Stowe, VT – Mention Vermont, and you’re likely to conjure up pastoral /images of white church steeples, clapboard houses, steam rising from boilers in maple sugar shacks, narrow and winding dirt farm roads, and incandescent fall foliage. Skiers and snowboarders will likely also envision narrow, old-school New England trails, as well as broad intermediate boulevards … Continue reading Stowe: Picture Postcard Vermont
Brian Head, UT – The silence was deafening. Standing atop the rim of Cedar Breaks National Monument’s crimson cliffs, the enveloping stillness was punctuated only by a lone crow soaring somewhere thousands of feet below in the nearly limitless void. Far beyond, the Escalante Desert of southern Utah stretched to the horizon. The red, yellow … Continue reading Brian Head: Altitude, Not Attitude
Stratton Mountain, VT – I just can’t help but to smile. Let’s just ignore the fact that I was grunting up the side of a ski slope with two broken vertebrae in my lower back, struggling to hold some form of traction in the snow. Forget that, all the while, an image of me losing … Continue reading The U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships: Back to Where It All Began
Newry, ME – We had been dying for a ski vacation. After loving every minute of a record snowfall on the East Coast last winter, this year we’d barely unpacked our gloves. We had planned a couple trips with friends, but each had disintegrated before we’d witnessed the first snowflake. By February, we were beginning … Continue reading Take Me To the River
Copper Mountain, CO (March 2002) – Peeling back the curtains, a kaleidoscope of light patterns played upon the otherwise pitch-dark slopes above the new village, emanating from a series of high-powered projectors perched atop 30-foot high wooden poles. Further up the mountain, snowcats purred as they prepared the features in the terrain park. Below, the … Continue reading Mining Copper
Lincoln, NH – The best-laid plans do not always go according to design. Skiers, especially eastern skiers, know this fact intimately. Weather is no one’s friend in New England, and we all know the best conditions in the east often match the worst it ever gets out west. The clouds seemingly conspire to produce ill-timed … Continue reading Call of the Loon
Brighton, UT – Each of Utah’s four Cottonwood Canyons resorts – Alta, Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton – has its own unique character and spirit. For skiers only, Alta exudes charm through its exceptional terrain and throwback culture. Snowbird delivers steeps, snowfall and creature comforts on a grand scale. Solitude provides just that – lots of … Continue reading Brighton: Where Utah Learns to Ski