How to Stay Alive in Steep Terrain: Lessons From a Life in Chamonix Ross Hewitt has been skiing steep lines in Chamonix for nearly 30 years. He has not just survived, but endured. In a place where mistakes often prove fatal, he’s found a way to consistently keep the most important aspect of free skiing intact: himself. By all accounts, the odds aren’t in your favor. The slopes of the Mont Blanc Massif, […] Deep Dive Martin Kuprianowicz | May 29, 2025 0 Comments
Professional Freeskier and Filmmaker Chris Benchetler Honors Hall of Fame Basketball Player Bill Walton with New Episode of Ship of Fools Series Professional freeskier and filmmaker Chris Benchetler has released a new episode of his behind-the-scenes docuseries Ship of Fools, paying tribute to the late Bill Walton on the one-year anniversary of the NBA Hall of Famer’s death. Episode 16, titled “Making of ‘Fire on the Mountain’ w/ Bill Walton – The Wheel Keeps Turning,” revisits the acclaimed 2020 ESPN special Fire […] Martin Kuprianowicz | May 29, 2025 0 Comments
Female Backcountry Skier Dies in Nearly 2,000-Foot Fall in Banff National Park, Alberta A 34-year-old Lake Louise woman died Tuesday morning after falling roughly 600 meters (1,968 feet) while skiing in a remote area of Banff National Park near Moraine Lake, according to Parks Canada, a federal agency responsible for protecting and managing national parks, national historic sites, and national marine conservation areas across Canada. The skier was part of a group of […] Martin Kuprianowicz | May 29, 2025 0 Comments
How Chris Benchetler Turns Skiing into Art The dozens of canvases cluttered in Chris Benchetler’s art studio at his Mammoth Lakes home give an impression as if you had just walked inside a small temple where the walls were melting, oozing every possible mixture of color imaginable. The canvases are all sorts of different shapes and sizes; some are hanging up on the wall, tilted or upside […] Martin Kuprianowicz | May 29, 2025 1 Comment
Park City, UT, Sets Tourism Record Last Season Despite Historic Ski Patrol Strike Park City, Utah, wrapped up its 2024-25 ski season with the highest tourism revenue in town history, despite a winter marked by modest snowfall and a high-profile ski patrol strike. Preliminary numbers from the Park City Chamber of Commerce show a new record for transient room tax collections—a key metric that tracks both nightly rates and lodging occupancy. Related: Why […] Martin Kuprianowicz | May 28, 2025 0 Comments
[VIDEO] 8-Year-Old Snowboarder Rides 105 days Last Season at Vail Mountain, CO An eight-year-old second grader named John John LaConte capped off winter 2024-25 with 105 days on the slopes to earn a coveted 100-day pin from Vail Mountain—an impressive feat chronicled by his father, Vail Daily reporter John LaConte. Martin Kuprianowicz | May 28, 2025 0 Comments
Black Mountain, NH, Sells to Community Co-op in $2.6M Deal Black Mountain, one of New Hampshire’s oldest ski areas, has been sold to a newly formed community cooperative following a $2.6 million transaction finalized on May 24. The sale marks a new chapter for the historic ski hill, which opened with lift-served skiing in 1935 and most recently operated under the Fichera family for nearly three decades. The new owner, […] Martin Kuprianowicz | May 28, 2025 0 Comments
Saudi Arabia Completes Key Tunnel as Desert Ski Resort Trojena Moves Toward 2029 Asian Winter Games Saudi Arabia’s first-ever ski resort project is advancing in the desert mountains of Neom, where developers have now completed excavation of a key tunnel linking future guests to the resort’s centerpiece lake. The milestone was announced this week as part of ongoing construction updates from Trojena, a high-altitude region within the larger Neom megaproject, a $500 billion-plus futuristic urban development […] Martin Kuprianowicz | May 27, 2025 0 Comments
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