8.
Grand Couloir, Courchevel, France The Ride: Just getting to the Alps’ most famous on-piste couloir requires serious cojones. Once off the Saulire Télépherique cable car, you’ll need to navigate a terrifyingly narrow, frequently icy 200-meter-long ridge, with steep, rocky drop-offs on either side—and that’s just the appetizer. Next comes a sharply pitched chute that even experts have been known to snowplow down, followed by a teeth-chattering bump field for dessert. Insider Trivia: Though it’s less known and has an easy-to-miss entry, the adjacent Emilie Allias couloir is equally challenging.
9.
Paradise, Mad River Glen, VT The Ride: An icon of New England–style extreme terrain, Paradise starts with a plunge off an eight-foot cliff—then morphs into a windy, super-steep trough that snakes between trees, around rocks, and often (since it’s never groomed) through both thick snowdrifts and sheer patches of ice. The upside: when you go cartwheeling into the woods, you won’t have to worry about hitting any snowmaking hydrants. Insider Trivia: Mad River is the only cooperatively owned ski area in the U.S.
10.
Great Scott, Snowbird, UT The Ride: A 1,000-vertical-foot obstacle course, this run is pitched at a sickly-steep 40 degrees—and also punctuated with rocky knuckles and outcroppings that have given countless skiers unintentional air. If you catch an edge or visibility is poor, don’t be surprised to find yourself segueing from difficult terrain to no terrain at all. Insider Trivia: With an annual average snowfall of 500 inches, Snowbird gets some of the thickest dry powder in the West. Of course, that won’t help you much on a near-cliff.
11.
Harikiri, Mayrhofen, Austria The Ride: The steepest groomed slope in the world, Harikiri (named for tJapanese suicide ritual) plunges some 1,300 feet at a treacherous 38-degree pitch. The slope’s snow machines are anchored by steel cables to keep them from hurtling down the mountain—but you won’t have that option. Fall here, and you may well keep falling…and falling. Insider Trivia: Most avalanche experts around the world agree that 38 degrees is the “magic slope” at which most snow slides start. It’s also about the same as an Olympic ski-jump off-ramp.
The Ride: Mogul-phobes, beware: these two bump-studded Alpine trails—which together form the longest run in Verbier’s Four Valleys—will keep your joints jackhammering for about 3,000 vertical feet. If you’ve had knee surgery, avoid this route; if you haven’t, you might need it by the time you get down.
Insider Trivia: Though it’s considered one of the roughest bump runs in Europe, Tortin is actually rated an intermediate trail. But as regulars know, that’s only accurate when there’s a thick layer of powder to cushion your shock absorbers (and your wipeouts).
13.
Al’s Run, Taos Ski Valley, NM The Ride: A combination of length (1,800 vertical feet) and mammoth-size moguls is enough to deter plenty of skiers from attempting Al’s; worse, though, is that the entire trail stretches beneath the No. 1 chairlift. Translation: if you’d rather make flying face-plants without a (vocally appreciative) audience, pick another route. Insider Trivia: In the ’60s, the mountain’s founder, Ernie Blake, used to hide beakers of martinis in the trees alongside the trails for skiers to find (hence the name of the resort’s bar, Martini Tree).
The Ride: Punishingly long (2,000 vertical feet), crazy steep (sections of it have a 40-degree pitch), and pocked with both labyrinthine glades and ungroomed bald-faced bumps, Goat has more than earned its wicked reputation. Its double fall line doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll take double the falls here—but don’t be surprised.
Insider Trivia: Allegedly, the trail was named by a summertime hiker who mused that only a mountain goat would be able to ascend it (never mind descend).
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发表于 2011-11-15 10:34:05
