Posted by: Ross Leonhart
10 years (and two kids) later, Colorado couple recall their first weekend together — spent at the 2012 GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado
The polar opposite of “Netflix and chill,” Coloradans Betsy and Henry Schloss spent one of their first dates together enjoying a weekend at the GoPro Mountain Games in 2012. Now married with two children, the Schloss’ are looking forward to celebrating the 20th anniversary GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado, as well as their 10-year anniversary.
“We spent the weekend together up at the Mountain Games,” Henry recalls. “We did everything – we ran the 5K, the 10K, we did the Mud Run, we went to all of the concerts and events. It just all started from there. And then we got married and had a child a few months later.”
Now, the Schloss’ have two kids – and two dogs – all big GoPro Mountain Gamers.
“Our two kids do all the races now. We have our dogs do all the dog events,” Henry said. “It’s one of our favorite weekends of the year.”
The 20th annual GoPro Mountain Games take place June 7-12, 2022.
Henry and Betsy originally met in college at CU Boulder, and while they were both into similar activities (trail running and other mountain sports), their lives were on a parallel but separate path. In the spring of 2012, they started dating – going on hikes, trail runs, sushi night.
“Then all of a sudden, he said ‘Hey, do you want to check out these Mountain Games?’” Betsy remembers. “I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into, assuming that we would do one or two races. But Henry, you know that he does everything 1,000%. Next thing I knew we were signed up for every single possible event that we could get into. And then between all of the events we were cheering on all of the other athletes, we were going over to Gear Town, we were listening to the music and doing the yoga and everything – it was so much fun. We were exhausted by the end of the weekend, but we totally clicked and connected that whole time together.”
The Schloss’ are looking forward to competing in more of the running races at this year’s GoPro Mountain Games, and their children – Oliver, 8, and Hank, 6 – enjoy the Kids Bike Race. Their dogs, Murphy and Poppy, also get in on the action, usually the Rocky Dog Trail Run or the Orijen DockDogs events.
“I kind of felt like a lot of my adult life I had been a serious and focused person,” Betsy said, “but here we were just having so much fun together. It was like going to summer camp but for adult athletes.”
While the couple had gone on a couple of more traditional dates, it was the GoPro Mountain Games that helped seal the deal.
“I think what was really cool was it kind of set a tone for the rest of our relationship where here we are 10 years into it and we now have two young kids,” Betsy said. “When we get time together, he and I, we don’t go out to dinner and we don’t go do the traditional dates that a lot of our friends do – we go for a trail run or we go for a hike or we try to sneak away to the mountains for a weekend. So that really set the tone. We’ve always been active the two of us, that’s how we connect, and now our kids are that way also. They’re as into the Mountain Games as we are, if not more so.”
The Schloss’ live in Denver but frequently spend time in East Vail.
“I just think, especially for people who live in Colorado, to keep active and keep those activities that you first bonded over a central part of your relationship is so fun and so cool,” Betsy said. “We’re lucky, we live in a great city and a great state – we can go out to dinner whenever, but we also have this beautiful mountain community that I think is really important to take a part of.”
The GoPro Mountain Games encapsulate just that – the mountain lifestyle we all love.
“It was an ideal first weekend to spend together,” Henry remembers. “It was non-stop action, from like 6 in the morning until 11 at night – you can fill your plate with all this stuff you want to do in Colorado.”
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