Customer Reviews

Ski Atlas of the World

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The cover of this book sums up its strengths and weaknesses nicely. The beautiful cover photograph of three skiers descending a spectacular snowfield in Utah's Wasatch Range suggests that this is an attractive coffee-table book.

Unfortunately, the book's title and subtitle ("Ski Atlas of the World: The Complete Reference to the Best Resorts") contains at least three false statements. First, the book is not an "atlas"--or at least not the type of atlas most ski buffs would expect. There are vaguely drawn maps showing the general location of various resorts around the world. But the book has no trail maps of the resorts. So it is impossible to get much of a feel for the extent of the resorts or the nature of their terrain.

Second, despite the book's claim to be the ultimate "reference", it contains virtually no reference information, just a handful of low-content pages at the back. There's really nothing here that would help someone plan a vacation -- no hotel or restaurant recommendations, no hints about prices. This is not usually a fatal problem for a coffee-table book, but it should not claim to be a "reference".

Third, the book is not really "complete" -- it really only skims the surface of the top resorts, and leaves plenty of notable spots out.

The editorial voice reads more like advertising copy than a discerning, critical examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the various resorts and their appeal to different types of skiers. A much better choice in this respect would be Where To Ski and Snowboard Worldwide: The Reuters Guide.

But back to the bright side -- the photography makes this a perfectly acceptable coffee-table book. Too bad the publisher decided to market it as an entirely different product by slapping a deceptive title on the cover.

After buying many ski books, I definitely think this one is the best. The pictures are amazing, the descriptions are good and accurate.
I recommend this book to every good skier, dreaming of hitting the slopes somewhere else in the world!