It’s late June in Chamonix, France.The first golden rays of sunshine are coloring the verdant lower shelf of the Aiguilles Rouges. On the other side of the valley, glaciers flowing from the ice-encrusted summit of 15,780-foot Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Western Europe, remain...
In the lifecycle of a sport, snowboarding has hit its version of the midlife crisis years. The youthful exuberance and wild experimentation of the 1980s and ’90s is gone. The punk rock– and heavy metal–scored shred flicks sit like dusty, yellowed photo albums. It’s hard...
Cordial, articulate and adept at rocketing down icy mountains, Marco Sullivan was both a fan favorite and media darling throughout his 15-year World Cup career. Even his rivals enjoyed his company....
O Canada! Your natural charms are many, but perhaps none so staggeringly stunning as the steep, snow-covered summits belonging to Banff National Park. Established in 1885, not long after three Canadian Pacific Railway workers stumbled upon a series of natural hot springs, the 2,564-square-mile swath...
Cross-country ski areas are particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of winter. This is especially true for Tahoe Cross Country, which, at a relatively low elevation of 6,600 feet, needs cold winter storms to open its extensive network of trails above the North Shore of Lake...
A hiking hotspot in the summer, Tahoe’s prized wilderness area transforms into a serene backcountry paradise come winter I hook the tail of my climbing skin on my ski and toss it up on the snowbank next to the other one. “What time do you have...
An old logging road cuts deep into the Sierra, past towering conifers and prickly Christmas trees, their needles softened by a layer of fresh snow. The wooded passage leads past a “Bigfoot Crossing” sign—fittingly placed in this rugged, high-elevation landscape—and ends at a frozen lake...
A backcountry snowboarding adventure into the Great Western Divide Mileage smileage. This is one of those High Sierra adventures where it’s better not to know exactly how far we’re trying to go. Distances and elevations spinning in our heads might only distract from our confidence. The...
Few activities in life are as aesthetically soothing to the soul as skiing. Acknowledging bias, this is particularly true in Tahoe, where beauty prevails over a stunning landscape of snow, water, mountains and sky. It’s one of the reasons skiers move to Tahoe and never...
Framed by towering glacier-carved cliffs rising dramatically from its shoreline, Frog Lake holds its own among the Northern Sierra’s most rugged and picturesque alpine lakes. Despite its close proximity to Truckee, however, few have seen it up close. Set at 7,600 feet between Castle...