SNOW Magazine Winter 2017 2018

S K I I N G & S C H N A P P S : A D V E N T U R E I N A U S T R I A’ S V O R A R L B E R G

LES ÉTOILES DE COURCHEVEL KLAUS EVERLASTING POP SNOW CULTURE

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WINTER 17/18

CONTENTS 80 VOR ARLBERG

Powder-packed adventure in Austria’s snowy Vorarlberg region, land of schnapps, steeples, and the simple beauty of skiing.

8 6 P O P S N O W C U LT U R E

Bond, Redford, Suzy Chapstick, and the Lange girls all embodied the sex-infused allure of skiing.

Cigarette ads and Hollywood films shot on the slopes carried a new cachet as the glamorous love affair between popular culture and skiing went public.

92 KL AUS EVERL ASTING

Aikido. The Powder Rule. Laps on Tiehack. From fleeing the Nazis to sleeping in Warren Miller’s car to his top-of-the-line ski wear designs, Klaus’ story amazes. Who doesn’t want to Be Like Klaus?

98 INS TA-GL A M

See it. Share it. Like it. LOVE IT. Winter’s INSTA-GLAM-worthy ski fashion is as hot as social networking.

114 L E S É T O I L E S D E C O U R C H E V E L With 20 five-star hotels, a penchant for private chalets, and Europe’s highest tarmacked runway, France’s Courchevel offers la belle vie on skis to high fliers and hedge fund honchos.

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on the cover Pants Fendi $1,250 Jacket Fendi $3,750 Earmuffs Fendi $1,550 Goggles Fendi $500 Sweater SOS $209 this page Fur Dennis Basso $28,000 Gown Pamella Roland $5,590

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WINTER 17/18

48 86

SNOW FLURRIES 31 Art in Austria.

Fireside reads.

Design your own skis.

Luxury ski wear.

B.C.’s year-round ski resort.

#ART 40

92

31

An old school way to share your ski trip.

SNOW STYLE 42

Uphill ski gear and gadgets.

Warm and wild winter wear.

APRÈS 46

A hip Hokkaido hangout behind a refrigerator door.

128

SNOW GEAR 48

Searching for your perfect ski match.

BOT TLE 52

Slope-friendly wines in sustainable packaging.

SNOW FASHION 56

Ski wear from the fashion houses of France.

SKI TO LUNCH 60 Crisp rösti, Valais vino, and Verbier’s best fondue at Cabane Mont-Fort.

SNOW SUITES 62

Lech’s loveliest ski lodge: Hotel Aurelio.

56 114

SNOW CULT URE 66 Rainbow flags are the Pride of Whistler.

DESIGNER 72

KARINA Pants Frauenschuh $817 Jacket Duvetica $720 Midlayer Poivre Blanc $275

KRU’s Kurt Ulmer on fashion design.

S NOW S CE NE S 12 2

Aspen’s World Cup Finals: a starstudded week.

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L A S T RUN 12 8 The stylized ski art of Charlie Adam.

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66

ALEXANDER KACI Pants Lululemon $128 Jacket SOS $3,080 Jacket Fusalp $1,220 Sweater Descente $350

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PUBLISHER Barbara Sanders EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Lori Knowles lori@thesnowmag.com

CHIEF EDITORI A L A ND CRE ATI V E OFFICER Barbara Sanders barb@thesnowmag.com

ART DIRECTOR Julius M. Yoder III julius@thesnowmag.com

ORIGINAL TYROL SKI POSTER BY MARIA REHM HALL FROM ORIGINALSKIPOSTERS.COM. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE PENTHOUSE AT CHALET SKYFALL, AUSTRIA, AVAILABLE FOR RENT EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH BRAMBLESKI.COM

EUROPEAN EDITOR

ASSOCI ATE FASHION EDITOR

Leslie Woit

Michael Mastarciyan

COPY EDITOR

FASHION EDITORIAL TE AM

Melissa Long

Carol Breen, Lulu Fiedler, Kimberly Mann, John Martinez, Joan Valentine

CRE ATI V E DIREC TOR Julius M. Yoder III

FASHION EDITOR John Martinez

DIGITA L DIREC TOR Julius M. Yoder III

DIGITA L CONTENT CRE ATOR Carol Breen

ADVERTISING SALES

EUROPEAN ADVERTISING SALES

Sales Director

CESANA MEDIA Sales Manager

Barbara Sanders (970) 948-1840 barb@thesnowmag.com

The very finest original ski posters for your Lodge or Collection

Original Ski Posters.com

PRINT A ND DIGITA L CONTRIBUTORS Christian Alexander, Lesley Anthony, Daniela Federici, Andrew Findlay, Mattias Fredriksson, Shinan Govani, Claire Herrington, Jen Laskey, Audrey Mead, Kari Medig, Hilary Nangle, Jules Older, Peter ‘Poby’ Pobyjpicz, Everett Potter, Gerald Sanders, David Shribman, Rob Story, Leslie Woit

Paolo Mongeri paolo.mongeri@cesanamedia.com

Sales Manager Debbie Topp (905) 770-5959 debbiejtopp@hotmail.com

Sales Associate Taylor Barry (405) 808-5231 taylor@thesnowmag.com

Special thanks to Anne-Marie Boissonnault, Laura Doherty, and the Maison 1608 team for their creativity and passion for SNOW.

S K E A L IMI T E D.C OM

THE ASPEN WAY a s p e n s n o w m a s s . c o m /th e a s p e n w a y

Respect requires more than leaving things alone. Sometimes it means taking a stand for something. Like the environment, so the next generation can ski or ride. Or the value of science and the certainty of facts. Because the mountains were here first.

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PUBLISHER’S LETTER

The Soul of Skiing I was at CrossFit stretching a f ter a workout when a friend asked, “So, who owns SNOW ?” I laughed and answered, “That would be me.” In the days of massive magazine conglomerates, it’s rare to find an independent publisher. While I would enjoy a steady paycheck offered by a large publishing house, I love that with SNOW I have 100 percent control over creative and editorial decisions. Towing some kind of corporate line wouldn’t be for me.

As companies are buying up ski areas around the globe in a Pac-Man-like manner, consolidating independent resorts, I can’t help but be concerned about the soul of skiing. I’m dating myself, but I miss the days growing up skiing Mammoth, running into owner Dave McCoy on the mountain or in the cafeteria dressed in his signature white cotton T-shirt. With these large portfolios owning the mountains, will that small town ski resort feeling remain? I worry there will be a loss of character and community involvement that go to the heart of the sport.

Is skiing headed downhill?

SNOW writer David Shribman casts an insightful eye on the world of pop ski culture through the ages as he reflects on the many ways skiing made everything more glamorous, from smoking to drinking to buying cars and chasing bad guys (see Pop Snow Culture, page 86). For decades, skiing was the perfect medium for film, advertising, and fashion. It was sexy and bold and its athletes could double as film stars. I miss the days we could have some fun and didn’t take everything so seriously.

Klaus Obermeyer attempted to escape the Nazis on skis and was shot and left to die.

Fifty years later, his skiing days are far from over. He literally sparkles as he talks about how great the snow is on Aspen Mountain.

Everett Potter’s story on Obermeyer (see Klaus Everlasting, page 92) captures the very essence of Klaus, from the young boy growing up in post-World War I Germany, to the ski wear magnate focused on the future of his company and its impact on the environment.

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Obermeyer ski wear only gets better with age.

The Alps are timeless, but France’s Courchevel now puts uber luxury on the map. In Courchevel, nothing is unobtainable, everything is possible. In this edition, Leslie Woit’s tell-all (see Les Étoiles de Courchevel, page 114) gives a peek through the keyhole at the fabulousness of this tiny town in the French Alps. With more five-star hotels than almost any city in the world (except perhaps Dubai), Courchevel is the place oligarchs, royals, and celebrities make their winter dreams come true. Vive la France!

This year we shot our fashion story at a $22 million home slopeside at Aspen Highlands. It was the perfect setting for 2018’s ski and après-ski fashion, as well as stunning jewels and accessories (see InstaGLAM, page 98). Photographer Christian A lexander and stylist John Martinez gathered a group of top models to showcase the latest looks. Wear ‘em on the slopes or on Rodeo Drive and you’ll look mahvelous.

Michael Mastarciyan’s ode to French fashion (see The French Connection, page 56) shows just how much ski wear is entwined with our lives and our passions.

Writer Andrew Findlay was lucky to travel to the birthplace of skiing: Austria, the land of the famous Arlberg ski technique, Kaiserschmarrn, schnapps, steep slopes, and charming villages (see Vorarlberg, page 80). Austria is a place where the locals win you over with gemütlichkeit — a warm and authentic welcome that instantly makes you feel at home.

I learned recently an affiliate of Aspen

Skiing Company (ASC) purchased Utah’s Deer Valley Resort. What will this merger mean? Will skiing be run by remote corporate overlords? Though I occasionally yearn for the mom and pop feel of small resorts, I am convinced that the future of skiing will just keep getting better. Knowing the key players at ASC and this “as yet unnamed affiliate company,” I’m less anxious about the heart and soul of skiing.

Why? Aspen Skiing Company actively makes business decisions to ensure there will be skiing for generations to come. I appreciate that they care about environmental issues, human rights, and sexual equality. In this edition our editor, Lori Knowles, wrote The Pride of Whistler (see page 66). It made me think about the decades of change that have taken place since the first gay ski week. I am pleased to live in an era where tolerance, acceptance, and equality are the new norm.

Thank you to the founders of skiing. I love old school. But I also love the new school, where my custom skis can barely keep pace with my fashionable ski outfits, and as I meet the likes of Klaus Obermeyer on Aspen Highlands’ Deep Temerity lift, I know I can keep up!

Let it SNOW!

Barbara Sanders, barb@thesnowmag.com

Publisher

rossignol.com

CONTRIBUTORS 30

SNOW TALENT EVERETT POTTER

LESLIE WOIT

CHRISTIAN ALEXANDER

HILARY NANGLE

Writer

WRITER

PHOTOGRAPHER

WRITER

For savvy and sophisticated travel writer Everett Potter, the ideal ski vacation is spent skimming powder on the stylish slopes of Aspen Highlands.

Potter — who lives with his wife and daughter in Pelham, New York — spent one such perfect day in Colorado last season while interviewing ski fashion icon Klaus Obermeyer (See Klaus Everlasting, page 92).

From Klaus, 97, Potter received a crash course in intelligent aging. “He’s devised the perfect ski life,” Potter says. “Klaus is physically active decades past the point where many of us hang up our skis. What’s more, he’s exuberant about every day, and every single moment.”

Lucky Leslie Woit is now one of our contributing editors, in command of all things Europe.

Her winter days (ho-hum) are spent meandering through the snowy Alps of Austria, France, Italy, and beyond, skiing with guides off-piste and noshing at ski-in, Michelin-starred restaurants. Taught to ski in the 1970s on the “hills” of Eastern Canada and now based in Banff, Alberta, she has come a long way from laced boots, idiot mittens, and day trips in her dad’s Impala. While in Lech last winter reviewing Hotel Aurelio (See ahhh, Aurelio, page 62), Ms. Woit hitched a ride to the lifts with Aurelio’s Bulgarian bodyguard/chauffeur in a bulletproof Audi. “On the way,” she says, “he pulled over to increase the temperature of the heated seats and adjust the massage settings.”

Photographer Christian Alexander was a trooper last April when he set up camp in a luxe abode near Aspen to shoot SNOW’s cover and fashion feature (See Insta-GLAM, page 98). As a Miami boy, Alexander is a self-proclaimed “tropical creature”, yet he’s game for snapping photographs in cold weather if it leads to sipping hot cocoa by a warm fire. While he prefers surf over snow, he harbors a secret ambition to blast down a mountain, James Bond at his side, in the next 007 movie. The photographer’s favorite distraction while on location for a SNOW cover shoot is only slightly less taxing: He gathers fistfuls of powder and searches for the perfect snowflake.

Writer Hilary Nangle passes some of each winter in her very own ski lodge at western Maine’s Sugarloaf Mountain.

The remainder she spends zig-zagging snow country interviewing ski industry vets such as KRU’s Kurt Ulmer of St. Moritz (See Kruising with Kurt Ulmer, page 72). In her lively talks with the artful ski wear designer (and creator of Jet Set), Nangle was surprised to learn goose down is not only back this season, it’s now considered “high fashion”. Chatting with Kurt kindled memories of St. Moritz, skiing Corviglia’s sun-bathed slopes. Nangle’s ideal Swiss ski day, she says, “is cloudless and wind-free, a few inches of fresh over corduroy steeps.” Absolutely.

SNOW FLURRIES

Jackson Hole

by Hal Shelton.

Original lithograph circa 1968. www.originalskiposters.com 33

FLURRIES

Snow Ghost

American photographer Annie Leibovitz paired with Chinese artist/performer Liu Bolin to produce Moncler’s latest campaign. In a series of fantastical Leibovitz photographs for the European apparel company, a nearly transparent Bolin blends mystically into the jagged glaciers and frigid, metallic waters of Iceland. — Lori Knowles W W W.M O N C L E R .C O M

Sweet Dreams, Baby

Ski Pass Domination

In a whirl as dizzying as a carnival ride, several major North American ski resorts were swept up last summer and consolidated into a single collection. California’s Mammoth Mountain and Squaw Valley, Colorado’s Steamboat and Winter Park, Quebec’s Tremblant, and Utah’s Deer Valley are among the kingpins comprising a new, as-yet-unnamed ski brand. They’re controlled by affiliates of KSL Capital Partners, LLC (KSL) and Henry Crown and Company (HCC) — the latter an affiliate of Aspen Skiing Company (ASC). David Perry, former ASC head, is directing the new venture. In winter seasons to come, expect skiing’s latest heavyweight to go several rounds with Vail Resorts, owner of a knockout collection of contenders that include Vail and Whistler Blackcomb, plus the wildly popular and heavily discounted Epic Pass. At the core of this impending prize fight: multi-resort ski pass domination. — LK

34

It’s all the mode. Art appreciation, practically while you sleep. Lech’s stunningly sumptuous Severin*s – The Alpine Retreat — nine excusive suites with all the fivestar hotel amenities to match — is part of the trend that sees worldclass art adorning hotel walls and made available for purchase. In partnership with Vienna-based Contemporary Art Advisors, a curated collection of 80 pictures by internationally acclaimed artists — including Julian Opie and Jim Dine — complements emerging artists from Austria, Germany, and Italy. Prices range from $3,000 to $175,000. The latter buys one of the collection’s highlights: Roy Lichtenstein’s Sweet Dreams, Baby!, a limited edition signed print from 1965. — Leslie Woit W W W.S E V E R I N S - L E C H. AT

tonisailer.com

FLURRIES

Pod Perfect Planned for Spring 2018: Whistler’s new Pangea Pod Hotel, a cross between a hostel and a chic ski hotel. Situated steps from Whistler’s gondolas, the Pangea features 88 sleeping pods lined in blond wood and kitted with tech-friendly, highend features such as multiple USB ports and fine linens. Taking cues from Tokyo’s trendsetting capsule hotels, Pangea’s pods have room to sit and sleep but no space to stand.

The hotel’s more spacious social areas include a gear room, a rooftop bar, and The Living Room with fast wifi and moveable glass panels that morph the space into an outdoor patio. The view? Whistler’s lively village. — LK W W W.PA N G E A P O D.C O M

Custom skis, handmade by you. With Build 2 Ride, anyone can design and construct custom skis in just one and a half days.

Founded in 2012 by Axel Forelle, Build 2 Ride workshops take place each winter in the historic ski town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, on the German-Austrian border. Pros will guide you through the process — no special technical skills required. First, your preferred type of ski, materials, and design are discussed. Next, layers are glued and edges are attached. Finally your custom skis are set in a kiln. Then comes the fun part: designing your own graphics. A swirl here, a flourish there… finally, your very own skis are ready for a test ride in the Alps. — LW W W W.B U IL D 2 R I D E .C O M

Ring for the Outdoor Butler New in St. Moritz: a button on your suite’s telephone at the sumptuous Carlton Hotel connecting you to your very own outdoor butler — the charming Urs Wiederkehr, a fully certified mountain guide and Engadine expert. Urs is at the ready to suggest, shape, and guide your customized outing into the glittering St. Moritz surroundings. Perhaps a winter walk retracing the footsteps of great authors on the scenic Philosophers’ Trail? Cross-country skiing to a whiskey tasting by moonlight? Or, if conditions are correct, a magical ice skating adventure across Lago Bianco, its frozen black ice 36

hidden high atop the Bernina massif.

Wiederkehr will suggest, arrange, and execute almost anything outof-doors. “I do everything from guided cultural tours,” the butler says, “to discovering a fondue lunch at a rustic hut.” And because this is St. Moritz, a little sport shopping is also easily arranged.

Should your pack grow too heavy, the Carlton’s shiny Bentley is only a phone call away. — LW W W W.C A R LT O N -S T M O R I T Z .C H

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FLURRIES

Fireside Reads ART IN UNEXPECTED PLACES II

FROM SKISPORT TO SKIING

By E. John B. Allen, University of Massachusetts Press, 1996

Here a onetime professor of Renaissance diplomacy who evolved into the preeminent American ski historian examines the history of the winter sport, which began its life known as skisport, and delivers a lively narrative that ranges widely: skiing’s origin, the early ski trains that departed from Boston and New York (one New Hampshire shopkeeper: “A great many people came up to raise hell. To put it plainly some of them did a marvelous job at it.’’), the pioneering ski tows, the primitive ski trails hacked out of the hilly woods — and, of course the economics of modern skiing. He concludes with a bit of a lament that “the whole business of skiing was becoming too much like the day-to-day business of life.’’ Allen is an elegist and an evangelist, and his is a book that is elegant and engaging.

— David Shribman 38

By Aspen Art Museum in collaboration with Aspen Skiing Company, Aspen Art Press, 2016

For more than a decade the Aspen Skiing Company has collaborated with the Aspen Art Museum to bring us art in unexpected places.

On the slopes. On the lifts. In the lodges.

On our lift tickets.

Aspen’s terrific natural surroundings have become canvases for artists to provide experiences that enhance the body, mind, and spirit.

In this book, the second in a series, inquisitive Aspen locals converse with the artists themselves: creators such as Dave Muller, who reflects on his enormous wall drawings at the Elk Camp restaurant (2012), and contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, whose 2014 “explosion event” produced a dramatic black lightning bolt against the backdrop of Ajax mountain and Aspen’s extraordinary blue sky. Says this artful book’s forward: “We encourage everyone to engage in the larger conversation of art in unexpected places.”— LK

THE LEGENDARY JACKRABBIT JOHANNSEN

By Alice E. Johannsen, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1993

Of all the notable North American skiers of the last century, the most remarkable almost surely was Herman Smith Johannsen, born in Norway but transplanted to Montreal in 1928 and buried at age 111 in the Quebec ski village of Saint Sauveur des Monts. Ordinarily biographies written by family members are of little value or interest, but any book that opens with the sentence “This story is too good to keep to oneself’’ merits special favor, and it returns the favor with unforgettable tales of cross-country expeditions, ski jumps, even trips to the post office. “By 8:30 I strap on my skis and go for the mail,’’ Jackrabbit said at age 87. “Usually I take the long way, which can be up to two miles, depending on whose backyards I go through.’’

— DS

Double Diamonds

White gold fresh tracks. Sparkling diamond snowflakes. Tahoe’s Double Diamond Jewelry crafts exclusive custom pendants, cuffs, earrings, and rings that showcase the art of skiing in a stunning setting. Send a photo of a stellar snowflake or the fresh tracks you’ve carved while cat- or heli-skiing — and Double Diamond’s artisans will design a one-of-a-kind piece just for you.Choose from exquisite diamonds, gem stones, and your favorite gold tones to make your snowflake or first tracks design truly unique. — LK W W W. D O U B L E D I A M O N DJ E W E L R Y.C O M

From Slope to Après-ski

Katerina Lankova studied design and textiles in her native Czech Republic, but it wasn’t until after she lived in Aspen, Colorado that she was inspired to start her own fashion line. When she found she could barely ski down the hill because people stopped her to find out where she had bought her swank ski pants, she knew she had found her passion. Each design is handmade by her and she is now known for her bespoke couture — both on and off the slopes.

Her designs often include empowering words: Strong, Empowered, Happy, Love, and Imagine. “The messages are absorbed by each person,” Lankova says. “They give people energy and attitude.”

The designer uses high-tech Schoeller fabrics that can be worn skiing, cycling, and hiking; they are as perfect in an alpine setting as they are in a cosmopolitan environment. This season’s zip-on/zip-off, see-through side skirt adds an element of glamour and makes it the perfect transition item for slope to après-ski. Change from sporty to glam in two seconds flat!

Lankova designs are available at Performance Ski in Aspen. Bespoke orders also available.

W W W.L A N KO VA .C O M

The

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FLURRIES

Skiing 365

A new ski resort with year-round skiing, heli-ski terrain, stunning views, and North America’s largest vertical drop (6,857 feet) could open as early as Winter 2019. After five years of consultation, Valemount Glacier in British Columbia’s Premier Range received Canadian government and First Nations approval to launch as North America’s first completely new and sustainable ski area since the 1960s. As North America’s first fully lift-accessed glacier ski resort, Valemount can offer both public skiing and training for ski teams 12 months of the year. Says developer Tommaso Oberti: “This location opens lift access to one of the best snow zones and reliable climates for snow sports on the continent.” — Jules Older P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F VA L E M O U N T G L AC I E R S

W W W.VA L E M O U N T G L A C I E R S .C O M

Heli-Yeah!

Le Grand Spa

As one of the oldest palace hotels in Gstaad, Le Grand Bellevue has revamped its spa this season with an alpine design. A Thermal Oasis heat treatment complex includes 17 wellness experiences, including a hay sauna, an infrared sauna, an ice fountain, and a Himalayan salt inhalation grotto. Pineclad treatment rooms offer goat milk foot baths. The spa’s relaxation area overlooks the local Swiss landscape. There’s a fully equipped gym, a yoga and Pilates studio, a swimming pool, and a sushi bar with a Japanese sushi master serving fresh and healthy nibbles should you work up an appetite while spa-ing. — Carol Breen W W W.B E L L E V U E - G S TA A D.C H

Tordrillo Mountain Lodge and Winterlake Lodge have teamed up to offer some of the most expansive heli-skiing terrain in Alaska.

Guests staying at the foodie-focused Winterlake Lodge are treated to gourmet delights from the kitchen of award-winning Chef Kirsten Dixon. This intimate experience is limited to eight guests per week with an A-Star helicopter and two guides at the ready. Beyond amazing powder skiing, epic scenery, and fine dining, guests can also spend time cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling.

Situated along the historic Iditarod trail, dog mushing is also an option. — Julius Yoder W W W .T O R D R I L L O M O U N T A I N L O D G E . C O M

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#ART

#patchart Beyond the goggle tan, this was the old school way to share your ski trip and cause your friends to turn green with envy.

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8:38 AM

The moment your idea of heaven finally comes down to earth.

The best ski days are a glimpse of paradise on earth. And there’s no place more heavenly than Whistler. As North America’s largest (and Whistler’s only true) ski-in ski-out luxury hotel, Fairmont Chateau Whistler is the ultimate Canadian ski experience. And we continue to raise the standard with offerings like our Experience Guide, who personally leads Fairmont guests to Whistler’s most unforgettable moments. Because you deserve access to the most heavenly of alpine getaways — wherever on earth you’re from.

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STYLE

Warm & Wild Wrap yourself in warmth for Winter 2018.

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46

PARAJUMPERS

A hip Hokkaido hangout hides behind a refrigerator door.

N

by JEN LASKEY

estled into a Niseko snowbank, there is a small red refrigerator door. Duck your head to enter, you’ll find a candlelit cocktail lair where lo-fi jazz is wafting through the speakers. Bartenders are serving bellywarming craft cocktails to Tokyo’s coolest — those who’ve come to find their postski zen after a day riding Japan’s Niseko Annupuri.

The vintage Coca-Cola vending machine door has become one of the most iconic symbols in Niseko — and the reason Bar Gyu+ is also known as the `Fridge Door Bar. Hisashi Watanabe, a former ski instructor and patroller, started the bar in 48

encouraged to talk about their ski day, chat with the staff, or just sit and enjoy the view,” says Morelli.

Watanabe’s most popular tipples include the Hot Apple Pie (vanillainfused vodka, warmed Yoichi apple juice, cinnamon syrup, and baked apple and orange bitters), a hot buttered rum with homemade Hokkaido butter, yuzu mojitos, and classic whiskey cocktails made with Japanese whiskey.

Morelli oversees the spirits program and selects all of the bar’s sakes and whiskies. “Years ago it was hard to interest people in drinking a Japanese whiskey,” she says. “But now it’s hard to get them to drink anything else!”

Of Watanabe’s Japanese Whiskey Sour, the bartender explains that when people come off the ski hill and step inside Bar Gyu+, they’re usually looking for something refreshing and not too strong. “In this drink we use Japanese honey,” he says. “But it’s not too sweet — more sour.” He also recommends using large ice cubes to keep the drink really cold right to the last sip.

W W W.GY U B A R .C O M

his living room nearly 20 years ago. He is the head bartender, running the business with his wife, Ioanna Morelli, who came to the area in 2005 to snowboard, met Watanabe, and stayed. Fast track to 2017: Bar Gyu+ is now a quirky, wood-paneled hideaway and one of the hottest spots on Hokkaido.

“We try to make the atmosphere as analog as possible so people are

JAPANESE WHISKEY SOUR 2 ounces Suntory White Blended Whiskey 1 ounce fresh lemon juice 1/2 ounce honey syrup (1:1 honey/water ratio) Large ice cube

P H OTO S : C O U R T E S Y O F B A R G Y U +

APRÈS

BEHINDTHE FRIDGE DOOR

GEAR

skiHarmony Finding your perfect ski match. b y B A R B A R A S A N D E R S Ski testing is a bit like speed dating.

You don’t want to waste your time when there isn’t any chemistry. First impressions matter.

During SNOW’s annual Ski Test last March, testers were tasked with finding the perfect match for a variety of skiers.

The team began with first impressions, asking the age-old question: Do you want a second date? Next, they explored each ski’s personality, searching for traits such as strength, confidence, steadiness, energy, aggressivity, and effortlessness.

Finally, they got to the good stuff asking questions such as: Is this ski fun to ride? Is it responsive? and Does it give back? After several speed dates our testers admitted that when it comes to ski harmony, size, shape, and looks really do matter.

SNOW’s Ski Test took place on Aspen Mountain in packed-powder conditions.

Testers skied pristine corduroy in the morning and choppy powder/ crud bumps in the afternoon. David Stapleton, past U.S. Ski Team member, shop owner, and current development officer for the Aspen Valley Ski Club,

acted as test director.

This year’s group of testers included top ski pros Joan Valentine, Georgie Bremner, Nick Hill, Trent Jones, Megan Harvey Bourke, and Jill Dorken. Ex-ski racers and pros also joined the speed dating fun, including Dairinn Bowers, Lindsi Bradbury, Susan Kinstler, and P.J. McGovern. Mike Shea from Aztech Mountain ski wear came along to check out the new rides. Gorsuch manager Jared Ettlinger — who along with David Stapleton tests hundreds of skis each season — rounded out the group.

Here’s what SNOW ’s tester s discovered on the speed dating front:

Völkl Kendo

LENGTH 170 127 x 90 x 110 “I’m looking for someone unafraid to push limits. I’m ready to take things to the next level.”

This ski is not lacking in spirit! The Kendo is beefy underfoot, yet its versatility makes it ideal as a oneski quiver. Trent Jones liked how he could push his limits on this Völkl and it wouldn’t let him down. Jill Dorken says, “This ski is like a fullsuspension mountain bike. It’s fun and easy, just as a first date should be!”

PERFECT MATCH: Ideal for spirited and aggressive skiers who can handle the Kendo’s quick wit and responsiveness.

LOOKS: Art lovers will give this ski’s graphics high marks.

Stöckli Laser AX LENGTH 175 123 x 78 x 110 “I’m looking for that sensitive someone who will appreciate my finer features.”

Susan Kinstler liked that this Stöckli is narrow underfoot — she could tip it up on edge with ease. “It’s a fun cruising ski,” she says. “It’s easy to initiate a turn at slower speeds.” As for ex-ski pro P.J. McGovern, he was happy the AX felt damp and solid but didn’t leave him in the dust!

PERFECT MATCH: Perfect for a male or female skier who wants to cruise on the groomers and venture occasionally off-piste and into the bumps.

LOOKS: Sassy and bright. It’s a lean and mean ripping machine!

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Kästle LX 85

| LENGTH 160 126 x 85 x 109

“I just want to find a skier who appreciates that I can bash the bumps and transition quickly from edge to edge. I’ll never get stuck in a rut.”

“A sure crowd pleaser,” says tester Joan Valentine. “This Kästle may be the yellow Labrador of skis!” Speed daters loved the LX 85’s edge hold at top speeds, and they really dug its versatility. This ski is wide enough to ride in a variety of terrain and snow conditions, but it’s versatile enough to perform well on the groomers. “Holy cow, what a fun ski!” says tester Megan Harvey Bourke. “I want to bless its maker!”

PERFECT MATCH: The Kästle LX 85 is a perfect match for a practical man or woman looking for a lightweight ski that’s adept at exploring the entire mountain.

LOOKS: It has the kind of look you know and love — it’s not just about personality!.

P E R F O R M A N C E S K I , A SPE N, C O GORSUCH, ASPEN, CO P A G A R O N S P O R T S , N E W YO R K, NY B R A S S R A N C H , S U N V AL L E Y, ID

GEAR

Wagner 97 (Custom) | LENGTH 177 135 x 99 x 21 “I’m looking for a fearless risk taker.”

“I would take this Wagner home with me,” tester David Stapleton says.

“She’s skilled edge to edge and moves from 0 to 50 miles per hour incredibly fast.” Georgie Bremner was full of metaphors: “This ski is a high-stepping colt, you need to be ready for it. It carves as if it’s on rails, and it exits each turn like a Japanese bullet train!”

PERFECT MATCH: A Type A male — one who’s confident and keen to have his own way on the hill.

LOOK S: Create a masterpiece with Wagner’s custom graphics.

Head Monster 88

LENGTH 177 133 x 88 x 114

DPS Alchemist Wailer 99 |LENGTH 176 125 x 99 x 111

“I’m looking for intimacy but I also want to have fun and travel.”

“I’m playful and looking for someone who can keep up, but I’m open to finding mates who appreciate my easygoing turnability.”

A top ski among testers, the Head Monster 88 is second date material.

Mike Shea fell for its tenacious edge hold and quick transitions in bumps and on steep terrain. Jared Ettlinger calls this Monster his favorite mid-80s waisted ski. Georgie Bremner says, “My kind of monster! It mans up and gives me lots of powerful moments, but afterwards it allows me to samba my way through the bumps.”

Most testers said this DPS makes an excellent first impression — the ideal candidate for a second date. “This ski is perfect for soft snow,” says Jared Ettlinger. “It’s a good match for skiers looking for wide all-mountain skis.” Lindsi Bradbury agrees: “I’d be happy to stay out all day to ski with this one.”

PERFECT MATCH: An easygoing, smooth talker willing to explore.

PERFECT MATCH: An advanced male or female skier looking for a mate who’s solid, strong, and swift… but not overly stiff. This ski wants to have fun all over the mountain.

LOOKS: Perfect 10! Graphics in devil red are sure to get noticed.

LOOKS: Orange is the new black.

Blizzard Black Pearl 98 LENGTH 160 126 x 85 x 109

“I’m looking for a gal who can appreciate how multi-dimensional I am... someone who’s not afraid to let loose.”

Tester Georgie Bremner says, “Shazam! We are getting it on! The Black Pearl holds me tight without being too controlling and I can change my line in the bumps wherever and whenever I want!” Megan Harvey Bourke says this Blizzard grips like a carving ski on groomed terrain, yet its performance is “very impressive in bumps and crud.”

PERFECT MATCH: The Black Pearl 98 is an ideal match for a strong female skier who knows how to bend a ski — one who can ride the entire mountain.

LOOKS: Clean and fresh.

BOTTLE

Portable Apres Adventure-friendly wine in cans, packs, and boxes.

by JEN LASKEY

W

ho doesn’t love sipping a refreshing glass of wine while staring at a gorgeous alpine vista?

The problem is lugging that heavy, breakable bottle (and the glasses) up the mountain — or out to the hot tub.

For the past 300 years, the glass bottle has proved to be the best vessel for packaging and aging wine. But times are changing and slopeside sipping is getting easier, lighter, and less conventional.

With a growing market of outdoor enthusiasts clamoring for onthe-go and single-serve options, producers are now offering wines in adventure-friendly, sustainable packaging that makes them ideal for outdoor occasions, whether on the mountain or back in the hot tub at your ski home.

Don’t let the can, box, or Tetra Pak put you off. While glass is ideal for age-worthy wines, most wines are meant to be drunk young. An estimated 90 percent of the wine purchased in the U.S. is consumed within 24 hours of buying. Additionally, while glass is 100 percent recyclable, its carbon footprint is heavier than these alternative options. Plus, lighter packaging makes the wine simple to transport, enjoy, and pack out easily. No need to worry about 54

Slopeside sipping is getting easier, lighter, and less conventional. heavy bottles, breakage, or corkscrews. With cans and small Tetra Paks, you don’t even need a glass.

But what about the quality of the juice? An increasing number of reputable wine producers are making deliciously quaffable wines in alternative packaging. While living in France, natural wine importer Jenny Lefcourt was inspired to create a boxed wine called From the Tank. In addition to getting four bottles of wine in one lightweight box, the vacuum-sealed bag-in-box technology preserves the wine for up to a month once opened, whereas an open bottle of wine is only good for a day or two.

Lefcourt likes to bring good wine wherever she goes, especially on ski weekends with friends and family. “This winter when my daughter got her first ski lesson,” she says, “we brought From the Tank with us and served it in cups to the grown-ups who were hanging out during the lesson.”

Alicia Ysais, winemaker for the award-winning Bota Box, explains that the Bota bag-in-box was inspired by the original

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BOTTLE

Our Portable Après-Ski Picks

N i g h t h a w k B l a c k b y B o ta B o x MANTECA, California $20 (3L Boxes); $5 (500ML tetra pak) Juicy, full-bodied red grape blend with jammy blackberry, cherry, and raspberry flavors. Long finish with additional caramel and vanilla notes.

Sangiovese by FuoriStrada Off Road T u s c a n y, I TA LY $14 (1L tetra pak) Medium-bodied and well-balanced with tart cherry, red currant, and pomegranate notes, and a peppery finish.

“We’re at the forefront of a new trend: the beerfication of wine.” — Ryan Harms, Union Wine Company Spanish bota, leather bags used by the ancient vintners of Rioja to transport wine. “Bota bags gained global popularity in the ‘60s and ‘70s with skiers, outdoor enthusiasts, and the early eco-conscious,” she says, adding that people are much more accepting of alternative packaging these days. “They recognize that the wine in these packages is high quality and convenient.”

Ryan Harms is the winemaker and owner of Oregon-based Union Wine Company, located west of Mt. Hood. He launched his Underwood wines in cans because he wanted to create a product that embodied the culture of great craft wine minus the fuss. “You can’t easily sniff or swirl wine in a can,” he says. “It forces you to just drink it and enjoy it without over-thinking the activity.”

When it comes to the craft of winemaking, Harms points out that quality is not necessarily tied to traditional concepts of sophistication. As he says, “We’re at the forefront of a new trend: the beerfication of wine.”

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The Bubbles by Underwood W i l l a m e t t e Va l l e y, O R E G O N $28 (4-pack, 375ML can) Dry and crisp sparkling single-vineyard Chardonnay with zesty citrus, tart green apple, and white peach notes.

(Try the Pinot Noir, too!)

F r o m t h e Ta n k Vin Rouge Côtes du Rhône

by Jenny & François SELECTIONS Estézargues, FRANCE $34 (3L box) Vibrant natural wine blend of organic Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan grapes.

Spicy with flavors of blackberry, cherry, red currant, and violet.

Domaine le Garrigon - Côtes du Rhône by Wineberry Rhône, FRANCE $45 (3L box) Sumptuous red Grenache blend with subtle tannins and notes of black cherry, raspberry, and plum.

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FA S H I O N

the French

CONNECTION SKI WEAR FROM FRANCE’S ICONIC FASHION HOUSES.

by M I C H A E L M A S T A R C I Y A N

Some people dream in black and white, others slumber in color. I dream in speed… Often in the guise of French ski racing legend Jean-Claude Killy. If your nocturnal world is also populated by ski icons dressed in vintage racing stripes and patriotic colors, this winter your dreams will come true thanks to the giants of French ski wear.

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FA S H I O N

Ready-To-Race-Wear

Bleu, Blanc, Rouge

Born on France’s Le Mans race track, then popularized in the 1960s by Carroll Shelbydesigned Cobras and Mustangs, racing stripes on road and track have been the embodiment of speed chic for decades. This year on the piste, it’s time to get your motor running.

Sitting in pole position is Rossignol’s sleek women’s Combes jacket and pant combo with white, black, and blue racing stripes. Its male twin is Rossi’s Cornu jacket. Both looks absolutely scream velocity.

“Retro racer” is also a major theme at Moncler Grenoble. In runway shows leading up to the ski season, lithe male models sported striped ski pants that appeared to have been amassed from a 1968 Winter Olympics time capsule. Yes, those Olympics were held in the classic French ski town of Grenoble. Not surprisingly, these nostalgic breeches are available in blue, yellow, black, green, and red — all colors of the Olympic rings.

This season’s award for “most aggressive” goes to Fusalp for its whitestriped Skipper pants. Pair these eyecatchers with Fusalp’s black-and-white Carla jacket and you’ll be more than ready for fast laps on your favorite mountain track.

France’s tricolor flag has been celebrated

by French ski brands for eons, but this season it’s gone viral. On Instagram screens everywhere: a French-American collaboration between Tommy Hilfiger and Rossignol called the Tommy x Rossignol capsule collection. The line’s Richard, Rogar, and Rock jackets are patriotic eye candy pure and simple. The understated blue, white, and red racing stripe on the Russel softshell is oh-so-retro.

Perfect Moment’s paint palette this season is also very patriotic. Its Allos onesie in white with blue and red accents is ubergorgeous, as is the slim-fitting, delicately quilted Vale jacket. Also stunning: Isola race pants with red, white, and blue ribbing. clockwise from left

1. Jean-Claude Killy racing at Adelboden.

2. Tommy x Rossignol collection.

3. Moncler.

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FA S H I O N

Fusalp’s Chalet turtleneck sweater for men is basically a French flag disguised as a vintage ski sweater with racing-inspired red shoulders and ribbed sleeves over a white and blue color blocked midriff. Fusalp’s tricolor FIS sweater for women — complete with “Montagne” on its sleeves — will make you crave café et croissants before first tracks.

Speaking of onesies, Fusalp’s yellow, bodyhugging one piece might just be the most killer design on the ski market this season. Inspired by the jumpsuit worn first by Bruce Lee in Game of Death, then by Uma Thurman in Kill Bill: Volume 1, Fusalp’s new Umma will make you look and feel like a lightning bolt on the slopes.

If yellow is not your color, you’ll still be badass in Lacroix’s special edition black Shine onesie for women made to commemorate the French fashion house’s 50th anniversary.

Speed Noir

left to right:

1. Skidress.

2. Arpin.

3. Lacroix.

4. Fusalp suit.

5. Fusalp sweater.

The inf luence of Steve McQueen, another style god from the pantheon of speed chic, is evident cet hiver. From Skidress comes the Quarante-neuf, a black racer jacket for men featuring double horizontal racing stripes. The garment oozes McQueen coolness when paired with Skidress’ Silverstone stretch pants, whose ribbed knees are perfect for shinning gates.

Looking like a polar explorer kitted out in wool and fur has been a hot look on the European ski fashion scene for the last few years. One of the leaders of this hip trend is luxury alpine fashion house Arpin, celebrating its bicentennial with an exquisite line of vintage-look ski wear. For men, the highlight of the collection is a fur-trimmed navy and gray anorak named after French explorer Paul-Émile Victor. For women in love with Arpin, there’s a virtual treasure trove of hooded ski jackets crafted with wool, leather, and fur this ski season, including the Asphalt, Desalpe, Cime, and Falaise. These works of art fit seamlessly with Arpin’s iconic, slim-fitting Altitude ski pants. Mais oui, les fuseaux also come with racing stripes.

FA S H I O N

You’ll look as chic as Audrey Hepburn channeling Coco Chanel on the slopes of Megève.

Hommage à Coco Coco Chanel’s classic tweed jacket is, for many women, either a wardrobe staple or a #chanelgoal in the smartphone parlance of our teenage daughters. This winter, French luxury brand Maison Montval is paying homage to Coco with a selection of Chanel-inspired ski jackets that will look just as fabulous on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré as they will in the French Alps. The most classic of these classics may well be the Mathilde, which has a detachable hood and is available in black or white.

For men who appreciate Chanel, France’s eco-friendly Picture has produced the male equivalent of the Little Black Dress — also a Coco creation. Picture’s Iceland ProKnit Jacket is a black beauty billed as “the world’s first multidensity knitted snowboard and ski jacket.” Picture’s Iceland is light, tough, versatile, and will match perfectly with any ski pants in your closet.

For women, skiing’s equivalent of Coco Chanel’s LBD is the Ventus Light 3-L from Chamonix-based Black Crows.

This little ebony number will keep you warm and dry, yet

left to right

1. Black Crows. 2. Montval. 3. Picture.

4. Audrey Hepburn in Megève.

will fit into a purse in a pinch, especially if you’re skilled at folding. You’ll look as chic as Audrey Hepburn in Charade.

Meg­ève, encore!

So where will your snow dreams take you this winter?

To the top of an Olympic downhill podium listening to La Marseillaise? On an eco-adventure in the Arctic with a group of French explorers? Perhaps to a chic après-ski bar in Courchevel sipping a drink while channeling Mademoiselle Coco? This is the year to dream in bleu, blanc, et rouge... and to heed the wise words of Antoine de Saint Exupéry, the magical French writer who penned The Little Prince: “Make your life a dream, and a dream a reality.”

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SKI TO LUNCH

ELEVATED STATE L U N C H E N H A U T E M O N TAG N E AT V E R BI E R ’S C A B A N E M O N T - F O R T.

S

ometimes cheese is not enough. Perched on a privileged peak among Switzerland’s most magnificent mountains, this remote high-alpine refuge offers both cozy alpine atmosphere and an embarrassment of cheesy diversions. Fondue forks en garde! Cabane Mont-Fort is a lunch stop worth dueling for.

Verbier attracts a sportif crowd, from Richard Branson and Jude Law to the young London royal set, so avi packs and fat skis rub alongside the occasional Brit in a collared shirt at this classic pit stop.

After a morning skiing the powder of Vallon d’Arbi or the bumps of Tortin, the hungry and helmeted schuss straight to this stone aerie for hearty Valaisanne dishes… plus, perhaps, a hair-of-the-dog after a night of Verbier clubbing.

No VIP queues here, mon 62

ami. If the weather is fine you’ll have to arrive early to bag a bench table in the sun. Service on the terrace is through an egalitarian serving hatch.

Order, pay, take a number, find a seat, and soak up a dazzling display of pretty peaks, from the mighty Grand Combin to Mont Blanc itself. In case of weather, prepare to cozy up and meet your neighbors in the wood-paneled, lactose-scented interior. Menu favorites include macaronis à la montagnarde with apple compote, crisp rösti, and the best fondue in Verbier, all washed down with topdrawer Valais wines. Sizing is strictly “skier’s portion”, but the 100 lifts that knit the Four Valleys terrain will take care of any calorie overload.

Operated by the Swiss Alpine Club, upstairs the MontFort’s 58 dorm beds constitute a classic overnight stay on the fabled Chamonix-Zermatt

P H OTO S B Y C H R I S TO F S O N D E R E G G E R

by LESlIE WOIT

If the weather is fine arrive early to bag a bench table in the sun.

Haute Route ski tour. It’s common to find late lunchers settling in with a deck of cards and another round. Often these Haute Routers are joined by evolved souls escaping Verbier’s swank hotels for a night en haute montagne under the

stars. Lunch at Cabane MontFort can bring you to a truly elevated state.

W W W . C A B A N E M O N T F O R T. C H

SUITES

Aurelio ahhh,

Hotel Aurelio blurs the line between boutique hotel and private chalet.

by LESLIE WOIT

T

he sign of a truly great hotel is a personal welcome. Perched just above the stylish Austrian village of Lech Zürs am Arlberg is understatedly elegant Hotel Aurelio, where Hiero, Domingo, and Yaki look forward to the arrival of each and every guest. Unless of course they’re napping or taking a gentle stroll with other guests. And why not? The hotel’s three resident alpacas excel at both.

Excellence is in Aurelio’s DNA, woolly or not. Built by oligarch Oleg Deripaska and overseen by the naturally hospitable host Axel Pfefferkorn, this piste-side, five-star superior hotel satisfies all needs and most whims. Feeling very much a home-awayfrom-home without a whiff of corporate churlishness, this ski-in, ski-out hotel is 64

a cocktail of chic modernity and relaxed warmth. Intimate interiors are luxe and fresh, courtesy of London-based designers Mlinaric, Henry, and Zervudachi. Walls throughout are peppered with an impressive art collection, including haunting depictions

Aurelio honors Lech’s rich tradition of alpine hospitality. of the surrounding Arlberg peaks

by British photographer Tim Hall.

(Art is available for sale, as is the mode.)

The Aurelio is a true boutique hotel with only 19 bedrooms and suites in the two connected buildings. Each sleek, individually designed room is cloaked in calming fabrics and graced with contrasting modern Asian wood

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SUITES

This piste-side, five-star superior hotel satisfies all needs and most whims.

Linked by underground passage to the hotel, the Aurelio Club Chalet houses eight bedrooms and suites plus an expansive double-height living area. The Club is available in its entirety as a fully catered private chalet (though one imagines Oleg Deripaska gets first dibs as he is a frequent guest at the alpine getaway he built to such rewardingly high standards). From the shiny silver Bentley that fetches you and your bags from Strolz to the bulletproof Audi to whisk you to the helipad, no wish goes unheeded.

WELLNESS and antique furniture. The crackling fire in the hotel’s Licca Lounge warms deep, comfortable couches — heaven for après-ski, pre-dinner or post-prandial drinks. Cocktails made with aromatic meadow grasses pack a potent, theatrical punch.

Prefer more privacy? Perhaps the private chalet would suit your extended family? Hotel Aurelio blurs the lines between hotel and chalet privé by offering its six-bedroom, two-suite Club Chalet for rent, including private dining room, living area, library, and butler.

Naturally, all the hotel’s services — spa and wellness, restaurants, and concierge — are also available.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this winter, Hotel Aurelio continues to honor Lech’s rich tradition of alpine hospitality while creating its own version of refined and relaxed elegance.

Ahhh, Aurelio.

W W W. AU R E L I O L E C H.C O M 66

The chic, austere design of the spa creates a cool, calming antidote to the snowy great outdoors of the Arlberg. Hotel Aurelio’s indoor swimming pool features striking light installations by Lichtkompetenz of Zurich — a glittering constellation of stars above the 75-foot pool. A thermal suite includes infrared saunas, cooling plunge ponds, relaxation areas, and light and sound therapy. A modern gym and a full complement of spa treatments are also offered.

CUISINE For dinner at Aurelio’s Restaurant, there is no dress code. Totally relaxed, effortlessly elegant, the restaurant offers superb Austrian and international dishes meticulously sourced and artfully prepared. Chef de Cuisine Christian Rescher has duly earned 17 points and three toques from Gault&Millau (of a highest possible 20 points and five toques) for his superlative “Natural Art Cuisine”. Outside, a panoramic sun deck is a place for champagne and light meals, or simply to recline in a bright red bean bag chair to gaze at Lech’s Schlegelkopf piste. Leisure never felt so good.

P H OTO S : C O U R T E S Y O F H OT E L A U R E L I O

P RI VAT E CH A L E T

www.mountainforce.com

C U LT U R E

PR IDE of W HISTLER The

Out and proud on the slopes for Whistler Pride and Ski Festival.

G

ay Whistler is amused. Catcalls and wolf whistles pierce the air as onstage, Australia’s promiscuous Pam Ann — star of Whistler Pride’s Night of Comedy — is bitchy and wickedly crude. Bawdy jokes about drag queens and the actual Queen are as raunchy as you’d expect from a performer with comic shticks such as Cockpit and Plane Filthy. The lewder the joke the louder the crowd.

It’s a cold yet steamy January night inside Whistler Conference Centre. The Canadian ski town’s annual Pride festival is midflight and attendees — nearly 3,000 of skiing’s LGBT community — are up for a night. Seated in the front row, Whistler’s female mayor is tittering shamelessly. Draped in shimmering drag, The

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Whistler Village.

Unstoppable Conni Smudge is snorting with glee and the mouths of straight women in the audience are dropping open in shock as Pam Ann mimes fellatio.

In its 25th season in 2017, Whistler Pride is an annual celebration of being out and proud on the slopes of one of North America’s largest and most inclusive ski resorts. It began in 1992 as a single-day ski event in the depths of the AIDS epidemic, with hotelier Brent Benaschak (1962-2003) identifying a need for a local gay forum.

During Whistler’s 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the festival’s organizers caught world media attention with an impromptu pride march through Whistler streets. The trigger: homophobic

P H OTO : B R I A N W E B B . C O U R T E S Y O F G AY W H I S T L E R . C O M

by LORI KNOWLES

handmade in kashmir

C U LT U R E

from top to bottom

1. The festival’s annual ski parade.

2. Whistler Pride co-producers Dean Nelson (left) and Sunil Sinha (right) on the red carpet with Pam Ann.

slurs against U.S. Olympic skater Johnny Weir by television sports commentators.

Twenty-five winters in, Whistler Pride has morphed into a weeklong romp through the bars and five-star bistros of what’s now a cosmopolitan ski town situated in one of Canada’s most progressive provinces — British Columbia was among the first to recognize same-sex marriages. Whistler Pride’s 2017 printed guide includes a letter from Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. “We must continue to support those who have experienced discrimination,” he writes, “and remember that we cannot let up on the fight against bigotry.” In that same brochure: a drag queen extravaganza called S’no Ho’s; a Wild West party at Buffalo Bills encouraging goers to “lasso yourself to a stallion or a filly”; and the infamous Splash Pool Party with DJ Pacifico (formerly DJ Pornstar).

But for every naughty night on the town with Whistler Pride, there is a day that is out there but not so out there. On the hill early each morning, LGBT skiers meet with pro ski guides to explore the ins and outs of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. There are packs of novice, intermediate, and incredibly skilled skiers 70

and snowboarders broken into groups. No skier or snowboarder is left behind as they surge forward at breathtaking speeds down Rock’N’Roll, Harmony Bowl, and Blackcomb Glacier. Guides are gifted at sniffing out secret powder stashes, and a daily climb up Spanky’s Ladder quickly separates, as they say, the men from the boys (or the women from the girls).

Where Whistler Pride attendees store their energy reserves is hard to say, but somehow, despite full days skiing

iced bumps on 7th Heaven and top-tobottom blasts down Franz’s, crowds catch second winds in time for nightly après at Milestones, Black’s Pub, and the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. Pride flags flap outside inclusive hangouts such as Blackcomb’s HandleBar Cafe and the Cure Lounge at

Nita Lake Lodge in Whistler Creekside.

Nightly parties are everlasting. At Pride’s annual Snowball, for example, wellsculpted men in body paint and glitter — and very little else — shimmy to the beats of EDM till 4 a.m.

It is Whistler Pride events like Snowball (with 1,200 attendees) and the massive rainbow-flagged Whistler Pride Ski + March that make Dean Nelson, the festival’s CEO, most proud. “This year’s pride parade was just so over the top,” Nelson says once it’s over. “I got dressed up as Princess Skittles, spewing rainbows everywhere!

A hundred or so skied down from Whistler mid-station, then 500 people marched with us through the streets of the Village — everyone from locals to our guests ended up in Whistler Olympic Plaza. Twenty people traveled all the way here from Florida to remember those killed in the Orlando attack. We had Syrians, South Africans, and Australians marching with us this year.

It was just remarkable. The weather was perfect. Everyone was really comfortable.”

After more than a decade co-producing Whistler Pride and Ski Festival, Nelson appears indefatigable. When asked what

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No skier or snowboarder is left behind as they surge forward at breathtaking speeds.

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Well-sculpted men in body paint and glitter — and very little else — shimmy to the beats of EDM till 4 a.m.

keeps him primed, he points to comment after comment on social media. “They thank us for getting them through whatever they’ve been facing,” he says. “They share their personal stories. They tell us how they met the loves of their lives right here in Whistler.

They say they’ve been coming for years, celebrating anniversaries… . ” Whistler’s 2017 festival is among its largest, with 2,900 passes sold to LGBT skiers from 26 countries, including Germany, New Zealand, and Thailand.

Whistler Pride’s largest clientele comes from the U.S. (41 percent), most of which hail from California, Washington, and the Northeast.

The majority (60 percent) hold leadership or executive positions — doctors, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, tech and tourism execs. The fest’s new EatOUT options at Whistler’s top bistros — including Araxi, La Bocca, Alta Bistro — are unadulterated hits. In 2017, Whistler Pride’s community partnership with Rainbow Refugee

welcomes LGBT immigrants from Uganda, Syria, and Nairobi who’ve escaped persecution. “They say their experiences at Whistler Pride are impactful,” Nelson says. “They are amazed they can walk down the Village streets holding hands with the freedom to be themselves.”

Back inside the CABN at Aava Whistler, the festival’s headquarters and sponsor hotel, an after party is heating up. Conni Smudge’s brash laugh and blush-pink wig are attracting eyes. Hands rise in the air as DJ Joni T spins a pulsating mix of hits. Iconic Pam Ann poses suggestively with Instagrammers; she’s sporting enormous hoop earrings and a sequined mermaid dress. She points at one fan whose wife-beater reads YOU LOOKED BETTER ON GRINDER. Yes, another naughty night at Whistler Pride is just taking off.

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A RO S A GAY SK I W EEK

ADAPTABLE LIFESTYLE nobis.com / @nobisinc

KRUISING KURT ULMER with

Catching up with KRU’s ski wear designer in Maui and St. Moritz. b y HIL A RY N A N GL E

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Alpine fashion icon Kurt Ulmer isn’t an easy man to pin down.

Maui. St. Moritz. Asia. New York. The intrepid 50-year veteran of the ski wear industry, Swiss boutique proprietor, and founder of the ski brand Jet Set, is perpetually out in front, leading rather than following.

Ulmer’s latest brand, KRU — an acronym for Kurt Rob Ulmer — is case in point. More than only ski jackets and pants, the KRU label cuts across defined categories, blurring traditional lines between ski wear and ready-to-wear.

KRU’s down jackets, for example, look just as chic draped over an evening gown by night as they do on the slopes by day.

“We try to be avant-garde,” says Ulmer. “You can wear KRU everywhere. Justin Bieber wore one on stage. ”

DESIGNER

clockwise from left

1. Outside Ulmer’s boutique, JOY St. Moritz. 2. JOY St. Mortiz interior.

3. Montana Ulmer modeling her father’s new collection.

The KRU label cuts across defined categories, blurring traditional lines between ski wear and ready-to-wear.

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sample, Ulmer works with the manufacturer on technical specifications; it must be waterproof, breathable, and include a specific coating.

“People don’t want to spend so much for just a ski jacket,” he says. “They want it to be multiuse couture.” As a result, Ulmer insists KRU’s garments are always functional. They’re made with technical fabrics that are waterproof and breathable — you can wear them in wind, cold, sun, and rain.

They’re also stylish.

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Kurt Ulmer has always been ahead of the fashion curve. Born in Zurich and reared in Davos, he eventually settled in St. Moritz, where he still owns a boutique and continues skiing fast on Corviglia’s groomed cruising terrain. After a brief stint as a banker, and a marginal career in ski racing, he began attending ski fashion shows, quickly finding his niche.

“I was always interested in fashion, and I was always one to dress differently,” he admits of his young adult life in the 1960s. “I was one of the first to wear the tight pants from France!”

Friends admired his style and wanted the same, so in 1969 Ulmer opened a ski and ready-to-wear boutique called Jet Set on the outskirts of St. Moritz, importing clothing from France. A few years later he created an edgy ski wear brand of his own, also called Jet Set. It featured bright colors and innovative patterns that, at that time, were rare in ski jackets and pants.

“It was a gift I had,” he says of his vanguard approach to design.

“I was having fun.”

Ulmer not only loved working for himself, he also possessed the rare combination of creative flair and business acumen. Jet Set’s success allowed him to continue working and skiing in St. Moritz, but also to purchase an oceanfront estate on Maui for his other passion, windsurfing. That in turn informed his design, first with Jet Set (which he sold in 2008), and now with KRU. Although Ulmer has since sold his Maui estate, some of his designs still reference Hawaiian prints. He finds inspiration in a mix of styles, from high-end fashion to functional army clothing, kids’ street wear, surf wear, and breezy summer clothing. He’ll see a picture or a piece of art that sparks inspiration, then design his own prints. “I get ideas from pictures, and I’ll say, Let’s go in this direction; make me a print like this, and this, and this,” he explains. “I mix it all together.”

KRU’s beauty isn’t only skin deep. After selecting a fabric

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DESIGNER

The 2018 line is fun, with forward-thinking designs that avoid being trendy.

clockwise from top left

1. Ryder and Kurt Ulmer. 2. Shooting the collection.

3. Modeling a jacket from KRU’s 2017-18 collection.

“This year we did garment-dyed pieces.” Ulmer explains, “you finish a garment, a certain fabric like it is, and then you dye it. The process results in a crinkle look. It’s very vintage but not stiff; a garment has to have life in it.”

The 2018 line is fun, with forward-thinking designs that avoid being trendy. KRU’s big and invitingly comfortable down jackets feature high-tech must-haves for skiing, but they don’t resemble traditional ski wear. Trimmed with fur — rabbit, coyote, fox, raccoon, or sheep — Ulmer plays with unexpected juxtapositions of color and pattern: fiery camouflages; tie-dyes that mix silvers and whites; Jackson Pollocklike mélanges of greens and bright pinks. A band of color here and a stripe there transforms monotone jackets into memorable fashion statements.

While the KRU collection appears this season in some of the world’s most exclusive ski shops, it’s also carried by retailers such as Barneys New York and similar upmarket boutiques in Japan and Europe.

KRU is a family affair. Ulmer’s wife, Juli, buys for JOY, the family’s current store in St. Moritz. “She has really good fashion sense, and

she has input into the collection.”

Their daughter, Montana, models for KRU’s catalogues and helps with sales and other tasks.

But it’s their son, Ryder, who’s following in his father’s tracks. At 24, he’s already involved in all aspects of KRU except production and finance, and he’s making a difference. Kurt credits Ryder’s marketing skills with growing KRU in new markets. “He brought in a new agent for Japan, one for Europe, and he’s working with agents in the U.S. and Canada.”

Increasingly, Ryder is backing up his father in KRU’s creative department. “He’s really good with fashion for younger clients,” Kurt says. “He’s now interested in design as well as graphics. I’m still the owner, and I have the experience, but together we’re doing a nice product that’s different on the market.”

That “nice” product not only continues Ulmer’s vision and his desire “always to be unique,” but also takes it to the next level, moving beyond ski wear into fashion and assuring a legacy as a designer with an eye for avant-garde.

W W W.K RU S T M O R I T Z .C H

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STARRY SKI AND APRÈS-SKI WEAR THE MANY STARS OF COURCHEVEL

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A powder-rich adventure through Austria’s idyllic Vorarlberg region.

by A NDR E W FINDL AY

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A morning feast of muesli, charcuterie, cheeses so sharp they challenge my ski boot liners for pungency, eggs, fresh fruit, and espresso snaps me out of jet lag. Over breakfast I’m told the avalanche hazard is high, so plans are to stay inbounds after riding the gondola to the top of Kanzelwand. Thigh-deep feathery powder sits atop a thin base. Low clouds clear to reveal breathtaking views of the jagged Bregenzerwald Mountains. After a few low-angled powder runs, we get busy in untracked forest glades, and use the stone walls of subalpine pastures for pillow drops. On the day’s final run we thread the avalanche fences to the valley bottom where our shuttle awaits to spirit us back to the steam rooms and saunas of the Haller’s Genuss & Spa Hotel.

That night we’re spoiled by the hotel’s award-winning chef de cuisine, Gerd Hammerer, with a menu of delicious teasmoked duck breast with artichoke and fig, sweet potato soup, venison ragout, and vanilla-raspberry sorbet. Later, we migrate to the lounge for a digestif of local pear schnapps. Already I was beginning to wonder if the key to Austria’s global skiing dominance may lie in its hearty mountain cuisine — and its schnapps.

It’s more of the same the next day at the adjacent resort of Höfen; a feast of powder worthy of last night’s extravagant repast. The

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wake groggy from jet lag and peer out a window of my suite in Mittelberg, an idyllic mountain village in Austria’s Kleinwalsertal region, snugged up against the German border. Fat snowflakes drift lazily and the industrious Austrians are already busy blowing snow and plowing streets blanketed with what appears deliciously to be a foot and a half of powder. Being Sunday morning, the bells of the Catholic Church are tolling to summon the faithful. But for me, it’s like the sound of a one-in-athousand strike at a Las Vegas slot machine — in skiing terms, I have stumbled upon a jackpot.

Austria is synonymous with skiing and I came to explore Vorarlberg, the country’s westernmost state that’s home to renowned resorts like Lech Zürs am Arlberg, and obscure gems like Sonnenkopf and Gargellan. Although it’s just two-thirds the size of Rhode Island, Vorarlberg contains a world of skiing adventures and a winter sports history as rich as a bowlful of Kaiserschmarrn, that favorite Austrian dessert of the late emperor Franz Josef I. “You’re timing izz perfect,” says Elmar Mueller, a Kleinwalsertal ski bum to the core whom I meet for breakfast along with mountain guide Lukas Kühlechner, who hails from the Montafon, a region I’ll explore on this trip.

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PHOTO: MICHAEL GUNZ - VORARLBERG TOURISMUS

The key to Austria’s global skiing dominance may lie in its hearty mountain cuisine — and its schnapps.

karst geology of Kleinwalsertal features depressions, caverns, and skierswallowing sinkholes. Therefore we ski with care while following Mueller — his beard perpetually powdered from the still falling snow — around one of his home mountains. Plans to ski tour to the tabletop massif known as Ifen are thwarted by ping-pong ball visibility. So at day’s end we pile into the van and shuttle to a fairytale mountain valley and our home for the night, the family-run Jagdgasthaus Egender. The clouds have cleared and the steeple of a lonely country chapel pierces the steely blue evening sky.

Austrians are avid hunters, and many guesthouses, like this one, double as hunting lodges where the unabashedly dominant decorative theme is often taxidermy. I cozy up beneath a deer rack and next to the kachelöfen, one of those beautiful Austrian woodstoves adorned with fine tile work. Our host, Hubert Egender, tells me that four years ago they rebuilt the 85

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original lodge, which had been in the family for three generations, into this three-story guesthouse. Nothing in Austria is done without careful consideration of function and form. Salvaged wood was repurposed for wall paneling and custom furnishings, while heated concrete floors in the bathrooms give the lodge a modern, warm touch. Stars blaze in the cold night sky as we linger over a tumbler of schnapps, home distilled from gentian root.

“Medicine,” Egender says with a wink.

The following day we head to Warth, one of more than a half dozen resorts that comprise the vast ski area of Arlberg, where a guide is almost essential for navigating the 87 ski lifts and 314 miles of on- and off-piste terrain accessible with a single ticket. Arlberg is to skiing what Vatican City is to Catholics. Not far from here in Stuben, the legendary Hannes Schneider developed the Arlberg technique in the early 1900s, a learning progression that laid the foundation of modern skiing and instruction. Arlberg is also home to the world’s first ski school in the region and to the Ski Club Arlberg, inaugurated in 1901.

From Warth we travel by skis across the mountains toward Oberlech. The slopes 86

are vastly busier than Kleinwalsertal, and the area wears its fashion-conscious cosmopolitan flare like a fur collar on a one piece ski suit. After spending the morning playing in chopped up, sun-warmed, twoday-old storm snow, we slide to a lunch stop at Der Wolf, a rectangular postmodern style restaurant that stands in sharp contrast to the ubiquitous peak-roofed Tirolean chalets. People watchers are assembled on deck chairs, sipping radlers and sunning themselves. However, in the valley below, afternoon shade creeps across the rooftops of Lech. Despite its reputation for fashion and affluence, Lech Zürs is renowned for steep and off-piste skiing. It’s the kind of terrain that produces strong skiers and has helped the Ski Club Arlberg claim bragging rights as having produced more Olympians than any other ski club in the world, among them Patrick Ortlieb and Hubert Strolz.

That night we join Daniela Pfefferkorn, an elegant hotelier and member of one of the better-known skiing and hospitality families in Lech, for a fondue feast at the Alter Goldener Berg. The Pfefferkorns incorporated this 500-year-old farmhouse into their hotel, transforming it into a dining room that showcases the fine finishing woodwork and detailing that is

the hallmark of Austrian craftsmanship.

Pfefferkorn grew up ski racing in Lech and has vacationed around the world with her skis, but her heart lies in Arlberg.

“I ski every day. It’s who we are,” she tells as me as I dip another strip of beef tenderloin into the fondue pot.

The following morning is once again frigid and clear. We schuss through Oberlech down to Lech, stomp across the village’s busy thoroughfare, then load into the Rüfikopf cable car. An hour of skiing easy groomers and riding multiple lifts delivers us to Zürs, consisting of a cluster of hotels in a barren mountain valley. We’re soon riding a modern wonder, the Trittkopfbahn I cable car, which with its sister cable cars Trittkopfbahn II and the Flexenbahn, was completed in time for the 2016/2017 season.

“It cost around €45 million, but the circle is now closed,” Kühlechner tells me, explaining how this ultra-modern lift system now fully integrates the Arlberg ski area, making it Austria’s largest, and the world’s fifth largest, ski area.

The Flexenbahn cablecar is soon whisking us down a steep mountain face. I spot a group of four Alpine ibex, wild goats

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Arlberg is to skiing what Vatican City is to Catholics.

endemic to the Alps, gracefully scaling a knife edge ridge below us. After offloading, we rip GS turns down a narrow piste in a shady, angular valley to the tranquil village of Stuben, clustered at the head of a box canyon. There we pay homage to Hannes Schneider, cast suavely in bronze next to the church, with cigarette dangling from mouth, skis on shoulder, and eyes gazing at the peaks.

That afternoon we use climbing skins to tour from Sonnenkopf to the metal cross tottering atop 6000-foot Muttjöchle, where we stamp our notebooks for posterity. From there we gaze down toward tiny Silverthal, huddled in shadow beneath peaks glowing pink orange in the alpenglow of another spectacular sunset.

“That’s my home valley,” Kühlechner says, wistfully pointing toward the Montafon.

A pair of fighter jets suddenly cuts across the cobalt sky — security detail for the World Economic Forum underway in Davos. But it’s all peaceful here in Vorarlberg, and at this moment the serious global matters being discussed by the suits and ties just over the Swiss border take a sorry second place to the simplicity and beauty of skiing.

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From F. Scott Fitzgera ld to Hot Dog… The Movie: Sk iing ’s role in the revolution of pop culture. b y D AV I D S H R I B M A N

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OTEMS TORN FROM POPULAR CULTURE: SUZY CHAFFEE PROCLAIMING HERSELF “SUZY CHAPSTICK’’ AND PROVIDING AN IRRESISTIBLE BALM FOR WINTER’S IRRITATION. BING CROSBY, DANNY KAYE, ROSEMARY CLOONEY AND VERA-ELLEN SETTLING IN AT A VERMONT SKI LODGE IN WHITE

CHRISTMAS AND GRAFTING A DASH OF HOT ROMANCE ONTO A COLD SPORT, ALL TO THE SOUNDTRACK OF A CLASSIC IRVING BERLIN BALLAD. ROBERT REDFORD AND GENE HACKMAN STARRING IN DOWNHILL RACER AND CATAPULTING SKI RACING INTO A COMPELLING POPULAR SPORT. THE BENSON & HEDGES TRAVEL SKI BAG, SEVEN FEET LONG—MERCHANDISED AS BEING THE LENGTH OF 21 CIGARETTES LINED UP END TO END. AND IN RECENT YEARS, AN INTERACTIVE NANCY DREW VIDEO GAME SET IN THE IMPROBABLE VENUE OF A WISCONSIN SKI RESORT. 89

Women began appearing in ski outfits on magazine covers and in advertisements three generations ago.

Our winter sport is not confined to mountain fastnesses, nor to remote rural outposts accessible only by braving snow drifts deep along the road where, as the Winter Song puts it, the great white cold walks abroad. Over the years skiing has become an emblem of popular culture, sometimes (as in several James Bond films) a symbol of wintry adventure, occasionally (as in the screenplay Budd Schulberg and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote for the film Winter Carnival) a setting for rekindling lost love, even (as in the Jill Kinmont story immortalized in The Other Side of the Mountain) a platform for inspiration.

Baseball has its Casey at the Bat, football its North Dallas Forty, ice hockey its Slapshot, basketball its Hoosiers.

But unlike the four major sports, skiing primarily is a participatory sport, difficult and demanding, confined to high altitudes, 90

requiring inclement weather, entailing skill, endurance—and, often, glove-sized hand warmers that have breached the gap between ski resorts (where they are often a January necessity) and urban parade routes (where they are not unknown during each November’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day spectacle in New York).

The arrival of skiing as a mass sport coincided perfectly with the emergence of mass culture, and the combustion between the two has provided an unforgettable fusion of films and fashion, commercials and consumer items. Once a sport performed in primitive conditions along narrow, rough-hewn trails by hardy and half-crazy daredevils and risk-takers, skiing emerged after World War II as a leisurely diversion, available to a mass audience that, with new equipment and increasingly efficient ski tows, grew to pose

less and less danger of catastrophic injury, frostbite, or wilderness abandonment.

As skiing was tamed, it did more than simply enter the mainstream; it helped shape the mainstream. Films like Hot Dog... The Movie and fashions like stretch ski pants became fused with the broader culture, and before long G.I. Joe, Barbie and American Girl dolls would begin appearing in ski apparel and Andy Warhol would turn up in Aspen, taking a run on Buttermilk long before ESPN would use the resort for the setting for its Winter X Games. On the slopes of Snowbird and Snowmass, as on the trails of Sun Valley and Squaw Valley (the setting for Hot Dog), it became difficult to discern where skiing ended and where popular culture began. “Skis,’’ the great ski historian E. John B. Allen once wrote, “have played a far larger part than Ibsen in social revolution.’’

left to right

1. A 1970s ChapStick advertisement.

2. Poster art for Après Ski, the movie.

3. Kate Upton’s 2013 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover. 4. A classic Lange girl poster. 5. An advertisement for Kent cigarettes. 6. Hot Dog... The Movie’s poster.

7. Poster art for the film Aspen Extreme .

Smoking was once glamorous, and the cigarette companies tried to link skiing and smoking.

Along the way, the grimy grit of early skiing (often performed in frozen-plank jeans and Buffalo-plaid shirts) was replaced by the growing glamour of modern skiing (where Columbia’s Alpine Action Insulated Jackets proliferated), and as woolen check shirts disappeared from Main Street, fashionable ski jackets began to appear. Caroline Kennedy wore parkas to business meetings, and so did Fortune 500 executives. No wonder shares of Canada Goose, which manufactures the $900 ski parkas worn

by Daniel Craig in the James Bond movies and by Kate Upton on the cover of Sports Illustrated, rose 26 percent on their first day on the New York Stock Exchange in March, giving the company a valuation of $1.7 billion.

In truth, glamour has been as much a part of our winter sport as ski gloves, though the character of the glamour has changed.

Women began appearing in ski outfits on magazine covers and in advertisements three generations ago; one displayed a woman on her skis, leaning on her poles, and... applying makeup — a cultural statement that Annie Gilbert Coleman characterized in her book Ski Style as a “combination of sociability, fashion, and sport.’’ In those years Ernest Hemingway and his European afternoon ski runs with his first wife, Hadley, helped increase the visibility and the sex-infused allure of skiing, providing it with a robust appeal, especially in the sport’s cameo appearances in A Movable Feast: “I remember all kinds of snow that the wind could make and their different treacheries when you were on skis. Then there were blizzards when you were in the high alpine hut and the strange world that they would make where we had to make our route as carefully as though we

had never seen the country.’’

In the 1960s the focus was less on the treachery of alpine pistes than on the treacly paparazzi attraction of Sugarbush in Vermont, which earned the title of “Mascara Mountain’’ after Oleg Cassini and his models flocked there, partly for the snow, partly for the instruction from Stein Eriksen’s ski school, and of course partly to be seen and to be part of the glittery scene.

This spectacle, stoked by a bus called the “Sugarloaf Special’’ that picked up skiers on Park Avenue and delivered them, often woozy from whiskey or wooing, to Warren, Vermont, every weekend, was perhaps the high water mark – no, let’s call it the headwall – of ski glamour, at least outside of Sun Valley. “People came up here just to be seen being here,’’ says Susan Dunn, executive director of the Vermont Ski Museum.

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In those years Dolomite boots ran an ad with its ski boots on a silver platter, along with a snifter and two bottles of aged brown spirits and the slogan “For the discriminating skier.’’ And in the era in which cigarettes were considered attractive accoutrements, skiing played a vital role in their marketing.

“Smoking was once glamorous, and the cigarette companies tried to link skiing and smoking,’’ says Scott Andrews, curator of the Ski Museum of Maine.

“That’s no longer the case.’’ True enough.

But in the 1920s, student newspapers at Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby colleges in Maine all carried ski-themed ads for Liggett & Myers’s line of Fatima cigarettes. Four decades later Benson & Hedges — which would win ski acclaim by sponsoring the Grand Prix ski circuit much the way Miller Genuine Draft, Budweiser, and Coors Light would later sponsor pro mogul tours — was still running magazine ads featuring a pack of its cigarettes along with ski patches from St. Moritz, Sugarloaf, Aspen, Stowe, and Sun Valley. Today Benson & Hedges race bibs and parka patches still do brisk online business.

Skiing got its greatest injection into popular culture through the movies, and in truth the connection between the two goes back decades. Hannes Schneider, the great Austrian skimeister who planted his Arlberg ski technique on the hills of North Conway, New Hampshire, was an early ski film star, and though Schneider landed on these shores to avoid the Nazis, one of his co-stars in White Ecstasy was the famous Leni Riefenstahl, later the cinema director behind Hitler’s propaganda films, including the notorious Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will). Long before Wayne Wong, the freestyle ski pioneer who would star in a landmark 1973 Pepsi ad, became a fixture in dozens of ski films, David Niven and Peter Sellers would appear in a ski resort in the 1963 Pink Panther film and the Beatles would get into the act with unforgettable ski scenes in their 1965 musical comedy Help!

It was not a coincidence that both On Her Majesty’s Secret 92

Service, the James Bond film with its classic ski scene, and Downhill Racer, which Roger Ebert described as “the best movie ever made about sports,’’ were released in 1969, just after Jean-Claude Killy of France won three alpine gold medals at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, and Nancy Greene of Canada won a gold and silver.

Greene, a onetime $300-a-month secretary, would become famous for her Mars candy bar commercials and her General Motors, Bank of Montreal, and Rossignol endorsements. Killy became a household name and a glamorous celebrity whose crossover appeal was so great that Chevrolet would use him to market a special edition Killy Z-28 Camaro. Killy was, as the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson put it, “a handsome middle-class French boy who trained hard and learned to ski so well that now his name is immensely salable on the marketplace of a crazily inflated culture-economy.’’

Nearly a half century later, the sport of skiing still is propelled by the effect of Downhill Racer, filmed in Austria, Switzerland, France, and Colorado and a perennial favorite on in-demand video services and on vacation weeks in ski lodges.

“It had a huge impact,’’ says Bernie Weischel, former chairman of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. “The movie established skiing as something that was exciting and aspirational.

Some ski movies are basically about skiers wearing bikinis, but Downhill Racer had a story. It followed a guy trying to get on the racing circuit, which itself was only just beginning. It changed the image of skiing.’’

Joe Jay Jalbert, a former alpine racer, doubled for Robert Redford in the ski scenes. “People still consider Downhill Racer the standard by which all others are measured,’’ says Jalbert, now a cinematographer himself. “It has weathered the trial of time. I’ve been around alpine ski racing all my life, and that movie—with the race seedings and the weather challenges and the romances—captured the underpinnings of the sport perfectly.’’

The key to skiing’s move into popular culture is its mixture of outdoor activity with what The Atlantic once described as “democratized luxury,’’ which you might think of as a sort of alchemy of the New York Social Register and the L.L. Bean catalogue. It was adventure with a whiff of elitism, for the sport had a mystique all its own, nurtured by the après ski culture centered around places like the Duchin Room of the Sun Valley Lodge, where big-band and swing melodies swirled in the boîte de nuit air of Manhattan’s St. Regis Hotel, and where Claudette Colbert nurtured a love of the

left to right

1. An illustration of George Lazenby as James Bond in the film Her Majesty’s Secret Service .

2. Poster art for the film Downhill Racer.

3. Joe Jay Jalbert onslope filming Robert Redford. 4. Redford with his stunt double Joe Jay Jalbert.

D O W N H I L L R AC E R LO C AT I O N P H OTO S C O U R T E S Y O F J O J AY J A L B E R T

“Some ski movies are basically about skiers wearing bikinis, but Downhill Racer had a story.’’

— Bernie Weischel

downhill sport so deep — it approached an obsession — that her handlers worried her career might be endangered if she were hurt. There, according to Friedl Pfeifer, a legendary ski instructor, it seemed as if the Idaho enclave were “a never-never land where everyone was rich and young and invited to the dance.’’

From the start, part of the fandango (or, in the mid 1960s, the frug) was, of course, fashion. It was the sportswear line Fila, founded in Italy but now based in South Korea, that had one of the great insights in ski history, the Eureka!-moment realization of the importance of being able to “stand in the lift line looking cool.’’ (The purpose of the lift line, according to a 1995 ad, was to “give everyone a chance to admire your new Fila ski wear.”)

Today ski wear appears on downtown streets everywhere, in part as a fashion statement but also as a reflection of an immutable truth: the melding of ski and popular culture has given ski clothes an à la mode aura, but it also is — no small thing if you live in Manhattan or Boston’s Back Bay — warm.

“As fashion technology allowed fabrics to become lighter and warmer, a narrower cut came into ski clothes,’’ says Susie Tjossem, executive director of the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Museum in

Vail. “That bled into popular culture. Then the emphasis changed from function to comfort, and now that we are in 2017 we have a great combination of fashion, style, and comfort, and not just for skiers but for the general public.’’

But even though fashion — clothes, not the Glen Plake hair style — flared on the slopes, in the lift line and on the streets of the Bos-Wash business corridor, distinctly edgy attire retained a curious but persistent appeal in ski towns.

The grunge look that is visible on the side streets of every ski town from North Conway Village to the Northstar resort village is in part an homage to skiing’s simpler, more venturesome past. But it also is a tip of a knit toque hat to one of the

endearing, enduring figures in ski culture: the ski bum. “Ski culture eventually infected popular culture, especially in places like this,’’ Denise Medley explains at the Summit Ski Museum in Breckenridge, Colorado. “The ski bums became a ‘nonfashion’ fashion statement. They’d have duct tape on their gloves. Only the tourists had matching outfits.’’

That’s why, along with images of

pioneering female skiers attired in anklelength dresses, long coats, high leather boots, and a stylish, almost raffish hat, the Breckenridge museum also features the banana-print denim tuxedo coat that World Pro Mogul Tour star Scott Rowley wore throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He bought the outfit at a yard sale for a quarter. It’s a classic, though maybe not a classic look.

Today skiing retains its presence, and its wintry allure, in the popular culture of a fresh generation of Americans. As the new century dawned, DreamCatcher released the fourth installment in its Nancy Drew series of interactive video games. It’s called Treasure in the Royal Tower, and one of the principal characters in the snowbound drama-mystery is Jacques Brunais. He is a onetime Olympic skier from France and a retired ski instructor. He has a love interest named Isabelle. And he has a bend-zeknees accent that almost seems authentic.

Of course he does.

93

KLAUS EVERLASTING

Keeping up with Obermeyer’s indefatigable 97-year-old founder.

by EVERETT POTTER

He attempted to ski from Austria into Switzerland to escape the Nazis but “was shot by soldiers, wounded, and left to die…”

— Klaus Obermeyer Jr.

K

P H OTO S : C O U R T E S Y O F O B E R M E Y E R . C O M

laus Obermeyer laughs when he realizes he has a snow-white mustache, the result of simultaneously talking and sipping coffee topped with three inches of thick sweet cream. In the pantheon of potential misbehaviors in a town like Aspen, drinking kaffee mit schlag as they call it in Obermeyer’s Bavarian hometown of Oberstaufen, is about the unhealthiest thing he does.

It’s 1 p.m. on a mid-winter day and Obermeyer has already swum a mile in Aspen Meadows Resort’s outdoor pool… in a snowstorm. He’s done his daily aikido practice, a martial art that has guided him physically and mentally for years. If it hadn’t been snowing so hard, he would have skied his daily high-speed laps of Tiehack on Buttermilk, situated only five minutes from Obermeyer headquarters. Now he is in the midst of his usual five hours of meetings and paperwork, which happen to be focused on Obermeyer’s 2018 collection of ski wear.

You might think this is just a normal working day for an Aspenite – Klaus Obermeyer certainly does – until you realize that the staggeringly energetic human being talking, gesticulating, and laughing at rapid speed is 97 years old.

Somewhere inside this vigorous, multi-tasking man they call Klaus Obermeyer there’s a lively 30 year old.

Here’s the short version of Klaus Obermeyer’s remarkable life: He is the father of ski wear and ski gear in the United States. He’s credited with creating the first down ski parka, high-altitude suntan lotion, double-paned goggles, nylon windshirts, ski turtlenecks, zippered turtlenecks, mirrored sunglasses, duallayer ski boots, and the first plastic ski boots. On his desk sits the prototype for the first ski brake, which he also invented.

Obermeyer, started in Aspen when the ski town was filled with stray dogs and abandoned silver mines, is still family-owned and coming off one of the three most profitable years in its 70-year history. At a time when most outerwear businesses are owned by corporations solely focused on the bottom line, Obermeyer occupies an uncrowded niche. Patagonia is comparable, but

founder Yvon Chouinard’s roots are in climbing. Obermeyer is all about skiing, pure and simple. Its history is sourced in Obermeyer’s own glory years of the sport in the German and Austrian Alps of the 1930s, and in the Aspen of the late 1940s.

“He started the company because people were getting cold on chairlifts,” says Biege Jones, Obermeyer’s Director of Advertising, who has been with the company for three decades. “He wanted them to be warm, to get some exercise, and then to get back on the chairlift.

He has a history of providing clothing for people to enjoy skiing and his passion was born from his love of skiing. It’s really the purest ski wear company in the world.”

The stories that come out of Obermeyer’s mouth are legion, legendary, and no doubt lightly embellished from repeated telling.

Born in rural Bavaria in 1919, into a world shocked by the Great 95

‘60s

‘40s

‘50s

BE. like. klaus.

War and in economic tatters, he remembers a childhood of warmth and outdoor pursuits. He delights in recalling how he saw his first skiers when he was three years old and subsequently fashioned his own skis from a pair of chestnut boards taken from an orange crate, nailing his best shoes to them.

“I used string to pull the tips up and tied them around my knees,” he recalls with the infectious enthusiasm that colors most of his responses. “It was sensational. I could slide down on the snow around the house.”

He became a ski racer, a mountaineer, and a rock climber. Walk around the halls of Obermeyer and there are enormous blackand-white photos of Klaus and his friends in the Alps — hiking, climbing, and skiing. It’s a veritable museum of pre-war alpine pursuits.

“In August we still had about 3,200 vertical feet of skiing on the Wildspitz,” he recalls. “So I made the first very short skis for glacier skiing so we could put them in the rucksack.”

While his friends drank beer, smoked, and partied, Obermeyer abstained. Instead, he figured out how to attach steel edges to his skis, modifying them to win races and sleeping with them beside 96

his bed. Mountain movies of that time starring Leni Riefenstahl and Hannes Schneider — including The White Ecstasy (Der Weisse Rausch) — served to fuel his imagination.

“When you won a race,” he says, “the ski club members came to the train station when you came back and carried you on their backs to the Wursthaus, where the club met.”

When he left Germany and came to Aspen in 1947, hired as an instructor by Friedl Pfeifer, he witnessed skiers arrive for a vacation and leave after a couple of days because the 15-minute chair ride up Aspen mountain left them too cold. Clothes designed for skiing were unknown. It inspired him to take a pair of scissors to the down comforter his mother had given him when he left Germany in order to fashion the world’s first down jacket.

“I did not invent the down parka,” he states, refuting the legend that has followed him for years. “The Chinese did, hundreds of years ago. What I did was cut up a down comforter to deal with the cold. My idea always was that so many things could be better.”

Of course, fashion was not always a slave to practicality. Having grown up with skiers wearing ties and knickerbockers, one of

P H OTO S : C O U R T E S Y O F O B E R M E Y E R . C O M

There’s a reason his staff sports Be Like Klaus stickers on their ski jackets.

“Your opponent is also your teacher. This is good for business because it creates a win-win situation.” — Klaus Obermeyer

‘70s

Obermeyer’s initial contributions to ski fashion was the Koogie Tie — two small yarn balls held together with a yarn string. It was cornball but he got Gary Cooper to wear one and “we sold a hell of a lot of them at $1.75 each — about 32,000!” These were his ski bum years when he and his friend, filmmaker Warren Miller, would drive to ski shops across the U.S. sleeping in Miller’s car trunk and bribing motel maids 50 cents to let them take showers.

“I fell in love with the dry snow here in Aspen,” he says, gesturing outside at the falling flakes. His mind tends to move faster than his mouth, which is already clocking great speed, and he waves his arms for extra emphasis. Klaus is a teacher at heart and he wants to be sure that you understand what he is telling you. “It is a gift to live here. So many nice people attracted by nature and the fun of skiing.”

These may sound like platitudes and indeed, Obermeyer perceives the world with a sunny and relentlessly optimistic view that verges on the extreme. But the sincerity is genuine, near religious, and he manifests a zen-like appreciation of small things and a joy in being alive. The source of that optimism is the dark days of the early 1940s, when he had trained as an aeronautical engineer in Germany and chose to work designing bombers and Messerschmitt fighter planes rather than kill men on the battlefield.

“The intensity of the pain and horror of the war and its effect on friends and family is one that is so intense and so atrocious and beyond imagination that it has contributed to his appreciation

2ks

‘80s ‘90s

clockwise from left

of the simple things in life,” says Klaus Obermeyer Jr., a noted filmmaker and the youngest of Obermeyer’s three sons. “His brother was a political dissident and placed in a Nazi work camp.

My father describes incredible horrors in his own village, like a little girl coming to him with her father’s severed head, asking him to put her father back together.”

Toward the war’s end, Obermeyer attempted to ski from Austria into Switzerland to escape the Nazis but “was shot by soldiers, wounded, and left to die on a mountain,” Klaus Jr. says. “His femur was broken but he managed to lie down on his ski and essentially swim down the mountain by kicking his good leg. He found someone to help him get to a hospital on a sled. The war ended while he was recuperating.”

The horrors might have broken a lesser man. For Klaus Obermeyer, it seemed to propel him headlong in a positive direction.

“It’s why my dad appreciates things like hot water coming from a tap or freedom of speech,” explains Klaus Jr. “It translates to ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’. He’s a man who refuses to let negativity enter his world.”

At Obermeyer offices, across the street from the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, negativity is absent. The single-story building has enormous windows that provide a view of the freshly fallen snow on the mountains. If it seems a tad Bauhaus in look, that’s by design.

Obermeyer’s headquarters is a calm and peaceful space inhabited by a group of singularly calm and focused creative people, many of whom count their employment in decades. Some have taken advantage of the “Powder Rule” that morning, meaning that if six inches of snow or more have fallen, it’s okay to ski before arriving 98

at work. There’s a reason his staff sports Be Like Klaus stickers on their ski jackets.

The historic skiing photos in Obermeyer’s hallways are paired with posters of Obermeyer ski wear ads from the 1960s, some of them featuring Obermeyer‘s wife Nome, who designed many of the pieces. When she joins us later, her striking cheekbones are an instant reminder of her aunt, Katharine Hepburn.

“I marvel at what has happened to our beloved sport,” says Obermeyer, pointing to 50-year-old photos of Nome posing on the slopes with Klaus Jr. “It has grown and has made a lot of people happy and taught them how beautiful the mountains are.”

The company has been in the forefront of the sport, with a mandate to keep skiers drier, warmer, more comfortable, and safer on the slopes. Ryan Meyer, the company’s director of merchandising, says that “Nome lives so much in the creative world, she’s always pushing us to the most design-driven product.

And then you have Klaus on the flip side, who pushes us to be technically relevant.”

“I’m the technical policeman,” Klaus adds. “They make some

P H OTO S : C O U R T E S Y O F O B E R M E Y E R . C O M

1. Obermeyer models pose onslope. 2. Obermeyer’s 1960’s fashion.

3. A vintage Obermeyer magazine advertisement. 4. Young Klaus demonstrating the “Umsprung”. 5. Klaus posing with Obermeyer models in a Bavarian setting.

6. An Obermeyer model circa 1960s. 7. The sunny and optimistic Klaus Obermeyer.

Obermeyer perceives the world with a sunny and relentlessly optimistic view that verges on the extreme.

beautiful things here and I want to be sure that they work right, vent well, are lightweight, and have stretch where they need stretch, so that you want to live in it.”

Naturally, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. COO Greg Bannister has no fashion background but, like Klaus, was trained as an engineer in the aerospace defense industry. He recalls that when he joined the company five years ago, “I had to face five kitchen tables stacked with paper. Those were the files.” He brought Obermeyer into the 21st century with an engineer’s cool head.

There are other engineering marvels here as well. The building treads softly on its site by design and has a solar wall, built back in 1984, which heats half the building as well as an outdoor saltwater pool. Yet the need to be green causes Klaus lingering regret.

“With textiles, it is very hard to be green,” he confesses. “Doing things like converting bamboo to textiles is not very friendly to the environment. We need to step on this planet more lightly.”

Klaus Obermeyer lives on a 100-acre Aspen ranch, where he mountain bikes, walks, and chops firewood. Yet he doesn’t appear

to be preoccupied with material possessions.

“He is very humble,” says Biege Jones. “The key to his underlying wisdom is that he looks long term. He looks out five years on a daily basis. You have to have that vision because everything moves too quickly.”

The other key, suggests Jones, is Obermeyer’s study of aikido, a martial art renowned not just for its moves but for its mindset, which is a paradox in itself.

“Aikido teaches you your own strength,” says Obermeyer.

“It’s a martial art of love. You love your opponent, you do not hate them. Your opponent is also your teacher. This is good for business because it creates a win-win situation.”

To demonstrate aikido’s power, Klaus stands across from me, puts his arm on my shoulder, and asks me to grab his arm and pull down on it. It’s strong, but it bends, albeit with resistance.

“Okay, I will send energy through it. Do it now,” he says.

I try, and I can’t budge it, even with both my arms pulling down hard on his forearm.

“Harder,” he says, with a laugh. His arm won’t bend. It’s an incredible party trick but the fact is that this man is nearly a century old and I can’t move his arm...

As I take my leave, a Be Like Klaus sticker in hand, Obermeyer reminds me of another guiding principle from his aikido training: “You never have it made, you’re always making it.”

It’s a great mantra for a 70-year-old company.

And a 97-year-old man.

99

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Oligarch ‘n’ over the top.

France’s Courchevel harbors the who’s who of the international jet set in more five-star hotels than most world capitals.

by LESLIE WOIT

116

F

rom the travails of war, a gilded cage is born. France’s Courchevel in Trois Vallées is one of the world’s most glamorous ski resorts — the winter retreat of kings, queens, and oligarchs. Yet its plans were hatched not in a glittering salon, but behind the barbed wire of an Austrian camp for prisoners of war. As an architect, town planner, keen skier, and visionary, Laurent Chappis completed his doctorate during his incarceration at a prisoner-of-war camp in Austria.

Sardonically, Chappis referred to his stalag camp as “l’université de captivité”. While behind bars, he and fellow POW Maurice Michaud, a Savoyard engineer, drew plans, sketched drawings, and mapped the world’s first purpose-built ski resort. With his idea of ski-in, ski-out accommodation, Chappis spurred a revolution in mountain urbanism and earned a reputation as a young “anarchitect”. His raison d’être for Courchevel was high-minded hedonism with a difference: a state-sanctioned “People’s Resort”. It was styled as a health-giving retreat for young winter sports enthusiasts and fellow travelers on a budget. Socialism meets skiing. A Utopian version of la belle vie on skis. My, how the pendulum has swung...

Today no fewer than 20 five-star hotels — sybaritic palaces of silks velvets, marble, mahogany, and crystal — pepper the edges of Courchevel’s Aubussongroomed pistes.

H OT E L P H OTO S : C O U R T E S Y O F P R O P E R T I E S .

H ÔT E L A N N A P U R N A’ S S LO P E S I D E P O O L .

It’s been 70 years since Courchevel became the first ski resort in France to be built from scratch, yet these days, no itch in Courchevel goes unscratched. Hail the maître. Ring for the butler.

Cherchez le moniteur, preferably one who’s equally talented aux des sports de glisse and at slaloming round a carte des vin. Today no fewer than 20 five-star hotels — sybaritic palaces of silks, velvets, marble, mahogany, and crystal — pepper the edges of Courchevel’s Aubusson-groomed pistes.

Where to begin? Perhaps with a glass of bubbly inside one of France’s only five-star-plus hotels outside Paris. In “Courch” there are three such “palaces”: Les Airelles, Hôtel Le K2 Palace, and Cheval Blanc. (The last is owned by Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, who, when denied planning permission for his private chalet, erected an entire hotel instead. His penthouse is available for rent at €34,520 per night.)

Perchance we should begin with a hotel that’s slightly more sportif, such as Hôtel Manali, whose rooms are inspired by heliski destinations favored by its McLaren-Honda Formula 1 team owners. There’s also the Hôtel Annapurna, owned by Claude Pinturault, father of podium-stealing World Cup racer Alexis. Then again, for a whiff of French ski royalty, we could try Courchevel’s haute-luxe Le Strato, owned by Laurent Boix-Vives, former owner of the Rossignol empire.

Alors… Two newer hotels are giving Courchevel’s traditional châteaux a run for their money. The aptly named L’Apogée Courchevel is a velvet-lined jewel-box run by the Oekter family.

The hotel is laden with beautiful Baccarat crystal, a plush cocktail lounge, and a louche cigar den, plus a pair of top-drawer Japanese and French restaurants that would be equally at home in Paris,

London, or New York City. And let us not forget Hôtel Barrière Les Neiges, which opened last year with nightly live music and a chic Argentine grill that will sate the appetite of the blood-thirstiest emir, oligarch, or hedge fund honcho.

It is these high-flyers who are among the species most commonly sighted in Courch, flocking in by helicopter or looking natty in their NetJets. To best take advantage of Courchevel’s uber-convenient altiport (Europe’s highest tarmacked runway was famously featured in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies), it’s Jetfly that makes the come-and-go a breeze. The private jet company delivers guests smack into the midst of the Trois Vallées’ 373 miles of slopes that comprise the world’s largest linked ski domain.

Did we not mention the skiing? Oh yes, there is heaps of that and it’s tough to beat. But like many Courchevel guests, we’ll get around to that later…

First, let’s join the beautiful people, the crème of the one-percent crème, whose luggage travels separately. Their monogrammed baggage is sometimes accompanied by staff, sometimes by wives, or sometimes it’s simply left behind for next time. (Photographs remind hotel staff of the re-placement of items so guests feel fully chez nous upon return.)

Much is made of the resort’s infamous Russian clientele, but in truth Courchevel guests hail from more than 50 nationalities, making it one of the world’s truly international ski destinations.

Indeed, Courch’s ESF Ski Schools employ more than 1,000 instructors. It’s an army of moniteurs speaking dozens of languages and schooled in the fine art of teaching, guiding, and booking everything from restaurants to drivers, massages, even firework 117

previous pages first row 1. Hôtel Barrière Les Neiges.

2. L’ Apogée Courchevel.

3. Le Strato 4. Hôtel Annapurna. second row 1. Hôtel Manali. 2. Hôtel Le Saint Roch. 3. Hôtel Les Airelles.

Skiing celebs run a modest gamut from David and Victoria Beckham to George Clooney, Giorgio Armani, and Leonardo DiCaprio — all largely left by both the public and the paps to mercifully mind their own beeswax.

third row 1. Hôtel Le K2 Palace.

2. Cheval Blanc.

3. Hôtel Le K2 Altitude. this page

displays. French, English, Russian, Ukrainian, Brazilian… depending on the week, the month, or the holiday, the babble of languages in Courchevel’s cafés, clubs, and lift queues shifts like snowdrifts in a storm.

For some of the most diverting people-watching and fascinating fingering of sumptuous objets, we head for the shops dotted round the village of Courchevel 1850, the highest and most exclusive of the four villages that comprise the Courchevel region. Nibble a pain au chocolat and spring for a tub of Beluga at Le Chabichou L’Epicerie Fine. Linger in Christian Lacroix, where a set of specialty diamond-decorated skis can set you back more than €40,000.

Nothing to wear? Fix that in a handful of misspent moments at Louis Vuitton, Prada, or Chanel. For fur go to Brentana. For cashmere consider Eric Bompard. For bling try Cartier or Graff.

And just because you’re in the mountains, don’t imagine there’s anything provincial about the service. Kid-glove treatment from Hermès has included the ferrying of VIP purchases all the way from Paris in a taxi. In just six hours that Kelly bag could be yours for €30,000.

Don’t stop there, mon amour. Courchevel is uniquely designed to favor an even more energetic kind of consumerism: ski-in, ski-out shopping. Schuss straight to the door of Fendi in the

P H OTO S : C O U R C H E V E L TO U R I S M E / DAV I D A N D R É

1. Courchevel’s tram.

2. Luxury shopping at Valentino.

beautiful interior of Cheval Blanc. Duck into L’Apogée to — wonder of wonders — pick up a pair of mink Birkenstocks in its lavish ski boutique. For a little more than €1,000 they’re easier on your Swiss bank account than the fur-trimmed Bogner ski suit at Maison Orcel. Located in Hôtel Barrière Les Neiges, Bernard Orcel is the resort’s largest “ski room” featuring leather banquettes, friendly ski boot concierges, and an all-day dessert buffet.

Less a place for the famous to be seen, Courchevel is the place for the super-rich to be both super and rich. Back in the day, the St. Tropez of winter resorts was put on the map by the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. More recently, skiing celebs run a modest gamut from David and Victoria Beckham to George Clooney, Giorgio Armani, and Leonardo DiCaprio — all largely left by both the public and the paps to mercifully mind their own beeswax.

A healthy handful of the more royally anointed also exchange crowns for helmets here – along with the chance to schuss and sway unfettered and unmolested. You might pass the King of Morocco or the Aga Khan, who recently had two new chalets built for maximum privacy and ski-from-the-door convenience. The Saudi royals’ travel style is altogether different: Each winter they

arrive in a posse of a hundred or more, booking out digs such as Les Airelles in all its pomp and palatial entirety. Erring on the side of British discretion, Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, arrived en famille last year with George and Charlotte in tow. After lunching at La Cave des Creux, they stayed quietly in a private chalet while very smartly offered the press one photo op in front of a different chalet door. Just a few years before, the royal couple danced on the tables at Le Tremplin, a resto run by JeanJacques Bertrand, ex-World Cup ski jumper and terminal bon vivant.

Then there is the east-bloc-ocracy. When the Berlin Wall came down, the new Russians embraced Courchevel, especially during the Orthodox Christmas holidays. By 2003, Chelsea Football owner Roman Abramovich was executing the ultimate oligarch shopping spree. Hovering overhead in a helicopter with three bodyguards and a fixer, he phoned down $250-million worth of offers to buy a chalet… any chalet. Remarkably, there were no takers. He made do with taking 40 suites in what was then called the Hôtel Byblos. The Byblos gained further notoriety some years later when Mikhail Prokhorov, current owner of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, generously entertained a party of pretty depending on the week, the month, bothered. A dawn police raid — again with helicopters, plus a herd 121

Less a place for the famous to be seen, Courchevel is the place for the superrich to be both super and rich.

Courchevel record for host-with-the-most, Pinchuk paid £4 million. No one said skiing was cheap, especially when you’re hiring three-Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse to fix dinner.

of Alsatians for extra frisson — saw him and his friends tossed in the hoosegow on trumped-up and quickly dropped charges relating to prostitution and drug trafficking.

What kind of killjoy France is this?

Then again, when life gives you citrons, you throw a soirée, just as Ukrainian steel-king Victor Pinchuk did for his 50th birthday. He invited 300 guests, booked 11 five-star hotels in their entirety, and ordered up a purpose-built tent for a Cirque du Soleil performance. Said to be a 122

One of several reasons the French are better at life is their food. Eating well is understood here, and with seven Michelinstarred restaurants in Courchevel (and a further 14 in the connected resorts of the Trois Vallées), one may spoon, slice, skewer, and sip one’s way through a winter of culinary decadence. Le Chabichou lays one the world’s loveliest tables. Along with Chef Stéphane Buron, Chef Michel Rochedy has been at its helm since de Gaulle was in office. His 80th birthday party last year was a who’s who of renowned chefs and foodie friends. On any “regular” evening, the timelessly elegant room hums with respect for grand gastronomy and good conversation. It attracts you-name-its, from heads of states to Gérard Depardieu.

Dinner at Le Chabichou keeps even Gordon Ramsay quiet.

P H OTO S : C O U R T E S Y O F L E C H A B I C H O U

left to right

1. Victoria Beckham. 2. Chef Alain Ducasse. 3. William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. 4. Le Chabichou chefs Michel Rochedy (left) and Stéphane Buron.

5. and 6. Le Chabichou’s Michelin-starred dishes.

7. Your private Jetfly awaits.

And we couldn’t possibly wind up without a little homage where homage is due.

Courchevel serves up a topographical smorgasbord that could feed the world. This is ground zero for glossy grooming, wide cruising, and some of the best powder stashes anywhere. The lift system is gargantuan, stretching in all its Trois Vallées splendor from Col du Fruit in the east to Méribel, La Tania, Val Thorens, and Saint-Martin-deBelleville in the west.

“Ski your hearts out, comrades!”

Monsieur Chappis must be crying from above, perhaps enjoying a little residual fizz from one of those balthazars of Krug regularly sprayed into Courchevel’s heavenly airspace. Long live the People’s Resort.

Vive le Savoie libre.

W W W.C O U R C H E V E L .C O M

P H OTO : C O U R T E S Y O F J E T F LY

SNOW SCENES

SNOW SCENES UP CLOSE & PERSONAL A star-studded week at Aspen’s World Cup Finals.

by THE SNOW SOCIAL ELITE

A M I C H A E L F R A N T I P H OTO : A S P E N S K I I N G C O M PA N Y.

spen has a long history with ski racing, one dating as far back as 1939. Last March the renowned Colorado ski town hosted the 2017 Audi FIS Ski World Cup Finals, welcoming the World Cup men’s circuit back to Aspen slopes for the first time since 2001.

It was a star-studded week with skiing’s royalty in attendance. Daily races under bluebird skies included slopeside VIP viewing.

Bode Miller entertained a boisterous crowd at an event for Aztech Mountain at Performance Ski. The affair showcased Aztech Mountain ski wear and SNOW was there as the exclusive media sponsor.

Evening parties included Sentient Jet’s soirée at bb’s; Hotel Jerome’s 50th Anniversary

M i k a e l a S h i f fri n - Ove ra l l FI S Wo r l d C u p Wi n n e r ! !

M i ch a e l Fra n ti L I VE! !

of World Cup Skiing party; homemade treats and glühwein at La Crêperie du Village; Michael Franti & Spearhead’s party in the park; and Audi’s blowout bash at Bootsy Bellows.

It was nonstop action both on and off the slopes — a rare opportunity for American ski racing fans to enjoy a world class celebration up close and personal.

Ch a r l o t te M oa t s, Steve n N y m a n & Ch ri s Dave n po r t

M o rg a n M i l l e r, Gu s tavo S a n g i o rg i J e a n e t te O d e l be rg

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& M a ri o l a K a t r y n i o k

& Le e Ke a ti n g Ki rs te n L a m o t te , M i k a e l a S h i f fri n & Ba rba ra S a n d e rs

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SNOW SCENES

B o d e M i l l e r & A l a s k a S pe e dy

Davi d Sta p l e to n

E ri n M i e l z y n s ki & K ay l i n Ri ch a rd s o n

& J o n o M cB ri d e

Zacha ry Ergish , Mi m i Si lvi no, Chi n o Ma rti nez, Rebecca Armstro ng , Ba rb Sa nders & Am ber Aldercot te

E ri c Ko efo e d & N a t h a l i e Ste n m a r k B r yo n Fri e d m a n

A l e ks a n d e r Ki l d e, A ks e l Lu n d Svi n d a l H e i fa ra Ru tg e rs, M i ke S h e a , Davi d Ro t h & B o d e M i l l e r

M a n ny O s bo r n e- Pa ra d i s & Fa m i l y

& M i c a h S a n d e rs -Si lva

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RESOURCES

Resources Cover & Contents Jacket Fendi $3,750 Pants Fendi $1,250 Earmuffs Fendi $1,550 Goggles Fendi $50 www.fendi.com Sweater SOS $209 www.colesport.com

Uphill Battle

SNOW Stories

PAGE 42

PAGE 44

ON KARINA

AZTECH MOUNTAIN

GUSHLOW & COLE

Jacket M. MILLER $1,015 www.mmillerfur.com

DALE OF NORWAY

Sweater NILS $165 www.nils.us

www.aztechmountain.com SHURE

www.shure.com FISCHER

www.fischersports.com VUARNET

www.vuarnet.com SUUNTO

www.suunto.com TONI SAILER

www.tonisailer.com MONTURA

www.montura.it BOGNER

www.bogner.com CHAOS

www.chaoshats.com DALBELLO

www.dalbello.it GIPRON

www.gipron.it SKEA

www.skealimited.com DESCENTE

www.descente.com 128

Warm & Wild www.gushlowandcole.com www.daleofnorway.com M. MILLER

www.mmillerfur.com PARAJUMPERS

www.parajumpers.it SPORTALM

www.sportalm.at NILS

www.nils.us CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN

www.saks.com ASTIS

www.astis.com NOBIS

www.nobis.com CHAOS

www.chaoshats.com BALLY

www.bally.com

Cuff BUCCELLATI $41,000 Earrings BUCCELLATI $84,000 Ring BUCCELLATI $12,500 www.buccellati.com

RESOURCES

Insta-Glam PAGES 98-99

ON ALEXANDER Sweater SOS $230 info@sisusports.com Vest Luis Trenker $ 595 Pants LUIS TRENKER $ 740 www.shop.valbrunastore.com Watch BUCCELLATI $17,500 www.buccellati.com ON KACI Dress YVES SALOMON $2,050 Vest YVES SALOMON $11,650 www.yves-salomon.fr/en/ Belt LEES PEARSON $2,400 Lees@leespearson.com Boots SILVIA TCHERASSI $520 www.silviatcherassi.com Cuff BUCCELLATI $69,000 Cuff BUCCELLATI $41,000 www.buccellati.com ON KARINA Poncho SKEA $478 www.skealimited.com Pants SPORTALM $499 www.sportalm.at Bracelet VAN CLEEF & ARPELS $20,100 www.vancleefarpels.com Boots AMMANN $380 www.ammann1917.ch Ring BUCCELLATI $12,500 www.buccellati.com ON MIRO Pants FRAUENSCHUH $802 Sweater FRAUENSCHUH $412 Vest FRAUENSCHUH $1,650 www.frauenschuh.com Boots ZEGNA $795 www.zegna.com PAGE 100-101 ON KARINA Tunic KRIMSON KLOVER $139 Leggings KRIMSON KLOVER $78 www.krimsonklover.com Hat GUSHLOW & COLE $245 Vest GUSHLOW & COLE $1,225 Hand Warmers GUSHLOW & COLE$148 www.gushlowandcole.com Boots FENDI $1,450 www.fendi.com Earrings VAN CLEEF & ARPELS $27,600 Ring VAN CLEEF & ARPELS $18,300 www.vancleefarpels.com ON MIRO Pants AZTECH MOUNTAIN $550 Sweater AZTECH MOUNTAIN $495

Jacket AZTECH MOUNTAIN $1,650 www.aztechmountain.com Sunglasses VUARNET $600 www.vuarnet.com Boots MODEL’S OWN ON KACI Pants FRAUENSCHUH $706 Baselayer FRAUENSCHUH $233 Gilet FRAUENSCHUH $1,249 www.frauenschuh.com Scarf GUSHLOW & COLE $438 www.gushlowandcole.com Boots MOON BOOT $150 www.moonboot.com Hat SKEA $698 www.skealimited.com ON KARINA Pants DESCENTE $250 www.descente.com Scarf QASMYR $345 www.qasmyr.com Sweater ROSSIGNOL $230 www.rossignol.com Jacket SPYDER $650 www.spyder.com Boots BOGNER $599 www.bogner.com PAGES 102-103

ON KACI Sweater DALE OF NORWAY $239 www.daleofnorway.com Skirt DESCENTE $195 www.descente.com Vest ROSSIGNOL $820 www.rossignol.com Clutch LEES PEARSON $2,400 Lees@leespearson.com Boots MOON BOOT $175 www.moon-boot.com ON KARINA Skirt MORGANE LE FAY $1,880 Dress MORGANE LE FAY $1,340 www.morganelefay.com Vest WOLFIE $2,995 www.wolfiefur.com Ring VAN CLEEF & ARPELS $18,300 Bracelet VAN CLEEF & ARPELS $46,500 www.vancleefarpels.com Clutch LEES PEARSON $2,200 lees@leespearson.com Pumps NICOLE MILLER $155 www.nicolemiller.com ON MIRO Suit and Tie NICK GRAHAM $395 www.macys.com Loafers GUCCI Stylist’s Own Jacket NOBIS $995 www.nobis.com

Watch VAN CLEEF & ARPELS $98,000 www.vancleefarpels.com ON KACI Gown PAMELLA ROLAND $5,990 www.pamellaroland.com Fur DENNIS BASSO $28,000 www.dennisbasso.com Pumps NICOLE MILLER $155 www.nicolemiller.com Earrngs VAN CLEEF & ARPELS $27,600 www.vancleefarpels.com PAGES 104-105

ON KACI Underwear Set SNOWANGEL AUSTRALIA $80 www.snowangel.com.au Jacket NICOLE MILLER $6,000 www.nicolemiller.com Necklace VAN CLEEF & ARPELS $99,000 www.vancleefarpels.com ON ALEXANDER Sweater DALE OF NORWAY $249 www.daleofnorway.com Watch KYBOE! $330 www.kyboe.com Fur Throw M. MILLER $3,600 www.www.mmillerfur.com PAGES 106-107 ON KACI Jacket GOLDBERGH $1,118 www.goldbergh.com Pants NILS $195 www.nils.us Sweater SNOWANGEL AUSTRALIA $299 www.snowangel.com.au Boots MOON BOOT $200 www.moon-boot.com Necklace DOUBLE DIAMOND JEWELRY $975 www.doublediamondjewelry.com ON ALEXANDER Blazer BOMBER SKI $2,150 www.bomberski.com Shirt ORTOVOX $160 www.ortovox.com Pants MONCLER $765 www.moncler.com ON MIRO Jacket KJUS $2,199 Pants KJUS $799 www.kjus.com T-Shirt Alp-n-Rock $159 www.alpnrock.com ON KARINA

Jacket TONI SAILER $2,199 Pants TONI SAILER $699 www.tonisailer.com Light Jacket SKEA $328 www.skealimited.com Boots NICOLE MILLER $280 www.nicolemiller.com ON ALEXANDER Jacket TONI SAILER $2,299 www.tonisailor.com Gloves MONCLER $1,515 www.moncler.com Sunglasses POC $200 www. pocsports.com Henley DALE OF NORWAY $239 www.daleofnorway.com Jeans MODEL’S OWN PAGES 108-109

ON MIRO Sweater ZEGNA Price on Request Pants ZEGNA $2,085 Backpack ZEGNA $795 www.zegna.us Sunglasses SHAMBALLA $1,695 www.shamballa-eyewear.com ON KACI Jacket NILS $670 Pants NILS $255 Turtleneck NILS $140 www.nils.us Boots BOGNER $820 www.bogner.com ON ALEXANDER Jacket SPORTALM $1,189 Pants SPORTALM $849 Baselayer SPORTALM $249 www.sportalm.at Sunglasses VUARNET $600 www.vuarnet.com Boots ZEGNA $795 www.zegna.us PAGES 110-111 ON MIRO Jacket ALPS & METERS $896 Pants ALPS & METERS $725 www.alpsandmeters.com Turtleneck ZEGNA $595 www.zegna.us Sunglasses SHAMBALLA $1,795 www.shamballa-eyewear.com Watch KYBOE! $250 www.kyboe.com ON KARINA Jacket, Pants, Baselayer AUTHIER (Price on Request} www.performanceskiaspen.com Handbag FENDI $2,040 www.fendi.com Boots NICOLE MILLER $260

www.nicolemiller.com Ring BUCCELLATI $6,300 Left Hand Cuff BUCCELLATI $24,500 www.buccellati.com Bracelet VAN CLEEF & ARPELS $36,500 www.vancleefarpels.com Tesla Model S www.tesla.com PAGES 112-113

ON KARINA Jacket MONTVAL $1,499 Sweater MONTVAL $359 www.montval.com Skirt KRIMSON KLOVER $118 www.krimsonklover.com Handbag LEES PEARSON $3,200 lees@leespearson.com ON ALEXANDER Jacket CAPRANEA $1,099 www.capranea.com Pants ORTOVOX $530 www.ortovox.com Baselayer SOS $125 info@sisusports.com Boots MOON BOOT $150 www.moon-boot.com ON MIRO Jacket PARAJUMPERS $675 Sweater PARAJUMPERS $185 www.shop.valbrunaitaly.com Shirt NICK GRAHAM $65 www.macys.com Scarf QASMYR $195 www.qasmyr.com Pants LULULEMON $128 www.lululemon.com Boots MOON BOOT $150 www.moon-boot.com ON KACI Jacket BOGNER $1,900 Pants BOGNER $250 Baselayer BOGNER $250 www.bogner.com Ring LULU FIEDLER Price on Request www.lulufiedler.com ON ALEXANDER Jacket DSQUARED2 $2,885 Jeans DSQUARED2 $860 www.dsquared2.com Sweater LUIS TRENKER $330 www.shop.valbrunaitaly.com

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LAST RUN

COOL

KITSCH CHARLIE ADAM CREDITS HIS GROOVY ALPINE VISIONS TO A GARAGE SALE P U R C H A S E O F M AG I C GL A S S E S T H AT ALLOW HIM TO “SEE INTO THE PAST OR T H E F U T U R E .” H I S S T Y L I Z E D S K I A R T — POPULAR IN THE ALPS AND BEY O N D — I S A S D E L I C I O U S L Y K O O K Y AS JUDY JE TSON DESIGNING FOR AALLARD MEGÈVE. Charlie Adam’s funky alpine posters and prints — part nostalgia, part selfmockery —adorn the walls of Europe’s best private chalets and, more often, appear as advertising for iconic spots such as Val d’Isère, Chamonix, Zermatt, Cervinia, and La Folie Douce. He once decorated an entire sightseeing helicopter with cheerful peaks and a bronzed ski goddess.

Based in the French Alps, the 40-something graphic artist looks both backward and forward in time for mountain inspiration. There are stretch-pant sexpots of the ‘50s and ‘60s; hot-dogging disco-ball divas of the ‘70s; and futuristic ski worlds populated with tiki huts. Mixing old-school poster art with contemporary design, his chic interpretations typically feature cocktailswilling après skiers, gondola shenanigans, and the odd fondue-forked yodeler.

Crossing kitsch with cool wit, Adam says he’s mixing “a sense of fun to make life more colorful.”

Art posters, as well as “kitsch cool” products — illustrated carpets, personalised bank card covers, beanbags, deck chairs — are sold online and at the Alp Chic boutiques in Annecy-le-Vieux and Chamonix. — Leslie Woit W W W.C H A R L I E A DA M .C O M W W W.I N H O M A D E S I G N / F R / AC C U E IL .C O M

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