Skiing in the Land of the Midnight Sun

Christopher Solomon, New York Times
THE helipad was little more than a flat patch of snow roped off between some parked cars and the hotel. The chopper didn't inspire confidence, either: it was an ancient-looking craft, with a nearly 50-year-old fuselage and a crack in the bubble windshield. But this lawn dart, I was assured, was a gem — an Alouette III, the classic French mountain helicopter. After some perfunctory instruction by the mountain guide, we climbed aboard and belted in. Blades Cuisinarted the air. Seats shook. Two guys taking off their ski boots next to the helipad ducked for cover. Then we were hammering south into empty mountains.

When the helicopter shut down the rotor atop 5,209-foot Vouitasrita, the silence poured in to fill the void. Our mountain guide waved a pole south across a horizon of white breakers. "More or less everything you see here, we can heli-ski," he said — all the way to the Finland border, to the east. The summit of 6,926-foot Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest mountain, nosed for prominence on the southern horizon.

This was an April evening in the land of the midnight sun.

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Chamonix &mdash still the best ski experience in the world

by Roger Alton, The Independent No matter how you try to slice it this year, skiing is not going to be many people's idea of a bargain holiday - which is why it pays to look where you can get most bang for your buck. So, purely for research, I took a quick three-day pre-Christmas trip to the daddy of them all, Chamonix.

The snow was (and, I'm told, still is) fantastic, the weather pin-clear, cold and perfect. This is shaping up to be one of the best seasons ever. And the prices? Well, really not too bad, considering what you are getting.

It's easy to forget that in Chamonix, just an hour from Geneva, is the greatest accessible mountain range in the world. Having been there countless times - winter and summer - in the past four decades, I still experience a goose-bump thrill of seeing the Mont Blanc range as it swings into view on the Autoroute Blanche. Chamonix is without question the most complete skiing experience in the world, and this is why.

Up the valley from the town you have the rugged terrain and massive steeps and deeps of the Grands Montets in Argentière, the great ski- and climbing-bum capital of the world, and one of the most laid-back places to hang out. The skiing possibilities are almost infinite off the 3,275m Grands Montets, accessing the bowls of Levancher, the great open runs at the front - and the centrepiece, of course: the vast unpisted fields off the back of the top cable car where you have perfect views of the Argentiére glacier and the Col du Chardonnay. Here, come the spring, the haute routers zigzag their way up at the start of their epic trek to Zermatt.

The Berkshires for skiing, socializing and culture

by Alison Gregor, Newsday It seems counterintuitive: Go somewhere cold for vacation? But with air travel costs mounting while gasoline prices have plunged, it may be time to put that aging SUV to a use it was designed for and hit the road.

For Long Islanders, the destination could be the Berkshires in Massachusetts, where they'll find picturesque New England towns tucked among low, rolling mountains.

WHAT YOU'LL FIND

A short drive from New York City, the Berkshires are a mecca for nature- and culture-lovers in the warmer seasons, offering summer stock theater, classical concerts and Gilded Age mansions to tour. In the snowy winter months, the Berkshire region loses most of its tourists. Still, a surprising number of activities await travelers of all stripes.

THINGS TO DO

Sports lovers can partake of downhill skiing and snowboarding at four ski areas particularly well suited for neophytes. There are state parks and forest lands, along with numerous resorts offering trails for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Frozen beaver ponds and lakes call out to ice skaters, and snowmobiling is allowed in many Massachusetts state parks.

INDOOR PURSUITS

Those who shun the blustery outdoors in favor of a cheery tavern can mingle with locals on the Lenox inn tours and walks through the grand old homes of Stockbridge. The sprawling Red Lion Inn, with its antique furniture and china-filled public rooms, has a Colonial-style pub along with the Lion's Den tavern.

The Berkshires museums are open to visitors all winter long. In recent years, the Berkshires have become known as a region where travelers can retreat from the quotidian to focus on health and wellness. There are luxurious spas and the rather ascetic healing-arts experience at the 300-acre Kripalu Center.

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Oukaimeden: In Morocco, the ski's the limit

by Catherine Cooper, UK Telegraph

There is something surreal about putting on salopettes and a ski jacket in a riad in Marrakesh and stepping out into the sun-drenched passageways of the Medina lugging a ski-boot bag. We were leaving chic Riad Akka to make a day trip to the tiny ski resort of Oukaimeden, 45 miles south of the city in the Atlas Mountains.

Oukaimeden is Africa's highest ski resort, its village sitting at 2,600m and its chairlift rising to 3,258m - the peak of Jebel Attar. Five runs come down from this dizzying height; elsewhere are four drag lifts servicing the nursery and intermediate slopes.
It has all the facilities you find in a typical European resort - ski hire, ski school, restaurants and hotels - but all done in a Moroccan way. The ski hire shops offer reasonably well-maintained, if dated, skis and boots for around £11 a day - or you can take your chances with the many unofficial renters, whose "shops" consist of piles of 1980s skis and boots costing about £4 laid out in the mud. A lift pass costs £7; ski lessons range from £3 to £8 an hour and donkeys, rather than shuttle buses, wander back and forth between lifts.

The chairlift is ideal for those who are afraid of heights, as it is slow and you are never far from the ground. At the top, young men, all keen to offer their services as "moniteur", argued over who was going to accompany me down - for a price, of course. Eventually I agreed to a guide, as I couldn't see anything resembling a piste. There are a few signs pointing vaguely in various directions, but once you have left the top, the boundaries - such as they are - are not marked. The only piste map is a faded board at the bottom of the slope.