Vail

Gratuitous voyeurism trumps plot and character in two kinds of film. One type requires you be at least 18 years old for admission; ski movies are the other. And nobody makes ski movies like Warren Miller, whose annual productions have been ski-season harbingers for 61 years now. “Wintervention’’ is the new film made under the Miller imprimatur. True to form, it shows mind-boggling skiing (with a little snowboarding tossed in for good measure) in locales most of us can only dream about ever dropping into.

Michigan won the varsity eight heavyweight race to capture the men's team point trophy championship at the 74th Dad Vail Regatta Saturday on Philadelphia's Schuylkill River. Duke won the women's heavyweight eight championship. Bucknell won the overall women's team point trophy. It was the first time in the program's history the Bison won the points trophy. The varsity eight advanced to the championship for the first team in team history and finished second behind the Blue Devils.

Suddenly my life is awash in chicks. Chicks who rip. For all you right-on-the-edge-of-being-offended politically correct females out there, this phrase is the title of a magnificent little essay by Moira McCarthy in the January issue of Ski Magazine. Her thesis is that no amount of feminine charm, beauty, or flirtatiousness can match the sex appeal of a woman who can ski hard and fast. Here's an excerpt that gives the flavor of what McCarthy terms a simple truth: "Guys dig chicks who rip. All the hairspray and cute apres boots in the world will never outshine athletic grace on a...

Vail Resorts Inc.'s fiscal second-quarter net income dropped 15 percent as the mild winter kept customers away from the ski slopes. But the company was able to offset some of that by raising ticket prices and room rates. "This has been one of the most, if not the most, challenging winters for the U.S. ski industry," CEO Rob Katz said in a statement Tuesday. Its Tahoe resorts had almost no snow during the November-January quarter, while Colorado resorts only got significant snow starting in mid-January.

DENVER -- Jack Boettcher loves to cruise the blues. For 50 years, Boettcher has skied the slopes from Snowmass to Vail to Steamboat Springs. These days, he counts among his favorite haunts some smaller resorts that offer plenty of well-groomed intermediate runs -- the "blues. " "I kind of like the family atmosphere and the price is right," said Boettcher, 76, who lives in the Denver area. "My leisure time has always been in the mountains. " Smaller ski areas from Vermont to California are seeing brisk business by catering to area residents, families, and first-time skiers and snowboarders.

CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine -- The rewards for navigating the long and winding roads through northwestern Maine are two of New England's best alpine areas. Sugarloaf and Saddleback are oases in the wilderness, and both deliver big vertical drops with an unpretentious, friendly Maine attitude. Back in the disco era, Saddleback was a rising star in New England skiing, poised to become the "Vail of the East" and challenging nearby Sugarloaf for future bragging rights. Flash forward 30 years: Sugarloaf has achieved rap star status, while Saddleback is simply staying alive.

Before the new millennium, Saddleback was Maine’s rising star, poised to become the “Vail of the East.’’ Its grandiose expansion plans challenged top-dog Sugarloaf for future bragging rights. Environmental and Appalachian Trail advocacy groups had other ideas, though. They sued to preserve the peak’s views and quietude and to shield future hikers from signs of development and commercialization. For roughly 20 years, Saddleback languished. Into the early 21st century, it remained firmly entrenched in the 1980s.

A Michigan teen finishing off an Arby's roast beef sandwich chomped down on something tough that tasted like rubber, so he spit it out. Turns out it tasted like finger. The fleshy, severed pad of an unfortunate employee's finger, apparently. Ryan Hart, 14, told the Jackson Citizen Patriot on Wednesday that once he got a good look at it, he knew right away what had been in the junior roast beef sandwich he was eating last Friday. "I was like, 'That (has) to be a finger,"' Hart said.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Riding down a spongy, pine needle-covered trail in the North Cascade foothills, one thing was clear: I did not want to hit a tree. Some of the hefty hardwoods measured as wide as doorways and had withstood years of battering, coastal storms and, more recently, mild assaults from clumsy mountain bikers. My fellow biker babes and I were feeling confident, however, after three hours of skills sessions during which we learned how to leap over logs, pedal up steep hills, and do wheelie drops (a technique for clearing obstacles or descending steep...

DENVER -- Four alleged environmental extremists have been indicted in a 1998 firebombing at the Vail ski resort that caused $12 million in damage, one of the most devastating ecoterrorism attacks in US history. All four defendants had been named in an earlier indictment in Oregon charging them with conspiracy in a series of similar sabotage attacks in Oregon, California, and Wyoming. Two are in custody in Oregon, and the other two were still at large. The Vail blaze "really is a subset of the larger conspiracy," US Attorney William Leone said.

Gratuitous voyeurism trumps plot and character in two kinds of film. One type requires you be at least 18 years old for admission; ski movies are the other. And nobody makes ski movies like Warren Miller, whose annual productions have been ski-season harbingers for 61 years now. “Wintervention’’ is the new film made under the Miller imprimatur. True to form, it shows mind-boggling skiing (with a little snowboarding tossed in for good measure) in locales most of us can only dream about ever dropping into.

Before the new millennium, Saddleback was Maine’s rising star, poised to become the “Vail of the East.’’ Its grandiose expansion plans challenged top-dog Sugarloaf for future bragging rights. Environmental and Appalachian Trail advocacy groups had other ideas, though. They sued to preserve the peak’s views and quietude and to shield future hikers from signs of development and commercialization. For roughly 20 years, Saddleback languished. Into the early 21st century, it remained firmly entrenched in the 1980s.

CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine -- The rewards for navigating the long and winding roads through northwestern Maine are two of New England's best alpine areas. Sugarloaf and Saddleback are oases in the wilderness, and both deliver big vertical drops with an unpretentious, friendly Maine attitude. Back in the disco era, Saddleback was a rising star in New England skiing, poised to become the "Vail of the East" and challenging nearby Sugarloaf for future bragging rights. Flash forward 30 years: Sugarloaf has achieved rap star status, while Saddleback is...

DENVER -- Four alleged environmental extremists have been indicted in a 1998 firebombing at the Vail ski resort that caused $12 million in damage, one of the most devastating ecoterrorism attacks in US history. All four defendants had been named in an earlier indictment in Oregon charging them with conspiracy in a series of similar sabotage attacks in Oregon, California, and Wyoming. Two are in custody in Oregon, and the other two were still at large. The Vail blaze "really is a subset of the larger conspiracy," US Attorney William Leone said.

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. -- It's a bright winter day at Colorado's Vail/Eagle Airport, with the blinding sunshine rivaled by crowds outfitted in Louis Vuitton and Prada skiwear. Fresh arrivals stream forth from a handful of gates: a parade of fur-lined hats, dark sunglasses, and high-heeled boots wholly impractical for use in the snow. This, however, is where the road to the ski trail diverges. Rather than join the high-fashion masses headed for Vail's glitzy slopes, I'm on my way to Vail's fresher-faced sister resort.

Suddenly my life is awash in chicks. Chicks who rip. For all you right-on-the-edge-of-being-offended politically correct females out there, this phrase is the title of a magnificent little essay by Moira McCarthy in the January issue of Ski Magazine. Her thesis is that no amount of feminine charm, beauty, or flirtatiousness can match the sex appeal of a woman who can ski hard and fast. Here's an excerpt that gives the flavor of what McCarthy terms a simple truth: "Guys dig chicks who rip. All the hairspray and cute apres boots in the world will...

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. -- It's a bright winter day at Colorado's Vail/Eagle Airport, with the blinding sunshine rivaled by crowds outfitted in Louis Vuitton and Prada skiwear. Fresh arrivals stream forth from a handful of gates: a parade of fur-lined hats, dark sunglasses, and high-heeled boots wholly impractical for use in the snow. This, however, is where the road to the ski trail diverges. Rather than join the high-fashion masses headed for Vail's glitzy slopes, I'm on my way to Vail's fresher-faced sister resort.

Michigan won the varsity eight heavyweight race to capture the men's team point trophy championship at the 74th Dad Vail Regatta Saturday on Philadelphia's Schuylkill River. Duke won the women's heavyweight eight championship. Bucknell won the overall women's team point trophy. It was the first time in the program's history the Bison won the points trophy. The varsity eight advanced to the championship for the first team in team history and finished second behind the Blue Devils.

DENVER -- Jack Boettcher loves to cruise the blues. For 50 years, Boettcher has skied the slopes from Snowmass to Vail to Steamboat Springs. These days, he counts among his favorite haunts some smaller resorts that offer plenty of well-groomed intermediate runs -- the "blues. " "I kind of like the family atmosphere and the price is right," said Boettcher, 76, who lives in the Denver area. "My leisure time has always been in the mountains. " Smaller ski areas from Vermont to California are seeing brisk business by catering to area residents, families, and first-time skiers and snowboarders.