Ski Season Starts Early!
Solitude Ski Resort, Utah (courtesy of the resort)
The pre-Halloween snowstorm that hit the Western states this week means that the much-anticipated start of ski season will be here sooner than we all thought.
Solitude Resort, in Utah, announced yesterday that opening day will be moved up one week to Friday, November 6. Season-pass holders can get on the mountain even sooner; Link Lift will be open for Halloween Day, October 31. Get your "pass-holder appreciation day" voucher here.
Keystone Resort, in Colorado, announced today that it will also open early this season. On Thursday, November 5, skiers and snowboarders can hit the mountain for top-to-bottom runs.
Also the pleased recipient of recent snows, many British Columbia resorts have upped their opening days. You can make tracks at Sun Peaks, for one, starting on Saturday, November 14.
Know of any other early ski-area openings? Tell us in the comments section below.
Check out Away.com's Ski Guide for profiles of the world's best ski areas.
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October 09, 2009
Mountain Hardwear Unveils an Electrically Heated Jacket and Charger
Endlessly reliable gear and apparel manufacturer Mountain Hardwear has partnered with Ardica Moshi Power System to introduce the first jacket to offer electrically-powered heating on demand that's also prewired to power and recharge all variety of handheld electronics, from GPS devices, cell and smart phones, mp3 players, and digital cameras.
Available as of October 8, the jacket comes in men's and women's models (Refugium and Radiance, respectively) and retails for $240. The design includes a bevy of MH-approved tech features like a quilted body with ultra-thin insulation, fleece-lined hand pockets, laminated cuff tabs with Velcro closure, and a micro-chamois-lined chin guard in a refreshingly fashion-forward design. Moshi's standalone power system sells for $145, along with a $50 tech connector kit.
Depending on your tolerance for cold and your love of pocket electronics, this new product will either be the holy grail of snow-sports apparel or... just odd. But I suspect backcountry skiers and 'boarders, heli-skiers, and Gen Next resort-goers will eagerly embrace this latest advance.
Check back soon—we'll test it and give our input.
What do you think? Too much? Not enough?
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October 08, 2009
Colorado's Loveland Resort Opens!
Yesterday at 9 a.m. Colorado's Loveland Ski Resort became North America's first resort to open for the 2009-10 season, boasting an 18-inch base and a hearty group of ski enthusiasts ready to link 2009's first turns down the 1,000-vertical-foot, top-to-bottom run off Chair 1.
And so it begins...
Check out our detailed Ski and Snowboard Resort Guide.
Photo credit: First tracks of 2009 at Loveland Ski Resort (courtesy, Colorado Ski Country U.S.A.)
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September 10, 2009
Vermont's Bolton Valley Ski Resort Announces New Wind Turbine
WHITE MAGIC: Snowboarder at Bolton Valley, Vermont (courtesy, Bolton Valley Resort)
Vermont's Bolton Valley ski resort took a step into the green future with an announcement today that a 121-foot-high wind turbine will be coming online this fall to power the resort's operations. It will be the first wind turbine to be constructed at a Vermont ski area, and only the third at a ski area in the United States. The turbine is expected to provide upwards of 300,000 kilowatts of power annually, which is the equivalent amount of electricity used to power up to 45 Vermont households each year.
Locally owned and operated, Bolton Valley is a popular local hill within close proximity to Burlington, Vermont. The 165-acre resort offers 64 trails to suit skiers of all levels, plus boasts some of the cheaper skiing in the region, with adult lift tickets going for around $50.
Planning a skiing vacation this winter? Visit Away.com's Ski & Snowboard Guide for profiles of the best ski resorts in the world, plus check out our roundup of the best ski lodges.
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August 20, 2009
Guide to the World's Best Resorts & Lodges
Cayo Espanto, a private luxury all-inclusive in Belize (courtesy, Cayo Espanto)
For the past 12 months, I have been neck-deep in one of the toughest assignments a travel editor can expect: Scouring the globe for the world's best destination resorts and lodges. I know, it's a hard job gazing at images of unspoiled, faraway places (like the one above), but I wasn't alone for my journey. We assigned a crack squad of travel writers with clips in publications including National Geographic Adventure, Travel+Leisure, and Lonely Planet to track down the cream of the crop, including their selections for the best family resorts, beach resorts, national park lodges, all-inclusive resorts, and six other distinct travel categories. One year later, with my list of must-visit places in a state of morbid obesity, we're excited to announce the launch of Away.com's new Resorts & Lodges Guide, featuring 200 of the world's ultimate destination-resort experiences. If you're looking for inspiration about where to stay next, this is the place to start.
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August 14, 2009
Dreaming of Gold in Park City's Utah Olympic Park
A young clinic-goer preps to run the freestyle jump (courtesy, Utah Olympic Park)
Next February, the glow of Olympic competition will alight upon Vancouver, British Columbia, for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but you don't have to wait until then to get into the competitive spirit. The Utah Olympic Park just outside of Park City, Utah, hosted the Winter Games back in 2002, and today serves as both the training facility for the U.S. teams and one of the country's more alluring activity-centric locales, especially for families, during the warmer months of the year.
The facility boasts a spectacular interactive museum, the ski jump ramp—where you can peer over the ledge and get that vertiginous rush that comes from seeing what these astounding athletes willingly ski—and a variety of fun, low-adrenaline rides like the zipline and the Quicksilver alpine slide. But speed freaks will definitely want to hop on the Comet, the Olympic bobsled. Dubbed the "fastest minute of your life," you'll tear through 15 curves at speeds of 70 miles per hour, pulling close to four G's. But don't worry—Olympic athletes handle the steering and the brakes.
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August 07, 2009
Utah's First Legal Distillery Since Prohibition: High West Distillery
(courtesy, High West Distillery)
In honor of Utah recently shunning one of its antiquated drinking laws, celebrate by heading to Park City’s High West Distillery. The first legal distillery since prohibition in the state, High West opened its doors this July.
David Perkins, the man behind High West, first got the idea to build his own distillery after touring the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Kentucky back in 2002. Leaving unsatisfied and yearning for a more educational and sophisticated approach to whiskey, David returned home with a notion that he could build a great western distillery.
Later, he met Jim Rutledge, the COO and Master Distiller at Four Roses Distillery in Kentucky and one of eight masters of bourbon distilling, who taught him the ways of making truly good whiskey. David moved to Utah, uprooted his family from Northern California, made several batches of tasty whiskey, and found a 100-year-old livery stable in Park City to house his distillery.
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April 06, 2009
Switzerland Tops the Ski World
The train to Kleine Scheidegg (Gerry Wingenbach)
The scenery is straight off a postcard—the extraordinary Swiss Alps, the sculpted slopes, the sense of getting so much of the world in one big gulp. It’s always a thrilling adventure. With skis or snowboard in hand you board the cogwheel train at Grindelwald, bound for the ski area of Kleine Scheidegg, directly beneath the Eiger’s infamous North Wall in the heart of the Jungfrau region. The cogwheel train grinds its way up the valley to the Eiger’s North Wall and, under the cover of several avalanche tunnels, delivers you straight to the jaw-dropping views at Kleine Scheidegg. A day like this can make your year.
There’s nothing even remotely like it at North American ski resorts. And that’s only one of the reasons why every skier and snowboarder should make a winter pilgrimage to Switzerland. The high mountain villages offer reliable snow, there’s a wide choice of resorts, and they’re easy to get to. Before leaving home get yourself a Swiss Pass. You can get anywhere you want in this Alpine country via rail, bus, lake steamer, or cable car. It may be the only country in the world where you don’t need a car.
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March 31, 2009
Photo Highlight: Skiing Japan
I took this photo at the base of a ski lift at the Japanese resort of Hakuba Happo last March. The Buddha head sculpture was massive, about ten feet tall, and was one of the many snow sculptures that the lifties had built (others included SpongeBob and a variety of Japanese cartoon characters I didn't recognize). But what I found most interesting here was the use of the red coloring. In Japanese anime, blood dripping from the nose and mouth signifies sexual arousal—and to incorporate that kind of thing into an image of the Buddha is pretty damn sacrilegious, to say the least. My friend Dan, a U.S. expat who lives in Kyoto, was pretty surprised to see it—and to notice that no one else on the slopes seemed to be as disturbed as he was.
Check out my other photos of skiing in Japan, and download an exclusive screensaver of skiing in Japan.
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March 27, 2009
Great Swiss Skiing in Leukerbad
Leukerbad's scenic slopes (Gerry Wingenbach)
I want to tell you about Leukerbad.
Last Sunday I boarded a Swiss International Air Lines flight out of Chicago bound for Zurich. Nine hours later I was riding one of those set-your-watch-by Swiss trains rolling through Switzerland’s heroic scenery to the rugged Valais region, home to this cartoonishly magnificent country’s highest concentration of 13,000-foot summits.
The European Alps horseshoe their way around Switzerland, Austria, France, and Italy. But it is here, in Switzerland, where most of my best European ski days have been.
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