Backcountry Magazine 118 - The Photo Annual

FEATURES KASHMIR CALLING Ski meccas come in all flavors, and Gulmarg, Kashmir holds the irrefutable title of most exotic, with everything from 3,000-foot bowls to assault rifles in tramcars. Ming Poon and Andrew McLean skin through the demilitarized Line of Control to learn more. EASTERN UPS & DOWNS The best of times, the worst of times—winter in the Northeast embodies all that Charles Dickens wrote about in his iconic Tale of Two Cities opening line. And the last few Vermont winters capture best the desperate and the deep. SPECTACLE This year, we're debuting our Photo Annual a month earlier than usual. Consider it your guide through the gray season sometimes known as late fall. There's snow on the other side and, hopefully, heaps of it. Here's your first taste. PARADISE EARNED The Claus family is legendary in Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains, with a long lineage of bushplane pilots and as owners of the celebrated Ultima Thule Lodge. With his new Tebay Lodge, son Jay Claus is