The Gradual Greening of Ski Country

No, I'm not referring to low snow in some mountain regions (notably the Alps and New England) for much of this winter (though I could be), and I'm not referring to the greenbacks that skiers and snowboarders leave at ski resorts (though I could be as well). I'm talking about the "green" movement that has swept across snow country as more and more enterprises that rely on white winters are responding to the global warming crisis.

In Switzerland, the resort of Andermatt began covering its Gurschen Glacier two summers ago with plastic sheeting to slow down melting. In the the US, Jiminy Peak, MA, has replaced four energy-gobbling air compressors used for snowmaking with two newer efficient models and is heating buildings with "waste heat" from those compressors -- and is planning to install its own wind turbine this summer. In Colorado, the Aspen Skiing Company has installed the ski industry's largest photovoltaic array, reducing its annual carbon dioxide emissions by 2.3 million pounds.

According to the National Ski Areas Association, 19 US ski areas are now offsetting 100 percent of their energy use by purchasing renewable energy. These are Alpine Meadows and Sugar Bowl, CA; Heavenly, CA/NV; Grand Targhee, WY; Okemo and Middlebury College Snow Bowl, VT; Mt. Ashland, OR; Shawnee Peak, ME; Mt. Sunapee, NH, and Aspen Highlands, Aspen Mountain, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Buttermilk, Crested Butte, Keystone, Snowmass, Vail Mountain and Wolf Creek, all in Colorado. All told, as of last October, these 19 resorts are purchasing 258,574,498 kWh of green energy, reportedly eliminating 309,383,234 pounds of CO2 emissions -- the equivalent of planting nearly 12 million trees or avoiding more than 120,000 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco.

Now, Destinations Resorts & Hotels, a group of ski country properties, has rolled out out what is believed to be the ski lodging industry’s first Green Guest program to support renewable energy. Lodging guests who purchase 10 or more Mini-Green Tags at $2 each receive a 10 percent discount off their lodging at one of five participating properties in Aspen, Telluride and Vail, including the Vail Cascade Resort & Spa, above right. Each property will also match the total number of Mini-Green Tags that guests purchase between March 1 and April 7, 2007 (or when the ski season ends) -- and presumably next season as well.

Each tag purchases 100 kilowatt-hours of new renewable, wind-generated electricity to offset the environmental effects of burning coal, gas and other fossil fuels. Destination Resorts figures that a typical spring vacation to Colorado usually entails four guests flying into Denver International Airport, renting a car and driving to the resort for a four-night stay, which translates between 23 Mini Green Tag equivalents for people arriving from nearby states to 123 Mini Green Tag equivalents for guests flying in from the East Coast. Each Mini Green Tag represents 100 kilowatt-hours of wind power entering the energy grid and creates a savings of 140 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. For details and reservations, call call 866-831-3222 or of go to the Destination Resorts' website.


What more can be done? There are four suggestions on my wish list. I wish that hotels would cut down on their night-time illumination -- miles of hallways lit 24/7, often still with incandescent lights -- and too many of them. (Many European hotels have on-demand hall lighting, either through sensors or switches near the elevators, stairs and room doors.) I wish that the housekeepers who do the nightly turndown service didn't turn on practically every lamp in my room -- and often the TV or radio as well. I wish I were confident that when I hang up my towel or put the little sign on my bed volunteering to reuse my linens, housekeepers honor that request and don't automatically send everything to laundry. I wish that in warm-weather resorts, the rooms were not air conditioned to the point of refrigeration. Everything I'm hearing about equals a good start, but there are certainly more steps -- large and small -- that ski resorts could take toward environmental responsibility.

Global Cell Phone Coming

What do you think of when you hear "National Geographic"? A magazine with a distinctive yellow border, fabulous photography and a global view on culture, history, archaeology, paleontology and the natural world? A legendary not-for-profit "society" that has underwritten breakthrough expeditions all over the world? Perhaps a travel company specializing in expedition-type trips? A series of television specials? A cell phone company?

You probably said "yes" to the first four and chuckled at the fifth. But the last laugh might be on you, because the renowned scientific and educational institution has teamed up with Cellular Abroad, a California-based company, to develop the National Geographic Tralk Abroad Travel Phone. With a launch planned in March, it is intended to function across boarders in more than 100 countries.

The phone is $199 to purchase. That includes free incoming calls in most countries and 30 minutes of free outgoing talk time, with additional minutes 90 cents per outgoing call minute. The phones can also be rented for $49 per week. A $79 SIM card is good 30 for minutes of free outgoing talk time. Other pluses are 24-hour, seven-day toll-free support, and no contracts to sign. Information is available at www.cellularabroad.com/travelphone and 800-287-5072.

Even though the phone and the service are not cheap, a high price is sometimes worthwhile -- and I say this as someone who has not yet succumbed to cell phonitis in this country. A year ago, I went to France on ski trip. The original plan was for everyone flying in from various North American gateways to meet at Charles de Gaulle Airport and take the high-speed TGV train to Lyon. I stupidly booked through Chicago, a regrettable mistake in winter. My flight was badly delayed, and by the time I arrived at CDG in Paris, went through passport control and retrieved my luggage, my companions were speeding toward Lyon.

I had the trip organizer's US cell phone number, and her phone service also worked in Europe -- or at least in France. My first task was getting some Euros, because I knew there would be a fee for changing my TGV reservation and I had very few Euros left over from my previous trip. There were long lines at all the change offices in the terminal, and the airport appeared to have one ATM. It's downstairs, next to the post office, if you ever need it.

I finally got a couple of hundred Euros from the slo-o-o-o-ow cash machine, rebooked my TGV ticket and had to call the organizer to tell her when I would be in Lyon. The good news is that I found several pay phones quickly. The bad news is that although one phone company's devices claimed to accept Visa and MasterCard, they didn't. All they would take was a French phone card. So off I went, looking for a magazine/candy/tobacco shop to buy a phone card. I returned to the pay phone and used my new French phone card to call her -- on a US number.

By that time, I had taken the bus from Boulder to Denver International Airport, flown to Chicago, changed terminals there, endured a long flight delay, flown overnight to Paris and seen much more of CDG that I really cared to. After a couple of hours on the train, I connected with the group in Lyon, which graciously waited for my arrival for the bus ride to Alpe d'Huez. That resort is known to Tour de France aficionados for the grueling 21-hairpin ascent of one of the most challenging mountain stages. I didn't pedal, but by the time I arrived there, I was pretty tired too. If one-call cell service had been available last year, and if I'd had the foresight to rent one, it would have been worth a $49 one-week fee.

The Call of Kilimanjaro

A bit over a year ago, my heart sank to my knees when I read the news about three Colorado trekkers killed and five people injured (three tourists, two Tanzanians) on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Among those injured was Jessica Post, a student at the University of Colorado. They were victims of a rock slide that hurtled down to their camp from the Western Breach, the upper route that my then almost-14-year-old son, a friend and I climbed in August 1996. (My husband, the most experienced climber among us, got nipped by the altitude at about 15,000 feet and did not attempt the summit.)

Jessica's femur was broken in the accident, and guide Sharif Bakari carried her down the mountain. A feature in today's Boulder Daily Camera reported on Jessica's recent return to summit Kilimanjaro with her father, who had also been with the 2006 party. The tragedy was underscored for me because I mentally and emotionally connected the 2006 father-daughter experience with our 1996 mother-son one. Bakari, who had not ascended Kili either since the accident, returned with Jessica and her father.

We hiked the Machame Route up the the south side of the mountain, starting at the Machame Gate into Kilimanjaro National Park. We slogged through the deep and muddy rainforest, camped at about 10,000 feet and continued through the magical "heather zone" to the Shira Plateau at about 12,500 feet, where we camped for two nights to acculimatize. We day-hiked along the stark and desolate plateau, where sturdy plants grew out of cracks in the lava, and marveled at the summits bracketing the vast plateau (Kibo Summit shown above). On the second to the last day, we ascended to Lava Tower at about 15,000 feet. There, we camped amid volcanic rocks and sand, where not even rugged high-altitude plants grow and where it gets really cold as soon as the sun sets, even though Kilimanjaro lies close to the equator.

The final pull up a rough trail threaded through the harrowing Western Breach was an arduous climb that began shortly after midnight. It is not a technical climb with ropes but very challenging nonetheless. We were fortunate to ascend under a full or nearly full moon. The scene was eerie and beautiful, as silver rays played on rock and small snowfields. We only needed our headlamps shortly before daybreak. "It's always darkest before the dawn" is an old saying that was true that evening. From our camp at Lava Tower to the summit to the Great West Notch, which we reached at daybreak, is some 3,000 vertical feet, give or take, and from there, it is another 400 or 500 feet to the Uhuru summit -- the roof of Africa at 19,340 feet above sea level.

Having scrambled up the Western Breach route, I was not surprised that there was a rockslide. Of course, I was shocked at the tragedy because a party happened to be camping below, but not really surprised that something slid, especially in view of the precipitous global warming over the last decade. When we were there, we stepped gingerly as we climbed the steep Western Breach route, mindful of loose rocks underfoot that we did not want to kick away and cautious that someone above might dislodge some. In fact, so dicey did we find the footing that I convinced our head guide, Daniel Fundi, to return via the Marangu Route -- the smoother "tourist route" -- and my son opted to come with me.

Climbing Kilimanjaro is one of the physically hardest things I have ever done and also one of the most satisfying. It was thrilling to share the experience with my son, and I was delighted to read that Jessica, her father and Sharif Bakari were able to return and triumph. While I vicariously celebrate their achievement, I also rue recent report that four bandits armed with AK-47 assault rifles recently held up five tourists in Ngorongoro Wildlife Park. The bandits, thought to be Somali, for a time kept the visitors captive and robbed them of cash, photographic equipment and other valuables. We visited Ngorongoro (also Serengeti National Park, Lake Manyara and Taranjire National Park) after our Kili climb. So did Jessica Post and her dad.

Havana, Here We Come -- Hopefully

A very few years ago, a friend who travels extensively in developing countries invited me to join her on a trip to Cuba. I was tempted, but the Bush administration's punitive attitude toward tourism to the Latin American outlyer to the "axis of evil" had me concerned. American tourists could be fined heavily ($15,000 sticks in my mind) upon their return to the US. There were, of course, ways around this charade which seemed to me mostly an effort to appease the hardliners among Miami's Cuban-American citizens, because after all, Bush's brother Jeb is Florida's governor. My friend went via Cancun, Mexico. Cuba did not stamp her passport. She had a fabulous experience. And of course, I regretted chickening out.

Now, there is hope on the horizon for normal travel to Cuba with the election of a Democratic-controlled Congress and with Cuban President Fidel Castro showing fraility after six-and-a-half decades in power. Things finally appear to be shifting. HR 654, submitted on January 24 by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel, states, "The President shall not regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or legal residents, or any of the transactions incident to such travel." It has reportedly gained bipartisan co-sponsorship from more than 60 Representatives, and a similar bill is to be considered by the Senate at the end of this month.

The limited travel currently permitted requires US travel agents booking trips to Cuba, to have a license as a “Travel Service Provider” -- and that seems to go just to organizers of medical or religious travel and trips for various other approved purposes. The new legislation, if approved, would also permit the use of US credit cards for travel to Cuba. It does not, however, lift the trade embargo, so don't expect to see Cuban cigars at US tobacconists in the near future.

America's obsessive blacklisting, blackballing and isolation of Cuba is a case of this country going it largely alone. Many countries (and most who count, economically) already have normal relations with Cuba. Their citizens happily vacation at resorts along the Cuban coast. American citizens who wish to do so take the risk of punishment by our government. Americans who want to travel there do so via Mexico, as my friend did, Canada or even Spain. The US public does seem to seems ready to resume normal relations with our neighbor to the south, with some two-thirds of Americans in favor of a major policy shift, according to CNN, Gallup and Associated Press polls. About half of all Cuban-Americans, painted by politicians with an agenda of continued isolation of Cuba, reportedly support ending all travel restrictions.

The Travel Committee on Cuba (TICC), a group of travel agents, lusts after the opening of a new tropical destination so close to American shores. No longer totally put off by government accusations of being unpatriotic, travel professionals now are talking about "direct contact between people," "understanding" and "goodwill." Most In truth, hordes of American tourists carrying American plastic and American greenbacks do more to "open" a country than any political posturing about "anti-Communism." Vietnam and even China prove that tourist and trade dollars are the most effective way of "opening" a country considered to be hostile.

JetBlue Passengers Sing the Blues

The New York Times reported on a colossal collapse of the flight plan of well-respected, award-winning, low-fare carrier, JetBlue, stranding passengers all over the route map. According to the Times, the airline's CEO David G. Neeleman, "said...that his company’s management was not strong enough. And he said the current crisis, which has led to about 1,000 canceled flights in five days, was the result of a shoestring communications system that left pilots and flight attendants in the dark, and an undersize reservation system...

"The crisis began Wednesday when an ice storm hit the Eastern United States. Most airlines responded by canceling more flights earlier, sending passengers home and resuming their schedules within a day or two. But JetBlue thought the weather would break and it would be ale to fly, keeping its revenue flowing and its customers happy.

"On the contrary, JetBlue’s woes dragged on day after day. On Saturday night, for instance, the airline said that the 23 percent of flights it had canceled on Saturday and Sunday would also be canceled Monday....Its systems to deal with the consequences of bad weather did not keep up with the growth, Mr. Neeleman said. The company’s low-cost operating structure may have been a contributing factor."

JetBlue is not the first airline to strand passengers because of weather or other factors, nor will it be the last. But given the carrier's high level of customer satisfaction, it seems particularly sensitive to the problem and has promised compensation.

Seeking (and Finding) Healthy Airport Food

A couple of weeks ago, I had a several-hour wait at Boise Airport (BOI). I left Tamarack Resort at 7:00 a.m. with a light box breakfast for the almost three-hour ride. I was booked on a late flight but hoped to get on an 11-something flight on standby. That flight was full, so I was booked on one leaving after 1:00 p.m. Even with the welcome diversion of free WiFi at the airport, I got hungry -- but I wanted to find a not-too-unhealthy light meal. The smoothie place on Concourse B had a salad and sandwich cooler, but I didn't care for the sandwiches and they were out of salads. I to ask at the pub next door whether there were any salads left in the kithen. I did and was told no. Not much looked appealing until I stumbled upon a Hyde Park Market & Deli, tucked into a corner adjacent to the food court, and ordered a veggie panini. It wasn't the best I've ever had, but it was better than than airport pizza, the fried stuff at the sports bar, the scary-sounding Maui Tacos or anything passed across the counter at Mickey D's.
People get into that pickle at airports all the time -- in fact, we have houseguests right now who endured more than a three-hour delay at Denver International Airport (DEN), I share with you the Denver Post's recent list of (relatively) healthy food in an article called "Eat Right on the Fly":

POUR LA FRANCE (Concourse B): Smoked Salmon and Bagel Plate, $9.50 consists of shaved smoked salmon is served with a toasted bagel, chive cream-cheese spread, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and capers. It's high in protein, low in fat and a good source of veggies if you eat them all.

WOLFGANG PUCK'S EXPRESS (Concourse B): Tortilla Soup, $5.35, offers tomato and broth-based soups like this one are low-fat and filling.

LEFTY'S MILE HIGH GRILLE (Concourses B and C): Veggie Burger, $7, unlike most veggie burgers that are made from frozen patties that resemble hockey pucks, this one's made from brown rice, onions and mushrooms. It tastes great and is easy to eat on the run. High in fiber and protein, it's a good choice for sustained energy.

McDONALD'S (all concourses): Fruit and Walnut Snack Size Salad, $2, makes a snack or mini-meal that is has 210 calories, is a good source of calcium and vitamin C, and adds just the right amount of healthy fat and flavor from the candied walnuts.

CHEF JIMMY'S BISTRO (Concourse A): Shrimp and Pasta Arrabiata, $10, is a low-fat dish tossed in a spicy marinara sauce and topped with fresh basil that does not taste like "airport food."

CANTINA GRILL (all concourses): Burrito Bowls or "Naked" Taco Salads, $7.50, can be ordered "naked" (without the tortilla shells) to big on calories. A deep-fried taco shell adds a whopping 400 calories and 25 grams of fat to a salad, while oversized tortillas are low in fat but contain 350 calories. Black beans, veggies and salsa make the bowls and salads healthy ways to satisfy a craving for Mexican.

The Post also printed a list of the U.S. airports with the largest selection of healthy and/or vegetarian fare, according to a recent study by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine:

1. Orlando
2. Detroit and San Francisco (tie)
3. Newark
4. Dallas/Fort Worth
5. Chicago/O'Hare
6. Denver
7. Philadelphia
8. Minneapols/St. Paul and Los Angeles International (tie)
9. Atlanta
10. Houston Intercontinental
11. Las Vegas

It means that Denver offers a relatively good selection of healthy food, but it certainly could do better.

Sun Valley Angling for Denver Nonstop Air Service

Eight representatives of Sun Valley, ID's business business, civic and political communities are coming to in Denver on February 27 to lobby Frontier Airlines, making a case for the carrier to inaugurate daily roundtrip service between Denver International Airport and nearby Hailey's Friedman Airport, according to Mountain Express, a twice-weekly newspaper serving the Wood River Valley.

Currently, SkyWest provides nonstop service from Los Angeles and Oakland, but anyone else flying to Sun Valley must connect in Salt Lake City via Horizon Air, an Alaska Airlines commuter partner. Another option is to fly to Boise and drive or take a bus or van for the 155-mile ride to Sun Valley. Denver, which is Frontier's home port and also a major United hub, would be the easternmost city with non-stop air service to Sun Valley.

This lobbying effort is a case of starting with marketing and web presence to grease the skids, or perhaps clear the runway, for such service. A new not-for-profit business group called the Sun Valley Alliance is prepared promote such service to the tune of $400,000. It also plans to launch a website, www.FlyToSunValley.com, to create a web presence for service from fast-growing Frontier. It is DIA's second-largest carrier, currently flying to 49 destinations (Memphis is the latest) and has ordered a new fleet of 70-passenger Bombardier Q400 turboprops (above), the type that Horizon is using.

Do I Ski? Do I!

Left, Lindsay Kildow of Vail, blazing to a silver medal in the downhill at Are, Sweden, in a U.S. Ski Team photograph. At right, Claire Walter, your faithful blogger, carving down a groomed run at Tamarack, ID, in a photo taken 10 days ago by resort photographer Sherri Harkin.



I am amazed when people ask whether I ski -- or worse, whether I still ski. I always reply that writing about skiing is not like covering, say, Major League Baseball, NHL hockey, NBA basketball or NFL football. While skiing can be a spectator sport (the World Alpine Champsionships, for instance, are taking place right now in Are, Sweden), skiing is mostly a participant activity like golf or tennis. The people who most enjoy watching it also ski.

Early in my career I was a magazine editor, including two years as managing editor of Ski Business and Ski Area Management, trade publications put out by the company that then owned Ski magazine. Then, I was managing editor of Ski for another two years, before veering off into the realm of public relations (handling ski accounts for a small New York agency) and then as a sales promotion writer for one of my clients, Swissair. When I left the airline and started freelancing, I think during the administration of Calvin Coolidge, it was only natural that I started writing about skiing. It continues to be a major topic of my writing as well as one of my gret pleasures.

As a skier and a ski journalist, I have chased snow around the world. I have skied all over the US snowbelt from Maine to Alaska, Canada, South America, New Zealand and even China. But my beat is mostly the Rocky Mountains, whose mountains I've explored from southern New Mexico to northern Alberta. Most recently, I visited Tamarack, ID, and posted a report and a few images on this blog. The small black-clad figure standing next to the large snowcat is me, but I'm just standing.

For my ski writer colleagues, quitting skiing until very old age, infirmity or illness make it impossible is unthinkable. When I was living in New York and working for Ski, I joined the Eastern Ski Writers Association, a regional component of the North American SnowSports Journalists Association, and I was "the kid." Among some members of ESWA who are on the far side of 80 and still tearing up the slopes, and when I'm with them, I'm still a kid. I love it!

New Operator for the Grand Canyon Railway

Early in the 20th century, rail travel was the primary (and most comfortable) mode of transportation in the West, and for a new generation of travelers, it was the preferred way to see the grand sights. As part of this way of touristic life, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company inaugurated steam-train service to the canyon on September 17, 1901. Millions of travelers followed, including five presidents, numerous foreign dignitaries, movie stars and artists, often staying in the elegant El Tovar Hotel on the South Rim to gaze, paint, photograph and simply contemplate this most dramatic of natural wonders. But in 1968, with most travelers having been seduced by automobile travel, passenger service was discontinued because people preferred to drive.

Much to their credit, Max and Thelma Bigert revived the line, starting service again on September 17, 1989, precisely 88 years after its inaugural passenger run. They like to say that they put the train back on track. Last May, I reached the Canyon by road but left via the Grand Canyon Railway, a delightful ride that lasted 2 1/2 hours but took me and my fellow passengers way back into the last century with entertainment enhancements from this one. We rode through the forest with live entertainment in each car (left), a staged train robbery and terrific tales, tall and otherwise, spun by conductors in old-style uniforms. We detrained in Williams, an interesting little town along Historic Route 66.

The Bigerts are bowing out, but the show will go on. They put the railroad up for sale last year. A letter of intent transferring the railroad to Xanterra Parks & Resorts, the nation's largest national parks concessionaire, was soon signed. By late March, assuming the National Park Service approves, Xanterra should be operating the train. Under the Bigerts the Grand Canyon Railway has been operating daily service between Williams and Grand Canyon National Park, summer and winter. It has been welcoming more than 220,000 passengers a year, and the Bigerts' operation also includes the the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, an RV park, a restaurant and several real estate parcels, all in Williams. The amount of the bid was not disclosed.

Xanterra runs lodges, restaurants and other concessions at national parks, including Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Crater Lake, Death Valley and Petrified Forest national parks, as well as state parks in South Dakota and Ohio. This will be its venture into running a railroad, but the company has a fine record of maintaining and restoring historic properties, including the recent and respectful rehabilitation of Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone National Park.

In peak season, the most visited national parks, including Grand Canyon, have been grappling with ways to lessen traffic and pollution from auto emissions by limiting vehicule access and ooperating in-park shuttle systems. Accommodating private vehicles has required, in the words of the song, paving paradise and putting in parking lots. It stands to reason that more train travel into Grand Canyon National Park means fewer cars and fewer parking lots -- and therefore another step toward the preservaion of paradise. As for emissions, I can't begin to comment on whether a steam or diesel locomotive transporting a set number of passengers is more or less polluting than the same number in private cars, RVs, pickup trucks, SUVs and tourist motocoaches, but I will say that everything else aside, a ride on this classic train has nostalgia value in its own right. I recommend it.

SGSG = Seriously Great Snow Grooming

Sun Valley, Idaho, was the first purpose-built ski resort in the United States. It opened in 1936. I'm now at Tamarack, the most recent purpose-built resort in the United States. It opened in 2004. Both are located in southern Idaho.

The contrast between these resorts in their infancy is a study in elevated expectations. Sun Valley was 1930s luxury -- a posh lodge, a huge outdoor heated pool, one chairlift, movie star guests, exotic imported Austrian ski instructors. Tamarack is 21st-century luxury -- one lodge and 60 cozy cottages (the super-luxe Fairmont Tamarack is under construction), an outdoor heated pool and private hot tubs behind each cottage, three high-speed quad chairlifts and four other lifts, sports star guests (Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf are behind the Fairmont project), home-grown ski and snowboard instructors. (OK, not just sports stars, but also George and Laura Bush (probably because Idaho remains the most reliably red state in the Union, and that's probably where the president felt most welcome) and pop idols Hilary and Hailey Duff (famous for being famous, I suppose).

I wasn't there to spot stars (although Agassi was snowboarding at Tamarack while I was on two boards) but rather to ski. Neither Sun Valley nor Tamarack has had new snow in a while (January 9 is the date I heard), but it is a testimonial to Tamarack that the skiing is fabulous. There is no powder, of course, but the snowcats are prowling the slopes every night, turning the old snow into superlative corduroy that invites high-speed cruising (above right). I'm awestruck by their mastery of manicuring the mountain.

Tamarack is developing into a full resort that also offers cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling and back-country ski access via snowcat , but the crust over dust doesn't make for the best ski experience. A group of us rode out by cat to Lone Tree Mountain, part of the 5,000 acres of backcountry terrain adjacent to the lift-served area. Head guide David Williams wasn't enthusiastic about the conditions after so much time without snow, so we took in the view but bagged the idea of skiing the ungroomed. This was no real sacrifice because the groomers have been so very good. It has been extremely cold (below zero every night and safely in the freezing zone every day), so nothing is melting -- and cover is still good.

I skied one day at nearby Brundage Mountain, a classic, family-friendly ski area that has ambitions to upgrade and expand, perhaps to keep up with the Tamarack Joneses. They also have groomed their old snow to fine skiability, and even on a Friday when local schools were having their ski day, there were no lines. I am told, however, that the ski area draws a good crowd on weekends, because it's a favorite of skiers and snowboarders from Boise -- normally two to two-and-a-half hours to the south, depending on traffic and road conditions.

Snow is forecast for tomorrow (Sunday). Guess when I'm leaving. Right. Tomorrow (Sunday). Of course, I'd love to be here for the powder, but I can't complain about the conditions or the sunshine and scenery.

Virtual Travel

A friend just alerted to a delicious blog called the Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus and its "Language Lounge," which describes itself as "A Monthly Column for Word Lovers." The topic of the latest Lounge is 'Paper Wanderlust.' It is an ode to great travel writing in classic books.

"Good travel writing is in many ways superior to actual travel; you get the benefit of fascinating or exotic experience without hassle, expense, hefty carbon footprint, and inevitable nasty surprises, " wrote columnist Orin Hargraves. "A good travel writer is often superior to an actual travel companion: you get refined sensibility, creative perception, and thoughtfully digested experience without belches, snores, and adventitious prima donna outbursts. But the really great thing about travel writing is that it is a portrait, drawn only with words, of a place you can never go yourself: places changes irrevocably."

I can't pretend that I am in the league of the erudite, intellectual travel scribes mentioned in the column -- Robert Cunninghame-Graham, Sybille Bedford, Moritz Thomsen, all of whom sound very British, but none of whom I recall ever reading and barely hearing of -- but I love Hargraves' premise that reading is in may ways superior to the experience. I, as a travel writer, hope that if nothing else, my observtions, experiences and advice ocasionally improve readers' own travel experiences.