The Chicago Tribune has an excellent post on what a back country skiing trip is like. Definitely worth the read.

For the past six days, as we’d skied thousands of vertical feet in often untracked powder, we hadn’t seen a single motor-driven chairlift. In truth, we had more in common with cross-country skiers, but we fancied ourselves as mountaineers. Some of us even used leather boots, which looked like throwbacks to the 1950s.

When we wanted a 2,000-foot descent, we slapped on our climbing skins–known in the vernacular as “backcountry ski lifts”–adjusted our packs and trudged right up the side of the mountains. Then we skied down.

Snowboarding is revitalizing the ski-ing industry, much to the dismay of the old line skiers. The art of snowboarding is attractive and thrilling to the youth, and resorts are starting to develop resources to cater to this market. USA Today has a list of the  Top 10 Snowboarding Resorts.

• Jackson Hole Mountain Resort ,Teton Village, Wyo.
  888-333-7766; jacksonhole.com
• Tamarack Resort, Donnelly, Idaho
  “877-826-7376; tamarackidaho.com
• Moonlight Basin, Big Sky, Mont.
   877-822-0430; moonlightbasin.com
• June Mountain, North of Mammoth Lakes, Calif.
  888-586-3686; junemountain.com
• Mt. Baker Ski Resort, Bellingham, Wash.
  360-734-6771; mtbaker.us
• Bardonecchia, Bardonecchia, Italy
   bardonecchiaski.com
• Aspen/Snowmass Ski Resort, Aspen, Colo.
  800-525-6200 aspensnowmass.com
• Mountain Creek Resort, Vernon, N.J.
  973-827-2000; mountaincreek.com
• Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort, Whistler, British Columbia
  “866-218-9690; whistlerblackcomb.com
• Park City Mountain Resort, Park City, Utah
  800-222-7275; parkcitymountain.com

via USATODAY.com

Snowkiting  is the newest snow sport for the extreme athlete. It takes the need for a mountain out of the equation for the hard core skier, and allows people to have the thrill of skiing across the country.

Some on skis, others on snowboards - all 100 or so devotees who had come here to Sanpete County, Utah - were propelled by giant multicolored kites. And none of them were about to let a little weather get in the way of winter’s newest extreme sport.
“It’s an addiction,” said Salvador Jeronimo of Salt Lake City. “I’ll be out here till it’s dark.”
Snowkiters, they call themselves. They can cross plains and ascend and descend steep hills. They can plod at a jogger’s pace or accelerate to 50 miles an hour or better, depending on the kite’s size and the wind. They can go upwind or downwind, jump almost 100 feet in the air, slip in a spread eagle, land with a pirouette and then carry on.
The sport has dispensed with the need for gravity - and the ski-lift ticket for that matter - creating what may be winter’s ultimate free ride.
To promote snowkiting, several organizations are holding free clinics this winter throughout snow country. The sessions include instruction, the use of small training kites and demonstrations by some of the veterans - as much as anyone can be called a veteran of something just a half-dozen years old. New York Times.

Snowkiting at Wikipedia

USA Today has a story on the top 10 Ski experiences that must be accomplished if you are a die hard skier. Here are the highlights.

• Jackson Hole  – With the highest vertical drop of any U.S. mountain, and seemingly endless black and double-black expert terrain, Jackson Hole lives up to its nickname, “The Big One.” Among expert skiers, its famous aerial tram has become an icon of the sport, representing the only motorized way to get to the hardest marked trails in U.S. skiing — the infamous Corbett’s Couloir, an elevator shaft of a trail which requires a literal leap of faith to enter, and the equally daunting Hobacks.
• Brekenridge – The much-anticipated Imperial Express Super Chair, a high-speed quad, reaches an elevation of 12,840 feet atop Breckenridge’s Peak 8 and accesses a whopping 400-acres of Breckenridge’s best intermediate and expert terrain. Much of this is double-black diamond runs that have long been the sole province of in-the-know locals willing to undertake the 45-minute hike previously required to reach the summit. The new lift takes two and a half minutes.
• Beaver Creek – You won’t find the ultimate in luxury ski lodging at the Four Seasons, or the Ritz Carlton or the Little Nell. For those with deep pockets who love deep powder, the ultimate experience is having the entire mountain to yourself, and that is exactly what you get at Trappers Cabin, the Game Creek Club Chalet and Tempter House. Trappers Cabin, on top of the Beaver Creek resort, redefines “roughing it.”
• Vail – At Vail, the chic 4-bedroom Game Creek Club Chalet sits next to the exclusive Game Creek Club restaurant at over 10,000 feet. Here the bellman takes you to your room by Sno-cat, and the Club’s chef pops by to prepare your private dinner and breakfast. In the morning, your private instructor for the day shows up at the door ($2800 for the whole property).
• The Ski Utah Interconnect Adventure Tour  – is a guided backcountry excursion for advanced skiers that links in-bounds trails at Deer Valley, Park City Mountain Resort, Snowbird, Solitude, Brighton and Alta with out-of-bounds connections between the mountains. There are no shuttles, just you and your regular alpine gear. This adventure guarantees great skiing, incredible views and a day you won’t soon forget. The tours operate daily from early December through late April, weather and conditions permitting, are led by professional backcountry guides and are open to advanced skiers in good physical condition.

After a early winter with very little snow, the Tahoe ski season is now in an ideal state. The resort area has been busy improving this summer and is now ready for a banner year.

Only Boreal managed an official opening over the Thanksgiving holiday, but all the major resorts were set to have at least a few lifts humming by this weekend. It may take a few weeks before top-to-bottom coverage is achieved, but it’s high time to wax your boards, adjust your bindings and get the roof rack installed.

This year’s Tahoe season brings another round of capital improvements that for the past decade have been lifting the region from its longtime status as a winter playground for Northern Californians to a destination with national and international appeal.

“The capital improvements the resorts have made - the new villages and the amount of visibility they’re receiving - are starting to pay off in that respect,” says John Wagnon, vice president of marketing for Heavenly Mountain Resort and president of Ski Lake Tahoe, a multiresort marketing association.

The Sacremento Bee has a great round up on all the improvements at these resorts: Heavenly Mountain Resort, Alpine Meadows, Boreal Mountain Resort, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, Sugar, Squaw Valley USA, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Northstar-at-Tahoe, Soda Springs, Homewood Mountain Resort ,Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe, Granlibakken, Diamond Peak, Tahoe Donner, and the Donner Ski Ranch.

With the fear of higher fuel prices affecting travel for the ski industry, the ski season should be a good one according to industry experts.

Lake Tahoe is looking at much higher bookings, as are Crystal Mountain which is benefitting from 3 feet of early snow. Sugerloaf in Maine also had 40 inches of snow before Halloween.

And so far, there’s no evidence that higher gasoline costs will keep skiers away. Some smaller resorts think they may even benefit from high prices at the pump by drawing local skiers who might otherwise drive to bigger mountains elsewhere.

…

 Bookings at major western ski resorts were up 6.6% from where they were Sept. 30 of last year, according to the Mountain Travel Research Project, which tracks the ski industry.

In some areas, such as Lake Tahoe, Calif., bookings are expected to rise sharply. The Lake Tahoe Visitor’s Authority predicts an 18% increase in the number of nights booked in local hotels this winter.

And nationally, the trend is positive, with records set in tickets sold by the ski industry in four out of the last five winter seasons in terms of numbers of tickets sold, says the National Ski Areas Association.

The outlook was similar elsewhere in New England as well as other regions of the country. Heather Atwell of the Vermont Ski Areas Association said that based on early bookings, “they’re still fairly certain people are still going to come.” via USA Today

During the winter months, Vail is the place for the glitterati, where Kate Moss and Tom Cruise rub shoulders, as Donald Trump and Martha Stewart make deals in the chalets. However, there are many things to do in this mountain side city, beyond pounding down the slopes dodging snowboarders.

The Los Angeles Times has 5 things to do in Vail in the off season:

1 Shop. The village teems with galleries, jewelry shops and specialty stores such as the Swedish Clog Cabin and Scotch of the Rockies, which features dog-themed gifts and jewelry. On the final weekend in October, the Vail Ski and Snowboard Club holds its annual Ski Swap sale of new and used equipment from individuals and vendors looking to pare down last year’s inventory.

2 Park it. No cars are allowed in the center of quaint Bavarian-style Vail, but there’s free parking in a massive garage. Detractors call the village more a theme park than a civic center, but hey, parking at Disneyland costs $10.

(more…)

From Money Magazine comes the some of the top places to vacation that have everything but the crowds.

NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - If you go skiing in Vail this winter, you’ll find more than 100 trails of deep white powder and cozy mountainside lodges. If you go skiing in Big Sky, Mont., you’ll also find more than 100 trails of deep white powder and cozy mountainside lodges.

The difference? Vail gets roughly 1.5 million visitors a year. Big Sky? Around a fifth of that.

For every popular locale that attracts tourists in droves, there’s another location that has much of the same, minus the maddening crowds (and the higher prices that popular destinations charge during their peak season).

The destination highlighted are as follows:

Instead of Vail…try skiing Big Sky, Montana
Instead of Pebble Beach…golf Kiawah Island, S.C.
Instead of St. Thomas…sunbathe in Mustique
Instead of Las Vegas…visit Las Vegas in the off-season