SKI CENTRAL and for this
SKI CENTRAL and for this winter, the new Swift Current 6, the nation’s fastest six-skier chair. Both new lifts are heated and covered, increasing uphill capacity from the base by 50%. This is important because Big Sky is also debuting three new hotel properties this winter (see below), plus many more upgrades in the next four years, including a new two-stage gondola. The biggest terrain expansion in the U.S. is McCoy Park at Colorado’s Beaver Creek, where all accommodations at the resort are ski-in/ski-out, including lavish rental homes and two top-tier hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch (ritzcarlton.com) and Park Hyatt Beaver Creek (hyatt.com). Beaver Creek’s last major terrain expansion added the experts-only Stone Creek Chutes, a taste of backcountry skiing within the resort. This time they are taking a completely opposite tack, and McCoy Park is a new 250- acre zone dedicated to beginners, intermediates, and instruction, free from high-speed advanced skiers, with 17 blue and green trails, including rare entry-level tree skiing in “groomable glades.” It is served by two new high-speed quad chairlifts, which uniquely also access an on-mountain Nordic center with crosscountry and snowshoe trails. Telluride is famous for having extensive terrain for every ability, including a large advanced-intermediate zone and steeps and chutes to challenge any expert. This winter the Colorado destination is increasing its already ample beginner and intermediate offerings with 40 acres of new trails in a previously closed area. The mountain is also substantially increasing its snowmaking coverage to provide reliable conditions across more trails, especially in the early holiday season. Also in Colorado, Copper Mountain, the closest big resort (140 trails and 24 lifts) to Denver, is opening phase one of its new Western Territory, a beginners area with two new family friendly adventure zones designed for learning and three new trails. A high-speed chairlift is being built in this new section of the mountain for the following winter. Travelers planning a ski trip to the Lake Tahoe region will not find many new infrastructure improvements this winter, but they may find confusion—the area’s largest resort (and largest in California) just completed a year-long search for a new name, and the former Squaw Valley, which hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics, is now officially Palisades Tahoe. LIFTING OFF Beaver Creek is not alone in adding new lifits in the wildly popular I-70 corridor west of Denver. With its nearby sister resorts Vail, Breckenridge, and Keystone, Beaver Creek shares the interchangeable Epic Pass and many visitors combine the resorts in a single ski trip. Breckenridge, the second most popular resort in the U.S., is adding the new high-speed fourpassenger Freedom SuperChair, reducing lift lines and allowing skiers to much more easily navigate the three interconnected peaks without requiring a trip to the bottom. Keystone has a new high-speed six-passenger chair from its original base area, Mountain House, greatly improving start-of-the-day access, before skiers fan out across the large resort. In Jackson, Wyoming, the town’s original ski resort, Snow King, which opened in 1936, is getting a long overdue upgrade with a new base-to-summit gondola scheduled to open in December. Snow King is in the cowboy town of Jackson and has plenty of excellent skiing that is now much more accessible, though it still lies in the shadow of the nearby Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Vermont’s Okemo, meanwhile, has long been the top second-home choice for those from the New York area, and with nearly 100% snowmaking coverage and acclaimed grooming, it is the second most popular ski resort in the Eastern U.S. Okemo is adding two major new lifts, a six-passenger chair and a new high-speed quad to the summit, plus a trail to the new lift that will allow skiers to lap the peak without going back down to the base. BEDDING DOWN Montana’s Big Sky is undergoing a renaissance, and that includes the highest-profile luxury hotel opening in skiing, the new Montage (montagehotels.com). The brand’s second ski-in/ ski-out property (following Deer Valley, Utah) was designed by interdisciplinary architecture and interior specialist Hart Howerton and features 139 rooms and 39 residences, a large spa, six bars and restaurants, a market and café, full ski concierge, and a rental shop. Like its Utah sibling, Montage rolls out the red carpet for families with amenities including an arcade and bowling alley. In addition, both existing Big Sky base village hotels were so extensively renovated they are like-new. The condo-style Summit (thesummithotel.com) has multi-bedroom residential units and conventional guest rooms, while the Huntley Lodge (bigskyresort. com) is a more traditional hotel. Another multiyear redevelopment is taking place at Schweitzer, a hidden but hardly small gem on the Idaho/Washington border that is the largest ski resort in either state at nearly 3,000 acres. It is also one of just a handful of resorts anywhere with both sno-cat and heli-skiing onsite, and sits just 12 miles from private aviation facilities (Sandpoint, Idaho). This sleeping MOUNTAIN HEIGHTS top row: Aspen Street Lodge; Tamara Stanger, chef of The Lakehouse at Deer Creek, Utah; the Alpin Room, Aspen/ Snowmass; middle row: the ski lift at Okemo, Vermont; fine dining at the Alpin Room; the slopes of Schweitzer Resort, on the Idaho/Washingon border; bottom row: a treelined run at Okemo; Timber Room at the Madeline, Telluride; Beaver Creek’s village. ROWS FROM TOP AND LEFT: TREVOR TRIANO, DAN CAMPBELL, © ALPIN ROOM, © OKEMO, © ALPIN ROOM, © SCHWEITZER SKI RESORT, © OKEMO, © AUBERGE RESORTS, MACKENZIE BOWLIN / VAIL RESORTS 44 NetJets
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