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A British ski instructor challenges the Japanese system | Arnie Wilson
An English ski instructor called Warren Smith is causing tremors in Furano, one of Japan's most celebrated ski resorts, which is in Hokkaido, the northernmost of the main islands.
Alberta by Luxury Coach | Arnie Wilson | Canada, Alberta, Jasper
The weather can spoil the most optimistic plans for a barbecue. Near the celebrated Columbia Icefield, with his beloved coach parked in a lay-by, Hipkins goes outside “for some time” – to cook lunch
Antigua and Barbuda: The Naked Truth | Arnie Wilson | Antigua and Barbuda, Antigua, Antigua
Topless bathing is not really appreciated in Antigua, although there is an unofficial nudist beach beyond Hawksbill, but by all accounts it can only be reached by boat or perhaps voyeurs who are very strong swimmers
Arnie Wilson’s five favourite hotels | Arnie Wilson
Arnie Wilson leads us around his five favourite hotels
Baqueira Beret | Arnie Wilson | Spain, Catalunya, Baqueira-Lleida
The resort, snuggled into the picturesque Aran Valley in Catalonia, is a major find. It has some of the best and most extensive above-the-treeline bowl skiing in the Pyrenees, and possibly the whole of Europe
Cat Skiing | Arnie Wilson | Canada, British Columbia, Rocky Mountains
I have never ridden in a tank, but I would imagine that trundling up a mountain with 11 ski companions in a Pisten Bully snowcat is infinitely preferable
Death Valley: A Rehearsal for the Red Planet | Arnie Wilson | United States, California, Death Valley
Past wooden diners, where you still expect young men with kit bags to burst in home from The Pacific War, and on through valley floors of scrub, rock formations that mimic Mughal palaces and dry lakes
Heavenly Skiing | Arnie Wilson | United States, California, Lake Tahoe
To obtain the air the angels breathe, said Mark Twain, “you must go to Tahoe”. Whether Twain would have approved of today’s intriguing contrast of skiing and bling-riddled gambling joints is difficult to say
Heli-Skiing in India | Arnie Wilson | India, Himachal Pradesh, Manali
Here, high on the Rohtang Pass, the only sound which interrupts the silent reign of the great banks of snow beneath massive peaks in a hauntingly beautiful mountain kingdom is the intrusive clatter of your helicopter
James Bond Skis Again - in Chamonix | Arnie Wilson | France, French Alps, Chamonix
The problems started around half way down the 2,000 metre descent to the tiny hamlet of Fionnay. Nothing serious – we just ran out of snow
Japan Special: Ski Round-up | Arnie Wilson | Japan, Chubu, Japanese Alps
The off-piste revolution in Japan is now unstoppable, and its ski resorts are going to have to learn an entirely new culture to deal with it
Each time I chase down the mountain behind him, I lose him, even though he is doing short-swing turns like windscreen-wipers and I am doing giant-slalom turns and flying faster than I dare think to try to keep up
Les Gets | Arnie Wilson | France, French Alps, Les Gets
When you have been mollycoddled, pampered and thoroughly spoiled by a vast team of liveried chalet staff, it comes as rather a shock to find yourself fighting for survival in a steep chute
Visit this wonderful, hauntingly beautiful country and its eclectic band of captivating people soon if you can. It may not survive in its present form for too many decades.
Old Blokes on Skis | Arnie Wilson | Slovenia, Ljubljana, Ljubljana
Slovenia "is large enough to have everything," says the publicity blurb optimistically. Whether true or not, it definitely has its share of interesting skiing, as it's been done here since the 17th century
One Heli of a Day: Heli-skiing in British Columbia | Arnie Wilson
When you go heliskiing, a hell of a day is what you expect and what you pay for: run after run of fresh tracks in deep, sometimes steep powder, with the helicopter on call to whisk you back up again like a jet-powered skilift
One Star Too Many? | Arnie Wilson
Being pampered, of course, is one of the main reasons why people book into luxury hotels, and it would be churlish to resent it. Nevertheless, when I transferred to the Schweizerhof Hotel just down the road - a mere four-star operation - I felt a guilty sense of relief
Requiem for a Tram | Arnie Wilson | United States, Wyoming, Jackson Hole
The tram is the flagship – and even the soul - of what is arguably America’s most awe-inspiring ski resort. Only strong skiers and snowboarders ride it – there is no easy way down
Revelstoke: A Billion-Dollar Resort | Arnie Wilson | Canada, British Columbia, Revelstoke
Mount Mackenzie is a skiers’ dream, with a vertical drop worthy of almost any mainstream European resort, consistently steep and challenging pitches, superb backcountry, and – most importantly - an abundance of deep, dry powder
Round the World in Twelve Days | Arnie Wilson
In our case if it was Monday so it must have been Indonesia - Day 10 in our round-the-world-in 12 days “Great Escapade” odyssey
Ski Argentina | Arnie Wilson | Argentina, Mendoza and winelands, Mendoza
Without Kempel’s assistance, our attempts to ski every day for a year – eventually ratified by the Guinness Book of Records – would almost certainly have failed at this juncture
While the neighbouring resort of St Anton, the shop window of Austrian skiing, and its stablemates Lech and Zars were unable to open in early December, Ischgl was thriving
Ski Kirkwood | Arnie Wilson | United States, California, Kirkwood
It just needs a Jimmy Stewart or a Charlton Heston on horseback plodding through the deep snow to make it a Hollywood set piece
Ski Quebec | Arnie Wilson | Canada, Quebec, Quebec City
Apart from racers, few skiers try to ski La Charlevoix in one go: it’s well worth stopping to gaze at the remarkable view of the northern shore of the ever-widening St Lawrence
Ski Utah | Arnie Wilson | United States, Utah, Salt Lake City
Utah's claim to have 'The Greatest Snow on Earth' is perhaps debatable, but in good years it certainly can be. However, the portfolio of resorts in the mountains east of Salt Lake City offer one of the most varied ski-holiday experiences in the world
Show me a skier who claims to know Verbier like the back of his or her hand and I will show you a tourist-board director, a tour-operator, a ‘saisonnaire’, a local ‘guru’ – or a liar
Skiing China | Arnie Wilson | China, Jilin, Changchun
At Harbin, the capital of China’s most northerly province, Heilongjiang there are separate waiting rooms for “The Weak and the Old”, a “Luxury” waiting room and yet another for “Army Men” - where indeed we encountered half a regiment of Chinese troops
Skiing Mad River Glen | Arnie Wilson | United States, Vermont, Waitsfield
Another tough run, The Chute, can be found on the way down from the Ski Patrol HQ at Stark’s Nest. “Do or die bumps” warns the resort – “in front of a highly opinionated audience!”
Skiing off-piste in Japan | Arnie Wilson | Japan, Chubu, Nozawa Onsen
Japan’s munificent powder is finally becoming accesible to adventurous off-piste skiers, as many ski patrols are defying their cultural strictness and looking the other way
Skiing the Andes | Arnie Wilson | Chile, Central, Lakes and Volcanoes, Santiago de Chile
The idea of skiing in the Andes is still sufficiently exotic to create a stir among friends who have just put their skis back in the attic after a relatively humdrum trip to Val d’Isère
Combining business with pleasure doesn’t come much more pleasurably than in the mountains
There Ain't Nuthin' Like a Dome | Arnie Wilson | United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Dubai City
The Persian Gulf’s first snowdome, ‘Ski Dubai’, an indoor ski-slope where state-of-the-art snowmaking systems will carpet an area the size of three football fields
Turkey Heli-ski | Arnie Wilson | Turkey, Black Sea, Ayder
The fear-factor that sometimes jangles the nerves of heli-skiers was nothing compared with the anxiety of actually getting to the mountains
Vail Resorts | Arnie Wilson | United States, Colorado, Vail
Frank “The General” Worsham put the fear of God into one or two less experienced members of our group by treating the adventure rather more like a mission into the Mekong Delta than a day of powder skiing
The rabbits sheltered in dim green, sun-flecked caves of grass, flowering marjoram and cow-parsley: peered round spotty hairy-stemmed clumps of viper’s bugloss, blooming red and blue above their heads: pushed between towering stalks of yellow mullein. (Richard Adams, Watership Down)
Werner’s Wickhambreaux | Arnie Wilson
Wickhambreaux, complete with 300 sheep, is mentioned in the Domesday Book. It is one of those villages that just peters out into open countryside, where you can follow the Little Stour, one of the last unspoilt chalk streams in the South East, for miles