Skip to main content

Finding Adventure at the GoPro Mountain Games

GoPro Mountain Games
Summer mountain getaways are without a doubt our favorite vacations. Add in a crowd of adrenaline junkies, world class athletic competitions, a nightly concert series, and huge gear village, and you’ve got the makings of a trip you’ll tell stories about for years to come. There’s only one place that puts all of these elements of adventure together seamlessly, and that is the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. We were on the ground (and in the air and water) this year to get a taste of the very best experiences Vail has to offer.
Mountain Games Slack Line

Related: 5 Best Mountain Town Adventures | Best Mountain Town Bars

Primarily, the Games are a celebration of all our favorite mountain sports; this year featured an enduro mountain biking race, world cup bouldering, rafting, kayaking and SUP events, and more. We were in town to get some instruction on how to better use our GoPro cameras in adventure settings, so we hit the water for a run down Gore Creek.
Mountain Games Kayaking

For serious paddlers, the class III rapids featured on the stretch of river around Vail Village are pretty trivial. However, for our novice skills, and the open top kayaks we were riding in they proved more than enough danger and excitement. Our guides fished us out of a couple dips in the river, and we paddled on. After our down river sprint, we took our GoPros off the kayak and helmet mounts to check the footage, and get a crash course in a recent acquisition, the Quik App. With a built in music library and smart editor, even a novice can put together a professional edit of their adventures in just a few minutes. It took us about five minutes to pull a few video segments from the river together and order them to tell a coherent story. Quik did the rest:

Gore Creek Kayaking

Of course, the Games is not all about high stakes, adrenaline fueled, extreme sports. After getting dried off and warmed up (Gore Creek was running at a frosty 44-degrees), we headed over to the Dock Dogs competition with famed photographer, Travis Burke, one of GoPro’s premier ambassadors. These high flying canines were the perfect subjects to show off the slow motion capture and burst shot capabilities. Shooting up to thirty photos a second, the Hero 4 Silver ($400) caught every highlight of the action as serious athletic shepherds, labs, and malinois took flight in front of the crowd. The slow motion capture – up to 120-frames-per-second at 720p resolution – helped catch every jump, catch, and splash. We’ll be taking one along for our big Pacific Northwest trip later this summer, so stay tuned for some tips and tricks as we start to perfect our video skills.
Mountain Games Dock Dogs

Whether you’re on the hunt for your next high altitude single track, looking to make your first splash on a SUP or kayak, or just want to take it all in, the Mountain Games are the capital of adventure sports every summer. If you missed it this time around, it’s time to get a jump start on planning your perfect GoPro fueled adventure next summer.

Day 2 Highlights | GoPro Mountain Games

Cover photo Courtesy of GoPro/Logan Robertson

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Austin Parker
Austin Parker is a former contributor at The Manual Parker is a powder skier and sport climber and is no stranger hauling…
The 10 best Marvel movies, ranked
With 32 MCU movies to choose from, we think the top 10 stand tall above the rest
Avengers Endgame Best Movies

Some people don't like the dominance displayed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe in recent years, as it seemingly blocks out all of the other great cinema on display at the movie theater and at home. Still, there's no denying the pop culture influence and the mainstream adulation towards the superheroes that make up these 32 films in the MCU. With almost 15 years of movies to choose from, most have been a hit, but several also didn't live up to expectations. We're here to help you watch the 10 best Marvel movies, from the Avengers movies to all of the niche MCU movies that make the universe stick and come together in special unison. You can watch nearly all of these movies on Disney Plus!

10. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Read more
UFC Live Stream: Watch UFC Fights Online From Anywhere
ufc 257 poirier vs mcgregor 2 ppv bundle deal conor v donald cerrone

Looking for a reliable way to watch UFC fights online? In the past, regional broadcasting regulations presented challenges for sports enthusiasts who wanted to stream live events without a cable subscription. Fortunately, the landscape has changed, with sports broadcasters embracing streaming and making live programming more accessible than ever. ESPN, the official broadcaster for UFC in the U.S., responded to this trend by launching ESPN+ in 2018. With ESPN+, you can now easily enjoy UFC fights and pay-per-views on your PC, mobile device, smart TV, or gaming console. We've got a full guide on how to watch UFC fights online from anywhere, along with a schedule of upcoming fights, to make sure you don't miss a single UFC live stream.

Watch the Official UFC Live Stream
By far the best way to watch UFC live streams online is ESPN+, a premium streaming service that launched in 2018. ESPN+ delivers a cornucopia of sports content, including MMA and boxing, to almost any modern streaming device. That said, you've got some other options that are also worth mentioning. But due to the very tight relationship between ESPN and the Ultimate Fighting Championship, you'll still need to sign up for ESPN+ in order to live stream UFC pay-per-view events.

Read more
The 11 Robert Redford movies every fan should watch
Is your favorite Redford film on the list?
Robert Redford in All the President's Men answering the telephone.

Robert Redford is one of those classic movie stars who disarmed you with his incredible looks, and then mesmerized you with his on-screen talent. He's not an actor's actor like Robert De Niro, but he's shown for decades what type of performer he is. Redford's charm and natural charisma have made him compelling in a wide variety of roles, and they've also occasionally been weaponized against his audience.
Not every role in Redford's decades-long career has been a roaring success. For every All the President's Men there's a stinker like Havana. In general, though, Redford has built a remarkable body of work, and if he never acts in front of a camera again, he can be proud of what he's accomplished.

The Sting (1973)

Read more