Ron Betts

Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian Ski Instructors’ Alliance (CSIA) has been training professional ski instructors since 1938. That’s 85 years of nice turns, and for much of that time it’s been mostly the only game in town. No longer.

Reading Time: 3 minutes The 2024 Freeride World Tour by Peak Performance hits Kicking Horse Mountain Resort

Reading Time: 7 minutes Finding White Grizzly’s Powder Den Deep In The Kootenays There are a few places in the ski world that have almost mythical reputations, Little Cottonwood Canyon in Utah for the […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes When you picture the world’s most classic downhill tracks, most people think of Kitzbühel’s Hahnenkamm, Wengen’s Lauberhorn or Canada’s own Lake Louise. While these are certainly gems, there’s one other […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes Move over, Ski Canada. At 60, Tod Mountain has a decade on you. Wait, where’s that? Well, you probably know it by its more recognizable name, Sun Peaks Resort. But […]

Reading Time: 6 minutes Get the most out of your touring day with a lift into the alpine. It’s impossible to look back on last winter without considering the ways COVID-19 impacted people’s mountain […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes Rescuers also pay a price so we can play in the mountains. Large numbers of skiers are socially distancing themselves from ski resorts entirely this winter, but how prepared are […]

Reading Time: < 1 minutes New Hope For Cape Smokey by RON BETTS The song “Rise Again,” by songwriter Leon Dubinsky, is an anthem for the resiliency of the Cape Breton spirit. Those lyrics will […]

Reading Time: 6 minutes Watching the striking scenery roll past a train window pretty much anywhere in Switzerland, it’s easy to understand why the country has inspired artists, poets and travellers. I mean, c’mon, […]

Reading Time: 9 minutes Nobody said skiing The Rock was easy, but it’s definitely worth the adventure. The last time I skied Newfoundland was 1989. Back then, Marble Mountain had a slightly mythical reputation […]

Reading Time: 8 minutes Despite a wet welcome, Crans-Montana maintained its reputation of providing a signature sunny week for another Ski Canada Readers’ Trip. by RON BETTS in the Fall 2018 issue When you’re climbing onto a […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes THE MONASHEES’ KINGFISHER HELISKIING AND KEEFER LAKE CATSKIING WILL PAMPER YOU IN POWDER. by RON BETTS    photos ROBERT SIM in the Winter 2018 issue One of the most remarkable things […]

Reading Time: 9 minutes Big things really started to happen when Vail Resorts teamed up Park City with The Canyons. by RON BETTS in the December 2017 issue   Until recently, my favourite landing was […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes At some point nearly all of us have fantasized about storming out of the office and leaving behind traffic jams and the grind of a 9-5 life. Well, the Canadian […]

Reading Time: < 1 minutes Baldy Mountain Resort, or simply “Baldy” to the residents of Oliver and Osoyoos in B.C.’s South Okanagan, is experiencing a rebirth this season. Founded in 1968, the ski area has […]

Reading Time: 7 minutes The guides at Mike Wiegele’s were happy to ride these plus-sized beauties. I spent 14 glorious years as a heli-guide in the most majestic ski terrain on the planet at […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes The Colorado Supreme Court in May ruled 5-2 that avalanches are an inherent risk of skiing. This ruling upheld the state’s Ski Safety Act that puts a $250,000 cap on […]

Reading Time: < 1 minutes Back in September when most Canadians were trying to cram in one last trip to the lake, there was one group who’d already started thinking about mountains. Many of the […]

Reading Time: 10 minutes Mike Wiegele’s heli-guides know a thing or two about testing fat skis. There’s an old fable by Aesop about the fox and the grapes. It goes something like this: A […]

Reading Time: 12 minutes LIKE THE NAME SAYS—AND BEYOND If you talk about the progression of skiing in the past 15 years, it’s impossible not to include Vancouver-born Shane McConkey’s name in the conversation. […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes If summer in Canada hits and you still haven’t had enough of the slippy, slidey, lefty, righty, then it might be time to start planning your ski trip to the […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes It seems every winter we hear about cases where people get trapped and sometimes suffocate in tree wells, the deep doughnut holes that form around the base of both big […]

Reading Time: 8 minutes The Guides at Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing know a thing or two about choosing a great ski for the deep.  WRITTEN BY RON BETTS, TEST EDITOR  *  PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN […]

Reading Time: 12 minutes LIKE THE NAME SAYS—AND BEYOND We’re all just a bunch of snow-hungry frothers—winter junkies who watch weather maps and plan important life events around the possibility of the big dump. […]