George Koch

Reading Time: 7 minutesAustria’s massive Gastein Valley has four distinct ski areas, thermal baths for whatever ails you – and a 2000-year-old tourist office by George Koch   Holy smokes, there’s two of […]

Reading Time: 5 minutesSunshine Village’s firing last winter of seven ski patrollers, including two of its senior-most personnel, hit the skiing world like a string of explosives shattering a cornice. The appearance of heavy-handed ski resort owners […]

Reading Time: 7 minutesThe Cat, the Guide and the School Bus A return to Mustang Powder brings a Narnia like alternative reality of endless steep runs and breathtaking vistas. by George Koch   […]

Reading Time: 9 minutesby George Koch from Winter 2011 issue For hardcore skiers, this B.C. town offers a tasty triple scoop of cat, heli and resort skiing My best skiing memories are of […]

Reading Time: 5 minutesFreeride skis have come a long way in the past decade. It was buttery smooth, exhilaratingly fast and dumbfoundingly easy. It liberated me to ski harmonically with the contours of the […]

Reading Time: 9 minutesFrom the Travel Guide 2011 issue Serfaus, Austria, isn’t a popular destination for North Americans, but after days of powdery surprises George Koch and friends think that should change Hour […]

Reading Time: 6 minutesSeveral readers responded to my article of two years earlier (Is it all doom and gloom? – Fall 2007) that had circumspectly raised questions about (okay, joyously heaped scorn upon) […]

Reading Time: 7 minutesFrom the Buyer’s Guide 2011 issue One corollary of big-mountain skiing is the way the terrain swallows up the people doing it. We had just crested a gentle saddle a […]

Reading Time: 7 minutesIt’s the end of an era for the only privately run ski school at a major resort in Canada. He’d ride up the mountain first thing to work on his […]

Reading Time: 15 minutesA roundup of 10 top resorts on the road from Calgary (from Buyer’s Guide 2011 issue) Last fall it seemed as if Divine Intervention itself was about to lift the […]

Reading Time: 6 minutesCharlie Locke’s return to the grande dame of Alberta ski areas was both unexpected and predestined Alberta encapsulated: beef cattle grazing on undulating emerald grass slopes, rusty oil wells, a […]

Reading Time: 12 minutes10 great ski areas tempt locals and vistors alike with all that’s new and improved From Fall 2009 issue Ski resort marketing people are somehow psychologically wired to look ahead. […]

Reading Time: 4 minutesThis winter the usual early-season snows largely bypassed Whistler- Blackcomb even as Victoria and Vancouver suffered havoc. Extended cold, a rain crust, a dangerous layer of faceted crystals and lastly […]

Reading Time: 3 minutesAlert readers will recall my chronicling of the Kicking Horse story since it began as a glimmer in the eye of Vancouver skier-visionary Oberto Oberti. I was an instant convert […]

Reading Time: 10 minutesPounding music, hoarse yells, diminishing inhibitions and a crush of costumed but not heavily clad flesh beggar the senses. Per Jonsson, pro rider, is sporting a short dress, shaved legs, […]

Reading Time: 4 minutesHelicopters stood in silence, flags fluttered and people milled about on the broad plateau beneath Saddle Mountain, chatting or munching smoked salmon and other treats from a vast buffet spread […]

Reading Time: 6 minutesA ski helmet first went onto my head way back in 2000, when helmets were just this side of exotica. So why does the hectoring of helmet zealots for mandatory […]

Reading Time: 9 minutesIt was a magical January day with Mica Heli Guides high in the Rocky Mountains northeast of Revelstoke. We were pausing between huge pitches to gaze at the mountains ringing […]

Reading Time: 5 minutesThere’s a weird dichotomy in the way skiing markets itself. Our sport’s image is self-consciously elitist. Glitz, glam and bling. Celebrity athletes performing superhuman record-setting feats on the racecourse or […]

Reading Time: 13 minutesIt was the greatest run of a fabulous season. What appeared as a dusting of snow on the access road became eight cm in the parking lot and, as we […]

Reading Time: 6 minutesIt’s dark outside and I’m driving uphill. Transitions are one of the most exciting things about going to the ski hill. There’s always a giddy excitement whether it’s leaving the […]

Reading Time: 3 minutesIn mid-August, the 20-year-long era of the company that operates Whistler-Blackcomb, Mont Tremblant, Panorama, Blue Mountain and numerous other resorts came to an end, or turned a page in its […]

Reading Time: 7 minutesFrom the Spring 2006 issue Three men are generally credited with inventing helicopter skiing: Hans Gmoser, Herb Bleuer and Mike Wiegele. Gmoser, founder and long-time head of Canadian Mountain Holidays […]