Keystone Lodge Opens New Spa
In Colorado's Summit County, the venerable Keystone Lodge is now the Keystone Lodge and Spa (tel. 877/753-9786; www.keystoneresort.com), thanks to the new 10,000-square-foot RockResort Spa, open both to resort guests and the general public. In addition to its own version of standard massage, body and beauty treatments, it boasts an infinity-edge chromo therapy tub, with changing lights that seek to transport you into a realm of tranquility. Lovely extras included heated robes and pre-treatment foot soak. The lodge is partway through a total makeover, including guest rooms and public spaces, so specify a room away from the action when you book. The popular Bighorn Steakhouse overlooking Keystone Lake has also been expanded.
Women's Heli-Skiing Trip Set for Spring
Estrogen replaces testosterone during Canadian Mountain Holidays' five-day "Chicks in the Chopper" (tel. 800/661-0252; www.canadianmountainholidays.com). Lodging is in the comfortable Galena Lodge in the Selkirk Range. The program includes five days (March 31-April 5) of guided heli-skiing, all meals and relaxation, socializing and camaraderie back at the lodge. No previous heli-skiing experience is required, but participants need to be at least very strong intermediate skiers. The price is $5,651 per person, based on twin occupancy.
Map Magic in Utah
One Utah resort helps you plan where you are going; another tells you where you've been. Park City Mountain Resort's (tel. 800/331-3178; www.parkcitymountain.com) Personal Mountain Planner (www.parkcitymountain.com/winter/planner/planner.html) enables you to preplan your skiing on this complex mountain. Find it on the resort's website, then click on the type of terrain you like to ski and whether you prefer an energetic or relaxed day. The website will design a free custom tour for you to print out. Neighboring Deer Valley (tel. 800/424-DEER; www.deervalley.com) rents GPS-equipped SlopeTrackers that keeps monitors, remembers and analyzes your ski day, including number of runs, vertical feet skied and more. It costs $35 a day, including a color map detailing your ski experience.
Salt Lake Super Pass Includes Public Transportation
The multi-day Salt Lake City Super Pass, available from Ski Salt Lake Reservations (tel. 877/SLC-4FUN; www.ski-saltlake.com), individual lodging properties in the Salt Lake City, and tour operators, is good at Alta and Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon and Brighton and Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon. The 4- to 6-day pass is a good value to begin with and is even better because it includes UTA light rail and bus transportation between the valley and the resorts.
New Technology at Venerable Alta
Hands-free ticketing has come to Alta (tel. 801/359-1078; www.alta.com), the Utah powder pocket that celebrates its 69 anniversary this winter. The card is loaded with lift pass purchase information and can be reloaded for another trip. On the resort's website, enter your Alta Card's ID number to personalize it, track your Alta ski history and reload the card when you are ready.
SolVista Upgrades Day Lodge
The name SolVista Basin at Granby Ranch (tel. 888 850-4615; www.solvista.com) is almost bigger than the resort, a compact, economical and family-friendly destination near Winter Park, Colo. They've invested $5 million to expand and modernize their day lodge. The attractive 19,000-square-foot, two-story Base Camp Lodge includes a totally renovated cafeteria, new lounge, a new full-service indoor/outdoor restaurant called the Seven Trails Grill, espresso station, and user-friendly equipment storage and retrieval systems.
Montezuma Bowl Opened to Raves
Colorado's Arapahoe Basin (tel. 888/ARAPAHOE; www.arapahoebasin.com) debuted in snow-choked splendor, increasing the high-altitude area's terrain by 410 sensational acres. One new fixed-grip quad accesses the bowl's 36 runs (nine extreme, 21 advanced, six intermediate, zilch for novices). Montezuma Bowl's 1,100 vertical feet of open slopes, cornices, chutes and glades have a distinct backcountry feel -- but with A-Basin's snow safety team performing avalanche control. In this or any future heavy-snow, slide-prone season, this is not a trivial re-assurance.
Colorado-based Claire Walter is an award-winning freelance writer and author, specializing in skiing, travel and food. She maintains a travel blog at travel-babel.blogspot.com.
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