St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria - Most of us dream of walking in a winter wonderland, and this festive season I was fortunate enough to experience a genuine white Christmas in the picturesque resort of St. Anton am Arlberg.nNestling in Austria’s westernmost province, St. Anton boasts a rich skiing heritage as well as arguably the…
With numerous skiing opportunities in North America, its easy to overlook the potential of the European Alps. It’s not cheap to get there and you lose valuable mountain time in making such a mammoth trip. I’m a Brit. I learned to ski in Switzerland 20 years ago. There’s a tradition for UK winter sports enthusiasts…
La Grave, France - Extremely Canadian is best known for its steep skiing clinics at Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia. Several of their guides and coaches are competitive freeskiers and have extensive photo and video credits from all over the world. Starting in the 1990s, some of the company’s guides who were most knowledgeable about…
Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy - It was gusto from the get-go. Diana, my longtime Italian ladyfriend, charged her last run of an ace morning on the grand ski slopes of Cortina d’Ampezzo, firing expert turns down a chute called Eye of the Needle, so named for the rock formation one threads at the top of a…
Geilo, Norway - “There’s something so quiet and cozy about a snow-covered town, like it’s been nicely tucked up and put to sleep,” I was thinking to myself as I stepped off the ski train from Oslo, the none-too-large capital of Norway. The small snow-covered town where I found myself on this dark evening in…
Avoriaz, France – Perched atop of an enormous cliff only an hour and a half from Geneva airport, the custom built village of Avoriaz is a unique skiing and snowboarding destination with an atmosphere all of its own. The unique architecture of the wooden buildings make this a strangely compelling place to visit, and the…
Courchevel, France – “Have an espresso. It’s quite good.” This sage advice came from Skip King, an old friend and the American press attaché for the Courchevel Tourist Office. He had just flown in from Boston, and he didn’t look much better than I felt. A nine-hour overnight flight from Miami had brought me here…
Gavarnie, France – What can you say about a day when you summit the highest peak in the French Pyrenees under the bluest, most cloudless sky that you have ever seen, and then afterwards, following a short rappel, you have a nearly 5,000 vertical-foot ski descent on soft spring snow on a giant mountain all…
La Grave, France (September 2002) – What could I write about La Grave that hasn’t already been written? This small French village claims no more than a couple of bars and hotels, yet it’s home to some of the most extreme lift served terrain on the planet. A “resort” with just four lifts, no ski…
Val d’Isere, France - Imagine a resort nearly four times the size of Whistler-Blackcomb with terrain to suit all standards of skiers and boarders, no matter how extreme your tastes. A resort with off piste possibilities so vast that books have been written about it. A resort with 300km of groomed runs, 97 lifts, two…
