Soft Skiing is unique among many how-to-ski-better books-full of practical, easy-to-follow and immediately effective ski coaching ideas, it's also a collection of personal memories by one of America's best known ski instructors, Lito Tejada-Flores. Lito is the author of Breakthrough On The New Skis, and the creator of the Breakthrough-On-Skis video series. He has never followed the "party-line" of official ski teaching orthodoxy, and his Breakthrough on Skis books are amongst the best selling ski instruction books of all time. In this book, Lito breaks new ground, focusing 100% on the art of skiing in a relaxed, energy-efficient manner, a style of virtually effortless expert skiing that is ideally suited to older skiers. In his easy-to-follow conversational style, Lito reveals the secrets of skiing all day, on all terrain, without fatigue, without a moment of struggle or stress. Actually this is a book for all skiers but more than anything it is a gift for older skiers looking for grace, elegance and efficiency rather than aggressive daring-do on the slopes. This is a book that will change skiing lives, expand skiing horizons.

This is the dramatic story of the development and history of Sugarloaf ski resort from its beginnings as a hand-cleared path to an international ski and golfing resort of world renown. Many colorful people of international prominence are profiled, including Emile Allais, Jean Claude Killy, Billy Kidd, and Les Otten.

The thrilling extreme sporting adventure of Free Solo meets the heartfelt honesty of growing up with autism depicted in Atypical in WITHOUT RESTRAINT (98,000 words), the story of a father's unlikely discovery of his son's prodigious talent for skiing that ultimately saved his son's life. Ryan DeLena's childhood was a complicated one. When he was a toddler, he would launch into impassioned monologues from classic books and films, was fascinated by ventilation systems, and loved climbing the walls of his house-literally. His eidetic memory, penchant for brutal honesty, and defiance led to a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder-a subclass of the autism spectrum. When public preschools weren't equipped to manage him, his parents, Rob and Mary Beth, enrolled him in a private "therapeutic" school program, a decision that locked Ryan into a school that relied on destructive methods of behavior modification-including painful physical restraints and extended isolation, practices that are still used in these programs to this day. Some teachers pinned him to the floor for prolonged periods of time, covered his mouth, and left him with rug burns. Ryan's noncompliance to these techniques ultimately led to the prescription of a variety of harmful antipsychotic medications encouraged by the school staff, and, further, to a two-week stay in a mental hospital to evaluate whether he should reside permanently in a treatment facility. Fortunately, when Ryan was seven years old, Rob made an impulsive decision to kill a few hours at a local ski hill. Within his first lesson, Ryan was barreling down black diamond slopes. By his twentieth day of skiing, Ryan was executing expert runs with 3,500 feet of vertical drop. Ryan's newfound obsession-and Rob's apparent death wish-led them to extreme ski runs around the world. With each skiing conquest, Ryan blossomed, and Rob learned not only to appreciate his son's strengths, but also to understand and accept his quirks. Soon, Ryan was no longer a child with a disability; he was a world-class ski mountaineer. Emboldened, Rob decided to fight the medical and educational "industrial complexes" over the decisions made about Ryan's care and school placement-and won. Written in two voices (Rob's in book and Ryan's in italics), WITHOUT RESTRAINT is a joint father-son memoir told with both pain and levity, struggle and strength, adventure and heart. It is the story of a misunderstood boy, a father's growth, and a shared love of the outdoors that formed their unbreakable bond. WITHOUT RESTRAINT will appeal to parents-particularly those of children with disabilities-and outdoor enthusiasts alike. From a marketing standpoint, Ryan is a highly regarded video blogger, whose skiing descents have around 150,000 views on YouTube and have been featured on Outside TV and the "Right This Minute" viral video show. He is also a regular contributor for the Ski the East and Ski the Whites brand pages. Rob and Ryan are committed to leveraging their close connections with highly visible media contacts and members of the outdoor community-including Olympic skiers, CNN and NFL contributors, and prominent environmental activists.

The story of Nordic skiing in the Midwest-its origins and history, its star athletes and races, and its place in the region's social fabric and the nation's winter recreation In the winter of 1841, a Norwegian immigrant in Wisconsin strapped on a pair of wooden boards and set off across the snow to buy flour-leaving tracks that perplexed his neighbors and marked the arrival of Nordic skiing in America. To this day, the Midwest is the nation's epicenter of cross-country skiing, sporting a history as replete with athleticism and competitive spirit as it is steeped in old-world lore and cold-world practicality. This history unfolds in full for the first time in Winter's Children. Nordic skiing first took hold as a sport in the Upper Midwest at the end of the nineteenth century, giving rise to an early ski league and a host of star athletes. With the arrival of a pair of brothers from Telemark, Norway, the world's best skiers at the time, the sport-and the ski manufacturing industry-reached new heights in Minnesota, only to see its fortunes fall after World War II, when downhill skiing surged in popularity. In Winter's Children Ryan Rodgers traces the rise and fall of Nordic skiing in the Midwest from its introduction in the late 1800s to its uncertain future in today's rapidly changing climate. Along the way he profiles the sport's stars and stalwarts, from working-class Norwegian immigrants with a near-spiritual reverence for cross-country skiing to Americans passionately committed to the virtues of competitive sport, and he chronicles races like the thrilling 1938 Arrowhead Derby (which ran from Duluth to St. Paul over five days) and the American Birkebeiner, the nation's largest cross-country event, which takes place every year in northern Wisconsin, snowpack permitting. Generously illustrated with vintage photography and ski posters, and featuring firsthand observations drawn from interviews, Winter's Children is an engaging look at the earliest ski teams and touring clubs; the evolution of cross-country skis, gear, and fashion; and the ambitious and ongoing effort to establish and maintain a vast trail network across the Minnesota state park system.

Basic Illustrated Alpine Ski Touring has everything one needs to participate in this growing and exciting activity. Written by expert Molly Abolson, this book provides information on gear, skills, and preparation so that beginners and intermediate participants alike can enjoy this emerging sport with confidence.