Sky ExtrasSlideshowsNo Risk, No Reward

Silverton, Colorado

THE PLAY: Alaska-style powder skiing (and heliskiing) in the Lower 48.
It’s been 10 years since Aaron and Jen Brill bought an old chairlift from California’s Mammoth Mountain and shipped it to the sagging mining town of Silverton, high in Colorado’s San Juan Range. That lift now lets expert skiers—there is no “easiest” way down—access the most rugged terrain in the country, with hike-to runs starting as high as 13,000 feet. Silverton Mountain is less a ski area than a backcountry guide service that happens to use a chairlift. Though the mountain offers unguided skiing early and late season, a guide is still the best way to ensure untracked snow. And this winter, the Brills will open new terrain that requires a helicopter drop at the top of a sheer peak and a 100-foot roped rappel to get to the skiing. 

OR TRY: Ruby Mountains Heli-Experience, based in Lamoille, Nevada. Ruby’s owner, Joe Royer, has been guiding three-day trips to the remote 11,000-foot peaks and powder fields by helicopter for the past 36 years. 
 

Photo: Aaron Brill/Silverton Mountain

Honduras

THE PLAY: Warm water and friendly currents.
Located off the coast of Honduras, Roatán is the jumping-off point for divers who want to check out the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef—the world’s second largest behind Australia’s Great Barrier. With 80-degree water and gentle currents, Roatán is perfect for beginners who want to check out every living thing under water, from sea turtles to barracuda to whale sharks. More advanced divers will enjoy exploring the wreck of the Odyssey, a 300-foot-long freighter that was badly burned in a fire and subsequently cleaned out and scuttled in 110 feet of water just for divers. 

OR TRY: Going really, really deep. Roatán is also home to commercial submarine pioneer Karl Stanley, whose homemade (hasn’t sunk, yet!) vessel Idabel whisks up to three passengers down 3,000 feet below the sea.

Vancouver, British Columbia

THE PLAY: Pair up a ski trip to Whistler with some of the finest winter steelhead fishing in the world.
Insanely good fishing probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you conjure up a ski vacation at Whistler Blackcomb. But during the months of February and March—usually the snowiest—the biggest, most happening resort in North America is also serving up one of the continent’s best steelhead runs. Join Whistler’s Extremely Canadian backcountry steep-skiing clinic, then sign up with fly-fishing’s first lady, April Vokey, and her outfitter Flygal Ventures. She and her guides will pick you up at your hotel in Whistler and make the half-hour trip up the Squamish River, where skulking steelhead crowd the icy pools. Flygal also leads trips to B.C.’s famed Fraser River and its tributaries. 

OR TRY: Casting or trolling for tuna and sailfish at Islas Secas, a retreat off the coast of Panama that encompasses no fewer than 16 private islands. 

Idaho

THE PLAY: Pristine water and class IV rapids.
Let’s go out on a limb here and call the Middle Fork America’s classic rafting trip. Though the Grand Canyon is certainly worthy, it lacks the clear water with its attendant cutthroat and steelhead. And then, of course, there are the dams; the Middle Fork doesn’t have any. Row Adventures runs six-day guided trips on the River of No Return, as it’s known, stopping at hot-springs camps, shooting technical class IV rapids such as Velvet and Tappan falls, and leading side hikes to Native American pictographs and historic homestead sites. The fish, all native westslope cutthroat trout, aren’t big, but they’ll readily slurp down any dry fly—even one that’s been poorly cast. Meals are cooked by the expert guides and include everything from roasted wild-caught salmon with huckleberry glaze to eggs Benedict for breakfast. More than anything, the Middle Fork feels like a wilderness of rolling green ponderosa forests, grassy banks and perfect water. 

OR TRY: Floating Oregon’s wild and scenic Rogue River for three to five days with O.A.R.S. Flowing through the Siskiyou Mountains, the Rogue was the backdrop for Meryl Streep’s other iron lady performance, The River Wild. 

Baja, Mexico

THE PLAY: A wilderness of warm, blue water an hour south of Los Angeles by air.
Sheltered from storms and too dry and rugged inland to be habitable, the Sea of Cortez still delivers one of the world’s few tropical coastlines that can be called a wilderness. (If the climate were even a little more hospitable, the coast would be lined with villas and hotels.) Sea Kayak Adventures’ 12-day trek covers the 65 miles between the towns of Loreto and La Paz. Between them, there are no coastal roads, no villages and few people besides local fishermen. Clients in single and double kayaks carry all of their own gear and camp out in true expedition style on remote beaches. In the water, Jacques Cousteau’s “aquarium of the world” is on full display with everything from angelfish to blue whales. Springtime is best for whale-watching and fall is best for taking in the blooming desert after the short rainy season. 

OR TRY: Sea kayaking Alaska’s Inside Passage, also with Sea Kayak Adventures, using its 65-foot yacht Ursa Major as your mothership. A sea kayak is the perfect vantage point for checking out the fjords, orcas, humpback whales and brown bears.

Chile

THE PLAY: Cold thrills in jade-colored rapids.
Though the Fu, as it’s known, has a fierce reputation for white water, with class V rapids such as Termanador and Casa Piedra, it also has moments of calm. Earth River Expeditions, which pioneered rafting on the Futaleufu in 1991, can show its guests both of the river’s personalities. More importantly, it provides accommodations, complete with hand-hewn wood-fired hot tubs and tree houses. Though smaller creeks are probably better for serious anglers, the Fu is full of introduced brown trout. Trips generally run 10 days. 

OR TRY: Charging down the class V rapids of the White Nile’s Murchison Falls National Park with legendary South African river man Peter Meredith and his Jinja, Uganda-based company, African Rivers. Murchison Falls is so dangerous—because of its rapids, remoteness and hippos and crocodiles—that it’s been commercially guided only a few times, also by Meredith. 

Sayulita, Mexico

THE PLAY: Warm waves, friendly locals.
The answer to your first question is, yes, it’s safe. But because many Americans think all of Mexico is engulfed in chaos, the popular surfing village of Sayulita is also a little less crowded these days. Just a 45-minute cab ride up the road from Puerto Vallarta, Sayulita sits on a small bay with a nicely shaped break that rolls right into beachside restaurants and surf shops. If you’re going with four or more people, it makes sense to rent a house (listings at sayulita.com). Otherwise, stay in one of the stunning bungalows at Villa Amor (pictured), a five-minute walk up the coast from the center of town. Most of the surf shops rent quality glass longboards and offer surf lessons and boat trips to some of the more advanced breaks such as Burros. One thing you won’t need: a wetsuit.

OR TRY: Surfing San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, the country’s next seaside boomtown. Stay downtown at the Hotel Azul Pitahaya, within walking distance of the town’s bars, clubs and beach breaks.

1. Nantahala Outdoor Center (pictured) in North Carolina runs one-day to week-long courses in whitewater kayaking, canoeing and river safety—perfect for beginning kayakers or experts who want to refine their rescue skills. 

2. Alpine Ascents International teaches a 13-day training course in Washington’s Cascade Range. Participants will learn the basics of rope work and anchors while climbing technical peaks.

3. Paskowitz Surf Camps, under the leadership of Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, 91, has brought new people into the sport since 1972. Paskowitz’s children and now grandchildren teach three-day to week-long surf camps just north of San Diego. 

4. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s Steep and Deep camp teaches advanced skiers how to navigate the most difficult chutes and head walls. Final exam: the 50-degree Corbet’s Couloir. 

Santiago, Chile

THE PLAY: Midwinter powder days—in August.
Ski Portillo subscribes to the old-world view of organizing a holiday on the snow: the all-inclusive ski week. Guests arrive in Santiago on Saturday and are met by a van that whisks them two hours up to the resort. The hotel holds no more than 480 guests, and the 12 lifts and various runs rarely exceed 500 skiers on the most crowded days. The net effect is 2,200 vertical feet of private skiing in the Andes. Even on a powder day, there’s no hurry to race from the breakfast table out to get the first chair—the untracked lines will be there for days to come. Meals (though not alcohol) are all included in the ski week package, and Portillo has a fully outfitted rental shop and ski school. It also has an ASTAR B3, if heliskiing is your thing. 

OR TRY: Skiing the endless powder fields of Hokkaido, Japan, where annual snowfall routinely tops 600 inches. Japan’s northernmost island is home to half a dozen ski resorts, the most popular of which is the collective Niseko United. 
 

Photo: Adam Clark, Portillo

Jackson, Wyoming

THE PLAY: The Alps, but closer.
There’s no American skyline more iconic than the Tetons rising out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Grand, at 13,770 feet, where Exum Mountain Guides has been leading trips since 1931, is the pinnacle of the range. To climb it, beginners spend two days learning the ropes—how to belay and tie basic climbing knots—before making a two-day ascent via the classic Owen-Spaulding route or Exum Ridge route. Clients spend the first day getting to high camp at the lower saddle before making a final summit push at 4 a.m. The climbing is a mild grade 5.5, but the combination of exposure and altitude can be vertigo-inducing. One traverse, known as the Belly Roll, has clients shuffling along an inches-wide ledge that drops some 2,500 feet into Valhalla Canyon. If you’re really feeling ambitious, try a one-day ascent of the Grand, where you’ll leave the parking lot at 2 a.m., climb through the night and be back at your car (and badly in need of a nap) by lunch. 

OR TRY: A two-day ascent of Washington’s 14,410-foot Mount Rainier, which has long been the proving ground for mountaineers in the Lower 48. Rainier Mountaineering Inc. specializes in teaching glacier travel skills to beginners, May through October. 
 

Photo: Wyoming Office of Tourism

Provence, France

THE PLAY: The perfect mix of culinary intake and gut-busting output.
The home of the world’s most famous bike race is also the best place to pedal at a more reasonable pace. Starting from the medieval city of Avignon, along the Rhone River, clients of Berkeley, California–based Backroads head east to Forcalquier, which also happens to be where l’Occitane Spa is based. Over the course of the six-day tour, riders will imbibe the best offerings from the Côtes du Lubéron region and sample freshly pressed extra virgin olive oil, among other delicacies. By day, you’ll spin through lavender farms, orchards and Provence’s ancient perched villages that cling to hillsides. Backroads provides guides and mechanics (and bikes, if you don’t want to ship yours) and organizes accommodations at classic old inns. 

OR TRY: Riding the Perigord Noir region, east of Bordeaux, France, on your own with an itinerary from Cyclomundo. The France-based outfitter will rent you a hybrid or race bike and tailor accommodations to your needs. 
 

Photo © Backroads/Warren Zelman