Although December was a cold and wet month for San Francisco, the days were still warm enough and roads never had to be shoveled; Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) secret agent Amanda Xu had become too accustomed to this California climate. Originally she was thrilled to have been set up with an American husband living in sunny California for her cover, thought she would never have to shovel snow or drive through s...

It was a fantastic day on the slopes, sunny and warm following the prior 6” powder night. I was up and out early, anxious to find those ever-elusive first tracks. With winter slipping away toward spring, there would not be many days like this left in the season. Although often disappointing to accept, summertime in the mountains always follows behind as the perfect consolation. With the sun creeping higher toward its midd...

I knew I was dead; I just knew it. I shouldn't have stormed away from that dickhead who wouldn't leave me alone on the slopes. I'm a decent skier, but not ready for the slope I found myself on. It wasn't even part of the resort, so trying to get down it was the worst possible decision in a day of bad decisions. Semi-intelligently, I took off my skis and tried to find my way back, but I think I got turned around when I ran...

“Come on now, don’t be a wimp!” Down the hill, the two gals that made up half of their small group stood positioned next to the side of the landing area. To the one still summoning up the courage to attempt the jump, one of them had shouted, teasing him. “You’re more than welcome to hike up here and try it yourself!” dared Jordan back. Chris stood next to him and studied the ramp, inhaling sharp. It wasn’t a jump differen...

It was a fantastic day on the slopes, sunny and warm following a 6” powder night.  I’d already been up and out early, anxious to find the ever elusive first tracks.  With winter slipping away into spring, there wouldn’t be many more days like this for this season.  Although disappointing to accept, summer in the mountains always follows with the perfect consolation. The sun crept higher toward its midday apex and I was ne...

Nina sat idly flicking through a few magazines while she was waiting for her appointment with the dentist. For the last three years, she and her mates had hit Southern California beaches, where they swam, surfed, danced and drank themselves silly for about three weeks solid.This year Nina wanted something different, a much more relaxing and hopefully a more romantic setting place to visit. She closed her eyes for a moment...

In some ways Vince and Vicky were an unlikely couple. They had vastly different backgrounds from much different socio-economic classes. Vince had a blue collar upbringing while Vicky came from a well-to-do family. Vince had to fight, both literally and figuratively, for everything he had attained while Vicky’s accomplishments seemed to come almost effortlessly.  As a fifty one year old Vince bore the physical scars of his...

Last winter my girlfriend, Kayla, and I took a weekend trip up to Vermont, and stayed in a beautiful ski resort near Killington Mountain. She's a snowboarder and I'm a skier, I know it's weird right? But anyway, we checked in Friday night and made sure we had our weekend passes. We were exhausted after the drive and ended up crashing soon bafter we unpacked.I woke up to Kayla getting changed and ready for a long day of sk...

Annie glanced in the mirror one last time as she exited out the door with her boyfriend Jeff. She secretly wondered how badly this woolen head wrap thing was messing with her new hair cut. Annie was a firm believer in that old adage ‘It’s not what you do, it’s how you look doing it’ and once had those very words displayed rather unapologetically on a small plaque in her office. “You’ll look fine Annie,” Jeff assured her....

Snow crunched under the tyres of the four by four as Tim pulled up onto the driveway outside the chalet. “Here we go,” he said. He leaned over to Fiona in the passenger seat and kissed her on the cheek before they both giggled and flung the doors open. In the back seat Lilly pulled her shawl closer around her shoulders. Why had she even bothered to come? She was selfish, that’s what it was. The boot flew open, letting in...