4 new stories about alpine living.

The Tools You Need to Build the Ultimate Mobile Office

By Aaron Gulley

 Earlier this summer, while camping at a backcountry hideaway on the southern Colorado border with a screen of ponderosa pines, a bubbling creek, a resident group of deer, but only a whisper of shaky 3G,…

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7 Rules for Scoring the Best Ski Swap Deals

 Nathan Morgan

By Joe Jackson

Ski swaps are great for scoring affordable gear before the season starts, but you need a game plan to successfully negotiate the scrum. For tips and tricks, I interviewed Jesse Hunt, director of Park City Ski Team, who puts on a giant swap in Park City with up to 50,000 pieces of gear. I also called up my friend Ryan Pyles, who’s been ski bumming for years and has mastered the art of finding deals. Here’s what they said.

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For big powder fun, skin up a mountain, then ski down

For big powder fun, skin up a mountain, then ski down photo

Two hours into the long, slow slog up the 3.5-mile trail to the OPUS Hut, I pause to consider my sanity.

What was I thinking when I signed up for this all-girls ski trip into the backcountry of Colorado, where I’d strap an avalanche beacon to my chest, stuff a shovel and probe into a backpack, then trudge from one off-the-grid, solar-powered hut to the next?

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Mountains or beach? What your choice says about you

Aerial View of Baleia Beach, Sao Sebastiao, Sao Paulo, Brazil

By Starre Vartan

 In a series of five experiments, psychologists at the University of Virginia found that introverts generally prefer mountainous areas, whereas extroverts opt for beaches. In the first test, they simply asked people which area they preferred and determined whether the person was an introvert or an extrovert using personality tests. These tests showed a link between introversion and mountain preference.

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