According to our friends at SkierNet.com ... These are the trails you positively can't pass on; the legends. Your resume is incomplete until you've made tracks on:
- The Nose Dive • Stowe, VT Here's the history of U.S. skiing in one trail. Imagine a day when you hiked to the summit, then skied a steep narrow chute snaking down the face of a mountain. Eventually the Nose Dive was tamed, widened, and lift accessible. It's no longer the terror it once was, but it remains the trail. You'll want to ski the rest of Stowe's "front four" (National, Goat, Starr) but only Nose Dive and National have their original names, and none follow their original route exactly. While all are legendary, the Nose Dive is the one you must ski.
- KT-22 • Squaw Valley, CA Perhaps the most legendary trail in the nation. KT-22 would be first, but wasn't a named "run" until the mid-1940s, so it has to settle for second. Squaw Valley's Sandy Poulsen (wife of the founder) hiked to the summit, then counted 22 kick-turns to reach the valley. Since then this peak has represented the ultimate combination of cliffs, bowls, chutes, glades, you name it. KT-22 isn't one specific run, rather an entire mountain; you just have to find your way down. Definitely gut-check time. Hey, if all else fails, you can try 22 kick turns.
- Al's Run • Taos Ski Valley, NM As you approach the mountain, this straight slash stares at you. Is it a trail, or just the liftline? As you get closer, you see that it is a series of hills...wait, those are moguls. This is it, nirvana for bump skiers, and the lift riders overhead offer appropriate applause or derision. Ernie Blake built Taos Ski Valley as a skier's paradise, and it remains so: No snowboards allowed. "Al" was a Taos instructor who suffered a heart attack and skied with an oxygen tank. Ski his namesake trail, and you may need one too.
- Exhibition • Sun Valley, ID Another trail that dates to the 1930s, and like Nose Dive, has been tamed and re-routed a bit. It may not be the nightmarish drop it once was, but we think today's massive moguls more than make up for the kinder route. It has the scenery, it has the name, it has more than enough challenge. And if you can ski this and not look like a piker, you're in some fine and historic company.
- Corbet's Couloir • Jackson Hole, WY Here's another that would be higher on the list, but since it only became a trail in 1960, it has to defer to those above. In difficulty and sheer panic, however, Corbet's defers to none.* It begins with a 20+ foot cliff drop, followed by a 50ยบ slope. Yikes. Most of us just look in and head elsewhere. Although there are a lot of trails with showtime-type cliffs where onlookers wait and cheer on the daring; this one is the grand-daddy. When Barry Corbet first dropped down this elevator shaft he pretty much pioneered extreme skiing. Many Corbet's survivors ski it once, which is more than most of us will ever do.
* Jackson Hole does have one tougher "run," called S & S Couloir, but it requires special patrol permission to access. - Ruthie's Run • Aspen, CO Whatever. This one is on the list because it has always been on the list, and no other reason comes to mind. So we'll put it smack in the middle of this list. It's an average run as Ajax goes, nothing too difficult, nothing great. Andy Williams and Claudine Longet and James Garner and Elvis and Jill St. John and musicians and race drivers and countless other stars and socialites have all taken a turn on Ruthie's and raved about it. If you go to Aspen, people will ask you if you skied Ruthie's -- even if they've never been in Colorado. It's just one of those things you have to do, kind of like the dopey elephant ride at Disney World.
- Alf's High Rustler • Alta, UT Named after one of the founding fathers of Alta, which in skiing circles, entitles Alf to something like Mt. Rushmore status. In this case, getting there is half the battle...traversing a narrow ridgeline, rounding the mountain top...and finaly, a fabulous run with few skiers and (huzzah!) no snowboarders. It's steep, powder is usually deep, and the views can't be beat.
- Riva Ridge • Vail, CO Vail's Prima has its own instructor pin and a tougher reputation, but Riva Ridge/Tourist Trap is the one you need to put on your resume. Riva has a pretty cool history. It's named for part of a mountain in Italy (Mount Belvedere) that was key ground in World War II. It was held by the Nazis into 1945 and the idea of a direct attack up the 1500' side cliff was unthinkable. The 10th Mountain Division did a surprise night assault and prevailed on Riva Ridge. A few years later 10th Mountain Division veteran Peter Siebert built Vail. He had help and investors, one being fellow 10th Mountain vet John Tweedy. Naturally, a trail was named Riva Ridge. The story continues...John Tweedy married Penny Chenery, whose family was in the horse business. Penny Tweedy named one of her horses after the trail. Riva Ridge won the Kentucky Derby in 1972.
- Pallavicini • Arapahoe Basin, CO Not exactly a run, although the Pally Face is certainly the signature route down this "section" of A-Basin. It is easily one of the biggest headwalls marked as a trail at a ski area. In terms of difficulty it is your last step before advancing to "extreme" skiing, which is to say, the rest of Pally. Millions of monster moguls and trees on the side of a cliff. People ride the Pally lift for the first time look down and say, "that isn't really a trail, is it?" You can either ski it, or you can't. You know, a lot of skiers think they have conquered some tough stuff at their home area, and they are fond of saying "If you can ski ____________ then you can ski anywhere!" (fill in the blank with the name of some small area with a notably steep slope) Problem is, they haven't seen Pallavicini. I don't care how good you are at Wolverine, Mad River, Killington, Breckenridge, Snowshoe, Sugarloaf, Park City, Hunter...until you ski Pally, it doesn't mean a thing.
- Tuckerman Ravine • Mt. Washington, NH The Tuckerman headwall was first skied by US Olympians John Carleton and Charley Proctor on April 11, 1931, making repeated jump turns in breakable crust. Don't try it. In the 1930s the summit-to-valley Inferno race began. Hollis Philips won the first in 1933, and Dick Durrance won the second event with a record time of 12:35 in 1934. The third Inferno was not held until 1939. That race witnessed what is easily the most legendary run ever made in the Western Hemisphere. Austrian Toni Matt, age 19, erred in his calculated turns and made the blunder of skiing straight over the lip of the headwall with a 60 mph wind at his back. Matt skied down the headwall like a rocket sled on rails, shot through the ravine, and on down the mountain. His time of 6:29 slashed the record. Today thousands of people hike to Tuckerman each spring, bashing down on tire tubes, snowboards, skis, and various contraptions. Rather than tarnish Matt's accomplishment and the Tuckerman legend, it simply grows. And by the way, the State of New Hampshire and the U.S. Forest Service still haven't installed a high speed quad, so bring your hiking boots and gaitors.
Top 10 List courtesy of SkierNet.com, your state by state guide to skiing and gear!
Photo courtesy of Whitewood Ski Tours, the expert in Expert Terrain!
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