9 New Spins on Classic Winter ���ϳԹ���s

Ready for a change this holiday season? Switch it up by exploring one of these nine destinations that pair new scenery with classic winter adventures.

• Tour Skating in Stockholm
• Cross-Country in the Methow Valley
• Skiing in Hokkaido
• Sledding in Shruns
• Winter Camping in Telluride
• Dogsledding in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
• Ice Climbing in Glymsgil
• Snow Kiting in the Twin Cities
• Heli-Skiing in the Kaçkar Mountains

Tour Skating

Stockholm, Sweden

The appeal of sea skating is simple enough: Where else can you skate for hours without going in circles? But lacing up your skates and heading out to sea requires a leap of faith, because the ice has a very distinct and dangerous boundary where it meets open water. The trick is to stay close to shore, and Stockholm—set in an archipelago of some 24,000 islands that help bind the ice—is the ideal spot. By February, much of the Baltic Sea around Stockholm has frozen solid, and packs of Swedes wearing freeheel speed skates head out for day trips. Join them and you’ll cover 20 miles in a day and make it back to town in time to hit the Berns nightclub, in Berzelii Park. “Skating along the ice edge is one of the most exciting experiences there is,” says Anders Tysk, a guide with the outfitter 30,000 Öar. But be sure to carry the requisite ice-testing spears—and an ice pick, just in case. (If you feel sea swells beneath your feet, turn back quickly.)

OUTFITTER: 30,000 Öar; three-day excursions, including skating equipment, lodging, and meals, $960; . When the skating is over, you’ll stay in town at the 19th-century Smådalarö Gård manor house, a waterside hotel with a wood-heated outdoor pool and a movie theater. Feel like splurging? Order the 1970 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild ($636) from the extensive wine cellar.

Hut-to-Hut Cross-Country Skiing

Methow Valley, Washington

People generally associate winter in western Washington with gray skies and endless rain. But 200 miles east of Seattle, all that moisture freezes over the Cascade Range, burying the Methow Valley through late spring. With 125 miles of smooth, machine-groomed trails, Methow’s is the second-longest groomed cross-country system in America. And it doesn’t cater only to experts with iron quads: Winthrop, Washington–based Rendezvous Huts maintains five woodstove-heated cabins along the trails, breaking up the trip at extremely manageable intervals of three to five miles. The huts sleep up to ten, feature full kitchens, and are perfect base camps for extended day trips into the surrounding million acres of national wilderness, including the dense conifer groves of the Okanogan National Forest.

OUTFITTER: Rendezvous Huts; $175 per hut (bring your own food); . For ski and snowshoe rentals, contact Winthrop Mountain Sports ().

Skiing

Hokkaido, Japan

The northernmost of Japan’s four major islands, Hokkaido catches an average of 500 inches of snow a year. “It gets the best powder in the world. It’s very light and dry,” says Daisuke Sasaki, a 30-year-old professional freeskier from Sapporo. Storms from the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Pacific Ocean gather over the island’s 6,000-foot-plus Hidaka Range. The best runs can be found three hours from Sapporo, in Daisetsuzan National Park, where locals skin to higher elevations and swerve down through hoar-caked juhyo (“snow monster trees”). Then it’s off to the rustic Lodge Nutapu-Kaushipe () for a soak in natural hot springs and a cold bottle of Asahi.

OUTFITTER: Nomad; $156 for two-day backcountry trips into Daisetsuzan National Park;

Sledding

Schruns, Austria

When Ernest Hemingway stayed in Schruns, Austria, in 1925, sleds, not skis, were all the rage—and not just with kids. Back then, locals sped down Austria’s alpine passes on toboggans. Today, the tradition is kept alive by the Montafon Valley’s cable cars, such as Schruns’s Montafoner Hochjochbahnen (). For $15 a day, you can rent a sled with slippery metal runners for use on sectioned-off runs. Because sometimes aimlessly sliding on snow is all you need.

ACCOMMODATIONS: At Hotel Taube, soak up the vibe that supposedly inspired Hemingway to write “An Alpine Idyll.” Doubles, $110; 011-43-5556-7238-4

Winter Camping

Telluride, Colorado

There aren’t many winter camping trips that would attract the likes of both Tom Cruise and a Saudi prince. But Telluride Alpinism has done just that with its igloo tours, by turning what would essentially be bivouacking in an ice cave into a made-to-order, first-class dining-and-lodging experience. “They ask us, we do it,” says co-owner Tara Butson. Her staff builds the igloo before you arrive, stokes a raging bonfire, and sculpts a low table—with tablecloth, of course—for dining in the snow. A private chef pours vintage pinot and prepares filet mignon with fresh vegetables while a concert violinist entertains you with Bach. A candle chandelier and the insulating properties of snow keep the igloo warm (and the violin in tune) until you’re ready to crawl under a down comforter. $550 per night, including concert;

Dogsledding

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

Home to over 100,000 caribou and more polar bears than we care to think about, ANWR is like the Serengeti under snow. Winter visitors don’t go for the creature comforts—temperatures hover around 20 below in March—but the scenery is hard to beat. The tundra is frozen smooth, the vivid aurora borealis dances at night, and wolverine, ptarmigan, caribou, moose, fox, and, yes, polar bear spottings are common. With the rounded Brooks Range to one side and the frozen Beaufort Sea to the other, you’ll mush your own sleds, trade with the local Inuit for (chewy, tasteless, calorie-packed) raw whale blubber, and build half-igloos by your tent for wind protection. And the preferred mode of transportation here—100-pound malamutes—keep the polar bears at a comfortable distance.

OUTFITTER: Alaskan Arctic Expeditions; $350 per day, including meals, dogs, and extreme-weather gear;

Ice Climbing

Glymsgil, Iceland

Contrary to what you might have heard, there is, in fact, ice in Iceland. Known mostly for its epic sagas, outrageous drink prices, and a 67-to-one puffin-to-human ratio, Iceland is also one of the world’s best ice-climbing destinations. Most visitors climb 6,952-foot Hvannadalshnúkur, the island’s highest peak (and an active volcano). But the best ice climbing is found one hour north of Reykjavík, in a canyon called Glymsgil. There’s a 600-foot frozen waterfall; 40 different routes with at least two pitches each; and, nearby, a hot-springs-fed river for relaxation. “Will Gadd loves coming here to ice-climb,” says Einar Torfi Finnsson, co-owner of Reykjavík’s Icelandic Mountain Guides ($600 per day for a private guide in Glymsgil; ). For people who prefer their ice in a glass, the Ölstofan and Café Oliver bars, in downtown Reykjavík, are favorite local watering holes.

ACCOMMODATIONS: Stay at 101 hotel, a luxury boutique property that displays the work of prominent local artists. If you want a taste of authentic local flavor, order the baked bacalao (salted cod fish). Doubles, $555;

Snow Kiting

Twin Cities, Minnesota

Kiteboarding has been around since Revolutionary times, when Benjamin Franklin rode an experimental kite across a pond, but the sport didn’t make it to ice until the 1990s. Today, winter-happy Minnesotans are doing their best to push snow kiting into the mainstream. There’s plenty of frozen water near the Twin Cities, but wide-open Lake Minnetonka, 15 miles west of downtown Minneapolis, gets the most action; on a typical weekend, the lake will see 25 kiters. When the ice is Zamboni smooth, kiters wear hockey skates, attach themselves to foil kites, and fly across the ice at 60 miles per hour. “Our winter kiting season is ten times bigger than our summer season,” says Larry Freeman, owner of Scuba Center ($50 per hour for instruction and equipment; ).

ACCOMMODATIONS: Minneapolis’s Chambers hotel is the sister to New York’s hip auberge of the same name. Doubles, $265;

Heli-Skiing

Kaçkar Mountains, Turkey

Yes, skiing and snowboarding in Turkey. During the winter, a sea effect dumps snow on the 12,500-foot Kaçkar Mountains, making northeastern Turkey the most reliable place to find bone-dry powder south of the Alps. Founded in 2003 by a group of Verbier, Switzerland, mountain guides, Turkey Heliski imports three helicopters from Switzerland for the January–April ski season and takes over the tiny mountain village of Ayder (elevation 4,625). From there, the helicopters fly daily to slopes with runs up to 5,000 feet long. The company imports a masseuse, a ski tuner, and one guide for every four clients. And on clear days, the views from the Kaçkars extends across the Black Sea to Mount Elbrus and the Caucasus Mountains. $8,200 for six days of skiing or snowboarding, including lodging, meals, and Turkish baths;

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PROXIMITY HOTEL
GREENSBORO, NC
Striving for the country’s first LEED Platinum certification in a hotel, five-month-old Proximity features green tech that doubles as decadence: One hundred solar panels heat 60 percent of the hotel’s water, and each of the hotel’s 147 rooms comes with a seven-foot-square window to maximize natural light.

GREEN-O-METER: 5

Proximity is home to the first regenerative-drive elevator in North America, which captures electricity produced by brakes while the car descends. Doubles from $199;

Sun Ranch

Cameron, Montana

The Lodge at Sun Ranch, formerly Papoose Creek, is about the only eco-resort anywhere that allows hunting, which raises hackles in some circles. But it’s the flying around the world in search of green lodging that makes us queasy, and Sun Ranch is as responsible a lodge as you can find in the U.S. The 26,000-acre ranch works with Trout Unlimited to ensure the cleanliness of its drainages, which feed the blue-ribbon Madison River; since Papoose Creek appeared in last year’s green issue, the owners have begun work on a new six-room main lodge, made with reused materials and opening in May. They’re also installing anemometers to gauge wind power’s potential. So when you stretch by the giant stone fireplaces after a day spent catching rainbows (or hunting free-range, organic elk), you can do so with a clear conscience.

GREEN-O-METER: 4

Ten trees are planted in the Amazon for every guest. $900 per person for three nights;

Orchard Garden Hotel

San Francisco, California

Orchard Garden Hotel, San Francisco

San Francisco's Orchard Garden Hotel

Orchard Garden, one block from Union Square in downtown San Francisco, takes the touchy-feely Bay Area trope and elevates it an ecologically certified level or two. Guest rooms are highlighted in natural wood tones and adorned with fabrics made from recycled polyester; the bathrooms are washed with citrus-based cleaners. The 86-room boutique hotel, which opened last winter, was constructed with concrete made from fly ash, a by-product of coal power plants. To observe the city’s bustle, walk around the rooftop terrace; to tune it out, retire to your guest room, which is kept silent thanks to Orchard Garden’s well-insulated design.

GREEN-O-METER: 3

A key-card system automatically turns the heat off when you leave your room, and low-flow showerheads save water. But Orchard Garden is 100 percent on the grid. Doubles from $190;

Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa

Napa, California

Gaia Napa Valley, the only LEED Gold–certified hotel in the U.S., has adopted the climate-change crisis as religion: Even the Gideons have to compete for drawer space with copies of An Inconvenient Truth. If that irks you, unwind with a hot-stone massage at Spa Gaia, or take a trip to the Madonna Estate winery, a fourth-generation organic vineyard just ten miles from the hotel. The pinot noir will make you forget all about global warming.

GREEN-O-METER: 4.5

LCD screens in the lobbycalculate how much energy the 266 rooftop solar panels produce. Doubles from $160;

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AZURA AT GABRIEL'S
BENGUERRA ISLAND, MOZAMBIQUE
For an eco-lodge, Azura at Gabriel's, a six-month-old, 15-villa resort in Mozambique's Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, seems a little sinful. The place looks like it's straight out of a Corona ad, complete with white-sand beaches and a private pool in front of every villa. Visitors fly-fish for king mackerel in the shallows of the Indian Ocean in the morning, scuba-dive with dugongs (they're similar to manatees) in the afternoon, and watch the sunset from the bows of traditional fishing dhows in the evening. Oh, and then get massaged with tamarind, aloe, and marula oil in Azura's spa before settling down for sushi made from tuna caught right offshore. A little extravagant, perhaps, but Azura is as green as it is luxurious. The resort, founded by a director of Banyan Tree Seychelles, uses its gray water for irrigation, composts on site, and plans to go carbon neutral by purchasing wind credits. By its fourth year, Azura will operate with a 90 percent Mozambican staff to benefit the local community.

GREEN-O-METER: 3.5
Azura has a guest-donated community-development fund that is financing a local school, a reforestation program, and a dugong-monitoring project. But just getting to the lodge will burn your quota of jet fuel for the next two years.

ACCESSIBILITY: 1
By the time you're done with the travel from Johannesburg to Benguerra Island's grass airstrip, you'll be ready to skip the fishing and head for the spa. From $450 per person, including meals;

Machaca Hill Lodge

Punta Gorda, Belize

Until about ten years ago, Belize's most noted environmental practices were gill-netting and reef destruction. Now, the same fishermen who once pillaged reefs work as guides in a sustainable-tourism industry, thanks to the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment, a local environmental NGO. Our favorite result of the sea change: fishing-resort-turned-eco-lodge Machaca Hill. Machaca, which opened in December 2006, sits on an 11,000-acre nature reserve. From one of 12 hilltop cabanas, hike to Belize's Rio Grande and take a panga ride down the river. Eleven miles later, you and your fly-fishing guide will be playing catch-and-release in the Port Honduras Marine Reserve, where the permit grow to 30 pounds.

GREEN-O-METER: 3.5
An on-site organic farm provides much of the lodge's food, and solar panels are being installed this summer.

ACCESSIBILITY: 3
It's a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Houston to Belize City, and then a puddle-jumper flight to Punta Gorda. Doubles, $210;

Pacuare Lodge

Pacuare, Costa Rica

Not content to rest on their green throne, the owners of the 13-year-old Pacuare Lodge built a new 6,450-square-foot, open-air main lodge last summer. Hidden in 25,000 acres of rainforest next to the Pacuare River, this place is the archetypal greener-than-thou eco-retreat, which kind of makes us want to hate it. But while Pacuare is off-grid, the accommodations are decidedlycomfortable. Guests relax in hammocks on pine decks overlooking the Pacuare, Costa Rica's premier rafting river. And the new lodge features an organic tea bar, a honeymoon suite made of native rainforest hardwood, and an extensive wine cellar. (Try the Navarro Correas Private Collection Malbec, shipped from Argentina.)

GREEN-O-METER: 4.5
The only sin is that 1,000-bottle wine cellar. They deserve it.

ACCESSIBILITY: 2
You can't drive there if you want to. Visitors arrive by raft from Linda Vista, 55 miles from San José. From $326 per person;

E’Terra Inn

Georgian Bay, Ontario

Built with salvaged timber, Lake Huron's two-year-old, six-suite E'Terra Inn is almost as pristine as its Georgian Bay surroundings. The LEED Gold–certified resort sits on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, in the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve. The water in the bay is so clean that guests drink it regularly, and kayakers can see 20 feet to the lake floor.

GREEN-O-METER: 5
The resort is entirely free of electromagnetic fields (read: there's no Wi-Fi or cell service).

ACCESSIBILITY: 4
Three hours from Toronto. Doubles, $430;

Posada de Mike Rapu

Easter Island, Chile

Finally opened in December after five years of planning, much hype, and $15 million in building costs, Explora's newest hotel stamps an 18,000-square-foot, 35-room, LEED-certified mark on sparsely inhabited Easter Island. The hotel is staffed by indigenous Rapanui, who lead hikes and pass on the oral history of the vigilant moai, stone busts that encircle the island.

GREEN-O-METER: 3
The hotel is made of local rauli wood and volcanic rock, but 18,000 square feet is still 18,000 square feet.

ACCESSIBILITY: 1
LAN Chile flies from Los Angeles. $600 per person;

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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO GET OUT—WAY OUT

KITZBÜHEL, AUSTRIA


Hahnenkamm


[January 18–20]


Arguably the most technical and dangerous downhill course on the FIS World Cup circuit—and the biggest bash. Austrians blow their horns, the Swiss clang their cowbells, and everybody crowds the course to taunt. Where to Be The Londoner, where tradition dictates racers tend bar for the town’s vigorous post-race party (and where “half the alcohol is in the air,” according to Daron Rahlves, 2003 champion). Expect Horse-drawn sleighs trotting past speaker stacks pumping European techno. Wild Card The crack of skis slapping the snow as racers may or may not land 100 feet of arm-flailing air from the legendary Mausefalle jump. Sightings Former Austrian champions like Franz Klammer and Hermann Maier.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL


Carnival


[February 2–5]


A feverish, four-day party that culminates on Fat Tuesday, with Rio’s local samba schools competing in parades, each trying to outdo the others with elaborate floats and extravagant destaques, the feathered, sequined, and often topless dancers. Where to Be The drummers’ niche, at the Sambodromo, locus for the main parade, where drummers from every samba school work the crowd. Expect Half-naked dancers that make us Puritans blush—then join in. Wild Card Whatever you want. We won’t tell. Sightings Politicians and celebrities mingle among 500,000 visiting foreigners.

HONG KONG, CHINA


Hong Kong Rugby Sevens Tournament


[March 28–30]


A tournament with teams of only seven players, instead of the traditional 15, which allows individuals to shine. Where to Be The Sevens Village—opposite the 40,000-seat Hong Kong Stadium—has a huge screen, a rollicking beer garden, and no entrance fee. Expect Hilarious mini-rugby, played between games, by children ages four to 11. Wild Card Take a high-speed ferry to nearby Macau to gamble in the enormous, lavish casinos of the Asian (and less cheesy) Las Vegas. Sightings Hong Kong’s favorite son, Jackie Chan, attended last year, as did former UK prime minister John Major.

Glastonbury, UK


Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts


[June 27–29]


Europe’s largest music-and-performing-arts festival, held on 900 acres in the Vale of Avalon—possible burial spot of King Arthur—near the mystical town of Glastonbury, draws more than 175,000 revelers. Where to Be The hedonistic nighttime madness of the parties at Lost Vagueness eventually lure everyone. Expect Great music on six huge stages and numerous side venues. The final lineup won’t be available until May, but Amy Winehouse, the Killers, and Björk performed last year. Wild Card Stay out all night, then hike six miles to watch the sun rise at Glastonbury Tor. Sightings Kate Moss and fellow London hipsters.

PAMPLONA, SPAIN


Fiesta de San Fermín


[July 6–14]


An annual event that supposedly honors Christian martyr Saint Fermín. In reality, it’s all about the crazies who run a barricaded course through the city with the six bulls to be fought that day in the ring. Where to Be Vuelta del Castillo at 11 p.m. for the nightly fireworks display. Expect Several thousand people running alongside 1,300-pound bulls. Wild Card Wear a red handkerchief for a week without being mistaken for an ascot fetishist. Sightings Local Spaniards dying (sometimes literally) to run with bulls.

Count Down

Rethink new year’s with these five unique blowouts

“Look, skiing used to be old-school. But the new, new thing is skiing again,” says Kipp Nelson, 49, on a balmy March morning spent crisscrossing California’s Squaw Valley, surveying preparations for the final stop of his inaugural 2007 Honda Ski Tour, a ski-and-party-palooza that’s already hopped from Sun Valley to Breckenridge to Aspen and will finish here at Squaw. Nelson, a former partner at Goldman-Sachs and the driving force behind the tour, never loses an edge on the slippery Sierra cement. He displays similar finesse with employees who are setting up for the day’s events, cajoling them into doing exactly what he wants. On lift rides, he’s the master multitasker, replying to a stream of calls and text messages while shooting the breeze with me.

Kipp Nelson

That night, things get a little fuzzy. I’m ensconced in the VIP area of the Olympic Village Lodge watching Nelson and his posse—decked out in garish fedoras, feather boas, and oversize, sparkly sunglasses—bounce around to the primal rhythms of funk master George Clinton, one of at least 12 live weekend performances.

G. Love, fresh from headlining his own gig in front of 3,000 people, works up a sweat gesticulating to the Ski Tour Girls, half a dozen models hired to enhance the award ceremonies. They’re wearing matching white outfits trimmed in faux fur.

Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley, in town to record segments for his Sirius satellite-radio show, The Moseley Method, scans the scene. “Kipp knows how to throw down,” he says.

The weekend’s points leader in halfpipe skiing, Simon Dumont, tries to skip the VIP line by climbing over a bright-red couch, ripping down a partition of hanging beads in the process. When a security guard rushes over and gets in Dumont’s face, Nelson breaks it up.

“Sorry about that!” he yells over the din. “Simon’s with me!” And that’s the end of that. This is Nelson’s show.

THIS DECEMBER 15, Nelson will launch season two of his unique brand of mountain hedonism in Colorado. The first, $7 million tour was just a glimmer of things to come. Over the summer, Nelson bought up the competition, the Jeep King of the Mountain tour. The combined result, which will go by that name, will start with four winter weekends full of skiing and snowboarding events—men’s and women’s cross and halfpipe, each with a $50,000 purse—plus live music in a gigantic, $100,000 tent, fashion shows, film festivals, photo competitions, bonfires, and more. In the spring of ’08, when the snow melts, the tour will move on to road- and mountain-bike racing, but the party format will remain the same.

Competition spectating will be free, access to the entire weekend’s worth of concerts and events just $99. “We want everyone in town to know that this is their festival—from the ski bum to the super-rich,” says Nelson. For VIPs, special-event tix ($1,500 to $10,000 apiece, depending on the attraction) will open doors to everything from celebrity-hosted DJ parties to heli-skiing excursions with former Olympians like Daron Rahlves. The superlatives go on, but Nelson’s vision is basic: “When people think of the mountains, I want them to think of us. We want to turbocharge the experience and build a recognizable brand—like Quiksilver is to the beach.”

What Kelly Slater is to Quiksilver, marquee names like Shaun White, Seth Wescott, and Lindsey Jacobellis will likely be to the tour, and the big names are attracting more interest in the races. About 70 athletes from ten countries competed in 2007. That number should swell to at least 250 next time.

“He’s giving competitors a new outlet, a different option, and I support that,” says freeskiing legend Scot Schmidt, one of the first skiers to make a living hucking cliffs instead of bashing gates. “Every generation reinvents the sport for themselves.”

And then that generation puts it on television. The tour will get at least 30 hours of airtime over ten months, including network syndication on CBS and four 90-minute “mountain lifestyle” shows on Mojo, an HD cable channel for “men who live accomplished and adventurous lives.” The first one-hour segment, from Telluride, will air on CBS December 29, followed by shows in Park City, Squaw Valley, and Sun Valley.

“It’s the NASCAR circuit of skiing,” Nelson likes to say. “It’s a three-ring circus of nonstop action.”

AND NELSON IS the perfect ringleader. With his friendly drawl, athletic six-two frame, and a knit hat pulled over his unruly red hair, the native Californian comes off more like a liftie than a former derivatives specialist worth around $100 million.

Originally from the Bay Area, Nelson grew up skiing in Squaw Valley, raced in high school, and competed for the University of Colorado ski team, pitching in to help the Buffaloes win three national championships before he graduated, in 1980. “He did a very good job on the B team,” says Bill Marolt, who was Nelson’s coach in Boulder before moving on to become the president and CEO of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association.

Good, but not good enough, Nelson was passed over for a spot on the national team, so he went into investment banking, spending two decades logging 80-hour weeks, first in London and, eventually, Hong Kong. To stay sane, he ran ultramarathons and summited Aconcagua and Mount McKinley.

In 2001, Nelson jumped into the soft embrace of his bank account and moved to Sun Valley, where he built a 9,000-square-foot bachelor palace complete with amphitheater, indoor climbing gym, and a 75-foot lap pool. On average, he skied 180 days per year and dabbled in various sports like rock climbing, fly-fishing, and bird hunting.

“People like to call me the ‘banker gone wild,’ ” he says, “but I worked unbelievably hard for 20 years. It was time for something completely different.”

When “completely different” started to feel like more of the same, Nelson turned philanthropic. He became a foundation board member for the USSA and, later, the Winter Special Olympics. Awash in the facts and figures of his favorite sport, Nelson saw a “weird lack of opportunities” for professional ski racers in the U.S. In 2005, hoping to create something more frequent than the X Games and less starchy than the World Cup, he gathered his Idaho buddies—former college roommate Steve Brown and former U.S. Ski Team members Reggie and Zach Crist—to brainstorm. Two years later he and Brown launched the tour.

“I don’t even expect to break even until year three,” Nelson says. “I’m committed that far, at least….[The goal is] to build a company that will make an impact. To do that, we’ve got to get noticed.”

One way to get noticed is by mainstreaming events like skiercross—racing head to head on a jump-and-berm-laden course—which will debut as an Olympic sport in Vancouver in 2010. (Boardercross debuted at the 2006 Turin Olympics.) According to Marolt, tour competitions will “very likely factor into” whatever points system the International Ski Federation comes up with to qualify athletes for Vancouver skiercross teams. Nelson takes this role seriously, spending at least $65,000 per tour stop on the cross and halfpipe courses alone.

Meanwhile, the tour is infusing new life into ski resorts, where visitor numbers nationwide have flatlined at 55.5 million for the past ten years.

“Kipp has shown a lot of foresight in taking his show on the road,” says David Perry, senior VP of Aspen Skiing Company. “He’s exactly on the right track.”

“YA WANNA BEER?” a woman in a bright-yellow bikini asks me cheerily, pointing to a case of Tecate buried in the snow as I ski up to the halfpipe final on a Saturday afternoon. Egged on by great weather, live music, and strutting athletes, the Squaw Valley fans are giddy. “Take two!” says Bikini Girl.

Fifty percent of the spectators are teenagers hanging on the railings in various stages of undress and whooping it up for their favorite riders. I watch the competitors rocket off the 18-foot walls into silent, graceful arcs above me. Each run unfolds in a predictable blur of twisting midair spins and traverses across the gun-barrel pipe.

A few hours later, I’m in the finishing area. A shirtless Peter Olenick, a 23-year-old competitor from Carbondale, Colorado, adjusts his goggles and asks his friend, “Dude, do I look OK?”

“Yah, bro.” Knuckle bump.

No competitor dares attempt Olenick’s signature move, the whiskey flip (close to a double-backflip 180), which helped him earn third place today, but he’s more concerned about the awards ceremony.

“The champagne stings your eyes,” he explains.

A few steps away, Dumont, winner of the day’s event, plus $25,000 and a Honda Element for taking the points competition, tells a camera crew that Nelson’s tour “has progressed the sport three years ahead of its time” by hosting regular, high-quality competitions that push athletes to innovate.

On my last night in Squaw Valley, Nelson throws a party to celebrate the season’s end, taking about 200 employees, racers, supporters, and media up in the tram for a private event at 8,200 feet, where guests are led to an open bar and a generous buffet. After dinner, people dance, schmooze, and play broomball on the ice rink.

Call it work or call it play—Nelson enjoys his own party more than anyone, and the pied piper of snow remains in the thick of it throughout the night, his red mane bobbing in a sea of revelers.

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