Telluride, Colorado is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places you’ll ever ski …It’s not often that I am lost for words. But when we alight from the Revelation Chairlift at the top of Telluride for the first time, I can’t speak. The friends with me are equally mute, staring wide-eyed at the mountain vista that unwraps around us. The Wilson Range rears up ahead, Bear Creek to the back, the Gold Hill Bowl to the right. Just beautiful. We all snap out of our reverie for a quick photo op to capture this moment. Just wow.There are two Tellurides, the historic mining town that squeezes into the bottom of a box canyon, and Telluride Mountain Village, which is home to a swag of condos, private homes, lodges and hotels. Telluride is a designated National Historic District, streets lined with beautiful Victorian era wooden houses painted in an array of pastels. The main street is western chic, with galleries, boutiques, outdoor gear and cafés cosying up to the New Sheridan Hotel, which has a western vibe, an antique bar and a moneyed clientele. It’s quite easy to picture someone like Butch Cassidy moseying in here. He did come to Telluride – he robbed his first bank here and there is a plaque in the spot where it happened. 
The Mountain Village sits over the ridge and is the base for the Telluride Ski Resort. The plazas are trimmed by ski gear shops, restaurants and bars; there is even a Starbucks.So where is it best to stay? Wherever you like - the two towns are linked by a free gondola, which makes it easy to go either up or down to some of the fantastic restaurants and bars. We stay in Telluride at Cimarron Lodge - 30 metres from the Coonskin chairlift - so we can be up and at ‘em quickly in the morning and ski to our door as the sun starts to set behind the San Juans in the afternoons. Wherever you stay, you will be entranced by this hidden secret, a place that has won the hearts of many a celebrity, including Oprah, who bought a place here last year, Tom Cruise, Darryl Hannah, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Quaid and a whole host more. White goldThe skiing and snowboarding at Telluride is some of the most spectacular you will ever do. It’s guaranteed that many times during the day you will stop, simply gobsmacked by the ring of peaks circling the Resort. Telluride Ski Resort has over 2000 acres of skiable terrain and there are 18 lifts carrying riders up to access over 120 trails. The highest lifted point is the Revelation Lift at a heady 3831 metres, but if you want to go higher, hike to Palmyra Peak, which soars to 4059 metres. You can also hike to the Black Iron Bowl and the numerous Gold Hill Chutes – there is even a staircase here to make it easier for hikers. Talk about a stairway to heaven.Skiers and boarders of all levels shine at Telluride, so don’t be scared of its reputation if you haven’t skied much, or at all, before. The ski and snowboard instructors will have you sliding in no time, with the beginner area large and uncrowded. Beginners needn’t fret about missing the opportunity to see those views from on high, with a green run down from the top of the Prospect Bowl – albeit a long one – the Galloping Goose is the longest run here at a thigh-scorching 7.4 kms. It’s worth doing, as it takes you past many of the beautiful homes that are dotted around the mountainside. 
On our first day, we take a free guided tour of the mountain with a Mountain Ambassador and for the next few hours follow him all around the mountain, learning some history about its mining past and working out how to get around the various areas of the mountain. It was well worth it.We explore far and wide over the next few days. We hoot and holler down Sandia and Magnolia in Prospect Bowl, sweep down Alta and Silvertip off Polar Queen and tackle Majestic and Silver Cloud off Revelation. While here, visit the Bear Creek Overlook near the bottom of the chairlift and take photos of the view - looking across to thousand foot cliffs and down along Bear Creek. Magnificent.Gold Hill Chairlift is wonderful because it links you up with the Revelation Bowl and also See Forever, a run that lives up to its name following the ridge line. Drop off See Forever down a range of challenging blacks and double blacks, or keep going until you reach Guiseppes Restaurant and choose whether to go back to the Mountain Village or drop down towards the town of Telluride. It is these runs that are my favourite. Zip down The Plunge or Lookout or Bushwacker, and meet up with The Plunge chair or take Bail Out to Telluride. As you ski down, the views over the town far, far below are breathtaking, and many times we stop to take another photo. Later in the day we scoot down Coonskin, Pandora and Milk Run, doing laps up the Coonskin Chairlift until our legs won’t work anymore and we just ski to our door and collapse.Wine and dine The on-mountain dining at Telluride is out of this world. Alpino Vino, accessed by the Gold Hill Express, is the highest restaurant in North America with more of those incredible views from the deck, or sit inside the quaint and cosy cabin. Choose from a large selection of wines by the glass and enjoy traditional Italian and alpine dishes. For something really special, it’s open for dinner, with snowcoach transfers. Bon Vivant, at the top of Polar Queen, is also outstanding, with French cuisine, fine French wine, hand-crafted cocktails and local beers all under a huge retractable umbrella and outdoor heaters. Then there’s Guiseppe’s, with New Orleans-inspired fare such as black bean sauté and crawfish gumbo, and Gorrono Ranch, with its sun-drenched deck chairs, live music and delicious burgers, bbq and chilli. For apres, stop off at Smak Bar at the Hotel Madeline – terrific food and a firepit. Stay long enough and have a Smak Mary – a Bloody Mary with a mini hamburger attached. Tomboy Tavern is another great spot with plenty of boutique beers. Allreds is one of the best for apres, with outstanding views over Telluride from its perch on the lip of the ridge, the lights of the town twinkling below like jewels on the sea floor. 
For dinner, there are so many excellent places in Telluride. Rustico is traditional Italian and this is the only place you can order steaks from Ralph Lauren’s Double RL ranch which is nearby. Cosmopolitan at the Hotel Columbia is elegant and divine, Honga’s Lotus Petal has a swish interior and serves fresh sushi and traditionally eclectic Eastern fare, and the New Sheridan Chop House is a cut above. The one place everyone kept raving about was a tiny restaurant called ‘there’, which rates its socks off on Yelp and Trip Advisor. We walked past it every night and peered into its uber-trendy interior of cow-patterned bench seats, tractor bar stools and timber tables. It’s cleverly cool. When you phone to beg for a booking, they answer “Hello there”. Sadly, it was too busy and we couldn’t get in. Next time …Ghost ridersWe signed up for a two-hour sunset tour to the Alta ghost town with Telluride Snowmobile Adventures, and after a quick briefing at their base out of town, we are off on our trusty mechanical steeds on the groomed trails. There are hair raising moments, steering around trees, tight corners and over bumps, but the thrill of driving through stands of aspens, snowy glades and open sections with nothing but the mountains, is liberating. We stop off at the Alta mining camp and hear tales of what it was like back in the day, then start back, stopping to watch the sun set on the back side of Palmyra Peak. The jutting peaks, the wrap of snow, and the golden glow of the sun presented another one of those moments. We all watch in awe and can’t really believe we are here, now, in this most beautiful of places. Speechless? Yep. •
With four mountains to ski and snowboard on, legendary shopping and dining and star-clad après ski, Aspen/Snowmass, sitting pretty in the Roaring Fork Valley, really does have it all…
Four magnificent mountainsAspen Mountain, referred to as Ajax by the locals, looms up front and centre from the town. The gondola and seven chairlifts service 76 trails, all for intermediates and advanced skiers and boarders. Highlights are the runs around Ajax Express and Ruthie’s, with the run down Copper, which leads down to the Silver Gondola, delivering gobsmacking scenery over the town. See how many of the 27 plus shrines you can find tucked away on the mountain, to people such as Jerry Garcia, John Denver and Marilyn Monroe. Have lunch at the Sun Deck and at the end of the day, settle in for drinks and truffle chips at The Little Nell’s Ajax Tavern.Buttermilk, just five minutes from town on the free shuttle, is perfect to ease yourself into your ski holiday, with the majority of runs for beginners and intermediates. The mostly groomed runs are super smooth, and for terrain park hounds, the two parks, including a fabulous one down the Teaser run, give excellent thrill value. The trails down Tiehack are more challenging, while there are some fun runs off Summit Express. Buttermilk is home for the X Games, which bring the world’s best to Aspen, along with the crowds. Aspen Highlands is a serious mountain for seriously good skiers with ‘The Bowl’ heaven for those who are willing to hike up it. With 122 trails accessed by five lifts, there is ample room to play. Spread your wings on the runs off Exhibition chair then branch out to Cloud Nine chair, which has a spread of blue runs off it. Go up Loge chair and you are committed to a raft of advanced runs – double black diamond - or the trek up the narrow neck to the Highlands Bowl. Thunder also leads to a phalanx of blacks and double blacks.Snowmass has more terrain than the other three mountains put together, so plan to spend more than one day exploring it. Better still, stay over as Snowmass has plenty of excellent ski-in, ski-out accommodation. This is skiing nirvana with 94 trails, 21 chairlifts and access to whatever your heart desires - cruisers, glades, steeps, terrain parks and a halfpipe. Head up the Village Express gondola then explore the terrain around Alpine Springs, Sheer Bliss, and the Big Burn, before thoroughly challenging yourself on the advanced runs, which are mostly off the Cirque and High Alpine. Stop for lunch at Sam’s Smokehouse, and when your legs can’t carry you anymore, relax into the evening at the New Belgian Ranger Station, which has a great vibe and happy hour from 3-6pm.
Four of the best … dining experiencesMatsuhisa is part of Nobu Matsuhisa’s empire and is one of Aspen’s top restaurants. Book ahead for the restaurant downstairs or enjoy the more casual upstairs lounge, and be blown away by the exquisite seafood and sushi on offer. The restaurant is also known for its saké, brewed exclusively for the Nobu group by Hokusetsu Saké Brewery in Japan. Who knew there were so many different types of saké? L’Hostaria exudes that happy feeling of dining with friends, with the interior welcoming and homely. Chef Tiziano Gortan’s culinary career began at the age of 13 in a little family restaurant near Udine. By 19 he was working in a three-Michelin star restaurant in Milan. Tiziano opened L’Hostaria in 1996 with designer Italian chairs, terracotta vases, Tuscan antiques, soft lighting and stucco walls. He takes great pride in his traditional style of cooking, and it shows in each and every bite.Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro is an experience like no other. Located on the slopes of Aspen Highlands, this cosy European-style cabin is extremely popular for lunch thanks to its fondue, raclette, hearty schnitzel, black truffle gnocchi to name just a few. Then there are the views of the incredibly picturesque Maroon Bells and surrounding peaks. This is a lunch like no other – don’t plan on skiing afterwards. On Thursday nights you can book a snowcat dinner to the Bistro – magic. Eight K at the Viceroy Snowmass serves innovative comfort food with southern flair, thanks to Executive Chef Will Nolan. The glamorous restaurant has a glittering display kitchen at its heart as well as a stunning 25-metre-long glass bar. Make sure you leave room for sticky toffee pudding – it’s to die for.
Four of the best … experiencesSnowshoeing tours are a great way to get off the trails and learn a thing or three about the area. The tours are run at Snowmass and Aspen Mountain by the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, and really are informative and interesting. The views from Aspen Mountain are exquisite and just admiring them gives you a chance to get your breath back. ACES also do a snowshoe tour to the historic ghost town of Ashcroft with lunch at the picturesque Pine Creek Cookhouse.Après ski is almost as important as the skiing itself and you will need a few days to try the best places to see and be seen. Don’t miss the J-Bar at the Hotel Jerome, which has a colourful western history and a celebrity list that would impress any paparazzi. Bunker down at the bar and try the signature Aspen Crud, or sit at a table and tuck into a J-Bar burger. The Sky Hotel’s 39 Degrees base is always jumping and has a good array of dishes, cocktails and drinks. At Snowmass, Wildwood’s sports bar is great for letting the hair down.Ullr Nights, held every Friday from late December until the end of March, are popular with families but don’t let them have all the fun. Take the Gondola up to Elk Camp Meadows and try snowbiking, while kids have a blast tubing, ice skating, sledding or skiing. After you have mastered the bike, have dinner and boogie to the live band. First Tracks is good anywhere, but even more so in Aspen. You get to head up the Silver Queen Gondola before the mountain opens, and follow an instructor down tracks that are pristine – not a snowflake out of place. Slide down the smooth corduroy run towards the base and take in the wonderful views over this town that in many ways paved the way for a luxury ski vacation.
Four of the best … hotels The Little Nell is the only ski in/ski out hotel in Aspen and is legendary for its service and style. It is ridiculously convenient, sitting at the base of Aspen Mountain with the Silver Queen Gondola just steps away. The ski concierge can organise everything for you, and even give you hot chocolate and fresh-baked cookies when you finish skiing for the day. The rooms and suites are opulent and spacious and the service? Well, it’s perfect. Hotel Jerome offers a unique blend of contemporary luxury and historic heritage, thanks to a major refurb in 2012. It is elegant, relaxed and luxurious, yet still has that indomitable mountain spirit complemented by an impressive array of western artefacts and artworks. Viceroy Snowmass is in the heart of the base village, with sophisticated rooms and suites, a year-round pool terrace and superb dining options. Its Ute Indian-inspired spa is just what you want after a day on the slopes, then sit in the elegant bar and enjoy the refined, intimate surroundings.Westin Snowmass guests can step outside and ski straight down to the Village Express chairlift and up, up and away to the delights of the mountain. It’s just as delightful inside, with a new modern design, an excellent restaurant and bar and it is steps from the shopping and nightlife in Snowmass Mall. •
As a destination for skiers and snowboarders, Utah often gets overlooked – which is a shame, because the state is home to some of America’s best winter resorts, not to mention incredible slopes.For a long time, Utah was the U.S. state most Antipodean skiers flew over on their way to Colorado resorts such as Aspen and Vail and Canada’s Whistler. But over the past five years, Utah has been stealing some of the limelight with its upgraded lifts, expanded ski terrain and entirely new communities, created by resort owners keen to inject fresh life into the three major resorts: Park City, Deer Valley and The Canyons. Add inspired new businesses such as the world’s only ski-in, ski-out whisky distillery, opportunities to heli-ski right from the resort, and world-class music acts, and you have all the ingredients for a cool winter break. It’s hard not to feel glamorous skiing in Park City – visit in January when the Sundance Film Festival hits town and you’ll share the slopes with a star-studded cast. Aside from the famous faces, much of Utah’s allure is in its accessibility: Park City is around a 35-minute drive from Salt Lake City airport; Deer Valley is directly next door and The Canyons ski area is also in the neighbourhood. 
Want to ski the steeper slopes of Alta and Snowbird, long-time favourites of more experienced skiers? Just book a shuttle through Park City transportation or Alta Shuttle and you’ll be whisked from your lodge to the adjoining valley, where the two are located, in an hour or so. Staying in Park City means you’ll have some of Utah’s best restaurants (Robert Redford owns one of them), bars and nightclubs on your doorstep. As a bonus, the town is on the U.S. tour schedule of major musical acts including LMFAO and Ice-T, both of whom performed here recently. Small wonder, then, that Paris Hilton and other “celebrities” often drop into town for the weekend. As for the slopes, the three resorts offer a smorgasbord of options for both skiers and snowboarders, though ’boarders are still not allowed at Deer Valley ski area. Intermediate runs dominate the resorts but there are plenty of options for beginners as well. Fans of high-speed cruisers will find themselves in heaven at Park City, which has some of the widest runs you’ll come across – think the ski-run equivalent of an eight-lane highway, perfectly groomed, and you’ll begin to understand the offerings. But don’t be fooled into thinking there is nothing steep: a quick hike around the higher elevations of the Jupiter Peak area will reveal expert-only terrain leading to a lovely steep pitch below.Deer Valley is a stone’s throw from Park City’s boundary. But despite their proximity, the resorts share no facilities, and skiing between them is against state law. Indeed, the two resorts couldn’t have more different atmospheres. Deer Valley is essentially a ski field built around a beautiful mountain community. Its runs are dotted with clusters of log cabins, condos and lodges including the historic Stein Eriksen (a favourite with Tom Cruise) and the new, five-star Montage. Both places are welcoming and friendly and are great places to refuel between runs. There’s plenty of slope-side accommodation in Deer Valley but with the bulk of visitors choosing to stay in Park City, guests rely on the regular shuttles that link all the resorts. If you do decide to bed down, you’ll have access to great food: Deer Valley has a reputation for serving up some of the best on-mountain meals, not only in Utah but in North America. Breakfast and lunch buffets overflow with fresh seafood and meats including wild boar, a local specialty. 
Deer Valley is also famed for its powder snow, and many visitors find its tree skiing the main attraction. Here, Utah’s light, fluffy snow – promoted on licence plates across the state as the greatest on earth – turns Deer Valley’s steeper slopes into exactly what thrillseekers are looking for.No visit to this area would be complete without taking in The Canyons. One of the newest commercial ski resorts in North America, The Canyons sparkles with brand-new condominiums, dramatic modern buildings and an array of stunning resorts and high-speed lifts. Initial infrastructural problems have been ironed out, which makes getting around smoother than ever: the Red Pine Gondola has been repositioned to drop skiers right into the village; another new lift offers heated seats in a glass bubble; and lounge chairs have been strategically positioned to soak up the sun. Advanced skiers will love the fact that Wasatch Powderbird Guides can land on a helipad in the middle of the resort, making it all too easy to ski over to the hut, hand over your credit card and fly away for some runs in untracked snow.Advanced skiers should include a trip to Alta and Snowbird on their itineraries. It does involve travel but you’ll be rewarded with some of the steepest and most dramatic terrain in Utah. Snowbird is enormous – one of those places where even the locals are still discovering new runs – and it is linked with Alta via a high-mountain tunnel. Alta has unbeatable terrain for advanced skiers and offers some of the best views in Utah: from the top of its ridges you can see Salt Lake City shimmering in the distance. While most people come for the snow, many linger for the shopping. The Park City area more than delivers in this field, with a wide array of shops complemented by an enormous factory outlet centre, TangerOutlets Park City, a 20-minute drive out of town. Be sure to take a roomy suitcase, as discounts are available on brands from Coach to Calvin Klein, not to mention all that cheap ski gear… •
If you thought that skiing in the United States was limited to Colorado, think again. Here, three alternative American states that are proving to be rather cool. IDAHOThere’s a saying among skiers in Idaho: Movie stars go to Aspen but the people who pay the movie stars go to Sun Valley. And they fit right in. Enjoying a shimmering setting in central Idaho, Sun Valley is one fancy snow resort. It’s skiing minus the hassles – there are no queues to use chairlifts; clouds don’t seem to settle on wide, blue skies; ski lodges dazzle with floor-to-ceiling windows, open fireplaces, stone walls; and the snow is first-class. Upon opening the resort nearly 75 years ago, the man behind the project, Union Pacific Railroad chairman W. Averell Harriman, declared: “When you get to Sun Valley, your eyes should pop open.” He wanted haute cuisine, perfect service and nightly orchestral performances to complement the pristine snow action. All that, yet Sun Valley doesn’t feel at all precious; in fact, it’s extremely convivial. The region of Idaho Sun Valley calls home was built on mining and, to this day, an air of blue-collar wholesomeness overrides all the gold-plated taps in the bathrooms. The town Sun Valley’s built around – Ketchum – still looks like a mining village, with wide streets and preserved historical buildings. Granted, most mining towns don’t have billboards advertising Flexjet – a private jet company that promises customers they can save themselves the hassle of public air travel – but you can still get a steak here for US$10 at some diners, with a beer thrown in if you go on the right nights. In Ketchum, even Hollywood hipsters have to wait for tables at favourite local restaurants. Unless, of course, they own said restaurants.
Bruce Willis owns a bar on the main road in Hailey in Sun Valley (and has been spotted playing gigs there on occasion); Tom Hanks has a holiday chalet here; and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s soon-to-be-ex-wife Maria Schriver specially requested that a short but particularly challenging Sun Valley ski run be named after Arnie for his birthday in 2001. The locals don’t pay much attention: they’re used to seeing stars around town. In 1936, Harriman enlisted a hotshot New York publicist to spread the Sun Valley word. What followed was arguably history’s most successful public relations stunt. The publicist offered the biggest Hollywood stars of the day no-expense-spared invitations to enjoy Sun Valley. The likes of Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman took up the invitation, attracting an ever-increasing circle of Hollywood starlets. The cooler Sun Valley got, the more the stars lined up for invites. The Hollywood beeline became such a swarm that Sun Valley was documented on the cover of Life magazine in 1937. Before long, Harriman saw his vision realised: Sun Valley had become the most glamorous ski resort in the United States. All the stars are still there today – black-and-white photographs on the walls of the Sun Valley Lodge show a young Marilyn Monroe (who filmed the movie Bus Stop in Sun Valley) alongside Clark Gable, Janet Leigh, John Wayne, Lucille Ball and the Kennedys. Writer Ernest Hemingway liked Sun Valley so much he chose to live in nearby Ketchum; allegedly, he wrote several chapters of For Whom the Bell Tolls in a suite at the Sun Valley Lodge. Still, gold trimmings and chandeliers only count for so much. A ski resort should always be about one thing: skiing, and that’s where Sun Valley’s strength lies. Many regard Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain, with its windless, steep slopes that drop more than one kilometre, as the best single-ski slope in the world. Fringed by picturesque pine trees, the runs are not for the faint hearted; even the green runs here will have your adrenalin pumping. But the terrain is stunning, and the views from the top of the ridges seem to stretch forever. Less experienced skiers are also catered for, as Sun Valley consists of two mountains and the other – Dollar Mountain – might have been designed for beginners and intermediate skiers – its vertical pitch is just 191 metres and it’s treeless, making it ideal for those who are new to the snow.CALIFORNIACalifornia may be synonymous with beaches and sunshine but it’s also one of the best ski destinations in North America. There are ski resorts stretching all the way from the north of the state to its Mexican border, and some, such as Mountain High, are easily accessible from major cities like Los Angeles. There are more than 30 ski resorts to choose from across California, and many of them – especially those located near Lake Tahoe – are close together, making it quite possible to sample a different resort every day. Best of all, because of California’s unique topography and climate, you can surf before breakfast and watch the sun set over the snow the same day. A 3.5-hour drive east of San Francisco, Lake Tahoe – America’s largest alpine lake – is the stunning centrepiece to the largest concentration of ski resorts in the country, most of them receiving more than 10 metres of snow in a typical season. Heavenly Ski Mountain, on the south bank of the lake, offers the best tree runs in North America, paired with lively Vegas-style entertainment options including casinos open around the clock. Mammoth Resort is popular for its elevation: it sits atop California’s highest mountain and boasts the state’s longest ski season – indeed, people have been spotted on Mammoth’s slopes in June. The resort, with some of the world’s best terrain parks, is a mecca for ski and snowboard pros. Just down the road, Squaw Valley offers equally impressive runs, with six peaks in a ski area that stretches across 1,619 hectares of mountainside.UTAHUtah is known as the powder capital of the world – the snow is so dry and deep here that you’ll need to master a whole new way of skiing. Each ski season, Utah receives more than 12 metres of the white stuff, making it the United States’ snowiest state after Alaska. Apart from its legendary powder falls, one of Utah’s biggest drawcards is the fact that its best resorts are easy for interstate and international skiers to access. Of the 13 world-class ski resorts in Utah, 11 are located within an hour’s drive of the state’s international airport. Touch down at Salt Lake City International Airport and you can be at Park City Mountain Resort, which sprawls over 1,335 hectares of skiable terrain, within 45 minutes of clearing customs. And the Canyons ski resort – the biggest of its kind in Utah, with nearly 1,500 hectares of terrain across eight mountains and five bowls – is less than 50 kilometres from the international airport. Both ski resorts are close to Park City, a former mining town that’s become one of the world’s premier après-ski villages, housing some 100 bars and restaurants, dozens of boutiques and a host of upscale hotels and inns including the world’s only ski-in, ski-out whiskey distillery.•
Colorado, California and Utah all offer an amazing array of ski resorts for those who want to head Stateside in winter, says Lee Mylne.On a ‘bluebird day’ in Colorado, you’ll step outside to cloudless blue skies, brilliant sunshine and dazzling white snow on the mountains. It’s the kind of day that skiers and snowboarders revel in, and that seems to be the norm on North American slopes.And while Colorado may have the highest profile of all America’s ski regions, there are plenty of alternative options for those looking for fresh slopes, each with its own challenges and personality. 
California and Utah, for instance, rank high on the hit-list of snow-hounds heading for North America. Snow in California? Yes, you heard right. It may be synonymous with surf culture and beaches but California is also home to around 30 ski resorts – so you can surf, then drive to the ski-fields in the same day if the mood takes you.There are ski regions throughout California, with the best-known areas, arguably, at Lake Tahoe, Mammoth and Big Bear. In northern California, Lake Tahoe, with 15 downhill and four cross-country resorts, boasts the highest concentration of ski resorts in the United States.Just four hours drive from San Francisco, the ‘Big Blue’ – as Lake Tahoe is affectionately known – is astoundingly beautiful. It has an average 10 metres of snow and 300-plus days of sunshine a year and, at an altitude of just 1,897 metres above sea level, it is easy to acclimatise. The second deepest lake in the United States, Lake Tahoe never freezes over, so skiers and snowboarders get the exhilarating feeling of skiing right down to a lake renowned for its crystal-clear water and vivid blue hue.
Heavenly Resort in South Lake Tahoe has just opened a new tubing lift, giving access to a new four-lane tubing area at the top of the gondola at Adventure Peak. If you have kids, they may not want to leave... at least, not until they head off to try the evening Snow Cat Tours on offer at nearby Kirkwood Mountain Resort, exploring scenic ridgelines by the light of the moon and stars. Not only is it home to famous granite karsts and stunning waterfalls, but California’s Yosemite National Park also encloses the state’s oldest ski resort. Badger Pass Ski Area celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2010 and is a great place to learn to ski or board, with 85 per cent of its downhill slopes dedicated to beginner and intermediate-level skiers.In ‘Ski Town USA’, the century-old Colorado town of Steamboat Springs, Stetsons and cowboy boots are as common as beanies and ski suits. Colorado’s western heritage is strong, even on the slopes. In fact, if you turn up on Mount Werner’s slopes for the chance to ski with former Olympian and World Champion Billy Kidd, now director of the Steamboat ski program, you’ll almost certainly find he’s wearing his trademark Stetson. A sign at the top of the gondola tells you if Billy is skiing that day, and you can join him for a run down Heavenly Daze.
Famous for its ‘Champagne powder’, an expression coined by local rancher Joe McElroy in the 1950s to describe the dry and fluffy snow found here, Steamboat Springs has an average 8.7 metres of snowfall every season. Kidd was the first American man to win an Olympic medal in skiing – a silver, at the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. He has called Steamboat home since 1970, but is not the only Olympic skier who lives here: the former silver mining town has so far produced 54 Winter Olympians, more than any other town in North America. Skiing started here on Howelsen Hill, the oldest ski area in Colorado, where the sport was introduced in 1913. The first Winter Carnival was held the following year, and it’s taken place every February since. 
Mount Werner, with 1,176 hectares of permitted terrain and 164 named trails to suit skiers of all levels, is one of six mountains from which skiers and snowboarders can choose – the others are Sunshine Peak, Storm Peak, Thunderhead Peak, Pioneer Ridge and Christie Peak. Mavericks Superpipe at Steamboat Springs, the longest in North America, is 198 metres long, 15.2 metres wide, has 4.6-metre walls and a five-metre radius. Steamboat’s terrain park features an outdoor sound system, a variety of rails and Mini-Mav, a miniature version of the superpipe with 1.5-metre walls, designed for novice riders. Over the past four years, more than AU$34.5 (US$30) million has been spent on improvements to the Steamboat Ski Resort area, adding enhanced terrain to challenge all levels of ability, faster and more comfortable chairlifts, and off the slopes, a host of new restaurants to try. Last season, Steamboat also poured AU$2.88 (US$2.5) million into – among other things – expanding its Kids’ Vacation Center, opening a new first-aid base facility and enhancing its already top-grade snowmaking system. Whether it’s a sunny day or one with heaps of fresh fluff, guests can be the first to enjoy the mountain through Steamboat Ski and Snowboard School’s popular First Tracks program. Instructors guide groups of skiers and riders through Priest Creek for untracked powder runs before others hit the slopes. Steamboat’s backcountry guide service, the Powdercats, offers access to 10,000 acres of pristine terrain on Buffalo Pass, 25 minutes from downtown Steamboat Springs. At Aspen, arguably Colorado’s most famous – and glamorous – ski resort, the Aspen Skiing Company invested nearly AU$9.2 (US$8) million in on-mountain improvements in 2009-2010. Over the past six years, it has spent nearly AU$150 (US$130) million on new lifts and gondolas, the Treehouse Kids’ Adventure Center, three new restaurants and the new Snowmass base village.Aspen/Snowmass has also become the only resort in North America to have hands-free radio frequency gate access across its four mountains. Tickets are a plastic card with a chip inside detecting guests as they move through lift lines – so there’s no need to dig in your pocket to find your pass or ticket. A tunnel for skiers is being built on Buttermilk above the terrain park to separate terrain-park traffic and regular skiers. Aspen/Snowmass continues to be the chosen resort for world-class events, including the ESPN Winter X Games at Buttermilk Mountain.With more skiers and riders searching for challenging off-piste terrain, Colorado ski resorts hold increasing appeal, with several options for the more adventurous, including heli-skiing, hike-to terrain and cat-skiing. For those who don’t mind doing a bit of hiking to find the freshest powder, plenty of avalanche-controlled, in-bounds, hike-to options are available that help manage the risks of shredding steep terrain and deep powder.On the other hand, if you’re looking to get at near-virgin terrain without taking the time to hike, you can also take a snowcat ski-and-ride tour. Many Colorado resorts offer guided and unguided tours for skiers of intermediate to expert ability, with access to diverse terrain. Telluride’s Palmyra Peak is home to more than 80 hectares and almost 610 vertical metres of in-bounds hike-to terrain, including runs The Peak, Tram Shot, Sunrise and Electric Shock. It is also home to Helitrax, a service that allows untracked powder skiing in small, personalised groups on some of the highest helicopter-accessed terrain in the world. Copper Mountain last year opened Woodward at Copper, the world’s first indoor/outdoor ski and snowboard camp. The 20,000-square-foot Woodward at Copper Barn gives campers access to Snowflex jumps, foam pits, a spring floor, Olympic-grade Flybed trampolines and indoor skateboard features. You can develop your tricks in The Barn, then progress to the terrain parks and Superpipe. Utah’s largest ski and snowboard resort, The Canyons, is one of the five biggest in the United States, with eight mountains – all part of the Wasatch Range that joins the southern edge of the Rocky Mountains. The Canyons Ski Resort is just four miles from the historic Main Street of Park City, best known as the home of the annual Sundance Film Festival founded by actor and director Robert Redford. The resort has more than 1,400 skiable hectares of diverse terrain, with 146 trails to suit everyone from beginners to extreme skiers and snowboarders. Since opening in 1997 as the third of Park City’s snow resorts, The Canyons has expanded to include 16 lifts, and is about to embark on more development that will open up hundreds more hectares of terrain over the next three years. Experienced skiers can also take part in the early-morning First Tracks guided ski tour, becoming each day’s first skiers onto the perfectly groomed Aspen-lined slopes.There’s also plenty to occupy a rest day. Utah Olympic Park showcases the city’s hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics and has a lot to offer, including a ski museum, a screaming thrill-ride on Xtreme Zip, the world’s steepest zipline, which gives you the sensation of ski-jumping while you’re harnessed safely to a cable, travelling at 80 kilometres per hour. And every day you can venture out again, knowing that each day is likely to offer – as it says on Utah licence plates – ‘The Greatest Snow on Earth’. •
It’s one of the world’s last frontiers, characterised by seemingly endless highways, soaring mountains and towns that seem to be stuck in time. But you come to Canada’s Yukon for its people, who match their surroundings in resilience.Let’s make sure there are no trucks on the road,” says pilot Dave Sharp, banking the seven-seat Piper Navajo to the left. The Alaska Highway below is deserted, but I spot another hazard. “It’s a bit bendy, isn’t it?” I ask timidly. “Yeah,” says Sharp, “but there is a straight stretch coming up.”Thankfully, Sharp is a seasoned bush pilot and he lands the tiny plane onto the highway with ease. As we touch down, I notice that the road, a major thoroughfare, is not even tarred. “It can’t be,” Dave explains. “It would all crack up in winter. There is permafrost right underneath.” We’ve landed in Canada’s Arctic Circle during the summer solstice, when the midnight sun kisses the horizon before bobbing up into the sky again. We have flown in from Dawson City, a speck of a town in the state of Yukon, to see this phenomenon. Fiery red and purple clouds catch the sunrays and diffuse them to a golden halo. These are the same rain clouds we’d avoided just a few minutes ago, lingering above Tombstone Territorial Park with its dramatic slabs of granite that remind me of my hastily filed folders back home, edging this way and that. 
To say that the Yukon is vast is an understatement. Up here, toasting the sun at midnight, we’re hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town and even farther from where we began. Dawson City, located at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers, was built on the proceeds of gold. Before the mineral boom, people settled here to fish for salmon and hunt moose up the Klondike Valley. After the discovery of gold in the late 19th century, a massive influx of prospectors from neighbouring gold-rush sites (San Francisco and Alaska were the closest) created a conurbation of unexpected proportions and the locals were moved to Moosehide, five kilometres downriver, to make way for the new residents.Dawson acquired city status in 1902 and became the capital of the new Yukon Territory. Canvas tents were replaced by hotels, saloons, opera houses, churches – and later on, schools – transforming the original mining camp into the biggest city west of Winnipeg and north of San Francisco. Strolling around town today, I can’t help but feel as though I’m on the set of a Western. The facades of buildings are ornately decorated and weatherboard houses and shops are painted in a rainbow of colours, from subdued pastels to brilliant oranges and reds, linked by raised boardwalks. I pass old-fashioned shops bearing their original names with period dresses in their window displays, similar to the outfits town guides wear to recapture the mood of times past. It turns out there’s a good reason for the boardwalks: much of Dawson is a frozen swamp. 
At the height of the Canadian Gold Rush in the early 1900s, Dawson earned a reputation as the Paris of the North.Most payments were made in gold dust and in busy places such as saloons, there was so much spilled gold that a profit could be made just by sweeping the floor. But for every lucky prospector, there were many more that failed to find fortune.The majority of the “stampeders” arrived far too late, when the gold fields were in the hands of big companies. After suffering incredible penuries to get to Dawson – whether they’d climbed the treacherous Chilkoot Pass laden with enough provisions to last each of them a year (a government requirement) or risked their lives on boats that, more often than not, sank – most found no stakes to claim and had to return home or stay on in Dawson as labourers. The winter weather contributed to their despair. I learn about all this firsthand from TRVL editor-in-chief, Kieran Meeke, whose grandfather, Henry McHenry, once called the Yukon home. McHenry had run off from home in County Antrim, Ireland, at 16 to join the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897. He was adopted by two prospectors and put in charge of their mules. Animals played a vital role in the Klondike. A good team of dogs was worth at least CAD$1,000 (CAD$27,000 in today’s money); a top set could reach CAD$1,700 (CAD$46,000). They were the only means of transport in the area and prospectors’ lives depended on them. McHenry’s most enduring memory was putting the mules’ heads under his coat, close to his chest, to warm them up and so he could pull icicles from their nostrils. After his time in the gold fields (and with a gold pocket watch encrusted with a big nugget to prove it), McHenry became an engineer with the Canadian Pacific Railway and eventually returned to Ireland to marry his sweetheart. He lived to be 83. His nugget watch, inherited by his eldest son – now living in Canada – is back where it began.Extraordinary tales of gold-rush women also abound in the Yukon – women who traversed the Chilkoot Pass, shot the rapids and finally arrived at the isolated community with its harshly cold climate. They came as entertainers, madams and, in a few cases, entrepreneurs; their modern-day incarnations include locals such as Wendy Cairns, a onetime can-can dancer who (with Kim Bouzane) bought the rotting 1900 Bombay Peggy’s building 14 years ago, slowly transforming the former bawdy-house into a themed boutique hotel in which every room is decked out with period furniture. On a crisp morning in neighbouring Whitehorse (530 kilometres south of Dawson), I find myself sitting beside a camp fire in the company of a group of women who have come to a retreat of a different kind: Beverly Gray’s stunning 2.4-hectare property in the mountains overlooking Rat Lake. Beverly is an herbalist, an aromatherapist, a natural health practitioner and health-product formulator, and my companions are all here to learn about local plants and their medicinal uses. Gray has a kettle on the open fire and passes around herbal concoctions that we drink from recycled jam jars before following her along a mountain trail to pick spruce buds for our salve-making session in the afternoon. The following day, I attend the launch of her book The Boreal Herbal: Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North, a guide to harvesting, preserving and preparing herbs and flowers, at the Aroma Borealis Herb Shop she owns in Whitehorse. Later, I take to the Yukon River for a canoe trip followed by a hike. The beauty is overwhelming. We retrace the steps of early prospectors just before the Whitehorse Rapids and find the remnants of a makeshift log tram once built to transport provisions. In the distance, we spot a group of schoolchildren learning how to kayak.They breed them tough from an early age in the land of the midnight sun. •
Once a city divided over language, heritage and culture, the Canadian metropolis of Montreal is united in its love of the arts, says Justin Wastnage.I had a sense that Montreal was going to be different the moment I picked up my newspaper. Having arrived in the dead of night in a standard North American limo and driven around very North-American-style streets, I had not glimpsed much of what makes the city so different from its US and Canadian peers. Yet any city in which a daily newspaper supplement of jazz edges out the sports section and the pull-out on autos deserves a closer look. Montreal was Canada's largest city until the pro-French language laws of the 1970s helped already-burgeoning Toronto take top honours. But Montreal continues to be considered the country's cultural capital. Foreign tourists to Montreal flock to the patchwork of seventeenth-century French buildings in the charming vieux quartier. But savvier visitors from neighbouring provinces and US states converge on the city every weekend to sample its vibrant arts, fine dining and eclectic fashion scenes. Montreal is, in short, very different from the Canada of picture postcards. Sure, there are Mounted Police but here, they are called gendarmes; there is a mountain but, at 233 metres, Mount Royal is hardly the Rockies; and while ice hockey is still a local preoccupation, festivals celebrating comedy, fireworks, and of course jazz, draw bigger crowds.
Much of the city's difference lies in the history of Quebec, the province in which Montreal sits. Settled by the French 400 years ago, it has a population of seven million people, who have stubbornly held onto a distinctly European way of life despite being located within a Commonwealth country. Today, half of all the wine sold in Canada is bought in Quebec - naturellement, as it's the perfect accompaniment to unpasteurised cheeses in which Quebec excels, despite their being banned almost everywhere in North America. The province's farms also produce foie gras in defiance of US-inspired food laws. Just as is the case in its big brother, New York, taking a walk around Montreal is the best way to appreciate its bold contrasts. Like New York, the city has a significant Jewish heritage and a multicultural mix that few other big cities can rival, and that has resulted in a metropolis comprising a series of village-like neighbourhoods rather than a sprawl of soulless suburbs. And just as New York, in the island of Manhattan, has a neat geographical tool with which to divide its residents into two camps, Montreal has a clear-cut dividing line in Saint Lawrence Boulevard. The innocuous street, officially le boulevard Saint-Laurent, separates not only east from west but new money from old, the creative arts from industry and, most importantly, French from English residents. 
As I stroll around one village, Le Plateau de Montréal, I am easily taken by its charm. Independent designer boutiques jostle for space on Saint Laurent with cafés, bookshops and specialty stores. The main street could have been transported here from any trendy suburb in Australia. But as I walked further away from The Main, as Montrealers call Saint Laurent Boulevard, I get a sense that Le Plateau is more than just another Prahran or Darlinghurst. In fact, Wallpaper magazine - the Bible for design, architecture and fashion aficionados around the globe - recently declared Le Plateau one of the hippest 'hoods in the world. Le Plateau has the highest population density in Canada and it's the sheer dint of numbers, often, that makes the area so vibrant. The former working-class suburb still has exterior staircases on its terraced, Victorian-era houses between upper-level units and ground-floor flats, giving the area a distinctive architectural twist. It is not only the vernacular architecture that reminds me I'm in an historic part of town. Settling in for lunch at one of Le Plateau's - and Montreal's - best-loved cafés, St Viateur Bagel, I am engaged in an argument most locals hold dear to their hearts. "Have you had bagels before?" I'm asked by Ruby, a typical Montrealer of mixed Caribbean, Arab and Scottish ancestry. Talk of Greenwich Village bagels or even of Warsaw beigels is quickly scotched as a great Montreal obsession takes hold. 
Montreal, not New York, is the home of bagels, I am told repeatedly and by many patrons. Bagels are hoicked out of the wood-fired oven 24 hours a day at St Viateur, and the café is a great spot from which to watch locals come and go. The dough here is boiled in honey-water before baking to make the dough less chewy, or so they tell me. Served with smoked salmon, cream cheese and lemon, it is indeed sublime.The Mile End part of Le Plateau is also home to Schwartz Charcuterie Hebraïque. Over 80 years, Schwartz's deli has welcomed pretty much anyone who's anyone in Montreal, from Leonard Cohen to Céline Dion. More upmarket culinary experiences can be had in the city, too, in the form of the specialised Olive & Olives and glorious Maison Cakao, where Canada's youngest female master chocolatier, Edith Gagnon, works her magic, her little shop reminiscent of Juliette Binoche's in Chocolat. Le Plateau is home to the bulk of Montreal's animation, film studio and computer-game technicians, who now make up a hefty proportion of the city's workforce. Once, it was the financial hub of Canada: today, the stock exchange's former home on Rue Saint-Jacques (once known as Saint James Street) is now more likely to be deployed as a film set for Hollywood movies. Due to strict city planning rules, five percent of any new development's budget must be spent on public art, and the streets of Montreal contain perfect examples of architecture from almost every period of North American modern history. Those rules, combined with favourable tax laws, mean blockbusters are in production most weeks, somewhere in this city, which has doubled on celluloid for Boston, Chicago and New York - though Robert de Niro let Montreal play itself in The Score. The workers on these films are a new kind of Montrealer: French-speaking, but equally at ease in English. The city's language battles of the past are now relegated to the past, it seems. Road signs, still, are written only in French but in stores, nowadays, there is translation where, a decade ago, there was none. The fall of the Berlin Wall made that city's eastern neighbourhoods "cooler" than those of the richer, established suburbs in the west. Likewise, the rise of a new French élite in the 1980s made the western, English-speaking half of Montreal deeply unfashionable. But in recent years, there has been a swing back. The Golden Square Mile, once home to half of all of Canada's wealth, was chosen by Formula One race-car driver Jacques Villeneuve as the location for his ultra-hip eatery Newtown (a translation of his family name) and the achingly cool Crystal de la Montagne hotel is one of a brace of design-led establishments to have opened its doors in the city's west in recent times.Both sides of a once-bitter linguistic divide get together over summer to party as only Montreal does. Starting with the Grand Prix in June, the city's events calendar bristles with outdoor festivals, held most weekends in summer. In the past, loyalties were divided between celebrating Quebec's national day, Jour St Baptiste, and commemorating Canada Day, which falls a week later. But truly, both are just a warm-up to the biggest ticket in town: the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. The world's biggest jazz festival, it attracts more than two million attendees annually. In 2008, local boy Leonard Cohen performed for the first time in 15 years and Woody Allen showed off his clarinet skills - but 2009 is the festival's 30th anniversary and people are talking about the prospect of getting Prince, Norah Jones and Aretha Franklin together on one free stage. As I bobbed back and forth with 100,000 others to the beats of 14-piece a capella group Naturally Seven, recreating the lush studio sounds of today's R'n'B singers, I couldn't help thinking that any city that does jazz this well has a perfect right to devote an entire section to it. I'd give it a whole newspaper.
