Ever since this story broke Friday, January 26, skiers across the country have had the same reaction: “How did this possibly happen?” How did a first-time Heavenly, Calif., visitor allegedly directed to download on the gondola by a resort employee get stranded overnight when gondola service stopped shortly after she boarded for the ride down to the Stagecoach base?

Monica Laso was on a snowboarding trip to Heavenly with friends when she decided she was too tired to ride down to the base just before 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25. She allegedly approached a resort employee who directed her onto the Heavenly gondola to download to the base. It was 4:58 p.m. According to the Heavenly website, the gondola closes at 4 p.m.

In an interview with , Laso shared that the gondola stopped about two minutes into the ride. She didn’t have her phone with her, but shouted through the small cabin window when she saw resort workers closing down the mountain below. “I screamed desperately until I lost my voice,” she said during an interview translated from her native Spanish. She rubbed her hands and feet together to stay warm as the temperature dropped to 23 degrees overnight.

Down as the base, her friends were frantically trying to find her. They filed a missing persons report with the El Dorado County Sheriff’s office and posted to Facebook sites, sharing that she was last seen going down with a ski patroller, and that the ski area was “doing nothing” to find her.

Vail Resorts owns Heavenly and hasn’t said much outside the “we’re investigating” messaging. Resort Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Fortune released a statement Friday night. Still, he didn’t share any details relating to this incident, specifically, any procedural breakdown or miscommunication that could have caused the gondola cabins to go unchecked.

“The safety and wellbeing of our guests is our top priority at Heavenly Mountain Resort,” Fortune said. “We are investigating this situation with the utmost seriousness.”

Although a spokesperson for South Tahoe Fire and Rescue, which reported to the scene, told KCRA that she hadn’t seen anything like this happen in 20 years, a similar event when a Vermont woman boarded the gondola at 3:15 p.m. The resort closed the gondola early that day due to weather, with the woman still on board. She spent five hours stranded before they found her in a gondola near the summit. She sued in civil court for $500K. The jury awarded her $720K.

We’re happy to report that Laso was found in good condition on Friday morning once the gondola started up again and refused transport to the hospital. It remains to be seen how Heavenly and Vail Resorts will account for this mishap, but this will represent a new fear unlocked for many skiers. We’re eager to hear more from Heavenly about the breakdown that led to this very preventable incident.

On social media, , which is understandable. Said one pass holder: “Well, guess our Epic passes will cost more next year to cover this blunder they will need to pay out.”

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A Tahoe bear dubbed who was linked with 21 burglaries is headed to a wildlife refuge after wildlife officials captured her on August 4. 

The search for Hank the Tank—officially designated 64F—began early last year after the food-habituated animal began using brute force to invade residences around the area, prying open dumpsters and emptying local refrigerators. While the rotund bear—an estimated 500 pounds—gained a bit of a local following, officials became concerned that her behavior was crossing the line from curious to dangerous after she broke into a fully secured home through a window using her 500-pound body to damage the window.

In February 2022, South Lake Tahoe Police Department police officials : “Hank the Tank, our big bear friend who has adopted the Tahoe Keys neighborhood as his residential area, is trying harder and harder to prove to the Keys HOA that they need to allow bear boxes.“ Hank became so successful at raiding human food sources that she didn’t need to hibernate over the winter of 2021-2022.

Original estimates suggested that the bear could also be responsible for as many as 150 incidents of aggressive behavior, spurring state and local officials to discuss euthanizing her (and pro-bear advocacy organization the BEAR League to mount a furious defense.) However, officials commuted Hank’s death sentence after showed that there were actually that exhibited similar behavioral patterns in the Tahoe area, and that Hank the Tank was not solely responsible for the incidents. 

Removing Hank from the area proved to be more difficult than expected. Traps placed by state wildlife officers failed to catch her. It wasn’t until March of 2023 that wildlife biologists discovered Hank the Tank and her three cubs living under a residential porch. They were able to immobilize and tag all three of the bears; however, Hank shed her collar in May. Evidence suggested that she continued her burglary spree, with officials using DNA to link her to 21 break-ins between February of 2022 and May of 2023.

Hank’s cubs will likely go to the Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue in California. Animal rehabilitation experts there will attempt to de-habituate in hopes of reintroducing them into the wild. Meanwhile, Hank the Tank will enjoy retirement in the plains of eastern Colorado. State officials approved her relocation to the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Springfield, where she’ll live out her days being fed by humans, now on purpose. 

In a tweet, Colorado Governor Jared Polis celebrated his state’s newest celebrity resident. 

“We welcome “Hank the Tank” (turned out to be Henrietta the Tank) to Colorado!” he wrote.

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For a decade now, the man trying to figure out how his South Lake Tahoe hotel lost power this morning has been telling anyone who might listen he’s not a billionaire.

The rumors began even before 2013, when Belkin—the company Chet Pipkin launched on his parents’ dining room table in 1981, by handmaking cables to connect printers to newfangled personal computers—bought Linksys, the brand behind the ubiquitous WiFi routers. “Pipkin is now officially a billionaire,” one soon reported, a declamation subsequently co-signed.

Just four years later, the more than doubled that net-worth estimate, naming Pipkin the city’s 29th wealthiest person, lording over $2.5 billion. “People prefer to report it that way, no matter what I say,” he told me, laughing. “But I’ve always stayed south of that.”

Just after dawn on a cold Monday morning in late November, Pipkin certainly did not comport with our popular conceptions of billionaires—powerful, aloof, maybe erratic, at least vaguely authoritarian. (While we’re here, no, Pipkin’s never met Elon Musk, who has now stood him up three times.) Instead, less than 30 minutes after the power disappeared at the , the humbly luxurious place Pipkin opened in August 2022 a few hundred yards from Lake Tahoe’s southern shore, he wheeled into the parking lot, having rushed from his nearby Nevada home the moment he heard the news.

Huddling with a manager and the maintenance crew, he flitted from one corner of the property to another, staring up at power lines and peering down at electrical boxes, trying to diagnose the problem. His white lab, Harriet, followed. When word came hours later that the problem was at a nearby power station and 23,000 people were without electricity, he stuck around, anyway, standing with his team on the sidewalk, hands stuffed deeply into a pocked old puffy. They brainstormed ideas, like where they might stow a backup generator in the weeks to come. Pipkin nodded along; winter, after all, was coming to Tahoe.

“I wanted the staff to feel empowered. I like to let people do things themselves, to figure it out,” he said later, summarizing the management style that turned him into a self-made near-billionaire with the offhandness of someone ordering a deli sandwich. “But if they want my help, I want to be around.”

The Desolation Hotel is the synthesis of Pipkin’s 40 years of experience at Belkin and the fortune it generated. A sleek assemblage of tall black buildings with blonde wood accents, all flanked by lodgepole pines, it is a northern Sierra jewel. Three-story townhomes boast two soaking tubs, two fireplaces, heated bathroom floors, and a small kitchen appointed for a demanding home chef. Each unit includes a fleet of Belkin chargers and gadgets, a high-end hair dryer, and a set of automated skylight shades. The place appears exported from a digest of Scandinavian architecture; rooms start at $300 a night, and recent guests include a Kardashian compatriot, tech heavyweights, and television stars.

But for decades, Pipkin has also been an ardent nonprofit advocate, active on so many boards of directors he struggles to recount them all. And for years, he has been a volunteer with the U.S. Forest Service, directing visitors through the sprawling national forest he lovingly refers to as the hotel’s “backyard.”

So, through Desolation’s less sexy elements, he hopes it can become an exemplar of what ostentatious hotels that abut the wilderness might become. The porous pavement helps keep Lake Tahoe famously blue by preventing runoff. In spite of the morning’s panic, hidden solar panels power much of the place, and the hotel represents the region’s largest concentration of electric vehicle chargers. Those skylights are made to save electricity, as are power switches that only work when a room key is inserted into the wall. plants a tree for every night someone stays at Desolation, a ratio Pipkin wants to up.

This, Pipkin believes, is a locus for moneyed tourists who can witness the region’s splendor and spend in a way that benefits it. After stepping down as Belkin’s CEO in January 2021, that’s the kind of help Pipkin, 62, wants to offer the world—starting, at least, with Lake Tahoe. “How do we do the right thing for the people who live here? How do we do the right thing for the environment? And how do we give people access to all of the gifts that are here?” he said in the hotel’s tiny restaurant, Maggie’s, with Harriet at his feet.

“I believe all three can and need to be accomplished here,” he continued. “We don’t do it because it’s easy. We do it because it’s important.”

Pipkin is the endpoint for a very specific American archetype: the kid of California immigrants whose parents came west looking for wealth and, a generation later, actually found it through him.

His father and namesake, Chester, was one of 18 children in Oklahoma, the son of a restless man, who wasn’t around much. So poor his father often stole milk to feed the family, they’d shuttle between north Texas and the southern edge of Oklahoma by horse-drawn wagon, eking out a slim existence. The family so epitomized the region’s hardscrabble ethos that Pipkin’s great-aunt, , is purported to be the inspiration for John Steinbeck’s Ma Joad. (Pipkin learned this while at Belkin, after in a National Geographic spread about the Dust Bowl.)

Things may have been harder still for his mom, Lorraine, in the North Dakota town of Williston. She was bullied for her unmarried parents; as a child, her little brother drowned while her mom worked. She refused to return to the town with Chet decades later. “There’s nothing there,” she told him, “except too many ghosts.”

The pair met in California after their first marriages failed, both divorces casualties of World War II. They were machine operators and machinists, a job his father kept, eventually working on the Saturn rockets that lifted Apollo to the moon. The third of four children, Chet was a natural hustler whose first gig was washing dishes at his Lawndale High School in exchange for lunch. He mowed lawns, made candles, started a rent-a-Santa Claus service, and tried to turn gas-station coupons into real currency, all before he graduated high school.

“Any time I was working for other people, I continually came up with what I thought would be a much better way. I would present these concepts,” Pipkin told me, grinning mischievously, a month after that power outage. It was a sunny day in a wealthy beach town near Los Angeles, and he hesitated. He finally laughed. “No one ever took on any work from me, so I said, ‘This is bullshit.’ I can do this better, so I am not going to be constrained by other people.”

The idea came during his first year at UCLA, as he was pondering what his generation’s technical revolution would be—that is, the steam engine or automobile of the late 1970s. “Right away, I thought it was personal computers,” he said. He dropped out, read magazines, and lurked at computer shops, brainstorming and discarding dozens of notions. “People were coming in for solutions, and these stores were just selling boxes of stuff that didn’t work together,” he remembered. “I knew I could figure it out.”

As Belkin began and then ballooned, Pipkin fostered a parallel life in the nonprofit world. Following that lunchroom dishwashing stint, his second paying job had been as a day-camp counselor for the YMCA, an organization that had already changed his life. As a kid, that’s where he learned to swim, camp, and, through a program that mirrored the popular Model UN, lead. He took kids from backgrounds not altogether dissimilar from his on mountainside camping trips, work that often put him in the company of educators he found inspiring. He listened to their ideas.

“The environment is first, because otherwise we aren’t going to be around,” he said, outlining the priorities he had for his nascent profits. “But then we have to close the opportunity gap, so that those of us with less are closer to those of us with more. The single best tool—and there is no close second—is education. That became crystal-clear.”

For years, he tried the relatively easy philanthropy route: funneling money to schools in hopes it would fix every problem. Such donations failed. About 15 years ago, new research convinced Pipkin and a group of partners that they actually needed to start schools that enhanced student-teacher relationships by increasing resources, decreasing class size, and focusing on the kids’ skills. There are now five such he co-founded, with nearly 3,000 alumni. “We just implemented what the data said,” he told me, eyes glowing, “and magic started happening.”

When Pipkin stepped away from his CEO role at Belkin in January 2021, he helped the company launch its own five-year school on its campus outside of Los Angeles, an initiative long in the works. Again with small classes and intimate relationships, these connect high-school students with real-world opportunities at nearby companies—the kind of experience Pipkin longed for as a teenager, dreaming of his own inventions. Subsidized by the company itself, , but the program is designed in part as a pipeline for California tech jobs, including, of course, those at Belkin.

“Chet had one very simple insight early on—to not count his chips at the table and focus on being the good person his family raised him to be,” Mikel Jollett, the singer and , told me. When they met in the nineties, the teenaged Jollett faced extreme hardship with his own family. Pipkin has been his mentor for almost 30 years.

“We think cartoonish success should turn you into something,” he said, “and Chet decided it wasn’t going to. That’s very rare, and it’s very real.”

Pipkin frequently invokes a parable called “,” first published when he was a child. In the – tale, someone who’s not yet cynical plucks starfish washed onto the beach from the sand and flings them into the ocean, saving them one by one. Since there are too many to rescue, an onlooker wonders, why bother? Pipkin insisted his work is not only about the life he’s changing but also about the example he might set by doing it at all.

“It’s very important for me to live that change from the ground up, to understand and appreciate it,” he said. “And then use an open-source model. Whatever good we happen to be doing by luck or accident, we want it to be transferred to the rest of the world.”

The morning after Pipkin celebrated his 62nd birthday with his family and the Desolation staff at Maggie’s, their pack of polite dogs underfoot at the crowded table, he returned to the hotel at 8 A.M. sharp. We had plans to climb a mountain.

Pipkin met his wife, Jan, when they were still teenagers, doing volunteer work. When they were 19, they got a cheap room at the Mark Twain Lodge, a two-story spot that still stands blocks from the lake. Pipkin was blown away by what he called “one of the finest bodies of water in the world, a fragile gem.”

As the young couple had kids, family escapes to Tahoe increased. At least some of the kids would disappear into the woods with their dad, finding novel ways up the northern Sierra slopes. One of their seven children, Spencer, has become a rather serious climber, just a few weather windows shy of the Seven Summits. He fell for mountaineering on summertime hikes of , one of the highest peaks around Tahoe, with his father. When they proposed a winter ascent, Chet’s first, I quickly agreed.

The mission was a tryout of sorts for Spencer, too, and Desolation at large. In seasons to come, the hotel hopes to offer comprehensive guide services to guests, whether that means slowly canoeing the lake or hiking the Desolation Wilderness or pushing up Tallac in deep powder. With its wood-lined private sauna, ever-steaming hot tub, and heated saltwater pool, Desolation is intended as a launching point for such excursions and a living recovery room for mountain workouts. Spencer, who now manages the hotel’s social media accounts, is the well-ventured shoo-in for the position. “Great guiding, Spencer, great route,” Chet shouted so much from the rear of our party of four that, by day’s end, it seemed the son needed a new business card.

As we perched on boulders at the summit, sharing coffee and petting Harriet, Chet was exhausted but verklempt, proud that this piece of his plan also seemed possible. Desolation might be able to show people its backyard, after all.

Pipkin remains the same tinkerer who tried renting Santa Clauses as a teenager, then found his fortune making better cables for existing hardware, then opened schools to try alternative educational models—always iterating, forever searching for that better version. He is the first to admit that Desolation, despite its Instagram-flex details and celebrity guests, is not perfect.

“All this kind of work, it’s all a pilot. We know we don’t have it right,” he said, speaking of both hotel and high school at once. “We don’t think anything at Desolation is the end-all, be-all. It’s the start of a journey. It’s going to get better.”

To wit, Pipkin originally hoped the hotel would be a series of treehouses, each suspended high in the pines, leaving the ground itself bare; the dream died quickly, killed by fire codes. He subsequently hoped to cloak the entire building in solar panels, so the structure powered itself and then some; the architects squashed that one. (As if in recompense, Pipkin beamed when talking about his advisory work with Seattle’s Sustainable Living Innovations, which recently opened the world’s first “.”)

He lamented the environmental footprint of luxury touches, like the stylish propane flames around the pools or lavish robes that need to be laundered often. And he grimaced as he admitted the starting wage is $18 per hour, $2.50 higher than the new California floor. “It’s not livable enough,” he said, frowning. “I’m curious to see what the business model can look like with $21.”

Still, what they have accomplished is remarkable. When Pipkin and his younger brother, Eric, bought , the spread of ramshackle apartments where the Desolation sits now, they gave each resident at least six months of notice before demolition began and a large moving stipend. They even housed several tenants themselves. Just before snowfall arrived in 2021, his team paused construction for an entire week for a Halloween fundraiser that generated more than $100,000 for area firefighters.

What’s more, the new business and the fees it pays represent a boon to efforts to protect the Tahoe watershed and its sightlines, according to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), the multi-state organization tasked with regulating local development. The area’s increased regulations have prevented most big-money developers from upfitting the area’s squat, homely old hotels, explained the TRPA’s information officer Jeff Cowen. Projects like the Desolation, powered by Pipkin’s near-billion, represent a new frontier of business that’s beneficial to the place itself.

“The fees they pay,” Cowen told me, “are distributed to local governments to buy private land in a sensitive area, some place that needs to conserved. They can turn it back into an open space, in perpetuity.”

Pipkin knows, of course, that the Desolation Hotel and rooms that can run to nearly a grand cannot be for everyone. The aim, though, is to wield a space and experience that a few can afford as a tool that does benefit everyone. He calls this compassionate capitalism, a much-debated concept during the last decade about making money and using it in a responsible way. But for Pipkin, that attitude seems less of a studied philosophy than a lifelong condition, an essential quality that almost becoming a billionaire didn’t corrode.

“We hope that this is an inspiration for others about how this can be done—not cookie-cutter development only focused on a bottom line and a capacity, but a sensitivity to the setting and the environment,” he said. “We’re not afraid of being copied. We would love to be copied.”

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The climatic whiplash feels unbearable this week.

As we approach Labor Day weekend, the traditional end of summer, it seems like every corner of the country is in crisis mode, from flames in the Midwest and West to flooding in the South. If you’re not directly experiencing it, I’m sure you know someone who is. I am frantically scrolling through the news and social media updates: one second I’m watching my brother’s best friend , his car filled with other people’s pets; the next I’m hearing about a former coworker shepherding her parents out of they’ve lived in her whole life, rushing them away from the path of the fire.

So many of the disasters—and it’s hard to call them “natural disasters” anymore—are record-breaking and defying historic norms in ghoulish ways. In California, 6,913 fires have already burned 1.76 million acres this year. The massive currently running along the south end of Lake Tahoe is only 18 percent contained, fueled by low humidity and high winds. It has burned 200,000 acres and threatened more than 34,000 homes, devastating a center of recreation and tourism at the height of its season.

Another iconic summer destination, Minnesota’s , located amid the usually lush Superior National Forest, is also shut down due to  as multiple conflagrations converge. Homes have been torched, permit holders have been turned away, and outfitters of their peak business.

In the soaked Southeast—where lives have been lost in —residents are still trying to flooding, power outages, and damage as the fallout from Hurricane Ida continues.

And California has closed  until September 17, a similar move being made across the country as the natural and human resources we’ve counted on to sustain us there—from river flows to wildland firefighters—are  spread far too thin to be safe. Meanwhile, as we reported last month, toxic algal blooms have shut down hundreds of lakes, rivers, and beaches.

This is what Labor Day weekend looks like during a climate crisis: systems maxed out, multiple catastrophes converging, and everything unfolding on top of geopolitical and public-health crises. There’s too much to concentrate on, more time spent panicking than relaxing.

I’m sure I’m not telling you anything new, but doesn’t it finally feel like the line between being aware of what climate change could look like and experiencing the disastrous impacts of our inaction has become incredibly thin in real time? We’ve known that the West’s megadrought is real, we’ve known that tropical storms intensify , and we’ve known that the ice sheets are shrinking and old growth is dying. But it’s still hard to concretely comprehend how bad the impacts are—and what the destruction will truly feel like—until it’s in your lungs, chasing you out the door, and harming the people and places you love.

This summer is a snapshot of how our future could continue if we keep burning fossil fuels and neglecting the limits of our natural resources. The climate crisis is happening now. It is hitting historically marginalized areas the hardest, but rich people in expensive lakeside mansions can’t escape it either.

We are not even close to the end of fire or hurricane season. So what do we do, those of us not evacuating from flames and floods? Call all your representatives, demand we curtail fossil-fuel use, pressure the people in power, and look around your local community for opportunities to transition to a carbon free future. Climate change is everywhere, it’s affecting everything, and it’s only going to get worse if we don’t make changes now.

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In an aggressive move to market season passes to skiers in drought-stricken California, Lake Tahoe’s Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows resort has launched a novel program that gives credits for unused days that can be put towards the following season. The , announced today, includes rollover days for silver and gold level passes purchased before May 7.

The new $789 adult Gold Tahoe Super Pass gets skiers unlimited access to Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows, plus four additional days at both Sierra-at-Tahoe and Sugar Bowl, as well as 50-percent off lift tickets at the eight resorts that are part of the , including Jackson Hole, Alta-Snowbird, and Sun Valley. But if the pass holder is unable to ski at least four days during the upcoming season for any reason (not just poor conditions), they get a $100 credit for each unused day. Meaning if they don’t ski at all, their 2016/17 pass would be discounted by $400.

The announcement comes at the tail end of a season that has seen some Sierra Nevada resorts close early due to the lack of snowpack. Around Lake Tahoe, suspended operations on March 16 and shut down for the season this past Sunday. Squaw Valley had to cancel World Cup skicross and snowboardcross events it was scheduled to host earlier in March.

The unreliable weather could easily lead skiers and riders to shy away from buying season passes for next year. “We have a remarkably loyal and resilient customer base, but even that has been tested by way of the weather over the past few years,” Squaw Valley Ski Holdings CEO Andy Wirth told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű. “We’re acknowledging the reality of what the weather is providing us in terms of variability of conditions.”

The rollover days are also another big step forward in the frenetic evolution of bundled season passes that has taken place in recent years. Vail Resorts’ , which launched in 2008 and now gets you unlimited access to 11 resorts, spurred the development of combo-pass programs at other ski areas. Today, most large resorts offer passes that give holders days of skiing at other mountains, plus perks like discounts for friends and family, food coupons, and discount rentals. Some companies owning multiple resorts are now banding together as well. Earlier this month, , , and announced that they’ve joined forces to create the . It’s the largest pass so far, encompassing 22 resorts across the U.S. and Canada.

Still, Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows’ choice to let skiers apply credits from one season to the next is unprecedented. “I don’t know that anyone has done anything like that,” says Rick Kahl, editor of Ski Area Management magazine. “I think it makes good sense for them to do it. What it does is give people a little more confidence that they’re going to get value out of their pass.”

Should the program work out well, Wirth says he can see it remaining in place even if the drought eases. He also notes that despite the dry conditions, Squaw Valley has increased season pass sales by 40 percent over the past three or four years, and the “worry-free guarantee” could only boost that.

Kahl believes that other resorts, even ones not dealing with drought, may follow Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows’ lead. “I could see something like this being adopted up and down the West Coast, given the snow conditions of the past few seasons,” Kahl says. “And if it proves very successful, resorts nationwide might adopt it. It simply makes advance pass purchases less risky, and that could encourage more skiers and riders to pull the trigger this spring, to capture the best possible pass price.”

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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO GET OUT—WAY OUT

KITZBÜHEL, AUSTRIA


Hahnenkamm


[January 18–20]


Arguably the most technical and dangerous downhill course on the FIS World Cup circuit—and the biggest bash. Austrians blow their horns, the Swiss clang their cowbells, and everybody crowds the course to taunt. Where to Be The Londoner, where tradition dictates racers tend bar for the town’s vigorous post-race party (and where “half the alcohol is in the air,” according to Daron Rahlves, 2003 champion). Expect Horse-drawn sleighs trotting past speaker stacks pumping European techno. Wild Card The crack of skis slapping the snow as racers may or may not land 100 feet of arm-flailing air from the legendary Mausefalle jump. Sightings Former Austrian champions like Franz Klammer and Hermann Maier.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL


Carnival


[February 2–5]


A feverish, four-day party that culminates on Fat Tuesday, with Rio’s local samba schools competing in parades, each trying to outdo the others with elaborate floats and extravagant destaques, the feathered, sequined, and often topless dancers. Where to Be The drummers’ niche, at the Sambodromo, locus for the main parade, where drummers from every samba school work the crowd. Expect Half-naked dancers that make us Puritans blush—then join in. Wild Card Whatever you want. We won’t tell. Sightings Politicians and celebrities mingle among 500,000 visiting foreigners.

HONG KONG, CHINA


Hong Kong Rugby Sevens Tournament


[March 28–30]


A tournament with teams of only seven players, instead of the traditional 15, which allows individuals to shine. Where to Be The Sevens Village—opposite the 40,000-seat Hong Kong Stadium—has a huge screen, a rollicking beer garden, and no entrance fee. Expect Hilarious mini-rugby, played between games, by children ages four to 11. Wild Card Take a high-speed ferry to nearby Macau to gamble in the enormous, lavish casinos of the Asian (and less cheesy) Las Vegas. Sightings Hong Kong’s favorite son, Jackie Chan, attended last year, as did former UK prime minister John Major.

Glastonbury, UK


Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts


[June 27–29]


Europe’s largest music-and-performing-arts festival, held on 900 acres in the Vale of Avalon—possible burial spot of King Arthur—near the mystical town of Glastonbury, draws more than 175,000 revelers. Where to Be The hedonistic nighttime madness of the parties at Lost Vagueness eventually lure everyone. Expect Great music on six huge stages and numerous side venues. The final lineup won’t be available until May, but Amy Winehouse, the Killers, and Björk performed last year. Wild Card Stay out all night, then hike six miles to watch the sun rise at Glastonbury Tor. Sightings Kate Moss and fellow London hipsters.

PAMPLONA, SPAIN


Fiesta de San FermĂ­n


[July 6–14]


An annual event that supposedly honors Christian martyr Saint FermĂ­n. In reality, it’s all about the crazies who run a barricaded course through the city with the six bulls to be fought that day in the ring. Where to Be Vuelta del Castillo at 11 p.m. for the nightly fireworks display. Expect Several thousand people running alongside 1,300-pound bulls. Wild Card Wear a red handkerchief for a week without being mistaken for an ascot fetishist. Sightings Local Spaniards dying (sometimes literally) to run with bulls.

Count Down

Rethink new year’s with these five unique blowouts

» When the boys wouldn’t let her play, decided to start her own game: women’s park-and-pipe skiing

» Skip the high-rise hotels for five of our favorite

» The best-decked are perfect for revelers and hecklers

» Nordic novelty is a skinny-skiing freestyle badass

» With sprawling blues, 50-degree chutes, and a lift ticket also good at Big Sky, , Montana’s newest resort, is a secret paradise

» has nothing to do with face shots and meaty hucks. Or does it?

» Meet , Canada’s next gravity-violating superstar

» Bean buzz: We suss the best ski-hill

» The new, new thing in resort terrain parks:

» Atypical , from chaplain to surgeon to brewmeister

» The world’s greatest alpine racer has an opinion on just about everything, including the best Rx for your turns

» Say it with us: “I’ve got a little place up in Aspen.” We dish the .

» Forget the tickets to Turin; the perfect place to is a rough-edged Gem State watering hole

» We hit the streets and peaks of Sun Valley, Idaho, mixing aprÚ;s and play in mountain-ready technical wear and town-tested casual threads

» The best new boards and skis, from Salomon, K2, Burton, Arbor, Ride, Atomic, and others

PLUS: Why are low-impact athletes like cyclists and swimmers ending up with bones as brittle as a 70-year-old’s? Turns out to build mass. We lay out a sound plan for strong bones. PLUS: What makes a good skier? In our newest column, we reveal what it takes to .

Nordic Revolutionary

Andrew Newell: Nordic Skier

Cross-country skiing in the U.S. suffers from the soccer syndrome—lots of people do it, but nobody watches the pros. The fact that our Olympians have earned just one medal, in 1976, hasn’t helped. Enter Andrew Newell, 21, a Turin-bound sprinter from Shaftsbury, Vermont, who’s using his skinny skis to pull off terrain-park tricks. In the past three years, Newell has produced two nordic-action flicks, and he consulted with ski manufacturer Fischer during the development of the new Jibskate, a twin-tip nordic ski engineered more for hucks than laps. Is the future of cross-country up—way up—in the air? Christopher Solomon had to ask.

OUTSIDE: You’ve called cross-country skiing “the most gnarly, badass sport there is.” Are you kidding?
Newell: Maybe that’s a little much, but it’s painful to be a world-class nordic skier. We push our bodies above and beyond what is even considered healthy. I throw up after probably half my races.

When did you start pulling tricks on skinny skis?
I was into skateboarding and surfing as a kid—I still am—and looked up to guys like Gerry Lopez, who added a new level of style and individuality to his sport. Plus I just wanted to have fun on skis. So I would go out and build jumps after practice.

Not everyone likes what you’re doing.
I’ve heard of coaches who won’t let their skiers hang posters of me because they don’t want them to go out and hurt their backs. And some traditionalists don’t like things in our movies—scenes of us shooting guns and drinking beer and having a good time. But we’re Vermont rednecks at heart. You can’t make everyone happy, you know?

Your movies are odd.
We’re trying to attract more kids to the sport and bring American cross-country skiing up to a world-class level. We need to show them that we’re not just these endurance “nordic dorks” who sit around worrying about their heart rates.

But aren’t backflips a distraction for a sprinter?
Tricks helped me get to where I am now with my balance. Cross-country skiing is all about balance.

Anything special up your sleeve for the Olympics?
No—I need to focus on racing. But on European courses there are a lot of little bumps, so sometimes I will throw a 360 during warm-ups. I can’t help giving something to the crowd.

Newest Rush

Aspen Highlands’ Newest Rush

As if the 1,500 feet of up to 45-degree treeless chutes and pine glades in Aspen’s Highland Bowl (hike-to terrain only) weren’t enough to max out your lung capacity and singe your quads, this winter you’ll have 1,000 more feet of expert-only vertical. In seven minutes, the new Deep Temerity triple chair rockets you 1,700 feet to the top of Loge Peak, where 180 new acres of steep snow alleys, wide aspen groves, and pine forests await your turns. The lift also eliminates the ten-minute Grand Traverse cat track out from the base of Highland Bowl, so you can exploit every penny’s worth of that precious $78 lift ticket. 800-525-6200,

Pipe Queen

Kristi Leskinen: Freestyle Skier

Kristi Leskinen

Kristi Leskinen

When top U.S. freestyle skier Kristi Leskinen drops into the Aspen superpipe this January at ESPN’s Winter X Games, expect the following: an audacious rodeo 720 (two backward, off-axis flips) and an ear-to-ear grin (even if she biffs).

Well, maybe that’s pushing it. But these days Leskinen, 24, has a hard time losing her smile. After four years of hounding X Games organizers, the Uniontown, Pennsylvania, native has gotten what she wants: a chance to compete. A gifted athlete with a penchant for alternative sports (at 18, she placed fourth at the amateur world wakeboarding championships), Leskinen was stuck on the X Games sidelines while freestyle remained men-only. Her trick for amping up the buzz for high-flying females? Taking off her skis—and some clothes, too.

In 2001, a year after she scored her first role in the ski flick The Game, Leskinen posed for a sexy Nordica pinup. The exposure had a surprisingly powerful side effect. “She showed that there actually were girls in this sport,” says Denise Jaworsky, 22, a top-ten finisher at the U.S. Open. “It inspired others like me to join in.”

Leskinen then began relentlessly pestering event managers for inclusion; finally, in 2005, the X Games hosted its first women’s freestyle contest. (Leskinen took third.) But her success hasn’t kept her from appearing in more fleshy photo shoots, including a lingerie spread in FHM in February. “If it can attract more interest in the sport, that’s never a bad thing,” she says. “If it draws more women, that’s a great thing.”

Still, Leskinen is hardly considering a career makeover. “I’m not a model,” she insists. “I’m a skier.”

Rising Star

Dana Flahr: Freeskier

Dana Flahr

Name: Dana Flahr Home: Whistler, British Columbia Gig: Freeskier Height: 5’10” Weight: 160 Age: 23

Flahr is the new stud in Teton Gravity Research’s talent pen. In January 2005, the film company invited him down to HQ in Teton Village, Wyoming, for an informal tryout. Flahr didn’t disappoint: He capped off a bold line down a rocky backcountry face by launching a misty 720 (two front, off-axis flips) off a 50-foot cliff. “We’d never seen anything like it,” says TGR producer Josh Nielsen.

Seen Next: Hogging the spotlight in TGR’s The Tangerine Dream as the film completes a 150-city tour across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan through December. (For a preview go to .)

Out of the Igloo: Reared on the inland slopes of rural Kamloops, B.C., Flahr made a beeline for Whistler after graduating from high school in 1999, but he eschewed the town’s legendary international party scene—his early-bird room-service job had him in bed by 10 p.m.—in favor of powder-day dawn patrols and extra hours in the terrain park. That discipline paid off: In 2003, he was crowned North America’s overall freeskiing champion.

Fashion Flahr-Up: Last January, Flahr and his buddy Ryan Oakden, 26, the 2001 world freeskiing champ, crashed a Jackson Hole terrain-park event by running the course dressed head to toe in denim, with smoke bombs taped to their boots.

Deep Impact: In 2003, Flahr launched off a 40-foot cliff at Whistler and landed in the fresh snow like a human bunker buster, burying himself in his own crater. “I was held under for five minutes with just a small air pocket,” he says. His friends dug him out shaken but unharmed.

Second Opinion: “A lot of up-and-comers only know how to hit jumps and do tricks,” says Oakden. “And a lot of big-mountain guys can ski well but don’t have any style. Dana can do it all.”

Freshest Mortgages

New Ski Condos

Want to vacation like a billionaire? Welcome to the world of fractional ownership, where scores of property-owning options at the nation’s top resorts are on the table for literally a fraction of the cost—just take one multi-million-dollar luxury home and divide the deed with a dozen other folks. For at least four weeks a year the pad is yours, along with all the priority trimmings a Fortune 500 income can buy.

Front Four at Stowe Mountain Lodge Stowe, Vermont
The 2,000-to-3,500-square-foot Front Four condos, slated for a June 2007 premiere, have plush accoutrements like granite countertops and flat-screen TVs—plus free access to the resort’s day spa. From $289,000 for 1/8 share; 877-977-7823,

Storied Places Mammoth Mammoth Mountain, California
Snag one of these 2,800-square-foot, ski-in, ski-out townhouses, to be completed by 2007, and you’ll have 33 reasons for taking on that second mortgage—one for each foot of snow. $500,000 for 1/7 share; 888-955-7155,

The Ritz-Carlton Club, Bachelor Gulch Beaver Creek, Colorado
Ownership in one of 54 condos—up to 2,500 square feet worth—in Beaver Creek’s Bachelor Gulch gets you door-to-chair access to lifts, plus a valet who warms your boots and schleps your skis to the slopes. $200,000–$530,000 for 1/12 share; 866-485-2400,

The Residences at the Chateaux Deer Valley, Utah
You’ll have views of 10,000-foot Jupiter Peak, sandstone fireplaces, and a private deck in a 2,200-to-3,000-square-foot space. What else is there? E-mail a grocery list to the office and they’ll stock the cupboards before you arrive. $306,500–$475,000 for 1/6 share; 866-658-8555,

At Nature’s Door Whistler, British Columbia
Can you really put a price on a hot-tub view of the 2010 Winter Games downhill events? These 22 wood-and-slate, 2,300-to-2,700-square-foot abodes come with media rooms and wood-burning fireplaces. Plus, at Christmas, you’ll get preferential seating at restaurants like the Bearfoot Bistro. $208,000–$275,000 for 1/10 share; 866-877-4545,

Best Lay

Historic Lodges

These days, a luxury arms race rages among high-end resorts. (Slumber under our duvets of goose down hand-plucked by virginal Swiss maidens! Marinate in our pomegranate facials!) But these elegant lodges have something money can’t buy: a place in skiing history.

Sun Valley Lodge Sun Valley, Idaho
Built in 1936, Sun Valley Lodge was the first destination ski resort in America. But don’t get the impression this is just a place to dress up in ski woolens, smoke Lucky Strikes, and have a sepia-tone weekend. The lodge’s 148 rooms were remodeled last season. Rent room 206 and tip a tumbler to Hemingway—that’s where Papa finished For Whom the Bell Tolls. Midwinter doubles from $189; 800-786-8259,

Sonnenalp Resort Vail, Colorado
Fourth-generation Bavarian hotelier Johannes Faessler has achieved gemĂŒtlichkeit-in-the-Rockies at the Sonnenalp, his 88-suite, alpen-swank resort. Watch for 40 more rooms to come this December. Midwinter doubles from $675; 866-284-4411,

Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley, Utah
Its Norwegian-inspired architecture makes this the handsomest of ski-country digs, but it’s the service that keeps fans returning. At the end of the day, thoughtful valets unbuckle your boots, toss them onto a warmer, stash your skis, and hand you a cup of cocoa. Midwinter doubles from $700; 800-453-1302,

Mount Washington Hotel Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
This 200-room 1902 Spanish Renaissance structure was rescued from demolition in the eighties. Good thing. It’s at the foot of the Presidential Range, with 60 miles of groomed nordic skiing out back and Bretton Woods just across the street. Midwinter doubles from $280; 800-314-1752,

Post Hotel Lake Louise, Alberta
How many hotels can boast a 29,000-bottle wine cellar, with some bottles dating to 1942, the year the lodge opened? The 97-room Post is also a five-minute shuttle ride from Lake Louise’s 4,200 skiable acres. Midwinter doubles from US$215; 800-661-1586,

Sexiest Sponsorship

Carrie Jo Chernoff: Sexiest Sponsorship

“I myself am not a porn star,” says Carrie Jo Chernoff, 31, a top-ranked big-mountain specialist on the world freeskiing tour. It’s an assumption the Crested Butte, Colorado–based skier has had to frequently quash since she signed a sponsorship deal with XXX cable channel the Erotic Network (TEN). A year ago, Chernoff was working as a personal trainer and massage therapist for Michael Weiner, the CEO of TEN’s parent company, the $46-million-a-year, Boulder-based New Frontier Media. Perhaps owing to some confusion over the definition of “ski porn”—a term applied to thrill-a-minute ski flicks—Weiner thought Chernoff would make a good addition to TEN’s talent pool. She may never bare all, but Chernoff’s helmet and skis bear the distinctive TEN logo. Like most top skiers, Chernoff has her pick of gear, plus a comfy travel budget. But it’s doubtful that anyone else can match the TEN-supplied cheering section of bleach-blond, fur-collared boosters. No, boys, that’s not just 700-fill down in their parkas.

Sweetest Steeps

Moonlight Basin, MT: The Sweetest Steeps

At first glance, Moonlight Basin, Montana, wears a sleepy smile with its skein of lazy, near-empty blue runs, but beware: That soporific grin hides fangs. Just look up—way up—to the Headwaters, a snarl of a headwall that’s striped with a dozen lift-served chutes that can tip 50 degrees or more in spots. Whether you’re a snow bunny or a sick bird, though, Moonlight offers the best of both worlds. When the lifts close, head to the lodge, a grand timber-and-stone palace anchored by a central fireplace so lofty that stuffed mountain goats pose on its rocky chimney. And there’s more: Moonlight and neighbor Big Sky Resort have stopped their Cold War–like bickering and wisely joined forces. Buy the Lone Peak ticket this winter and ski a linked, Euro-style spraddle of 5,300 acres. Ah, the fruits of dĂ©tente. Moonlight (full-day adult), $40; Lone Peak (full-day adult), $78; 877-822-0430,

Slick!

Score a perfect ride—floating in powder, grabbing big air, blitzing the entire hill—with the best new skis and snowboards

The Confidence Builder
Fischer AMC 76
Length tested: 182 // Sidecut: 120-76-106 (tip-waist-tail)
Wood-core skis are justly celebrated for their lively feel, but Fischer’s new AMC proves that a weight-shaving wood-and-carbon-fiber core blend can run with (and past) the best of them. Credit the ski’s patented Railflex2 integrated binding system, which settles the boot into the ski’s chassis and allows an even and consistent flex throughout. On multiple laps at Colorado’s Aspen Highlands, my AMC 76 bit into firm groomers like a pit bull, but the adequate waist width helped it ride comfortably through variable crud once I got off the manicured trails. The most versatile ski of the bunch. $1,050, bindings included;

The Masterpiece
Zai Siegiu
Length tested: 170 // Sidecut: 118-76-103
Part art project, part trophy ski, Zai planks are handcrafted in Switzerland. Yeah, they’re showy, but they’re also top-flight performers. They shined brightest on hard snow at slightly slower speeds, thanks to easy turn initiation and strong edge hold. An ash-and-titanal topsheet damped vibration nicely on high-speed blues, and the shorter length helped them jitterbug nimbly through thigh-blasting bump runs. They’re not wide enough to excel on powder days, but you can’t have it all, even for the price of a Zermatt vacation. $3,500, bindings, poles, and ski bag included;

The Punk Rider
Atomic Sweet Daddy
Length tested: 181 // Sidecut: 119-80-105
It’s a shame that all absent-father problems aren’t so easily fixed. Filling a significant gap in Atomic’s lineup, the Sweet Daddy stands out with slim dimensions, a lightweight foam core, and a slightly shallower sidecut than that found on its brethren, the Big Daddy and the Sugar Daddy. This ski was happiest carving sweeping, powdery turns, but it also rips just fine on firm steeps. Atomic’s Beta Cap design minimizes ski twist when on edge, providing superior grip. The reasonable price and understated graphics belie this ski’s power and control. $749 (skis only);

The Mixed Master
Völkl Unlimited AC4
Length tested: 184 // Sidecut: 125-82-110
Völkl has come a long way from its racers-only pedigree. And the Unlimited best represents the brand’s growing commitment to high-performance, all-mountain planks. Benefiting from Völkl’s new double-grip design—a raised profile on both sides of the ski to better transfer energy to the edges—and a lively popple-wood core, this ski instantly elevates any skier’s ability. In Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s Phoenix Bowl, which offers some of the most intense lift-accessed runs in the West, the Unlimited ran fast and sure over a variety of terrain, arcing across sun-baked bumps, through crusty glades, and into tracked-up powder without missing a beat. $1,065, bindings included;

The Phat Cat
K2 Apache Outlaw
Length tested: 181 // Sidecut: 124-88-111
If you have a search-and-destroy attitude about powder stashes, the Outlaw is all the ski you need. It reigns supreme in knee-deep, whether you’re in bounds or outside the ropes. The wide platform skittered a little on hard snow but made up for it in the soft stuff, where it powered through variably deep, jerky, and at times perfect powder with gunslinging authority. A weight-saving alloy layer and touch of flex make the big boards surprisingly responsive in the bumps, while they still cut long, gracious GS turns on lower-mountain runouts. $875 (skis only);

The Soul Slider
Salomon Teneighty Gun
Length tested: 185 // Sidecut: 122-90-115
The foam-core Teneighty Gun, with its surf-inspired name, is a slightly stiffer version of the Pocket Rocket, Salomon’s pioneering twin-tip powder plank. At Crested Butte, these all-mountain skis were perfect for the north face’s chutes, bumps, and trees. They also provided a blissfully chatter-free joyride on a high-speed, mile-long cruiser. These skis are too wide for a full day carving hardpack, but if you seek out the softer parts of the hill, the Guns will have you chasing an endless winter. $795 (skis only);

Slick!

The Latest Snowboards

Ice Queen
Lib-Tech Dark Series
Length tested: 161
The radically designed Dark Series Magnetraction comes with a secret weapon that can turn East Coast ice into West Coast corduroy. Lib-Tech took a page from hockey skates, which employ subtle contact points along the blade to enhance bite, and created a revolutionary sidecut by applying similar points along the board’s edges. The effect is obvious: The board grabbed instantly when I leaned into a turn. But while it excels on ice and handles groomed terrain just fine, beware of crud and bumps: Those points can catch on stuff that you’d ordinarily blast through. $599;

All-Mountain Master
Ride Timeless
Length tested: 161
If you like to board the entire mountain, grab this reinvented classic. It delivers great versatility, courtesy of a few smart updates. A layer cake of precisely sculpted fiberglass-covered wood distributes your weight along the board’s entire edge for superior control, a damper in the nose smooths out the ride, and multiple radius angles along the sidecut allow you to flow easily into and out of tight and fast turns. From swooping into the halfpipe to nailing quick cuts in a forested glade, there’s nothing the Timeless can’t do. $500;

The Fresh Hero
Arbor Abacus
Length tested: 163
The Abacus is built for powder. Its key ingredient? Bounce. For such a wide and long board, the koa-topped deck flexes like a trampoline. Combine that with a rearward stance and a massive shovel-head at the tip and the board tracks superbly through a foot of fresh. Since the nose won’t dive, I was able to charge into anything—trees, moguls, kickers—with confidence. When everything’s tracked out, though, the Abacus loses its magic. Instead of cutting through crud, it rides up and over it, making for one helluva bumpy trip. $499;

Cruise Liner
K2 Zeppelin
Length tested: 161
You wouldn’t know it from snowboard ads, but there are plenty of happy riders who like nothing better than fast and wide groomers. If that’s you, your board has arrived. This year’s Zeppelin, an updated version of a K2 stalwart, uses damping pads under each foot to suck up vibration and give you a flat, smooth, and speedy ride. The price of such stability? It takes work to snap the Zep from side to side in an aspen glade or narrow gully. $480;

Sky Surfer
Burton Vapor
Length tested: 160
Boarding’s fat and happy grandfather is suddenly obsessed with dropping weight. Exhibit A: the new Vapor. At five pounds ten ounces, it’s the lightest board Burton’s ever rolled out, thanks to aluminum-and-carbon-fiber construction and a set of dialed-down binding hardware. The binding options favor a wider stance, which suits the Vapor’s forte: aerials. Instead of becoming dead weight when you launch off a catwalk or kicker, this pipe rider feels like an extension of your feet—360 spins and big-air rail grabs will suddenly seem temptingly possible. $900;

Little Big Board
Salomon L.O.F.T.
Length tested: 160
Salomon also wanted a trim-down, so it sent its popular ERA model to fat camp over the summer. It came back with a new name, L.O.F.T. (Light– weight Optimum Feel Technology) and a Kevlar-reinforced core wrapped in ultralight aspen. A raised center beam helps the board handle aggressive, high-speed descents like a much longer and fatter deck, while its moderate hips make tight turns a snap. On powder days it struggles to stay afloat, but overall this board is a beginner’s dream: stable, responsive, and forgiving of shaky form. $700;

Snow Jobs

The Best Ski-Town Gigs

gabe schroder

ALL PLAY: Gabe Schroder commutes to work in Ketchum.

Pining for turns but not willing to ditch your career? Don’t worry—you don’t have to be a liftie to ski like one. Here are four winners who balance work and play.

Gabe Schroder, 31, Ketchum, Idaho
Gig: Ski and outdoor promotions manager at Smith Optics. On the Clock: Manages Smith-sponsored athletes and throws parties to hype the brand. On the Slopes: At nearby Sun Valley five days a week, plus a trip this spring into Alaska’s Chugach Mountains to check in on Smith’s heli-skiing operation.

Tom Hackett, 38, Vail, Colorado
Gig: Orthopedic surgeon at the renowned Steadman-Hawkins Clinic. On the Clock: Performs up to five shoulder surgeries a day, including many on NFL, NBA, and MLB stars. On the Slopes: Three times a week—unless he’s ice-climbing the East Vail chutes.

Tom Perry, 51, Angel Fire, New Mexico
Gig: Chaplain at Taos Ski Valley. On the Clock: Gives two 15-minute mountaintop sermons on Sundays. On the Slopes: Whenever he wants—Taos grants him a season pass for his services.

Jason Senior, 30, Mammoth, California
Gig: Brewer at Mammoth Brewing Company. On the Clock: Manages all facets of brewing, from boiling and milling grain to taste-testing his concoctions; works nine to five, twelve to eight, or two to ten, depending on snow quality. On the Slopes: Three days a week, plus powder days and “runs” to check in on the resort pubs that serve his beer.

Supercharged Recharge

Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa

After a few days of banging down icy East Coast bumps, the beer-and-Advil combo stops working. You need professional healing. The new daylong Skier Recovery Package at Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa, in Stowe, Vermont, includes a 50-minute deep-pressure rubdown with pain-relieving arnica-infused oil (oooh), a bio-maple facial to halt the Redfording of your mug (ahhhh), and access to two heated waterfalls and a Hungarian mineral pool (yes! yes!). The next day? It’s back to brews and ibuprofen. $210; 800-253-2232,

Newest Trickster Terrain

Echo Mountain, CO: The Newest Trickster Terrain

A 15-year-old launching 50 feet over a monster gap may be sheer lunacy to some old-schoolers, but that kid represents a new generation of resortgoers. Slopes across the map have amped up their tricky topography, but Echo Mountain, 35 miles west of Denver, will become the first hill in the country to be custom-built from the ground up as a terrain park. Music from the likes of Ludacris will thump across 30 acres of jumps and pipes built by Planet Snow Design (the same crew that designed the superpipe at the 2002 Winter Games), and the 8,000-square-foot base lodge, with its austere industrial styling, will resemble a SoHo loft. Whether or not Echo opens before Christmas is TBD, but one thing’s for sure: It will break the mold. “We’re not going to have million-dollar homes and straight blue groomers,” says General Manager Doug Donovan. “Your mom won’t like this.” Full-day adult lift ticket, $30; 720-226-0636,

Supreme Caffeine

The Best Slopeside Coffee

coffee

MO' 'SPRO, BRO? Java on 4th owner Todd Rippo works the deck.

Rousing yourself at the rooster’s cry for fresh tracks is no easy feat. But more cafĂ©s than ever are roasting their own beans and treating the resulting brew like fine wine, leaving myriad options for eye-popping ski-town java.

Java on 4th Ketchum, Idaho
The ’62 Continental is a gentle hit on the espresso Richter scale: mild and dark. You don’t have to be a connoisseur to appreciate it. 208-726-2882

Camp 4 Coffee Crested Butte, Colorado
For a swift kick in the ski pants, sip the Sledgehammer espresso blend. Delicious, dark, and complex, it’s like drinking a 30-year-old Bordeaux—without staining your teeth red. 970-349-5148

Java Junction South Lake Tahoe, California
Take a seat round the deck’s fire pit and swig local roaster Alpen Sierra’s traditional Italian blend for a dark, intensely drinkable espresso with an oaky finish. 530-659-7453

Oso Negro Nelson, British Columbia
Grab a shot of whatever’s in the “hopper” for a multifaceted espresso experience. Or toss back the Princess of Darkness blend. 877-232-6489

Coolest Numbers

Cool Statistics

Oldest Destination Ski Resort in the U.S.: Sun Valley, Idaho (opened in 1936).

First Indoor-Skiing Snow Dome in the U.S.: Meadowlands Xanadu, in East Rutherford, New Jersey (opening in 2007).

Highest Chairlift in North America: Breckenridge, Colorado’s new Imperial Express Superchair (top: 12,840 feet).

Lowest Major Ski Resort in North America: Alyeska Resort, in Girdwood, Alaska (base: 250 feet).

Most Innovative Lift in North America: A 575-foot tunnel under construction at Snowbird, Utah, that will deliver skiers via conveyor belt to Mineral Basin.

Highest Annual Average Snowfall of Any Lift-Served Ski Area in North America: 647 inches, Mount Baker Ski Area, Washington.

Longest Ski Season in the U.S.: Timberline, on Mount Hood, Oregon; typically closes around Labor Day.

Most Elbow Room in North America: Montana’s Yellowstone Club (motto: “Private powder”), whose 2,200-plus acres are skied by a maximum 864 members at any given time. The hitch? Entry-level price for a must-have homesite is $2 million.

Most Vertical Drop in North America: Mount MacKenzie Resort—under construction outside of Revelstoke, B.C.—has 6,100 feet, 800 feet more than Whistler Blackcomb, B.C., the current record holder.

Best Christmas Present Ever: 15 feet of snow in 15 days, from December 26, 2004, to January 12, 2005, at Mammoth Mountain, California. The resort stayed open until the Fourth of July.

Most Chill Lounge Acts

AprĂšs-Ski Bars

river run day lodge

Bittersweet: Flahr and Leskinen sipping bubbly at River Run Day Lodge

Swilling slopeside after a day of ripping powder and thrashing moguls is a beloved alpine tradition. Here are five base-of-the-mountain bars where, as the libations flow, the stories are guaranteed to grow.

River Run Day Lodge Ketchum, Idaho
All roads lead to River Run—or at least all trails do. The slopes down Bald Mountain’s southeast flank allow a hasty descent to the heated back deck. Order Like a Local: Champagne Cocktail—a sugar cube soaked in bitters, then doused with champagne. 208-622-6136

Los Amigos Vail, Colorado
On a sunny day, better point ’em to this Vail Village landmark by 3 p.m. to get a seat on the narrow deck. The afternoon sun slow-roasts Los’s patrons to habanero-red. Order Like a Local: A carafe of tart margaritas. 970-476-5847

Bear Mountain Base Lodge Killington, Vermont
Shoehorn yourself onto Bear Mountain’s crowded deck to watch the gifted and the gripped pinball down Outer Limits, the steepest bump run in the East. Order Like a Local: Magic Hat Brewing Co.’s #9, a Vermont specialty. 802-422-3333

Hotel St. Bernard Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico
The St. Bernard—with its deck at the base of Snake Dance—is a cherished throwback. Follow the smoke to grilled-brat bliss. Order Like a Local: The St. Bernard—KahlĂșa, Myers’s rum, Wild Turkey, and hot chocolate. 505-776-2251

Grizzly’s Stratton Mountain, Vermont
On weekends, Stratton’s universe revolves around Grizzly’s base-area deck. Order Like a Local: Long Trail Ale, from Vermont’s Long Trail Brewing Co. 802-297-2200

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COLORADO :: ASPEN & ASPEN HIGHLANDS

FORGET THE FURS AND THE FENDI. Beyond the bling, Aspen is still America’s quintessential ski village, a funky cosmos where World Cup steeps belong to the fearless.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Where else can you sit next to Kurt and Goldie while wolfing lunchtime bratwurst, then follow the sun around Bell Mountain’s bumps for the rest of the afternoon?
NUMBER-ONE RUN: The finest float in Colorado? Atop Aspen Highlands is the 40-degree, 1,500-vertical-foot Highland Bowl. After the hike up, and before the glorious, seemingly endless descent, rest your bones in the summit swing and feast on high-octane views of fourteeners Pyramid Peak and Maroon Bells.
HOT LODGE: Chichi yet cool, luxe yet Lab-friendly, the St. Regis Aspen features s’mores in its cozy aprĂšs-ski lounge, beds for beloved canines, and a spanking-new 15,000-square-foot spa-complete with a little something called the Confluence, artificial hot springs where more than the waters mingle. (Doubles from $385; 888-454-9005, )
SOUL PATCH: Tucked in the trees on Aspen Mountain are shrines to Elvis, Jerry Garcia, Marilyn Monroe, and, of course, Liberace. But Walsh’s Run, one of the steepest drops on Ajax, is where you’ll find sacred ground: The Raoul Wille shrine, a tiny shack festooned with prayer flags and elk bones, honors a longtime local who died climbing in Nepal.

NEW MEXICO :: TAOS

Taos Ski Resort

A GROOVY CONVERGENCE of Native American culture, ski-hard style, and the freest of spirits, Taos is the black diamond in New Mexico’s high-desert crown, offering steep transcendence (and lots of green chile) in the wild, wild West.
WHY WE LOVE IT: ÂĄViva variedad! Park your journeyman Subaru wagon or beat Jeep CJ right next to that limited-edition Mercedes with the Texas plates—they’ll appreciate the contrast. Then look heavenward and feast your begoggled eyes on runs so close to vertical they’ll steal your heart (or sink it, if you’re toting a prohibited snowboard).
NUMBER-ONE RUN: Longhorn, a lengthy and snaky double black, shoots between palisades of tall pines, dropping 1,900 vertical feet to a catwalk that spits you out at the base. Masochists should save it for the end of the day, when the bumps are the size of small igloos.
HOT LODGE: In the heart of town is a grand adobe abode called the Fechin Inn, built beside Russian artist Nicolai Fechin’s former home, a 1927 structure listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The elegant, Jacuzzi-equipped 84-room hotel is just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Adobe Bar, current home of wicked margaritas. (Doubles, $114-$208; 800-746-2761, )
SOUL PATCH: Dog-tired and depleted? Stop off at art-infested Taos Pizza Outback, where the cooks spin tasty sesame-sprinkled crusts, blank canvases just waiting for your own creative topping conglomerations.

WYOMING :: JACKSON HOLE

DUDE, IT’S LIKE MECCA. If you take sliding around on snow seriously, you’ll eventually make a pilgrimage to the Hole. Hardcore types rightfully revere the sick Wyoming vertical, heavy powder showers, and Euro-style open backcountry. Yep, this is the place . . . to pack a shovel, transceiver, probe, and change of underwear.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Rip, rip, rip all you want: The harder and stronger you ride, the more these Tetons throw at you. And once you think you’re the master, listen for the laughter coming from the lines that have yet to see a descent.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: You’ll find the finest fall-line skiing in the country here, so steel yourself for the best run of the bunch: The Hobacks is 3,000 vertical feet of crazy steeps. Enjoy.
HOT LODGE: When legendary ski mountaineer and cinematographer Rob DesLauriers got sick of living out of his van, he built the new Teton Mountain Lodge, a premium slopeside property with rustic Wyoming written all over it. Just don’t let the high-end accommodations and dining fool you; Rob’s still a ski bum at heart. (Doubles, $149-$329; 800-801-6615, )
SOUL PATCH: The Mangy Moose remains Jackson Hole’s must-hit saloon. The bleary-eyed crew from Teton Gravity Research, pros decked out in next year’s wares, and perma-tan instructors call this place home. But don’t fear the locals; just get what they’re having.

UTAH :: PARK CITY

LIKE ST. MORITZ WITH MORMONS, Park City is not only a vast powdery playground; it’s a true ski-in/ski-out town with big-city swank. After you’ve zonked your mortal coil dropping off cornices and carving down chutes, head to town and knock back an espresso: You have to be awake to enjoy the finer things.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Oh, the mountain comes off as harmless at first—what with those rolling hills flush with cruisers—but it drops the hammer a couple lifts in, making for delighted schussers, from expert on down. There’s terrain-park action, and the superior lift service (14 chairs, including four high-speed six-packs) can move more than 27,000 butts an hour.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: Not for the timid or the kamikaze, O-zone drops 1,000 feet off the lip of Pinyon Ridge, down a 30- to 40-degree face, before delivering you into forgiving tree trails that lead to a high-speed six heading right back up.
HOT LODGE: Right on chic Main Street is the Treasure Mountain Inn, a locals-owned lodge with a great little café. This eco-minded pad has a range of homey accommodations, from simple studios to decked-out apartments, as well as a Jacuzzi and heated pool beneath the stars. (Studios, $125-$300; 800-344-2460, )
SOUL PATCH: Once a wild silver town, Park City’s gone all civilized. The high-end gastronomic fusion served up at 350 Main will have you double-checking your coordinates—and for boozophobic Utah, the cocktails are mighty sinful.

BRITISH COLUMBIA :: WHISTLER BLACKCOMB

DOUBLY HEINOUS STEEPS mean twice the fun at Whistler Blackcomb, home to the biggest vertical in North America and an astounding variety of snow conditions. Sister peaks, these British Columbia bad girls practically flaunt their grand vert, true glacier skiing, and leg-burner runs up to seven miles long.
WHY WE LOVE IT: By virtue of the vast and varied terrain (larger than Vail and Aspen combined), this resort has always drawn a cosmopolitan crowd. The number of rowdy young immigrants will surely redouble as opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics approaches. And the village is at only 2,140 feet, so sea-level folk can let loose without fearing hypoxia-empowered hangovers.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: These peaks have long been a favorite stop on the World Cup circuit, thanks in part to the exhilarating 1.5-mile highway known as the Dave Murray Downhill, which rolls off the south shoulder to Whistler’s base.
HOT LODGE: The Fairmont Chateau Whistler is a wonderland of sprawling penthouses and romantic turrets at the foot of Blackcomb Mountain. Luckily, there are more than two dozen bistros and nightclubs nearby to tempt you out of your mountain-view room on the stormier nights. (Doubles, $256-$446; 800-606-8244, )
SOUL PATCH: From the top of Horstman Glacier, traverse under the summit cliffs and cross the ridgeline via Spanky’s Ladder. This brings you to a trove of hidden chutes plunging through a cliff band down to Blackcomb Glacier.

CALIFORNIA :: MAMMOTH

THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA VIBE dominates Mammoth, reflecting surf culture at its most authentic. Witness the resort’s massive superpipe and meticulously sculpted terrain parks, home turf of snowboard phenoms like Tara Dakides, Shaun White, and Olympic silver medalist Danny Kass.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Rising high in the eastern Sierra, this hill is surrounded by the Ansel Adams and John Muir wilderness areas, and Yosemite’s just a few valleys north. The volcanic terrain, nice and steep everywhere you look, gets layers of prime frosting from Pacific storms that drop up to four feet of snow at a time. Otherwise, it’s clear blue skies.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: From the summit, drop off the back side and hike to fantastic Hemlock Bowl: Ski left and follow the signs (or locals), then enjoy Mammoth’s deepest shots. Afterwards, hop on Chair 14 and rest up for another hike. Repeat.
HOT LODGE: If cookie-cutter condos don’t do it for you, check out Mammoth Country Inn, a Bavarian-style bed-and-breakfast. The seven rooms feature bedding worthy of royalty, and two have Jacuzzis. Your hosts, the Weinerts, serve up home-style breakfasts, and it’s just a short scamper to the bus. (Doubles, $145-$185; 866-934-2710, )
SOUL PATCH: Geothermal springs with panoramic mountain vistas, anyone? South of town, just east of Highway 395, Hot Creek gloriously blends a f-f-freezing stream and feverish springs. (Stay out of the scalding stuff.) Sadly, panties are mandatory here. But you can drop your drawers at wilder hot spots like Hilltop and Crab Cooker.

COLORADO :: STEAMBOAT

SOMETIMES COLORADO’S I-70 is a bit, well, constipated, so head for secluded Steamboat, some two hours north. We’re talking relentless powder, some of the West’s best tree skiing, and a chill ambience—on the slopes and back at the lodge.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Located in the Park Range—where Pacific-born storms usually hit first in Colorado—Steamboat soaks up heavy snow dumps that often skip peaks to the south and east. And many of the aspens are perfectly spaced, as if a gift from God. From the mountain, take a free shuttle the three miles to tiny, colorful Steamboat Springs, where you’ll find a surprising slew of kick-back bars and upscale eats.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: Step into the Closet, a forested roller coaster spilling down the west side of Storm Peak, and shake off the dust. Just make sure you’ve got your turns dialed—and wear a helmet.
HOT LODGE: Across from the gondola, the plush 327-room Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel serves up a deluxe spa, a fitness center with steam bath, an elegant steak-and-chop house, quiet rooms replete with hardwood furniture, and a cavernous stone lobby with, yep, a stream running through it. (Doubles from $159; 877-269-2628, )
SOUL PATCH: On the Grand’s spacious deck, which looks out on 8,239-foot Emerald Mountain, two truly giant Jacuzzis and a heated outdoor pool offer some of the most luxuriant aprĂšs-ski lounging in the Rockies.

MONTANA :: BIG SKY

Big Sky Ski Resort

LONE MOUNTAIN ERUPTS from the Madison Range like an 11,194-foot catcher’s mitt, nabbing storms swollen with dry Rocky Mountain powder. The utter lack of lines just sweetens the pot. With almost twice as many acres as skiers, Big Sky virtually guarantees instant lift access all day long.
WHY WE LOVE IT: You can dress like a cowboy—unironically—and then snorkel through the fresh, pausing to ogle the remote 10,000-foot summits of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness. Come night, it gets so dark you can see the band of the Milky Way splitting the sky.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: Off Lone Mountain’s south face, roar almost 3,000 vertical feet down the ridiculously wide Liberty Bowl and through the Bavarian Forest, where you can bob and weave through spruce and fir.
HOT LODGE: Want quintessential Montana? Rent a log cabin with a hot tub on the deck: The Powder Ridge Cabins have woodstoves, vaulted ceilings, and a lift nearby. (Cabin with three doubles, $525-$772; 800-548-4486, )
SOUL PATCH: See what “big sky” really means: The tram up to the peak offers an eagle’s view of the resort’s most daring lines, plus thousands of square miles of wilderness. Watch a local work the Big Couloir—a 50-by-1,500-foot lick of 48-degree terror—and it won’t be just the views stealing your breath.

UTAH :: ALTA & SNOWBIRD

Snowbird Ski Resort

THESE PEAKS ARE THE ODD COUPLE of mountain resorts—think hardcore Alta dudes and snazzy Snowbird debs—but their souls are united by heavenly powder.
WHY WE LOVE IT: In a word, the white stuff. At Little Cottonwood Canyon, the light-and-dry goods are nonpareil. The evidence? When the Ringling Bros. circus sued Utah for using the slogan “The Greatest Snow on Earth,” the case went all the way to the Supreme Court—and Utah won.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: A long, technical traverse perches you atop Alf’s High Rustler, a 40-degree, 2,000-foot pitch aimed straight at the Alta parking lot. Legend has it that veteran ski-school director Alf Engen once bombed the whole run, with nothing but nipple-deep powder to slow his mad descent.
HOT LODGE: Snowbird’s Iron Blosam threads the ski-lodge needle: It’s got all the perks of a high-end hotel—two-story windows, private decks, full kitchens, and an outdoor hot tub-but it’s steeped in a laid-back atmosphere that reminds you of a family cabin in the mountains. (Doubles, $249-$539; 800-453-3000, )
SOUL PATCH: After Snowbird’s last tram heads down for the day, don’t be afraid to join the contingent of ski-crazy locals who gather at the top of Lone Pine for what is usually a low-key party, then take in the sublime view of the spectacular, canyon-framed sunset.

VERMONT :: STOWE

IT’S THE BARNS AND COVERED BRIDGES draped with snow that tip you off: You’re in classic Vermont. This historic resort hails from the hungry thirties, but you’ll be plenty satisfied. With just 4,000 or so permanent residents, Stowe’s got small-town soul galore, and the mountain tempts with wild, winding expert runs—and a slew of less challenging ones.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Time has made Stowe a giant on the eastern ski scene, with the help of 4,393-foot Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak. You can’t beat it for nordic action: The Touring Center at Trapp Family Lodge (owned by a member of the singing von Trapp clan, of The Sound of Music fame) features excellent trails. And where would snowboarding be without a certain resident named Jake Burton?
NUMBER-ONE RUN: Test your mettle on the famous Front Four—National, Lift Line, Starr, and Goat—the mountain’s snaking double-black centerpieces. Prepare to be humbled.
HOT LODGE: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the sumptuously restored Green Mountain Inn pumps up the luxe with modern accoutrements like gas fireplaces, marble bathrooms, Jacuzzis, and a heated outdoor pool. Forget fatigue with a Swedish deep-tissue massage—or have hot cider and homemade cookies by the blazing fire. (Doubles from $125; 800-253-7302, )
SOUL PATCH: Get a little wacky with the locals during the Stowe Winter Carnival, in late January: Among other fun, there’s off-season volleyball, a snow-golf tournament (costume required, natch), and the chilly Wintermeister triathlon.

COLORADO :: VAIL & BEAVER CREEK

TALK ABOUT HIGH CONTRAST: These resorts may be virtually side by side, but they don’t see eye to eye. Vail is the gold standard for manicured pistes and big bowls, regularly making it one of the country’s most popular destinations, while Beaver Creek is more of a sedate escape with a profusion of secret stashes.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Via the combo of dry snow and friendly terrain, intermediates feel advanced—and experts feel untouchable (if they didn’t already). Roughly half of the resorts’ vast terrain is taken up by the famous Back Bowls, at Vail, and Beaver Creek’s long, challenging Talons, many of which cut through the trees.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: On Vail’s Ledges, the steep bits run 300 feet, then level out and let you regain your wind, then drop another 300, and so on—descending for more than a mile, all the way home. At Beaver Creek, Harrier rolls off the west shoulder of Spruce Saddle, becoming a wide, hilly cruiseway perfectly pitched for GS turns.
HOT LODGE: The Austrian-style Hotel Gasthof Gramshammer has been au courant for 40 years. The 38 rooms are arrayed with knee-deep down comforters and traditional woodwork, game dishes are served up in the cozy Antlers dining room, and high indulgence awaits at the steam room, sauna, and two indoor hot tubs. (Doubles, $195-$245; 800-610-7374, )
SOUL PATCH: Don’t miss the Colorado Ski Museum: Dig the roots of modern snow sports and revisit such luminaries as World War II heroes/powder hounds the Tenth Mountain Division, among others.

CALIFORNIA & NEVADA :: HEAVENLY

CAN YOU SAY GIGANTIC? Good, because that’s what Heavenly is. Plus it can claim some of the most ravishing views of any American ski hill: It rests in the limbo between the supernatural blue of Lake Tahoe and the scorched Nevada desert far below.

WHY WE LOVE IT: Nobody skis off-piste on this mountain! A private wonderland awaits those who venture into the trees or take a little hike, but if you want to stay on track, you’ll find that the sheer immensity (almost 5,000 acres) spreads out the skiers nicely. Besides, the groomers are like boulevards—and just as smooth—so you can really dig your turns here.

NUMBER-ONE RUN: The Milky Way Bowl, a ten-minute hike up the Skyline Trail, has a steady vertical drop and an utter dearth of other souls. Continue down the chutes of Mott Canyon and have a chuckle at the expense of all the schnooks who ever turned their noses up at this peak.

HOT LODGE: Heavenly’s speedy gondola is two minutes from Lake Tahoe’s Embassy Suites Hotel, very cushy digs with a dizzying nine-story atrium, glass roof, flourishing gardens, and 400 two-room suites. (Suites from $200; 877-497-8483, )

SOUL PATCH: The spectacle of Caesars Tahoe is Disneyland for the savvy gambler. A nonstop bacchanal revolves around slot machines, top-notch shows, and the ubiquitous gaming tables—but without that Vegas overkill. When in Rome . . .

ALBERTA :: LAKE LOUISE

JAW-DROPPING vistas of Banff National Park greet the lucky folks up top of Canada’s biggest ski area, and world-class terrain awaits below.
WHY WE LOVE IT: This place splits styles: At the south side’s terrain park, huck junkies can air their grievances with gravity while fans of pure carving hit the quieter north face to ride the bowls.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: Take the SUMMIT Platter up 8,765-foot Mount Whitehorn and cruise Brown Shirt, taking in views of the Bow Valley. Or head out from the Larch area, locate Lookout Chute, and disappear into the trees—just make sure you reappear.
HOT LODGE: From the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, gaze out at the glacier-fed namesake lake. To fight off the Canadian chill, try steaming truffle fondue at the hotel’s Walliser Stube; wash that fungus down with some ice wine, made from grapes frozen on the vine. (Doubles, $344; 800-441-1414, www .fairmont.com/lakelouise)
SOUL PATCH: With faraway Victoria Glacier as backdrop, a spin on Lake Louise’s skating rink makes for high entertainment. During January’s ice-carving competition, you can see frozen stars like Winnie the Pooh, then toast marshmallows at the braziers nearby. (Appropriately enough, the silly old bear has been quoted as saying, “Fight fire with marshmallows.”)

COLORADO :: TELLURIDE

A TRUE COWBOY TOWN where down jackets thankfully outnumber mink stoles, Telluride still caters to the glamorous. Spot a hot starlet living it up in one of downtown’s ritzy establishments? Big whoop—unless she was thrashing her guide in the steep and deep earlier.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Due to its remote setting—there’s just one road leading into this southwestern Colorado box canyon-the mountain always gets far fewer folks than it’s designed to handle. So the queues are quick, the runs pretty much empty, and the midmountain bartenders not too busy. NUMBER ONE RUN: As you float, fly, or surf down the three ridgeline miles of See Forever, looking 100 or so miles west toward Utah’s La Sal Mountains, you are permitted, though not really encouraged, to holler corny lines from Titanic, like “I’m on top of the wooorld!”
HOT LODGE: Live it up at Wyndham Peaks Resort & Golden Door Spa: Think king-size beds, homemade cookies on your pillow (if you ask nicely), and the San Juan Mountains out your window. Head to the spa and baby your fried quads by soaking them in the 102-degree mineral pool—perfect prep for a 50-minute Skier Salvation massage. (Doubles from $229; 970-728-6800, )
SOUL PATCH: Melt into an overstuffed leather chair, order a horseradishy bloody mary, and toast tomorrow in Wyndham Peaks’ high-ceilinged great room. That’s good medicine.

MONTANA :: BIG MOUNTAIN

CRAVE A COCKTAIL of wide-open groomers, perfectly spaced trees, and backcountryesque meadows? Look no further than crowdless Big Mountain. And with lots of off-piste powder stashes just waiting, it’s no wonder so many of the snow junkies here sport free heels.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Monster storms transform the mountain’s evergreens into “snow ghosts,” and locals—suited up in polyester straight out of the Carter era—love to rip through this hoary host. And it doesn’t hurt that the skyline’s fraught with the lofty peaks of the Canadian Rockies, Glacier National Park, and the Great Bear Wilderness.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: East of North Bowl, you’ll find hundreds of feet of superb vertical, starting with the Nose, then continuing down two shots known as Performance and the Chin. Don’t look for these last two on the map, though: After hogging all that fluffy stuff, you won’t want to tell anyone, either.
HOT LODGE: The ski-in/ski-out Kandahar lodge, right off the mountain, just screams Montana. Think wooden beams, a river-rock fireplace, and rustic rooms with lofts and a bunch of primo down sleeping gear. (Doubles, $109-$309; 800-862-6094, )
SOUL PATCH: When the lifts shut down, the planks and boards stack up outside the Bierstube, where you’ll find local folks swilling pints of Moose Drool beside Seattle techniks escaping the city for the weekend. Be sure to ask your barkeep for one of the ‘Stube’s mysterious souvenir rings—it’s a surprise—then tip at least 20 percent. But you knew that.

CALIFORNIA :: ALPINE MEADOWS

ALL MOUNTAIN AND NO ATTITUDE, Northern California’s Alpine Meadows is designed to take maximum advantage of the spectacular terrain. Though it’s got that laid-back, down-to-earth vibe the West is known for, it’s certainly no bore; far from it. It simply lacks the attendant aggression of resorts with similarly radical steeps.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Chutes and rock bands line this High Sierra bowl, spilling out into gentle grades—so there’s something here for all skill levels. The hike-to skiing and open-boundary policy (not found at neighboring Squaw Valley) equal acres and acres of untouched snow, and the hill’s south side is enormous, wide-open, and drenched with sunshine in the morning.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: Palisades, a classic double black diamond off the Alpine Bowl lift, looks skyscraper-steep once you’re staring down it, but fear not: Since it’s north-facing, the snow’s way silky.
HOT LODGE: From the lifts, it’s just a quick ten minutes to the unbeatable Resort at Squaw Creek, with its 403 fine rooms, four restaurants (ranging from diner fare to haute cuisine), outdoor swimming pool, Jacuzzis, and nearby recreation like dogsledding and sleigh rides. (Doubles, $229-$349; 800-403-4434, )
SOUL PATCH: The northern ridge, beyond Estelle Bowl, may take a quarter of an hour to hike and traverse to, but the sweet silence and enormous cedars you’ll find will make you forget the trip. As will the powder.

UTAH :: THE CANYONS

A DECADE BACK, the resort that would become the Canyons was a pretty shabby, and not too popular, locals hill. Now it’s the biggest, most unabashedly go-go resort in Utah-and, miraculously, it’s crowd-free.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Besides the sharp new base village, it’s got the real goods: Days after other Wasatch resorts are all skied out, you’ll still be finding powder stashes hidden among the—count ’em—eight peaks.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: Take the hike up Murdock Peak right off the Super Condor Express Lift, then choose from among seven tempting lines. You’re bound to find your favorite flavor: steep glade, wide-open bowl, or gnarly chute?
HOT LODGE: When NBC’s Katie Couric and Matt Lauer wanted posh digs for their two-week Olympics gig, they picked the deluxe Grand Summit Resort Hotel—for good reason. After a soak in your jetted tub, survey the scene at the heated outdoor pool below, and the rest of Summit County, from the bay windows flanking your fireplace. And, of course, there’s the supreme access: If the gondola were any closer, it would be inside. (Doubles, $279; 888-226-9667, )
SOUL PATCH: Take a snowcat-drawn sleigh to midmountain, cross-country or snowshoe it through the woods, and hit the resort’s secluded Viking Yurt for a delectable five-course Scandinavian feast. Go ahead and carbo-load—afterwards, the snowcat will drag you right back down to base.

OREGON :: MT. BACHELOR

THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE gave top skier Bill Healy, of the Army’s Tenth Mountain Division, permission to put three rope tows up the face of central Oregon’s Bachelor Butte way back in 1958. Since then, his dream come true, now known as Mt. Bachelor, has grown to 71 runs serviced by ten lifts. And for those seeking big air, there are three terrain parks.
WHY WE LOVE IT: With as much as 30 feet of snow piling up annually in the mountains of Deschutes National Forest, Mt. Bachelor is one of the Pacific Northwest’s treasures, and an agreement with the Forest Service has spurned commercial development, preserving its wild side.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: Head for the Northwest Express chair and exit, if you dare, to Devil’s Backbone, a mettle-testing black diamond. Though steeper up top, it’s good and bumpy almost all the way down its nefarious spine.
HOT LODGE: The Inn of the Seventh Mountain, between Bend and Mt. Bachelor, is the place to sleep if you want first chair the next morning. The lodge-style decor—wooden beams, fireplaces, leather recliners—just oozes cozy, and with the Cascades so close by, grand views are there for the feasting. (Doubles, $135-$195; 800-452-6810, )
SOUL PATCH: Hit the Lodge, in Bend, for pints of local 20″ Brown Ale and scrumptious buffalo burgers. Then make good and sure you patronize the McMenamins folks—God love ’em—renovators of, among others, the old St. Francis school in downtown Bend, home to a hotel with Turkish baths, a pub restaurant, and a throwback cinema.

IDAHO :: SUN VALLEY

HOLLYWOOD HOTTIES, Olympic skiers, and John Kerry may flock to sexy Sun Valley these days, but America’s first ski resort has been drawing us hoi polloi since ’36. Swaths of immaculate corduroy run for miles here, so pray your legs last. No sweat if they don’t: French chefs and other fanciness await below.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Fantastic snow- making gear, five-star base facilities, and runs so fast and long you can attempt to break the sound barrier—after stuffing your face with beignets, of course.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: Crank the bindings and launch down Warm Springs. After a continuous 3,100-foot vertical loss on a blue groomer, your quads will glow like an Apollo capsule on reentry.
HOT LODGE: Stay in Ketchum, Sun Valley’s neighbor and the epicenter of the aprĂšs action. The Best Western Kentwood Lodge, situated right in the mix, has an airy stone-and-wood lobby, big rooms, a hot tub, and a pool. (Doubles, $159-$179; 800-805-1001, )
SOUL PATCH: Clomp into Apple’s Bar and Grill, at the base of Greyhawk, and mingle with folks who packed it in after logging 30,000 feet of vert—by lunchtime. Notice all the passes tacked to the wall? You could once trade yours for a pitcher of suds. Talk about priorities.

VERMONT :: KILLINGTON

KILLINGTON’S legendarily long season stretches from October through May (sometimes into June), and with seven mountains, the resort has more acreage than any place in the East. Lately, though, Killington’s known as the town that tried to secede—from Vermont, not the Union—a tribute to residents’ fiery, tax-evading Yankee spirit.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Behold the Beast’s 200 runs—including high-altitude bumps, endless cruisers, terrain parks, and a halfpipe—which keep legions of devotees coming back thirsty.
NUMBER-ONE RUN: You don’t have to be an ace to experience the hair-raisingly steep moguls of Outer Limits, on Bear Mountain—just grab a pint and watch the wipeouts from the deck of Bear Mountain Base Lodge.
HOT LODGE: Nab yourself some comfy slopeside digs: The Killington Grand Resort Hotel is well worth the substantial change you’ll drop. This 200-roomer offers studios and suites—all with kitchens, many with fireplaces—and the views from the outdoor Jacuzzis and pool are unbeatable. (Doubles from $150; 877-458-4637, )
SOUL PATCH: It may have turned 40 last year, but the Wobbly Barn still parties like a teenager. This steakhouse-cum-nightclub has a hoppin’ happy hour, live music, and a serious boogie jones.

MONTANA :: MOONLIGHT BASIN

Moonlight Basin Ski Resort

EVERY GOOD SKI AREA has a split personality—part nurturer, part dominatrix. But no resort behaves more like Jekyll and Hyde than Moonlight Basin, the one-year-old resort 45 miles south of Bozeman that shares a boundary with Big Sky. First it lulls you, then it tries to kill you.

The lull part: Moonlight is a real estate venture, and the kindly blue and black pistes that meander down the north face of 11,194-foot Lone Mountain are tailored to those looking for vacation homes. The new Lone Tree lift will fill out those offerings this winter, adding more than 500 acres of open glades and unintimidating expert runs.

Moonlight’s sadistic side? Just look up: The Headwaters is a forbidding wall striped with nine chutes pinched by bands of sharp shale and scree. Three Forks is the boast-in-the-bar run, a 1,200-foot plummet into Stillwater Bowl that nudges 50 degrees in spots. (Until a lift is built, reaching such lines requires a 25-to-45-minute hike.)

Moonlight Basin can’t yet keep you occupied for a week—the base area’s swanky lodge doesn’t even have a gear shop or ski school—but it’s one more reason to book that trip to Big Sky.

IDAHO :: TAMARACK RESORT

THE VIEWS RECALL TAHOE. And the terrain? Call it Steamboat West. That’s the early line on Tamarack Resort, 90 miles north of Boise, which opens in December. The Tahoe analogy is plain from a 7,700-foot spot on West Mountain’s ridge: Far below, 22-mile-long Lake Cascade glistens in Long Valley. What’s more, the resort sits far enough west to rack up 300 annual inches of snow (100 more than Sun Valley), yet it’s east of Oregon’s high desert, ensuring that the bounty arrives talcum-dry.

Don’t expect Tamarack to max out your Pocket Rockets. The tree skiing in glades of aspen and subalpine fir, and the languorous blue runs that unspool down the mountain’s 2,800 vertical feet, summon Steamboat—diverting, if not exactly heart-stopping. Snowcat skiing will be offered this year on 500 acres to be made lift-accessible in the next few years. It’s all part of a $1.5 billion plan to make Tamarack a year-round resort with some 2,000 chalets, condos, and hotel rooms. (At press time, just 60 chalets and cottages were available.) For the best aprĂšs-ski, head to the old logging town of McCall, 17 miles north.

:: SKI EMOTIONALLY NAKED!

STUCK IN INTERMEDIATEVILLE and dreaming of a transfer to the friendlier slopes of Advanced City? I sure was, so last winter I gambled on a four-day ski clinic in Utah’s Wasatch Range. I was up for anything that would get me closer to black-diamond bliss.

Ski to Live—launched in 2003 by extreme queen Kristen Ulmer, at Alta and Snowbird resorts—takes a uniquely cerebral, holistic approach to improving performance on the slopes, promising nothing less than self-transformation via a cogent blend of hard carving, refreshing yoga, and an intriguing flavor of Zen known as Big Mind. No $200-an-hour therapist ever promised so much.

The 38-year-old Ulmer, veteran of countless ski flicks and former U.S. Freestyle Ski Team member, is a sensitive but sure coach, possessing an infectious buoyancy of spirit that makes every powder acolyte under her wing believe a camera’s rolling just for them over the next mogul. She says conventional instruction is too heavy on mechanics, virtually ignoring mental outlook: “Understanding yourself translates into your skiing in a big way. It’ll catapult you into a whole new level of learning.” So she does it her way. During my Ski to Live weekend, my 13 fellow pupils and I spent about as much time contemplating life in intensely reflective Big Mind sessions as we did tackling Snowbird runs like the steep straitjacket of Wilbere Bowl.

The first night, we shared our hopes (huck big air!) and fears (hairy chutes, sharks). Next morning, we fell into a pleasant rhythm: wake-up yoga; a fat breakfast; lots and lots of skiing in small groups with Ulmer or another instructor; evening sessions with Genpo Roshi, 60, who heads up Salt Lake City’s Kanzeon Zen Center and developed Big Mind; a to-die-for dinner; then profound slumber at the Lodge at Snowbird.

Under Ulmer’s tutelage, skiers and snowboarders employ mantras, which can improve focus, and learn to execute proper form, like correctly positioning shoulders through turns. (Chanting Charge! in one’s head at each turn actually does have a way of refining performance.) Throwing Roshi in the mix proves to be even more radical: He uses challenging discussions and role-playing exercises intended to help you harmoniously integrate the sometimes conflicting aspects of your personality, thus allowing you to dig out from the solipsistic center of your own little universe. It’s pretty cool.

But my defining moment came not when I face-planted right in front of the video camera (hello, embarrassing playback!) nor when I carved some relatively pretty turns in Mineral Basin; it came in a whiteout, during a three-below-zero cruise along the Cirque Traverse, at nearly 11,000 feet. Suddenly I felt fearless joy-not joyless fear-in anticipation of the double black on deck.

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SANTA BARBARA :: Retreat to the Stars

San Ysidro Ranch

San Ysidro Ranch

Like a Hollywood power couple, flee the paparazzi (or the new in-laws) at San Ysidro Ranch, in the rolling hills outside Santa Barbara. Five miles from downtown, this classic California spread was the site of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh’s wedding and John and Jackie Kennedy’s honeymoon. THE LOVE NEST: Twenty-one romantic cottages are scattered among orange, lemon, and plum orchards on the 500-acre ranch. Each is outfitted with French antiques, a private patio, and a wood-burning fireplace. (Doubles from $399; 800-368-6788, ) DOUBLES PLAY: When you’re not goofing around the hillside pool, explore the coast on horseback. You’ll trot through sand dunes with views out to the Channel Islands, and among butterflies as you circle the state’s largest monarch reserve. (Two-hour rides from $85; Arriba Horse șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍűs, 805-551-8567, )

Zihuatanejo: Purely Mexico

Trade Acapulco—that circus was for the wild days of dating, right?—for Zihuatanejo, a little Mexican fishing village 150 miles north. This Pacific-coast enclave is home to long stretches of golden beach, rocky islets, and wildlife sanctuaries, not to mention some stellar snorkeling and scuba sites. THE LOVE NEST: The beachfront Hotel Villa del Sol, a collection of 70 adobe-style villas, sits amid gardens of palms, banana trees, and hibiscus. A honeymoon package in the Lagoon Suite—with its cathedral ceilings, private patio, plunge pool, and, of course, hammock—includes two bottles of champagne, a five-course candlelit dinner on the beach, and a massage for couples. The four-day stay starts at $3,610 (011-52-755-55-55-500, ). DOUBLES PLAY: Spend a day with Carlo Scuba chasing marine creatures big and small—from manta rays to sea horses—at Caleta Bechon reef. (Two-tank dive, $75; 011-52-755-554-6003, )

Maui: Historic Hana Coast

Hotel Hana-Maui

Beachside Bliss: The undisturbed calm of the coast-side Hotel Hana-Maui

Steal away to Hana. The little eastern hub of Maui, a former stronghold of ancient Hawaiian chiefs, or ali’i, abounds with volcanic seaside cliffs, lush tropical forests, and remote beaches. THE LOVE NEST: The most romantic hideaway in the small town is Hotel Hana-Maui, an elegant plantation-style ranch by the sea. The Romantic Paradise package—including four nights’ lodging in the junior garden suite, breakfast, two massages, and a dinner by candlelight—starts at $1,806 (800-321-4262, ). DOUBLES PLAY: The resort offers coast or trail rides on horseback (one-hour ride, $50). Or book a hotel guide and hike to the Seven Sacred Pools of Ohe‘o Gulch, a series of 24 lava-rock pools emptying into the Pacific, or to Pa‘iloa, a spectacular black-sand beach in Wai’anapanapa State Park.

Lake Tahoe: High Sierra Heaven

Royal Gorge's Rainbow Lodge

Cold-Weather Pot of Gold: A snow-entrenched lodge at Rainbow Lodge

The Royal Gorge is a nordic skier’s never-never land. Not only does the country’s largest cross-country area, an hour’s drive north of Lake Tahoe, boast 9,172 acres of High Sierra terrain; it also receives an average annual snowfall of more than 600 inches. THE LOVE NEST: Royal Gorge’s Rainbow Lodge, a 1920s bed-and-breakfast made of hand-hewn timber and local granite, is a ten-minute drive from the main trailhead. Get out to glide, sure, but hold back at least one day to hole up in your wintry hideaway at 7,000 feet, with no TVs or phones to distract you. (Bridal suite with kitchen essentials—coffeemaker, fridge, microwave—and equally essential views of the Sierra, $195, including breakfast; 800-500-3871, ) DOUBLES PLAY: Stop at the resort’s shop to rent gear (skis, boots, poles) for $20 per day. And if you lose yourselves on the 200 miles of groomed trails, you’ll inevitably circle back to one of the ten warming huts, perfect for a break and a steamy mug of black tea.

Santorini: You, Me, and the Sea

Santorini

Even post-Olympics, Greece Shines: The brilliantly colored Santorini

On the far northwestern end of Santorini, nearly toppling off sheer cliffs that drop to the Aegean Sea, sits Oia, a tiny Greek village of white houses and blue-domed churches. Start your own story in this history-packed place, from the ancient winding pathways to seas that Homer’s heroes once ruled. THE LOVE NEST: On the outskirts of town, an enclave of caves—used as homes, stables, and wineries by fishermen and farmers 300 years ago—has been renovated into the luxe Perivolas Traditional Houses. These cozy yet spacious homes are furnished with local antiques and have private stone patios overlooking the sea. (Doubles from $450, including breakfast; 011-30-22860-71308, ) DOUBLES PLAY: If you can tear yourself away from Perivolas’s pleasant labyrinth of vineyards and fig trees, have the hotel staff arrange a five-hour sailing trip to little-visited Santorini beaches and the minuscule islands of Thirasia and Aspronisi.

Bali: Indonesian Dream

Four Seasons Resort Bali

Follow the White-Lily Road: Bali’s Four Seasons Resort

The ultimate honeymoon destination? With white-sand beaches, a lush volcanic interior, and a laid-back vibe, it doesn’t get better than Bali. But don’t get stuck on the tropical-paradise image: This 2,159-square-mile Indonesian island is also a world of adventure. THE LOVE NEST: The extravagant Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay covers all your needs: It’s well stocked with sailboards, a Hobie Cat, and canoes; its spa offers traditional Balinese massage; and there’s even an Indonesian cooking school. On a hillside by the bay, you’ll have your own private thatch-roofed villa, complete with a sundeck, outdoor shower, and plunge pool. (Doubles from $575; 011-62-361-701010, ) DOUBLES PLAY: Don’t miss a sea-kayak trip to remote beaches, unreachable by foot, on Bali’s southern tip. Equipment is available to Four Seasons guests at no charge.

The Adirondacks: Luxury in the Wilds

Six million acres of towering evergreen forests, mirror-smooth lakes, and ancient mountains pack Adirondack Park, the largest publicly protected wilderness area in the lower 48. In the center of this boundless playground, find the Point, a resort that impeccably blends its wild setting with no-expense-spared extravagance. THE LOVE NEST: Prepare to splurge on one of 11 rooms in four lodges, with overstuffed armchairs, feather beds, and wood-burning fireplaces. Breakfast in bed is de rigueur, but don’t spend all of your time cuddled up with your sweetie—or that copy of Huckleberry Finn from your room’s little library. (Doubles from $1,250, including all meals, beverages, and activities; 800-255-3530, ) DOUBLES PLAY: Snag a pair of snowshoes from the Point’s overflowing gear stash and take ’em on eight-mile-long Upper Saranac Lake, or over the trails on the resort’s 75 acres.

Puerto Rico: Go-Slow Mode

Puerto Rico may be a U.S. commonwealth, but it’s far from the madding pace of American life. The 3,435-square-mile island has all the tropical accoutrements, from rugged mountains to banana and sugar plantations and palm-lined beaches prettier than postcards. THE LOVE NEST: Erase the hectic States from your mind in one of the Horned Dorset Primavera Hotel’s 22 new suites. The two-story Spanish Colonial–style townhouses in RincĂłn, on the secluded western end of the island, have mahogany and teak furniture and private terraces with pools overlooking the Straits of Mona. (Seven-night honeymoon package, including all meals and transportation, sea-kayaking and snorkeling trips, two massages, and a bottle of Dom Perignon, from $9,370; 800-633-1857, ) DOUBLES PLAY: Some of the best surf breaks in the world can be found a seashell’s throw from the hotel. West Coast Surf Shop (787-823-3935, ) offers surf lessons for $30 an hour and rents surfboards for $25 a day. Or rent a Hobie Cat from Taino Divers, in RincĂłn ($80 a day; 787-823-6429, ) and sail beyond the breaks.

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