Snow

People cross-country ski all over the country. Even in New Jersey. But few are fortunate enough to have – at their ready disposal – scenery on anything close to the magnitude that we enjoy here in the northwest corner of these United States. These blessings should be counted. The destinations that radiate from the Mount Baker Highway are sufficient to …

Every adventurer and athlete has to deal with setbacks due to injury or illness. Whether it’s a head cold during a summit bid or an ankle sprain that sidelines you for weeks, it’s frustrating and difficult.  Freestyle skier and Olympic hopeful Angeli VanLaanen knows this all too well. She endured years of living with an undiagnosed case of Lyme disease …

Brown’s farm vanishes from sight as you turn left along the Methow River and disappear into trees and rolling hills.  The only sound is the crunch of perfectly groomed snow under your skate skis and the air rushing from your lungs as you glide over the Twalks-Foster suspension bridge on your way to exploring 120 miles of groomed trails that …

  Story and photos by John D’Onofrio   A blessing…and a curse. Here in the ragged northwest we are blessed with some of the most dramatic mountains in the world.  The peaks are sharp against the sky, wild fangs of rock and ice.  The weather has had its way with them and they are shaped and chiseled by its ferocity …

by JoAnn Roe     How often have you said, while shivering on a cold ski slope, “oh, well, I have thin skin from living in a warm place. I’ll get used to it.” True, your body does make changes to accommodate temperature and altitude, but not instantly. You need to be aware of how the body protects itself from …

Story & photos by Drew Lovell Some have said that the thirtieth year can be an auspicious time in a person’s life. A time when the confidence in one’s path is either affirmed or destroyed. A year when the need for discernment can arise within one’s consciousness. For me, it was a hard year, a good year, a tumultuous year. Witnessing death …

Story & photos by Abby Sussman My love for skiing began with a story. This was before I knew what it felt like to float on powder, before I stepped into free-heel bindings, before I knew what “off-piste” meant. My infatuation with finding the rhythm to link one turn with another began with a story given to me by an ex-boyfriend …

by Abby Sussman When I walk a trail, wander the silty perimeter of a river, or weave through a snow bound forest, I spend much of the time looking down. I’m not particularly clumsy, nearsighted, or interested in my boots. I am looking for animal tracks. The physical acts of observation: tenderly tip-toeing over the imprint of an elk’s passage, …