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82 GAME ON
Join the superstars of the Streif at Kitzbühel’s Mountain Hacienda.
88 THE K AISER
Meet the emperor of Austrian ski racing: Franz Klammer.
94 SHADOWLAND
CONTENTS
HIGH SEASON 2018
Hidden in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies is Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, a skier’s paradise with big-mountain terrain, crowdless lifts, extraordinary locals, and ready access to heli-skiing. Wait, where is it?
102 MAGICAL MIK AELA
World Champion skier Mikaela Shiffrin enchants us on and off the course with her candor, capability, and incomparable focus on technical proficiency. Is it magic or simply hard, hard work?
110 THE FAST AND THE FABULOUS Race tracks, racing stripes, and little red corvettes. From a speedway in snow country, our fashion team rolls out this season’s fastest looks.
on the cover
Mikaela Shiffrin, photo by Christian Alexander. Gown Dennis Basso Necklace Robert Procop — Betteridge Earrings Buccellati
this page For fashion credits from The Fast and the Fabulous, please see page 126.
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Photo by Christian Alexander.
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HIGH SEASON 2018 82
S NO W F L UR R IE S 3 9 Flying chefs. Fireside reads. Lech’s latest spa. Movies on Mont Blanc.
SNOW STYLE 48 Skiwear in primary colors. Black and white is always right.
APRÈS 52 Sipping cocktails in Sun Valley’s Duchin Lounge surrounded by Hollywood’s elite.
BOT TLE 56 Skiing the other side of the Alps with Slovenian winemaker Aleks Simčič.
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SNOW GEAR 62 The search for ski harmony continues.
SNOW FASHION 66 The haute ski couture of Dsquared2, Fendi, and Ermenegildo Zegna.
S K I T O L UN C H 74 Sunshine, steak, and Chilean Sauvignon Blanc… welcome to Tio Bob’s.
CULT URE 78 Remembering the ski life of Diana, Princess of Wales.
L A S T RUN 12 8 Sex and the double chair.
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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
Is love a choice you make, or something that chooses you? It’s both — that’s the magic. Aspen fell for Gay Ski Week in the 1970s. Our only regret is not finding each other sooner. The question now is how we open our hearts even more. L O V E — I T ’ S # T H E A S P E N WAY
D A N B AY E R
website: www.nils.us
instagram: nils.us
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
PRINT A ND DIGITA L CONTRIBUTORS
Leslie Woit
Michael Mastarciyan
Christian Alexander, Leslie Anthony, Daniela Federici, Andrew Findlay, Mattias Fredriksson, John Fry, Peter Gilbert, 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
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
FRENCH EDITOR Ana Maria Solana-Tristant
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Barbara Sanders (970) 948-1840 barb@thesnowmag.com
The very finest original ski posters for your Lodge or Collection
DIGITA L DIREC TOR Julius M. Yoder III
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. Special thanks to Marco Tonazzi, Isabella Tonazzi, Kendra Schmidt, Mike Rasmussen, Lindsi Bradbury, Nicky Mills, Tom Grady, Jerry Scheinbaum, Anna Speakman, Eddy Silva, Mario Zulian, Jagger Fugate, Lee Schumacher, Aspen Racing & Sports Car Club for their help bringing the Magical Mikaela and The Fast and the Fabulous stories to life.
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PUBLISHER’S LETTER
#WINTERISHERE Who doesn’t love the crisp, invigorating air of winter? Who isn’t awed by the dazzle, glitter, and sparkle of freshly fallen snow? Who doesn’t perform a snow dance nightly as the ski season approaches? Finally wintertide is back – the magic is here. In a promo for the 2018 Winter Olympics, Korean magician Yu Ho-Jin straps on his snowboard and rides through city streets alongside a bus – while hovering in mid-air. Just one in the series “PyeongChang 2018: A Magical Experience”, other clips feature equally mindboggling tricks themed around winter sports: speed skating on water, levitating in mid-air after a ski jump, and donning a pair of cross-country skis to propel down the side of a skyscraper. Interesting illusions. But the real magic starts when the world’s top winter athletes head to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeong Chang. Mikaela Shiffrin heads to the Games hungry for gold: Myriad photographs show Shiffrin on the podium clad in race clothes, holding ski gear, and bedecked in hardware. Alchemy (along with the distinct talents of Miami based photographer Christian Alexander, stylist John Martinez, and makeup artist Justin St. Clair) revealed the Olympian as a captivating snow queen, garbed with alluring clothing and opulent jewelry. Picture perfect! Editor Lori Knowles’ profile of Mikaela Shiffrin illuminates one of the world’s most technically proficient and fastest skiers (see Magical Mikaela, page 102). Speeding to the finish line seems to have influenced this season’s fashion: Racing stripes are a real “thing”. Bogner’s Fire and Ice One Piece Ski Suit inspired our fashion shoot — it screamed for an auto racing backdrop. Using some stunning vintage cars, our fashion team showcased 2018’s fastest ski looks at the Aspen Racing & Sports Car Club. SNOW-meets-Rush fashion story will bewitch (see page 110). Race to Kicking Horse Mountain! Shadowland by Leslie Anthony, with photographs by Mattias Fredriksson, is your passport to powder (see page 94). Canada’s Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in British Columbia is a skier’s paradise, and the nearby town of Golden is as authentic and as charming as the people who call it home. Big mountain skiing, resort skiing, heli-skiing, and a burgeoning foodie scene make Kicking Horse a must-ski destination this year. Mountain Hacienda is another epic ski port of call. Writer Leslie Woit has once again opened the door for a peek inside sumptuous alpine lodging. One of the most beautiful chalets in Austria (see Game On, page 82), this World’s Finest luxury hotel is set in fairy tale Kitzbühel. Best, fantasies do come true: Mountain Hacienda comes with the opportunity to spend a week skiing and hanging out with the likes of World Cup champions Bode Miller and Erik Guay. Perhaps you too can conquer the Hahnenkamm. The man, the myth, the legend: The Kaiser. Rob Story’s profile of Franz Klammer (see page 88) is a tribute to a skier whose Olympic gold medal run in Innsbruck in 1976 is still one of the most exciting spectacles in skiing ever. A true gentleman and a superstar, he is
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also still a passionate skier whom fans adore. Yes, the crowds take note when Schwarzenegger is in town, but they roll out the red carpet when The Kaiser is in residence. It can take him hours to walk from the finish area of the Streif into the village of Kitzbühel as he takes time to shake hands, pose for photos, and validate long-standing affections. One powder day in Aspen after skiing all day with a corporate group, Franz turned to me and said, “Ve go for another run?” Feeling like a giddy teenager, I picked up my skis and raced to the gondola, I was going powder skiing with Klammer! I’m living the dream! Whether you hold Olympian hopes, wish to perfect your turns, fantasize about the hottest ski wear, or simply enjoy the magic of winter, the season has arrived. Wishing you peace, sport, and happiness on SNOW!
Barb Sanders, Publisher barb@thesnowmag.com
A Z T E C H M OU N TA I N . COM A N D F I N E R E TA I L E R S WO R L DWI D E
CONTRIBUTORS
SNOW TALENT LESLIE ANTHONY
JEN LASKEY
CHRISTIAN ALEXANDER
LORI KNOWLES
Writer
WRITER
PHOTOGRAPHER
WRITER
Based in Whistler, Leslie Anthony is a writer, editor, creative director, and author of several books. For his feature Shadowland, Leslie visited Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and nearby Golden — a small Canadian town he’d driven past a hundred times, only stopping for coffee or gas. No more, he says. “Now I make an effort to get off the Trans-Canada Highway and go into town, where I always learn something new.” See page 94.
Our Bottle and Après columnist is a native New Englander now living in New York City. Jen’s research for this month’s Sun Valley Sips took her back to that starry era of silver screen icons — Clark Gable, Ingrid Bergman, and the like — who skied Dollar Mountain by day and swayed to the sweet beats of jazz in Sun Valley’s Duchin Room by night. See page 52.
A beautiful snow storm met Miami based Christian Alexander when he arrived in Colorado last spring to photograph Mikaela Shiffrin. With flakes falling softly in the forest, Christian captured the World Cup champion appearing ethereal for our cover feature, Magical Mikaela. While in Aspen shooting The Fast and the Fabulous, Christian fell for the ski life: “I love the smiles,” he says. “In a ski town, everyone looks happy.” See pages 102 and 110.
MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON
SHINAN GOVANI
JOHN MARTINEZ
PHOTOGRAPHER
WRITER
STYLIST
Scandinavia has lost a good one. Swedish photographer Mattias Fredriksson recently moved his family and his Siberian Husky (Tikaani) across land and sea to settle in Squamish, British Columbia. There he enjoys views of snowy peaks and misty forests. On a cold day in January, Mattias ventured inland to B.C.’s Kicking Horse Mountain Resort to capture iconic photos for this edition’s Shadowland. See page 94.
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As a society writer, Shinan Govani follows the invites from Toronto to Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Shanghai, and beyond. In crafting A Princess at Play, the writer was focused on royal favorites such as Klosters and Lech. Riveted by the skiing experiences of the late Diana, Princess of Wales both on-slope and off, Shinan says, “We watched her evolve from blushing schoolgirl to diva goddess.” See page 78.
He lives up in the air, really he does. As a producer and stylist, John is in constant flight, coordinating, producing, and casting fashion projects. While styling The Fast and the Fabulous and Magical Mikaela, it took a Colorado blizzard to bring him down to earth. “I was working in the snow with Mikaela Shiffrin,” he says, “when a moment of peace made me see how truly beautiful Mother Nature is.” See pages 102 and 110.
Lori lives in Canada near an abandoned ski hill with her husband, two kids, and the world’s most petrified dog. In her long career as an editor and snow journalist, she’s interviewed many an interesting Olympian. The latest: World Cup champion Mikaela Shiffrin, whom Lori describes in this edition’s cover feature, Magical Mikaela, as fast, focused, fearsome, and articulate. See page 102.
ROB STORY WRITER Ski writer Rob Story didn’t have to venture far last winter to interview the legendary Franz Klammer: Austria’s most idolized downhiller turned up in Story’s hometown of Telluride, Colorado to stay at the Franz Klammer Lodge. After yodeling badly for his guests, Klammer told Rob a harrowing tale or two of his days on and off the Streif, including one about a “nose picker”, and another of his winning streak in 1975. “Fantastic storyteller,” says Story, “terrible yodeler.” Read more in The Kaiser, page 88.
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P H O T O CO U R T E S Y O F V I S I T T R E N T I N O .
SNOW FLURRIES
Photographer and Instagram star Samuel Taipal sets his lens on Trentino, Italy, Spring 2017. 39
P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F B A I TA I N N E VATA
FLURRIES
QUICK. CLICK. COURMAYEUR.
Experts in freeskiing and filmmaking will be slopeside in Courmayeur March 5-11, 2018, for Click on the Mountain, an event in Italy’s awe-inspiring Aosta Valley that pairs freeriders with top photographers and cinematographers. Each team is tasked with completing a 10 image portfolio, a 120 minute film, and a 30 second Instagram video — all in just 72 hours. Expect to see steeps, high alpine pistes, and loads of powder, plus Mont Blanc. As the highest point in the Alps, this 15,780-foot peak can’t help but photobomb nearly every frame in this high alpine competition. W W W.C L I C KO N T H E M O U N TA I N.C O M
P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F S P O R T I N G L I F E
If you’ve wondered what pulls the world’s top skiers toward Whistler each winter, watch Magnetic. Premiering this winter as the first feature ski film shot at a single resort, it’s part muse, part documentary on what keeps devotees returning season after snow-packed season to this unconventional Canadian resort. Few ski towns can lay claim to as many top freeriders as Whistler can — including Mike Douglas, Stan Rey, Helen Schettini — and most of them appear
in this movie. But Magnetic’s real star is its skiable terrain. Says Whistler Blackcomb’s Karla Grenon, “Every shot was captured in terrain that can be accessed by purchasing a lift ticket.” W W W.W H I S T L E R B L AC KC O M B.C O M
SPORTING LIFE
TAKES ON THE WORLD Canada’s spirited Sporting Life stores have propagated once again, this time into Toronto’s tony Yorkdale Shopping Centre. Expanding rapidly since 2014, this is storefront number 10 for “The Life” — now Canada’s leading upscale boutique for ski brands such as SOS, Moncler, and Aztech Mountain. Co-founders Brian McGrath and Patty and David Russell show no signs of slowing. If Sporting Life can do a good job in Canada, David declared recently, “Why not the United States, why not Europe, why not Asia?” W W W.S P O R T I N G L I F E .C A
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P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F PA U L M O R R I S O N
FACE SHOTS
FLURRIES
STAR CHEFS P H O T O CO U R T E S Y O F S CO T T D U N N
Too busy skiing to cook? Indulge in a bespoke culinary experience. Britain’s Scott Dunn Private Journeys designs custom stays in gorgeous ski chalets across Europe. Its latest luxe experience, Flying Chefs, transports a London-based, Michelin-starred master to your home in the Alps to cook one amazing meal. Monica Galetti. Pierre Koffmann. Sat Bains. Andrew Wong (pictured). Steady yourself with a glass of vino while a work of culinary art is created in your rented chalet kitchen. The cost? About $18,000 for lunch or dinner. — Leslie Woit
P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F VA L S A N A A R O S A
W W W.S C O T T D U N N.C O M
AU NATUREL in AROSA
The Arosa Lenzerheide ski region is home to Switzerland’s first luxe alpine lodging powered by an ice vault. The Valsana Hotel & Appartements by the Tschuggen Hotel Group debuted in early December with a massive ice chamber built into its foundation that stores thermal energy — it’s all very high tech and ecofriendly. Inside Valsana, architect Roman Mooser and designer Carlo Rampazzi carry on this all-natural theme, styling a sumptuous yet simple atmosphere using sustainable materials such as glass, stone, oak, wool, and leather. Little art is required. Valsana’s warm, naturally rustic ambiance is enhanced by views au naturel: 140 miles of interconnected pistes, a frozen lake called Obersee, and a panorama of Switzerland’s snow-capped Graubünden Mountains. — Lori Knowles W W W.VA L S A N A .C H
Wellness — those warm, luxuriating hours that fall between snowy pursuits and prandial delights — have a rich tradition at the finest Austrian alpine hotels. This season, Lech’s cosseting five-star superior Almhof Schneider has taken its sense of tradition a millennium beyond. Inspired by the sophisticated bathing cultures of Greek and Roman antiquity, the new spa features a light-flooded world of steamy laconica, pools of bubbles, restorative treatments such as reflexology and Tibetan massage, exercise machines, and complete and utter relaxation. In the Germanic tradition, there are nude zones to be sure, though with separate areas for men and women. After bathing, reclining on pillowy sofas in front of a crackling fire complete the experience. And to think the evening at the Almhof is only just beginning… — LW W W W . A L M H O F. A T 42
P H O T O CO U R T E S Y O F A L M H O F S C H N E I D E R
All’s WELL in LECH
S K E A L IMI T E D.C OM
P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F R I C H A R D WA I T E
FLURRIES
MEGÈVE THE MAGNIFICENT It’s the perfect mélange of aristocratic style and alpine hospitality. Open this winter in the salubrious French resort of Megève, it is the first Four Seasons mountain hotel in Europe and the sole hotel in Megève with ski-in, ski-out access. Four Seasons Hotel Megève is integrated into the grounds of the historically elegant, five-star village of Chalet du Mont d’Arbois, long renowned for a pedigree derived from its owners, the family of Baron Benjamin de Rothschild. This new addition now lays claim to Michelin-starred Le 1920 — a glittering room of polished crystal and airy soufflés — as well as Kaito, Megève’s first Japanese restaurant. Naturally, Four Seasons Hotel Megève’s ultra-modern spa has been done all in white, matching the snowy vistas of the Mont D’Arbois, Rochebrune, and Le Jaillet ski regions. — LW W W W.F O U R S E A S O N S .C O M / M E G E V E
SEA TO SKI
France Lessard’s love of skiing and beachcombing have led her down an artistic path. This ski industry vet (Rossignol, Dynastar) takes inspiration from vintage ski photographs to create nostalgic works of art. Combing the shores of Wells and Kennebunkport, Maine, for driftwood, pebbles, and sea glass, the artist pays wistful homage to her father (Canadian Olympic skier Jean Lessard) and skiing’s superstars of the past. W W W.F R A N C E S F I N E S T F I N DI N G S .C O M 44
FIRESIDE READS
AMERICAN SKIING
ARAXI: ROOTS TO SHOOTS
SKIING INTO MODERNITY
By OTTO EUGEN SCHNIEBS Dutton, 1939
By JAMES WALT Figure 1 Publishing, 2016
By ADREW DENNING University of California Press, 2014
Here the original collegiate ski coach in the United States (first at Dartmouth College, then at St. Lawrence University) provides one of the earliest how-to books of skiing, from the herringbone to the stem turn to a technique now forgotten, the tempoturn, which the skimeister describes as having been designed ‘’to keep the skis under control at very high speed, to retain that sense of security between body and skis, and not increase or decrease the speed at which one is traveling.’’ Some of the remarkable features of this book are the early ski pictures of winter sports pioneers and a four-section gatefold providing a panoramic view of the high peaks of the Wright Peak ski trail in New York State looking east, with Whiteface Mountain on the extreme left and with Mount Marcy on the right.
Skiing, not foraging, comes first to mind when thinking British Columbia. Yet this ski province’s bounty is plentiful, particularly in the Okanagan and Pemberton valleys, which brim not just with fabulous ski resorts. B.C.’s riches are shared in this colorful, compelling new cookbook by James Walt, executive chef of Araxi Restaurant + Oyster Bar, the Whistler eatery Gordon Ramsay once singled out for its total dedication to place. Fiddlehead ferns, ramps, morels, wild ginger, and squash blossoms foraged from local meadows play starring roles in these recipes, along with peaches, beets, and strawberries grown in the Okanagan, salmon fished from fast-running streams, and spot prawns drawn from the Pacific. Walt includes recipes featured in Araxi’s sell-out longtable dinners, which take place al fresco in meadows, next to streams, and outside Whistler ski lodges.
Professor Andrew Denning manages to corral in 236 intenselyresearched pages just about anyone who has ever believed that skiing, in abandoning its original roots in nature, lost its soul. Denning profusely quotes critics condemning the sport’s commercialization and mechanization. He’s not alone. Author Hal Clifford did so in Downhill Slide, and Daniel Glick disparaged Vail in Powder Burn. I too have attacked unrestrained mountain development. None of our words have slowed the growth. Millions more people have entered the sport as a result of faster, safer lifts, and the huge expansion of groomed terrain and snowmaking. Ski any mountain today and you’ll spot children and parents continuing to exult in brilliant sunlight and pristine whiteness. Few of them would sympathize with the critics admiringly cited in Skiing into Modernity.
— Lori Knowles
— John Fry
— David Shribman
SKI ART
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APRÈS
THE DUCHIN LOUNGE Classic Sun Valley with an upbeat twist. by JEN LASKEY 52
APRÈS
previous page, clockwise from bottom left
1. Janet Leigh with ski school director Sigi Engl. 2. John Wayne rides Sun Valley’s handle tow. 3. Marilyn Monroe at the Sun Valley bus stop.
W W W. S U N VA L L E Y.C O M
HIGHWAY 75 •
1 ounce 44° North Sunnyslope Nectarine Vodka
•
1/2 ounce St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
•
1/2 ounce lemon juice
•
Prosecco
•
Orange twist
In a champagne flute, combine the vo d k a , e l d e r f l o w e r l i q u e u r, a n d l e m o n juice, then top with Prosecco and garnish with an orange twist. 54
P H O T O S CO U R T E S Y O F S U N VA L L E Y R E S O R T
I
ngrid Bergman. Gary Cooper. Clark Gable. Loretta Young. From the 1930s to the 1950s and beyond, Sun Valley, Idaho, was the most stylish spot in ski country. Starlets skied on its slopes, skated on its rink, and flirted by the fire with leading men. In the evenings they celebrated alongside writers, socialites, and Hollywood elite. You’d find everyone in the Duchin Room at Sun Valley Lodge, sipping cocktails and swaying to bandleader Eddy Duchin’s beats. “I drink to make other people more interesting,” said regular Ernest Hemingway in one of his more telling quotes. Slip forward in time to 2018 and what’s now known as the Duchin Lounge is just as hip. Seasoned skiers and millennials stand by its bar during après-ski, humming as longtime piano man, Joe Fos, tickles the keys. Jazzy hits from the The Great American Songbook set the mood. The Duchin’s Ian Timoney mixes cool and refreshing cocktails with skill and grace. His latest hit, a cocktail called Highway 75, is as enticing as this storied space. Named after the state highway that runs through nearby Ketchum, Highway 75 is a play on the classic French 75 cocktail — that elegant mix of gin and bubbles used to toast festive occasions since the 1920s. Like its predecessor, Highway 75 is served in a slim champagne flute and is ideal for toasting sunny days on the slopes. Yet it has a much more modern take on mixology, made with creamy Sunnyslope Nectarine Vodka by 44° North, a distillery in Boise that uses Idaho potatoes, of course. Ingredients also include St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur and lemon juice, with a dash of Prosecco and a twist of orange on top. This sparkling sipper is just one of several attracting skiers for après. Like the Duchin Lounge itself, the Highway 75 is classic Sun Valley with an upbeat twist.
The Duchin’s Ian Timoney mixes cool and refreshing cocktails with skill and grace.
Scouting out the other side of the Alps with Slovenian winemaker Aleks Simčič. by JEN LASKEY
W
hen most of us think of the Alps, we imagine clicking into our skis and cruising through the powdery terrain of France, Italy, Switzerland, or Austria, but the eastern side of Europe’s most extensive mountain range also serves up a majestic alpine experience — along with wines that rival those of their old-world neighbors.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF EDI SIMČIČ
BOTTLE
Slovenian SAMPLING
BOTTLE
A SAMPLING OF THE EDI SIMČIČ PORTFOLIO
P H O T O C O U R T E SY O F M A R I J A N M O ČIVNIK
WHITE
Aleks Simčič, a fourth-generation winemaker, is revered throughout Slovenia. He was raised in Goriška Brda, an area in the Julian Alps known for its superb skiing and distinctive white wines made from the Rebula variety. Like most of his peers, Simčič started skiing even before he began attending school or helping out in his family’s winery. Simčič believes there are a number of parallels to be drawn between skiing and winemaking. For example, “With both, you need to fully respect nature,” he says, pointing out that climatic influences can have as dramatic an effect on skiing conditions as they can on the vines’ growing season. And you always need to be looking ahead. “When you ski you must think about the next curve, the conditions of the snow, and the visibility, so you can limit the surprises,” he explains. “Just as when you make wine, you need to think today about how your wine will evolve in the future.” Vineyards have flourished in Goriška Brda since Roman times. The Mediterranean climate, hilly terrain, and soil — a mix of marl and clay, locally known as opoka — yield crisp wines with ripe, fruity flavors, and notable minerality. Simčič’s family has been making wine on the same estate — about 500 yards from the border of Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia wine region — since the mid-19th century. His mother’s side established the vineyards, but Simčič’s father took over the business in the 1970s, eponymously renaming it Edi Simčič, and started cultivating the wines that would eventually put the estate on the international wine map. Despite more than a century of wine ancestry, the younger Simčič’s path to winemaking was more of a turny slalom than a straight downhill shot. He set out on a different career path, earning his degree in mechanical engineering in 1993. It was his father’s passion for wine — and his success — that inspired Simčič 58
REBUL A (RIBOLL A GIALL A ) $ 2 8
A dry, white wine from the region’s most prized grape, Simčič’s Rebula yields ripe peach and citrus notes, mouthwatering acidity, and salty minerality.
TRITON LEX $27
This firmly structured dry, white blend of Rebula, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc is dominated by peach and tropical fruit flavors with additional herbaceous and toasted oak notes.
S O S BL AC K S N O W.C O M
BOTTLE
A SAMPLING OF THE EDI SIMČIČ PORTFOLIO
KOLOS $10 0
An opulent blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc from Simčič’s best barrels. Only produced in ideal vintages, this blend gives blackberry and black cherry notes with hints of cinnamon, pine, and tobacco.
PHOTO COURTESY OF EDI SIMČIČ
RED
“ With both skiing and winemaking, you need to fully respect nature.” — Aleks Simčič
DUET LEX $50
Intense notes of black currant, cherry, and black pepper come to the forefront of this red Bordeaux blend (80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10% Cabernet Franc).
to change course. At 84 years old, Simčič’s father is still active in the vineyards and cellar, and the wine continues to carry the Edi Simčič name. But the younger Simčič has now been principal winemaker of the estate for more than 15 years. As a winemaker, Aleks Simčič may be compared to a backcountry skier, as his style often veers off-piste from the direction of notable Italian and Slovenian producers situated nearby. He works with very low yields, harvests his grapes from small parcels in his vineyard, and turns them into individual micro batches of wine. Simčič ferments and ages all of his wines in barrels rather than using any stainless steel or concrete. With these methods, he explains, he is able to express the full potential of Goriška Brda’s terroir. A limited selection of Edi Simčič wines can be found in the U.S. But of course, the best place to sip Simčič’s wines is on an aprèsski terrace at nearby Kranjska Gora resort or in Slovenia’s greater Primorska ski region. W W W.E DI S I M CI C.S I
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TM
GEAR
MATCH, SKI, LOVE
HEAD KORE 93 LENGTH 171 133 X 95 X 115
Our search continues for your perfect ski match. b y B A R B A R A S A N D E R S
“I’m looking for rippers who want to try something different — skiers who are keen to expand their experiences.”
Tinder. Bumble. eHarmony. The internet offers myriad online dating options. Yet when it comes to choosing a perfect mate, how much time do you waste on all the wrongs before you find Ms. or Mr. Right? Wouldn’t it be nice to have like-minded individuals vet all candidates? It’s an option that’s available… at least to the readers of this magazine. Each year, our skiHarmony testers rip around the slopes of Aspen Mountain assessing an overwhelming array of new skis on the market. Their search is for your perfect match. Testers include: racers, pros, instructors, past U.S. Ski Team members, and passionate locals with more than 100 days per season on the slopes. David Stapleton, Joan Valentine, Georgie Bremner, Nick Hill, Trent Jones, Megan Harvey Bourke, Jill Dorken, Dairinn Bowers, Lindsi Bradbury, Susan Kinstler, P.J. McGovern, Mike Shea, and Jared Ettlinger have all the needed expertise to help you discover your perfect ski match. Part I of their findings appeared in SNOW’s Winter 2017/18 edition. Part II offers even more options for you to find a ski relationship destined to put you on cloud nine.
“My favorite ski of the test, hands down!” says ex-ski pro P.J. McGovern. Co-tester Trent Jones agrees. “I tried a variety of turn shapes and speeds,” says Jones, “and it was right there for me on the groomers and off-piste.” As for performance in the bumps, SNOW’s skiHarmony squad recommended iconic Aspen mogul runs such as Dumps and Bingo Glades as the ski’s go-to terrain. PERFECT MATCH: The Head Kore might just be the yellow Labrador of skis — a great match for nearly every brand of skier. LOOKS: Denim and cool, grunge-like graphics make you feel as if you are bad to the Kore.
VÖLKL KENJA LENGTH 163 120 X 90 X 110 “I’m looking for girls who want to have fun”
BOMBER GUNPOWDER 95 | LENGTH 189
131 X 95 X 117
“I’m looking for someone who is not afraid to put it out there. Risk-takers only, please!” “The Bomber 95 is a wellbalanced ski that rolls into runs with ease and holds an edge worthy of Bode Miller,” says Jared Ettlinger, manager of Gorsuch. “All this while effortlessly keeping you afloat in soft snow.” Ettlinger adds: “Bomber has done extensive testing which will satisfy the most discerning all-mountain skiers from the Andes to the Alps, and from the 62
Canadian Rockies to New England.” PERFECT MATCH: Made for the hard-charging guy or gal who knows how to tip it up and can rip the entire mountain, no matter the snow conditions. LOOKS: Who doesn’t love the look of snowy mountains under a blue sky?
“One of my favorite skis,” says top ski pro Joan Valentine. “It is perfect for my one-ski quiver. I skied it both on the groomers and in the race course, where I could hold an edge with confidence. It was super fun in bumps and slush, as it has an even flex pattern.” Adds Jill Dorken, a local ski pro: “This ski totally mans up! It’s easy to ski and it’s powerful.” PERFECT MATCH: The Kenja is ideal for the girl who wants to play on the mountain. It is also a great match for a lighter weight male skier. Both should be intermediate to advanced riders. LOOKS: Nothing to write home about, but the ski’s performance makes up for its lack of stellar good looks.
GEAR
WAGNER 86 (WOMEN / CUSTOM) | LENGTH 163 131 X 90 X 111 “I’m looking for a skier who wants to savor her time on the mountain. As I’m custom made to match a woman’s every desire, the search for a perfect ski is complete” Past U.S. Ski Team member David Stapleton was instantly wowed by this women’s ski. “For a ski made primarily for women, it is incredible that it can support someone like me,” he says. “This ski holds when you bend it.” Former U.S. Demo Team member Megan Harvey Bourke was equally impressed, yet for very different reasons. “This ski is light, fun, and a contender for a one-ski quiver,” she says. “It literally dances across the snow, transitioning effortlessly over ice, bumps, and crud.” PERFECT MATCH: Any woman who wants to ski the entire mountain in a variety of snow conditions. LOOKS: With Wagner’s custom skis, you’re free to create your dream date.
STÖCKLI STORMRIDER 95 LENGTH 175
131 X 95 X 120
“I’m looking for a hard-charging skier who likes to take chances and wants to ski fast.” Mike Shea from Aztech Mountain ski wear loved this Stöckli straight out of the gate. “It’s great in both long and short turns at speed,” he says. “This ski performs well, but don’t expect it to turn for you — you’ve got to do the work!” “You can tip this puppy up and it holds,” adds ski pro Georgie Bremner. “I took this ski everywhere, from the bumps, to the crud, to the NASTAR race course — it was a top performer all over the mountain.” Tester Dairinn Bowers of Performance Ski agrees. “I used to race on Stöckli,” he says. “I never doubt its performance on course, but this ski gives you race-ski performance all over the mountain.” PERFECT MATCH: A badass advanced skier who is game for anything.
LOOKS: Clean and simple. Let this ski’s construction do the talking.
XO 87 V21
LENGTH 172 127 X 87 X 107 “Try me, ski me, love me. I’m looking for women and men of all sizes to rip around the mountain. There is a reason I’m called XO!” Former U.S. Ski Team member David Stapleton had this to say about the XO 87: “It’s lighter than most skis with similar widths under foot. This allows everyone to have fun, from petite women to big beefy guys. It has amazing edge hold, yet it’s quick and agile because it’s light. The XO remains incredibly solid for the skier who really wants to push it — it’s impressive in the crud.” PERFECT MATCH: Intermediate to advanced skiers, both male and female. LOOKS: Stealthy and elegant, a tasteful XO logo its only adornment.
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FA S H I O N
HAUTE SKI-COUTURE High fashion’s love affair with skiing continues. b y M I C H A E L M A S TA R C I YA N
PH OTO DS QU ARED 2
There exists a grand love affair between high fashion and the sport of skiing. The romance began the moment the silver screen’s Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, and Cary Grant hit the slopes of places like Gstaad dressed in luxury ski wear. Through the years the affair has lasted, with Givenchy, Dior, Chanel, and a host of other luxury labels continuing to fall under skiing’s wintry spell. The latest brands to be seduced: Dsquared2, Fendi, and Ermenegildo Zegna — glittering stars in the world of haute couture, but newcomers to haute ski couture.
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FA S H I O N
DSQUARED2
Dsquared2’s ski collection is sexy, fun, and functional.
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P H O T O S DS QUARE D2
For Dean and Dan Caten, the geniuses behind uber-hip Italian label Dsquared2, sliding into the world of upmarket ski wear was natural given these twin brothers grew up skiing the slopes of their native Canada. “We’ve always been avid skiers,” says Dean Caten. “We knew exactly what we did and didn’t like with the ski clothing we wore; we wanted to put our personal mark on it.” Adds Dan: “Dsquared2’s ski collection has our design sensibility. We’re Canadian through and through. It’s sexy, fun, and functional.” Dsquared2’s 2018 ski collection for men and women pays whimsical homage to iconic looks of the Great White North, yet with a hip Euro twist. Highlights include huge, fur-trimmed parkas and bomber jackets worn over tight denim ski pants, jackets in red and black plaid, retro look sweaters with vintage ski scenes and racing stripes, and neoprene midlayer crewnecks with digital ski prints. Almost every piece is available in performance fabrics and thermal textiles. It’s high fashion you can actually ski in. Dsquared2’s collaboration with classic Canadian fashion brand K-Way may prove the apex of its 2018 collection. Dsquared2’s take on K-Way’s 1980s vintage zippered shell is an eye-catching reversible anorak covered in faux travel patches — it just may be remembered as the Jack Kerouac of ski jackets.
FA S H I O N
FENDI Fendi has also stepped into the ski wear fray with its spirited 2018 Leisurewear Collection. “By combining high-tech materials, workmanship, and by highlighting and reinterpreting Fendi’s signature looks,” explains spokesperson Valentina Balzer, “our label is able to share its values 360 degrees in the day-to-day lives of our clients.” One of the line’s standouts is an opulent two piece ski suit in black and gold brocade — an Italian Renaissance gem bound to turn heads from Aspen to Cortina d’Ampezzo. (Yes, it’s on the cover of SNOW’s Winter 2017/18 issue!) Reminiscent of the lavish floral motif fabrics used to decorate the opulent palazzos of Venice and Florence during Italy’s golden age, this suit is a ski wear masterpiece. Another standout: Fendi’s Karlito ski suit, a black-hooded onesie tricked out with shiny Karl Lagerfeld “Karlito” emojis. This catlike suit — one emblazoned with a metallic appliqué that gleefully mimics Lagerfeld’s trademark black sunglasses, high shirt collars, and pull-back hairline — will make you feel as suave on the slopes as Lagerfeld himself.
P H OTO : C H R I S T I A N A L E X A N D E R
Fendi’s two piece ski suit in black and gold brocade is an Italian Renaissance gem bound to turn heads from Aspen to Cortina d’Ampezzo.
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LOST TIME IS NEVER FOUND AGAIN. -Benjamin Franklin
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FA S H I O N
ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA
Rounding out the newcomers to skiing’s high fashion circles is the brand Ermenegildo Zegna, another titan of Italian fashion that is now hyper-focused on bringing classy back to the snowsports’ population. The label’s latest men’s collection, Z Zegna, has a vintage look, harkening back to old Hollywood alpine chic, with dapper ski ensembles a little like those worn by film icons such as Errol Flynn through the 1940s and ‘50s. With Z Zegna, artistic director Alessandro Sartori has produced several modern ski wear gems utilizing Techmerino, a sophisticated performance fabric designed to facilitate movement. At the heart and soul of the Z Zegna assemblage is a selection of tweed sport coats, baggy trousers, and sweaters that look spectacular when worn with high wool socks and rugged alpine boots. Another highlight is Z Zegna’s white turtleneck sweater done in a wool/cashmere blend. Tucked into a pair of matching ski pants, this is a look that’s pure class. Racing stripes are also a major theme in the line: They’re found blazing across Z Zegna’s sweaters, puffy ski jackets, gloves, ski masks, and tweed sports jackets. “Referencing the past with a vision of the future” is the message Zegna put out when unveiling the line at the Pitti Uomo shows in Florence last January. This collection is all that and more —
Z Zegna has a vintage look, harkening back to old Hollywood alpine chic.
The originality and magnificence of these new collections are testament to the strength of the long-lasting romance between the worlds of skiing and fashion. The ingredients that keep this affaire de coeur alive, at least according to Dan Caten, are simple: an enduring love of skiing and everything that goes with it. “The sun shining, a chill in the air, a fresh coat of powder,” Caten says, “and last but not least, a drink in hand to cap off the day.” So let’s all raise a glass to toast this match made in heaven. Let us hope it’s an affair for the ages. 72
P H OTO S E R M E N E G I L D O Z E G N A
modern interpretations of timeless ski wear that could have appeared in the pages of a winter issue of Vogue circa 1948.
A L M G WA N D A R C ’ T E RY X S P O RTA L M D O LO M I T E ALP N ROCK DA L E O F N O R WAY MONCLER BOGNER F R AU E N S C H U H TO N I SA I L E R PA R A J U M P E R S ROSSIGNOL J. L I N D E B E R G F U SA L P J OT T KJUS
S U N VA L L E Y. C O M / S H O P P I N G
SKI TO LUNCH
PORTILLO PER FECT Sublime slopeside dining at Tio Bob’s in Portillo, Chile.
P H O T O CO U R T E S Y O F P O R T I L L O
by BARBARA SANDERS
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Cuisine at Tio Bob’s is classic Chilean parrilla: grilled sausages, steaks, burgers, and salmon, all served with fresh salads and belly-warming soups. On snowy days, grab a seat by the fire inside Tio Bob’s stone and wood interior. On sunny days, the view outside demands your full attention. Looking out across the lake, Portillo’s high-alpine terrain all
around, you’ll be treated to an impressive perspective of the lines you’ve skied all morning. For a perfect lunch at Tio’s Bob’s, follow the advice of local connoisseur Mario Lobo: Ski up, click out, and find a table large enough for lots of friends. Order a bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and pair it with sliced sausages and a selection of mustards. P H O T O CO U R T E S Y O F L I A M D O R A N
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un dances on the bright blue lake and the Chilean flag sways gently in the breeze. Bailando by Enrique Iglesias plays over the outdoor speakers. Huge wooden tables sit solidly on the patio, beckoning skiers to slide up, take a seat, and enjoy the sensational view. This is Tio Bob’s, a slopeside restaurante, just off the Plateau chairlift in Portillo. Onmountain dining is always a treat, but there is something magical about this spot named for Bob Purcell, former Portillo owner and beloved uncle of current owner Henry Purcell. Tio Bob’s (Uncle Bob’s) is the place to be for lunch in Portillo. There are many ways to reach Tio Bob’s. You can ride the Plateau chair, make a hard left, and drop in. Or, if you’re looking to make a grand entrance, ask your pilot to land above Tio Bob’s after a morning of heli-skiing. Either way the reward will be fabulous views of Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America.
exquisitely the warmest snow destination in the Canadian Rockies
Reservation: 1.800.661.1586 www.posthotel.com
P H O T O CO U R T E S Y O F P O R T I L L O
SKI TO LUNCH
Ski up, click out, and find a table large enough for lots of friends.
left to right Lynsey Dyer, Julia Mancuso, Jamie Anderson.
Once your group has arrived and more wine has been selected, order salads and mains; the grilled salmon with capers is delicious. Be sure to ask for a side of papas frites — they’re always crisp and golden brown in color. Dining at Tio Bob’s can be intriguing. You never know who will turn up and what the onda will be. Don’t be surprised if Olympic gold medalists Julia Mancuso and Jamie Anderson drop by to chat after a photo shoot. Other days might bring the entire Austrian Ski Team taking time to enjoy life after mornings spent race training. Tio Bob’s is open late into the afternoon, so you can start your après right on the mountain. Pisco sours are ideal for toasting a perfect day skiing under the Andean sun. When the music grows louder, skiers dance on the roof or on top of the tables. As the sun slips behind the peaks, Tio Bob’s Chilean flag continues to sway in the breeze, keeping time with the latest Latin hit. W W W.S K I P O R T IL L O.C O M 76
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C U LT U R E
A P rincess at Play A royal princess must have elegance, elocution, proper posture, and the ability to… ski? Yes.
O
by SHINAN GOVANI
ne imagines Lady Diana Spencer once checked all the right boxes on Britain’s A Princess Must-Have List. Proper manners? Check. Nobility? Check. Highsociety connections? Check. Elegance on the dance floor? Beauty in a ball gown? Check and check. The ability to ski? Let’s see… yes. Check. During her startling, too-short 36 years, during which she became one of history’s most famous women, the shy girl who morphed into dazzling Diana, Princess of Wales, was photographed hundreds, perhaps thousands of times on skis in the world’s most luxurious resorts. Klosters. Lech. Vail. St. Christoph. There she stood by the side of a run, sometimes joyous, sometimes harassed, tabloid photographers from Britain and beyond snapping furiously all around. She was not on a tennis court. Not in a horse arena. Not on a cricket pitch. She was slopeside at a ski resort. In Diana’s day, the snowy Alps ranked high among proper playgrounds in which princesses could play. The photos that remain are tableaux through which we can view her astonishing life. Our first glimpse of Diana’s dalliance with skiing came in 1978 with her enrollment, brief as it was, at Switzerland’s Institut Alpin 78
Videmanette. Situated in Rougement, Switzerland, and ranked then among the world’s most prestigious all-girl finishing schools, the Institut’s you-go-girl syllabus included lessons in cooking, dressmaking, typing, skiing, and French. While she left the school only 12 weeks after arrival, photos of the future Princess on the piste, at a ski lodge, and smiling at the start of a slalom course endure on Pinterest, revealing a ruddy-cheeked girl on the brink of both womanhood and an extraordinary life experience. Even in those pre-Charles, pre-Instagram pix, Di was stylish — insouciantly so. Looking shy, gazing downward, clad fashionably in a woolly sweater in classic ski-school red against a backdrop of snow. Zoom forward a few years to January 1983, and much had changed. Diana’s first ski trip of note following her fairy-tale wedding wasn’t a fairy tale at all. Only 18 months into her marriage to Prince Charles, the adventure proved to be one for the history books. Dropped down in a mountainside castle in the teeny Principality of Liechtenstein — a pile owned by Charles’ pal, Prince Franz Joseph II — the whole trip was summed up on a People magazine cover that shouted, “DIANA’S ORDEAL” and continued: “The pressures of being a princess build to an Alpine holiday faceoff.” The cover photo depicted the Prince and Princess staring stonily at one another, their feet dangling from a double chairlift.
In Diana’s day, the snowy Alps ranked among proper playgrounds in which princesses could play.
below Diana skiing Malbun, Liechtenstein, 1985.
PH OTO: DP A PI CTURE AL L IANCE / ALAM Y STOCK PH OTO
The honeymoon effectively over, Di — whose seven-month-old, William, had been left behind in England in the nanny’s care — was only just leaning in to the idea that her privacy had been traded for her fairy-tale romance. Moreover, it was a case, as the magazine reported, of the 21 year old and her 34-year-old husband being “tailed by an aggressive press that was unshackled by palace conventions.” (At one point a chopper full of paparazzi chased Diana down a glacier slope.) During this post-Christmas “holiday” the world’s most recognizable couple emerged, hid, then re-emerged on the slopes of Lech and Laax in what People called a “Keystone Kops version of cat-and-mouse.” (A harbinger, notably, of the fate that would later end Diana’s life, in Paris in 1997.) The mania of the press in this pre-TMZ age extended to the Daily Mail sending its 70-year-old ski correspondent, Maurice Willoughby, to evaluate Diana’s slopeside savoir faire. Willoughby’s assignment proved challenging. He complained that Diana’s bodyguard knocked him off his feet (twice!) for skiing too close to the Princess. With practice, he brightly concluded, “she could easily reach silver and possibly gold medal standard by her mid-20s.” Next we saw Her Royal Highness in Klosters, Switzerland, her husband’s favorite resort. It was a sunny February day in 1987 and the well-tracked princess was again on the side of a slope, this time having a lot more fun with the paparazzi. Putting what we now know as #SquadGoals into play, the Prince and Princess of Wales took some time to pose on-piste with the Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. In those zany photos, the Princesses — each sporting broad-shouldered ‘80s-style onesies — attempted to knock one another down while joking with their husbands and the press. Today, indeed, those images make for some toasty nostalgia: that brief, shining moment of Di-andCharles-and-Andrew-and-Fergie, before both royal marriages blew up in gorgeous smithereens. It was a time when Diana — who never felt all too comfortable within the clannish House of Windsor — had both an ally and a tonic in the form of the fun-lovin’ Fergie (who was, by the way, the more skillful, aggressive skier). However boisterous and brave, Fergie, in the end, proved no match for Diana’s star power, which rose — no, soared — to unprecedented heights even as Charles and the House of Windsor began to pull away. Case in point: December 1994, when the Dianaon-snow action veered to North America. Estranged by that point from her husband and in a Cold War of sorts with the larger Royal 79
C U LT U R E
It was that brief, shining moment of Di-and-Charles-and-Andrew-andFergie, before both royal marriages blew up in gorgeous smithereens. top to bottom
1. Prince Charles, Princess Diana, The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, and The Duke of York Prince Andrew, Klosters, 1987. 2. Diana with sons Prince William and Prince Harry in Lech, 1991. 3. People magazine, 1983.
And so it goes. Like many a star who died too young and whose brilliance only brightens with time, Diana’s days spent skiing the world’s most sought-after slopes still merit a bottomless nostalgia. For one, her presence continues to be felt in the geography itself. In Lech, for instance — tucked away in a handsome valley in Austria — pictures of the beloved Princess are hung in the lobby of the Hotel Arlberg. They were put there after her passing, as it was the resort where Diana came for several mother-son trips. Likewise, Klosters retains Switzerland’s wistful connection to Britain’s skiing royalty — an old-money cluster still popular with the Prince of Wales (whose title, by the way, was painted on not one but two of the resort’s flaming red cable cars). Moreover, Klosters’ gentle, cloistered ski runs provided the stage for Diana’s elder, Prince William, to debut Kate Middleton in 2004 — a significant event for the future Queen of England. More recently, Courchevel and Verbier, too, have been placed on the royal trail map. Prince Harry was spotted recently with his 80
cousin, Princess Eugenie, in the lift lines of Switzerland’s “Verbs”. William and Kate took their children to France’s lustrous Les Trois Vallées last season for a family ski vacation, followed, naturally, by the papz. As a pastime, skiing is one that has only grown in royal enjoyment. Back to Diana, it’s true she was a princess who was photographed many times in impressive, worldly destinations, among them Majorca, St. Tropez, India, and St. Kitts. Yet few images are as unforgettable as those of Her Royal Highness looking graceful on winter slopes. Once called “the last of the silent movie stars,” she showed a repose that, no doubt, came naturally to a woman who once checked all the boxes on Britain’s A Princess Must-Have List — including poise, proper manners, and ski lessons from a finishing school in the Alps.
PH OTOS: DPA PI CT URE ALL I ANCE / AL AMY STOCK PH OTO
Family — indeed, both her sons were a continent away on a ski vacay with Charles — Diana appeared in Vail, Colorado for a maiden visit. Was she skiing with John F. Kennedy Jr.? Rendezvous-ing with billionaire Teddy Forstmann? The rumors, predictably, reached a fever pitch and the papz’s on-piste hunt continued. “It’s easier looking for Elvis,” quipped one freelance photographer then, with another newspaper report adding that the mission to track down Diana, skiing somewhere in Vail’s high alpine, was akin to trying to find “a princess in a pile of 12,000 similar bundled and colorfully dressed peas.”
ChaosHats.com
SUITES
GAME ON Star tracks and lavish stays at Kitzbühel’s new Mountain Hacienda. by LESLIE WOIT
Available by special arrangement, guests of Kitzbühel’s chic new Mountain Hacienda can “rent” ski superstars. 2017 FIS World Champion Erik Guay of Canada and U.S. Olympic golden boy Bode Miller are among ambassadors at the ready to sip, ski, and tell a story or three of their daredevil days on the world’s fastest steeps. 82
P H OTO S : A N D R E A S W I M M E R
How many lavish ski trips come fully loaded with their own ski celebs?
90 POINTS
A
Collio
Goriška Brda
Ljubljana
I Trieste
Venezia
CRO
PINOT GRIGIO
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the last four vintages
91 POINTS
SUITES
The Worlds’ Finest roster of superstar athletes-for-hire includes celebs who can swing, kick, fly, and fry alongside Hacienda guests.
Perched on a private knoll 15 minutes outside the walled village of Kitzbühel, Mountain Hacienda and its roster of celebrities comprise Austria’s latest addition to slopeside luxury. Mountain Hacienda is part of an exclusive collection of private European ski homes offered by Worlds’ Finest, a vacation company pairing sumptuous chalet living with superstar company. Crafted in time for this ski season, Mountain Hacienda’s exterior has been hand-hewn from matured timber salvaged from Austrian farm houses. Inside there are nine opulent bedrooms draped in luxurious linens. Accents of soft deerskin, handwoven Indian rugs, and cowhide carpets abound. Cathedralheight living and dining areas house a wood-burning fireplace, plush Italian sofas, and floor-to-ceiling windows that lead to a massive outdoor terrace. Bestrewn with sheepskin throws and plush deck furniture, the expansive indoor-outdoor space begs for après-ski merriment and Aperol spritz sundowners. 84
SUITES
Of course, a full range of Bode Miller’s bespoke Bomber skis nestle like fine jewels in the padded closets of Mountain Hacienda’s luxe ski room. The indoor-outdoor pool opens regally onto Tirol’s peaky panorama. Wine tastings take place in the wine room, or wherever you fancy. There’s a concierge on hand to call the chauffeured Bentley into action. And a recreation room triples as a cinema, games room, and library. You may just need the solace and luxuriant comfort such a space can offer following a day skiing Kitzbühel with a world champion. Imagine the crazy fun of tucking the horrifically fast Hahnenkamm with Bode Miller or Erik Guay, followed by a frothy beer at
Kitzbühel’s classic Londoner pub with Streif survivors in your midst. The Worlds’ Finest roster of superstar athletes-for-hire also includes PGA golfer José María Olazábal, footballer Mario Gomez, extreme kiteboarder Youri Zoon, and culinary ambassador Roland Trettl — celebs who can swing, kick, fly, and fry alongside Hacienda guests. In such incomparable, rarified, and downright qualified company as this, topping a stay at Kitzbühel’s Mountain Hacienda will be its own life challenge. Game on. W W W.W F I. A G
P H OTO S : A N D R E A S W I M M E R
The Devil is in the Details
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P H O T O CO U R T E S Y O F D PA P I C T U R E A L L I A N C E / A L A M Y S T O C K P H O T O
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KAISER Retired downhiller Franz Klammer enjoys life as ruler of Austrian ski racing. by ROB STORY Franz Klammer at the Olympics, Innsbruck, 1976.
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hen it comes to performing one of the Alps’ best-known outdoor activities, Franz Klammer really stinks. He’s so awful, in fact, that both new acquaintances and old friends cringe with pity. No, Franz Klammer couldn’t yodel his way out of a paper bag. His attempts register only sad, whiny bleats. Fortunately, Klammer performs significantly better at another, more vital alpine tradition: ski racing. His pathetic yodel occurred in Telluride, Colorado, last December, while giving an interview in the Fairmont Hotel named after him: Franz Klammer Lodge. At age 64, his is a fascinating story. Following his World Cup debut at the age of 19 in 1972, Klammer won 25 World Cup downhills over the next 13 seasons — a record that stood till broken recently by Lindsey Vonn. He won Kitzbühel’s treacherous Hahnenkamm race four times. The Austrian remains famous to this day for his electrifying downhill blitz to Olympic gold at Innsbruck in 1976 — a breathtaking series of hairball recoveries that inspired more people to take up skiing than any single event before or since. Thanks to Franz Klammer, skiing became a sport for the masses, not just silver spooners. Klammer’s journey began in the Austrian village of Mooswald, Carinthia, where chairlifts did not exist. Klammer would 88
occasionally hike up the surrounding hills and ski down, but spent more time on his family’s farm, mowing hay and milking cows by hand. (One of the first things his family purchased once “Franzi” attained affluence was a milking machine.) Carinthia, a southern state bordering Italy and Slovenia, almost never put skiers on the Austrian national ski team. Coaches told 14-year-old Klammer he would only survive by keeping his mouth shut and whipping more advantaged teammates from Tirol and Salzburg. So he did. Slalom, where Klammer began his career, held limited appeal. “You need to wake up too early for slalom!” he jokes. “Downhill races, on the other hand, take place at midday. Also, there are too many gates in slalom. I prefer the freedom of downhill, where there are big risks and big rewards. Turns out that downhill is my natural discipline.” Ya think!? Klammer won the World Cup’s overall downhill (DH) title four consecutive times from 1975-78, and added another in 1983. In addition to Olympic glory, he took two golds in the World Championships. He spent his 13-year career standing atop podiums everywhere from Jackson Hole to Val Gardena. Yet no competition can compare to conquering Innsbruck’s Patscherkofel course in 1976. Klammer came into the Olympic Winter Games on an overwhelming hot streak — he’d won every
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Klammer won the World Cup’s overall downhill title four consecutive times from 1975-78, and added another medal in 1983. Never in the history of the Olympic Winter Games has a man successfully defended a downhill title the next quadrennial. Indeed, Klammer failed to even make the Austrian Olympic team in 1980. Not that the psychological demands of DH got to him. Klammer insists he was never, ever fearful in the starting gate because “if you go for the victory, there is no room for second thoughts.” Still, he admits, “My competitive spirit slipped a bit in the late ‘70s. Negative things piled on top of each other.” The worst, by far, occurred in ’77 when his younger brother, Klaus, was paralyzed as the result of a crash during a downhill training run. Franz later established the Franz Klammer Foundation to care for severely injured athletes. “Klaus had no insurance, but doctors cared for him because his name was Klammer,” he says. “Others are not so lucky. I want to help.” That his brother was seriously injured on a DH course made Klammer question his continued pursuit. Then came an enlightening trip to Klaus’s rehab center: “There was only one professional athlete among the hundred rehabbing, and it was Klaus. It made me realize how rare it was for a racer to get paralyzed, and this allowed me to keep racing at a high level.” Through the 1980s, Klammer achieved many fine results, including the overall DH World Cup in ‘83, preceding the 1984 Olympic Winter Games. Yet he arrived in Sarajevo lacking confidence; the course was much too flat for Klammer’s liking. It favored gliders, and he knew going in U.S. racer Bill Johnson would
PH OTO CO URTE S Y OF BL IZ ZARD SKI S
DH in ’75 that he finished (losing only once, when he lost a ski). Klammer won three straight downhills in the January before the Games. He was under unbearable pressure: “I had to win Innsbruck because it was in Austria. I had to win for myself, win for Austria, win for everybody. I was the biggest name in the Olympics. Even in America, I was a big name.” A mere silver medal would amount to disgrace. Two days before Klammer’s grand test, his ski sponsor, Fischer, threw him for a crazy loop. Fischer suddenly revealed new “magic” skis with holes in the shovel, supposedly to reduce wind resistance. Klammer was horrified at the gimmickry. He argued with Fischer reps, then promptly visited his technician to retrieve his old reliable skis for safekeeping. “I took them back to my hotel room,” Klammer says, “and literally slept with my skis.” The suspense was maximized — as was the squeeze on Klammer — when he drew starting number 15, the last man in the top seed. This meant that all of his significant competition would compete before him. Swiss skier Bernhard Russi, whom Klammer calls his greatest rival, laid down a scorching pace. “Usually I don’t want to know anything about other racers’ runs,” Klammer says. “At the Olympics, though, the speakers were so loud I couldn’t help but hear about Russi.” Dressed in his signature bright yellow downhill suit, Klammer sprang out of the starting gate and the (mostly Austrian) crowd of 60,000 began to roar. All downhillers know that to win you have to take chances and for most of that Olympic downhill, Klammer did nothing but take chances. He got thrown around as if on a rollercoaster, experiencing many near falls. He let his skis run, taking the fastest line on the edge of disaster. When he crossed the finish line he beat Russi’s time by .33 seconds to take the gold. From that day forward, Klammer became known as “The Kaiser”, his nation’s chief icon, more popular even than fellow Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger. Klammer’s gold established Austria as an international ski destination. To this day while out in public he is perpetually reminded of the race, which doesn’t bother him in the least. “I really love to watch replays of it. I make the same mistakes every time, but I also win every time.”
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DP A P I CT URE A L L I A N C E / A L A MY ST OC K PH OT O
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To this day it can take Franz Klammer an hour or more to get past still adoring fans at a race course. At Bad Kleinkirchheim, where the Austrian won his first DH, he has godlike status. The resort’s new World Cup course is named after him, along with a mountain restaurant, and even his favorite cake (a mix of hazelnuts, raspberries, and marzipan) at the local bakery. “I still enjoy being called The Kaiser because I obviously have done something right in my career,” he says. “But the ego kick I got from skiing and winning remains the most gratifying part.” Since 1979, Klammer has been married to his wife Eva, whom he met in 1975 at a Tunisian fitness camp. As the love of his life and his emotional rock, Eva made raising their two daughters (Sophie and Stephanie) “easy and fun,” even in the heady atmosphere of skiing royalty. “I‘m proud that I brought downhill skiing to another level,” he says, noting that he pretty much invented carving years before carving skis came out. “I was the first racer to carve around a turn. I initiated turns earlier than others, who didn’t catch on to my carving technique for a couple of years.” 90
top to bottom
1. Maria Hauser, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Franz Klammer at the Weisswurst party, Stanglwirt hotel, Austria 2016. 2. Klammer holds the Crystal Globe for overall DH World Cup, 1983.
Ski racing worked out just fine for Klammer because “I like to work out, I like to travel, and I like to meet people. I never considered myself the best human. In reality, I never raced people. I set out to conquer the mountain. I was pushing the envelope as much as I could. Victory or crash, there was no other thing on my mind.” Certainly not yodeling.
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likely win. Klammer ended up in 10th place, and is remembered more for calling Johnson a “nasenbohrer” (nose picker) than for his racing prowess on that course. While he does not deny that the phrase was uttered, Klammer denies full responsibility. “That was actually started by a teammate who wasn’t famous, so they attributed it to me!” The following year found Klammer in Aspen for his umpteenth World Cup. “I walked into the corral where the technicians were working with skis,” he says, “and just thought: This isn’t the place for me anymore. Even though I woke up that morning with no intentions of quitting, I skied down and never looked back. For me, it was the easiest thing in world to quit competitive skiing. It was the best time of my life, no regrets.”
“I still enjoy being called The Kaiser because I obviously have done something right in my career.” —Franz Klammer
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SHADOWL SHADOWLAND Hemmed in by better-known big mountain destinations, Kicking Horse, B.C. lurks in Canada’s shadowland. words by LESLIE ANTHONY photos by MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON
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LAND Dave Treadway enjoying a cold January day in Super Bowl , Kicking Horse, B.C.
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physics lesson: When walking on snow colder than –10 degrees Celsius, foot pressure won’t melt the crystals. Instead, they will merely be crushed, resulting in a squeaking noise; the colder it is, the louder the sound. This explains the Styrofoam symphony emanating from my footsteps at the base of Kicking Horse Mountain Resort on a –30 degree Celsius January morning. What can’t be explained is why one would choose to ski in such cold weather. Yet here I am with local Emile Lavoie, touring a mountain known to me only through the hushed tributes of others. Emile is from the Canadian province of Quebec, where such chill is the winter norm; I am from neighboring Ontario, which can claim the occasional same. You have only to imagine the rivalry between Canadian provinces to understand how, having shared these details over coffee in the base’s funky Double Black café, we now engage in a silent, frigid, pas de deux in which neither of us will admit we are too cold to ski. It’s testament to this mountain’s riches — and a little help from the sun — that I barely notice my toes freezing solid. Those “tributes” had delivered significant numerical intrigue: four bowls and four knife-edge ridges, 1,260 meters of vertical, fully two-thirds of 128 numbered trails at the dark end of the spectrum, 60 bearing the portentous double black graphic. What mellow terrain exists is found in the bottom of bowls and on the mountain’s lower apron, where two of three chairlifts reside. The rest of the goods are accessed by a bottom-to-top gondola in which Emile and I ride. I’d spent yesterday lapping CPR Ridge’s treed southside and testing its extensive north facing chutes, so Emile and I head to Redemption Ridge, separating Crystal and Feuz bowls. The chutes tumbling into the latter are wider and more forgiving than CPR’s heart-stopping inventory with a few exceptions — Steps Chutes, choked with enormous mushroomed rocks, and Dutch Wallet, requiring that you lower yourself in by a permanently affixed rope. This is out-there skiing. Add in North America’s fourth largest vertical and it more readily channels Jackson Hole than B.C. Interior’s catalogue of powder cruisers. Snow coverage is excellent, quality superb, yet despite the mountain’s full lodges, it feels like no one’s on the mountain. I could get used to this, and I will, directly after lunch in the Eagle’s Eye, Canada’s highest elevation restaurant. Inside, I’m immediately consumed by one of the all-time great vistas in skiing — a 360-degree view of two mountain ranges, five national parks, and the town of Golden. It’s also mercifully warm.
Kicking Horse Mountain Resort opened in 2000, and was immediately registered as one of the continent’s big-mountain destinations of note.
from top to bottom
1. Chad Sayers playing in Terminator 3, Kicking Horse backcountry. 2. Sayers dropping into Truth, an inbound chute.
Golden sits in B.C.’s Kootenay region, the Columbia Mountains in the west and Rocky Mountains to the east. At the turn of the 20th century, it became an internationally recognized mountain destination, largely because of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, which established a freight and passenger hub in Golden. Recognizing that those transiting here might want to explore the postcard landscape, the railroad brought Swiss guides to town in 1899, later building them homes on a hillside overlook, a de facto Swiss village christened “Edelweiss”. Though Golden’s economy centered on the railroad and forestry (there was never any gold), skiing and mountaineering would continue to draw visitors. Dutch backers purchased the small Whitetooth Ski Area, developed, and reopened the area under its new name, Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, in 2000; it was immediately registered as one of the continent’s big-mountain destinations of note. Yet despite this watershed, Golden remains humble and genuine — populated by guides, artists, dogsledders, biologists, rail workers, lumberjacks, and a smattering of skiers escaping the hubris of more populous resorts. This isn’t to say there’s little of interest here: bookstore, museum, wolf sanctuary, and other attractions abound. And a budding gastronomy is anything but provincial, from casual-yetelegant Whitetooth Mountain Bistro, to Eleven22, occupying a
commemorating a century of the Swiss guides, a reminder of how these men shaped the area’s mountain culture. Edelweiss, where some of their homes still exist, lies a couple of kilometers west of Golden, and I make the trip one early morning to take in the view that guides and their families had across the valley to what is now Kicking Horse. A serrated skyline glows amber in the sunrise, but despite Edelweiss being a ghost town, I know where I can find at least one Swiss guide who is still very real.
renovated turn-of-the-century house, to true fine dining at isolated Cedar House Restaurant. Wandering off the town’s utilitarian grid and onto a riverside trail one day, I discover both Whitetooth Brewing Company and homey Riverhouse Tavern (“Where everybody knows your shame”). In only a dozen years, Chris “Soap” Soper has turned this former print shop/dentist office/ sushi bar/coffee shop into a skate-and-snowboard-themed pub that seems it has been there forever. At street’s end I pass a wall mural
Heli-skiing was born in the Bugaboo Range of the Purcells south of Golden, and Rudi Gertsch of Purcell Heli-Skiing is a living pioneer who is still at its forefront. After arriving from Switzerland in 1966 and taking up with Hans Gmoser’s original Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH) crew, Rudi learned the heli-ski ropes, striking out on his own with a day-skiing operation in 1974 that has become an iconic family business, with son Jeff as lead guide. Rudi’s half-century of guiding is interesting enough to have inspired a book by the Alpine Club of Canada. No surprise, then, that Rudi’s Purcell Lodge base is a museum filled with his uncle’s inventions (remember Gertsch plate bindings?): iconic powder boards, old climbing gear, and mementos like sketches and woodcuts. A picture painted in Europe that journeyed to the old guides’ house in Lake Louise, and then Edelweiss, before someone decided Rudi should have it, hangs over a massive fireplace that 97
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1. Golden glows under a full moon. 2. Morning coffee at Double Black CafĂŠ. 3. The Trans-Canada Highway. 4. Advice from locals. 5. Living legend Rudi Gertsch, owner of Purcell Heli-Skiing.
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splits floor-to-ceiling windows that invite in the Purcells. We’re not here for nostalgia, urges still-ski-mad Rudi, snapping our reverie and hectoring us to the heli-pad. Accompanied by Jeff, we debark with the energetic 73-year-old atop a stunning run called Top of the World, only to find the alpine wind-hammered. No worries, Rudi has many options in a tenure that spans 1,200 square kilometers. Guiding us farther down the ridge and into the trees, we find a huge pillow feature that provides for endless lines. The pick-up, where the pilot meets us after each circuit, features a grizzly bear rub — a tree marked by claws with fur stuck to the bark. It’s still as wild out here as the day Rudi arrived. If there’s one thing Rudi does better than ski, it’s tell stories, delivered with a twinkle in his eye and perpetual half smile: growing up in Wengen in the shadow of the Eiger; the cowboy days of heli-skiing with Gmoser; his working friendship with fellow guide and renowned photographer Bruno Engler; being kicked out of Mount Norquay’s ski school (“They called me in and said, ‘You’re skiing too fast.’”); carrying an enormous film
camera down a race course for the 1969 movie Downhill Racer (“Can you imagine how easy that would be with a GoPro today?”). Each run brings a new tale — heavenly skiing served up with an earthly libretto. Scattered throughout Rudi’s property are hand-built cabins used for lunch stops. This day’s soup and sandwiches are served in one facing the pillow line we just skied. It also has a gorgeous overlook to the Selkirks, which, in wan January light, appear to stampede toward the porch under a harlequin sky. It’s the kind of beauty that has captured more than one pilgrim’s heart. After moving west from Quebec, Emile Lavoie did stints in Whistler and Revelstoke before being enthralled by Kicking Horse. “The mountain is so different. There was no question I wanted to live here,” he says as we bootpack the resort’s 100
Golden remains humble and genuine — populated by guides, artists, dogsledders, biologists, lumberjacks, and skiers.
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1. A Whitetooth craft brew. 2. Iconic Canada at sunset: Petro Canada, Tim Hortons, and the Rockies. 3. Cedar House Chalets & Restaurant. 4. Whitetooth Brewing Co., Golden’s go-to for après. 5. Canadian Pacific rolling through Golden. 6. The Treadways, a local freeriding family.
marquee peak, Terminator 1, to overlook Super Bowl. He loves it so much he wants others to know about it. And as marketing manager at Kicking Horse that’s his job. But like others who’ve unearthed this gem, he doesn’t want too many to know too much. Kicking Horse skiers can’t understand why the mountain isn’t perpetually packed and neither can Emile (“It’s a happy mystery”), yet it’s the elbow room that keeps them coming back. And you don’t need a –30 degree Celsius day here to have it to yourself. W W W . K I C K I N G H O R S E R E S O R T. C O M W W W.P U R C E L L H E L I S K II N G.C O M 101
Magical MIKAELA Mikaela Shiffrin spins hard work into gold. words by LORI KNOWLES photographs by CHRISTIAN ALEXANDER styled by JOHN MARTINEZ hair & makeup by JUSTIN ST. CLAIR
Dress Silvia Tcherassi Necklace Buccellati Bracelet Buccellati Ring (index finger) Buccellati Ring Lulu Fiedler 102
The ski racer is as curious as the rest of us as to what makes a champion.
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ikaela Shiffrin has blown in off the street. It’s midApril in the mining town of Minturn, Colorado. Flakes from a freak snowstorm are floating from the sky like feathers from a goose and the wind is spiraling mini-twisters along Main Street, past the saloon and the Sticky Fingers Cafe and the still-frozen banks of the Eagle River. Gusts of wind catch the World Cup champion and carry her through the door of The Minturn Inn, a rustically chic bed and breakfast owned by ex-World Cup skier Marco Tonazzi and his wife Amy. Shiffrin, on a four-day break from spring ski training, is here for a cover shoot and fashion spread for SNOW. Soon she’ll be transformed by an inventive beauty team into a glam queen with banana curls, glittering gowns, and handmade Fendi boots. But for now her long blonde mane is blowing every which way, her cheeks are pink from the chill, and she looks more the part of a young ski racer intent on maintaining a streak so fast she’s just been titled 2017’s World Cup overall champion. Mikaela Shiffrin first flashed across our screens at the 2011 U.S. National Championships where, at sweet 16, instead of studying for science tests and buying Cover Girl makeup, she became the youngest American ski racer to claim a national alpine crown. At age 17 she was crowned slalom’s World Cup winner. And at age 18 in Sochi, Russia, as most eyes were on Lindsey Vonn and the bodaciousness of Bode Miller, Shiffrin stole the show as the youngest ever Olympic slalom gold medalist. Thirty-one breathtaking World Cup wins later, the now 22-year-old Shiffrin is approaching the peak of her game. In February she became the first woman to match Christl Cranz’s 1939 success by winning three slalom World Championship golds. And in March, Shiffrin won her first Crystal Globe – World Cup skiing’s overall title. How does she do it? As she’s readied for the shoot on this snowy day in Minturn, calmly withstanding mascara wands, curling irons, and the primping and prodding of stylists, Shiffrin asks herself the same question. Smart, articulate, candid, and analytical, the ski racer is as curious as the rest of us as to what makes a champion. She bristles at being called a phenom. Instead, she’s convinced hard work, perseverance, and dogged focus supersede staggering talent. “It’s not natural,” Shiffrin insists. “It’s been a lot of work. It comes naturally only as far as I’ve probably watched more video than anyone else, and I’ve probably skied and practiced more. That’s why it looks like it comes naturally, because it is a lot of repetition.” Shiffrin admits she’s fascinated by the process of being a ski racer: Rising early to train gates. Afternoons in the gym with her trainer. Endless hours viewing and analyzing video footage of every conceivable portion of her ski turn. She is obsessed
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with where to apply edge. When to release pressure. How to ride a turn with more flow and less stiffness. As she says: “I’ve always liked training.” This has been her routine since at least age 11. While enrolled at Vermont’s Burke Mountain Academy, the preteen became a student of the sport. “Like another student would study for a math test,” she says, “I would study skiing. I studied my competitors. I studied World Cup racers. Even though they were light-years ahead of me, I watched them as if I was going to compete against them tomorrow.” Anja Pärson. Janica Kostelić. Lindsey Vonn. Manuela Mölgg. Heroes all. Shiffrin cultivated the fine art of breaking down their skiing and analyzing footage of their arcs in minute detail in slow motion. She scrutinized the tops of their turns, the bottoms of their turns, their transitions, and determined which muscles were employed to make it all happen. It’s a methodology Shiffrin credits to Burke coach Kirk Dwyer. “He taught me how to look at video methodically and analytically,” she says. “My mom also learned that from him, and since then we’ve taken it to new extremes.” On this day in snowy Colorado as Shiffrin is shuttled deep into a forest for the first photo of the day, her mom rides in a car ahead. With bobbed hair and the body of an athlete, Eileen Shiffrin, a former masters ski racer, is always somewhere in her daughter’s daily routine — handing her a towel, shooting a video, timing a training run. The older Shiffrin tours the World Cup circuit at her daughter’s side throughout each season. Mikaela calls Eileen a coach. But, she insists, her mother is so much more. “She does a lot. She’s my mom. She’s a ski coach. In some ways she’s my mental coach. She’s my manager and my handler. She makes sure I stay on track with my skiing. ” It’s a relationship that’s scrutinized by the ski racing world and one with which not everyone is comfortable. While fathers have followed their sons in ski racing before — most notoriously Helmut and Marc Girardelli — somehow moms on the slopes have a not-sostellar reputation. “It has made people uncomfortable,” Mikaela says. “When they see a mom around they’re like, ‘Omigosh! What are you doing here. You’re in our space.’” Mikaela frowns. “Maybe they feel as though they’re under a microscope — as if she’s judging.” And while the younger Shiffrin bristles again, this time having to defend her mother, she has no plans to fix what isn’t broken. “People ask what my secret is, why I’ve had success. I ask them, ‘What do you see that’s absolutely different about my team?’ And then I explain, ‘it’s my mom… Having her around has given me a huge advantage.’”
“Smart, articulate, candid, and analytical, the ski racer is as curious as the rest of us as to what makes a champion.”
Dress Dennis Basso Necklace Robert Procop — Betteridge Earrings Buccellati
“I want [my young fans] to know that this level of skiing is not some crazy dream.” — Mikaela Shiffrin
Dress Fendi Shoes Fendi Earrings Argyle Pink Diamonds — Betteridge Necklace Paul Morelli — Betteridge
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It’s true, Eileen Shiffrin is her daughter’s keeper. During the photo shoot in this tumbling, wooded terrain — not far from the Shiffrin family home in Vail, Colorado — Eileen is the first to sling a blanket around Mikaela’s shivering, Silvia Tcherassi-clad shoulders. She frets about Shiffrin catching cold, worries about her tripping on a four-inch Fendi heel, and most of all, as the shoot drags on and the light grows darker, is concerned about Mikaela missing her daily dryland training. “It may not seem much to miss a single day,” Eileen whispers as Mikaela poses serenely for another shot, thistle-down flakes falling softly on her curls. “But it’s a set of blocks that need to be built on; each one is as important as the other.” Who’s to argue? It’s a formula that has worked, particularly in early 2017 as Mikaela was faced with the first real stress of her career. Hard to believe that this dynamo was nearing 31 World Cup wins when she first encountered gut-twisting fear, but she did, and it was Shiffrin’s mother who snapped her out of it. “This year there was so much hype about my results, what I could accomplish, if I could accomplish winning the overall globe,” Mikaela explains. “I never really let that get to me before. This year it did and it stressed me out in ways I’d never felt. I’d get these terrible stomach aches and show up to race and just be frozen. My mom would see me and ask ‘Why are you nervous? You’re skiing great. Just do what you always do.’ She’s always two steps ahead of me.” Later Shiffrin adds: “She has the best eye for my skiing.” The ski racer also attributes breakthroughs to primary coach Mike Day — Ted Ligety’s former ringmaster — and strength and conditioning guru Jeff Lackie. Team Shiffrin is in force to ready young Mikaela for the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. All eyes — at least those enamored of ski racing — will be on this graceful, fearsome skier as she strives to break more records. The day is advancing swiftly amid the snowy aspens. Dressed in a beguiling Dennis Basso gown, Mikaela Shiffrin fixes her gaze on Christian Alexander’s lens, a silver sky fading behind the superstar like lights dimming slowly on a Broadway stage. Shiffrin’s expression is difficult to read — it could be intensity, focus, curiosity… hard to say. It’s never easy to read Mikaela Shiffrin. It’s an observation the racer has struggled with since catapulting onto the world stage at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Time and again observers have complained young Shiffrin is emotionless at the finish of her races, despite monstrous wins, and even when she’s beaten her competition by huge, unheardof margins. “It’s true,” she admits, her grin now as giant as a Cheshire’s. “I show no emotion at the finish!” Shiffrin is as baffled by her inability to emote as everyone else. “I don’t know what to feel,” she says honestly. “I don’t think you can understand that feeling [of winning] and express it to the world immediately.” Sliding through the finish of a World Cup race, with cameras crawling toward her and sounds of the crowds thundering through her helmet, she reveals her first instinct is to “go the other direction.” Most often, Shiffrin says, if she’s done well, that frozen expression captured by the cameras is Mikaela astounded by her own speed, baffled by how she pulled it off. “A lot of what you see is 108
disbelief — that I could win a race, sometimes by up to two seconds. That has happened several times and I was thinking “Wow… I don’t even know what to think right now.” Mikaela’s eyes gleam as it occurs to her some winning athletes plan their reactions to gratify crowds and cameras. Stephen Curry’s shimmy. Tiger Woods’ fist pump. José Bautista’s bat flip. Shiffrin leans in as if she’s telling a secret. “I want to ask them, What were you thinking?” She wrinkles her nose. “How did you know to do that?” The day is dying and so is Mikaela’s energy. As the last vestiges of daylight disappear behind surrounding peaks, the ski racer rests against a ragged barn and stares beyond the camera for her final shot, her feet tucked into gold lamé boots, her body sheathed in a mini dress from Manrico Cashmere. With the whir of the camera finally silent, she graciously accepts thanks for a job superbly done, then picks her way through the snow to a waiting SUV. There, as any 22 year old would, Shiffrin digs for her phone, brings its screen to life, and loses herself into the world of social media. Tucked into the SUV’s rear seat beside the ski racer is Isabella, Marco Tonazzi’s teenage daughter, who has lent her horse for the shoot, and who’s been watching Mikaela’s moves with eyes as wide and as wondrous as snowflakes. Mikaela glances sideways at her new friend and the athlete’s exhaustion dissipates instantly. The two pass the long, bumpy drive back to Isabella’s dad’s bed and breakfast immersed in staccato chit-chat.
Dress Manrico Cashmere Shoes Silvia Tcherassi Earrings Estate Jewelry — Betteridge Watch Longines Ring Robert Procop — Betteridge
“If someone works harder than you, they’ll probably beat you.” — Mikaela Shiffrin “I hope they consider me more of a friend,” Shiffrin says of her legions of young fans — at last count, 79.4K followers on Twitter. “It’s great that they consider me an idol but I want those kids to think of me as relatable as well. I’m young. I was in their position not very long ago. I want them to know that this level of skiing is not some crazy dream.” Back inside The Minturn Inn, Mikaela considers her life for a moment. “You have to be willing to work really hard and sacrifice a lot,” she adds. “You miss your friends pretty much 99 percent of the time. You can’t party. You can’t have sleepovers. There are a lot of things you have to give up. But if you really want it and you’re willing to work, it’s achievable.” Achievable? Thirty-one World Cup wins by age 22, an Olympic
gold, and the most World Championship slalom victories since 1939’s Christl Cranz? “There are moments of triumph when you feel on top of the world, I understand that,” she admits. “But a lot of athletes portray themselves as ‘I’m the king and you’ll never beat me.’ I’m like, get a life! If someone works harder than you, they’ll probably beat you.” Shiffrin leaves SNOW’s photo session the same way she entered, exiting the The Minturn Inn with her mom by her side. They slide into a snow-covered car, start it up, and disappear past the saloon and the Sticky Fingers Cafe, now lit in alpenglow. Last word, they were headed for dryland training. 109
the FASTand the
FABULOUS
Mat t
Jacket RH+ $650 Hat Eskyflavor $60 Sweater Rossignol $290 Pants Mountain Force $699 Gabrielle
Pants M. Miller $275 Sweater M. Miller $385 Goggles Giro $180 Helmet CP $495 Boots Nicole Miller $260
Gabrielle
Baselayer Goldbergh $315 Pants Goldbergh $388 Helmet Giro $150 Mat t
Jacket Mountain Force $999 Pants Mountain Force $699 Baselayer Mountain Force $179 Sunglasses Ray-Ban $160 Gloves Zegna $495
Gabrielle
Jacket Authier Price on Request Pants Authier Price on Request Light Jacket Authier Price on Request Sunglasses POC $220 Leg Warmers Chaos $30 Ring Lulu Fiedler Price on Request Earrings Lulu Fiedler Price on Request
Gabrielle
Fur Jacket Wolfie$1,995 Boots Redemption $2,995 Dress Dsquared2 Price on Request Watch KYBOE! $250
Miro
Jacket Amundsen $399 Pants Amundsen $439 Sweater Amundsen $259 Helmet CP $395
Gabrielle
Jacket SKEA $988
Mat t
Jacket Zegna $1,095 Pants Zegna $2,095 Gloves Zegna $495 Hood Zegna $195 Sweater Aztech Mountain $495 Watch KYBOE! $330 Goggles Giro $60 Helmet Giro $150
gabrielle
Pants Dsquared2 $1,695 Jacket Dsquared2 $1,980 Helmet CP $495 Boots Redemption $1,495 Ring Lulu Fiedler Ring Lulu Fiedler Price on Request
MAT T
One Piece Bogner $2,300 Helmet BollĂŠ $199 Sweater Descente $140 Gloves Bogner Fire+ Ice $250 Sunglasses Vuarnet $390
Tay l or
Jacket KRU $1,375 Pants KRU $895 Sunglasses POC $200 Gabrielle
Pants Moncler $910 Jacket Moncler $2,515 Sweater Rossignol $210 Gloves Bogner $350 Boots Nicole Miller $185 MAT T
Pants Rossignol $290 Sweater Rossignol $210 Scarf Chaos $60 Backpack Zegna $695 Shoes Zegna $695 Watch KYBOE! $330 Sunglasses POC $200
Miro
One Piece Race Salopette Helly Hansen $450
Miro
Jacket Descente $850 Helmet CP $465 Pants Model’s Own Sunglasses Vuarnet $430 Baselayer RH+ $160 Mat t
Leather Jacket Skidress $499 Scarf Rossignol $90 Helmet BollĂŠ $199 Watch Bell & Ross $8,800 Pants Zara $29
Gabrielle
Ski Suit Cordova $810 Helmet CP $349 Boots Nicole Miller $260
RESOURCES
Resources Cover
Primary Cool
Dress DENNIS BASSO www.dennisbasso.com Necklace ROBERT PROCOP — BETTERIDGE www.betteridge.com Earrings BUCCELLATI www.buccellati.com
PAGE 48
Contents PAGE 22
ON TAYLOR One Piece Ski Suit SOI $800 www.skiobsessimpress.com Boots NICOLE MILLER $260 www.nicolemiller.com ON MATT Pants GOLDWIN $299 Jacket GOLDWIN $399 www.goldwin.com T-Shirt ALP-N-ROCK $159 www.alpnrock.com Helmet GIRO $220 www.giro.com ON GABRIELLE Jacket FUSALP $1,400 Pants FUSALP $550 Sweater FUSALP $350 www.fusalp.com Boots FENDI $1,450 www.fendi.com Sunglasses SHAMBALLA $2,250 www.shamballa-eyewear.com ON MIRO Jacket KJUS $999 Pants KJUS $649 Baselayer KJUS $249 www.kjus.com Helmet POC $160 www.pocsports.com ON EDDY Sweater ROSSIGNOL $280 www.rossignol.com Jacket NOBIS $1,095 www.nobis.com Pants BOGNER FIRE + ICE $520 www.bogner.com ON JAGGER Pants ROSSIGNOL/TOMMY HILFIGER $350 www.rossignol.com Sunglasses POC $200 www.pocsports.com Jacket OBERMEYER $349 www.obermeyer.com Hat ESKYFLAVOR $60 www.eskyflavor.com Baselayer BOGNER $200 www.bogner.com 126
Skis BOMBER www.bomberski.com Jacket DESCENTE www.descente.com Jacket RH+ www.zerorh.com Jacket NILS www.nils.us Jacket PARAJUMPERS www.parajumpers.it Goggles BOLLÉ www.bolle.com Sweater ROSSIGNOL www.rossignol.com Shoes BRESSAN www.bressanshoes.com Jacket FUSALP www.fusalp.com Baselayer TONI SAILER www.tonisailer.com
Black & White PAGE 50 Jacket PEAK PERFORMANCE www.peakperformance.com Hat CHAOS www.chaoshats.com Jacket BOGNER www.bogner.com Jacket SPORTALM www.sportalm.at Mittens ASTIS www.astis.com Helmet CP www.stefankaelin.com Vest SKEA www.skealimited.com Ski Suit AUTHIER www.performanceskiaspen.com Snow Suit SOS www.sosblacksnow.com Baselayer GOLDBERGH www.goldbergh.com Baselayers M. MILLER www.mmillerfur.com
Snow Stories PAGE 93
ON GABRIELLE Pants SPORTALM $849 Jacket SPORTALM $1,679 Baselayer SPORTALM $849 www.sportalm.com
The Fast and the Fabulous
Dress DSQUARED2 Price on Request www.dsquared2.com Watch KYBOE! $250 www.kyboe.com
PAGES 110-111
PAGE 115
ON MATT Jacket RH+ $650 www.zerorh.com Hat Eskyflavor $60 www.eskyflavor.com
ON MIRO Pants AMUNDSEN $439 Jacket AMUNDSEN $399 Sweater AMUNDSEN $259 www.amundsensports.com Helmet CP $395 www.stefankaelin.com
Sweater ROSSIGNOL $290 www.rossignol.com Pants MOUNTAIN FORCE $699 www.mountainforce.com
ON GABRIELLE Pants M. MILLER $275 Sweater M. MILLER $385 www.mmillerfur.com Goggles GIRO $180 www.giro.com Boots NICOLE MILLER $260 www.nicolemiller.com Helmet CP $495 www.stefankaelin.com PAGE 112 ON GABRIELLE Baselayer GOLDBERGH $315 Pants GOLDBERGH $388 www.goldbergh.com Helmet GIRO $150 www.giro.com
ON MATT Pants MOUNTAIN FORCE $699 Baselayer MOUNTAIN FORCE $179 Jacket MOUNTAIN FORCE $999 www.mountainforce.com Sunglasses RAY-BAN $160 www.ray-ban.com Gloves ZEGNA $495 www.zegna.us PAGES 113 ON GABRIELLE Pants AUTHIER Light Jacket AUTHIER Jacket AUTHIER Prices on Request www.performanceskiaspen.com Leg Warmers CHAOS $30 www.chaoshats.com Ring LULU FIEDLER Earrings LULU FIEDLER Prices on Request www.lulufiedler.com SunglassesPOC $220 www.pocsports.com PAGE 114
ON GABRIELLE Vest WOLFIE $1,995 www.wolfiefur.com Boots REDEMPTION $2,995 www.redemption.com
PAGES 116-117
ON GABRIELLE Jacket SKEA $988 www.skealimited.com PAGE 118
ON MATT Pants ZEGNA $2,095 Jacket ZEGNA $1,095 Gloves ZEGNA $495 Hood ZEGNA $195 www.zegna.us Sweater AZTECH MOUNTAIN $495 www.aztechmountain.com Watch KYBOE! $330 www.kyboe.com Helmet GIRO $150 Goggles GIRO $60 www.giro.com PAGE 119
ON GABRIELLE Pants DSQUARED2 $1,695 Jacket DSQUARED2 $1,980 www.dsquared2.com Helmet CP $495 www.stefankaelin.com Boots REDEMPTION $1,495 www.redemption.com Ring LULU FIEDLER Ring LULU FIEDLER Prices on Request www.lulufielder.com PAGES 120-121
ON MATT One Piece BOGNER $2,300 Gloves BOGNER FIRE + ICE $250 www.bogner.com Sweater DESCENTE $140 www.descente.com Sunglasses VUARNET $390 www.vuarnet.com Helmet BOLLÉ $199 www.bolle.com PAGE 122
ON TAYLOR Pants KRU $895 Jacket KRU $1,375 www.krustmoritz.com
Sunglasses POC $200 www.pocsports.com
ON GABRIELLE Pants MONCLER $910 Jacket MONCLER $2,515 www.moncler.com Sweater ROSSIGNOL $210 www.rossignol.com Boots NICOLE MILLER $185 www.nicolemiller.com Gloves BOGNER $350 www.bogner.com ON MATT Sweater ROSSIGNOL $210 Pants ROSSIGNOL $290 www.rossignol.com Scarf CHAOS $60 www.chaoshats.com Shoes ZEGNA $795 Backpack ZEGNA $695 Shoes ZEGNA $695 www.zegna.us Watch KYBOE! $330 www.kyboe.com Sunglasses POC $200 www.pocsports.com PAGE 123
ON MIRO One Piece HELLY HANSEN $450 www.hellyhansen.com PAGE 124
ON MIRO Jacket DESCENTE $850 www.descente.com Helmet CP $465 www.stefankaelin.com Sunglasses VUARNET $430 www.vuarnet.com Baselayer RH+ $160 www.zerorh.com Pants MODEL’S OWN ON MATT Jacket SKIDRESS $499 www.skidress.fr Scarf ROSSIGNOL $90 www.rossignol.com Helmet BOLLÉ $199 www.bolle.com Watch BELL & ROSS $8,800 www.bellross.com Pants ZARA $29 www.zara.com PAGE 125
ON GABRIELLE One Piece CORDOVA $810 www.cordova.co Helmet CP $349 www.stefankaelin.com Boots NICOLE MILLER $260 www.nicolemiller.com
ASPEN
New David Easton Design Beds 5 | Baths 7 | REDUCED! $14,900,000 This newly re-built Legacy Estate sits on 1.19 acres and offers over 9200 sq. ft. of luxury living space. The Chic Mountain Interior was created by David Easton Design, architecture by Rodney Austin of Dallas, and superb construction by Aspen Constructors, Inc. The warm and welcoming decor highlights the dramatic vistas of Aspen Mt, Aspen Highlands, Red Mountain, and Tiehack. Web Id#: AN146953
KNOWLEDGE. INTEGRITY. RESULTS. BRIAN HAZEN, CRS
970.379.1270 brian@brianhazen.com www.brianhazen.com
Aspen | 514 E. Hyman Avenue | 970.925.7000 | masonmorse.com
SUSAN PLUMMER
970.948.6786 susan@masonmorse.com
LAST RUN
SINGLE! “Single!” The word hangs, expectantly, in the alpine air. Having put yourself out there, tension and anticipation mount: your declaration of relationship status announced to the world. Who will reply? Will you enjoy exquisite interplay with a muscular thigh? Or will you be searching for a soft pile of powder to cushion your escape from an excruciating 20-minute ride? The double chair, and its forced coupling of single skiers, has nearly disappeared from modern skiing. Triple lifts, high-speed quads, even sixpack rocket ships have put the double chair’s “art of pairing” on life support. A scant few continue to subsist: Campground at Snowmass, half the lifts at Smugglers’ Notch. They remain odes to an era in which cries of “Single!” offered opportunity for adventure and romance. Tinder? Please. eHarmony? There’s no strategy there. Sweep left, slide right… these robotic actions can’t compare with the careful timing of the “Single!” call. The coy glances to see who might reply. The ability to look cute or debonair as you rush to beat a runny-nosed six-year-old to join that slice of heaven in stretch pants. The reward? Oh yes, a double chairlift offers 20, 30, even 40 minutes of reward. Namely: time alone, a tête-à-tête with your catch. There’s opportunity aplenty to bait, cast, and set the hook for further intercourse. It’s just you, your chairmate, and the beauty of skiing all around. As for conversation, possibilities abound. Exchanging favored runs, places to eat, best hideaways for après-ski… potential is limited only by your ability to enchant. Play the game right, and a new relationship will be off the ground by the time you touch down. You’ll be ready to slide, side-byside, into the alpenglow. “Single!” — Peter Gilbert
128
track
www.xo-ski.com Stein Eriksen Lodge 7700 Stein Way, Park City, UT 84060 435-649-3700
Gorsuch Vail 263 E. Gore Creek Drive Vail, CO 81657 970-476-2294
Gorsuch Park City 333 Main Street Park City, UT 84060 435-731-8051
Gorsuch Aspen 601 E. Dean Street Aspen, CO 81611 970-925-3203
Gorsuch Beaver Creek Park Hyatt Promenade 136 East Thomas Place Avon, CO 81620 970-949-0686
Gorsuch Keystone 100 Dercum Dr, Keystone, CO 80435, 970-262-0459
Le Ski Mastery Taos Ski Valley, NM 87525 (575) 776-1403