New Mexico ski fans can rejoice over a
new deal
being offered to skiers wanting free (well not quite free) reign over the state’s main ski areas. A
$225 card you can buy now will get you two lift
tickets at Angel Fire, Red River, Sandia Peak, Sipapu, Ski Apache, Ski Santa Fe, Taos Ski Valley and the Enchanted
Forest Cross Country Ski Area. That’s, um, let’s see … carry the three… um, 16 lift tickets in all. About $600 worth.
And it looks like there’s a little freshie falling there
now.
Ski the Glades, Dude
So, what exactly is glade skiing? I’d never even heard of this
skiing niche until this evening.
According to the
Concord Monitor, it essentially amounts to creating acres of within bounds “open slopes, studded with graceful
birch trees, with plenty of turning choices between.” The man credited with bringing glade skiing to the masses is Bill
Stenger, the president of Jay Peak in Vermont. His
idea was to create environments where the best powder could often be found: within the trees. He got his inspiration
from off trail skiers.
Other ski resorts in the Northeast caught on to how popular this form of skiing was becoming, according to the
article, creating their own ski glades as well. It has also caught on in other areas of the country.
Pacific Northwest: Land of Many Outdoor Adventures
If you live in Oregon or Washington, you probably already know you have a wealth of outdoor adventures to get the
old blood pumping. Just in case you lack ideas however, the Oregonian has a
nice list
of outside activities in 2005 to get you going. Suggestions range from snowmobiling at Diamond Lake
Resort in February to road biking the rim of Crater Lake in September and bird watching in the Baskett Slough National
Wildlife Refuge in November. As the author of the article puts it, “There’s no such thing as “down time” in the Pacific
Northwest.”
Moguls for Moguls
The rich get richer, and the poor, well, they’re not invited.
See, the rich really like to be among other like themselves. So they like to find places that are beautiful, with
gaping green spaces where you can ski and frolic and of course play golf…and then they like to buy everything up and
put a fence around it so that average joes can’t come in.
Or so things go in Big Sky, Montana where some of the nations richest people are buying up land like it’s gold rush
time so they can enjoy the solitude and exclusivity of the
Yellowstone
Club, an exclusive ski/golf resort. The rich are not without humor, of course. Apparently they won’t let Larry
Ellison join, which is quite funny. And then there’s the fact that one of the club’s 40 ski trails named is named
“EBITDA”. Those zany, wacky rich!
Who’s a member at this home away from other numerous homes?
Let’s see: News Corp. President Peter Chernin joined two years ago. Steven Burke, president of Comcast Corp.,
will break ground on a new home next spring. And Bill Gates, who apparently snowboards like a madman, owns the two lots
next to Burke’s.
So if you had several tens of millions to spare, you, too, could hobnob with the very wealthy, perhaps ride a chair
lift with Bill and be back in time for champagne showers and caviar.
Nat Geo: 3 Explorers/People to Watch in 2005
Who will be making the big break-throughs, the big accomplishments in the world of adventure next year? National
Geographic Adventure comes up with three
folks who they say are bound to impress. It’s an eclectic chioce, but here goes.
First is Norman Vaughan who, in December 2005, will celebrate his 100th birthday atop Antarctica’s 10,302-foot
(3,140-meter) Mount Vaughan (yes, named for him. He was with Admiral Byrd on the first American expedition to the South
Pole in 1928.) One hundred years old and dealing with crampons rather than cramps is indeed impressive.
Then there’s Allison Gannet who next fall, will climb Nepal’s 22,000-foot (6,707-meter) Gyaglen Peak, the site of the
first all-woman expedition to the Himalaya 50 years ago. OK, big time climber, that’s cool.
And finally (I suppose this counts as an adventurer…a little odd though…maybe he’s related to someone at Nat Geo)
there is Mark Oleson, a shoe designer and the brains behind the Adidas 1, a ground-breaking state-of-the-art shoe due
out next year. Shoe-designer…hmmm. OK, well let’s hope it’s a really great shoe.