Falling Through Ice Can Kill in Minutes — Here’s Exactly How to Survive How to Survive Falling Through Ice The coming of spring brings warm temperatures, longer days, and the end of wintery weather. But as temperatures rise, the ice that blankets frozen ponds and lakes begins to weaken. Thin ice can come out of nowhere, and falling through the ice into freezing water can kill. Understanding how to survive falling through ice and […] Brains Quinn Brophy | April 18, 2026 0 Comments
When is the Best Time to Ski & Ride in New Zealand? As ski areas across the United States begin to shut down after a disappointing winter for the West Coast, the first signs of the season downunder are already appearing on the other side of the world. Several ski resorts in New Zealand reported their first snowfall this week, an early reminder that while the Northern Hemisphere winds down, the Southern […] Brains Kiwi Brains | April 18, 2026 1 Comment
The 22-Foot Superpipe: From Hand-Dug Trenches to Precision-Cut Giants From snowboarding’s earliest days, riders worked to recreate the art of flight they found on skateboard ramps and in empty pools on snow. Before technology caught up with creativity, that meant using the natural landscape: ditches, creek beds, whatever could be shaped with shovels. Related: SnowBrains Podcast Ep. 104 — Alex Ferreira: Olympic Gold Medalist, Halfpipe Skier, & HotDog Hans […] Brains Jacqui Davis | April 17, 2026 0 Comments
What Actually Causes El Niño — And Why It Changes Winter Everywhere What Causes El Niño: The Full Mechanism What causes El Niño — and why does it matter for winter? El Niño is the warm phase of ENSO, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, a recurring climate pattern in the tropical Pacific that can redirect the jet stream and reshape winter across North America. It gets thrown around every fall like a switch […] Weather WeatherBrains | April 17, 2026 1 Comment
I Went Skiing With a Legendary Australian Ski and Surf Photographer in the Alps Who Captured the Best Photos of My Life Tony “Harro” Harrington is not your average photographer. Hailing from Australia with a thick Aussie accent and a long running scar on his left cheek he received from an accident as a child, the sun-bleached blonde-haired, blue-eyed smiling snow and surf photographer’s career spans more than 40 years, with roots as both a sponsored surfer and big‑mountain skier. Related: The […] Martin Kuprianowicz | April 16, 2026 0 Comments
7 Celebrities Who Truly Love Skiing or Snowboarding Many celebrities hit the slopes to ski or snowboard every winter across the globe. While plenty are known to frequent glamorous destination resorts like Aspen, St. Moritz, or Courchevel, others are more serious skiers or snowboarders, who hit the slopes more frequently throughout the season. It is no wonder that so many celebrities can be seen on the slopes — […] Industry News Gregg Frantz | April 15, 2026 0 Comments
How Big are Australia’s Ski Resorts? Australians are famously loyal when it comes to their ski resorts. Mention Hotham Alpine Resort in one conversation and someone will insist it’s “where the serious skiers go,” while in another corner of the same bar a Thredbo regular will argue it has the best terrain in the country, stating dismissively that “Perisher has no vertical.” The debate is part […] Brains Oz Brains | April 15, 2026 0 Comments
The 9 Most Underrated Ski Areas in North America Ask a room full of skiers which resort is the most underrated, and you’ll get two answers: a knowing smirk followed by “I’m not telling,” or a fiercely loyal shout-out to their local hill. When we asked our readers to name the most underrated ski areas in North America and dug through hundreds of comments, that pattern held. For every […] Brains Brent Glogau | April 13, 2026 4 Comments
The Low-Snow Survival Guide: How to Find the Last Stashes of Snow This Spring Low snow backcountry skiing this spring means rethinking the usual objectives. The usual zones can look white from the highway and fall apart at the trailhead. In a year like this, habit gets expensive fast. Your favorite tour from two winters ago can still be thin, baked, and disconnected, even if the next drainage over is holding cold snow from […] Featured Article Clay Malott | April 13, 2026 0 Comments
The 9 US States with the Highest Average Elevation Elevation shapes just about everything in skiing, from snow quality and storm cycles to how long a season can last. Knowing which states have the highest average elevation reveals far more than geography; it explains where consistent snowpack forms, why the Mountain West dominates the ski industry, and how climate change will affect access to snow sports for decades to […] Brains Brent Glogau | April 13, 2026 0 Comments
Buddy Werner Remembered — 62 Years Since the Tragic Death of the U.S. Olympic Skiing Legend If you are a Steamboat Springs, Colorado, skier, you may be familiar with the Buddy Werner statue and the tradition of tapping the bronze statue for good luck. However, 62 years after his death, memories about this legendary skier might be fading, so we wanted to use the anniversary of his untimely death at only 28 years of age this […] Brains Julia Schneemann | April 12, 2026 0 Comments
Comparing the True Size of Every Country Most representations of the world do not accurately project their true size, this visualization does. The Mercator projection is a cylindrical projection of the world that was created for nautical navigation. This projection, while the most common projection, has a large flaw–it distorts the size of most countries. Related: Map Created Overlaying Modern Countries on Pangea The largest problem with projecting […] Brains Alex Camerino | April 12, 2026 17 Comments
Late Season Skiing in Europe: Top 19 Resorts for Spring Skiing As spring is taking over and days below freezing become few and far between, most skiers and snowboarders may be moth-balling their equipment for the season, but then there are those die-hard winter enthusiasts refusing to call it quits. If you count yourself into the latter group, you may wonder where you can still get turns in as late as […] Brains Julia Schneemann | April 11, 2026 2 Comments
The RECCO Story: How A Tragic Accident Changed the Whole Snow Rescue Industry When I was a kid, I used to notice a small, almost unnoticeable tag hidden inside my ski jacket. It wasn’t just in mine — it showed up in my parents’ gear, in gloves, even in helmets and boots. The only thing I recognized was the name stamped on it: RECCO®. It took years before I understood what it actually […] Avalanche Micho | April 10, 2026 2 Comments
The 8 Best Ski Resorts in the Southern Hemisphere Why the Southern Hemisphere Has Some of the Best Ski Resorts in the World The best ski resorts in the Southern Hemisphere offer a remarkable range of winter experiences—from the high-altitude powder bowls of the Chilean and Argentine Andes to the sweeping alpine terrain of New Zealand‘s South Island and Australia‘s Snowy Mountains. Whether you’re chasing deep snow, vertical drop, […] Brains Sam Fishman | April 9, 2026 0 Comments
Top 7 Ski Propaganda Takes SnowBrains Readers Aren’t Falling For Skiing has always come with a little hype. But between rising prices, gear “innovations,” and resort marketing that somehow makes boilerplate sound like blower pow, a lot of skiers and riders are getting harder to convince. So, we asked our readers: What ski propaganda are you not falling for? The answers came in fast, and a few clear themes rose […] Brains Brent Glogau | April 9, 2026 2 Comments
Why Pride Events Matter: Making Ski Communities Stronger and More Inclusive At the third annual Keystone Pride Festival this March, one skier in the throng heading toward the gondola on Saturday morning turned to the Mountain Pride booth and yelled, “why are you celebrating homosexuality?” The representatives of Mountain Pride, the Colorado-based nonprofit organization that helps organize and run the Keystone Pride event as well as several others in surrounding communities, […] Brains Shauna Farnell | April 8, 2026 0 Comments
Your Ski Gear Needs This Before You Store It for Summer Sadly, the ski season is coming to an end, or for some, it already has. Soon, your focus may turn toward warmer-weather activities, but before you do, it is wise to run through your ski gear storage checklist and give everything some TLC before storing it away for the season. Doing so will ensure you are ready to hit the […] Brains Brent Glogau | April 8, 2026 0 Comments
Spider Sabich: Murder, Cocaine, Money, Olympics & Skiing — California Golden Boy April 8 is Spider Sabich Day—a local holiday celebrated every year in Snowmass Village, Aspen, Colorado, in honor of one of America’s greatest ski racers. And yet, most people have never heard of him. Spider Sabich was the most famous ski racer in America, an Olympic competitor, a pro tour champion, and the man Robert Redford’s character in Downhill Racer […] Brains Miles Clark | April 8, 2026 140 Comments
Ghost Ski Hills: The Rise and Fall of Ontario’s Ski Landscape There’s a certain dislocation that comes with being a traveler. I should know more about Ontario’s ski history than I do, but I moved from Toronto to Kingston in 1991, and by the late ’90s I had moved to Montreal. By the time I landed in Quebec, my mom was living full-time on Georgian Bay, a stone’s throw from Blue […] Brains Jacqui Davis | April 7, 2026 0 Comments
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