Stateside: This year’s pistes de resistance

Snow is already falling in the Rockies and operators are
confident of a strong season as ski bookings begin to surge. Ski
Independence product manager Nick Laver said: “We’re up 52%
year on year – it’s shaping up to be a good season.
Colorado’s doing particularly well.”

Head of Crystal Ski Melvin Westlake agreed. “All our US resorts
are doing well and bookings are up on last year. There’s lots
of added value with US ski holidays. We have free lift passes, free
ski days and free ski and boot hire for kids.”

Copper Mountain’s complimentary lift pass for anyone
staying seven nights, available through all operators, means a
family of four can save almost £600 on a week’s skiing.
Here’s Travel Weekly’s round up of what’s on
offer for skiers heading stateside this season.

What’s new? At Buttermilk, the gentlest
of Aspen’s four areas, a new high-speed quad chairlift will
stop mid-way allowing beginners and children to access the easy
runs, while the icy structures built for the extreme X Games
(January 28-29) will stay in place all season for the first time in
the Crazy T’rain Park. The St Regis Hotel reopens with a spa
after a $40 million refit. A ‘pay for eight days and get
14’ lift pass deal is available through operators from
£155.

Best for: experts love Aspen’s tough
Highlands, while Snowmass is a good all-rounder.

Sell it: seven nights at L’Auberge
Cottages lead in at £591 with Crystal Ski, including
breakfast, flights and car hire.

What’s new? The valley town of Avon gets
its own base area – Beaver Creek Landing – from which
skiers can access the main slopes with two fast quads via the
village of Bachelor Gulch with its swanky Ritz-Carlton property.
The move increases the fast skiing between the main Beaver Creek
pedestrian village to the east, and the quieter Arrowhead village
to the west.

Best for: intermediates, stylish beginners and
boarders.

Sell it: seven nights’ room-only at the
ski-in, ski-out Pines Lodge lead in at £716 with Ski All
America, including flights and car hire.

What’s new? Long overshadowed by Vail,
Keystone is now growing in popularity and is continuing to expand.
This season the terrain park and new jumps and rails and snowcats
will access two more bowls for serious off-piste action.

Best for: off-piste tree skiing, but
there’s plenty for all levels.

Sell it: seven nights’ room-only at West
Keystone Condos lead in at £546 with Ski Independence,
including flights and car hire.

What’s new? Increased snowmaking will
make the US’s biggest ski resort even more reliable, and a
yurt – a large Mongolian style tent – is a good place
for picnic lunches. But this is the calm before the storm, as plans
progress for a luxury hotel complex and stylish pedestrianised
square at the rather tired Lionshead base.

Best for: intermediates and experts.

Sell it: seven nights at the plush slopeside
Lodge at Vail lead in at £779 with Thomson Ski, including
breakfast, flights and transfers or car hire.

What’s new: a 10-year, $250 million
scheme to turn the base of Spruce Peak into a plush new village is
underway. Visitors will see a more open beginners’ area with
several buildings demolished, and faster access with the high-speed
Sunny Spruce quad chair replacing the 1963 Little Spruce double.
Another new lift, the Adventure triple, serves the new Adventure
beginners’ area.

Best for: learners, intermediates and
boarders.

Sell it: seven nights’ room-only at the
four-star Stoweflake resort and spa start at £516 through
Inghams Ski Luxury, including flights and transfers or car
hire.

What’s new: the Crags, a huge new
experts’ area with off-piste bowls, chutes and trees, plus
1,000ft of vertical drop, opens this season. Previously unstable
and strictly out of bounds, it’s now snow-controlled and is
likely to be a must for experts.

Sell it: rough, tough skiers and boarders.

Try this: seven nights in a single-room cabin
at the Cowboy Village in Jackson town lead in at £422 with
Inghams, including flights and transfers or car hire.

What’s new: famed for its extreme
terrain, Taos has modified some runs to attract beginners. The base
area is expanding with the plush Edelweiss condos and spa, bistro,
bar and restaurant ready this season, and work now starting on a
luxury hotel. The Out To Launch terrain park is also new.

Best for: serious skiers only – no
snowboarding allowed.

Sell it: seven nights at the slopeside Inn,
Snakedance, lead in at £863 with Ski Independence, including
breakfast, flights and car hire.

What’s new: a $10 million investment has
enlarged the beginners’ area and ageing chairlifts have been
replaced with a new six-passenger lift.

Best for: all-round skiers and boarders.

Sell it: seven nights at Embassy Suites Resort,
next to the village gondola, including full breakfast, aprés
ski drinks, flights and car hire start at £719 with Virgin
Ski.

What’s new: a $4million revamp of the
Mammoth Mountain Inn, the resort’s ski-in, ski-out
centrepiece has given the previously functional lodge a style it
seriously lacked. A high-speed quad replaces the old triple Chair
17 from the Canyon Lodge base to a new top point, opening up a new
beginners’ area which is easily accessible from the new
Mammoth Lakes village.

Best for: everyone. Mammoth’s runs range
from steep bowls to easy cruises.

Sell it: Crystal Ski’s California Ski
Week, with five nights at Mammoth Mountain Inn and two nights in
Los Angeles, costs from £659 in December, including flights
and car hire.

What’s new: already famed for its
challenging terrain, Snowbird has created a Superpipe to further
challenge skiers and boarders. The 400ft x 50ft monster will be one
of the US’s best and will be open this season. The new
Snowbird ski school plans an array of courses on how to tackle the
toughest terrain – skiers and boarders welcome.

Best for: strong intermediate and advanced
skiers.

Sell it: seven nights’ room-only in
slopeside Cliff Lodge start at £557 with Crystal Ski,
including flights and transfers. Children aged 12 and under get a
free lift pass.