Story and photos by James Michaud

Jackson, WY – Friends sometimes ask me why I often fly to ski regions with large, world-famous mountains and then end up spending as much or more time at the lesser-known "second-banana" areas nearby.

by Jeff Hemmel

Tahoe City, CA - There's something about the onslaught of spring that makes me long for a few last days on the snow. Maybe it's the simple realization that I won't venture onto a slope — at least not one covered in white — for more than six months. Or maybe I just kind of like that combination of sunshine, corn snow, and those tanned faces at the outdoor grill. Whatever the case it's about this time every year I start getting a little itchy to take one last, glorious road trip.

Author Steven Woodruff descends the 14,005-foot Colorado landmark with famed extreme skier Chris Anthony

Eagle County, CO - She appears to stand alone when observed from a distance. Like a lighthouse guiding a ship in the night, she has been my beacon in the Vail Valley from the first day I called Vail my home.

She is surrounded by a supporting cast of ridges and valleys with an entire ecosystem dependent on her presence. She is easily identified by her significant markings and height. She is powerful enough to create her own weather systems. Unmistakable from hundreds of miles away, her name is The Mountain of The Holy Cross. She has been the center of much intrigue throughout most of Colorado’s history. She has a story, a following and a spirit like no other mountain in the Rockies. Why do I refer to Holy Cross as a female? I’m not sure, other than because of her beauty and the draw she has for my attention.

by Marc Guido

Eden, UT - Think Utah skiing, and what comes to mind? The ski and snowboard resorts surrounding the state's only true ski town, Park City? Or maybe it's the deep snows of the Cottonwood Canyons? Chances are, though, that it isn't the three ski resorts that surround the pastoral Ogden Valley of northern Utah.

by Jeff Hemmel

Breckenridge, CO - I was wearing shorts, looking out my home office window at palm trees, when I made the call. “Breckenridge, last weekend of the season,” was all I had to say. I could already picture the scene at the opposite end of the phone line — a guy in business casual, sitting at a desk, the annoying hum of responsibility hanging in the air. “Let me think about it,” he said, and was gone.

by Sharon Heller

Sun Valley, ID - El Niño made for a late start to winter in both the East and many parts of the West in 2006-07. As usual we had our ski trip planned months in advance, and some worry set in as travel dates drew near. Without any bounteous snowfall on the horizon by February, reservations were nonetheless made and plane tickets bought. We knew that anything in the western mountains would be better than the skiing in the East, with or without fresh snow.

Story and photos by Tony Crocker

Girdwood, AK - Since the early 1990s, Alaska’s Chugach range has become legendary for long and steep helicopter ski runs in a deep maritime snowpack. Most operators are based in Valdez, and the risk of poor weather and limited visibility leading to repeated no-fly days is well known. I was therefore attracted to Alyeska Resort, which offers lift-served and snowcat skiing alternatives to the heliskiing.

Story and photos by Marc Guido

Eden, UT - We stopped at the bottom of the bowl to look back up the hill. Four tracks, just four, stretching skyward for over 1,000 vertical feet…and only four of us standing there to witness our handiwork.

That, folks, is the essence of Powder Mountain, a little known deep snow nirvana perched high above Utah’s Ogden Valley. With 5,500 in-bounds acres this little piece of skiing dynamite is bigger than Vail. Bigger, in fact, than any other single ski area in the United States. So why does it fly so far below most skiers’ radar?

by Sharon Heller and Frank Martinez

Crystal Mountain, WA - Virtually unknown to skiers outside the state of Washington, Crystal Mountain is a local’s ski area with world class terrain and copious amounts of snow. With more than 2,300 acres spanning 3,100 vertical feet in-bounds (2,612 feet lift-served), and an avalanche controlled backcountry more than doubling it’s acreage, Crystal Mountain ranks with the ski resorts of Colorado, Utah and Jackson Hole. Average annual snowfall is around 350 inches, surpassing most of the Colorado resorts and right up there with Jackson Hole and many of the Utah and British Columbia ski resorts.

So, then, why don’t people know about it, you ask?

by Tony Crocker

Taos Ski Valley, NM - Taos Ski Valley is perhaps the last major North American ski resort still operated by its founding family. Swiss immigrant Ernie Blake developed this tough and remote area after World War II and succeeded in creating a unique ambience via small European-style family lodges and personalized service, particularly the ski school. I’ve skied Taos in 1984, 1993 and 2007, and was fortunate to stay three days at the St. Bernard Lodge in 1993 and spend two days with the ski school and marketing director Adriana Blake, Ernie’s granddaughter, in 2007.

Story by Sharon Heller and Frank Martinez
Photos by Sharon Heller

Mt. Baker, WA - A late start to winter with a dearth of snow and snowmaking temperatures in the eastern U.S. made for tough times for the die-hard eastern skier in the early part of the 2006-2007 ski season. Desperate times meant desperate measures. With news of a snowstorm dropping 12 feet of snow on Mt. Baker, Washington in late November, attention turned to the Pacific Northwest. Cheap plane fare to Seattle made the possibility of an early-season ski trip a reality for two East Coast ski fiends on a budget with a jones to hit the slopes.

Story and photos by Jonathan Kamien

Telluride, CO - The unique experience that is Telluride starts before the airplane wheels touch down. At 9,078 feet, Telluride Regional Airport is the highest commercial airport in the continental United States. Usually, flights reliably end with a descent into the destination airport. Not this one. No descent, no ears popping, just a gentle, level glide onto a tiny airstrip sitting on top of a mesa above this southwestern Colorado ski resort town.

by Tony Crocker

Big Sky, MT - Southwestern Montana's Big Sky ski and snowboard resort was founded by legendary news anchor Chet Huntley, and for 20 years it appealed mainly to low intermediate skiers and those attracted to nearby Yellowstone National Park.  The construction of the Lone Peak tram in the 1990s, however, brought lift access to some of North America’s most extreme in-bounds terrain from the mountain's summit.  With the tram construction, Big Sky expanded to 3,500 acres, but the lifts and terrain are sharply stratified by ski ability.  The lower mountain retains its low intermediate character, while advanced skills are required to negotiate nearly all runs from the Challenger lift, the Lone Peak tram or the new Headwaters lift at adjacent Moonlight Basin Resort. 

Big Sky’s terrain covers the south and east sides of Lone Peak.  North of Lone Peak lies Moonlight Basin, which was purchased in 1992 primarily for conservation purposes.  Real estate was developed at Moonlight Basin at the northern edge of Big Sky’s terrain, and Montana Backcountry Adventures offered snowcat skiing in some of the sheltered forest.  Eventually the high-speed Six-Shooter lift replaced the cat skiing and Moonlight Basin was born as a separate ski area in December 2003, though the two smaller lifts near Moonlight’s real estate, Iron Horse and Pony Express, are shared by Moonlight and Big Sky.

Story and photos by Marc Guido

Sundance, UT - It was the perfect frame, but something was missing from the picture.

As Rich and I stood atop Sundance's Bishop's Bowl in the shadow of mighty 11,750-foot Mount Timpanogos, there was nary a soul in sight. 2,150 vertical feet of terrain fell away beneath our skis as rolling Wasatch hills stretched to the east, gradually giving way to the agrarian horse and sheep pastures of Utah's Heber Valley. Behind us stood Bearclaw's Cabin, where views from lounge chairs sprinkling the sundeck stretched west through Provo Canyon and across Utah Lake. We had all the room in the world, even though the top terminal of the ski and snowboard resort's Arrowhead chairlift hummed mere yards away.

by Marc Guido

Government Camp, OR - The hazy, hot and humid days of summer are here, and there are many ways to cool off. You could head to the mountains to camp in cooler and drier air. Maybe you’ll venture to the beach for a dip in the ocean, or hang out by the pool with a piña colada in hand.

Some folks beat the heat another way: they’re going skiing.