Your "budget" of $1,000 is too light for a decent SLR with an all purpose zoom lens. Plus your desire for packablity and compactness make a point-and-shoot with a good zoom lens the likely candidate.

The new vibration reduction zoom lenses will take shots from wide angle to pretty good telephoto lengths -- all in one lens without a lot of compromises in the zone you'll likely be shooting. But they're more expensive and are clearly not something that you stick in your pocket on a climb or while skiing.

My grip with those is the maddening delay between hitting the button (formerly 'shutter release') and the image being shot. A decent SLR (Nikon or Canon) makes that a very short period. But alas, unless you're willing to carry a SLR, you're left with a good point-and-shoot.