Ruttenberg saw opportunity in lockers for police to store evidence, and in lockers that hold ski gear at winter resorts.

FORBES: Indestructible

In Italy over half the winter sports resorts are below 1, 300 meters.

CNN: Alpine resorts feel the heat

PORTLAND, Maine Buoyed by plentiful snow and good weather, Northeast ski resorts rebounded this past winter from a lackluster 2012 season that was plagued by lack of snow and high temperatures.

WSJ: Skier visits up 20 percent at Northeast ski areas

The idea is to turn the big resorts into full-fledged winter theme parks, attracting more beginners and families to the slopes.

ECONOMIST: The ski business

Record low snowfalls last winter ruined vacations and threatened to put some resorts out of business.

FORBES: Hit The Slopes! Coast-to-Coast Snow Kicks Off Skier's Dream Season For 2013

In 2010, the region's top Muslim cleric was shot dead, in an attack blamed on militants, and in February 2011 suspected Islamists attacked ski resorts in what Russia saw as preparations for assaults on the 2014 Winter Olympics in nearby Sochi.

BBC: Kabardino-Balkaria profile

The city hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, and is within minutes of the Wasatch Range with its four ski resorts, and just half an hour from the Park City and Deer Valley ski resorts.

BBC: Living in: Spiritual cities

The breathtaking shark-tooth vista of the Wasatch mountains stretching as far as the eye can see is a reminder that the Salt Lake region is a proper winter wonderland, half an hour's drive from many of the best ski resorts in the world.

ECONOMIST: Mormons on the slopes

With the 20th-century boom in winter sports, the unloved blankets of snow that stifled the Walser each winter suddenly became white gold, and villages such as Davos, Klosters and Lech grew into famous ski resorts.

BBC: Hiking the Alpine Walserweg trail