The World’s Top Ski Resorts
(Published by New Holland, 2002)

Those who ski or snowboard regularly will need no explanations about what an extraordinary and exhilarating experience it can be. Those who have never tried it may wonder what all the fuss is about. The "fuss" cannot be over-stated. There are very few outdoor pursuits which, with the help of that all important component, gravity - plus the awe-inspiring feeling of being in the mountains - reward participants with such extreme pleasure. And few that you would want to pursue from dawn till dusk. At one Japanese resort, Naeba, for example, skiers are so keen to pack in as many hours on the slopes that they sometimes start skiing at 4.30 in the morning. Whether you emerge from a cosy chalet after a hearty breakfast to find yourself cruising down pistes groomed to "corduroy" perfection, gulping in fresh mountain air beneath a cornflower-blue sky - or floating through deep powder like an almost weightless astronaut, you can hardly fail to be elated. Sometimes it can come very close to being a spiritual event. Buzz Aldrin, one of the first men on the moon, learned to ski long after his moonwalk, and wishes he had started younger.

First, of course, you have to learn. Just as a would-be astronaut cannot just take a space-walk without being thoroughly trained at NASA, anyone who wants to ski or snowboard must learn the basics - fortunately nowhere near as daunting as preparing for a space mission. Finally the embryonic Hermann Maier or Jonny Moseley needs to acquire as many skiing hours as possible before skiing or riding becomes intuitive and effortless. Then let the space walk begin!

You can ski in all five continents. So there are, of course, many breathtaking mountain ranges where you can practise this enthralling sport - year round if you want to. All you need to do is travel between the two hemispheres and you can have as many winters as you care for.

There is, in my opinion, no such thing as a bad ski resort. As Freidl Pfeifer, the great ski pioneer once told me when I tried to draw him out on which of the ski runs he had cut long ago at Aspen, Colorado were his favourites: “They all got something for someone”. Some “resorts” in America’s deep south for example – in Tennessee, Maryland and Kentucky – are undoubtedly limited, and in Alabama’s case, severely so. Yet they all have “something” to offer.

So not all the world's mountain ranges, by any means, have major ski resorts - particularly in the obscure regions of central Asia. . But there is first-rate skiing in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Rockies, the Appalachians, the Andes, the Japan Alps, New Zealand's Southern Alps and even Australia's Snowy and Blue Mountains. Even in India and Georgia (in the former USSR) where ski resorts tend to be small, patchy or antiquated, there is magnificent helicopter skiing in Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir and the Caucasus. Also well off the beaten track, there is some excellent skiing to be had in Iran, the Lebanon and Korea. China has a growing ski industry. In the Andes, where organised skiing is pretty much confined to Chile and Argentina, there is an astonishingly high ski-lift at Chacaltaya, soaring at more than 18,000 feet (around 5,500 metres) above the Bolivian capital, La Paz. There is skiing in Morocco's Atlas Mountains, and - to many people's surprise - the Drakensberg Range in South Africa, which reaches 11,425 ft (3482 m) is home to one of the oldest ski clubs in the world, even though they do not always get snow!

The ski areas we feature in this book cover some of this astonishing global diversity. Some, such as Manali, in the Himalayas, Valdez, Alaska and Blue River, in the wilderness of British Columbia are not ski "resorts" at all, but mountain communities from which helicopters take skiers soaring to virginal peaks where, far from the madding crowd, they can spend, hours, days, weeks, skiing in untracked snow. Some resorts, such as Verbier, Val d'Isere and Kitzbuhel are old favourites which feature in every major tour operator's brochure. Others, such as Las Lenas (Argentina) and Perisher Blue (Australia) are less likely to be on the average family's skiing shopping list. We hope, therefore, that our presentation of these superb ski locations will appeal to “real” skiers and armchair skiers alike.

© Arnie Wilson