FEATURES

Sky People and Powder
Eighty miles south of Wyoming's Teton Mountains are the Wind Rivers, a range seldom visited in winter but rumored to be a couloir-skiing paradise. Last May, Brigid Mander and crew left spicy spring conditions in Jackson for the Winds where they found the skier's Valhalla they were expecting. That is until the Shoshone Sky People expelling them with wolverines, whiteouts and midwinter conditions.

The Life and Death a Steep Skier
When Editor Adam Howard and photographer Jeff Diener went to Chamonix, France in late March they thought it was to eat cheese, drink Chartreuse, watch the rollout of Dynastar's new Cham line and ski with notable locals like steep ski pioneer Rémy Lécluse. It was. But when Lécluse was killed in September on Nepal's Manaslu everything changed.

Photo Annual
Think last winter was lame? We've got 22 pages of stoke that argue otherwise.

Apparel Guide 2013
Need to stay dry on the bootpack or warm on your next day-tour lunch break? Ready to replace your dated, faded and duct-taped pants? With input from our ski testers, we've assembled the very best of this year's jackets, pants, midlayers, baselayers and puffies. Layer up 'cause it's gonna dump.

DEPARTMENTS

Contributors
Behind the lens with the Photo Annual shooters.

Binary Backcountry
Editor Adam Howard takes a shot.

Figures11
First descents, custom skis and chainsaws.

Letters
Our readers bang on.

Backstory
A Serious Game, A Serious Love

Biff America
Biff wonders, "Who are these goofballs?" then goes down on Liberace.

The Time Machine
Heli-bump touring in Washington's North Cascades.

Andermatt at a Crossroads
Great change faces a grand, but tiny, Swiss village.

Rise of the Custom Ski
Custom skis are blowing up. Are they in your future?

SkiLink or SkiStink?
SkiLink or SkiStink?

If it's Brown, it Goes Down
Sewage snow and sacred grounds.

Lance's Lab
Frankenstein maps come alive.

Mountain Account
Glen Plake, Greg Hill and Benedikt Böhm recount the September disaster on Mount Manaslu.

Tried & New
The editors' gear: used and abused, and what they'd replace it with.

Hybrid Gear 2013
Editors' Choice waxless skis and touring boots.

Back Page
Thinking Outside the Avalance Poodle Box.