MY NAME IS HANS LUDWIG, sometimes known as the Jaded Local, and I’m an addict. For 25 years, I have been part of an operation that distributes a habit-forming substance to the public. I regret nothing. I was born in 1972, the same year as POWDER Maga

It had begun to occur to Trevor that he might have Progressed The Sport too hard. Powder (ISSN # 0145-4471) is published 2 times a year (Fall, Winter) by A30 Media LLC. 4 New York Plaza, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10004. Copyright © A360 Media, LLC 2020

ON APRIL 7, nearly 400,000 Americans had already been stricken with COVID-19 since the disease was first detected on U.S. soil in February 2020. Of those, 12,757 had died from it—and yet that was just the beginning. Entire swaths of the economy were

MAGIC MOUNTAIN IS AN OLD-SCHOOL New England gem started in 1960 with a single T-Bar. To “Mad Man” Bobby Johnson, this indie ski hill is a picture of the future. Johnson, 59, is Magic’s new ski school director, the first Black man to hold this positio

CRAMMED AMONG GALLONS OF ICE CREAM and sides of beef, we shut the door of the walk-in behind us. Our frosted breath filled the small freezer as we giggled; we were pretty sure our maître d’, Sam, wouldn’t find us in here. It was mid-February in Alta

CONSIDER THE TURN.The bare-bones, no-frills, functional purpose of turning a ski is to control where you are going, but also, and perhaps more importantly, to manage your speed. Now imagine you had retractable, tail-mounted snow-combs that you could

I’M ON THE PLANE HEADED HOME RIGHT NOW. The melancholy is starting to sink in. It feels like a pair of sunglasses that make the world seem less sparkly. Or a heavy, wet towel around my neck that I can’t get dry. I’ve just spent a few exhilarating day

THE PEOPLE I SKI WITH are dreamers, revolutionaries, fun hogs. Sometimes I wonder if they really exist. They’ve dedicated themselves to something as ridiculous and important as skiing. They’ve crafted their life around it. It’s a beautiful life. The

NEED A JOKE? How about some trivia? Maybe a riddle? Perhaps you’ve misplaced your season pass and didn’t even realize it. Drop a glove while lighting that rollie? Lost a child? Your husband? Maybe you’re just looking for some amateur ski art to inspi

WHILE LANDING AT THE JACKSON AIRPORT on my way to Powder Week in February 2007, the plane’s brakes failed. With the flight attendants screaming, “Crash positions! Assume crash positions!” and the passengers looking at each other and wondering if we m

We invite you to use the space above to reflect on your own experience as a Powder reader. Share them with us, if you’d like, or with your friends. Or tear this out and keep it for when you need a reminder of who you are, what you are part of, and wh

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, perhaps the final issue of Powder, our parent company will have ceased operations of the magazine indefinitely. The founding editors published the first issue of Powder Magazine in Sun Valley, Idaho in 1973. They called it

It is time to take an inventory of what’s within your astrological snowpack. Even the most pillowy line can hide instabilities like depth hoar, sun glaze, or a sketchy boyfriend who just needed to “crash for a week or two” at your place. For 2020, in

$190 The ultimate bomber glove for skiers spending ample time in the mountains in inclement weather, the goat leather outer combined with Hestra’s Triton fabric make for a highly durable windproof, water-proof, breathable glove that cinches up and ov

SLIDING UP TO THE ROPE, it’s hard to miss the utter simplicity before us. A few wheels, some rope, a motor, and a hill above. And of course, gloves. Reaching down to pick up the rope triggers a slight rush of endorphins, and no matter your age, or le

ALRIC LJUNGHAGER’S WORLD STOPPED SPINNING. Ten feet off the ground and midway through a double misty 1440, that was a problem. Taking a break from his head coaching duties at the freeski summer camp he had helped develop outside Stockholm, Sweden, he

It was an essential part of my life as a photographer—running down to Borge Andersen & Associates to get the film in for E-6 processing after a day of shooting, then heading back to the lab to pick up the slides first thing in the morning. Back in my

ONE OF THE LONGEST tenured photographers in Powder history, Wade McKoy has been shooting skiing for 45 years. In the 1970s and ’80s, he was among the first to document the nascent big mountain ski culture growing in the ski bum petri dish of Jackson

I should still be in bed. It’s so cold, I can’t feel my face. Can your organs get frostbite? Did I pack enough layers or enough snacks? Should I take out this extra puffy so I can carry more water? Isn’t beer mostly water? Okay, here we go! Look at u

WE HAD NO CONTEXT, no anchor, nothing to root us. Just white. As my wife drove toward the top of Cumbres Pass, where the Sangre de Cristos meet the San Juans in southern Colorado, we came to a complete stop in the middle of the road. Driving in compl

Code red! It dumped a foot overnight and then Aunt Flo showed up unannounced. Learn and practice techniques to shred while you shed your uterine lining! (Not unlike the techniques you use every month to carry on with your life and responsibilities de

“F— THAT.” That was my response back in 2014 when I heard Taos Ski Valley was installing a lift up the iconic, 12,450-foot Kachina Peak. Kachina to me, and to many others who love Taos, was a special place only accessible by a hard-fought, 40-minute

IF I COULD BE ANYWHERE RIGHT NOW, I would be skiing. I would not be slouched over my desk, checking my email, apologizing “for the delayed response.” Again. Or be in a meeting pretending to take notes, or on a conference call that keeps cutting out.