrad Wilson spoke to Jared from New Orleans.

http://www.kdnk.org/article.cfm?mode=detail&id=1274889213163

CRMS Graduate Competing on the World Mountain Biking Stage

2010-05-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

Mitch Hoke, CRMS 06, will compete in his first World Cup Mountain Bike Race in Offenburg, Germany on May 22 -23. A senior environmental science major at Colorado College, Mitch began competitive cycling at CRMS where he was a 4-year boarding student from Evergreen, Colorado. He was a member of the CRMS bike team that won the State Championship in his sophomore year. Mitchell hopes to make the under 23 USA team for the World Cup Championship to be held at Mont-Sainte-Anne Quebec, Canada over Labor Day weekend this year. He will be competing in the Mellow Johnnys Classic at Lance Armstrong’s Texas ranch at the end of the month and another World Cup in Windham, New York later this summer along with numerous other races. Mitchell is sponsored by Tokyo Joes for cross country racing and Cliff Bars for cyclocross.

Colorado Rocky Mountain School students plan to gather youth perspectives on Gulf disaster

2010-05-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

John Stroud
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado

CARBONDALE, Colorado — Colorado Rocky Mountain School seniors Jared Carlson and Luke Newbury had already planned to travel to New Orleans this spring to help build Habitat for Humanity houses for their senior service project.

But the recent oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and its impacts in the Gulf Coast region presented another opportunity for the aspiring young filmmakers.

“The oil spill changed our focus a little bit,” Carlson said. “Now, we'll also be filming a documentary, focusing on the youth of Louisiana and some of their perspectives.

Complete story is here.

CRMS student wins state Shakespeare Monologue Competition and is headed to NYC

2010-03-02T08:18:00.001-08:00

“NEW YORK IS CALLING.” Congratulations to Caelina Eldred-Thielen, who took first place this weekend at the State Shakespeare Monologue Competition at the University of Denver. Caelina competed against 12 other high school students from around the state of Colorado. She presented her CRMS competition-winning Shakespeare comic monologue, portraying Viola from “Twelfth Night,” along with Shakespeare’s Sonnet number 23. Her performance was personal and touching. She performed a stand-out monologue with a genuine and real representation of her character. By winning the state competition, Caelina now receives an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City (April 22 -25) to compete nationally against over 50 other high school students from around the country. The monologue competition is held at the famous Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The winner of the national competition receives a summer session to study theatre at Oxford University in England. Congratulations from CRMS and welcome to the Big Apple!

Himalayan Study on Rate of Erosion Presentation & Slide Show

2010-02-15T12:58:00.001-08:00

Colorado Rocky Mountain School’s Kayo Ogilby

Wednesday, February 24^th, 7:00 pm at Dos Gringos, Carbondale, CO

From teaching the life and physical sciences to coaching kayaking, mountain unicycling and telemark skiing, Colorado Rocky Mountain School’s Kayo Ogilby is as talented as he is academically and athletically diverse. Born and raised in Vail, CO, after graduating from college in 1996 he returned to Colorado and took a position at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, where he has been teaching and coaching ever since.

During his first year teaching at CRMS Kayo met student Burch Fisher who he shared many common interests with from competitive kayaking to telemark skiing to geology. After Burch graduated from CRMS, he attended Middlebury where he majored in Geology and then went on to get a Masters degree from Dartmouth and a PhD from UC Santa Barbara. Over the years, Kayo and Burch stayed in touch, including while Kayo was getting his Masters degree at Columbia during a one-year sabbatical from CRMS. But most recently, Burch was able to secure a grant from GSA for a geologic research trip to the Himalaya and it included funding for a high school teacher to accompany him as a research assistant - Kayo was his obvious choice.

This past fall, Kayo and Burch headed to northern India with a geologic expedition to determine if the amount of precipitation a mountain range receives has any bearing on the rate in which the mountain uplifts and subsequently erodes. Kayo will be presenting their team’s finding in addition to showing photos from their extraordinary trip to one of the wildest and most remote corners of the world, where road slides dictate travel options and a several day trek with hundreds of pounds of gear is a way of life. Please join us for Kayo’s photos and stories of this once-in-a-lifetime trip and research opportunity.

For more information on Colorado Rocky Mountain School please go to www.crms.org

Colorado Rocky Mountain School Athletes State Championship-Bound

2010-02-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

Colorado Rocky Mountain School wants to congratulate and wish the following student-athletes good luck at the upcoming 2010 Colorado High School State Skiing Championships. The Nordic and alpine championship schedule is as follows:

February 18 – GS (Giant Slalom) at Keystone at 9:30 am

February 18 - Nordic Classic at Frisco at 2:00 pm

February 19 - Slalom at Keystone at 9:30 am

February 19 - Nordic Skate at Frisco at 2:00 pm

The following CRMS students will be competing in their respective sports:

Gus Griffin (Junior) - Nordic Skate & Classic

Sam Kaufman (Junior) - Nordic Skate & Classic

Jacqueline Larouche (Sophomore) - Nordic Skate & Classic

Kyra Gabow (Senior) - Giant Slalom & Slalom

Mackenzie Small (Freshman) - Giant Slalom & Slalom

Justine Timms (Freshman) - Giant Slalom & Slalom

Ethan Cranmer (Senior) - Giant Slalom & Slalom

Ludvig Ragnarsson (Junior) - Giant Slalom & Slalom

For more information on the CRMS competitive and recreational winter sports program please go to http://www.crms.org/outdoor/winter-sports/

Local Youth Discuss “Is High School Preparing Us for the World Beyond?”

2010-02-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Stacy Stein, 963-0139, radiovltn@yahoo.com

While educators have been demanding reforms in our public schools for decades, youth are just simply wondering “ what is high school preparing me for anyways?” While the high school setting is the center for most teens' social experimentation, academic endeavors, and extracurricular accomplishments, youth are often still impressed by and overwhelmed with a world of large issues. A world that will soon be theirs to deal with, whether high school prepared them or not. The Andy Zanca Youth Empowerment Program (AZYEP) and KDNK have created a youth panel to discuss students' concerns about their high school education and the social and global issues that they face beyond their classrooms.

The public is invited to a meeting of the Youth Panel at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School's Barn on Wednesday, February 24 at 6:00 pm. Representatives from five area high schools, including four students from CRMS, will discuss the effectiveness of high school in preparing youth for a challenging future, how youth can currently make a difference in the world, and which social issues pose the greatest obstacles in the lives of high school students. The youth panel will explore what works, what does not and where do we go from here to create schools and communities that lift up and empower youth to embrace the challenges both present and future. The event is free. Donations support youth radio broadcast education.

Join us for two great nights of film

2010-02-10T15:14:00.001-08:00

Colorado Rocky Mountain School celebrates its 10^th year hosting the world-renowned environmental and adventure film festival, Telluride MountainFilm on Tour. This year’s event takes place at 7:30 pm February 12^th and 13^th at the CRMS Barn in Carbondale.

MountainFilm at CRMS features 16 short films over two nights that spotlight diverse landscapes, perspectives, and cultures. From a first-ever solo sea-kayak adventure across the Tasmin Sea to an inspiring physician who is treating Ethiopian children with tuberculosis of the spine, this year’s tour will share stories of inspiration, perseverance, adventure, and global connectedness.

Advance tickets are now on sale at the Carbondale Recreation Center, Glenwood Music, and CRMS and cost $15 for adults and $10 for students/seniors. Thanks to our local sponsors, all proceeds will benefit CRMS’s distinctive curricular programs. Please go to www.crms.org for more information including the program for both evenings.

Colorado Rocky Mountain School seniors Cairo bound with Operation Smile

2010-01-28T10:54:00.001-08:00

Simon Isaacs, Colorado Rocky Mountain School class of 1999

2010-01-21T09:26:00.001-08:00

VICE PRESIDENT, CAUSE-MARKETING AND SUSTAINABILITY, ignition Inc

Simon Isaacs is a leading thinker in sustainability and cause-related marketing. Simon is a Vice President at ignition Inc where he leads the cause-marketing division, working with corporate and nonprofit brands develop and launch global awareness, fundraising and marketing campaigns around issues such as clean water, malaria, HIV/AIDS and education. Simon’s clients include the Coca-Cola Company, Gucci, Chick-Fil-A, BP, the World Wildlife Fund, the Ubuntu Education Fun, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Foundation among others. Simon also helps lead cause and sustainability work around the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Vancouver Olympics.

Simon previously lived in Rwanda where he worked for the William J. Clinton Foundation, directing safe drinking water and agriculture programs. Prior to Rwanda, Simon served as a Partnerships Officer at the United Nations Foundation where he raised and managed more than $30 million in corporate partnerships in support of the UN's disaster and development efforts. Simon is also responsible for helping to establish the Global Water Challenge.

Simon is an active climber and runner, placing 2nd in the San Francisco Marathon. In 2007, Simon ran on foot around the world as part of the Blue Planet Run to raise awareness and funds for the drinking water cause. In January, 2010, Simon is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with several celebrities and global influencers which is also part of a clean-water focused campaign. Simon is an expert blogger for Fast Company and is currently writing a book on cause-marketing.

To learn more about Colorado Rocky Mountain School go to www.crms.org

CRMS alumni on Time Magazine's Top 10 Fiction Book list

2010-01-06T10:26:00.000-08:00

Delta County Independent - Written by Kathy Browning

Wednesday, 30 December 2009 00:00

“Dude, you should check out what’s happening right now on Twitter.”

That was how Paonia author Paolo Bacigalupi learned TIME Magazine had ranked his book, “The Windup Girl” number nine for 2009.

Paolo Bacigalupi

“It was a thrill. It was pretty out of the blue,” Bacigalupi said.

He knew that a new book reviewer for TIME, Lev Grossman, had liked the book. Grossman wrote about it on his blog at www.Techland.com.

Bacigalupi received no official notice from TIME, but the news spread very fast. “It was up half an hour before I heard about it. It was fantastic news.”

He has enjoyed a couple of years of gaining recognition building his reputation in literary circles. A collection of short stories, “Pump Six and Other Stories,” came out last year. It was named Best Book of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly. He has won some major science fiction awards for his short stories, among them was a nomination for the Hugo Award.

“The Windup Girl” is his first published novel. “It was a complicated novel for me to write.” It took three years of steady work to finish the book. “I wasn’t really sure of the response it would get. I had the feeling when I finished it, that it was a little too much of a hybrid. In some ways it’s a classic style science fiction, but at the same time it is wandering through some pretty complicated questions in our society about environmentalism and the nature of humanity. Those issues get addressed in science fiction, but it doesn’t seem exactly the way I was doing it. I was concerned the novel was a little too literary for science fiction, and a little too science fiction for literary, and maybe a little too environmental for both,” he laughed. “I didn’t anticipate the response would be so positive. It’s going into its fourth printing.”

His publisher is Night Shade Books in San Francisco. They had handled his short story collection and made a big push to get his novel. “They did a great job of promoting it, and getting it out to people. They’ve been real champions for the idea of this book, which I think in a lot of ways, wasn’t an easy fit with bigger publishing houses,” he said. “It’s a little bit of an unlikely success for a book like this coming out from a small science fiction specialty house and get this kind of recognition.”

Raphel-Lacoste was the artist who did the artwork for the book cover. He does imagery for matte painting for movies and video games.

“It’s a puzzle when a reader picks up a book. You always have expectations what you are going to see. With certain genres it’s really easy to fulfill those expectations,” he shared. “When you start taking different forms and start putting them together and crossing over with different genre elements, you end up in some very interesting places, but they don’t necessarily fair well with people’s psyche.”

In “The Windup Girl,” Bacigalupi found it necessary to spend a good deal of time of world building to make this futuristic world seem real. In some ways the book is a political thriller while not automatically falling into that mold. The plot includes huge civil unrest resulting in explosive action.

As an author, Bacigalupi was willing to take the chance on combining elements from different styles. “I thought it would be a failure because it was too strange, too different.” Obviously, he now knows he was absolutely wrong in misjudging the reception by readers. They got it, and they liked it.

The book takes place in Bangkok, Thailand after global warming has occurred and sea levels have risen. Bangkok is a walled city with huge levees and dikes to protect it from the rising waters. At the same time, there have been worldwide agriculture plagues wiping out the food supply. Thailand has survived with their seed banks which other countries do not have. The calorie companies are trying to hunt down and find those banks with genetically diverse seed.

Bacigalupi was born in Colorado Springs, moving to Paonia when he was just six months old. He grew up on Sunshine Mesa. He attended Hotchkiss Middle School, Hotchkiss High School and Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale. It was at the last school where he learned how to write clean, tight prose. He thought he would be published by 25, but his first four novels all failed. He’s now 37 and his fifth novel sold. “Fifth time is the charm. I’ve been writing for about 14 years. It’s been a slow process.”

For more information, visit his website www.windupstories.com.

Balancing Intellect with a Moral Scope

2010-01-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

It is a common theme in independent school education that intellect must be balanced by a moral scope. I have always believed that Colorado Rocky Mountain School does an amazing job of preparing its students for college and later life by giving them a solid foundation in both areas. However, a recent dinner with an alumnus during my travels through Asia helped me to see it even better from a student's perspective.

This past fall during my trip to Tokyo, I had the pleasure of meeting Taro Tomisawa, a recent alumnus who currently works for a Japanese foundation. Taro was my guide that evening; not only through an unfamiliar cuisine but also in sharing what he felt was the unique educational gift that Colorado Rocky Mountain School had given him. As we savored our way through an assortment of dishes that required an explanation and an eating strategy, Taro surprised me with an impressive insight about CRMS. He told me that he has come to strongly believe that performing community service is one of the most important values that our school has to share with the world. He came to this conclusion after realizing that during his time here his sense of service became habitual and that since graduating from CRMS five years ago and attending Colorado College, he has found it challenging to find the opportunities to do more to improve the communities in which he has lived and worked.

As the Head of School, I have the unique opportunity of seeing first-hand the impact our program has on people. Alumni often tell me about the difference the CRMS experience has meant in their lives and the importance of the unique opportunities that were available to them. On occasion some alumni will reflect on the depth and breadth of our program and how they wish that they had been more involved and taken advantage of what was offered here. Others have lamented that, in retrospect, four years was simply not enough time. Most alumni ask that we never get rid of the household job and work crew programs, because they taught them skills that they would later need. Few, however, have framed it in the way that Taro did for me that evening in Tokyo. His assessment that CRMS is unique in that it inculcates the value of service through the entire program is something that we probably take for granted, because it is a part of our daily lives and culture.

In our most recent alumni newsletter, we highlight some wonderful programs that are a part of the school community as a result of the passion and interest of student leaders: Operation Smile, FaceAIDS, Soles 4 Souls, and Random Acts of Kindness. All of these student-initiated clubs do a wonderful job of getting us to think beyond ourselves. They hold true to the spirit of progressive education that seeks to create involved, knowledgeable, and skilled citizens.

Preparation for college begins with a strong academic foundation, but knowledge without an applied sense of value and purpose has a limited scope. This combination of knowledge and values is something that as educators we all believe in, but it is what Taro helped me to see in a different light that evening. My conversation with Taro has since had me thinking about this sense of service on a more day-to- day level, the very spirit of service from which these clubs and programs originate. For Taro it was simply a way of life, a habit, and a way of seeing the world. The value of service became so integral to Taro's life that he views it as the most important aspect of his CRMS experience.

Creating students who view service as a key part of their lives, so much so that they must seek it out to feel satisfied and complete, is ultimately what we are striving for. As we move into the second semester, it is important to remind ourselves that some of the mundane aspects of our lives (i.e. household jobs, work crews, cleaning the dormitories and rooms, and random acts of kindness) are really wonderful opportunities that if taken with an open mind will forge a life-long belief. This awareness was recently manifested in a student's noticing and acting upon a need that resulted in a group effort to provide a disabled neighbor with some new winter clothing. It is in the team spirit that was generated from hard-working soccer players and a school that supports them. It was in the way that the school finished the first semester strong with final exams, an exceptional art show, a band concert, and a climbing competition.

We look forward to continuing this legacy of education and service.

Jeff Leahy
Head of School

CRMS students headed for Duke and U Penn

2009-12-21T08:46:00.000-08:00

Colorado Rocky Mountain School would like to congratulate seniors Grady Lenkin and Courtney Bender on their Early Decision acceptances to Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively. One reason Grady selected Duke is because he believes that while their students are brilliant, they still lead balanced lives that go beyond their studies. Courtney has wanted to attend U Penn since she was a small child. She has family in the Philadelphia area and is looking forward to being part of a close-knit campus in a large city setting. We wish them both tremendous success in their college endeavors and beyond.

Wilderness Workshop Gala

2009-12-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

Five of our students are headed up to the Wheeler Opera House this Sunday to be honored by Congressman Salazar and the filmmakers of Forever Wild for the Wilderness Workshop essays they submitted. It promises to be a big night!

CRMS Featured in a New Book

2009-12-01T13:25:00.000-08:00

CRMS is prominently featured in a new book, Memoirs of a River ... Up the Crystal by author Charlotte Graham. Check out our valley's history and learn more about CRMS's beginnings.

Student-initiated Clubs and Efforts are Raising Funds and Awareness in our Community and Beyond

2009-12-01T13:24:00.000-08:00

Community service is a core value and has been a way of life at CRMS since its inception in 1953. John Holden said, “It is my firm belief that the happiest people in the world are those who serve their fellow man.” Our students have always been compelled and encouraged to go beyond the robust academic and active offerings, and to become productive, engaged members of our society. One such opportunity to contribute in a greater and meaningful way is through our student clubs. On a daily basis, CRMS students, despite their hectic school schedules, are reaching out and helping those less fortunate or simply in need of assistance. From Operation Smile and Face AIDS to Soles 4 Souls and Random Acts of Kindness, CRMS student-initiated clubs and efforts are raising funds and awareness in our community and beyond. Most recently there has been a tremendous amount of student interest in global humanitarian causes, and our clubs reflects this social awareness. For the rest of the story please go to http://www.crms.org/about/student-advocacy/

CRMS Students Start a Random Acts of Kindness Club

2009-11-13T09:36:00.001-08:00

Colorado Rocky Mountain School is an independent high school in the heart of the Rocky Mountains where student-initiated philanthropic clubs abound. From Operation Smile and Face Aids to Peace Jam and Souls4Souls, CRMS students continually expand their interest in, and fundraising efforts surrounding, global humanitarian causes. And while all these clubs enjoy strong membership, an amazing thing happened the other day when one student proposed starting a Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) chapter. Based on an international foundation that promotes kindness (established in 1995 as a 501c3 nonprofit organization) the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is a resource for people committed to spreading kindness.

So Grady, a CRMS senior, announces at a weekly all-school meeting that he would like to start a RAK chapter and to simply reply to his email if anyone is interested in being involved. Well, as a small school with only 145 students and 35 faculty/staff, over 55 people immediately responded and joined his effort. So one week into the new RAK club, over one-third of the school is involved in promoting kindness and unexpected gifts of gratitude.

For anyone out there who worries about our next generation of youth and the legacy they will leave for the world, I am constantly inspired and comforted by the intelligence, sensitivity and initiative of our high school students. For more information contact Lisa Raleigh (a proud member of the new CRMS RAK club).

Tele's Youth Movement

2009-11-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

Adventure Sports Journal - By Pete Gauvin • Photos by Kevin Klein

Telemark skiing is an addictive and challenging sport that most snow junkies discover only after years of alpine skiing and snowboarding. It might be the lure of the backcountry, the comfort of lighter weight gear, or the soulful, expressive style of the turn. Regardless, it’s largely an avocation of adults, twenty-somethings and up, often seasoned skiers and boarders that have plateaued and are looking for a fresh challenge.

Knee-dipping, heel-raising, box-sliding kids under 18? About as rare as a mountain lion sighting.

Except, that is, at Alpine Meadows, home to one of the few kids freeheel teams in the country. Under the tutelage of head coach and program brainchild Jason Layh, the Alpine Meadows’ program teaches kids to freeheel ski from the get go, not after the typical lengthy apprenticeship on alpine skis or snowboards.

Now entering its fifth season, the tele team has found its legs alongside traditional kids ski and snowboard teams as an established part of the Alpine Meadows Junior Development Program. From its beginning as an experimental seed in the 2005-06 season with eight kids, four boys and four girls, all still with the team, the program has gained notoriety and new students each year.

“After the first year every single kid was just thrilled and having the kids together out on the hill really turned heads,” says Layh, an affable Australian professional ski bum with a lengthy resume of credentials after many winters in both hemispheres as a ski partroller and instructor.

Sport, Not Race, Oriented

From early December to mid-April, the kids will spend about 50 days on snow with weekends and holidays combined. But unlike a lot of youth programs, the tele team (open to ages 10 to 18) does not focus on repetitive drills and running gates.

“We’re there primarily to have fun and explore the hill in ways that only telemarking can offer,” says Layh. “We don’t get bogged down with race training.”

“I was so happy it got going because if you want your kids to ski, and they aren’t into racing, this is perfect,” says Christine Hinkel, a Truckee resident whose 14-year-old daughter, Amory Harris, has been in the program since its inception. “They break out of the mold. It’s super fun, they get to be amazing skiers without the pressure of racing gates, and can still be competitive if they want to. It’s a big confidence builder to be able to do this sport and feel comfortable with it.”

“Jason is really great with the kids,” she adds. “He’s fun, professional, nurturing, understanding and gets the kids out there and loving it.”

Starting Small

Layh’s infectious enthusiasm has been the lifeblood of the program, but he started it out of his own self interest. After he discovered tele on his own in 2001, he was looking for a way he could stay in tele gear all season long rather than having to go back to stiff and restrictive alpine boots and bindings he wore as a freeride coach in the junior development program.

At the time, there were only a few other programs in the country that groomed kids to ski on freeheel gear: one in Mad River Glen, Vermont, an epicenter of the granola-head and flannel-clad telemark revival that trickled to life 30 years ago, and two at private schools in Colorado, Vail Mountain School and Colorado Rocky Mountain School. Recently, a couple new youth tele programs have also started in Utah, Layh says.

“We’re going to see the same explosion in freeheel skiing talent in another four to five years that we’ve been seeing in snowboarding and skiing,” Layh predicts. “Kids are doing stuff now I wouldn’t ever imagined doing.”

In the program’s second year, Layh was able to bring another eight kids on board, and add another coach, Chummy Prestowitz of Truckee.

“The team has been a life changing experience for me,” says Hannah Fasiang of Carson City, Nevada, now entering her fourth season on the team. “Not only has the team drastically improved my confidence in my skiing abilities, but I have also met some awesome new friends.”

In the first year of the program, kids develop basic skills on groomed terrain. In the second year, they’re introduced to riding off-piste and taught about all-mountain safety and terrain choice. In the third year, they learn advanced telemark and freeride skills, receive Level 1 avalanche training, and focus on skiing the entire mountain in all conditions. Further development is offered in park and pipe skiing, avalanche awareness, backcountry riding and freeskiing competitions.

“Most other skiers have taught themselves to tele and the learning curve is very slow,” Layh says. With the structured program, “the kids learn really quickly. It’s forced us to get better, too, otherwise the kids would soon surpass us.”

Last year at age 14, Fasiang was one of three team members to compete in their first national-level competition, the freeheel extreme championships in Crested Butte, Colorado.

“For me the experience has been both nerve-wracking and extremely fun,” she says. “Through the comps, I have met some amazing people from all different parts of the U.S. These experiences would not have happened if I wouldn’t have joined the team. The relationship I have with the coaches and other teammates does not end at the end of ski season, but continues throughout the year. The coaches are not only great at their job, they are also amazing friends and mentors.”

While the potential for injury exists, Layh believes there are fewer season-ending injuries with tele than with alpine skiing and snowboarding. Tele is more taxing on the muscles, but it’s easier on the joints, he says. That’s why he emphasizes that the kids get extra rest and they begin every day with stretching. So far, they’ve had no serious injuries.

The Gear Challenge

Age 10 is the lower limit for the kids tele program for some key reasons.

“Telemark skiing is the hardest of the snowsport disciplines,” Layh says. Kids needs to have some mental maturity and kinesthetic awareness to pick it up, not to mention strength. But more fundamental is the simple fact that most ski companies do not make freeheel gear that will fit small kids.

Indeed, finding affordable gear in sizes to keep fast growing kids in skis and boots has been one of the program’s biggest challenges. Justin Singer, a rep for Karhu skis, and Mike Schwartz, the owner of The BackCountry store in Truckee, were instrumental in providing equipment at discount rates to get the program off the ground.

“The first year we were able to get all the kids on boots, skis and bindings for $150 each,” Layh says.

Keeping outfitting costs low has been key in keeping parents on board and the program afloat, he stresses.

Last year, due to the skidding economy, every single team in Alpine’s Junior Development Program lost kids, except for the tele team, which picked up another four kids.

The bigger the program gets the easier it is to get gear from companies. And as their fleet of skis and boots grows, the gear can be handed down and resold from student to student, season to season. Layh also maintains a hotline connection to second-hand consignment shops, such as the Sports Exchange in Truckee and 9 Lives in Tahoe City, to alert him whenever junior-sized gear, often women’s gear, comes in.

This year, Layh hopes to have 25-30 kids in the program and add another coach, professional freeheeler Lorenzo Worster.

“We started forming a neat little community,” says Layh. And it’s growing with every genuflecting kid proving that kids can tele too.

For more information on the kids tele program, visit www.tahoefreeheel.com or Alpine Meadows’s website, www.skialpine.com. The program costs $1375 and includes a season pass.

CRMS Tele Team blog post

2009-10-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

Alumni Fueling the Fire...

There are CRMS Telemark Team Alumns out there killing it is so many passionate ways. Here a few on the immediate radar:

Luke Lubchenko, along with help from Nick Malik, Sam Stevens, and Dylan Smith, have started Fort Lewis college's first ever Telemark Club. Rumor has it that 80 people showed interest in signing up. Check them out on Facebook: Fort Lewis Pinheads Telemark Club

The CRMS Telemark Team was founded in 1994 as a result of student interest in the sport at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School. It is primarily a freeride team that strives to develop outstanding, beautiful skiers in all aspects of free-ride telemarking.

Click here for full blog post.

Colorado Rocky Mountain School students studying biodiversity and conservation via EcoFlight's Flight Across America

2009-10-21T09:01:00.001-07:00

Two Colorado Rocky Mountain School students took part in EcoFlight’s Flight Across America last week. The two students bravely flew to Jackson on a small Cessna, piloted by Bruce Gordon. This program (organized by Jane Pargiter and Krysia Carter-Giez) is designed to involve, and inform, high school age students about issues regarding biodiversity and conservation using flight and ground-based education. The goal is to introduce students to a broad range of perspectives and show them, via flight, how these issues personally impact their lives and the world around them. Jocelyne and Lea studied climate change as it relates to the Mountain Pine Beetle and the effect it is having on lodge pole forests in Colorado and the white bark pine in Wyoming. For more information on the Colorado Rocky Mountain School please go to www.crms.org

"Call of the River" historical kayaking film playing at CRMS on October 30th

2009-10-21T08:33:00.001-07:00

Join other whitewater enthusiasts for an evening honoring the history of
kayaking. Filmmaker Kent Ford's "Call of the River" will be shown at the
Colorado Rocky Mountain School Barn at 7 p.m. Friday, October 30th. Tickets
available at the door, $10 for adults and $5 for students aged twelve and
under. All proceeds benefit CRMS active curriculum scholarships.

For more information please contact Lisa Raleigh (lraleigh@crms.org //
963-2562)

Colorado Rocky Mountain School Awarded Environmental Grant by Captain Planet Foundation

2009-10-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Carbondale, CO—October 6, 2009 – The Captain Planet Foundation, an international eco-foundation for youth based on the successful Captain Planet cartoon, is proud to announce that Colorado Rocky Mountain School has recently been awarded an educational grant of $2,500. These funds will be used towards the Colorado Rocky Mountain School Organic Garden Learning Center project. “We are thrilled to present this award to Colorado Rocky Mountain School,” says Taryn Murphy, Programs Director. “We receive thousands of submissions each year, and therefore have to be very selective to whom we award funding. We feel that this project deserves exploration and attention and wish Colorado Rocky Mountain School the best of luck. It is our hope that our combined efforts will educate, empower, involve and invest today’s youth to cultivate a better tomorrow.”

The Colorado Rocky Mountain School Organic Garden Learning Center is a great asset to not only the school and our students, but the community as well. CRMS is committed to teaching our students and other community members how to grow and harvest organic foods in a sustainable, and energy and water efficient manner. We are thrilled that a national foundation is partnering with us on this project, “ says Linda Halloran, Director of the CRMS Organic Garden Learning Center.

The CRMS Organic Garden Learning Center expansion project will allow the school to double the
amount of food produced to 40% of the produce consumed on campus (30,000 pounds annually),
while decreasing the school’s carbon footprint. For more information go to www.crms.org

Colorado Rocky Mountain School Student-Initiated Clubs Raise Money For Worldwide Causes

2009-10-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

Even with our students' robust academic and active schedules, we encourage them to participate in clubs of their choice. These clubs are student organized and run, affording more freedom in the activities offered and in opportunities for leadership. Students may get as involved in the clubs as they'd like and, of course, extra-curricular activities look good on college applications.

CRMS is currently the home of three global philanthropies including Peace Jam, Operation Smile, and Face Aids. Peace Jam and Operation Smile are currently working together in order to sponsor children all around the world for cleft-palate operations. The Operation Smile club started in January of 2009, and the CRMS community has already made it possible for three children to receive the cleft-palate surgery through different fund-raising events.

Another group of CRMS students recently started a Face Aids chapter supporting Aids research and funding throughout Rwanda and raised over $500 at their first fund-raising endeavor this past week. They are also reaching out to the other high schools in the area encouraging them to get involved.

This is just one way CRMS prepares our students for an extraordinary life. www.crms.org

For more information contact lraleigh@crms.org

Students at Carbondale school head for the hills, cliffs and canyons

2009-10-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

CARBONDALE, Colorado — Old pictures and film clips from the early days at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in the 1950s and '60s show students piled onto the back of flatbed trucks, or hiking from campus through town with large backpacks headed into the backcountry.

The independent, college preparatory school isn't a lot different in that respect from when CRMS founders John and Anne Holden would send students packing for their fall outdoor trips — a key aspect of the outdoor education-focused learning experience the school offers.

For the complete Post Independent article please click here.

CRMS and RFHS join forces in competition, celebration, and philanthropy

2009-10-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

Thursday, October 8^th, at 4pm a league soccer game will be held between Colorado Rocky Mountain School and Roaring Fork High School at the CRMS campus. Over the years, CRMS and RFHS have developed a healthy spirit of competitive rivalry and friendship, as many of these players will come together in the spring to play on one combined club team. And quite often the CRMS vs. RFHS games are some of the best, and most intense, league games of the season.

This fall, the CRMS and RFHS communities were looking to strengthen inter-team ties as well as further unite the Carbondale community. For the past month, a group of students and teachers from both schools have been working together to organize this game as a community-wide event.

CRMS and RFHS will be hosting a barbecue during the game, along with a bake sale offered by a student club, Operation Smile, which raises money for child cleft palate surgeries in developing countries. RFHS's student-led club that focuses on cultural integration within the community is working on the other end to raise student interest in the event. In addition, CRMS will debut its newest student club, Face Aids, selling pins to raise money for this national organization that benefits Aids victims in Rwanda.

Both CRMS and RFHS are hoping to reach out to the families, fans, and students of both schools, creating community connections and friendships. We hope that this is just the first of many joint community events to come throughout the school year.

Quite the feat: CRMS students send 500 pairs of used shoes to needy souls around the world

2009-09-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

Post Independent (September 19, 2009) CARBONDALE, Colorado — Friends and fellow Colorado Rocky Mountain School juniors Kelsey Bohannon and JJ Worley recently found a way to help needy people around the world, and keep what otherwise would be trash out of area landfills.

Through the Soles4Souls shoe charity, they collected some 500 pairs of used shoes from throughout the Roaring Fork Valley. The shoes will be sent to a warehouse in Nevada, and eventually shipped to villages around the world where people cannot afford to buy shoes themselves.

“I heard about it and it just interested me as a way for people do something for those in need without sending money,” said Bohannon, 16, who lives in Glenwood Springs.

“Some people don't like giving money, because they're not sure what's really going to happen to it,” she said. “There's not much else you can do with used shoes, though. You know someone is going to be wearing them who needs them.”

For the rest of the article click here.

Aspen and CRMS End in a Draw

2009-09-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

(ASPEN TIMES, September 17, 2009)— One shot rattled the post. Others sailed just wide, or were smothered by alert and daring goalkeepers.

In Wednesday's soccer game between Aspen and visiting Colorado Rocky Mountain School, scoring chances and tense moments abounded — but not goals. After 90 hard-fought, physical minutes, the two teams had to settle for a scoreless draw.

As he walked off the turf after the final whistle, Skiers senior Terry Leitch pulled his jersey over his face and clenched his fists in frustration. Coaches shared a much different reaction.

“I have a young team, and they battled hard,” said Aspen head coach Junior Sutherland, whose Skiers are 2-3-1. “Our goal was to be competitive this year, and you've seen it. … You can't fault the effort.”

“We had a nice, varied attack … and we were able to hold them off, which is a good thing,” CRMS head coach Dan Pittz added. “We're just not finishing, seeing the play all the way through to the end. … If we put that together, we'll go far.”

For the complete article, click here.

All Campus Work Day - A CRMS Tradition

2009-09-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

After scrambling out of bed at 8:00 on a Saturday morning, all of us students found ourselves being divided up into groups of both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Once in our groups we all learned about the work we would be doing that day. All of it would take place on campus and most of it would be extremely tedious work – some groups had to move every rock out of the pits in front of the jossman, lay a tarp down and then put the rocks back. Many students grunted in annoyance at the thought of the work ahead but despite this I found myself proud of their efforts to work to their best abilities without complaint. By 12:00 in the afternoon, all the groups had mostly finished their work with a smile on their faces and a pat on the back. For the next hour you would hear about all of the tasks groups had done as students spoke proudly about their hard day’s work realizing that, that day was going to be similar to the school year; school will certainly come as a challenge but in the end our hard will bring us all pride, especially as a community. (Kat Coates, Class of 2010). For a slide show of the day's activities click here.

CRMS Shocks Basalt in Boys' Soccer

2009-09-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

CARBONDALE — With a brace and tape wrapped snugly around his sprained, swollen left ankle, Colorado Rocky Mountain School senior Steve Roh soaked in the biggest win of his high school soccer career. For the complete Aspen Times story click here. Congratulations Oysters! At 2 and 0 they are off to a fantastic start!

Grease Smudged Smiles

2009-09-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

It’s only been a few days since school began and students are already wandering around campus with ink stains on their hands from writing so much, myself included. Excitement and hard work are already nestled at the doorsteps of the school. The thrill of seeing my returning friends, and new friends alike, makes me forget the grease smudges that line my smile from my first day of silversmithing. Despite this there is still a slight feeling of apprehension for the new year -- question and wonder litter the bustling halls. We have not been here long but have already been able to indulge in a sense of pride. On Saturday we all divided into work groups to help clean up and tighten the loose ends on campus. Our work is visible throughout the campus enabling us to appreciate the new trails to walk and bike on, the freshly weeded areas in front of the Jossman Academic Building, in addition to the many other improvements. I find it hard to believe that after just one day’s work so many people have something so great in common. The new school year seems to be off to a great and challenging start. (Katarina Coates, Class of 2010)

Good luck Mackenzie!

2009-09-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

One of our new 9th grade students, Mackenzie S, is headed to the State Championships in Skeet and Trap Shooting this upcoming weekend. Good luck Mackenzie!

CRMS 09/10 School Year Underway

2009-09-02T09:11:00.001-07:00

Colorado blue-bird skies are welcoming all of our students back to campus today. From the new students who just returned from their 10 day Wilderness Orientation earlier this week, to the local day students arriving on campus later today, the new school year will officially kick off this evening with a Formal Dinner and Convocation. Tomorrow brings academic classes and our outdoor curriculum in full swing. Stay posted for regular photos and updates.

New Students Embark on Wilderness Orientation

2009-08-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

CRMS’s Wilderness Orientation is designed to introduce all new students to the value of service, teamwork, challenge, physical fitness, and adventure. This ten-day backpacking trip also serves the important role of introducing new students to the values and philosophy of the CRMS educational experience. The skills taught on Wilderness not only benefit students on subsequent wilderness adventures, but also provide them with valuable lessons and strategies that will help them better approach everyday life at CRMS and beyond. Additionally, each wilderness group undertakes a three-day trail service project in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service.

Wilderness Orientation strives to instill within students the school’s values of respect, responsibility, and excellence. Sample Wilderness Orientation backpacking routes include areas in the nearby Hunter Fryingpan and Snowmass/Maroon Bells wilderness. In summary, CRMS wilderness experiences teach students intentionally targeted competencies that lead to a more confident, competent adulthood.

For a slide show of some of this year's students out in the field click here.

CRMS Teacher Recognized as River Educator of the Year

2009-08-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

CRMS's Kayo Ogilby was selected by Roaring Fork Conservancy Magazine as the River Educator of the Year. Click here for the full story.

CRMS Bike Shop Featured in Mountain Flyer Magazine

2009-08-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

Nestled in a shady grove of cottonwood on the banks of the Crystal River in Carbondale, Colo., is a cottagestyle building surrounded by grass and flower gardens. The swirling shush of the water and chirping finches greet visitors as they walk toward the quaint building. This unlikely spot is home to the Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS) Bike Shop, where high school students learn about and repair bikes for the school and the Carbondale community. For the rest of the story click here.

CRMS Becomes Home to 70+ Blacksmiths for the next 3 days

2009-08-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

The annual Rocky Mountain Blacksmith conference is in town this weekend today, Thursday (August 6^th) through Saturday (August 8^th) at the Francis Whitaker Memorial Blacksmith Shop, on the Colorado Rocky Mountain School campus. The public is invited to watch demonstrations and view the gallery each day from 8 am to 5 pm and watch over 70+ blacksmiths practice their trade. Take Country Road 106 in Carbondale to the CRMS campus and park at the Barn. www.crms.org

Thank you CRMS Dean of Students

2009-08-05T10:01:00.000-07:00

I wish to thank Jennifer Ogilby, dean of students at Colorado Rocky Mountain School, who personally sponsored a group of nearly 40 high school age students at our July 18 production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

This self-described group of “brainiacs” (affiliated with the Aspen Science Center, in the HS(2) program) was a most appreciative and respectful audience and their enthusiasm gave a huge boost to an already raucously fun show! At the talk back discussion following the show, the students asked great questions and seemed to be completely engaged with the actors and their stories. In fact, the “talk back” went both ways, with the actors asking the HS(2) group questions about what they do and what they were studying. It is exactly the kind of interaction we celebrate and encourage at the theatre.

Thank you, Ms. Ogilby and CRMS, for a memorable evening!

Paige Price

artistic director, Theatre Aspen

(Aspen Times, August 5, 2009)

Carbondale Could Be A Green Model

2009-07-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

(Post Independent, July 24, 2009) CARBONDALE, Colorado — The town of Carbondale could become a “green” model for other communities around the country to follow, through a new federal grant program.

The intergovernmental Clean Energy Economy for the Region (CLEER) applied this week for a $300,000 EPA Climate Showcase Communities Grant on behalf of the town.

The grant would help further some of the town's already extensive efforts to cut down on its carbon footprint through the Carbondale Energy and Climate Protection Plan.

“Carbondale is well-positioned for this program due to a wide variety of policies, projects and actions already in place,” Alice Laird, executive director of CLEER, wrote in a memo to the Carbondale Board of Trustees explaining the grant program.

“If selected, it would add a valuable and inspiring rural model to the EPA's portfolio of examples,” she said.

The goal of the program is to create models of community programs, projects and other approaches that produce measurable reductions in emissions that can be replicated in other communities.

For the rest of the story please click here.

Summer Programming Wrapping Up

2009-07-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

(Posted by Courtney - CRMS class of 2010) - It's my last week with the HS2 kids! I'm so sad! But, it's going to be a great week. Today, we took the climbing kids (both from HS2 and ACE, and Andover summer program) up to Redstone to boulder on the riverside boulders. For some of a kids, it was their second time bouldering outside. For others, it was their first. One of the traverses that we did was very technical, and only a few completed the whole way. I dropped down instead of going around a corner; I'm still afraid of heights, evidently. When I left, there was a group of four still working on one problem that we'd been working on for a good 20 minutes. I hope they got it!

Today was a great day in the classroom too. Yesterday, we ran a transformation lab with the biology kids. We attempted to insert some DNA from a jellyfish into e.coli bacteria so that they glow. Today, we were able to view the glowing colonies. They were awesome under the black light, but the smell was not that great. The chemistry kids came today with the most amusing commercials. They made soap last week and tested its efficiency Monday, so their final assignment was to sell their soap to a manufacturing company. We had to watch them all twice, everyone was laughing so hard. I guess we're all getting Slurpees!

Summer Classes For Visiting Students

2009-07-09T06:29:00.000-07:00

(Posted by Courtney, CRMS class of 2010) - And I thought I spent too much time at school during the year! For the second year, I'm spending five weeks of my summer with the coolest kids I've ever met. They're in a program called HS2, and are inner city kids at the top of their class. And they came to LEARN! In summer! It's great to be around such motivated kids.

I'm lucky enough to help Kayo, Michael, and Gretchen in the classroom with biology and chemistry classes. We just wrapped up a week-long unit on water ecology. In conjunction with the Roaring Fork Conservancy, HS2 students and CRMS students have been monitoring Cattle Creek. The biology students looked at macro-invertebrates (bugs!) and the chemistry class looked at hardness, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and flow. It was so funny to see everyone wearily eye the water, until they finally were jumping in by the last testing site. The biology class caught a snake and kept it as a pet, too. It was too bad we had to let him go. They finished up the unit on Tuesday night by giving very solid PowerPoint presentations to each other about their results and conclusions about the health of the Creek.

I'm excited for the week to come. Hopefully, the biology class will have some eggs to raise tomorrow. We're breeding Zebrafish to illustrate Mendelain genetics. The chemistry kids are going to make some soap. We'll see how it goes!

Summer Programming Abounds at CRMS

2009-06-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

If you stroll onto the CRMS campus during the summer months, you will notice a flurry of activity. While our own student population takes a two month break from their studies, our campus becomes home to several different groups including (HS)2, Andover’s ACE Scholars and Rocky Mountain Blacksmiths.

The third year (HS)2 is a pilot program run in collaboration with the Aspen Science Center and provides disadvantaged city youth intensive classes in math and science. The 41 students spend five weeks living and learning on our campus. Likewise, select students from Phillips Academy Andover, a Boston-area private school, spend a month and a half at CRMS in an intensive program of mathematics, chemistry and expository writing, and spend their afternoons receiving a taste of our unique active programs.

Carbondale, CO Picked as Top Ten Town for Sportsmen

2009-06-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

From the Post Independent (June 18, 2009)...

For the second time in less than a year, Carbondale has made it onto the cover of a national magazine touting the wonderful aspects of the place.

The June-July edition of Outdoor Life magazine, which caters to hunters, fishers and other sporting types, gave Carbondale an “A” across the board in its report card gauging such things as “Fishable Species,” “Huntable Species,” “public land access,” “trophy potential” and “gun laws.”

The town also was highlighted on the cover, and in an inside story, in Adventure magazine's August 2008 issue, in an article entitled “Where to Live & Play Now: The 50 Next Great Towns.”

Please click here for the full story.

CRMS Graduation Class of 2009!

2009-06-11T11:14:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Seniors. Good luck in all your future endeavors. We will miss you! For information and photos on the big day, please click here.

CRMS Academic and Community Underclassman Awards Presented Tonight

2009-06-04T13:10:00.001-07:00

CRMS will present their annual underclassman awards to students who have shown exemplary behavior in the community and classroom at the final formal dinner of the school year. Faculty have preselected the students to be honored, and they will be announced this evening. Good luck and congratulations!

The New & Improved www.crms.com is Now Live

2009-06-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

Check us out! www.crms.org

Our Seniors Are Back on Campus After Visiting All Corners of the World

2009-06-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

Each Colorado Rocky Mountain senior organizes and carries out an independent, three-week project away from school and home, in which he or she works under a master or employer. Upon their return to campus, seniors present their real-world learning experiences to peers, family, and a faculty jury. Both the quality of the project completed and an oral presentation (a key opportunity to exhibit public-speaking skills) are evaluated, as is a reflective essay designed to help students chronicle their expectations and learning.

Planning the apprenticeship can be an exciting and thought-provoking process. Students are encouraged to begin exploring apprenticeship options at the end of their junior year, making the program one of the hallmark experiences of their transition to the new challenges and responsibilities of preparing to graduate. Students often identify unexplored passions or compelling service opportunities, or they may design a program that intensifies current interests. Recent senior projects include:

Helping to launch a biodiesel fuel operation
Working in a South African orphanage
Learning organic farming techniques
Working in the Washington studio of a Sunday morning political talk show
Working as a dental assistant in Micronesia
Tagging and tracking sea turtles
Writing computer programs that allowed dolphins to communicate with researchers through “touch plates”

Welcome back class of 2009!

CRMS Kayaker, Michael Palmer, Headed to the Freestyle World Championships this Summer in Switzerland

2009-06-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hometown boy makes good at kayak team trials in Glenwood

Junior set to travel to worlds in Europe

Jeff Caspersen
Glenwood Springs correspondent
Aspen, CO Colorado,

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Just about everyone had a hug or handshake for Michael Palmer as he scaled the embankment leading up from the Glenwood Springs Whitewater Park.

The 18-year-old Glenwood Springs resident had more than a few fans on hand at the U.S. Freestyle Kayak Team Trials on Sunday, fans the hometown hero delighted by notching a third-place finish in the junior men division.

Palmer stuck a points-heavy first run that carried him to a bronze finish. He finished behind first-place Jason Craig and second-place Dane Jackson. All three junior standouts will represent the United States at the Aug. 31 through Sept. 6 ICF Freestyle World Championships in Thun, Switzerland.

Punching his ticket at his hometown water park only sweetened Palmer’s accomplishment.

“It’s my home wave,” a grinning Palmer said. “It’s the best wave in the country. It’s great. It’s my hometown.”

Even those who weren’t hometowners backed Palmer. The kayaking community being the tight-knit circle it is, the junior phenom knows anybody who’s anybody in the kayaking world.

And quite a few of those anybodies took up residence at his family’s Glenwood home over the weekend.

“Everyone is staying at my house,” Palmer said with a chuckle. “The kayaking community’s a real tight-knit community. I know everyone here. It’s a great atmosphere.”

Palmer will be making his second straight appearance at a world-level competition. He qualified for last year’s World Cup, which was also held in Thun.

“It’s back to Europe again,” Palmer said. “It’s the same river, so I know what to practice, what to work on. I know what I’m going to need to win there.”

Before that, though, Palmer will put in loads of time polishing his arsenal of moves on his home feature. From there, whatever happens, happens.

“I want to do well,” he said. “I’d say I want to get top three or win or all that, but I just want to get my ride. In any competition, I want to get my ride. If I can get my ride perfect and people beat me, there’s nothing I could do.”

Little brother joins in on the fun

Michael wasn’t the only Palmer to strut his stuff on the wildly popular Glenwood Springs Whitewater Park wave Sunday afternoon. His little brother, Paul, won the cadet division, reserved for riders 14 and under.

While cadet paddlers weren’t in the running for spots at the world championships, 14-year-old Paul didn’t seem all that bummed.

“I just wanted to have fun,” he said, echoing advice delivered by his older brother. “He just said to have fun. It’s no big deal.”

While he won’t have the chance to compete in Thun, Paul plans on making the trip to Switzerland to watch his brother compete.

“I’m going this year, for sure,” he said.

CRMS alumna, Hannah Farrar World-Class Kayaker in the News.

2009-05-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

Today's Glenwood Springs Post Independent has an article on CRMS graduate Hannah Farrar and her amazing come-back following two broken ankles in a kayaking accident back in March 2008. Check it out!

Counting Down the Days to the New crms.org

2009-05-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

June 1st, Colorado Rocky Mountain School will launch its new website! The address is still www.crms.org but it will now feature a big bold layout with large format photos on every page. Check it out next week!

41 CRMS Seniors Preparing to Graduate!

2009-05-28T13:55:00.000-07:00

The Colorado Rocky Mountain School Class of 2009 graduation ceremony will take place at 10 am June 6th, on the lawn outside our historic Barn on the CRMS campus.

Head of School Jeff Leahy will present the school’s traditional leather diplomas to 41 boarding and day seniors, and announce the senior Academic and Community awards as voted on by faculty.

Once again, 100 percent of CRMS seniors have been accepted to college, matriculating to schools as diverse as St. Lawrence University, Bowdoin College and Montana State University to University of Oregon, University of Colorado and Savannah College of Art & Design.

Congratulations and good luck to our seniors!

A Night of Melodrama

2009-05-14T09:52:00.001-07:00

This year’s spring underclassman drama, A NIGHT OF MELODRAMA, features two one-act plays "Curse You Jack Dalton" & "Egad, What A Cad!” and will be showing Friday (May 15^th) and Saturday (May 16^th) at 7:30 pm in the CRMS Barn. Join us for a fun evening of treacherous villains, manly heroes and ladies in distress. Tickets are $10.00 for adults & $5.00 for children and students and can be obtained at the door.

Colorado Rocky Mountain School Plant Sale

2009-05-14T09:26:00.001-07:00

Spring has sprung on the CRMS campus and it is time for our annual plant sale. This Saturday, May 16th from 9 am to 3 pm the school greenhouse will be selling over 200 varieties of annuals, perennials, vegetables and herbs with the proceeds benefiting the CRMS active curriculum. So if you have a green thumb come on out and join us.

Colorado Rocky Mountain School is blogging!

2009-05-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

We are excited to share our culture and community stories of Colorado Rocky Mountain School through this blog.