>> NARRATOR: Coming up on Weekends with Yankee, Richard is in Killington, Vermont, to see the women's World Cup Alpine ski race.

>> It's 20 degrees out with the wind blowing, and people are crazy about coming to watch one of the greatest races in North America.

>> NARRATOR: Then, over in Barnard, Vermont... >> TRAVERSO: Oh, look at that.

>> NARRATOR: Amy visits Twin Farms, an enchanting New England resort that features traditional but unique cottages.

>> This is our tree house.

>> TRAVERSO (chuckling): This is nicer than the tree house I had when I was a kid.

>> It is inspired by the woods around us.

>> NARRATOR: We make our way to Hanover, New Hampshire, to check out a hidden gem of the art world, the Orozco murals.

>> It's one of the two most impressive large-scale elaborated mural cycles in the United States.

>> You have to set the corner.

>> NARRATOR: And then we're in Walpole, New Hampshire, where Richard helps artist Eric Aho create a special project.

>> When it occurred to me that that hole in the ice was something I really needed to paint, it wasn't a question of, "Oh, should I do this?"

It was... Like, it hit me like a truck, like, this is something I had to do.

>> NARRATOR: So come along for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through New England as you've never experienced it before, a true insider's guide from the editors of Yankee magazine.

Join explorer and adventurer Richard Wiese and his co-host, Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso, for behind-the-scenes access to the unique attractions that define this region.

It's the ultimate travel guide from the people who know it best.

Weekends with Yankee.

>> Major funding provided by: ♪ ♪ >> Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts-- the first public park in America; the first fried clams; the first university in America; the first basketball game.

What's first for you?

♪ ♪ >> Grady-White, crafting offshore sport fishing boats for over 60 years.

>> The Barn Yard, builders of timber-frame barns and garages.

And by American Cruise Lines, exploring the historic shores of New England.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: We're in central Vermont in the town of Killington, at the Killington Ski Resort.

>> It's winter.

You can sit inside and grumble about the cold, or you can embrace the Vermont culture and go outside and play in the snow.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Richard is here in Killington to attend the International Ski Federation's Women's World Cup, the premier competition for Alpine skiing.

>> It's 20 degrees out with the wind blowing, and people are crazy about coming to watch one of the greatest races in North America, the Women's World Cup.

There're so many fans here in Vermont that this is a really big deal.

>> NARRATOR: Diann Roffe has one of the most impressive resumés in American skiing history.

She became a giant slalom world champion in 1985 while still in high school.

Over the next ten seasons, she accumulated 36 top ten World Cup finishes, and won an Olympic silver medal in 1992 and a gold medal in 1994.

Since retiring as an active racer, Roffe has worked as a coach and program director.

>> When I was a junior, I was a kind of a child prodigy and on the radar of the U.S. ski team.

But I was so young, they called me up to compete at Lake Placid, and it was the first time I had ever been near a World Cup race and I was in it.

(laughs): It was the most exciting time of my life.

>> WIESE: What is the World Cup circuit in skiing?

How does that work?

>> So the World Cup circuit in skiing is the, the great governing body of all of ski racing.

So every two years, you have world championships, and every four years, you have an Olympics.

But the competitors come from the World Cup circuit for those championship events, and the World Cup circuit happens every year.

>> So this is the fourth year here, and before that, we hadn't had a World Cup in the East since 1991.

They really underestimated how much pent-up desire there was to see a ski race.

It's one thing to see people on TV, but when you're seeing them live and you're seeing those racers skiing, it's like no other professional sport, I think, where you can get so close to the athletes.

And when these little kids can just, like, literally reach out and touch their heroes, it, it sparks something and it, it makes them think, "Hey, I can do this."

>> NARRATOR: Edie Thys Morgan is a two-time Olympian in Alpine skiing.

The California native now makes New England her home, where she works as a writer, a part-time ski coach, and a full-time mom.

>> I was very fortunate to grow up in Squaw Valley, where we just had a lot of Olympic skiers that I happened to be in the same community with, and it had a remarkable effect, and I think that's why you see a lot of good skiers coming out of places where they have those.

And I do remember seeing my first World Cup live, and it was in Waterville Valley.

I mean, I will always remember that day, and I also remember, all these kids I ended up skiing with on the national team, were same as me, you know, in their tennis shoes, like, lining the side of the course, just sort of, like, drooling and looking at the ski racers.

>> WIESE: And, and so you raced on this mountain.

>> I did, I raced in Killington.

Raced it here with Diann Roffe.

It does take me back, but I tell you, I was on the course earlier in the day for the first round, as a, as a gate judge.

(chuckles): I could no more do what they're doing...

I mean, I'm kind of astounded that I ever did it, because it's, it's tough.

It's full-on, I mean, the speed and, and the forces and everything.

It, it's pretty impressive to watch them out there.

♪ ♪ >> It's a true Eastern day.

This is a hearty Vermont skier day for this race.

This is one of the biggest crowds that the women's tour sees, in Europe and anywhere else that they go.

You know, you're coming down the course into the finish and the crowd lines the hill, and, yeah, it's like a buzz that you feel when you're competing that just keeps you going.

>> Most World Cups you go to, it's a pretty anonymous thing.

The Austrians cheer for the Austrians, the Swiss for the Swiss, and you come to, to Killington, and the whole crowd's cheering for everyone.

♪ ♪ (crowd cheering and applauding) (cowbells ringing) >> WIESE: I understand that there's actually, per capita, more Olympic skiers from Vermont than any other state.

Why is that?

>> Well, there's over 20 member clubs across the state that have kids starting at six years old that participate in ski racing.

Or they love it, or they dream about it, or they idolize the World Cup athletes.

>> NARRATOR: Diann fosters young talent as the junior program director at a school for top skiers that's just two hours north of Killington.

>> Burke Mountain Academy is a specialized sports academy helping kids chase their Alpine ski racing dreams and pursuing a high-level secondary school education at the same time.

At our levels, they're racing regionally, nationally, and a little bit internationally, if they're really achieving at a high level, which is a big deal.

>> NARRATOR: Willy Booker is head of school at Burke Mountain Academy.

A former student, teacher, and coach, Willy has been involved with just about every aspect of skiing over the past 25 years.

>> I came to Burke when I was 14 years old, as an eighth-grade student.

I knew Burke was the place that you had to go if you really wanted to be the best and achieve your potential.

Notable graduates, Mikaela Shiffrin is probably our most notable alumni.

Diann Roffe is an Olympic gold medalist.

>> WIESE: Why do you think so many great skiers come out of Vermont?

>> I think there's an incredible ski heritage, ski racing heritage, in Vermont that's built a great infrastructure to help kids excel.

But there's also something about ski racing in New England that breeds grit-- it's tough here.

You have to ski in all conditions, hot, cold, wet, icy.

And I think that helps kids develop.

>> (cheering) >> So the kids' parade is a really big deal, because the kids get to come in and be recognized as a part of the future of the sport.

They're the youngest ones dreaming to be in the place of the athletes on the hill today.

So for them to be a part of the parade, it makes them feel like they're special.

>> And, of course, the young kids all want to see Mikaela.

I can't imagine how much pressure there is for her, because it feels like, if she wins, it's a successful weekend, and that's completely unfair.

But everybody wants to see Mikaela.

She's a superstar.

(crowd cheering and applauding) >> WIESE: How come you guys are here today?

>> To see Mikaela!

>> Yeah!

>> WIESE: Did you see her?

>> Yeah!

>> Yeah, we got her autograph.

>> WIESE: That's an autograph?

>> Yeah!

>> WIESE: That's an autograph?

>> And I got her hug.

>> WIESE: You got a hug?

How awesome an experience is this?

>> That was fun!

>> That was pretty... >> WIESE: Do I get to have a cheering contest?

Woo-hoo!

Ow, ow, ow!

(girls screaming loudly) >> Ski racing is a very difficult sport.

You can go almost your whole career without ever winning.

So if you think of team sports, you probably win or lose at least 50 percent of the time.

In ski racing, it's very rare to win a race.

There's 140 kids in a race.

139 of them don't win.

And so you learn resiliency.

You learn to fail and you learn to overcome your failures, and they go on to be successful in athletics.

But if you look at ski racers and what they do in their lives beyond ski racing, it's really amazing.

♪ ♪ >> It's not about racing someone down.

It's about everybody being out enjoying the mountain.

And you got the lift ride up, you got the time in the lodge.

There's all this other time, and the time where you're skiing, you actually are in your head and enjoying the moment.

It's just so fun and such an adrenaline rush, and usually, when you get down from a, a great run, you just, you just wanna go do it again.

It's the greatest sport, and it's, it's so much fun.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: Why Vermont?

>> People come here for the beauty of what is Vermont and the privacy of what they can have when they come through the gates.

>> TRAVERSO: It's like nature, plus... there's culture here.

>> From the wine, to the art, to the architecture, and the service throughout, it all makes it happen.

>> NARRATOR: We're in the town of Barnard, Vermont.

Here, Amy is visiting Twin Farms, the area's only five-star experience.

But this enchanting country resort isn't just any luxury inn.

It's in a class of its own.

>> TRAVERSO: It's still so gorgeous.

>> NARRATOR: Amy is getting a rare look at the notoriously private and tight-lipped getaway spot that almost never lets camera crews within its gates.

And she's getting the insider scoop on its fascinating history.

>> The original farmhouse that we're in dates back to 1795.

Around about 1928, its most famous occupants moved here, and that was Dorothy Thompson and Sinclair Lewis, and then it went into private hands after that.

Our founder, Thurston Twigg-Smith, had this as a private home for many years.

And around about 1991, the thought came to build what is Twin Farms today, and we opened October 1 of 1993.

We opened with nine rooms back then, and we're at 20 accommodations now.

We have 300 acres here with downhill skiing to canoeing, paddle boarding, fly fishing, mountain biking, throughout the year.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

>> The guest experience is true to what the original intent was, that you would come through the gate, and it was sort of like your own home in Vermont.

>> TRAVERSO: There's a real emphasis on art here, and not your usual hotel art.

(chuckles): This is...

This is art on a different level.

>> Thurston Twigg-Smith put together a tremendous collection of art in Hawaii.

They then shipped a tremendous amount of it here to be part of the inn.

So you'll find it scattered throughout the property, in the rooms, in the common areas.

And, in fact, some of the rooms were designed around that art itself.

>> TRAVERSO: There are some buildings that have a few rooms in them, like here and...

But then there are a lot of individual cottages.

Each one has, like, a different decor and scheme.

>> They're very different on the inside.

But from the outside, it's a traditional New England, Vermont-style home.

♪ ♪ This is our tree house.

>> TRAVERSO (chuckling): This is nicer than the tree house I had when I was a kid.

>> It is inspired by the woods around us and the fact that you walk in at ground level, but off to the back side of the cottage, you're up in the trees.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, it's gorgeous.

I feel like this place is all about the details, like birds up on top of the bed, and then even just, like, the branches up in that light fixture, wow.

♪ ♪ Oh, wow, look at this.

I can kind of see why it's called Aviary.

And I think I'd feel like a very happy bird here.

>> You can see that in the windowpanes.

>> TRAVERSO: Yes.

>> We're up in the trees.

>> TRAVERSO: Kind of bird's-eye view.

>> Bird's-eye view-- we're looking directly at our downhill ski area through the trees there.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, okay.

>> The peak's there.

In the wintertime.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow.

This is beautiful-- look at the stone.

>> This is the Artists' Studio.

>> TRAVERSO: It's so pretty.

>> Solid-stone building.

In this room alone, you have a Frank Stella hanging over the fireplace.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow.

>> And a David Hockney meeting you as you walk up the stairs.

>> TRAVERSO: This is beautiful.

>> And this cottage has an amazing bathroom upstairs, it has a 500-gallon copper bathtub.

♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: Look at this, this is as big as my bedroom!

>> Pretty amazing.

>> TRAVERSO: I could swim.

This is like a swimming pool, this tub.

This is beautiful.

>> NARRATOR: With cottages as luxuriously cozy as these, it takes an outstanding chef to get guests to venture back to the main house for a meal.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, my gosh.

Hello, what a way to meet somebody.

>> So these are our famous soufflé pancakes.

And we made some blueberry pancakes for you today.

>> TRAVERSO: So good.

>> Thank you.

>> TRAVERSO: These are like eating cloud!

>> (laughs) >> TRAVERSO: This a chef's table where people can come and eat?

>> So we do this nightly.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

>> And we do multiple courses, so normally in the dining room, we do six courses.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

>> In here, we do 12 courses.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, my gosh.

>> And we have some reserve wines that we pour with it, and it's really a special occasion.

You get to come into the kitchen and hang out with us and see all the action of the kitchen.

>> TRAVERSO: Well-- oh, my gosh, hello!

Speaking of excellent service!

>> Surprises here, likewise, yeah.

>> We have skate cheeks.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, yay.

>> So this comes off of the skate wing of the fish.

>> TRAVERSO: Yes!

>> We've tempura-ed it so it's really nice and light, and then we have some creamed leeks, and we have a soy mushroom that's on the bottom, and then a little bit of plankton powder.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, wow!

>> And we steep it in milk.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

>> We finish with some microgreens that we have out of the greenhouse.

>> TRAVERSO: Mmm... mm!

That's so good, it's, like, got these really nice kind of woodsy, earthy notes.

But then you have this, this marine element, too!

This sort of sea, sea flavors.

>> We lighten it a little bit, yeah.

>> NARRATOR: To wrap up our visit to this one-of-a-kind resort, Amy joins the wine director for a nightcap.

>> Well, this is our wine cellar.

It is a working cellar.

We also use this as a venue for, for dinners.

>> TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.

>> It's about seven courses, five wines, with the candles and the lights down, and a little Norah Jones on the radio.

>> TRAVERSO: (laughs) >> It's very comfortable.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.

So what do we have here to drink?

>> So our house champagne is Louis Roederer.

They're a very large champagne house, still family-owned.

>> TRAVERSO: I love the, um, you know, little bit of grapefruit, or yuzu.

There's some-- kind of right in the middle there.

>> Crisp, bright.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, love it.

So this is an Oregon pinot noir.

>> Yes, this is coming from a winery called Winderlea.

And this is their 2011 pinot noir.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm.

Cheers.

>> Cheers.

>> TRAVERSO: Mmm... >> So you get that nice earthiness, that, you know, that cherry fruit.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow, well, thank you for giving me this introduction.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: We head to Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, to find a true hidden gem of the art world, the Orozco murals.

♪ ♪ In Dartmouth's Baker-Berry Library, we find the monumental mural The Epic of American Civilization, painted by Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco between 1932 and 1934 during his residency at the school.

>> José Clemente Orozco is pretty important in the art world.

He's one of Los Tres Grandes, the, the three greats of Mexican muralism, along with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

So within the canon of Mexican Modernism, he's one of the most famous and important artists.

Along with Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Mural, it's one of the two most impressive large-scale elaborated mural cycles in the United States.

It had a pretty profound impact on how American art developed.

>> NARRATOR: The mural is composed of 24 individual panels depicting the history of North America, from the Aztec migration into Mexico to the industrialization of modern society.

>> I think he was particularly sensitive to the ways in which the Anglo-American narrative of Manifest Destiny naturalized a sort of Anglo-American claim to the Americas, a kind of Anglo-American superiority.

So Orozco devotes about 50 percent of the mural to indigenous culture.

He begins with the conquest of the Americas by Cortés in the modern half, and then he sort of jumps to the 1930s.

In the 1930s, there's a sort of very robust public discourse about these two Americas.

Anglo-America, of course, is U.S. America, and Hispano-America is sort of the rest of the Americas.

So Orozco really takes on those terms, presents the two Americas in a kind of exaggerated way, and so that sort of mural ends on this very dark note that the Messiah has not returned, he's a destructive and vengeful entity, rather than a redemptive or liberatory entity, and that this sort of end of the world, if you will, is in process, but not completed.

And that's very consistent, I think, with Orozco's view.

I think he was also very suspicious of the idea that you could redeem the violence of modernity.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Covering nearly 3,200 square feet of wall space, the mural includes scenes that were viewed as controversial at the time.

>> The scenes that were the most controversial were the Anglo-America panel, which I like to say he presented... (chuckles) Sort of like a Children of the Corn scene, where you have these kind of dead-eyed, drone-like children sort of gathered around a very stern, you know, androgynous teacher in the midst of a sort of New England town hall meeting.

And so, as an image of "America," "U.S. America," it, it looks pretty negative.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: The mural was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2013.

It's available for viewing at the Baker-Berry Library in Dartmouth College.

♪ ♪ (chopping ice) >> You have to set the corner.

>> WIESE: Okay.

>> NARRATOR: Now we head over to Walpole, New Hampshire.

>> There you go, one more.

>> NARRATOR: Where Richard is helping artist Eric Aho create a very special project.

>> I'm Eric Aho, I'm a painter, and I love to paint the winter.

>> NARRATOR: Eric's work has been featured around the world, including exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

But the inspiration for this work comes from right here in New England.

It's part of a series of paintings called Ice Cuts that explores and celebrates the infinite variations of light and color that can be seen and experienced in one simple subject: a hole cut in the ice of a frozen pond.

>> It's kind of a circular motion.

When it occurred to me that that hole in the ice was something that I really needed to paint, it wasn't a question of, "Oh, should I do this?"

It was, like, it hit me like a truck.

Like, this is something I had to do.

>> NARRATOR: The origin of this project comes from Aho's Finnish heritage.

He cuts a hole in the ice that serves as an icy plunge pool for his sauna, or "sona," as the Finns pronounce it.

And then he paints it.

This process connects Eric to his late father, who harvested ice when he was young with tools like these.

>> WIESE: You've been coming to this particular pond and doing a sauna for decades now, right?

>> Right, the sauna and the plunge pool, it's something that I've been doing for 20 years.

Like, one day, I looked at the hole, like I had never looked at it before.

And I thought, "Is this, like, the most beautiful thing I've ever seen?"

See the reflection of the block in the water?

>> WIESE: Yeah.

>> It's just... ♪ ♪ Yeah, the color starts to take.

I'll start back here and kind of establish, you know, the palette that runs, that runs through the whole painting.

>> WIESE: When did you first come here?

>> 1998 or '99?

I got to be friendly with the owner here, and I suggested to him that it'd be a great place for a sauna.

We entered a gentleman's agreement, just like... just like in the old days.

I had a building in search of a pond, and he had a pond in search of a building.

>> WIESE: And when people talk about your work, what is it that you hope that they notice or say about it?

>> I guess what I'd really like, I mean, would, or would feel great, is if someone was as, as sort of dumbstruck by it as I was, by the, by the source, by the subject.

But every time I'm out here, it's different, so sometimes it looks like coffee, and sometimes it's sage green.

Sometimes it reflects the sky, it can be, like, an incredible bright blue.

In the painting, it takes on this character of something other than what it is, you know?

I'm not painting it like water.

I mean, here, it's a little bit inkier, or it has a kind of weight or a substance to it that you know, isn't, isn't shown there in its flatness.

>> WIESE: And there's gotta be challenges out here in cold temperatures, painting.

>> Totally, I mean the oil paint doesn't freeze, it just gets a little stiffer.

But, you know, you can add some oil and some solvent, ease it up a little bit.

>> WIESE: How, how cold will you paint till?

>> I don't know, like, 20 degrees.

If the sun's out, and it's 25 degrees, it's just... >> WIESE: Yeah.

>> It's comfortable, actually.

When I just turned 30, my father was dying, and he told us some stories that he had told us as kids about cutting ice when he was a child, a recitation of images of saws and sounds, and the sound of the Finnish language, and that left an enormous impression on me.

And then years later, I'm up here, I'm cutting the ice, and I'm having, like, this sort of vicarious experience.

I mean, this is sort of what I live for, I guess.

I also know that the sauna's about 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and that is, like, the reward.

(muttering) ♪ ♪ >> WIESE: Okay, here we go.

>> Richard, you ready to get hot?

>> WIESE: I am.

>> All right.

Let's warm up.

>> WIESE: Okay, here we go.

>> Yeah, let's get warm.

>> WIESE: Wow.

♪ ♪ >> WIESE: Okay!

>> Whoo!

>> WIESE: All right.

♪ ♪ >> Whoo!

>> WIESE: Wow!

>> Yeah, it's great.

>> WIESE: I'm feeling little needles going through my body.

>> There's nothing like it.

>> WIESE: This is pretty cool-- it literally is pretty cool.

(blubbering) Okay, I think I am out.

>> You lasted longer than I did.

(exclaims) >> WIESE: Whoo, thank you.

>> Thank you, thanks for coming.

>> NARRATOR: For exclusive videos, recipes, travel ideas, tips from the editors, and access to the Weekends With Yankee digital magazine, go to weekendswithyankee.com and follow us on social media, @yankeemagazine.

Yankee magazine, the inspiration for the television series, provides recipes, feature articles, and the best of New England from the people who know it best.

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Call 1-800-221-8154. Credit cards accepted.

Major funding provided by... ♪ ♪ >> Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts-- the first public park in America; the first fried clams; the first university in America; the first basketball game.

What's first for you?

♪ ♪ >> Grady-White, crafting offshore sportfishing boats for over 60 years.

>> The Barn Yard, builders of timber-frame barns and garages.

And by American Cruise Lines, exploring the historic shores of New England.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪