Helen Olsson Writer + Editor

The Valdez School for Wayward Girls The first-ever all-women heli-skiing camp in Alaska’s central Chugach Range attracted a motley crew of diehard skiers. Valdez may never be the same. With the...

https://helen-olsson.com/alaska-heli-skiing-women/

Exploring Red and Fernie, British Columbia means radical skiing among snow ghosts and moss-covered pines. Even in my wildest dreams I could not have imagined such a place. Mountains where you ski...

https://helen-olsson.com/the-great-rad-north/

Why go West when you can ski bum in Sugarloaf, Maine? The top station of Sugarloaf’s ancient gondola has all the character of a meat locker. On one hoarfrosted, snow-splotched wall, a sign read...

https://helen-olsson.com/living-to-loaf/

Bison, UFO’s, and Skiing on Sand The pile of gear laid out in our garage was incongruous: sand shovels and pails, skis, sun hats, a snow sled. We were packing for a trip to Great Sand Dunes Nat...

https://helen-olsson.com/great-sand-dunes-national-park/

Nebraska, With a Paddle To the uninitiated, Nebraska conjures a certain image: a treeless prairie steamrolled pancake-flat, stretching to the horizon. But tucked in a north-central patch of the s...

https://helen-olsson.com/floating-the-niobrara/

Any mom will tell you it’s hell just mobilizing a trip to the grocery store when you have kids. But camping with a baby? How hard could it be? Crickets. Coyotes. Wind rustling through the trees...

https://helen-olsson.com/camping-is-for-babies-kids-famil/

Backpacking Near Silverton, CO, with Four-Footed Friends It was a sublime moment. Deep in the woods, the fire had burned down to glowing coals. Our sticky-faced children munched contentedly on pe...

https://helen-olsson.com/llama-trekking-with-kids/

In the Olympics, people do insane things on snow. In Lake Placid, mere mortals can, too. “Welcome to the six-man bobsled,” said the brakeman. “Climb aboard.” Bobsleds look so high tech an...

https://helen-olsson.com/lake-placid-winter-adventure/

Two toddlers, 85 pounds of gear and 1,200 vertical feet add up to the perfect escape for one Colorado Family. As we peer down the toe of a 3,000-foot, 45-degree avalanche chute in the rugged Elk ...

https://helen-olsson.com/hut-trips-for-babies-skiin/

Beneath the Glamour and the grooming, the Park City triumvirate—Park City, Deer Valley, and The Canyons—harbors a hairball side. I admit it. I was an Alta snob. Back in ’91, I spent a winte...

https://helen-olsson.com/underground-utah-skiing/