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Hosts Tricia Swenson, Host/Producer In addition to hosting Good Morning Vail, Tricia has been an Anchor and Producer for RSN’s Outdoor Updates on CNN Headline News airing nationwide in several metropolitan areas, and has also reported on events and activities at many Colorado ski areas for The Weather Channel during the ski season. She also is a producer for the award-winning “Good Morning Vail” daily morning show and many of TV8 and TV17’s programs. Tricia's hidden talents include driving John Deere tractors and knitting. She grew up on a farm and her summer job was driving tractors, trucks, and combines. When someone says, "My car is kind of big, are you sure you can drive it?" her favorite reply is, "I've driven things bigger than your house!" As for the knitting, Tricia and friends get together in the fall for Stitch-and-Bitch where they watch Monday Night Football and catch up on all the gossip. Kirsten Ginnity, Host/Producer Her reporting career started as an intern at a CBS affiliate, where she quickly moved into a reporting position. Later, Kirsten rounded out her on-air work by researching stories for the News Hour with Jim Lehrer as a desk assistant. This landed her a job producing shows and traveling around the world for the Food Network. Her intriguing stories entertained and informed upwards of 70 million viewers during her Food Network tenure with High Noon Productions. She joins the Good Morning Vail team as host and producer of the live, three-hour talk show. Kirsten says, “Living in the Vail valley really does give me the best of both worlds…I can continue to expand my career and company while making it out to the slopes for a quick ‘ski lunch’ or in the summer watch the New York Philharmonic orchestra under the stars at Ford Amphitheater.” Experiences she says that rival any of the places she’s visited. Kirsten splits her time between yoga, skiing, rowing, working on travel films for her travel media company, and finishing a master’s degree in social entrepreneurship. Her philosophy: FEED THE SOUL AND YOUR WORK AND LIFE WILL REFLECT THAT PASSION!
Jeff Gaskin, Co-Host While he's not playing in the snow, Jeff is usually on ice. With two decades of experience playing hockey, Jeff continues to play at Dobson Ice Arena, where he also coaches high school hockey. "One of the greatest thrills of my life was coaching the Battle Mountain Huskies to an undefeated regular season and a trip to the State Finals this past winter. We have a lot of fun and goof around a lot, but we are also a very successful program, having never lost a home game" Look for Jeff on Good Morning Vail, reporting the weather from the studio and fooling around by the Gondola, where he loves to bring guests on the show with him, so be sure to stop by and say hello when you see him! Rick Messmer, Co-Host Rick’s number one passion in life is fly fishing and he started fishing our waters when he was old enough to hold a Snoopy pole. Rick turned solely to fly fishing at the age of nine. Father and son trips throughout his younger life taught him the importance of patience, persistence and the benefits of learning to cast a fly rod with either hand. When not holding a fly rod, you can find Rick behind the lens of his camera chasing his new found second passion in framing that perfect outdoor photograph. Rick will be the man-on-the-street-in-Beaver-Creek conducting live interviews on Wednesdays and Thursdays and the Co-Host in the studio on Fridays. Getting out into the villages of Beaver Creek and Lionshead allows TV-8 to touch on the every day life of our area. Outside of the Good Morning Vail programming, Rick has been featured on two episodes of ESPN’s Fly Fishing America, currently hosts the local TV show Eagle Valley Outdoors, and can be seen in a few segments of Vacation Sensations. |
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In the Vail Valley since 1994, Tricia started out like most others who come to a ski town to work “for one season” and never left. She loves the mountain lifestyle and all it has to offer and she tries to take advantage of the variety of activities that are accessible in a mountain town during the winter - skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, telemark skiing, and snowshoeing. When the snow melts, Tricia shifts gears and turns to biking, kayaking, hiking, and fly-fishing. Tricia also enjoys traveling and has been fortunate enough to visit Southeast Asia, Alaska, Europe, Central America, and South America.
Kirsten is a fifth generation Coloradoan who grew up on ranch riding horses with her sister, fly fishing with her grandfather, and river rafting with her father.
Ken is a Florida native who grew up surfing and skateboarding and later transferred those skills to the mountains and rivers of Colorado. He is an accomplished snowboarder and gets his whitewater fix in a kayak. The healthy outdoor lifestyle brought him to Vail and the beauty of the mountains and the friendliness of the people has kept him here for 16 years. He is both a kayak competitor and broadcaster. He most recently won the 2004 "8 foot and under" division of the Class V Gore Canyon Kayak Race and doubled up in the broadcast booth as color commentator for the last four years of the event. He can often be found announcing events like the Session, Teva Mountain Games, Reno River Festival, and other outdoor festivals. He joined the TV8 staff in the summer of 2001 and has steadily become a knowledgeable and believable on-air personality. He fills both the Host and Co-Host positions on "Good Morning Vail." In addition to his weather broadcasts here on GMV, Ken also finds time to do adventure feature pieces for Yahoo Adventure Beat, Fox Sports, and Fusion T.V as well as even popping up on the Weather Channel in his kayak. Ken sums up his lifestyle this way. "Eagle county and the Vail valley is a terrific place to live. I love working for TV8 so I can tell all our viewers how great the experience is here in the Colorado high country and what they can find here to make it better."
Jeff Gaskin joined the TV8 staff as a co-host of Good Morning Vail in the Summer of 2004. He moved to the Vail Valley shortly after graduating from Colgate University in 2003, where he majored in political science and minored in sociology and anthropology. While growing up in St. Louis, where the only skiing to be found is on a 3-trail hill that was only open a couple of months in the winter, Jeff made frequent trips to Vail and Beaver Creek with family and friends, where he developed a love for both skiing and snowboarding. "Living here in the Vail Valley has been a dream come true. Nothing beats waking up to 2 feet of fresh powder in the morning, followed by a sunny afternoon in the terrain park, and then as few drinks with friends at the bars."
Rick is a native of Colorado and moved to the Vail Valley in the fall of 1996. He had graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a Communications Major and an emphasis in Public Relations. Rick knew life in the Seattle area was not for him and returned to the mountains of his youth. A career in the outdoors has kept him here and probably will for life. 