Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25241
Welcome to our annual snow issue. Inside, you'll find lots of trips to plan and gifts to get, as fall rurns to winter. Our annual SNOWfari resort listings offer the most up-to-date information, so you can make wise decisions about where to enjoy the chilly season's best crop: fresh powder! And this year for the first time, we've added the greatest mountains of Europe to our list. If you are like many of blue's North American-based readers, Europe may conj ure up certain associations: Maybe it's a place you visited in college on a Eurail pass; or the locale of your junior year abroad; maybe it's now a business travel destination. Because it's so close, geographically and culturally, Europe may not fuel your travel imagination as much as, say, the seas of Southeast Asia, the plains of East Africa or the jungles of the South American Amazon. Well, if that's our perspective, we are all missing something! Being as the global magazine that we are, we've decided to address this void. Europe is home to some of the world's greatest outdoor adven- tures. You can climb Mont Blanc, hike the Haute Route to the top of the Matterhorn, surf the sprawling beaches of Biarritz, ski and snowboard the Alps and much more. In this issue, we highlight the best ski and snowboard destinations on the near continent. To get the clearest vision of the unique mood of European snow, be sure to read Steven Koder's "The Mountain, the Devil and the Skier," an account of 15 years worth of skiing memories. In North America, driving from Colorado to Utah will lead you to different snow conditions. In Europe, traveling that same distance will lead you not only to diffe rent mountains but also to entirely different countries! You'll find distinct national cultures to define your mountain mood of choice. If snow is not your style, we haven't forgotten that North America's winter is South America's Austral summer-November means spring in Patagonia, and that's the perfect time for a southern hemi- sphere biking expedition. Ben Cramer can show you how, in "Patagonia con Bicicleta," where he explores the Lake District of Chile and Argentina. But before you jump on a plane heading South or East, check out blue's third annual Holiday Adventure Gift Guide, so you can leave knowing your gift list is taken care of. Fitting with a year of economic demise, we've organized our recommendations by price. There are plenty of ideas for any bud- get, and even some that cost nothing at all. (As they say, the best things in life are free.) Amy Schrier amy@bluemagazine.com