A long time ago, as a burgeoning ski bum in the early 1990s, I kept a scribbled list in a notebook of some of North America’s most difficult double-diamond runs, from archetypes like Corbet’s Couloir at Jackson Hole, to Snowbird’s Great Scott in Utah, and the Palisades at Squaw Valley, Calif.
My goal was simple: to travel the continent and ski them all.
And I did.
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Only later did I discover that this was nothing unique.
Most every expert skier and snowboarder has a list — physically scrawled out, or ethereally in the back of the mind — of certain double-diamond runs that matter. I heard stories of people traveling around the world to ski a single guarded pitch.
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In a recent story for Forbes Traveler, I polled ski guides, industry executives, ski magazine editors and a few professionals who make a living skiing the steeps in front of a camera.
They each picked a run or two from their personal lists, including rarely open avalanche chutes of the West, alpine bowls and classic New England bump runs.
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In total, my interviewees included: Mike Hattrup, a former member of the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team and extreme-ski film star; Marc Peruzzi, editor-in-chief of Skiing magazine; Gregory Ditrinco, executive editor of Ski magazine; Marcus Peterson, general manager at ski-implements company Ortovox USA; Chad Jackson, marketing director and videographer with ski-film company Teton Gravity Research; Mark Newcomb, a guide with Exum Mountain Guides in Jackson, Wyo.; and world-renowned backcountry/expeditionary skiers Andrew McLean, Eric Pehota, Hilaree O’Neill, and Naheed Henderson.
Here are their top picks: