Resorts across the country have worked hard to beef up their offerings and tackle systemic issues, from solving long ski lift lines and housing shortages in mountain towns to investing in renewable energy. With the right precautions, there are more reasons than ever to hit the slopes this season.

There is more ground to cover

Ski resorts spend years, if not decades, building their land. The wait is usually well worth it, with new glades, bowls, and butter trails to baptize. This season in Colorado, Telluride gets 40 new acres of beginner and intermediate terrain, including Grouse Glades, while Beaver Creek will open 250 acres of easy skiing, with two quads and 17 new trails in Bolish McCoy Park. Last February, Idaho’s Sun Valley pulled the curtain down on 380 acres, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, many were unable to ski it. It’s your year.

The biggest expansion is at Bluebird Backcountry, located near Steamboat Springs, Coloado, and the only fully elevator-free ski area in the United States. It will open 12 new trails, for a total of 25. This includes four ravines that are patrolled and controlled for slides, with steep slopes that slope at 45 degrees, increasing its avalanche-managed area to 1,200. Si sounds intimidating to you, sign up for the Bluebird + membership to access off-piste lessons, seminars, and as many half-day clinics as you want throughout the season (from $ 250).

Bird watching on skis

In the early months of the pandemic, Americans began to watch birds as depraved raptors. It’s a surprisingly delicious passion that also pairs well with skiing. Sign up for Alta’s Birding on Skis tour and you’ll set off on a half-day adventure through Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon in search of resident populations of Pink Finches, Mountain Chickadees and, if you’re in luck, maybe a mating pair of golden eagles that frequent the area below Devil’s Castle at 10,920 feet. Tours start at 9 a.m. to Alta’s Collins Elevator over epic black diamond terrain and end at noon in the Albion base area. A conservation ecologist from Salt Lake’s Tracy Aviary will be there to help distinguish nuthatches from lianas. Because you’ll be contributing to a study of the area’s birds, the tour is free and includes a half-day ski pass. Participants must be at least 12 years old and able to ski on a groomed blue slope.

To take off

This winter will see the unveiling of the most technologically advanced end-to-end transporter on this side of the Atlantic. Introducing the Kancamagus 8, aka Kanc 8, at New Hampshire’s Loon Mountain Resort, the East’s first eight-pack and one of the nation’s few behemoths. This particular beast features heated ergonomic seats that look something like a SpaceX rocket, a locking safety bar, individual footrests, and, of course, a tinted bubble to ward off the frigid New England wind. The extra-large chairs can be turned at up to 12.5 miles per hour, making the Kanc 8 the fastest lift of its size in the United States, and can carry 3,500 skiers per hour to a ski resort. medium mountain in 4.5 minute increments, which is barely time to cool down your quads. This is probably the kick-off for a national overhaul to lift the tech. Next up is Montana’s Big Sky Resort, which will launch the Swift Current 6, an impossibly fast heated six-pack (read: 13.6 miles per hour) that will increase climb capacity by 50%.

Accommodation gets an upgrade

Most destination ski resorts need a strong real estate scene and high occupancy rates to help fund any upgrades that keep us coming back. This winter brings a host of new places to take a nap at some of the country’s most iconic resorts. Aspen Snowmass will see the opening of Viewline, a mid-mountain luxury resort that includes an Ayurvedic spa, 254 rooms and 20 suites with sheepskin throws and superb ski-to-door access (from $ 329). Meanwhile, in Park City, Utah, the Pendry (starting at $ 1,500) opens at Canyons Village with 152 rooms and the city’s only rooftop pool. The most sensational project is one of the biggest of its kind to land in Montana: the Montage at Big Sky (from $ 1,395). With half a million square feet in the heart of the mountain village, the stunning 139-room and 39 residences overlook the 8,400-foot Spanish peaks and features six restaurants, an indoor pool, 10,000 square feet. -foot spa, and, right on the doorstep, a 450 foot tube park for the kids. Of course, the 5,800 skiable acres just beyond your black marble bathroom are the real draw.

An innovative solution for ski resorts

The housing shortage in mountain towns has intensified after a housing boom fueled by a pandemic ousted longtime residents and decimated the local workforce. Summer visitors to these locations report long waits and fewer services due to understaffing. Where does that leave us this ski season?

Stations planned in advance. Starting this winter, Aspen, Solitude, Sugarbush, Vail and others will pay tipped employees at least $ 15 an hour, more than double the federal minimum wage. Mount Bohemia, Mich. Will beat them all by paying $ 20 an hour. But finding affordable housing is always tricky, especially if you want to settle down.

Enter the Big Sky Community Housing Trust, a newly formed nonprofit that is making Montana’s paradise of 3,000 full-time residents and some 4,000 vacation homes one of the most promising ski towns to live in. and work.

The trust, which is partially funded by a tourist tax, builds on an idea that takes place in Vail, where the town pays owners a percentage of the value of their property in exchange for the property’s saddle with a deed restriction that slows appreciation, lowers the selling price, and helps build a more affordable housing stock.

The Big Sky version uses grants and resort tax money to give second, third and even fourth home owners grants to rent their pads to local workers at discounted rates instead of taking the Airbnb route or Vrbo. The trust is also a key player in the construction of 52 magnificent condos with restricted deeds that will sell for half of their market value, with a strict cap of 2% on annual appreciation.

That’s a big difference in a place where the average condo now costs $ 1 million and a single-family home will cost you $ 2.2 million. “A Joe who works regularly just can’t do that,” says Laura Seyfang, the director of the trust. “We’re trying to create a little balance here.”

The other end of the Rockies

There is so much in Colorado and Utah to be excited about this winter, with new lifts in Breckenridge, Keystone and Snowbasin – to name a few – and a cat-ski operation s opening at Dry Gulch in the Loveland Ski Area. But if you have the time and means for just one trip, take advantage of it by heading to Taos Ski Valley. The New Mexico resort, perhaps the least traveled of the major resorts in the Rockies, averages 300 inches of snow per year and has a handful of new offerings this season. To get started, you can sign up for an exclusive three-day learning session with Olympian Deb Armstrong (Gold, Giant Slalom, Sarajevo 1984), who will personally help you get out of your bad angulation or whatever hurts you. suffer. She’s in high demand though, so for the rest of us there’s the new pro-guided Taos experience, where a local ripper will show you secret hiding places and the best way to put your tails in the drop line on the black doubles off West Basin. Crete. Back in the village you will find new attractions such as an ice rink, sleigh rides and a ski service building.

Power for powder

Despite all the fresh air, exercise, and soul reset that sliding down snow-capped mountains offers, resort skiing can be pretty rough for Mother Nature. So it’s worth mentioning that Alterra, Boyne, Powdr and Vail – some of the gaming’s biggest resort conglomerates – came together over the summer to tackle climate change by signing a deal to reduce the impact. while pushing for policy changes that make renewable energy the norm in the resort industry. This winter, Park City will take a big step toward that goal by tapping into the Elektron Solar Project, an 80-megawatt solar farm southwest of Salt Lake City that will provide the resort with every last drop of electricity. by 2023.