Exploring the Canadian Rockies on Cross Country Skis

by Kraig Becker on

Stretching into Alberta and British Columbia, the Canadian Rockies form the backdrop for one of the best settings for winter outdoor adventure in North America, if not the world. The region can be explored by sled dog or on snowshoes, and offers some of the best skiing, both downhill and cross country, anywhere.

With that in mind, outdoor enthusiast and writer Peter Potterfield recently made the trek up north to take in the amazing terrain and sample the best Canadian lodges in the area as well. He wrote about his expedition over at GreatOutdoors.com, sharing all the details of his mid-February cross country ski trip across miles of backcountry trails.

The trip begins with a flight into Calgary, followed by a quick one-hour drive to the mountains and the Num-TiJah Lodge, the first of five that Potterfield would visit on his journey. Over the course of the next few days, he spent the daylight hours exploring the trails, which range in difficulty from relaxed and easy to challenging and strenuous, depending on the chosen route. Evenings are spent in comfortable accomidations, sipping wine and dining on fine cuisine, with the beautiful, remote scenery just outside the window.

The article has all the details on how to get to the area, including links to all the lodges as well. There is also information on what equipment to bring or rent while you there, as the varying conditions allow for the use of a wide variety of winter gear.

Winter isn’t over for a few more weeks, and the skiing up north should be great for well into the spring. If you’re looking for a remote getaway for some backcountry skiing, the Canadian Rockies will offer everything you need.

Is a “Passenger Bill of Rights” the answer to bad airline behavior?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

There’s no denying the recent string of high-profile episodes of airlines mistreating their customers– whether it’s forcing passengers to spend nine hours in a grounded plane, booting off beautiful girls for their revealing clothes (the nerve!), or inadvertently boarding an 83-year-old woman on a flight to Puerto Rico instead of her actual destination, New York.

After every such incident, it seems someone writes a blog post or an op-ed about how a “Passenger Bill of Rights” would prevent similar misbehavior in the future. But would it?

Not according to George Petsikas, the president of Canada’s National Airlines Council. He says that enacting a such a law would cause airfares to skyrocket since under Canada’s version of the Bill of Rights, airlines would be fined for, among other things, leaving passengers in the plane on the tarmac for over one hour ($500 per person per hour), as well as failing to notify passengers of delays in a timely manner ($1,000 per instance).

Although I am loath to agree with the spokesman for the big, bad, evil airlines, it does seem as if the proposed fines are excessive, and that these costs would merely be passed on to the consumers. I have no doubt that, when airlines “strand” people on the runways for ninety minutes waiting for take-off, they’re actually doing their best to get the plane in the air. Sitting on the tarmac for an extended period of time is inconvenient, frustrating, and uncomfortable, but it is also usually not the airline’s fault. (Nine hours is another story altogether.)

What is needed is not governmental micro-management of the airlines– fifty minutes on the tarmac is okay, but sixty minutes is not– but rather a minimal set of standards of behavior which airlines must live up to. For example, an airline may not allow passengers to wait on the tarmac for over three hours. An airline may not bump a passenger from a flight without offering them reasonable compensation.

When you start fining airlines for every little offense, they will simply raise ticket prices. In effect, we’ll be taking money out of our left pockets to buy the airline tickets, and putting it into our right pockets to compensate ourselves for the airline’s misbehavior.

The friendliest expat countries

by Brenda Yun on

I’m not a big fan of lists, so please don’t be surprised at my dismay with Forbes.com’s newest attempt to show how Western countries are full of the friendliest people on earth. In its latest “Top Ten” list, David Sutton identifies what he believes to be the world’s friendliest expat countries. The top three on his list: Canada, Germany, and Australia.

Please don’t get me wrong. I think these countries are wonderful, and they clearly offer great working opportunities for people who hope to live abroad. However, I noticed a few unfortunate gaps in the list — the biggest of which are Indonesia and Costa Rica. I believe these countries are full of happy and friendly expats. The article’s obvious third world country oversights are dismissed by claiming that “cultural differences from the West [makes] integration difficult.”
I would argue that the real issue here is that businessmen living abroad don’t bother to integrate and adapt to their environments. It should certainly not be the host country’s fault that it is a third world country and therefore unable to accommodate for a rich expat. As always, lists like these could create unnecessary fear in travelers and continue to widen the gap between privileged and unprivileged nations rather than bring people together and teach us how much can be learned about cultures unlike our own.

20 Great Mountain Huts

by Kraig Becker on

Looking for a great mountain lodge to book for you next ski vacation? Something that affords stunning views with limited crowds and great access to the backcountry? Then look no further than this list created by Eric Kendall for The Guardian.

The list is broken down into subcategories, such as “Gourmet/Luxury”, “Easy Access”, and “Glorious Isolation”. There are even suggestions for non-skiers who would still like to play in the snow. The vast majority of these lodges are found in Europe, although Canada and New Zealand are represented as well.

The mountain huts in the luxury category offer all the upscale amenities that you would expect, including gourmet restaurants, hot tubs, and private ski instructors. For example, the Rifugio Fanes in Italy, offers luxury beds, hot showers, and unrivaled skiing in the Dolomites.

On the other end of the spectrum are the lodges that specialize in isolation, which require a little more work to get to, but reward visitors with untouched powder and a hut all to themselves. The Club Alpino, also in Italy, is the perfect example of this type of lodge. It is the highest hut in the Allps, sitting at 4554m (14,940 feet) and requiriing a bit of acclimization before visitors settle in.

Winter is not over yet, and there is still plenty of great skiing to be had. So pack up your gear, wax the skis and head to any one of these great mountain huts to enjoy some of the best skiing on the planet, while relaxing in equally impressive settings.

Tour the world’s vandalism

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Eyesore or art, graffiti is part of any culture’s public dialogue. Vandalism is visual profanity, and we all swear in our own f—ing ways. I’ve been drawn to these wall scrawls for a while, probably since I read Holden Caulfield‘s concerns about the subject in Catcher in the Rye. My fascination gained momentum while I was stationed in South Korea.

A soldiers’ bar in Tong Du Chon (the Peace Club, which is no longer there) was littered with attempted wit. “I used to believe in the common decency of main,” one drunken soldier-scholar printed at eye level. Another replied, “I still do.” Eight hours into a soju-induced haze, this stuff is profound.

Along the way, I’ve become a connoisseur of this crime, though only as an observer. I have seen social commentary and even debate. And, there’s even been a bit of meaningless paint spilled in the vain hope of making a point. I’ve soaked it all in and hit a few readers up for their tips, as well.

So, let’s take a tour of some of my favorite acts of defacement. Some reflect careful planning and show artistic talent. Others offer nothing more than layers upon layers of cries for attention and assertions of self-importance.In Iceland, I read in the local English language newspaper, the Reykjavik Grapevine, that an outbreak of graffiti was the result of building vacancies triggered by the weakened economy (and this was back in June). This was supported by the observations of the walking tour’s prophetic viking. Hell, the wall says it all.

The Parisians waxed political on the walls of metro stations. I was in town for the hotly contested presidential election of May 2007, and the ultimate winner, Nicolas Sarkozy, took a beating in the vandals’ press. This is nothing compared to the scratched-out eyes on campaign posters, though.

Translation: Sarko = Bush = Berlusconi = Shit. The tagger lumps the president of France with the now former president of the United States and the hotheaded former president of Italy … not to mention a steaming pile. Politics took center stage in Tallinn, Estonia, as well. Thankfully, the vandals worked in English, making it easy for me to take a stab at recreating the crime.

From what I could see, this is something of a public discussion. First, it seems, a disgruntled “activist” wrote “Fuck Fascism!” And, I have to admit, it’s hard to disagree with that. Next, a second person probably popped “anti” in front of fascism, before a third joined the spray-painted conversation by crossing out “fuck.” A fourth crossed out “anti,” and we’re left with fascism. But, the entire discourse supports the original position.

At least, that’s how I’d imagine the entire process unfolding.

The most compelling, however, was in Quebec. I found it fascinating that the retort to an assertion of independence was proffered in English.

Of course, my neighbors are far from innocent. Here on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, we seem to be waging a war on body image. Custo Barcelona, an upscale fashion retailer, has ads on the corner of W. 71st St. and Columbus Ave. The models, wearing about as much body fat as they are clothing, glare at me every time I walk to Gray’s Papaya for a hot dog, as if holding me in contempt for my substandard diet. Someone (not me, I promise) decided to comment.

Hey, New Yorkers can be brutal, even in my quiet, peace-loving corner of the city. This is but one example of how the poor Custo models, have suffered, though. Check out the photo gallery below to get a sense of how Upper West Siders feel about this bit of eye candy.

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And, this is just a taste of what I have collected. Take a look at the next photo gallery to see what our readers have submitted. Fortunately, their collections are a bit more high-minded than mine. The stories with each photos are in the readers’ own words (with some slight editing).

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