To permanently protect 2,240 privately-owned acres of Galbraith Mountain next to Bellingham, WA, and secure legal rights to extensive, multipurpose, non-motorized recreational activities on that land.
St. Moritz also takes readers on a majestic tour of its special events, from Winter Olympics to the annual Snow Polo World Cup, as well as the summertime Jazz Festival and the British Classic Car Meeting. In St. Moritz creatives and royals share skiwassers slope-side on the sheepskin benches of El Paradiso, pause to sip champagne on long strolls around its frozen, crystalline lake and enjoy coffee and confections at the centuries old Hanselmann. St. Moritz has never lost its inimitable appeal, and will continue to reign as an elegant hideaway for all those who have come to call it a home away from home.
Nestled in Switzerland’s alpine Engadin Valley, St. Moritz stands on its own amidst a sea of celebrated ski resorts in that it has long maintained an elusive allure. The winter home of personalities from Gunter Sachs and Gianni Agnelli to Sofia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, John Lennon, and Claudia Schiffer, there are few places in the world that manage to unite so many of the top names in cinema, art, and fashion all in one place, year after year. Author Dora Lardelli takes the reader on a journey through Chanel and Hitchcock’s favorite haunts and the hidden parties at Badrutt’s Palace where royalty goes to play, without forgetting the natural beauty, village charm and architectural mastery that define it.
Spanning 5,200 acres in the Great Smoky Mountains, Blackberry Mountain continues a legacy of world-renowned hospitality and unwavering dedication and appreciation for the land. Rising above Miller’s Cove in Walland, TN, Blackberry Mountain has dedicated 2,800 acres of land to conservation.
Every adventure needs a home base, and the luxury accommodations on the Mountain offer equal parts modern design, natural charm and refined comfort. Choose from a ridgetop cabin, a stone cottage nestled into the hillside near The Lodge, or a multi-bedroom home. You’ll find each to be well-appointed, thoughtfully furnished and, of course, tastefully stocked.
This effort to preserve the natural wonder of the mountains offers breathtaking views and a serene escape from the stresses of modern life in a private national park setting. A commitment to land conservation and a passion for sharing the wonders of life in the Smokies shapes the unprecedented experience that awaits on Blackberry Mountain. Outfitted for adventure and designed for comfort, this estate takes the Blackberry State of Mind to new heights.
111 Years of Waldhaus Sils ranges across the hotel’s life and history. Founders Josef and Amalie Giger and their descendants, by now in the fifth generation, have guided the “house in the woods” with skill and fortitude through good times and bad through the twentieth century and into the present. The owners and their exceptionally diverse guests—lively families side-by-side with intellectuals and artists of world renown—have created a unique blend of luxury and modesty, historic grandeur and playful fun, smooth professionalism and unexpected idiosyncrasies.
Those in the know are aware that Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel has a real-life counterpart in the Swiss Alps: The Waldhaus Sils, which has pleased and puzzled visitors for 111 years and become an icon of Swiss hospitality. Located above the small village of Sils Maria near St. Moritz, it overlooks a striking landscape of forests, lakes and mountains and offers a combination of Belle Epoque flair and modern comfort. Its distinctive charm comes from the fact that the Waldhaus has been family-owned and operated since its grand opening on June 15, 1908.
In the 2000s, California-based painter Wayne Thiebaud began focusing on a series of mountain paintings, a subject he had first addressed in the 1960s and 1970s. Rendered in his signature confectionary palette, these colorful works combine memories of mountains he had seen in childhood and observations of the summits of the Sierra Nevada Range in Yosemite. With their heroic, exaggerated proportions and unusual perspectives, these paintings seem to combine fiction and reality. Conveying a sense of the sublime and the vast magnitude of our surroundings, they draw upon the history of landscape painting of the American West.
Michael M. Thomas is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and former investment partner of Lehman Brothers. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Margaretta Lovell is professor of American Art at UC Berkeley.
Join the Red Bull Air Force for a wingsuit flying adventure as they travel into Switzerland’s Vaud Alps.
Red Bull Air Force members Mike Swanson, Miles Daisher and Andy Farrington start their journey in the town of Bex, Switzerland, eventually making it to the top of the Les Diablerets glacier—a whopping 3,210 meters above sea level.
Watch as the crew, joined by athletes Roberta Mancino and Scotty Bob Morgan wingsuit fly past “Glacier 3000,” a suspension bridge connecting two mountain peaks. With scenic views and jaw-dropping action, it’s the Swiss adventure of a lifetime— presented with the support of Villars-Gryon-Les Diablerets-Bex-Glacier 3000.
Website: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnuf8iyXggLEp_2gb3jtTm_D4nle3jrnz
From a Wall Street Journal online article:
Courmayeur, both a town and a ski resort, boasts nearly as many ambitious, full-service restaurants as it does lifts on the slopes. Even on bright sunny days with powdery trails, the big question tends to be, “What’s for lunch?” The village, nestled in a snug valley on the south slope (the Italian side) of Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest peak, is a typically sleepy mountain town for much of the year with around 3,000 full-time residents. But when the ski season kicks into high gear, its restaurants, bars and cafes all come roaring to life. It’s a favorite winter escape for residents of Italy’s fashion capital, Milan, a straight two-hour shot up the highway.
For the urbane crowds in from the city on winter weekends, Courmayeur is as much an epicurean as snow-sports destination, known for its mountain cheeses, wild game and cured meats, and for its increasingly serious restaurants. Top tables on and off the slopes can book up weeks in advance. The region’s minerally white and earthy red wines come from some of the highest altitude vineyards in Europe. The sparkling Cuvée des Guides is made 7,000 feet above sea level on the slopes of Mont Blanc, with a tasting room atop one of the state-of-the-art Skyway Monte Bianco cable car stations.
To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-italian-ski-town-where-the-food-rivals-the-views-11574791692
