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"River rafting is fun," says Greg Caretto, who ought to know after 16 years of whitewater rafting throughout Colorado, Arizona and Utah. But after seven years of running guided raft tours for a living, he adds unequivocally, "Unfortunately, it's not much of a business."
Caretto, 41, is co-owner, together with longtime friend Steve Pittel, 43, of Minturn-based Nova Guides, an outdoor recreation company that has successfully evolved from river rafting to year-round sports, beating the Vail Valley's most sticky wicket: What to do in the off-season.
Caretto and Pittel, both be-jeaned Marlboro poster type-capital-G Guys, have been involved in the business of outdoor recreation for most of what might be loosely referred to as their adult lives, an occupation that keeps them young and fit and permanently tanned.
It hasn't always paid the bills, however.
"It's mighty hard to make a living when your busy season lasts six weeks," Caretto says.
Consequently, when Pittel offered to bring Caretto in as a partner to Nova Guides in 1984, Caretto said "no way...