Issue link: http://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25123
TEXT STEVEN KOTLER Africa 's in Whistler Village. The best place to gasp for 11 ,000 feet on top of Beartooth Pass, Wyoming. One port-a-potty, two poma lifts, a steep gash of snow, cornices to jump and a view that's not for t ile meek or the agoraphobic. The best powder that nobody notices: Anywhere in ftaly. For some unfathomable reason, Italians don't ski powder. It can dump five feet of freshie and they're still riding groomers. Don't ask, just go. r---'IWhen the cable car lets you off at the top of Aiguille di Midi, haffway to the peak of Mont Blanc in Chamonix, France, you pile out and proceed to walk along a knife-edge ridge with huge cliffs on both sides on a path that is usually sheer ice. Making matters worse, there 3,000 other people trying to make their way down the same path at the same time. Since this is Europe, no one really understands the concept of single file, no shoving. The scariest 70 feet of hiking that hundreds of people do every day: The hardest badge of honor to earn: Jackson Hole Air Force. to Jackson Hole, ski hard, take risks, break rules, keep your mouth shut. Do it all nter long and maybe someone wi ll walk up to you at the season's end with a little patch wear in an unobtrusive spot on your jacket. A skull and crossbones and three words: swift and deep. Welcome to the Jackson Hole Air Force. The best summer skiing for the serious adrenaline junky who can't afford to go to New Zealand: Mount Washington, NH. Every yahoo in the world wants to ski Tuckerman's Ravine, but the real fun begins in the super-narrow, super-steep chutes on the mountain's other side. They're only really acces- sible once the road opens (usually in early June) and they're not for the faint of heart-a bad turn here could be your last. The best place to feel like a beginner even if you've been riding for 20 years: Squaw Valley, USA, on a powder day. Don't even try to keep up. The locals have it dialed. They' re going to tear up all the good lines and they're going to be fast and slick and catch bigger air and do sicker tricks and whatever else you can think of. It 's quite a spectacle. Enjoy the leftovers and the scenery. Best bookstore ina ski town: May not matter much to you, but we think it's important. The Explorer Booksellers and Bistro in Aspen, CO. Good coffee, good chairs and more than 50,000 titles. Ski legend and blonde bombshell Ace McKay-Smith go-go dances there as does every man, woman and child who comes out at night to play. Plus, Whistler/Blackcomb has 7,000 acres of whup-ass, lift-served terrain-that's 3,000 more acres than the closest run- ner-up and the best terrain park on the continent, so there. Best place to push the envelope with the guy who practically invented pushmg the envelope: Dean Cummings runs H20 Heli-Adventures in the Chugach. He may be the greatest big-mountain skier in the world and knows those hills as well as anyone. Best mountain to be a skier: Taos, New Mexico. On a good snow year (which isn't every year in New Mexico) Taos is arguably the best ski mountain in the continental US and still no snowboarders are allowed. Best bump run for serious show-offs who want to give mohawk-clad Glen Plake a run for his money: High Line at Heavenly Valley. It's under the lift, the die-hards show up to do laps, and it's Plake's local moguls. Best runner-up bump runs: Jonny Mosley Run at Squaw or Blue Ox at Vail . Neither are under a lift, both are long as hell. Best place to get arrested for drunk driving: Highway 42 leading in and out of Aspen. After dark, the cops pullover anything that moves. Best little engine that could: Holiday Valley in Ellicotteville , NY. This is mecca if you're a snot-nosed midwestern kid yearning for serious vert. It d have much, but it beats the hell out of anything else around. And the locals (meaning a one who lives within 400 miles) can seriously rip. Best ski town full of unconfirmable ghost stories: Stowe, VT. Home of the phantom lift, the woman who drowned in the creek and a host of other tal you'll hear if you're either seriously unlucky or manage to ply the right local with drink. heli-skiing/heli-boarding in the world, according to big-wave Laird Hamilton: Wigley's in British Columbia: 3,000 square miles of mountain to choose from and a one-mile-Iong buffet of food eat from when you're done."