The BC Powder Highway: Day 2-3
Valhalla Snowcat Guide and co-founder Martin cuts into one of the region's tighter chutes (Nathan Borchelt)
The Powder Highway continues to look more gray than white. I ask locals whether these conditions are typical and everyone offers an apologetic shrug and says something about to the effect that the only thing predictable about the weather is that it ain’t predictable. But every time, I see a thought bubble floating over the local’s head, reading: “El Nino, that bastard.”
Indeed, the weather pattern that has triggered epic snowfall in Tahoe, Utah, and Jackson Hole has turned British Columbia into their version of an Indian summer. They’re trucking in snow to Whistler for the Olympics, and my aunt and uncle, who live three hours from Nelson (where I’m now staying) are calling the Winter Games the spring Olympics.
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February 04, 2010
The BC Powder Highway: Day 1
Red Mountain's two-person lift, which runs the same line as the first lift in the resort, and in all of Western Canada (Nathan Borchelt)
As Vancouver and Whistler/Blackcomb gear up for the worldwide attention of the 2010 Winter Olympics later this month, I’m out to explore some of the less-publicized parts of the province by carving through the Kootenay Valley.
Landing in Spokane, Washington, however, isn’t exactly the winter wonderland you’d expect on the Powder Highway. But soon the urban sprawl of fast-food joints, strip clubs, and a shuttered Circuit City gave way to the Columbia River basin via I-395, and once you cross over the border into Canada, the mood becomes chilly—in the best of ways.
First stop, the small gold-mining town of Rossland.
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Vail! Beaver Creek! Minturn?
TRAIL TO MINTURN: Ride the party bus back to Vail after dropping-in to Minturn (Gerry Wingenbach)
You want the facts on Vail and her rich, wicked little sister Beaver Creek? You like baseball-like statistics? Go ahead. Knock yourself out. The walloping numbers are all there on Away.com's ski-resort guides.
Here’s what I know from experience. The runs at Vail are a bit long for my Park City legs. The back bowls are as far-reaching as the Sea of Tranquility, and almost as unknowing. There are too many lifts to name, so Vail simply numbers them. The ski-in village is a gorgeous Austrian knockoff, right down to the covered bridge. The resort is way up in the heavy snows of Colorado, which is about all a skier or border really needs to know.
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January 27, 2010
Got Soul? Vail Does!
PRETTY AS CAN BE: Australian skier May Lilley (Gerry Wingenbach)
The personal-trainer-toned bodies, postage-stamp-size skirts, and persuasive enthusiasm of Hollywood hit the streets of Park City, Utah, last Thursday with the opening of the Sundance Film Festival. I did what I always do. I left town. It's just not real.
You want real? Come with me to Vail. By nightfall we're at Vendetta's, the local's hangout in the heart of this storybook village. We're at a jam-packed table with several hardcore Canadian riders and a transplanted Australian woman named May, who is as pretty a skier as you could ever hope to see. Outside Vendetta's, it looks like a pillow fight. The snow is falling in perfect blankets. Watching movies is not the favorite sport in this town.
Vail may not have a century-and-a-half-old main street or rectangles of extraordinary Victorian-era architecture like Breckenridge, but don't ever think this place doesn't have soul.
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January 21, 2010
LIVE NOW!: Real-Time Ski Q&A for Expert Advice
HIGH & DRY: Keystone Resort, Colorado (courtesy, Colorado Ski Country)
Click over to Orbitz.com's Facebook Fan Page this morning to join Away.com editor Pieter van Noordennen for a live ski chat from 6 a.m. to noon. Have questions about where to ski this year, the best slopes to match your skill level, the latest and best ski deals, and more? Submit your questions on the Orbitz Facebook profile and receive unfiltered, unbiased advice from our trail-tested, snow-encrusted expert. Pieter is a former senior editor at Skiing magazine and has written ski-travel stories for National Geographic Adventure, Outside, Men’s Journal, and many other magazines, newspapers, and websites in the U.S. and abroad. He learned to ski in the East but has lived in Breckenridge, Boulder, and Santa Fe, plus has logged over 30 ski days a year for five years running.
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January 19, 2010
The Best of Steamboat Springs, Colorado
COWBOY TOWN: Mountain view of Steamboat Springs, Colorado (Gerry Wingenbach)
I finally went back to Steamboat Springs and the extraordinary ski mountain that towers on the edge of town. It had been too long.
I drove the 300 miles from Park City, all of it on two-lane Highway 40, winding west through a sparsely populated Utah, skirting Dinosaur National Monument, and rolling into northwest Colorado's cattle country. My dog, who's always with me on the deeper journeys, was heads up in the co-pilot's seat. Smoke curled over snow-dusted hillsides from the chimneys of ranch houses. A power line sagged under the weight of a hefty bald eagle. Call it Colorado Gothic.
Crimson-colored strokes of early evening smeared the sky above the Yampa Valley when we rolled into Steamboat Springs. The world looked as if it was burning up beyond the horizon and I was reminded that the best thing about skiing in America is the country itself—America the beautiful.
Several years ago, I spent an entertaining evening with some local ranchers at a roadside bar and grill. Passing by, I decided to stop there again... the clientele had all changed. The place was hopping with Texans, New Yorkers, and Californians. A couple of local ranchers sat at a corner table drinking Coors, so I asked if I could join them. One of the ranchers had just sold his place. But he wasn't happy.
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January 14, 2010
The Right Winter Gloves
I picked up Mountain Hardwear's Jalapeno gloves mid-season last year, but that winter proved to be more a murmur than a roar, and outside of confirming their snug fit, the gloves remained tucked in my closet. Wishful thinking for next season.
The talisman must've worked. This winter in DC we've seen one bona fide blizzard, a few flurries and one-inch storms, and a near-record amount of days with temps that barely shoulder past freezing. Cold enough, in other words, to send my colleague from Mississippi scouring for every piece of warm clothing she owns and for me to put the Jalapenos to the test. And after several dark, cold-weather commutes, I can now report that these gloves are my go-to pair for winter cycling.
The fully-insulated leather glove ($100) boasts a hearty waterproof shield that bonds the breathable/waterproof membrane to the inner nylon shell for hardcore protection against all foul and unfriendly elements. The wide, long cuffs swallow my jacket cuffs, preventing any squalls from sneaking inside, and twin wrist leashes keep the gloves within reach (and out of whatever elements pollute the ground) whenever conditions demand bare-handed dexterity. That said, the abrasion-resistant goatskin palm and fingers offer more touch than you'd expect from a glove this warm. I also appreciate the aesthetic nod to the old-school, all-leather gloves worn by most of the country's ski lift operators, though sadly I was forced to dirty the Jalapenos while doing roadside repair to a popped bike chain. Some argue that the black grease on that tan lambskin actually makes 'em look more authentic. But to me, it's just the excuse I need to get another pair. The stained ones for cycling, the new ones for skiing...
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January 12, 2010
World's Greatest Ski Run: Vallée Blanche, France
EYE OF THE BEAST: Guide Armel Faron skis Chamonix's Vallée Blanche (Gerry Wingenbach)
Even in the European Alps, where ski lifts as varied as the blades of a Swiss Army knife scale mountain after mountain, the 60-passenger téléphérique to the summit of the Aiguille du Midi seems impossible. It is the highest gondola in Europe, topping out at 12,605 feet, and the way-up-there view looks out over three countries—France, Italy, and Switzerland.
The tram rises from Chamonix, France, the site of the first Winter Olympic Games in 1924, and ends atop the granite needle that looms next to white-domed Mont Blanc, at 15,750 feet the highest mountain in the Alps. It covers the distance in two airy, ear-popping spans—one of them, the longest of any aerial tram in the world until Whistler opened its Peak 2 Peak Gondola last year.
The Aiguille du Midi also is the starting point for the longest lift-serviced ski and snowboarding run in the world: the 13-mile-long Vallée Blanche. It's often called the greatest ski run on the planet.
On a perfect blue-sky morning last winter, my friend, veteran Chamonix mountain guide Armel Faron, and I boarded the tram for the Aiguille du Midi.
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Travel Deal Alert: Free Airfare to Jackson Hole
SKI HERE NOW: Jackson Hole terrain, Wyoming (Tristan Greszko/courtesy, JHMR)
Last-minute ski vacation deal alert! Jackson Hole is offering two free plane tickets—yes, that's two free tickets—when you book flights and lodging (five-night minimum stay) via the resort's central reservations office for groups of four or more. Call 888-838-6606 or visit www.jacksonholewy.com for more info. Act fast, though, as availability is limited and you have to book by January 15 for trips starting no later than January 31, 2010.
For more of the best late-breaking travel deals, subscribe to Away.com's weekly Travel Deals Newsletter.
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January 04, 2010
In Jackson Hole, New Year, New Snow, New Hope
VIEW FROM THE TOP: Jackson Hole Tram (Jackson Hole Resort)
In Jackson, Wyoming, there are no big fans of The Kid. The El Niño weather pattern brewing out in the southern Pacific generally (not always) favors ski resorts in California and the southern ranges of Colorado, leaving northern mountains high and dry. Sure, Colorado’s Summit and Eagle counties have had a couple of big early season storms. And Montana, normally a fan of La Niña-style patterns tracking out of the Pacific Northwest, has gotten their fair share this year. But here in Jackson Hole, where I’m spending New Year’s Eve, this season’s snowfall has been meager to date, leaving many of the slopes rockier than a Philadelphia Halloween party. Yesterday, that began to change.
A ski town anticipating its first big snowfall is like a rodeo bull waiting in the corral—it doesn’t take much to set off unbridled enthusiasm. Temperatures hovered in the teens and a stiff, icy wind met us at the top of the new, ultrafast Tram (a.k.a. “the Big Red Box”). But the continuous trickle of white flakes were all anyone could see. “We’re on Everest!” shouted a joyful snowboarder as he off-loaded the Tram and was blasted by the wind. There were three, maybe four, fresh inches on the flanks of the resort, though many of the famed steeps and chutes, like the Hobacks, Meet Your Maker, and Corbet’s Couloir, haven’t opened yet. Grizzled locals straddled the fence between a cool cynicism (“You should have seen it this time last year,”) and a shy hopefulness (“They’re saying a foot by the end of the week; we’ll see”).
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