Outside December 2021

This summer, a series of unprecedented megafires burned through California’s forests. Well, unprecedented isn’t entirely accurate; the world watched the state go up in flames in the summer of 2020, too. As I write this, California has already withstood 11 named wildfires in 2021, including the Dixie Fire, the Monument Fire, and the Calor Fire—enough to make us numb to the horrific imagery and steady, unfathomable cataloging of acres burned. On October 4, however, my longtime friend and former Outside colleague Grayson Schaffer posted a series of photos on Instagram from Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks that still managed to take my breath away. Schaffer was there, along with Outside contributing editor Kyle Dickman, to film the Arrowhead Hotshots, one of the crews tasked with trying to save some of…

Growing up in Bellevue, Ohio, just south of Lake Erie, Brian Kaiser heard stories about locals who went ice sailing, gliding their boats across the frozen Great Lakes during winter’s most frigid months. In January he got a chance to learn more about this obscure sport at the North American championship, in which DN iceboats—a class of vessels conceived in the U.S. that feature a minimal hull and a perpendicular crosspiece with attached skates, or “runners”—raced across Black Lake, in Michigan. He donned crampons to tread the eight-inch-thick ice and taped a hand warmer to his camera after it began to freeze amid the zero-degree conditions. “This sport is a labor of love,” Kaiser says. “The weather is incredibly fickle, and some have to travel hundreds of miles in the…

YOUR VERY OWN BACKCOUNTRY PLAYGROUND Europe has always had something America doesn’t: an Alpine ski route connecting a network of full-service, premium lodges. That’s about to change, as San Juan Mountain Guides in Ouray, Colorado, launches the ultimate hut-to-hut tour in a stunning setting. We sent Devon O’Neil to check it out. PERCHED ON SKIS at the top of Bullion King Basin, I admired a wide barrel of spring corn glistening below me. I’d been waiting for this moment. It was my reward for suffering through a five-hour traverse between two backcountry cabins in southwest Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. We started that morning at the OPUS Hut near Ophir Pass, just west of Silverton, which we’d skinned up to the previous afternoon. Now we prepared to descend to Highway 550 on Red…

In the early months of the pandemic, Americans took up bird-watching like depraved raptors. It is a surprisingly delightful passion that also happens to pair well with skiing. Sign up for Alta’s Birding on Skis tour and you’ll head out on a half-day adventure into Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon to look for resident populations of rosy finches, mountain chickadees, and, if you’re lucky, perhaps a pair of the mating golden eagles that frequent the area below 10,920-foot Devil’s Castle. Tours start with a 9 A.M. ride up Alta’s Collins Lift over epic black-diamond terrain and end at noon at the Albion base area. A conservation ecologist from Salt Lake’s Tracy Aviary will be along to help distinguish nuthatches from creepers. Because you’ll be contributing to a bird survey of the…

Ski resorts spend years—decades even—building out their terrain. The wait is generally worth it, with new glades, bowls, and buttery runs to christen. This season in Colorado, Telluride is getting 40 new acres of beginner and intermediate terrain, including the Grouse Glades, while Beaver Creek will open 250 acres of easy skiing, with two quads and 17 new trails in the bowlish McCoy Park. Last February, Idaho’s Sun Valley pulled the curtain back on 380 acres, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, many weren’t able to ski it. This is your year. The biggest expansion is at Bluebird Backcountry, located near Steamboat Springs, Coloado, and the only no-lift, all-backcountry ski area in the U.S. It will open 12 new runs, for a total of 25. This includes four gullies that are patrolled…

This winter will see the unveiling of arguably the most technologically advanced butt hauler on this side of the Atlantic. Introducing the Kancamagus 8, a.k.a. Kanc 8, at New Hampshire’s Loon Mountain Resort, the first eight-pack in the East and one of only a few such behemoths in the country. This particular beast features heated ergonomic seats that look like something out of a SpaceX rocket, a locking safety bar, individual footrests, and, of course, a tinted bubble to stave off that icy New England wind. The extra-wide chairs can be spun up to 12.5 miles per hour—making the Kanc 8 the fastest lift of its size in the U.S.—and can haul 3,500 skiers per hour to a mid-mountain station in 4.5-minute increments, which is barely enough time to cool…