Originally Published on February 17, 2025 in National Geographic Traveler, Author: Alf Alderson.
No two ski resorts are the same. Of course, some are better than others, but often it’s not always the best-known — the likes of Val d’Isère, St Moritz or St Anton — that are actually the best to ski in.
I’ve discovered this over the course of a 25-year career as a ski journalist, a fantastic job that has taken me to around 250 ski resorts on every continent other than Antarctica (where, yes, you can ski, on backcountry tours).
The highs have included skiing on active volcanoes in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and down to the Greenland Sea on Iceland’s Troll Peninsula. The lows? Being emergency helicoptered off the Cul du Nant glacier above La Plagne, and riding down the mountain in a ‘blood bucket’ (ski patrol stretcher) at Kicking Horse, British Columbia — ACL injuries (the skier’s curse) to blame both times.