Peak Perfection

By Kurt Repanshek

Resorts out West are geared up for this season's skiers and riders. Are you ready?

A heavy frost in late August can be an ominous sign...unless you live in the Rockies, where it’s a welcome harbinger of winter. In this landscape decorated with stacked cords of firewood and forests touched with seasonal hues of red, gold and brown, an early winter means a long ski season, which is a good thing.

It’s a good thing for the locals who count days on the slopes, and it’s an even better thing for those who plan their vacations in places where they can be assured of mountains covered in thick, fluffy layers of snow.

Telluride Resort: For Easygoing and Big-Mountain Skiers Alike

Are you the type to start off your day with a smooth cup of hot chocolate, or do you prefer the jolt of a double shot of espresso? Telluride caters to both personality types.

On the slopes of this Colorado mainstay, you can ease into the day with a long, slow cruiser—the kind of run that lets you gradually warm up your legs—or you can jump right into Telluride’s Alps-like chutes, open faces and glades to get your adrenaline really pumping.

Framed by one of the Rocky Mountains’ most spectacular backdrops, the majestic San Juan Mountains, Telluride is the perfect winter escape for skiers and riders of all levels.

Those seeking a rush will enjoy a day making laps on any one of Gold Hill’s ten snow-hoarding channels, which funnel into Palmyra Basin down below. And the newly built Gold Hill Stairs give easier access to the upper chutes. It’s just the sort of terrain that lured the producers of Warren Miller’s Wintervention to Telluride. This winter’s film takes viewers around the world from Telluride’s Black Iron Bowl and Palmyra Peak to places such as the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, the Arctic Circle and Antarctica.

Adventures From Sunup to Sundown

If you prefer to rein things in a bit, Galloping Goose is a nice, not-quite-five-mile-long trail that gives you time to admire the surrounding 14,000-foot peaks while you’re plotting your day. And that’s just one run across the more than 700 acres of terrain at Telluride geared toward intermediate skiers and riders.

If you’re anxious to try something totally new, the resort staff can help: Telluride Eco Adventures organizes snowmobiling, heli-skiing and even ice-climbing excursions for those with a taste for serious excitement.

Day’s end doesn’t mean immediately turning in for the night either, as Telluride’s European Mountain Village and historic downtown feature world-class dining, shopping and spas to work out any kinks you might have developed during the day.

Deer Valley: An Industry Trendsetter at Only 30 Years of Age

There are older and larger ski resorts than Utah’s Deer Valley, but few that can match the run it is enjoying. This industry trendsetter has been ranked as the top North American resort by SKI Magazine readers for the last four consecutive years.

What’s remarkable about this run of excellence is that Deer Valley is celebrating its 30th birthday this winter, making it a relative youngster when measured against resorts that date to the 1930s and ’40s. At Deer Valley, the candles on the cake just signal another year to push the standards a bit higher.

Across its 2,026 acres, skiers—and only skiers, as Deer Valley is one of three resorts in the country to focus solely on skiing—have come to expect not only perfectly groomed runs in the morning, but also glades that hold powder stashes throughout the day.

Will You Be Ready For the Bumps This Winter?

How many bump runs will you be able to make on the first day of ski season without needing a break or three to catch your breath? Will you make that two-mile-long cruiser in a series of graceful swoops, or ski in staccato to give your burning quads some respite? Or will this finally be the season you, your lungs and your legs arrive at the slopes in shape?

Skier’s Edge can help get you there. A conditioning and technique machine that mirrors the rhythms of the slopes—moguls, steep cruisers, short swings and even glades—Skier’s Edge can get you in shape for that first day on the slopes or a multiday midwinter ski vacation.

“Some people may not have the opportunity to ski every weekend but maybe go for just a week. If they’re not in shape, their legs are killing them after a couple of days, and they have to take a day off to let their body recover,” says Joanne Loane, president of Skier’s Edge.

Strength training, cardio work and agility all can be improved by stepping onto Skier’s Edge several times a week and practicing the paces of a simulated mogul run or even a powder bowl. Otherwise you’ll have to remember to pack the ibuprofen with your boots.

The West Has It All

Rocky Mountain skiing and boarding is among the world’s finest, thanks to its mix of frequent storms yielding powdery snow, terrain that’s both challenging and accommodating, and outstanding scenery and lodgings. Deciding where to go is not your toughest decision; it’s determining how long you stay.

Deer Valley
www.DeerValley.com

The Skier’s Edge Company
www.SkiersEdge.com

Telluride Ski Resort
www.TellurideSkiResort.com