1 year (4 issues) for $20 + tax! Outside Canada is additional for postage.
From 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 few minutes’ walk from the Diavolezza cable car terminal, and within moments my two companions had been rendered into microdots by the vastness around us. … More »
From the Fall 2009 issue Hard times need not rule out high times. Even if you’re on a gap year, don’t write off that dream trip to the Alps just yet. True, even a less than luxurious hotel room can easily cost $500 to $1,000 in a top resort. But there are plenty of high-altitude, … More »
Skiers of all ages enjoy being overwhelmed by the legendary Swiss resort From Blackcomb to Zermatt, lots of people have skied on a glacier, but how many can say they’ve skied under one? Okay, so technically we didn’t actually “ski” so much as “slide our bums uncontrollably on the most frictionless surface we’ve ever encountered,” … More »
Nothing defines the European skiing experience better than staying a night in a high-altitude hut. Variously called cabanes, refuges, rifugi or hütte, these shelters on the snow are unparalleled anywhere else in the world. They are also a world unto themselves, where special rules apply and where only a certain type of person goes. I … More »
Pounding 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, stubby pink fingernails and an inane grin as he attempts to maintain balance with the help of twin beers and the shoulders of two virtually … More »
In the 1920s an impecunious Ernest Hemingway bummed around the Italian Dolomites, hitching rides on pre-dawn milk trains chugging up to high farms, using them as ski lifts. Only a decade ago, the tourist director of St. Anton in Austria told me, “We open our arms to ski bums.” And one who took him up … More »
Recent headline news in my local newspaper read: Swiss government is considering banning helicopter skiing across the nation. It wasn’t the first time such a measure was officially considered. Back in 2000 a group of “ecolos,” as environmentalists are dubbed in French, led by an organization called Pro Natura and backed by the WWF, proposed … More »
It’s that good in Bruson. There are only two chairlifts and two brutal T-bars. The groomed piste skiing is distinctly limited, easy enough for an intermediate to exhaust in an hour. But the off-piste excursions are epic in variety and, in my experience, unique in their ability to reinstill the elemental joy of skiing in … More »
Why travel all the way to Europe when Canada has some of the best skiing in the world? Well, you could ask any of the Canadians I wrote about last month why they left to settle with such satisfaction in the Alps. European skiing is more extensive and higher in altitude with more sophisticated ski … More »
Ursula, the helpful, effcient woman from the Swiss Tourist Board, was sitting across from us. “Have you thought about where you would like to go?” she asked me. “I’ve been thinking maybe Verbier.” She turned to my ski partner, writer and director Ken Finkleman (CBC’s The Newsroom). “And you?” Ken was leaning forward, running his … More »
From 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 few minutes’ walk from the Diavolezza cable car terminal, and within moments my two companions had been rendered into microdots by the vastness around us. … More »
From the Fall 2009 issue Hard times need not rule out high times. Even if you’re on a gap year, don’t write off that dream trip to the Alps just yet. True, even a less than luxurious hotel room can easily cost $500 to $1,000 in a top resort. But there are plenty of high-altitude, … More »
Skiers of all ages enjoy being overwhelmed by the legendary Swiss resort From Blackcomb to Zermatt, lots of people have skied on a glacier, but how many can say they’ve skied under one? Okay, so technically we didn’t actually “ski” so much as “slide our bums uncontrollably on the most frictionless surface we’ve ever encountered,” … More »
Nothing defines the European skiing experience better than staying a night in a high-altitude hut. Variously called cabanes, refuges, rifugi or hütte, these shelters on the snow are unparalleled anywhere else in the world. They are also a world unto themselves, where special rules apply and where only a certain type of person goes. I … More »
Pounding 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, stubby pink fingernails and an inane grin as he attempts to maintain balance with the help of twin beers and the shoulders of two virtually … More »
In the 1920s an impecunious Ernest Hemingway bummed around the Italian Dolomites, hitching rides on pre-dawn milk trains chugging up to high farms, using them as ski lifts. Only a decade ago, the tourist director of St. Anton in Austria told me, “We open our arms to ski bums.” And one who took him up … More »
Recent headline news in my local newspaper read: Swiss government is considering banning helicopter skiing across the nation. It wasn’t the first time such a measure was officially considered. Back in 2000 a group of “ecolos,” as environmentalists are dubbed in French, led by an organization called Pro Natura and backed by the WWF, proposed … More »
It’s that good in Bruson. There are only two chairlifts and two brutal T-bars. The groomed piste skiing is distinctly limited, easy enough for an intermediate to exhaust in an hour. But the off-piste excursions are epic in variety and, in my experience, unique in their ability to reinstill the elemental joy of skiing in … More »
Why travel all the way to Europe when Canada has some of the best skiing in the world? Well, you could ask any of the Canadians I wrote about last month why they left to settle with such satisfaction in the Alps. European skiing is more extensive and higher in altitude with more sophisticated ski … More »
Ursula, the helpful, effcient woman from the Swiss Tourist Board, was sitting across from us. “Have you thought about where you would like to go?” she asked me. “I’ve been thinking maybe Verbier.” She turned to my ski partner, writer and director Ken Finkleman (CBC’s The Newsroom). “And you?” Ken was leaning forward, running his … More »
1 year (4 issues) for $20 + tax! Outside Canada is additional for postage.