REI

It’s a south-facing cliff on the privately owned YMCA Camp Hanes property, full of classic trad and sport routes ranging from 5.6 to 5.12. The nonprofit recently signed a 20-year-lease with the landowners, securing long-term winter access for climbers, and is in the process of constructing a new 1.5-mile approach trail with grant funds from REI. While crags like Linville Gorge and Looking Glass Rock in North Carolina’s western mountains get most of the attention from climbers, the Piedmont in the middle of the state has a few cherished crags that offer easily accessible rock to climbers in the heavily populated triangle of Raleigh, Durham and Winston-Salem. We thought this was a great opportunity to secure a coveted winter climbing spot that was closed to the public for so long and a chance to celebrate what the CCC had already accomplished,” said Tara Racine, outdoor programs market coordinator for the REI in Central North Carolina.

So we asked the experts—a meteorologist, industry leaders in winter travel and a well-traveled pro skier—for their tips on how to book ski trips in advance and still (nearly) guarantee good snow. For Evan Reece, CEO of Liftopia, which sells discounted lift tickets to 250 North American resorts, price isn’t the only factor in choosing a ski destination. It’s not 100 percent guaranteed that you’ll see a better deal,” says Dan Sherman, chief marketing officer for Ski.com, which offers vacation packages to 120 resorts in North American, Europe, South America and Japan. When I’m on the road, I have a morning ritual,” said Michelle Parker, a pro skier who stars in a new web series, Originate.

Then, at the 2016 Outdoor Afro Leadership Training, I learned that I could apply for the opportunity of a lifetime—the chance to climb Kilimanjaro with Outdoor Afro. We would be the first all-Black U. S. expedition team to climb Kilimanjaro. We talked about what each day on the mountain would look like, what we would eat and how altitude sickness is no joke. For me, the trip hadn’t just been about becoming the first all-Black U. S. expedition team to climb Kilimanjaro.

On a Wednesday evening in May, more than 80 cyclists gathered near an open space off Highway 82, the four-lane road that follows 40 miles of the Roaring Fork River from Aspen to Glenwood Springs, for the Aspen Cycling Club’s season kickoff. The Aspen Cycling Club was founded by a group of cyclists in 1988 with the goal of providing affordable weekly racing to their community, according to Tyler Newton, ACC president. Last year’s winners included a mountain bike club in Park City, Utah; a women’s club in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and a college club in Indianapolis, Indiana. In Aspen, the level of competition on any given Wednesday night race is high, said Levi Gavett, a recent high-school grad from Carbondale, who started racing with the ACC his sophomore year of high school.