Locale

ACCURSED MOUNTAINS

An old, rickety farm tractor is weaving circles on the tarmac of the Podgorica Airport. It’s decorated with multicolor swirls and flames and some googly eyes spray-painted around the headlights. It appears to be lost, perhaps missing from a nearby parade. Then I see the wagon train full of suitcases trailing behind it and realize this […]

A Letter from Afghanistan

My name is Nazima Khairzad. I am 19 years old, and I am a skier. I was born in Afghanistan’s Bamyan Province, a year after the fall of the Taliban. Up until a few months ago, it was the only home I ever knew. That’s when they returned. That’s when everything changed. I’ve lived my whole […]

Bella Coola

Staring out a charter plane window at British Columbia’s Coast Mountains was equally reflective and surreal. Whistler was merely the gateway to these gnarled, snow-caked peaks stacking from saltwater all the way north to Alaska. Moving north, they commanded awe with powerful coastal glaciers and icefields of unimaginable scale. Even the access was rugged, with few […]

Terrace

Drag your Google Earth view from the very southern tip of mainland Alaska 50 miles due east, and you’d fly directly over the Kitimat and Skeena mountain ranges, home to some of northwest British Columbia’s most remote, rugged and expansive ski terrain. Zoom in a little further and you’ll find a Walmart, the only one for […]

Monashees

The sign at the bottom of the snow-covered dirt road had warned of active logging up here, but our radio wasn’t picking up the frequency. I hesitantly turned my truck uphill around each blind corner, ready to stuff it into the snowbank at a moment’s notice. I figured it was better than a head-on collision […]

Bulkley Valley, BC

Cameron and Chris Coppock and I were somewhere past a dozen hours into the 15-hour drive from Cameron’s home in Seattle to Smithers, BC. Sheets of rain peeled off the windshield as we gazed at distant clouded peaks. Nearing the small town that serves as the service and tourism hub for west central British Columbia’s […]

Aosta, Italy

The snow falls in a dense curtain, the kind that obliterates any view. Outside the cable car, mute tree forms alternately loom then pass like moon shadows, their details lost to dense snowfall and fogged plexiglass. It’s our first run of our first day at a ski area none of us has ever heard of, and […]

Raising Ogden Avalanche

He calls it the Tom Brady storm. Kory Davis is addressing a packed house at the Shooting Star Saloon, the kitschy beer bar in Huntsville, UT, famous for its burgers and a stuffed St. Bernard head mounted to the wall. He’s referencing the several feet of snow that fell in the Ogden area over Super Bowl […]

Ghosts of Mont Blanc

The crows circle overhead, peering at the breathing mass of Gore-Tex moving down one of the most iconic ridges in skiing. Those black birds have a story to tell, a story of changing mountains and a changing culture below. It’s April in Chamonix, the sun is out, and the Aiguille du Midi’s arete is packed with […]

Partying at the Killington World Cup

The swinging door of the bathroom muffled the chaos behind me. It was surprisingly quiet in there. Just me and one really, really drunk guy. He didn’t notice me at all and hummed loudly to an unsettling cover of Counting Crows’ “Mr. Jones” playing outside. He leaned toward the condensated wall at a 45-degree angle […]

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