FEATURES

KASHMIR CALLING
Ski meccas come in all flavors, and Gulmarg, Kashmir holds the irrefutable title of most exotic, with everything from 3,000-foot bowls to assault rifles in tramcars. Ming Poon and Andrew McLean skin through the demilitarized Line of Control to learn more.

EASTERN UPS & DOWNS
The best of times, the worst of times—winter in the Northeast embodies all that Charles Dickens wrote about in his iconic Tale of Two Cities opening line. And the last few Vermont winters capture best the desperate and the deep.

SPECTACLE
This year, we're debuting our Photo Annual a month earlier than usual. Consider it your guide through the gray season sometimes known as late fall. There's snow on the other side and, hopefully, heaps of it. Here's your first taste.

PARADISE EARNED
The Claus family is legendary in Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains, with a long lineage of bushplane pilots and as owners of the celebrated Ultima Thule Lodge. With his new Tebay Lodge, son Jay Claus is adding his own chapter to the family's history.

DEPARTMENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

PERSPECTIVE: FINE LINES

EDITOR'S NOTE: MUSE OF MEMORY

STRAIGHT LINES
Half-naked Yellowstone river crossings, finding true love on a Colorado skintrack and skiing Revelstoke, B.C.'s classic Brown Shorts Couloir by night.

BLOWN IN

MOUNTAIN SKILLS: SMOOTH IS FAST

MOUNTAIN ACCOUNT: SLIDE FOR LIFE
Last March, when Tahoe-based photographer Scott Rokis attempted an Eastern Sierra classic, the bad feeling in his gut wasn't the worst thing he'd experience that day.

BEERBOX: APPROACHABLE BREWS FOR THE APPROACH

GEARBOX: A QUIVER-KILLER WOMEN'S SETUP
In Utah's Uinta Mountains, a guiding operation takes a fresh approach to avalanche forecasting.

BLOWN OUT

LETTERS

DEPTH: SNOW, SILENT

LOCAL LEGEND: CARL SKOOG

LAST COL
Legend Bradford Washburn captures New Hampshire's greatest legend.

BIFF AMERICA: A MOMENT OF MAGIC
Biff knows that being a good backcountry skier requires more than just good
looks. But only just a little more.