Buon Appetito

HIGH POINT: Turin's iconic Mole Antonelliana

In the mountain village of Pragelato, enter through a half-moon-adorned wooden door in a 17th-century former stable to find La Greppia, a rustic-chic restaurant with sloping stone ceilings and muted lighting. Thinly sliced meats, accompanied by vegetables and cheeses, are served at the table for diners to cook, pierrade style, on heated stone slabs. Via del Beth 9, 011-39-0122-78-409

Ski the Galaxy
Log 30,000 or more vertical feet by skiing the Via Lattea (“Milky Way”) from end to end. The cluster of six resorts straddles the Italy-France border, with 5,000 vertical feet each, 88 lifts, and 240 total trail miles. Best of the bunch is Sestriere, home of the Olympic men's downhill. Via Lattea lift ticket, $37;

Grape Escape
After a day on the slopes, duck down through the stone doorway of Crot 'd Ciulin, in the mountain town of Bardonecchia, and get chummy with mustached ski instructors. Simple wood tables, wine casks, and sepia-tone photographs offer the perfect setting for sampling Barbera d'Alba or Dolcetto di Dogliani, popular Piedmont reds, and filling up on toma, a local cheese. 20 Via Des Geneys; 011-39-0122-96161

Nordic Nonpareil
Millions have been poured into the cross-country ski center in Pragelato. How do you spend that kind of cash on nordic skiing? On snowmaking, lights, new buildings (for warming up, chowing down, and changing clothes), and an 18.6-mile trail network meticulously groomed and graded for Olympic competitions. $7 per day; 011-39-0122-74-1107,

Crash with Class
Le Meridien Turin Art & Tech, formerly a Fiat factory, has been refashioned by architect Renzo Piano into a hip hotel about a ten-minute walk from the heart of downtown Turin. Polished steel, floor-to-ceiling windows, and angular furniture designed by Philippe Starck are reasons Architectural Digest praised it as “a showcase of modern design.” Rev your engine with a morning run on the rooftop track, formerly used for test-driving prototypes. Doubles, $150–$410; 800-543-4300,

Get a Choco-buzz
At Turin café;s, try a cup of bicerin—a sublime concoction of coffee, chocolate, and milk (or, even better, vanilla cream). Or forget the drink and go straight for the hard stuff: Turin is famed for its chocolate. Recommended confection: cioccolato gianduja, a hazelnut blend produced by Venchi and available at downtown chocolatiers.

Take it Reel Easy
The Museo Nazionale del Cinema, in the restored Mole Antonelliana (a 115-year-old former synagogue), houses more than 7,000 film titles, including Italian, French, and American classics, with frequent screenings; 200,000 original posters; and interactive displays on filmmaking. Admission, $6; 011-39-011-81-25-658,

Royalty-Spotting: Town and Crown

MAJESTIC, 360 DAYS A YEAR: St. Moritz

Lech, Austria
At the end of a high valley, opposite the ürhub of St. Anton, in the Arlberg Pass, Lech is geographically fortified against prying paparazzi. Helicopters have buzzed in the likes of Princess Caroline of Monaco and the late Princess Di. Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander continues Lech's royal tradition of swooping in and schussing down. See and be seen at: The intimate Gasthof Post Hotel ().

Klosters, Switzerland
Prince Charles is a Klosters kind of guy. William and Harry are also regulars at this secluded village, as are international power brokers, who try to escape media scrutiny while attending the annual World Economic Forum each January in nearby Davos. See and be seen at: The Walserhof Hotel (), the choice of Brit royals.

Gstaad, Switzerland
Old-money Gstaad was reportedly aghast when Paris Hilton romped into town for vacay last year. According to the gossip mill, the resort got another scare when local homeowner Liz Taylor recently offered her palatial estate to tabloid escapee Michael Jackson. Gstaaders seem to prefer royal celebs like Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece. See and be seen at: The castlelike, très exclusive, 104-room Palace Hotel ().

St. Moritz, Switzerland
Princess Caroline, the Sultan of Brunei, and George Clooney have been spotted cavorting in the Alpine capital of blue-blood chic, depicted in a memorable ski-chase scene in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with onetime Agent 007 George Lazenby. And where else would you find an event like the annual Cartier Polo World Cup on Snow? See and be seen at: Badrutt's Palace Hotel (), where no one thinks twice about $25 martinis.

Nouveau Lodges: Beyond the Chalet

Euro-Fresh: Vigilius Mountain Resort

The Alps may conjure visions of famous peaks, edelweiss, and stuffy Swiss Miss inns, but thanks to a new breed of hotel—designed for a younger, more affluent crowd—you can have your iconic peaks and hip digs, too.

Skihotel Galzig, St. Anton, Austria
It's mere steps to the lifts from this many-windowed hotel, which offers 21 warm-hued rooms with brilliant views of mounts Rendle and Galzig. Comfy leather couches surround an open fire, and a sauna, solarium, and steam bath soothe weary skiers. Doubles from $84, including breakfast; 011-43-5446-427-700,

The Clubhouse, Chamonix, France
This newly renovated 1927 art deco mansion holds three private doubles, three bunk rooms (for six or eight), and one suite, with flat-screen TVs, teak-decked “rainforest” showers, mini-libraries, and Mont Blanc views. On the main level, an exclusive bar awaits. Doubles, $225 (three-night minimum stay), including breakfast and dinner; 011-33-450-909-656,

Naturhotel Waldklause, Läenfeld, Austria
Built with natural materials—fir, spruce, pine, glass, and stone—this 47-room hotel features simple, geometric furniture and contemporary art. A rooftop terrace and balconies off each room overlook the Öztal Valley; the new Aqua Dome thermal spa next door gives discounts to hotel guests. Doubles from $122, including breakfast; 011-43-5253-5455,

Vigilius Mountain Resort, Lana, Italy
The Vigilius is remote, grass-roofed, and heated by a low-emission, energy-saving wood-chip incinerator. Reachable only by a three-to-four-hour hike or a vintage 1912 cable car, the 35 rooms and six suites in this minimalist larch-and-glass enclave feature sleek, modern furniture and local antiques. Plus there's a music library, screening room, and spa with a spring-fed infinity pool. Doubles from $380, including breakfast and cable-car ride; 011-39-0473-55-6600,

Riders Palace, Laax, Switzerland
This cubic glass-and-larch hobnob haven—located just five minutes from Laax's lifts—offers a bar, 70 communal and private accommodations, and a concert hall that hosts international bands. Rooms are urban-chic, with Philippe Starck–designed chrome sinks and bathtubs, surround-sound entertainment systems, and PlayStations. Bunk beds from $50, doubles from $73, including lift ticket; 011-41-81-927-9700,

Competitions: Play Your Own Games

Derby de la Meije, La Grave, France, April 4–7
The rules are simple: Get from the top to the bottom of Vallons de la Meije ski area as fast as possible, by nearly any route. In a good year, about 1,000 snowboarders and tele-, mono-, and alpine skiers take on the nearly 7,000-vertical-foot, off-piste challenge. Whether you ski it or decide to skip it, be sure to stick around for the four-day festival, which includes rock, reggae, and electronica.

Engadin SkiMarathon, Maloja to S-Chanf, Switzerland, March 12
Gliding over 27 miles of frozen lakes and through forests and meadows requires a lot of endurance and heavy breathing, but more than 12,000 cross-country skiers—rom world-class fitness freaks to lounge lizards—ign up each year. Chase the course record of one hour 32 minutes or take it slow and soak in the splendor of the Engadin Valley.

Giro d'Italia, Italy, May 21–28
Followed by the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, the Giro is the year's first grand-tour stage race. Ride Strong (www.ridestrongbiketours.com) offers one-week trips that let you spin ahead of all the pros on the tough midrace mountain stages in the Dolomites.

Hotlist

AN ALPS ICON: The Matterhorn in Zermat, Switzerland

Ski Camps
Vert Alert

Steep Skiing Camps Worldwide, La Grave, France. American freeskier Doug Coombs presides over a thrilling ski week in hairy terrain. Campers learn couloir etiquette, beacon drills, and more.

Chocolate Freeride Productions, Verbier, Switzerland. Intended for solid skiers wishing to safely graduate to big-mountain freeriding, weeklong courses sample Verbier's mammoth off-piste.
—R. S.

Trips
Epic Rambles

Portes du Soleil is a sprawling resort in southeastern France that houses 209 lifts and, in summer, 373 miles of mountain-bike trails. Ride from village to village, using the lifts and granny gears to pedal to a different hotel each night. Traces Directes organizes tours and can help get your bags from bed to bed. $1,330 for five days; 011-33-4-50-74-7040

SwisSkiSafari uses helicopters to access 7,000-vertical-foot descents in the Swiss backcountry and chill time at five-star front-country hotels. In between, blast down groomers in Saas Fee, Zermatt, and Verbier. Four days of skiing, meals, and accommodations, $7,900; 011-41-27-398-2194,

KE ���ϳԹ��� Travel's guides will show you how to crampon and piolet your way along France's Mer de Glace, Glacier des Rognons, and even up the Mont Blanc du Tacul, a 14,000-foot peak. Eight-day trip out of Chamonix, $2,555; 800-497-9675,
—Tim Neville

Steeps
Sheer Madness

Engelberg, Switzerland: Snow-porn stars Shane McConkey, Jamie Pierre, and Micah Black all visited this resort last season. Why? To ride in-bounds treats like Steinberg (4,000 crevasse-riddled vertical feet) and backcountry steeps like Galtiberg (a 6,500-foot plunge). A local guide is highly recommended.

La Grave, France: The Anti-Whistler, La Grave has no pedestrian village, disco, or official ski patrol. Instead, there's 7,000 vertical feet of no-beginners-allowed terrain.

Dammkar, Germany: Featuring a bigger–than–Jackson Hole vertical of 4,300 feet, Dammkar also gets some of the best snow in Bavaria. The area's recent decision to quit grooming explains its official name: Dammkar Freeride.

Courmayeur, Italy: Courmayeur is Chamonix's conjoined twin to the south. Above the first stage of its creaky Telepheriques du Mont Blanc cable car? Topless sunbathers. Above the third? A descent down 6,888 vertical feet of the Toula Glacier, highlighted by chutes approaching 50 degrees.

Host Cities: A Guide to Perennial Playgrounds

The Winter Olympics are practically synonymous with the Alps—and this year they return to the classic range for the tenth time. No other place so seamlessly merges rugged high-altitude life with Old World glamour and panache. Here's a look at past glory and present-day fun, from the gastronomic to the gonzo.

Olympic Locale: Chamonix, France, 1924
Why Go Now?: Alpinist crossroads of the world—the hottest Euro destination for the piton-and-pylon set. Be sure to bring an ice ax.
Highlight: The off-piste Vallé;e Blanche and the Aiguille du Midi tram ride, rising some 9,000 vertical feet to a rocky spire by Mont Blanc.
Hotspot: Chambre Neuf. It's aprè;s-ski on steroids, pumped up by rock and roll and Swedish hotties.
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Olympic Locale: St. Moritz, France, 1928 & 1948
Why Go Now?: British gentility and glitzy shopping. Essential gear: polo mallets, Van Cleef jewelry, and politesse.
Highlight: The Cresta Run, the world-famous sledding site. Hop on a skeleton toboggan and zoom 50 miles an hour down nearly 4,000 feet.
Hotspot: The casino in the Kempinski Grand Hotel des Bains. Win at baccarat and maybe you can afford the pricey drinks later at Badrutt's Palace.
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Olympic Locale: Garmisch-partenkirchen, Germany, 1936
Why Go Now?: Oktoberfest in the mountains. Be ready for one-liter glasses of Paulaner brew and boisterous beer-hall singing.
Highlight: The Kandahar downhill run, possibly the most dangerous on the World Cup circuit. Be like Bode and ski it nonstop from top to bottom.
Hotspot: The Gasthof Fraundorfer. Go for post-slopes suds, stay for a Bavarian meat-and-potatoes dinner, and finish with a rowdy sing-along.
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Olympic Locale: Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, 1956
Why Go Now?: Easy skiing and extreme eating against the Dolomites' backdrop of rust-red cliffs and spiky 7,000-to-8,000-foot peaks.
Highlight: Classic rock scrambling on 5,000-foot-plus vertical limestone faces, including some small climbs that are doable in winter.
Hotspot: The Rifugio Averau, an on-mountain chalet. Have a three-hour lunch of pasta and sausage, then try skiing back to town.
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Olympic Locale: Innsbruck, Austria, 1964 & 1976
Why Go Now?: What's not to love about a cosmopolitan 16th-century Tyrol city flanked by 25 villages and 76 ski lifts within a 168-mile radius?
Highlight: Year-round skiing above 10,000 feet on the nearby 2.7-square-mile Stubai Glacier, plus backcountry hut-to-hut trips in winter.
Hotspot: The Hofgarten Café;, especially on a spring day when you can sit outside and people-watch over a locally brewed Zepfer beer.
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Olympic Locale: Grenoble, France, 1968
Why Go Now?: The hills are alive beyond industrial Grenoble. Drive an hour to Les Deux Alpes, then cruise the front side or ski the back face to La Grave.
Highlight: The bike ride up 21 switchbacks to the nearby ski resort of L'Alpe d'Huez. Tour de France racers will tackle the infamous climb on July 18.
Hotspot: Mike's Bar, in Les Deux Alpes, a hard partyer's hangout. Bring your skis or snowboard—they can be waxed while you drink.
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Olympic Locale: Albertville/Val D'Isere, France, 1992
Why Go Now?: Big-mountain skiing on 25,000 acres. The action, on and off the slopes, is at the side-by-side resorts of Val d'Isere and Tignes.
Highlight: Off-piste challenges like L'Aguille Pers, at Val d'Isere, or the Face Nord de la Grand Motte at Tignes. Hire a guide and go where tourists dare not.
Hotspot: Dick's Tea Bar, in Val d'Isere. A favorite of Italian bon vivant Alberto Tomba during the Olympics, it keeps cranking until 4 a.m.
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Hut-to-Hut Treks: Connect the Spots

The Alta Via No. 1, in the Dolomites of northern Italy, offers exquisite valley views and crosses breathtaking summits from Braies Lake, near Dobbiaco, to Passo Duran, for a total of 75 miles. Each night you sleep in a cozy rifugio where warm beds and meals await. Great Walks of the World (011-44-19-3581-0820, ) offers a ten-day all-inclusive hike for $1,700.

The Haute Route, a seven-day, 70-to-90-mile trek from Chamonix, France, to Zermatt, Switzerland, comes in two flavors: the glacier option, which includes travel on snow and ice, and the hiking version, which stays on established trails. Both routes offer stunning views of the French and Swiss Alps and end in the shadow of the Matterhorn. Reserve early at each night's hut or sign up with an outfitter like Chamonix Experience ($1,700; 011-33-6-08-80-94-27, ).

The Stubai Horseshoe, a 45-mile traverse of Austria's incredibly scenic Stubai Valley, south of Innsbruck, is a hiker's dream. The relatively strenuous seven-day circuit starts in the village of Obertal and ends in Neustift. On Top Mountaineering (800-506-7177, ) offers an all-inclusive weeklong trip for $1,900.

Alpine Splendor: The Short List

Best Airport: Züch, Switzerland
Fly here, fetch your bags, catch a train to the central station (they run every ten minutes), and within a half-hour of touchdown you're rumbling through dreamy Alpine scenery to your hamlet of choice.

Best Castle: Neuschwanstein, Germany
If it's overcast and predictable at Garmisch, bop over to Neuschwanstein, a medieval-style castle that nutty King Ludwig II built in the 19th century out of a fascination with fairy tales. Perched atop an impossible finger of rock, it's reached via a steep 30-minute climb.

Best DJ Scene: St. Moritz, Switzerland
Throw some clogs in your pack and join well-lubricated jet-setters on the party tram up Corvatsch for St. Moritz's traditional Friday Snow Night. Ski or snowboard down to midmountain, retrieve clogs, and dance in a steamy disco until last call, at 2 a.m.

Best Après Bar: Pub Mont Fort, Verbier, Switzerland
Known for cheap 20-ounce steins of Carlsberg beer and a giant, sunny deck, the two-level bar is a sea of bronzed faces that includes extreme snowboarders, freeskiers with film credits, and every other international big-mountain type.

Best place to check e-mail: CyBar, Chamonix, France
Reconnect with home as drop-dead-gorgeous Norwegian snowboarders surf the Net, while on another floor of this cavernous bar Canadian freeskiers watch The Big Lebowski. 011-33-4-50-53-69-70

Best Carbo-Loading: La Perla, Italy
The owner of this five-star restaurant in Corvara, in the stunning Alta Badia region, turns out the lights each night on the 27,000-bottle wine cellar, saying, “We let the babies sleep.” And the kitchen sends out pumpkin ravioli with truffle oil. It's the karmic antithesis to the Olive Garden.

Best Shopping: Livigno, Italy
The whole town of Livigno () is a duty-free zone, and shoppers for booze, perfume, cigars, and electronics prowl the streets, along with suspicious numbers of telemark skiers. Framed by 3,000-vertical-foot escarpments, Livigno is home to April's Free Heel Fest, Europe's biggest telemark celebration.

Best Baroque Fantasy: Pichlmayrgut, Austria
���ϳԹ��� this “sport hotel” village (doubles, $235; ) are turrets and onion domes; inside are subterranean passages leading to indoor tennis courts, bowling lanes, and steam rooms. Across the street is one of the Dachstein-Tauern Sportregion's 111 ski lifts, accessing 140 miles of slopes.

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READY TO GRAB FRESH BIG AIR? We’ve got hemispheres of the white stuff—and timely beta on boosting your stamina, choosing the right equipment, and finding singular steeps close to home. Who says winter ever needs to end?

PLUS: North America’s Most Exotic Resorts Techno-Couture Gear: High-Style Planks, Boards, and Skiwear

Riksgränsen: Scandinavian Strut

Big air and Bacchanalia get equal play above the Arctic Circle

“THAT’S RIGHT BABY! You know what I like! Kill me now!” the lead singer of Riksgränsen Hotell’s employee band screams into the mike. A sweaty knot of drunken snowboarders slam-dance at his feet, tackling one another to the beer-soaked floor. Everyone is fired up from competing in today’s Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships, an extreme freeriding contest, but Grönan isn’t like any hotel bar I’ve ever been to. Black shades are drawn over the windows, because it’s endless spring 130 miles north of the Arctic Circle and the sun hasn’t touched the horizon for weeks.

A tiny oasis in the vast expanse of Sweden’s glacier-carved Lapland wilderness, 625 miles north of Stockholm, Riksgränsen is a cluster of about 20 red-painted wooden buildings with one small market and one hotel. This motley assemblage crowds the edge of Lake Vassiljaure, backed by 5,000-foot mountains rising to the south. For years I’ve heard rabid skiers and boarders throughout Europe whisper about the surreal feeling of skiing under the midnight sun on Riksgränsen’s monolithic, Sierra-like snow, and a quick pass through the bar reveals that they’re all here. Various groups of Northern Europeans, plus some Frenchmen and a couple of Nicaraguans, are sporting dreadlocks, nose rings, and tight-fitting T-shirts with cheeky sayings.

This is an athlete’s resort, where skiers and boarders come to take full advantage of the long days and the maritime climate—315 inches of snowfall annually. Spring skiing is what Riksgränsen is famous for, and on the weekends the lifts shut down at 1 a.m. Everyone heads out onto the slopes after dinner, and on sunny days the mountain swarms with crowds dressed in Speedos and drinking chilled shots of licorice schnapps. Despite being almost 100 miles north of any tree I might hit, I enlist a guide, Pär Lövgren (a.k.a. Pancho Snowfall), to keep me from winging off the resort’s unmarked cliffs and into crevasses. “I haven’t touched a ski pole in ten years,” Pancho confesses on the lift. I follow his advice, ditch the poles, and use my upper body like a snowboarder. After following Pancho’s waving arms for a couple of runs, I tune in to the reckless spirit of the place and strike out on my own.

In a comic twist of rainy weather and jet lag, I never get to see the Big Mountain Championships competitors do their stuff. Instead, I spend the week becoming increasingly obsessed with carving up the slush on my own little “big mountain” course on Klumpen, an off-piste black-diamond run off Nedre Stolliften, the chairlift by the lodge. As the sun spins overhead in a circle, I zoom through the natural-terrain park and get into a rhythmic trance. That’s right, baby. You know what I like.

WHERE TO SKI
To reach the steep chutes and open faces that provide the setting every May for the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships, hike 500 feet up Nordalsfjäll, off the resort’s back side.

WHERE TO STAY
Life in this town buzzes around the 164-room, three-story Riksgränsen Hotell, with guests lounging in the couch-lined halls and gathering in the bar for thumping DJ music. Rates: $400 per person for four nights, which includes three days of lift tickets and enormous breakfasts.

WHERE TO EAT
The hotel restaurant, Lapplandia, serves Swedish classics like moose and reindeer, with a surprisingly big wine list.

GEAR & GUIDES
Internationally certified guides lead clients down 3,000-foot runs off several nearby peaks. The best deal costs $230 per person for three helicopter flights.

GETTING THERE
Fly from Stockholm to Kiruna on SAS ($240; 800-221-2350, ), then take the train ($12 one way; 011-46-862-950-00, ), or rent a car and drive 70 miles northwest on Highway E10.

Sweden: The Right Gear

Storming snowboarding’s Valhalla? You’ll need a sturdy ride, beefy boots, and a party-proof flight suit.

Now Boarding: After a day of thrashing your ride, stash it in the BURTON Gig Bag. The well-padded Gig handles up to a 176cm deck, and a top-access boot pocket and fleece-lined goggle pouch keep the rest of your crucial hardware close at hand. ($70; 800-881-3138, )

BOARD: The Burton T6 is the first plank built around the same aluminum-honeycomb material found inside helicopter rotors. That translates into a light, snappy board that initiates precise turns. While the T6 will whip nimbly through a halfpipe upon request, it’s a stiff, all-terrain ride at heart. ($600; 800-881-3138, )
BINDINGS: The new Burton C16 strap binding justifies its price tag with a carbon-fiber highback that’s 27 percent lighter than its previous plastic incarnation. Plus, new buckles release easier, and expanded vinyl acetate atop the highback reduces pressure on the calves. ($350; 800-881-3138, )
BOOTS: Simple shoelace-style board boots don’t offer larger riders adequate edge control. Big guys prefer boots like the K2 Rival Boa, which doesn’t pass its support responsibilities on to the binding. The two-piece Boa subdues slop via a drawcord on the liner and a ratcheting cable on the outer shell. ($279; 800-972-4038, )
PANTS: The Helly Hansen Tryst wraps intelligent features into a proprietary waterproof-breathable shell fabric. Exhibit A: Cargo pockets on each thigh angle up and in; get into ’em on the chair without raining your kronors on unsuspecting sliders below. ($200; 800-435-5901, )
SHELL: Named in homage to snowboarding’s outlaw heritage, Quiksilver’s High-Speed Chase is the ultimate ride jacket. Technical touches abound: hand gaiters complete with a wristwatch “window,” interior CD-player pocket with headphone-cord port, Gore-Tex, pit zips, and a powder skirt. ($330; 800-576-4004, )
MIDLAYER: Even in a sopping storm, Patagonia’s Puffball Sweater will keep your core temp in the comfort zone. Credit hardworking Thermolite synthetic insulation encased in brightly hued polyester-and-ripstop-nylon fabric. ($145; 800-638-6464, )
EYEWEAR: This season, Smith tweaked its popular Triad goggles to work better with a helmet. The add-on, a kind of pivoting bracket that isolates lid motion from the goggle’s fit, parks the Triad evenly across nose and brow. ($85; 800-635-4401, )
HELMET: The Boeri Steez helmet—the company’s newest and lightest brain bucket—accommodates the wild extremes of Scandinavian weather with removable ear flaps and vent shutoffs. ($110; 800-394-6741, )
GLOVES: Swany’s FX-19 GENERATIONS are stuffed with three different kinds of DuPont insulation, and the gloves include a waterproof-breathable layer that also reduces odor. ($90; 800-237-9269, )
PACK: The Deuter Explorer backpack has a burly snowboard-attachment system that’s reinforced with rubber to keep edges from slicing the fabric. Padded hip fins stabilize your load, while interior pockets for thermos, shovel handle, and a hydration reservoir (not included) keep things organized. ($109; 303-652-3102, )

Niseko: Skiing Japanese

Where to find 500 inches of powder, stashed in secret off-piste oases

BORING A SKI POLE INTO two feet of powder, the crow’s-feet of his crinkly grin peeking out the sides of his goggles, Yutaka Takanashi nods and says, “Niseko no bai wa, kore wa heikin desu yo.” Translation: “This is about average for Niseko.” We’re traversing east through glades of adolescent birch trees with the sound of dueling woodpeckers in the distance. Takanashi, our 34-year-old guide, is one of Japan’s top telemark skiers, and we’ve just finished skiing three off-piste glades of powder that, were it not for fat skis, might have been classified as too deep.

Sitting in the southwest corner of Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, Niseko is one of the snowiest places on the planet, receiving well over 500 inches of snow a year. Storms from Siberia pick up a sudden surge of moisture from the Sea of Japan and slam into the 4,000-foot peaks of Niseko, exploding like a piñata that’s been hit by Barry Bonds. Niseko is actually composed of three areas—Annapuri, Higashiyama, and Hirafu—all tied together at the summit, where a tangle of five lifts ferry skiers up into treeless, intermediate-level terrain. All told, Niseko has 2,191 skiable acres and 30 miles of trails. Only a few trails measure more than 30 degrees in pitch, but Niseko’s 15 square miles of backcountry offer plenty of steeps—you just need to know how to find them. Which is where Takanashi comes in. Six foot one with a mane of black hair, Takanashi is light-years from the stereotypical small-frame Japanese salaryman. The name of his two-year-old guide service, Toyru, is taken from the language of Hokkaido’s indigenous people, the Ainu. It means “to go into the mountains.”

So we go, riding three lifts to the top of the ski area, hiking for ten minutes, then dropping over to the north side of 4,295-foot Annapuri. After three turns in some hard crust, I’m skeptical about Takanashi’s slope choice. But a moment later I’m almost thigh-deep in fluff. For the rest of the day it’s the same formula: heaping doses of powder, a final collapse at the end of the run, followed by a flurry of Japanese and English superlatives. When we started, I was worried there’d be no untracked powder; now I’m just hoping my legs will hold out.

My legs survive, but just barely. And as with all the best Japanese après-ski experiences, we wind down at an onsen, or hot spring—namely, the milky-green 108-degree waters of Goshiki, a 25-minute drive from the ski area. The bath even has a floating slab of wood, perfect for resting a frosty can of Sapporo. For Niseko, this is an average day.

WHERE TO SKI
For backcountry enthusiasts with proper gear, traversing north off the top of lift seven will lead to more sustained, open terrain, with plenty of powder. Warning: The backcountry isn’t bombed or patrolled, so ski at your own risk.

WHERE TO STAY
Niseko Higashiyama Prince Hotel is a Japanese version of the Marriott and has English-speaking staffers—a boon for dog-tired ski bums (doubles, $130-$230; 800-542-8686, ).

WHERE TO EAT
B’s Café, a five-minute walk from the Hirafu lifts, offers Sapporo on tap, Western-style sandwiches, and made-to-order vegetarian dishes.

GEAR & GUIDES
The Niseko ���ϳԹ��� Center (011-81-136-23-2093, ), founded by Australian Ross Findlay, can provide rental gear, guides (including Yutaka Takanashi), and evening snowshoe tours.

GETTING THERE
Fly to Sapporo from Tokyo on All Nippon Airways ($250 round-trip; 800-235-9262) and then take the train from the airport for $24, one-way. In less than three hours you’ll arrive at Niseko station. From there it’s just a few minutes in a cab to most hotels.

Japan: The Right Gear

Good news for powder goddesses: fat skis and other deep-snow essentials are ripping it up with an x chromosome

DAKINE’s CONCOURSE DOUBLE can swallow two pairs of skis (and up to four with the bindings detached) and two pairs of poles. Full padding and ripstop nylon protect against dings, and urethane wheels help ease that long run to International Check-In. ($130-$140; 800-827-7466, )

SKIS: For years, petite women with a penchant for ripping big mountains on fat skis ended up floundering on boards that were too long and stiff for them. Enter the new K2 Phat Luv, a women’s-specific version of the company’s renowned AK Launcher and the first softer-flexing powder stick available in lengths below 165cm. ($675; 800-972-4063, )
BINDINGS: The Salomon S810 Ti Axe binding is a lock for most female skiers: Titanium in the heel track and housing keep it light and durable, while a lower release range accommodates less torque. It’s a high-performance alternative to men’s overbuilt race clamps. ($245; 800-225-6850, )
BOOTS: The Rossignol Bandit B1 women boot proves how far we’ve come since gals suffered in pink-accented mush buckets. This advanced freeride boot (guys, look for the Bandit B1 Men) is soft enough to absorb a big huck yet stiff enough to rail your edges through the corduroy. ($499; 802-863-2511, )
PANTS: Orage’s AWD2 pants are highly technical—and highly stylish—trou. The svelte denim-look duds are actually waterproof and breathable poly-nylon wonders. You’ll remain drier, and infinitely more hip, than the kids still cruising the slopes in their Levi’s. ($220; 800-250-5056, )
SHELL: The Marmot women’s Super Shero isn’t just a smaller version of the popular men’s Super Hero soft shell; it’s specifically cut for narrower waists and shoulders. Thejacket, a synthesis of Gore N2S Windstopper and Polartec WindPro and PowerShield fabrics, stymies even the nastiest mountain weather. ($225; 888-627-6680, )
MIDLAYER: The Salomon W’s Moto Mesh Zip Neck midlayer moves effortlessly from street to snow. Credit the uncluttered design and a proprietary fabric that combines warmth, breathability, and quick-drying qualities. ($69; 800-225-6850, )
EYEWEAR: Spy’s Sonix evoke sixties styling in gogglelike shades that seem plucked from an early Godzilla flick. But the optics are pure 21st century, built around a single glass lens engineered to eliminate distortion and boost peripheral vision. ($160; 800-779-3937, )
HAT: The RLX Ski Hat mixes an old-school tassel with a contemporary, close fit that’s not at all boxy. Made of ultralight itchless wool, it’s ideal for thick-maned women who don’t require an expedition-weight toque. ($35; 866-897-7656, )
GLOVES: Available in sizes down to extra small, the Black Diamond Stratos glove offers four-way stretch in the fingers for dexterity and removable waterproof inserts for quickdrying in the field. ($100; 801-278-5533, )
PACK: The Dakine Heli Pro Small is a 900-cubic-inch pack designed for spontaneous backcountry forays. It keeps your gear in order with loops for an ice ax or shovel on both sides, a separate pocket for a shovel blade, and a mesh nest for your beverage reservoir. ($80; 800-827-7466, )

Portillo: Los Grandes Andes

Splendid isolation meets old-world glam and this all-in-one Chilean resort

ANOTHER BLUEBIRD MORNING in Portillo, Chile, and the five-seater Llama—a dragonfly of a helicopter, all tail—lifts off from the swank old Hotel Portillo. I gawk out its buggy eye as 22,834-foot Aconcagua rises to the southeast. “Watch that lever,” says Mario Espinoza, the pilot, pointing to the handle wedged beneath my arm. “The door could fly off.” But Mario is grinning as he says this, and I am, too, as the morning clouds race over the Andes.

My guides—tall, suave, and Swiss Pierre Tagliabue and ruggedly boyish Canadian Matt Wylie—are impossibly heroic, because all the instructors and guides from the Northern Hemisphere who compete for spots in the powder capital of the Southern Hemisphere are impossibly heroic, and I think to myself, By God, I would follow them anywhere. Matt jumps up and down on a cornice —¡ué macho!—and pronounces the snow bueno but “variable,” which I fear is guidespeak for everything from “crust over concrete” to “skin of ice over abyss,” but my brain is already an addled soup of hero worship and Latin romance, and off I go anyway, over the lip and down the steep eastern slope of the Mardones Valley. I’m heli-skiing in the Andes, and there’s still carne and cabernet for lunch. Portillo wasn’t always this way, and by “this way” I mean the world’s best mix of New World snow and Old World glamour, a one-hotel wonderland at 9,350 feet, 40 miles beyond Los Andes, the last town before Argentina. Owner Henry Purcell was 26 in the summer of 1961, when he first saw El Grande Hotel Portillo, the 1942 building beached on the western shore of Laguna del Inca, its only guest the caretaker’s black sheep, Lumumba. That winter, a single storm dumped 17 feet, stranding 200 guests and employees for a month. They survived on beef air-dropped by the Los Andes flying club; those with pressing engagements postholed out, with valets carrying their bags.

The hotel still retains that The Shining-meets-Titanic vibe, as if the ship’s crew, instead of drowning, had rigged up a few lifts on the iceberg and told the chef to keep on flambéing. In the paneled dining room, you might be seated next to an elegant Brazilian family, the Austrian downhill team (was that Hermann Maier dancing on the bar last night?), or Warren Miller’s film crew—all dressed for dinner. “Skiing used to have a lot of romance and sex appeal,” Warren Miller’s director of photography, Chris Patterson, said one morning over a café con leche. “This place brings that out in people.”

It also brings out 800 in-bounds and 12,000 sweetly out-of-bounds acres—all to yourself. (The resort holds only 450 guests, though Chile’s not-so-elite ski troops train here, executing laborious stem christies in full camo.) Some of the runs on 13,900-foot Ojos de Agua are so precariously perched on avalanche chutes that permanent lifts are out of the question. Instead, everybody roars up Roca Jack on ingeniously reckless five-man Poma lifts anchored to the mountain with cables, catching air on the uphill.

And by the last run—a powder shot down Primavera ending in a hike back over the frozen lake—you’ve still got time for Carmen the massage therapist to work on your back, and perhaps to drag yourself over to La Posada, the employee bar, where the muy serioso bartender, Oscar, pours pisco sours as the lifties and local ��DZ�����í�� toast over heaping bowls of carne.

But for now, up in the Mardones Valley it’s clouding over, and everyone thinks, Why doesn’t Mario just drop us off right at Tio Bob’s, the old slopeside stone refugio, for lunch? And condors are wheeling on thermals as the Llama thwacks rotowash over the hut, and there’s a fire in the fireplace and pescado on the grill, and the Andean afternoon stretches before you.

WHERE TO SKI
Masochists will want to take a shot at Super C, a 7,020-foot couloir that’s a three-hour hike above the Roca Jack lift.

WHERE TO STAY
Lucky for you, Hotel Portillo (800-829-5325, ) is your only option. Prices, which include seven days of lift tickets and most meals, range from $990, for a shared four-man in the hotel’s Octagon Lodge, to $1,690, for a lakeside double. Lowballers can stay at the hotel’s Inca Lodge, a bargain bunker with shared bathrooms, for $420 a week, including lifts and cafeteria fare.

WHERE TO EAT
In Hotel Portillo’s grand dining room, of course, where red-coated ma”tre d’ Juan Beiza has served guests since April 1968. Dinner’s not till 8:30, so fortify yourself with a predinner pisco in the hotel bar.

GEAR & GUIDES
Portillo heli-skiing is fabulous and relatively affordable: Trips to the Mardones Valley and surrounding peaks start at around $100. Reserve in advance at .

GETTING THERE American Airlines offers direct flights from Miami and Dallas-Fort Worth to Santiago for about $800. Portillo Tours and Travels (011-56-2-263-0806) runs a shuttle service the 102 winding miles from Santiago up to the hotel.

Chile: The Right Gear

Monstrous, pupil-dilating terrain demands heavy hardware and technical layers built with a high-alpine attitude.

Pick-Up Sticks: The SALOMON EQUIPE safely stows two pairs of skis, each up to 180cm in length, and poles. A generous lining of closed-cell foam will protect your hardware from any uncivilized treatment on the tarmac. The full-length two-way zipper provides easy access, while compression straps cinch the Equipe into a tidy bundle. ($59; 800-225-6850, )

SKIS: The Völkl Gotama is a tanker-wide twin-tipped board—130mm at each end—that’ll hold an Andes-size turn, then stick a 540 in the terrain park. Like Portillo’s discotheque patrons, it dresses in black; unlike them, it’s Jabba the Hut chubby. ($695; 800-264-4579, )
BINDINGS: While locked into Marker’s COMP 1400 Piston Control bindings, the ride is smoother than Barry White. A partially floating toe-piece and a piston under the middle of the platform knock out vibrations, even at high speeds. ($395; 800-453-3862, )
BOOTS: After cranking in Tecnica’s Icon Alu Hot Form boots all day, just hook ’em up to an electrical outlet or 12-volt car plug to dry the liner. Similar to Tecnica’s race boots, the Icons offer significantly more flex and a hinged cuff that both quickens response and permits easier entry and exit. ($775; 800-258-3897, )
PANTS: The Arc’Teryx MinuteMan PANT anticipates all conditions and dilemmas. Spring downpour? Cue the Gore-Tex XCR-enhanced nylon and watertight zippers. Sun-blasted backcountry climbs? Peel open the thigh vents. Noshed too much Argentinian steak? Loosen the integrated waist belt. ($300; 800-985-6681, )
SHELL: Newly improved with more strategically placed switch and battery, the North Face Met 5 jacket still delivers warmth at the press of a button via electrically heated filaments that run throughout the piece. ($600; 800-362-4963, )
MIDLAYER: You stuff your shell in your pack to stay cool for an out-of-bounds hike and, of course, it starts snowing. But don’t worry: The NIKE ACG Composite Vest is the rare fleece with a flexible water-repellent and wind-and-abrasion-resistant layer (Nike Sphere Pro Dry), so you can resist that moisture while wicking your own out through the vest’s thermal-regulating interior. ($115; 800-344-6453, )
EYEWEAR: Stand back—the Oakley Monster Dog is comin’ through. Bay-window-size lenses shield the eyes from glare and blowing snow. ($85-$155; 800-403-7449, )
HELMET: Brain-bucket atheists challenge the very existence of a comfortable helmet. The Briko X-fusion gives them religion with an anallergic chin strap, a removable internal liner, and a two-part shell that channels air over the noggin, keeping things cool. ($110; 800-462-7456, )
GLOVES: Smart is the operative word in SmartWool’s Mountaineer glove. A wool lining, leather palm, and water-and-abrasion-resistant nylon top collaborate to warm your hands while anatomically molded knuckles help keep your digits dexterous. ($110; 800-550-9665, )
PACK: The Mammut Eclipse is made with a lightweight tear-proof fabric called Dupont Cordura 500 D. Compartments swallow a hydration bladder, ice ax, and first-aid kit—tempting you to overpack. ($149; 800-451-5127, )

Monterosa: Italia Extreme

Go fast and sleek at the Ferrari Testarossa of ski resorts

“ABOVE ALL, DO NOT FALL. If you fall, you will die.”

With that bit of confidence-building advice, Jean-Marc Crampe, a ponytailed ski guide, leaped off a cornice and into a 60-degree couloir. The night before, in the hotel bar, after one too many rounds of grappa, I had persuaded him that I was up for the nastiest descents he could show me in the Monterosa area of the Italian Alps, the latest mecca for extreme skiing.

After all, wasn’t Italy the country where skiers spent more time parading around in fur coats than skiing? Well, Monterosa—a resort named after the Monte Rosa Range, whose 15,000-foot peaks straddle the Swiss-Italian border—isn’t like the rest of Italy.

Sure, there are 110 miles of conventional trails that link the villages of Champoluc, Gressoney, and Alagna. In the hotels, there are tuxedoed waiters who fussily serve weekend visitors from Milan. And the lift attendants still whistle at women in one-piece Bogner suits. But up above, there is terrain that makes Jackson Hole look like a nice place to cross-country ski. That, and the absence of crowds, has turned Monterosa into a cult destination for alpine ski bums. It’s the new La Grave. Peering over the rim of the couloir, I watched Jean-Marc make a few jump turns to avoid crashing into the rock walls that lined the ten-foot-wide sliver of snow. I turned down his offer to let me rappel over a frozen waterfall at the top and side-stepped and slid my way down about 100 yards to meet him. As terror gave way to mild fear, I was able to start skiing again. After 2,500 vertical feet came the reward—the couloir opened up enough that I could let my old-school skis rip through the softened spring snow. Finally, when the snow ran out—the March sun was beating down—we hiked through the woods to Alagna.

The couloir was only a quick tune-up for the main event the next day, a heli-skiing trip from Gressoney across the Swiss border to Zermatt and back over to Italy, in the shadow of 15,203-foot Monte Rosa. Heli-skiing, strictly limited or banned in other parts of the Alps, is still widely practiced in Italy, and Monterosa is the best base for it.

After we had strapped on our avalanche beepers and harnesses, two buddies and I followed another guide, Claudio Bastrentaz, to the chopper, which dropped us off on a 13,000-foot saddle on the flanks of Monte Rosa. Before us stretched the Grenzgletscher, a ten-mile ice floe. After a scenic tour down to Zermatt, past towering seracs and gaping crevasses—a “cakewalk,” Claudio said in accented English, even though we had skied twice the vertical drop of Vail—we got another helicopter ride up to the ridge.

“I hope you like steep slopes,” Claudio said after the helicopter had left, giving us no choice in the matter. We followed him onto a 50-degree firn-covered incline. The skiing was so smooth, I was lulled into a false sense of security, broken only when I saw Claudio waving his poles at me from below what looked like a stair-step in the mountain.

“Jump, jump,” he yelled. As I flew off the step, I looked down into the abyss of a five-foot-wide crevasse. Once we had all cleared this hurdle, Claudio informed us that we had made a “first descent,” giving us the right to name it.

“You must name it after your girlfriends,” he said. Proving that we were, after all, in Italy.

WHERE TO SKI
The Diretta ski route is an unmarked but easy-to-follow off-piste itinerary from the top of the Alagna cable car down to neighboring Gressoney.

WHERE TO STAY
Hotel Dufour ($600 per person for seven nights, including all meals; 011-39-0125-366-139, ), at the foot of the slopes in Gressoney, is the most convenient place to sleep, particularly because the guide service is based there. Rooms are basic but clean and quiet, with balconies facing the nearby Punta Jolanda ski lift.

WHERE TO EAT
Champoluc, Gressoney, and Alagna are tiny villages, not your typical sprawling ski resorts. It’s better to get a hotel with half board—dinner included—than to search in vain for food in one of the trattorias scattered about. On the mountain, Ristoro Belvedere, in Champoluc, is a gem—a hut where you can get a heaping plate of polenta and sausages for $10.

GEAR & GUIDES
Scuola di Alpinismo Monte Rosa (011-39-0125-366-139, ), based in the Hotel Dufour in Gressoney, is the place to go. A guided tour above Monterosa and Zermatt, using two helicopter drops, costs $170 per person. Without a helicopter, a guide costs $260 a day for a group of up to five people. David Sport, in Gressoney (011-39-0125-366-124), rents any equipment you need for skiing off-piste on glaciers.

GETTING THERE
Alitalia (800-223-5730, ) flies from New York to Milan starting at $515 round-trip. Rent a car and drive 70 miles through the Alps foothills to the resort.

Italy: The Right Gear

Out to tame the steeps, Mr. Bond? You’ll need Q-worthy technology and style on that triple-black-diamond run.

Boot Magician: Stash your Scarpas in the end compartments of HIGH SIERRA’s 6,720-cubic-inch 4-IN-1 CARGO DUFFEL and you’ll have enough room in the main hold for a week’s worth of garb. Zip off the ends and mate ’em up—you’ve got a trick stand-alone boot caddy. Bonus: Straps on the boot modules make one an instant daypack, the other a messenger bag. ($120; 800-323-9590, )

SKIS: A titanium-reinforced core and a generous 108mm-wide shovel help the Atomic R:11 Betapuls-ti power through glacial crud, while a svelte 70mm waist snaps quick turns in pinched couloirs. ($875; 800-258-5020, )
BINDINGS: Wed the R:11 to Atomic’s CR:412 binding. The heel piece glides on a metal band, allowing uninterrupted flex through the ski. Move the binding fore or aft to suit snow conditions and level of expertise. ($280; 800-258-5020, )
BOOTS: Forged in the far-northern Italian town of Montebelluna, LANGE racers have long won praise for their snug, anatomic liners and sensitive underfoot feel. The Comp 120 LF advances this legacy with bigger buckle ratchets and flared, rounded straps that are easy to adjust with gloves on. ($700; 800-992-3962, )
PANTS: If you accidentally schuss into a shallow Monterosa crevasse, nothing will save your butt like the Oakley Stitchless Pant. Fully taped seams and waterproof zippers guarantee dryness, while seamless leg construction, articulated knees, and roomy seat ensure comfort. ($400; 800-403-7449, )
SHELL: Mountain Hardwear’s Defiant is a true all-conditions jacket thanks to abrasion-resistant nylon. Cut full to accommodate layering, this tough shell includes pit zips, powder skirt, and helmet-friendly hood. ($240; 800-953-8375, )
MIDLAYER: The new Columbia Mountain Mobility Sweater is tailored entirely from water-repellent Schoeller Dryskin—a four-way stretch fabric—and zips inside any of Columbia’s external shells. ($190; 800-622-6953, )
EYEWEAR: Italian optics firm Briko toned down its trademark Euro design flourishes with the new Icarus goggle. Upper, front, side, and bottom ports on the double lens help keep this eye shield fog-free. ($110; 800-462-7456, ) HAT: Some skiers don the Jytte Scull Beanie for the inner band of soft CoolMax fleece and the tight, wind-cheating woolen weave. Mostly, though, they wear Jytte (pronounced “yoo-TAY”) hats because they look so cool. ($30; 208-788-1266, )
GLOVE: Though a product of Wyoming, Cloudveil’s Troller Glove looks and feels molto Italiano thanks to buttery leather, Primaloft insulation (with a 20-degree range), and waterproof-breathable Schoeller stretch fabric. ($65; 888-763-5969, )
HYDRATION PACK: Stay watered on Monterosa’s network of sky-piercing lifts with your 50-ounce CamelBak SnoBowl. It nestles under your jacket, and its insulated reservoir and tube guard against freezing. ($40; 800-767-8725, )

365 Days of Winter

There’s always snow somewhere. Here are the coolest places on the globe to find it.

NEW ZEALAND [Craigieburn] The official stats—three rope tows and 1,650 vertical feet—give the illusion that this is a pip-squeak of a ski area. Don’t be misled. This best known of New Zealand’s “club fields”—ski areas run by local organizations—features giant bowls, 50-degree couloirs, and runs that can exceed 3,000 vertical feet, depending on snow conditions. Best of all, you’ll share this killer terrain with fewer than 100 skiers. SEASON: July to September. CONTACT: 011-64-3-365-2514, . PACKAGE DEAL: $75, including transportation, lift ticket, rope-tow gear, lunch, and a half-day with a guide; Black Diamond Safaris, 011-64-25-508-283, . KINDRED SPIRIT: Mad River Glen, Vermont (802-496-3551, ), attracts the same brand of ski nuts with its old-fashioned lifts and “I dare you” attitude.

SPAIN [Baqueira] Home turf to Juan Carlos, the world’s most ski-crazed king, the Pyrenees may be smaller than the Alps, but the ski scene is also more low-key, less expensive, and less likely to lure fellow Americans. Expect a heavy dose of authentic Spanish culture, including lots of tapas and dinner at 10 p.m. But the real charm of Baqueira is big-mountain terrain. How white-knuckle gnarly can it get? Escornacrabes, a favorite area of Baqueira experts, roughly translates as “the place where goats fall and die.” SEASON: December through April. CONTACT: 011-34-973-63-9010, . PACKAGE DEAL: Book a seven-night stay (including breakfast) and six days of lift tickets for $750 per person through the resort. KINDRED SPIRIT: Grand Targhee, Wyoming (800-827-4433, ), is often passed over for Jackson Hole, to the east, but is blessed with some of the best powder in the U.S. SWITZERLAND [Andermatt] “Ander” is a German prefix meaning “other.” Think, then, of Andermatt as the alternative to Zermatt. In Andermatt, you still get the Swiss-chalet character, but none of the fur-coat glitz. Andermatt may seem relatively small—just 12 lifts and 36 miles of trails. But well-traveled experts will tell you that the light snow and long, steep runs on 9,719-foot Gemsstock, the area’s highest peak, allow you to go as big as anywhere else in Switzerland. SEASON: November to May. CONTACT: 011-41-41-887-1454, . PACKAGE DEAL: $480, including seven nights’ lodging, airport transports, and breakfast; All Mountain Vacations, 888-838-8142, . KINDRED SPIRIT: Just as Andermatt is the other Zermatt, Solitude, Utah (800-748-4754, ), is the other Alta. Andermatt and Solitude share the same kind of snow and terrain—with zero attitude.

ARGENTINA [Cerro Castor] The world’s southernmost ski area, just beyond the fringes of Ushuaia, is so far off the grid that most Argentinians still don’t know it exists. Officially, the skiable terrain comprises about 1,000 acres of open bowls overlooking the Beagle Channel, but another 2,500 acres will eventually be opened. Best of all, you can book a seven-night, six-day trip, including lodging, breakfast, and lift tickets, for as little as $321. SEASON: July through September. CONTACT: 011-54-901-21423, . PACKAGE DEAL: $321; Ski Vacation Planners, 888-822-6754, . KINDRED SPIRIT: Le Massif, Quebec (418-632-5876, ), has the same end-of-the-earth feeling.

AUSTRIA [Ötztal] St. Anton and Kitzbühel may be better known to American skiers, but the ötztal region, where the Austrian Alps rise up to peaks exceeding 12,000 feet, literally stands above them. Ötztal is a greatest-hits amalgam of all things Austrian: a major resort town in Sölden, charming high-mountain villages like Vent, a ski school dating back to 1928, and runs exceeding 5,000 vertical feet. Snow at other Austrian areas, notably low-elevation Kitzbühel, can be iffy, but Ötztal’s high elevation assures quality winter snow and almost year-round glacier skiing. SEASON: Year-round, conditions permitting. CONTACT: 011-43-52-54-5100, . PACKAGE DEAL: $1,429, including flights from New York, seven nights’ lodging, breakfast, and dinner; ���ϳԹ���s on Skis, 800-628-9655, . KINDRED SPIRIT: Just like Ötztal, the Summit at Snoqualmie, Washington (425-434-7669, ), is an almost exclusively locals-only mountain surrounded by higher-profile peaks.

119 Down, Five to Go

Meet Nick Palazzetti, quite possibly America’s most fanatical skier

Certainly, overseas powder has its appeal. But Nick Palazzetti has found enough steep and deep stateside to keep him occupied every season since 1978. This winter, barring injury or untimely airline bankruptcy, the 58-year-old fundraiser from Pittsburgh, who started skiing when he was 28, will complete a quest to ski every major mountain in North America—all 124 of them (by his count). Over the past quarter-century, he’s ticked off 95 resorts and 24 heli-ski or snowcat operations, from Arizona to Newfoundland. Still to go: Castle Mountain (Alberta), Le Massif (Quebec), Whitewater (British Columbia), Silver Mountain (Idaho), and Silverton (Colorado). Five mountains, three cross-country flights, and an all-day drive—just an average winter agenda for the peripatetic Palazzetti.


Why the wanderlust? Why not just find a nice resort and keep going back?

I did do that for a little while. The first place I skied out west was Aspen, and I liked it there. But as I improved, I wanted steeper and more extreme.


How does a resort make your list?

Initially, I set the threshold at 3,000 vertical feet, but I quickly realized that wouldn’t work because Taos, a great mountain with about 2,600 feet, wouldn’t qualify. I reduced the number to 2,500, but that still disqualified Alta. So I settled on 2,000. I have to ski 60 to 70 percent of a mountain before it counts.


That’s a lot of mountain—how do you get it all done in a day or two?

High-speed lifts have really helped.


Is there a downside to your quest?

Yeah. This type of travel isn’t conducive to a relationship—not many people want to ski six mountains in one trip.


What’s been your worst experience?

I’ve been injured a couple of times pretty badly—torn rotator cuff, torn calf muscle, torn ACL, broken ribs, two broken shoulders. I fell in a chute called Turbo, at Arapahoe Basin, and slid for about 500 feet. I stopped just above a cliff. I’ve also had a few close calls with avalanches.


What’s missing in the North American ski experience?

The ability to ski from village to village. Other than that, it doesn’t lack anything.


After all these years, what is your favorite North American resort?

Whistler Blackcomb, B. C., because the snow quality and terrain are as good as anywhere in the world.


Once you finish the list, how will you celebrate? I’ll focus on South America next summer. When I’m done with that, I’ll ski in Europe until I die.

The post The Universal Language of Pow appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Alta Ski Area and Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, Utah
801-742-3333,
800-232-9542,
With about 500 inches of smoke-light Utah powder falling annually in Little Cottonwood Canyon, neighbors Alta and Snowbird are famous for a reason. The resorts are connected by a high-speed quad in Mineral Basin, though the dual-resort season pass is only for skiers. (Alta still bans snowboarders.)
BEST RUN: At Snowbird, ski Great Scott, the rock-lined chute off the tram. At Alta, hike 30 minutes toward the open steeps of East Devil’s Castle.
OFF-SLOPE ACTION: The consistent winds at Point of the Mountain, just south of Salt Lake City, make for exceptional paragliding. Call Super Fly Paragliding ($100 per tandem flight; 801-255-9595, ).
LODGING: Built in 1939, the 57-room Alta Lodge (doubles from $243, including two meals; 800-707-2582) has loads of alpine character. Snowbird’s high-rise Cliff Lodge (doubles from $129; 800-453-3000) has two indoor pools.
Summit Elevation: 10,550 feet (Alta)
11,000 feet (Snowbird)
Lift-Served Vertical: 2,020 feet (Alta)
3,240 feet (Snowbird)
Skiable Area: 2,200 acres (Alta)
2,500 acres (Snowbird)
Average Annual Snowfall: 500 inches

Aspen, Colorado
800-525-6200,
Aspen, with its Learjets and $20 million mountain “cabins,” lives up to its reputation as the Gomorrah of the Rockies. But don’t be fooled. With four resorts just 15 minutes from town—Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Snowmass, Buttermilk—Aspen remains one of the best spots in Colorado for big-mountain skiing.
BEST RUN: In 2000, Aspen Highlands extended its boundaries to include Highland Bowl, a steep, east-facing slope of treeless bliss.
OFF-SLOPE ACTION: Yes, shopping is a sport here. Where else can you ski first tracks in the morning and shop the Porsche Design store or buy a floating-diamond Chopard watch after lunch?
LODGING: For the classic Aspen chalet experience, stay in the slopeside (and boutique-side) Little Nell (doubles from $615; 888-843-6355).
Summit Elevation: 9,900 feet (Buttermilk) to 12,510 feet (Snowmass)
Total Lift-Served Vertical: 13,338 feet
Total Skiable Area: 4,900 acres
Average Annual Snowfall: 198-300 inches

Big Sky, Montana
800-548-4486,
The solitary pyramid of 11,166-foot Lone Peak at Big Sky, in the Madison Range, offers some of the steepest American lift-served skiing—2,088 acres of advanced or expert terrain. Some two dozen off-piste chutes and couloirs fall from the summit.
BEST RUN: The steeps of Liberty Bowl, off the Lone Peak Tram, are a local favorite.
OFF-SLOPE ACTION: Surprisingly, midwinter fly-fishing with a wet fly on the Gallatin River will land you rainbow trout. Call Gallatin River Guides ($250 for a half-day, including equipment; 888-707-1505).
LODGING: For urban styling and an outdoor pool with a party atmosphere, try the slopeside Summit at Big Sky (doubles from $160; 406-995-8000).
Summit Elevation: 11,166 feet
Lift-Served Vertical: 4,350 feet
Skiable Acres: 3,600 acres
Average Annual Snowfall: 400 inches

Jay Peak; Keystone Resort; Kirkwood Mountain; Mount Baker

Jay Peak, Vermont
800-451-4449,
If you’re looking for powder east of the Mississippi, Jay Peak is your place. In 2000, storms hit this remote resort, eight miles from the Canadian border, with 571 inches of the white stuff, a figure that many resorts in Colorado can’t match. Thanks to numerous hidden glades, untracked snow is common days after a storm.
BEST RUN: Skiing the trees on Everglade, the mountain’s one-and-a-quarter-mile-long signature run, is like running gates in powder.
OFF-SLOPE ACTION: After dinner, ice-skate on the outdoor rink near the base or sled down the Interstate run. Both areas are lighted and next to Hotel Jay, which has free sleds available to guests and rents skates for $2.
LODGING: Doubles at on-mountain Hotel Jay (802-988-2611) cost $339, including one dinner and two breakfasts.
Summit Elevation: 3,963 feet
Lift-Served Vertical: 2,153 feet
Skiable Area: 385 acres
Average Annual Snowfall: 357 inches

Keystone Resort, Colorado
800-222-0188,
With 20 lifts that can move 33,000 skiers per hour over three separate mountains, Keystone has something for everyone—greens and blues on Keystone Mountain, bumps on North Peak, and glades and bowls on Outback—as well as six-course dinners at the Keystone Ranch, Colorado’s top-rated restaurant according to the Zagat Survey.
BEST RUN: The open lines and 1,200-foot drop of The Windows, a big gladed area off the Summit Express on the back side of Keystone Mountain.
OFF-SLOPE ACTION: The Winter ���ϳԹ��� Passport (complimentary with lodging reservations made through the resort, 800-354-4386) gives you free access to everything from yoga classes to cross-country ski rentals and figure-skating clinics.
LODGING: The Keystone Lodge (doubles from $149; 877-753-9786, ) is quintessential mountain chic.
Summit Elevation: 12,200 feet
Lift-Served Vertical: 2,900 feet
Skiable Area: 1,861 acres
Average Annual Snowfall: 230 inches

Kirkwood Mountain Resort, California
800-967-7500,
With the highest base elevation of the resorts around Lake Tahoe (7,800 feet) and the fact that it faces northwest, Kirkwood gets pummeled by storms. And the expansive, treeless back bowl makes this Sierra gem feel bigger than it is.
BEST RUN: On a powder day, take Chair 4 and ski the playful drops off Thunder Saddle.
OFF-SLOPE ACTION: Fifty miles of machine-groomed trails with skate-skiing lanes cover the valley bottom and climb the surrounding hills. Call Kirkwood Cross Country ($20 fee; 209-258-7248).
LODGING: The Lodge at Kirkwood (doubles, $195; 800-967-7500) offers everything from studios to three-bedroom condos, all near the lifts.
Summit Elevation: 9,800 feet
Lift-Served Vertical: 2,000 feet
Skiable Area: 2,300 acres
Average Annual Snowfall: 500 inches

Mount Baker, Washington
360-734-6771,
This entire North Cascades resort is full of off-camber hills, gullies, and rocky drops, so skiers and boarders were happy to jib off natural features until the resort built a terrain park in 1999-2000. Add an average of 647 inches of snow each year (95 feet fell in the ’98-’99 season) and the mountain transforms into a powder-padded playpen.
BEST RUN: On a powder day, locals head straight for the well-spaced trees of Canuck’s Deluxe.
OFF-SLOPE ACTION: Snowshoers seek the panoramic rewards of Artist’s Point. This 45-minute tromp from the base unveils views of jagged 9,720-foot Mount Shuksan and bluer-than-blue Baker Lake. For rentals, call the Mount Baker Mountain Shop ($10; 360-734-6771).
LODGING: Try the cute rooms and cabins—and free breakfast—at Glacier Creek Lodge (rooms from $50 and cabins from $85; 800-719-1414) in the town of Glacier.
Summit Elevation: 5,050 feet
Lift-Served Vertical: 1,500 feet
Skiable Area: 1,000 acres
Average Annual Snowfall: 647 inches

Taos Ski Valley; Telluride; Whistler Blackcomb

Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico
505-776-2291,
Taos is a four-letter word for steep: More than half of the terrain is rated expert. But skiers (snowboarders are stubbornly prohibited) can be confident of holding an edge—clouds relinquish America’s driest snow here where the Sangre de Cristos rise 5,000 feet from the surrounding desert to 12,000 feet.
BEST RUN: A 1,600-foot drop at 35 degrees, Main Street, off Kachina Peak, is a classic.
OFF-SLOPE ACTION: Wake at 5 a.m. for a sunrise hot-air balloon ride over the 800-foot-deep Rio Grande Gorge. Call Paradise Hot Air Balloon-Eske’s Air Ventures ($205 per person for one and a half hours; 505-751-6098, )
LODGING: Thunderbird Lodge & Chalet (doubles, $236, including two meals; 800-776-2279, ) is 100 yards from the lifts.
Summit Elevation: 12,481 feet
Lift-Served Vertical: 2,612 feet
Skiable Area: 1,294 acres
Average Annual Snowfall: 312 inches

Telluride, Colorado
800-801-4832,
In 2001, Telluride spent $14 million to put three new high-speed quads into Prospect Bowl, nearly doubling the skiable terrain. Yet town remains unchanged, with its quaint Victorian buildings and cafés, like the Steaming Bean, for sipping lattes.
BEST RUN: The new Gold Hill lift, serving Prospect Bowl, accesses chutes like Claude’s Couloir.
OFF-SLOPE ACTION: Sometimes cantering through powder is better than skiing it. Call Ride with Roudy ($35 for a one-hour ride; 970-728-9611) for horseback rides and crazy tales of old Telluride.
LODGING: The plush New Sheridan Hotel (doubles, $100-$300; 800-200-1891, ) was built in 1895 as the centerpiece of Main Street and evokes the mining-town glory years.
Summit Elevation: 12,260 feet
Lift-Served Vertical: 3,510 feet
Skiable Area: 1,700 acres
Average Annual Snowfall: 310 inches

Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia
888-284-9999,
Whistler and Blackcomb are sister resorts in the Canadian Rockies that share the same base area, so for US$50 you can ski both for the price of one. Not a bad deal, considering that 33 lifts access 7,071 acres of above- and below-timberline skiing.
BEST RUN: The glacier-carved West Cirque—a wide-open bowl—tops 7,168-foot Whistler Mountain.
OFF-SLOPE ACTION: Animal-assisted speed is big. For horse-drawn sleigh rides, try Blackcomb Sleigh Rides (call 604-932-7631 for prices); for dogsledding, Cougar Mountain ($140; 604-932-4086).
LODGING: Enjoy the deluxe spa at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler (doubles, $400; 800-441-1414, ).
Summit Elevation: 7,494 feet
Lift-Served Vertical: 5,280 feet
Skiable Area: 7,071 acres
Average Annual Snowfall: 360 inches

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JANUARY

Once more into the breach: staring down the chutes of Alta

Alta Ski Area/Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, Utah
WITH ABOUT 500 INCHES of smoke-light Utah powder falling annually in Little Cottonwood Canyon, neighbors Alta and Snowbird are famous for a reason. And January is often the snowiest month, sometimes spectacularly so. The area has been known to receive 100 inches of snow in 100 hours. And, lucky you, the resorts have aggressive policies toward allowing people on the mountain after big storms, adhering to the time-tested theory that skiers help to compact new snow layers and stabilize the snowpack. Enjoy the benefits on the wide-open spaces of Greeley Bowl; then, when conditions permit, slip through the Keyhole from Alta to Snowbird and schuss the steep chutes of Peruvian Gulch. Skiers are welcome at both mountains, but snowboarders are anachronistically barred from Alta.
COOL DIGS: The slopeside Alta Lodge (doubles, $276-$449, including breakfast and dinner; 800-707-2582, ) dates back to 1939 and oozes woodsy charm. The Cliff Lodge at Snowbird is all steel, glass, and concrete and has a first-rate spa (doubles, $1,556 for five nights, including three-day lift tickets; 800-453-3000, ).
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 11,000 feet (Snowbird); vertical drop, 3,240 feet (Snowbird); skiable acres, 4,700 (Alta and Snowbird); annual snowfall, 500 inches
LIFT TICKET: $38, Alta; $56, Snowbird; $64 for a ticket valid at both resorts Contact: Alta, 888-782-9258, ; Snowbird, 800-453-3000,

Aspen/Snowmass, Colorado
ASPEN’S NOTORIOUS GLITTERATI typically wait until later in the season, for warmer weather, to do their vacationing, or they simply retreat from January’s winter chill to one of Aspen’s $25-per-entree restaurants, leaving the mountains all but deserted. The skiing terrain at the four areas that make up Aspen/Snowmass (Snowmass, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk) totals 4,893 acres, meaning that a powder day is usually a day of soulful solitude. The real goods are stashed at Aspen Highlands, where Highland Bowl (gradually opened to legal skiing over the last four years) has quickly become the gold standard of in-bounds steep skiing in Colorado. Be sure to pick up “The Highlands Extreme Guide,” a trail map devoted exclusively to Highlands’ hardcore terrain and to the Bowl’s 40-degree-plus lines.
COOL DIGS: Tucked into a corner of downtown Aspen, the glass, stone, and right angles of Hearthstone House (doubles, $189-$299, breakfast included; 888-925-7632, ) evoke the architectural sensibilities of Frank Lloyd Wright.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 12,392 feet (Highland Bowl); vertical drop, 3,635 feet (Aspen Highlands); skiable acres, 4,893 (all four mountains); annual snowfall, 300 inches
LIFT TICKET: $68 for all four areas contact: 800-525-6200,

February

Jackson Hole, Wyoming
NO RESORT IN THE UNITED STATES can match Jackson’s jumbled package of steep chutes, cliffs, and huge, open bowls, and that doesn’t even include the truly harrowing stuff just outside the boundary ropes. This terrain attracts high-caliber skiers (maybe America’s best), and watching them from the chairlift is akin to popping in a video by Teton Gravity Research. It can take 40-50 inches of snow to cover Jackson’s rocky underpinnings, a fact that sometimes limits the early-season possibilities. That’s why Jackson is at its best in the heart of winter. Sure, it can be cold (below-freezing temperatures aren’t uncommon in February), but there’s always the enclosed tram or gondola for weather protection. Plus, the fall line will make you work up a sweat.
COOL DIGS: Alpine House (doubles, $110-$245; 800-753-1421, ), an inn run by two former U.S. Ski Teamers, Hans and Nancy Johnstone, is in the town of Jackson—ively than Teton Village, at the ski-area base.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 10,450 feet; vertical drop, 4,139 feet; skiable acres, 2,500; annual snowfall, 400 inches
LIFT TICKET: $61 Contact: 888-838-6606,

Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico
WHEN A MIDWINTER CHILL settles in over the central and northern Rockies, head to New Mexico. That might seem crazy if you’re already in Albuquerque, where February temperatures commonly reach the fifties and the monthly precipitation is less than half an inch. But three hours north in Taos, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rise 5,000 feet from the surrounding desert to 12,000 feet, an orographic bull’s-eye where passing clouds relinquish the driest snow in America. Taos is also a four-letter word for steep: More than half of the terrain is rated expert, legitimately so. But on the dry, ice-free snow, skiers (snowboarders are not allowed) can be confident of holding an edge.
COOL DIGS: The Hotel Saint Bernard, a slopeside French-alpine-style hotel, is run by Jean Mayer, a legend in North American ski instruction (seven-day, all-inclusive packages—lodging, meals, lifts, lessons—start at $1,490; 505-776-2251, ). Mountain Stats: summit, 12,481 feet; vertical drop, 3,244 feet; skiable acres, 1,294; annual snowfall, 312 inches
LIFT TICKET: $49 Contact: 800-347-7414,

March

Able to leap tall bumps in a single bound: flying high over Stowe’s finest

Stowe Mountain Resort, Vermont
THE SNOW-PLASTERED, treeless summit of Stowe’s Mount Mansfield is striated with cliff bands—impressive stuff, but not always inviting in the dead freeze of a New England winter. Yet by March, Stowe’s snowiest month, the cold relents, the snow softens, and the skiing is as good as anywhere in the country. The moguls on the steeps of Stowe’s famous Front Four trails become navigable rather than knuckle-hard. The locals take advantage of the lengthening days of spring by being at the lift when it opens at 7:30 on powder days. They beat the crowds and score first tracks, then kick back for a few hours, letting the sun go to work, and ski corn in the afternoon.
COOL DIGS: The Trapp Family Lodge (doubles, $180-$485; 800-826-7000, ), with its chalet-like eaves and flower-painted walls, is reminiscent of the kind of Austrian setting that its owners (yes, the beloved singing family) made famous in The Sound of Music.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 4,395 feet; vertical drop, 2,360 feet; skiable acres, 480; annual snowfall, 260 inches
LIFT TICKET: $58 (2001Ð2002 price) Contact: 800-253-4754,

Telluride Ski Resort, Colorado
EVERYBODY LOVES THE WAMR DAYS of spring, but not everybody loves the warm, sloppy snow. For an antidote, head to Telluride, where the high elevations (between 10,000 and 12,000 feet) keep the snow midwinter dry. Ride the lifts to the steep chutes of Gold Hill or hike to the similarly steep chutes of Prospect Bowl, opened just last year. But if pounding soft spring moguls is your thing, head to the lower half of the mountain and take on classic bump runs like The Plunge and Spiral Stairs. Either way, you get stunning vistas of Colorado’s San Juan Mountains and plenty of spring sun.
COOL DIGS: Built in 1891 as the centerpiece of Main Street, The New Sheridan Hotel (doubles, $100-$300; 800-200-1891, ) summons the spirit of Telluride in its mining-town glory years.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 12,260 feet; vertical drop, 3,530 feet; skiable acres, 1,700; annual snowfall, 310 inches
LIFT TICKET: $65 Contact: 800-801-4832,

April

Big Sky Resort, Montana
COME THE FIRST WEEK of April, you can score a great package deal and stay in the slopeside Huntley Lodge for hundreds of dollars less than typical midwinter prices. And when you look out your window at Big Sky’s Lone Peak in the morning, you’ll realize what you really came for: some of the best all-mountain skiing in North America. The mountain’s multiple exposures are ideal for making the best of spring conditions, but for those with big cajones, the supersteep Big Couloir is the perfect place to find dry snow.
COOL DIGS: Huntley Lodge ($709 per person for seven nights, including a six-day ski pass and breakfast; 800-548-4486, ) is not ashamed to be western. Think elk-antler chandelier, bronze bear sculpture, and river-rock fireplace.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 11,150 feet; vertical drop, 4,350 feet; skiable acres, 3,600; annual snowfall, 400 inches
LIFT TICKET: $58 Contact: 800-548-4486;

Snowbasin, Utah
EVEN WITH ITS CELEBRITY status—it hosted the 2002 Olympic downhills—its 3,200 skiable acres, and its nine lifts (including two gondolas and a high-speed quad) that access 2,950 vertical feet, Snowbasin is still waiting for its first winter with more than 100,000 skier visits. (A place like Vail sees that many people in a couple of weeks.) Snowbasin remains the best undiscovered ski area in the country…for now. Hit the steeps of John Paul, almost 3,000 feet of vertical on a sustained 30-degree pitch, or carve the vast open spaces of Strawberry Bowl.
COOL DIGS: The Snowberry Inn (doubles, $65-$115, including breakfast; 888-334-3466, ) in nearby Eden is a log cabin with an old-school, ski-lodge feeling.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 9,465 feet; vertical drop, 2,950 feet; skiable acres, 3,200; annual snowfall, 400 inches
LIFT TICKET: $48 Contact: 888-437-5488,

May

Livin’ single: hucking big air off Mount Bachelor

Mount Bachelor, Oregon
THE WHITE, VOLCANIC DOME of Mount Bachelor sits high above its warm, semi-arid surroundings like a scoop of ice cream on a plate of green-brown sage. The jockaholics from nearby Bend might be biking, running, and rafting, but there’1s still about a 100-inch base up on the mountain in May for everyone who can’t shake their winter-sport habit. For all of its conical symmetry from afar, Mount Bachelor is, in fact, full of subtle irregularities: lateral ridges, nubs of volcanic rock, short slots through the rocks, and all manner of swoops and rolls. Which is why new-school skiers and snowboarders flock to this natural-terrain park.
COOL DIGS: The Pine Ridge Inn (doubles, $130-$275, including breakfast; 800-600-4095, ) has romantic gas-flame fireplaces in each room, but it’s the view from the balcony above the Deschutes River that will really warm your spirits.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 9,065 feet; vertical drop, 3,365 feet; skiable acres, 3,683; annual snowfall, 350 inches
LIFT TICKET: $44 Contact: 800-829-2442,

Alyeska Resort, Alaska
WHEN IT COMES TO SKIING in Alaska, heli-skiing tends to hoard the attention. And in a state with so many mountains, so much snow, and so few lifts, one can see why. But Alyeska’s five-minute tram gets you to the goods on the North Face, a chillingly steep fall-line pitch of about 2,000 vertical feet. On a powder day (when helicopters can’t fly anyway), this is the place to be, and huge winter dumps assure a season running well into May. Long northern days, warm temperatures, plenty of snow, and scintillating views of the Turnagain Arm make this a late-season winner.
COOL DIGS: With a three-story lobby of cherry wood and a river-rock fireplace, the Alyeska Prince Hotel (doubles, $145-$200, including breakfast and lift tickets; 800-880-3880, ) and its sushi bar look and feel like they were shipped in from downtown Tokyo.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 3,939 feet; vertical drop, 2,500 feet; skiable acres, 1,000; annual snowfall, 789 inches
LIFT TICKET: $45 Contact: 800-880-3880,

June

The storm magnet: Mammoth California

Mammoth Mountain, California
FOR SEVEN OF THE LAST TEN YEARS, skiing has continued here into June, even July. The mountain protrudes from the southeastern Sierra like a prehistoric creature—its profile turning it into a bullseye for prodigious storms. During the winter of 1992-93, 617 inches fell at Mammoth. The numerous steep lines off the summit ridge present a true test for the top skiers in the country, making this a regular stop on the U.S. Ski Team’s late-season training program. And even if the snow is less than ideal, the hiking, fishing, and hot springs make it a worthwhile June trip.
COOL DIGS: At the 80-year-old Tamarack Lodge & Resort (doubles, $84-$110 with shared bath, $150-$185 with private bath; 800-626-6688, ) on the wooded shores of secluded Twin Lakes, you can indulge in afternoon fly-fishing after a morning of skiing.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 11,053 feet; vertical drop, 3,100 feet; skiable acres, 3,500; annual snowfall, 384 inches
LIFT TICKET: $60 Contact: 800-626-6688,

July

Timberline on Mount Hood, Oregon
THE TERRAIN IS SOMEWHAT limited during summer, and much of it is dedicated to racers in training, from ten-year-old dreamers to Olympic medalists, but Mount Hood is the only place in the United States that offers lift-served skiing for 12 months of the year. Here’s an ideal July day: Rise early and ski hard before the snow turns to slurpy mush. By 11 a.m., descend from the volcano into the valley for mountain biking on hundreds of miles of trails around Government Camp, or hit the Columbia River Gorge for windsurfing. Then it’s back up the mountain for sunset viewing and drinks on the veranda of Timberline Lodge, a national historic landmark.
COOL DIGS: Timberline Lodge (doubles, $80-$230; 800-547-1406, ) is the epitome of the great American ski lodge, with immense wood beams, stone floors, and a giant central hearth. (It also served as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.)
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 8,540 feet; vertical drop, 2,616 feet; skiable acres, 2,500; annual snowfall, 400 inches
LIFT TICKET: $39 Contact: 503-622-7979,

Endless Witner

August

Snow kidding: New Zealand glacier skiing in August

Mount Hutt, New Zealand
A GIANT, GLACIATED BOWL at the foot of the Southern Alps on New Zealand’s South Island, Mount Hutt is an above-treeline, alpine experience with New Zealand’s most reliably dry and plentiful midwinter snow conditions. Stand atop South Face, Mount Hutt’s best powder stash, and look far below to green valleys. No wonder national ski teams like the Americans, Austrians, and Swiss train here during their summers. New Zealand is also the land of reasonably priced heli-skiing. In this case, that’s not an oxymoron. For about $325 a day (cheap by heli-skiing standards), Alpine Guides (011-64-3-302-8108, www.heliskiing.co.nz) will fly you into the Arrowsmith and Ragged ranges for runs totaling 10,000 vertical feet in above-treeline bowls and chutes.
COOL DIGS: Don’t expect luxury—just standard, motel-room-like accommodations in places like The Lodge (doubles, about U.S. $81; 011-64-3-303-2000, ) in nearby Methven.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 6,806 feet; vertical drop, 2,148 feet; skiable acres, 900; annual snowfall, 156 inches
LIFT TICKET: about $31 (2002 price) Contact: 011-64-3-308-5074,

September

¡Viva gravity!: Argentine downhill

Thredbo, Australia
Snow is always an iffy proposition in Australia, but 200 inches a year is nothing to sneeze at. On a typical day at Thredbo, in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales in southeastern Australia, rain at the bottom of the mountain is not uncommon (which can mean snow up high), and by early September (the austral equivalent of March) the snow depth is still near its peak. Thredbo is a well-rounded mix of intermediate cruising and bump runs, plus decent steeps and some adventurous off-piste skiing in the above-treeline seams that feed into Golf Course Bowl. Plus, where else can you ski past parrot-inhabited gum trees?
COOL DIGS: Stay in a lakeside condo at nearby Lake Crackenback Resort (doubles, about $65; 011-61-2-6456-2960, ) and ride the ski train—a.k.a. the Skitube—to the mountain.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 6,681 feet; vertical drop, 2,204 feet; skiable acres, 1,186; annual snowfall, 200 inches
LIFT TICKET: about $44 (2002 price) Contact: 011-61Ð459-4294,

Las Leñas, Argentina
Snowfall in Las Leñas Can be irregular—weeks might go by without a trace and then boom! an eight-foot dump. That’s why it’s best to wait until late in the austral ski season to visit what Southern Hemisphere ski bums consider the best resort in South America. By September, the snow on the famous steeps has turned to corn, and while the resort’s Argentine guests are sleeping off the nightly routine of partying until 4 a.m., you’Ll have more than 10,000 acres to yourself—half a million acres if you go off-piste. The terrain off the Marte lift, with steep chutes lined by knuckle-like rock outcroppings, is good for powering turns that make the snow peel away from your edges in even sheets. And if you get lucky, a so-called Santa Ana wind will bring a storm to hammer you with powder.
COOL DIGS: Piscis is the resort’s biggest and fanciest hotel, but if you want some relief from the late-night-partying crowd, stay at the smaller, more moderately priced Geminis (package rates start at about $110 per person per night, including meals and lift tickets; 011-54-26-27-471100, )
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 11,253 feet; vertical drop, 3,904 feet; skiable acres, 10,000 to 15,000; annual snowfall, 250 inches
LIFT TICKET: $42 (2002 price) Contact: 011-54-627-71100, www.laslenas.com (recommended tour operator: Ski Vacation Planners, 800-822-6754, )

October

Killington, Vermont
OK, SO THERE MIGHT BE only one or two trails open, and Vermont in October is better known for its radiant foliage than for skiing, but Killington is pathological about opening before anyone else in the East, which it has for the last 41 years. Legendary snowmaking expertise and cold temps ensure an early-season ski fix; plus, an October snowstorm isnÕt out of the question. The action begins on Rime, which descends at a steady advanced-intermediate pitch. Even if Rime is the only trail open in October, subtle variations in the fall line still keep things interesting.
COOL DIGS: Indulge in a healthy dose of all things Irish—darts, Guinness Stout, corned beef—at the Inn at Long Trail (doubles, $84-$114; 800-325-2540, )
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 4,241 feet; vertical drop, 3,050 feet; skiable acres, 1,182; annual snowfall, 250 inches
LIFT TICKET: $25 (2002 early-season price) Contact: 800-621-6867,

Valle Nevado, Chile
AS SPRING SKIING WINDS DOWN in Chile, Valle Nevado offers the best chance in South America to find decent late-season snow. The reason? Twenty-two thousand acres of terrain. Add to that the neighboring resorts of La Parva and El Colorado, for a grand total of 42 lifts, and it’s time to call your travel agent. From the top of Cerro Negro at over 12,000 feet, you can often find powder in October, and, lower down, Valle Nevado’s wide-open intermediate bowls allow high-speed arcs. Bonus: After September 1, room rates at this cluster of hypermodern buildings perched on treeless slopes are slashed to less than half.
COOL DIGS: Hotel Tres Puntas (doubles in late season, $200, including breakfast, dinner, and lift ticket) is a sleek ski-in, ski-out high-rise.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 12,040 feet (Valle Nevado); vertical drop, 2,600 feet; skiable acres, 22,000; annual snowfall, 320 inches
LIFT TICKET: $26 (2002 price) Contact: 800-228-0088, www (recommended tour operator: Moguls Mountain Travel, 800-666-4857, )

November

Copper Mountain Resort, Colorado
DURING TWO OF THE LAST three years, World Cup organizers have moved November races to Copper from resorts nearby, because Copper has early snow when other resorts don’t. A summit elevation above 12,000 feet attracts late-fall storms, and extreme cold enables an excellent snow-making program on more than 380 acres. Last year, Copper opened its halfpipe before any other ski area in the country; this year, the resort plans to open portions of the terrain park and make it available to snowboarders and twin-tip hucksters in early November.
COOL DIGS: Condos in the Mill Club ($243 a night for a two-bedroom unit, 888-263-5302) in the expanding new base village at Copper are country-clubby in a palatable way, with lots of leather and polished-granite countertops.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 12,313 feet; vertical drop, 2,601 feet; skiable acres, 2,450; annual snowfall, 280 inches
LIFT TICKET: $31 (2001-2002 early-season price) Contact: 866-656-1540,

Tremblant Ski Resort, Quebec
IT WASN’T LONG AGO that Tremblant appeared destined for obscurity; then Intrawest, the company that turned Whistler Blackcomb into an elite resort, took over in the early 1990s. The new owners have poured roughly $500 million into Tremblant, turning the base village into a replica of a Paris arrondissement, complete with French restaurants and patisseries. A slew of new, fast lifts, including a gondola as well as six high-speed quads, have raised the hourly uphill lift capacity to more than 26,100 skiers, quickly getting you to lots of wide, groomed cruisers and impressive steeps like Expo. And because Canada celebrates its version of Thanksgiving in October, Tremblant is an uncrowded and reasonably priced choice for a November getaway.
COOL DIGS: Le Lodge de la Montagne’s (doubles, $60-$100; 800-461-8711) French dormer windows and Bavarian-style woodwork are the kind of ersatz Euro touches that make close-to-home Quebec seem so far away.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 2,871 feet; vertical drop, 2,132 feet; skiable acres, 610; annual snowfall, 141 inches LIFT TICKET: $37 Contact: 800-461-8711,

The post Endless Winter appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

One score and five years ago, this magazine burst onto the scene with a bold idea and a mission. The idea was that, against all odds, adventure is alive and well—and a force to reckon with and celebrate. The mission was to find new heroes, phenomenal athletes and explorers, the men and women whose creative force keeps the cutting edge of adventure moving toward the far horizon.

Flash forward to this grand-finale issue of our silver-anniversary year, and we’re still excitedly staking our claim on the future, still celebrating the bracing shock of the new. Which brings us to the 25 amazing, inspiring, wild-eyed young stars in the pages that follow. None had even been born back when ���ϳԹ��� was launched—but we guarantee you’ll be hearing a lot about their exploits and achievements during our next quarter-century. They’re the rising generation, they’re the real deal, and they’re not going anywhere but up. Meet the faces of tomorrow.

Climbers

Beth Rodden

Rodden in Tommy Caldwell’s van, Yosemite National Park

Beth Rodden [22]

[ROCK CLIMBER]

Estes Park, Colorado
The answer is yes: There is life after Kyrgyzstan for Beth Rodden. “Man, I’m excited about everything,” she says. The young climber, best known for surviving the high-alpine hostage crisis of 2000 that was chronicled by Greg Child in these pages (“Fear of Falling,” November 2000) and in the subsequent book Over the Edge, is back. In February, Rodden got engaged to sweetheart Tommy Caldwell, who had been at her side in Kyrgyzstan, and celebrated the occasion by becoming the first woman to climb Grand Illusion (5.13c), a single-pitch crack at Sugarloaf, California. Then, in May, she shook off the nightmare-wracked funk she had been experiencing after the kidnapping with an impressive on-sight of Phoenix (5.13a), a crack in Yosemite. It was the final step on the road to mental recovery that had begun in October 2001, when she and Caldwell joined 11-year-old California rock prodigy Scott Cory on a Yosemite climb that raised $10,000 for the families of 9/11 rescue personnel.

“I never stopped climbing after Kyrgyzstan, but I stopped having goals,” Rodden says. “Really, I just did it because I felt like I was supposed to—that climbing was my job. But I wasn’t having fun. I felt like climbing was selfish, that I wasn’t doing anything worthwhile. Doing the thing with Scotty definitely changed my view.”

Her upcoming projects, conspicuously, don’t involve dusting off her passport. “Honestly, yeah, I’m scared to travel to Third World countries right now,” she says. “But I’m pretty psyched to challenge myself around home. There’s plenty to do here.” —Eric Hagerman

Tori Allen [14]

[CLIMBER]

Indianapolis, Indiana
They said Tori Allen would grow out of her precocious talent. They were wrong. Last year this 95-pound crowd-pleasing monkey child skipped into young womanhood without losing a step. Triumphs at the Gorge Games (in bouldering, for the second straight year) and the X Games (she smashed the women’s speed-climbing world record by nearly four seconds) capped a year in which she won the American speed-climbing championship and became the youngest woman to climb The Nose of El Capitan. After claiming two straight junior national titles, the 14-year-old homeschooled phenom, who accessorizes with a trademark Curious George doll clipped to her chalk bag, jumped to the adult circuit last year and quickly challenged 27-year-old bouldering champion Lisa Rands.

“The first time I beat Lisa, I was like, whoa,” says Allen, who as a toddler literally climbed with monkeys in the jungles of Africa as her missionary parents egged her on. “Since then we’ve both gotten stronger and it’s back and forth, back and forth.” With half a dozen sponsors, a slick Web site (), and the occasional spot on NBC’s Today, Allen’s professional gloss has led to hand-wringing among some climbing purists, who aren’t used to perky 14-year-old superstars. “Tori’s the first step to selling out the sport,” one critic carped in an online discussion group. Allen shrugs it off. “I love that feeling, competing and being in the spotlight,” she says. “Not to be a brat or anything, but it’s really fun.” —Bruce Barcott

Miles Smart [22]

[SPEED CLIMBER]

Seattle, Washington
When Miles Smart grabs a fistful of granite and begins pulling himself up one of Yosemite’s big walls, his stocky, rock-solid body gobbles up the vertical with a poetic economy of motion. The same strident efficiency shines through when he returns to level ground: “I love being able to climb a big route in a day and be back in the Valley in time for dinner.”

Born in Seattle, Smart started climbing glaciers when he was nine years old. By age 17 he’d topped out on El Cap three times; by 18, he’d done it eight times. But Smart’s speed jones didn’t emerge until the next year, 1999, when he and several buddies pulled off multiple single-day ascents of Yosemite routes that most rock jocks complete in three to five days. Over the next couple of years, he set ten speed-climbing records in the Valley. One of those feats, a nine-hour 15-minute ascent of Zodiac (5.10) in 1999, drew considerable flak from his peers, including big-wall godfather Dean Potter (see “Climbing at the Speed of Soul,” page 98), when it was revealed that, over two pitches, he had briefly protected himself with ropes set by other climbers. (The shortcut, which he admits he did not initially disclose in interviews, shaved precious minutes off his time.) “He’s moved on,” says friend and former mentor Mark Kroese, 41. “All of these speed climbers have some dirt on them.”

Despite the bad press, Smart isn’t about to put away the stopwatch, and he’s also dabbling in ski-mountaineering. “I climb up difficult mixed routes and try to ski down them,” he says. In 2000, that meant a descent of Gervasutti Couloir on the Mont Blanc du Tacul face, near Chamonix, France—a 55-degree maze of ice, rock, and snow. The face was so steep that Smart hesitates to call it a ski line. “It was more like a climbing route,” he says. “There wasn’t much snow. You had to tickle your way down.”

These days Smart divides his time between Yosemite, the mixed routes and steep couloirs outside Chamonix, and Valdez, Alaska, where he pays the bills as a heli-ski guide. But upward velocity remains his first love. “He’s fast at everything,” says Kroese. “He hikes fast; he climbs fast. He’s just fast.” —Brad Wetzler

The Pulse (Cont.)

By the Numbers

RECOVERY
A KNIFE ALTERNATIVE

Skier Bode Miller was only one year removed from a torn ACL when he won silver in the Salt Lake Games. The key to his rapid return was a new arthroscopic procedure called the “healing response,” pioneered by Dr. Richard Steadman of the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colorado, in 1999. Instead of total ACL reconstruction, Steadman pokes anywhere from three to 16 small holes in the femur above the torn ligaments (III). When the bleeding bones begin to heal naturally, the resulting blood clot captures and heals the torn ACL as well (IV). Bam! Like Miller, the patient can be completely mobile in three weeks. Miraculous? Yes, but only ripped ACLs with a tear at or near the femur qualify. Still, Dr. William Rodkey, director of Basic Science at Steadman-Hawkins, states optimistically, “This is an alternative to full reconstructive surgery that works.”


11: percentage difference in distance traveled by athletes while listening to Metallica during a ten-minute bike ride, over those who sweat in silence, according to a Hampden-Sydney College study in Virginia last spring. Don’t like metal? Have no fear. “Picking music you like is a more important factor in boosting performance than just music with a faster tempo,” says Robert Herdegen, professor of psychology at Hampden-Sydney. In other words, if Beethoven rocks your world, plug him in and fly.

Skiers

Miller at home in Franconia, New Hampshire

Bode Miller [25]


[ALPINE SKIER]


Franconia, New Hampshire

Like 100-meter sprinters, the top finishers in Olympic and world slalom races are separated by only hundredths of a second. So when Bode Miller began winning last season by one, two, even three seconds, the slow-motion videos started rolling in race rooms across Europe, as coaches and athletes attempted to reverse-engineer his runs. “The average Joe couldn’t see anything different in my style,” says Miller. “Only the top racers in the world can notice the little things, like how I pressure the ski, turn shape, and stance.”


Good luck to them: This guy really wins by pure explosiveness. His biggest problem—if someone who took home two silver medals from Salt Lake City has a problem—is that he’s too fast. Until recently, the 210-pound powerhouse crashed out on more courses than he finished. To destroy the competition last season, he had to dial it back.


Not that all those yard sales stymied Miller’s confidence. A talented multisport athlete, he has claimed that he could have played pro tennis or challenged Brazilian great Ronaldo in soccer. Of course, it’s tough to argue with a guy who medaled in ten World Cup races last season, and then in May flew off to Jamaica to spank Jonny Moseley and a slew of NFL talent in the made-for-TV celebrity competition known as Superstars. The key to Miller’s success? He didn’t trip in the obstacle course. —Marc Peruzzi





Sarah Clemensen [24]


[TELEMARKER]


Salt Lake City, Utah

Most freeheelers don’t willingly huck themselves off 25-foot cliffs. Fewer still will throw in a flip for good measure. But the five-foot-ten, 165-pound Sarah Clemensen isn’t your average telly chick. “I have aggression, speed, and a crazy look in my eye, yet I still have grace, fluidity, and a girly swing,” she says, with characteristic swagger. That Speed Racer gaze has been with her from her first competition, the U.S. Nationals at Washington’s Stevens Pass in 1999, where—despite having never before bashed the bamboo—she clinched the expert division. Four years later, she’s the only member of the U.S. Telemark Association’s national team who also dominates the U.S. Freeskiing Series. And she’s only going bigger. Just ask filmmaker Josh Murphy, who invited her to carve blistering turns for his September-released flick Unparalleled 3: Soul Slide: “She’ll blow up on a mountain before she’ll inch down it.” —Eric Hansen

Runner

Moehl at the Seattle Center

Krissy Moehl [25]


[ULTRARUNNER]


Bow, Washington

Every night before the 50-mile torture test that ultrarunners call a race, Krissy Moehl paints her toenails. Each nail receives a minimum of three colors and is topped with sparkles. “It helps me relax,” says the former University of Washington track team walk-on. Evidently, the ritual is paying off. In March 2000, just three months after four-time Western States 100 winner Scott Jurek invited her along on his group training runs outside Seattle, Moehl torched the women’s field at her first ultra—the Chuckanut 50K in Bellingham, Washington—and set a new course record of just over five hours. She’s since won six more ultras and has finished out of the top three only once in her last ten races. How does this five-foot-seven prodigy thrive in a sport dominated by runners in their late thirties and early forties? “She’s got phenomenal natural endurance ability,” says ten-year ultra vet Scott McCoubrey, 40, “and an extremely high tolerance level for pain and suffering.” —Michael Roberts

Cyclists

Bahati drops the hammer

Rashaan Bahati [20]


[ROAD CYCLIST]


Los Angeles, California

“Five, four, three…” Rashaan Bahati is in a Colorado Springs lab, pedaling a road bike on a trainer set to zero resistance. “Two, one…huh!” A technician throws a lever connected to the racer’s cranks. It’s as if Bahati had rounded a corner and plunged into a pool of wet cement. The friction is unbearable. Or it would be for most. Bahati, a sprinting prodigy, churns cement to froth.


Six feet tall and 156 pounds, Bahati seems tailor-made to dominate the sprint finishes of road races. At 18 he won the 2000 Junior National Criterium and the Junior National Road Championships, and then went out and beat up on the best sprinters in the country, taking first in the Elite Senior National Criterium Championships in Downers Grove, Illinois. “When you see someone do something unbelievable early in his career, that’s enough,” says Team Saturn coach Jim Copeland, who signed Bahati to his road-riding crew shortly thereafter. “He pretty much showed everybody that he’s the fastest junior out there.”


Of course, smoking a field of Americans is one thing; European stage races like the Tour de France and one-day Spring Classic events like ParisÐRoubaix are another. To win those events, riders must sprint after a grueling 100-mile-plus grind. Balancing endurance (for hanging in the peloton) with speed (for matching the world’s great sprinters, like Italy’s Mario Cippolini, his role model) will require Bahati to retrain some of his naturally occurring fast-twitch muscle fibers into more energy-efficient slow-twitch fibers. To win, he’ll need a U.S. PostalÐ or Once-caliber team to support him. Still, Bahati scored two top-ten finishes in his first European stage race in Antwerp this fall, with no support from his national team comrades, who had fallen back. “It’s like you’re a musician playing the drums,” says Bahati. “If you keep getting to gigs and performing, eventually someone will notice.” —M. P. Tim Johnson [25]


[CYCLOCROSSER]


Middleton, Massachusetts

As if the sport weren’t brutal enough—cyclocross competitors slog modified road bikes over tarmac and dirt, dismounting at full tilt to carry their bikes over obstacles—American riders before 1999 were forced to start races at the back of the pack. But that year, at the World Cyclocross Championships in Poprad, Czech Republic, Johnson pedaled through blinding snow to finish third in the under-23 division, putting an American on the podium for the first time in cyclocross history. The bronze gave the Yanks some cred in the Eurocentric sport (“We’re not looked at as freaks anymore,” says Colorado’s Marc Gullickson, Johnson’s chief rival) and earned Johnson a spot on road-racing Team Saturn. “My goal is to get stronger using the road,” says Johnson, who won the 2000 U.S. National Championships, and who’s gunning for another cyclocross world medal this February in Monopoli, Italy—this time in the elite category. “Winning takes luck you can never count on, but a medal is a dream I can achieve.” —Alan Coté

Watermen

Saether in the Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts

Ludden in Glacier National Park, Montana

Maktima on the Pecos River, New Mexico

Mariann Saether [22]


[STEEPCREEKER]


Otta, Norway

This daughter of the Jotunheimen Mountains has a thing for waterfalls. In August, after warming up in 2000 and 2001 with a handful of 45-foot drops in Ecuador and Argentina, she became the first woman kayaker to run northern Norway’s Smaadoela Falls—a 54-foot plunge into a potentially lethal whirlpool. With just four years of paddling under her belt, the Dagger-sponsored Saether has already notched first descents in four countries, including a five-day source-to-sea paddle of her homeland’s Lomsdalen River and the remote Reykjafoss in Iceland. She also nailed the 2002 Norwegian Freestyle Championship title and, last May, wore the bronze at the Pre-Worlds in Austria.


“My ex-boyfriend was a kayaker,” says the five-foot-eight former synchronized swimmer. “As soon as I tried it, I couldn’t get enough.” Today, Saether is putting the gears to her testosterone-pumped costars in kayaking films like Teton Gravity Research’s Valhalla.


“She’ll step up and run gnarly drops, and we’re like, ‘Aw shit, now we gotta go,'” says Bozeman, MontanaÐbased pro paddler Ben Selznick, 25. “She’s one of the best female paddlers in the world.” Apparently that’s what happens when you spend more than 300 days per year in a boat. “Maybe I’m a little bit of a control freak,” says Saether. “I want to master everything about paddling.” —Mark Anders


Michael Phelps [17]


[SWIMMER]


Baltimore, Maryland

His dimensions aren’t freakishly impressive (six foot four, 187 pounds, 7 percent body fat, size 14 flippers), but world-record-destroying, ass-kicking swimmer Michael Phelps has something else going for him: the Equalizer. After this kid flip-turns from breaststroke to freestyle for the final leg of the 400 individual medley—a moment when even the strongest of swimmers pop up to chug some air—Phelps stays underwater. Last August, at the P66 Summer Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he stayed under for an extra 12 meters and Man-from-Atlantised right past his main rival, Erik Vendt, surfacing in the lead and breaking a two-year-old world record. “Very few people are in good enough shape to do that,” says Bob Bowman, Phelps’s coach of six years. “Everybody went nuts.” Phelps, who also holds the world mark in the 200 butterfly, serves as the yang to Australian freestyler Ian Thorpe’s yin. Both are shooting for a gaudy number of golds at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The magic number is seven, which is how many American swimmer Mark Spitz won at Munich in 1972. —Eric Hagerman


Brad Ludden [21]


[RODEO KAYAKER]


Vail, Colorado

Though some of his pro-paddling peers are notorious self-promoters, spud-boat superstar Brad Ludden is cut from different neoprene cloth. Sure, he’s won his share of rodeos, including three golds at the Teva Mountain Games in his hometown of Vail, and yeah, you can catch him hucking his heart out in films like Nurpu and Valhalla. Then there are those 75-plus first descents of rivers like the Luapula, in central Africa, and the upper reaches of Indonesia’s Asahan. Yet Ludden, who next plans to paddle the upper Blue Nile in Ethiopia, stands apart for a different kind of achievement. In August 2001 he founded First Descents, a free, weeklong paddling camp based out of Vail that aims to build confidence in young cancer patients. “That’s where my heart is,” says Ludden. “It’s the one thing in my life that I know is good. I don’t question it.” Neither do we. —M.A.


Norman Maktima [22]


[ANGLER]


Glorieta, New Mexico

“When Norman stalks fish, it’s like watching a heron,” says Duane Hada, 40, who coached Maktima as a member of the U.S. Youth Fly Fishing Team back in 1998. “He’s got that predator in him.” That year the hip-wader crown prince, then 18, netted the highest score at the Youth World Flyfishing Championship in Wrexham, Wales. At 21, Maktima—whose father taught him to fish on New Mexico’s Pecos River at age seven—became the youngest American ever to compete in the World Flyfishing Championships, in Sweden. A member of the San Felipe Pueblo, Maktima hopes to develop sustainable fishery management programs on Indian reservations. Last spring he completed his bachelor of science at Washington State’s Whitman College with a double major in environmental studies and biology. His senior thesis: “Dietary Habits of Rainbow Trout in the Walla Walla River.” Says Maktima, “I’d go out there for a whole day and pretty much just fish.” He got an A. —S.H.


Ben Ainslie [25]


[SAILOR]


Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Ainslie settled for silver in the Laser event after Brazilian Robert Scheidt, the eventual gold medalist, forced him into a false start in the last race, disqualifying him. Four years later, in Sydney, Ainslie returned the favor, boxing Scheidt in on the first upwind leg and then hanging on for the overall victory. Ainslie’s response to Scheidt’s subsequent griping? “What goes around comes around.” A few months later, the British phenom—whose father, Roddy, skippered a yacht in the first Whitbread Round the World race—signed on with the Seattle-based America’s Cup syndicate OneWorld Challenge. “I thought I would have the chance to be helming the boat,” he says, “but that never happened.” Quitting OneWorld, Ainslie bulked up 20 pounds, jumped into a Finn dinghy (bigger and more powerful than a Laser), and on his first try won this summer’s Gold Cup at the Finn-class world championships in Piraeus, Greece. After the 2004 Games in Athens, Ainslie expects he’ll give the America’s Cup another go—provided, that is, he can do a little steering. —R. B.

Skydiver

Nelson at the Skydive Chicago Skydiving Center, Ottawa, Illinois

Matt Nelson [22]


[FREEFLYER]


Ottawa, Lllinois

If you think competitive skydiving involves little more than jumping and dropping, allow Matt Nelson to bring you up to speed. At the second U.S. Freeflying Nationals, held in October 2001 in Chicago, the third-generation parachutist risked multiple skull fractures in a terrifying blind maneuver that involved plunging to earth while whizzing around a pair of teammates back to back and headfirst for 45 seconds. “I like the stick-it-or-go-home-crying moves,” Nelson says. So did the judges: The home-brewed routine propelled him and his pals in Team Alchemy—Jon DeVore, 27, and Mike Swanson, 29—to a national championship in a brand of airborne gymnastics that’s the hottest thing to hit skydiving since the helmet cam. Talent seems to run in the family. “Nelson’s been in the sport for 18 years, and he’s only 22,” says Omar Alhegelan, 36, a member of Arizona Freeflight, a competing team. “Let’s just say Tiger Woods didn’t start playing golf when he was 16. It’s the same deal.” —Eric Hansen

Speed Skater

Ohno’s medal-winning 1,500-meter Olympic run

Apolo Anton Ohno [20]


[SPEEDSKATER]


Seattle, Washington

With his flowing mane and soul patch, his requisite unorthodox childhood—he was raised alone by his Japanese-American father, Yuki, from the age of one—and his uncanny feel for the ice, Apolo Anton Ohno seemed destined for stardom long before Salt Lake City. Still, no one could have scripted Ohno’s wild 2002 Olympic ride: He was leading the 1,000-meter race when another skater fell and triggered a NASCAR-style pileup on the last turn. After a frantic hands-and-knees scramble for the finish line, Ohno emerged with the silver—and a deep gash in his right leg. Four days later, he came back to win the 1,500 when South Korean star Kim Dong-Sung was disqualified for a blocking foul on the last lap. Ohno’s gracious words after both races endeared him to fans everywhere—except South Korea, where he remains a pariah. National outrage over the result climaxed during last summer’s World Cup soccer match between South Korea and the United States, when a South Korean player, celebrating a goal, mocked Ohno by pretending to speed skate on the field. “I had to look at it humorously,” Ohno says. “I was like, Maybe this guy wants lessons or something.”


Ohno and the rest of the American short-track team skipped the first stop on this season’s World Cup circuit last October in Chuncheon, South Korea. His diplomatic explanation: “The whole team is pretty behind, it being an Olympic year—we all took a little break.” Still, Ohno will be ready for this season’s world team championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, in March, and will “definitely” go for at least one more Olympics. “I’m only 20 years old,” he says. “I plan on a long career in this sport.” —Rob Buchanan

Visionaries

Gardner in Jackson, Wyoming

Left to right: Harding, Van Tuyl, and Endrizzi at Jimmy Slinger Headquaters, San Diego

Will Gardner [16]

[FILMMAKER]

Jackson, Wyoming
“Mom says it’s good for us to stay busy,” says Will Gardner. Chalk up another one to good parenting: While other Jackson teens kill time with their PlayStations, this aspiring Warren Miller already owns his own production company, School Bus Productions, and has two ski movies under his belt and a third coming out in a matter of weeks, as well as deals with corporate sponsors Cloudveil and Life-Link. La La Land, Gardner’s latest entry in the digital-video, adrenaline genre, is classic ski-porn: Nine eye-popping segments of young guns sticking massive aerials, rail slides, and powder rides, along with a few token blowouts—all set to a skittering rock-and-rap soundtrack. What’s next? “We would like to do some Matrix-type shots where the camera goes around the skier,” says Gardner. “But that, for us at least, is pretty far off.” If the reception for his last film, Mental Harmony, is any indicator—it filled the Jackson Hole Playhouse—Garder will get there sooner rather than later. “For being only 16, he’s pretty impressive,” says Teton Gravity Research cofounder Todd Jones. “The level of their riding has increased significantly, their filmwork and editing has increased significantly. I mean, they’re real.” —Christian DeBenedetti

Severn Cullis-Suzuki [23]

[ENVIRONMENTALIST]

Vancouver, British Columbia
At the age of nine, Severn Cullis-Suzuki launched the Environmental Children’s Organization—a kid-focused green group that organized beach cleanups. At 12, in a speech that brought the house down, she urged delegates at the 1992 Rio de Janiero Earth Summit to work on healing our ailing planet. A year later she published the book Tell The World and accepted the UN Environmental Program Global 500 Award for her precocious politicking. In high school, Cullis-Suzuki, daughter of renowned Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki, helped hammer out the UN Earth Charter with the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev and Jordan’s Princess Basma. “Sev’s not just a defender of life; she embraces life with boundless energy,” says writer and anthropologist Wade Davis, 48, a family friend and mentor. “Her idea of a fun thing to do is ride her bike across North America.”

These days the recent Yale graduate is promoting The Skyfish Project (), a group she cofounded last spring that is inviting people to sign a personal code of environmental ethics. In early 2003 she plans to trek the highlands of Nepal. Were it possible, she’d take her whole generation with her. “I worry that more and more kids my age are growing up without experiencing the outdoors, which means that fewer will care about the natural world,” Cullis-Suzuki says. “Get outside! Go be in nature! Then you’ll know why it’s important.” —B. B.
Ian Van Tuyl [23]
Elise Endrizzi [25]
Matt Harding [27]

[ENTREPRENEURES]

San Diego, California
OK, so one of them is over 25, but we’re bending the rules for this one because the young turks at Jimmy Slinger Skateboards are out to change the way the world thinks about commuting. “We’re dedicated longboarders,” says Matt Harding, an Orange County surfer who grew up rolling to the beach on five-foot-long skate decks. “It’s a great way to get around, and people are using them more as transportation, whether it’s going to the beach or six blocks to the supermarket.”

Frustrated with the shortboard-dominated industry, Harding and fellow thrash-culture entrepreneurs Elise Endrizzi and Ian Van Tuyl formed Jimmy Slinger in May 2000. (The name’s just a lark, says Harding: “There is no Jimmy Slinger.”) They cut their first flats with a jigsaw and shaped them by hand. Now the San Diego startup’s line ranges from 34-inch hybrids to its $165 signature product, the Big Duke, a five-foot-long maple glider strong enough to shoulder some serious beef. “We had a 300-pound guy buy one, and he just cruises on it,” says Endrizzi. Swamped with orders, the Slinger crew works late nights filling requests. “When we put in these long hours, I think about a company like Sector Nine,” says Van Tuyl, referring to the board maker that started in a La Jolla backyard and has since bloomed into a global powerhouse. “I’d love to do what they did, take an industry and make it into something.” —B. B.

Explorer

Cope takes a shift on the oars, Angara River, Siberia

Tim Cope [24]


[EXPLORER]


Gippsland, Victoria, Australia

In the time it took to grow shoulder-length locks and a beard, Australian Tim Cope transformed himself from unknown university student to world-class adventurer. After training as a wilderness guide in Finland in 1998, Cope and his Aussie bud Chris Hatherly spent 14 months biking from Moscow to Beijing—a 6,200-mile slog. Along the way, they endured three grueling days man-hauling their bikes and gear 12 miles through six-foot snowdrifts in Russia. Six months later, Cope—who credits climber and author Joe Simpson for inspiring his unconventional approach to life—was back in Siberia, rowing a wooden boat with a team of four down the Yenisey River, bound for the Arctic Ocean. “He wants a challenge, but he’s not just into it for the feats of endurance,” says Colin Angus, 31, the Canadian expedition leader who invited Cope on the Yenisey trip. “He uses the hardship as a way to meet the local people.”


“I don’t like to suffer,” Cope says, “but when people see you putting yourself out there, they respond and let you in.” No doubt Cope will make a few new friends starting next summer on his 30-month circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle. This time, he plans to use a variety of conveyances: reindeer, kayaks, and skis. “The cold makes the reality of life as a struggle for survival more obvious,” Cope says of the northern climes. “You get the feeling of being in a landscape that’s totally undisturbed, like a real explorer.” —Brad Wieners

Endless Winter

December

Squaw Valley USA, California
SQUAW IS THE LEGENDARY SHRINE of extreme skiing, populated by serious skiers and snowboarders tackling serious lines. It’s the place where some of the country’s most talented freeskiers—new-schoolers like Shane McConkey and Jonny Moseley and pioneers like Scot Schmidt—hone their extreme skills before heading off in midwinter to take on bigger mountains around the world. SquawÕde;s 4,000 acres and prodigious drops, like the Palisades, will continue to draw the talent that made Squaw famous, but with plenty of cruising runs in Siberia Bowl and Shirley Lake, there’s something here for everybody.
COOL DIGS: The Resort at Squaw Creek (doubles, $150-$350; 800-403-4434, ) is a one-stop hot spot, with lodging, dining, spa, shopping, and direct lift access to the mountain.
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 8,900 feet; vertical drop, 2,850 feet; skiable acres, 4,000; annual snowfall, 450 inches
LIFT TICKET: $58 Contact: 800-545-4350,

Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, British Columbia
THE PURCELL MOUNTAINS of eastern British Columbia are where heli-skiing was born in the 1960s, and until the 2000-2001 season, people just flew over the high bowls and ridges of the front range. That’s when a major resort finally opened, promising more than 4,000 vertical feet and big-resort amenities to challenge Whistler Blackcomb as the king of western Canadian skiing. Kicking Horse lets a firm base develop until mid-December, but come for opening week to get first tracks on Blue Heaven, accessed this year by the new Stairway to Heaven quad. If the early-season snow is thin, you can always sign on for a day or two of heli-skiing with local operators based in nearby Golden (we recommend Purcell Helicopter Skiing, 877-435-4754, ).
COOL DIGS: Accommodations in Golden are of the motel-chain variety, so your best bet is to stay in the brand-new Whispering Pines town homes at the resort (rates start at around $106 per person, lift ticket included; 866-754-5425, ).
MOUNTAIN STATS: summit, 8,033 feet; vertical drop, 4,133 feet; skiable acres, 2,300; annual snowfall, 300 inches
LIFT TICKET: $32 (2001Ð2002 price) Contact: 866-754-5425,

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Mountain Hardwear’s woman’s Recon Shell, Sierra Designs M8 jacket, and The North Face woman’s Varius guide pants

The Gothic Cardigan ($200) from ARC’TERYX fuses Italian wool and fleece in a zip-up sweater with a simple yet functional cut. Raise your glass of chianti to the relaxed fit, thick wales, and blissfully soft inside seams of the Italian-made NAPAPIJRI Ferreira corduroy pants ($116). The urbane, all-leather GRAVIS Cirque slip-on boots ($95) have aggressive tread and moisture-wicking linings.


Made of Polartec Wind Pro fleece, the MOUNTAIN HARDWEAR Ozone jacket ($125) blocks chilly gusts, is highly breathable, and resists moisture but not envious glances. Thanks to a polyester weave with a smidgen of spandex, PATAGONIA‘s R.5 base-layer crew ($65, in men’s and women’s sizes) improves wicking and insulation with elasticized comfort.

Wear this TENTH MOUNTAIN women’s Lava Clasp cardigan ($158) made of soft Icelandic wool—and you’ll understand why Norwegian Vikings introduced sheep to Iceland in A.D. 874. The velvety, antipill fleece knit keeps the ROYAL ROBBINS Aspen skirt ($60) wrinkle-free after a schlepp in the duffel. CAMPER‘s knee-high leather Lola boots ($180) have convenient side zips and sturdy starburst treads.


We like the lightweight, waterproof-breathable MOUNTAIN HARDWEAR women’s Recon shell ($270) for its powder skirt, helmet-friendly hood, and stitchless radio pocket. The stretchy PowerShiled fabric of the women’s SIERRA DESIGN M8 jacket lets you wear it for insulation or as a primary layer. THE NORTH FACE women’s Varius guide pant ($149) stands on two legs: protection (two-layer Pelmo HyVent waterproof-breathable fabric) and comfort (a formfitting Velcro waist adjustment and two generous hand pockets).

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