Jules Older
How Coronavirus Is Impacting the Ski Industry
A note to readers: The news cycle is rapidly evolving, and we may continue to update this post. For continual updates on ski resort closures, you can follow our post, “In Progress: Ski Areas That Are Now Closed.” Last updated,… Read More →
How the Ski Industry Is — And Is Not — Dealing with Climate Change
In the French Alps, they’re so desperately trying to save snow, they’re covering stored snow with wood chips. Hoping to stay alive, a Vermont cross-country ski area is experimenting with the same idea. In California, winters are shorter — and… Read More →
Innocents Abroad… Without a Stitch Part Three: Austria — Truth or Dare?
If you’ve read Liftopia of late, you’ll know the pleasures and the perils European spas hold for those Mark Twain deemed “Innocents Abroad,” also known as Americans. Americans like me. I’ve been au naturel in France and stark naked in… Read More →
Innocents Abroad… Without a Stitch: Part Two: Switzerland — Nude or Screwed?
Bonjour, mes amis. Last time we met, we were in France, debating whether fecal flushing is a good thing, and even if it is, whether to undergo that particular spa offering. Then we examined the bigger question: Are health spas… Read More →
Innocents Abroad… Without a Stitch: Part One: Spa Day in France
One of the pleasures — and the perils — of European skiing for innocents abroad, i.e. Americans like thee and me, doesn’t lie on the snowy slopes. It lurks in the spas at the foot of those slopes. What’s a… Read More →
Breathing While Skiing — Sleep Apnea and CPAP, Altitude and Me
I’m a ski journalist — writer, filmer, editor — so it’s serious business when I have a skiing-related problem. Three winters ago, I had one, a big one. Here’s what I wrote about it then: Aging worsens the effects of… Read More →
Elements 007: Shaken, And Stirred
When I heard there was a “James Bond Cinematic Installation” atop the Austrian mountain where the big action scene from Spectre was filmed, I could definitely contain my excitement. I pictured a slightly dusty collection of outmoded guns and exploding… Read More →
Big Sky Resort: Change is its Middle Name
One of the benefits of being a ski writer is that you get revisiting rights. And use them. Saw Squaw in 2000? What’s it like in 2018? Skied Smugglers’ Notch in the nineties? How’s it changed now? Aspen then vs…. Read More →
Saving Skiing: What Can We Do?
We know what industries should do to keep snow on winter slopes. Stop burning coal, start using renewable energy. Stop supporting climate-change deniers, start cutting out carbon. Buy Lift Tickets in Advance & Save We know what states and cities… Read More →
Don’t need instruction? Maybe think again.
Looking back, it’s hard to believe I was that dumb. Hard to believe unless you look at the evidence. Exhibit A: When I was learning to ski at the University of Vermont, I spent four winters on snow without taking… Read More →
