Don’t let the freezing temperatures drive your indoors! Harness the cold weather conditions (like the gent in the featured image, above, by dirkgroeger) with these 10 adrenaline-rush winter activities.
10) Tour skate – Åland, Finland
Skating around and around and around an ice rink gets boring – freestyling a route around a frozen lake on the other hand…
9) Cross-country ski – Beitostølen, Norway
The trouble with skis is they only take you downhill. Take a turn for the better, and shuffle your way around the Jotunheimen National Park cross-country style.
8) Snowshoe – Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Strap a pair of John McEnroe’s old rackets to your feet and go ape (or should that be yeti?)
7) Ice-climb – Ouray, Colorado, USA
Climbing a regular wall is so passé. A wall drenched in super slippery ice is where it’s at these days.
6) Dog-sled – Exit Glacier, Alaska, USA
Sledding is traditionally a solo affair. Lonely it is not though, when you’re hitting the road with eight new furry (though not cuddly!) friends. Mush!
5) Mountaineer – Mont Blanc, France
At 4,810.45 m (15,782 ft), Mont Blanc is the tallest peak in Europe. Join a guided ascent to write a story you’d really be proud of telling the grandkids.
4) Fat bike – Alta, Wyoming, USA
Riding a bike with giant inflatable tires over snow – for times when riding a normal bike on a smooth road has gotten too easy.
3) Glacier trek – Fox Glacier, New Zealand
A glacier is like a living being. Flowing slowly and weathered from above, it’s constantly evolving. Take a stroll over one and technically speaking you’ll have cramponed where no one has cramponed before.
2) Bobsleigh – Calgary, Canada
Jump aboard what you might call a bathtub on rails as it hurtles down Canada Olympic Park’s track at speeds of up to 75 mph. The good news? The driver’s a professional. The bad news? The 14-turn ride only lasts 60 seconds.
1) Heli-ski – Banff, Canada
It’s a frustrating fact of life that many of the world’s best skiing country isn’t accessible by lift. Solution: make a taxi of a helicopter, and fly your way to the top of a virgin powder run.
Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…
