COLORADO COOL
Colorado Cool - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Colorado Cool | |||||
| By: Hilary Doling And Jenny Caspersonn, Issue 31 – Winter 2007 | |||||
| (Colorado, USA) | |||||
| SKIERS DREAMING OF CHAMPAGNE POWDER ARE BOOKING THEIR OVERSEAS LUXURY SNOW TRIPS NOW. | |||||
| The snow is deep, the powder is fine, the slopes are groomed to perfection and the accommodation is first class. What other reasons do you need to book that stateside ski trip now? We profile three perfect North American resorts for luxury loving skiers. | |||||
| TELLURIDE | |||||
| Walk down the main street of Telluride and the road just runs out, ending in a snow-covered backdrop of jagged mountains and cobalt-blue sky. This is as far as you can go – you’ve taken the road to the clouds and ended up here. Telluride has turned from a silver-mining town to a glamorous ski resort but there is still a feeling of seclusion. Those who love the resort feel as if it is their own personal secret. Telluride’s admirers include a fair spattering of the rich and famous who don’t want to be part of the scene at Aspen. “Aspen is where stars go to be seen, here they come to escape”, is something the locals love to tell you. They also claim to be unimpressed by recently having the likes of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in their midst (Cruise has a house here). I’m sure that’s true because Telluride folk are as down to earth as the historic main street which still has a frontier feel. Built in 1895 the most beautiful historic inn in town is called, ironically, the New Sheridan Hotel because it replaced a wooden hotel that was burnt down. One evening we head for the New Sheridan’s dark wood saloon and I feel we should all be talking with a John Wayne drawl, a honky-tonk should be playing in the corner and women of dubious reputation with feathers in their hair should be propping up the bar. Across the road, The Last Dollar Saloon is equally western in feel. So much so that until recently a local character used to ride up to the bar on horseback to treat his horse to a bucket of beer. The horse is dead now, probably from cirrhosis of the liver, but the atmosphere lingers on. Telluride’s other claim to cowboy fame is that Butch Cassidy is said to have robbed his first bank on Main Street and there is a gold plaque to commemorate the event. There are no chain stores, although a worrying number of new real estate agents have set up shop which suggests times are a-changing and there could soon be multi-million dollar tags on the newly built condos. At the moment however all this means is that there is a level of sophistication here to please even the most discerning visitor without the loss of a small town feel. Telluride is quite simply a delightful town. Nevertheless what draws people here are the majestic mountains. Up at the mountain village you’ll find luxurious new accommodation and high tech ski lifts. The Franz Klammer Fairmont Lodge is the fabulous five star right on the village square but my favourite for luxury-lovers would be The Mountain Lodge Telluride which has elegant slope-side apartments with open fires and perfect après ski sofas as soft as a snowdrift. As for the skiing, it is sublime. There is a range of runs from double blacks through to some great blues and sweeping greens for end-of-the-day-cruising. This is a pretty resort to ski with wide runs winding through pine trees and under bridges and mind-blowing vistas from the mountain tops. It’s a seductive mountain too, you really don’t want to stop skiing. One day we hire a Slope Tracker, a digital device you wear on your arm which clocks the amount of runs you do and the speed you travel and converts it all into a personalized trail map you pick up at the end of the day. We cover nearly twenty five miles of terrain and come down 19,150 vertical feet and are still loath to leave the mountain. Serious skiers should book a private tour with Telluride Helitrax, the only helicopter skiing in Colorado. If you do want a day off from skiing try snowmobiling. We take a back-country tour which includes a visit to the ghost town of Alta and a stop in a meadow for serious hooning around. Feeling particularly hungry after our deep snow adventure we go downtown to Rustico Ristorante on Colorado Avenue. It is owned by an Italian-Australian, so you get wonderfully authentic food and someone to chat to if you’re homesick. For another culinary treat head to Cosmopolitan next to the base of the Gondola in the boutique Hotel Columbia, at night its candlelit windows beckon and it offers some of the best food I’ve eaten at any ski resort. I recommend the chicken and dumplings and the warm chocolate pistachio bread pudding. After dinner we take the free 13-minute gondola ride back up to Mountain Village. As the lights of the little town recede below us there is only the ghostly pines and the snow shining almost silver in the moonlight. Telluride it seems is still a silver town after all. | |||||
| VAIL | |||||
| Half way down Birds of Prey – Beaver Creek’s double black diamond World Cup Downhill Course – I pause to catch my breath. Ignoring the glorious panorama of the Colorado Rockies in the late March sunshine, the perfect snow and my pounding pulse, I ponder the serious racers who come down here at 145 kph. My ski chaperone, himself a former Australian ski team member, cheerily informs me the course is sheet ice when the serious racers do their thing down Birds of Prey. Right now I’m feeling more like a goose or a dodo than a falcon. Now remind me where I am. Surely not the prissy and pretentious gentle ski hill I’d expected of Beaver Creek but a serious mountain 16 kilometres west from big sister Vail. Purpose built in the 1980s, Beaver Creek boasts the up-scale touches to impress the high-end skier. But don’t be fooled by the ritzy polish. With about one third the terrain of Vail and similar elevations, Beaver Creek stands alone as both a splendid resort and challenging mountain. And no one’s complaining about knocking the more tedious edges off the ski experience. Who wants to clomp up pesky steps in ski boots? I’ll take the covered escalators, thank you, along with the heated pavements and freshly baked après chocolate cookies. It’s Day 2 of this Spring skiing adventure in Vail, America’s largest ski resort. When it opened in 1962 Vail boasted one gondola, two chairlifts and $5 lift tickets. These days Vail sprawls over eleven kilometres east west with 193 named trails. Vail is divided into three distinct areas: the welcoming slopes of the front side of the mountain, the seven steeper, more expert Back Bowls and the remote pine glades of Blue Sky Basin. For the never-ski-the-same-run-twice enthusiasts there are enough wide cruisers, spectacular tree skiing, terrain parks, powder bowls and bumps to satisfy. With a base elevation of 2,476 metres and a summit elevation of 3,527 metres Vail offers 2,140 hectares of high, dry snow. It is claimed that Vail is all things to all people; the only thing it isn’t is small. Vail Village is sandwiched between the busy Interstate 70 and the mountain along a narrow river valley. Village expansion has spread east and west but an efficient shuttle services the three main regions of Lions Head, Vail Village and Golden Peak. Part of Vail’s $500 million redevelopment plan, the imposing Arrabella development in Lions Head, opens late 2007. Arrabella will join the Lodge at Vail, with its outstanding Wildflowers restaurant, and the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort & Spa, 150 metres away from Eagle Bahn gondola, among Vail’s top accommodations. Over at Beaver Creek, sitting exclusively at the base of Bachelor Gulch express lift, the grand lodge architecture of the ski-in ski-out Ritz Carlton beckons. This handsome hotel provides far more commodious lodgings than those of the lonely silver miners of the early 1900s after whom the area was named. Even Batchelor, the hotel’s adorable Golden Labrador in residence, would be doing better. Rescued from the pound, Batchelor is the star of the hotel’s complimentary Loan-a-Lab programme for guests who left Rover at home and are pining for their pets. And when the holiday within the holiday is required, requisite pampering is provided at the hotel’s recently refurbished Batchelor Gulch Spa complete with magnificent Romanesque pools. Don’t miss the scenic snow-cat sleigh ride up to Beano’s Cabin. This is not the original 1919 Beaver Creek cabin of lettuce farmer Frank ‘Beano’ Bienkowski but a 150-seat fine dining restaurant complete with roaring fire, live music and a menu featuring specialties such as elk, rotisseried buffalo and rack of wild boar. If Vail’s vast terrain and Beaver Creek’s swanky touches aren’t enough, Vail’s four-resort package includes Breckenridge, an historic Victorian township 56km east of Vail, and nearby Keystone. Popular with families for quality kids’ programmes Keystone tempts advanced skiers with snow-cat skiing to remote, inaccessible terrain. Luckily 30 centimetres of fresh powder fell for our exhilarating snow-cat adventure. A long lunch afterwards at the Alpenglow Stube restaurant completed another perfect day. Gradually Australian skiers, dodging unreliable local conditions, are discovering Northern Hemisphere Spring skiing. When many North American resorts finally close it’s rarely because there’s insufficient snow but because running costs cannot be justified with so few skiers. So crowds are minimal, hotels and airline prices are kinder, as are the temperatures. Boasting 300 days of sunshine a year, skiing in t-shirts is not uncommon. And perhaps rocketing down Birds of Prey at 145kph might not be your thing but here in the variety and vastness of Vail there’s sure to be something that is. | |||||
| ASPEN | |||||
| The Aspen Mountain ski slopes are as groomed as the celebrities who stay here, the runs as smooth as a botoxed face. Which is surely no more than you’d expect from a resort that has been a haunt of the rich and famous since the 1940s? Celebrity spotting is part of the game at Aspen. Apparently the accepted reaction on spotting a star is to feign disinterest and then desperately SMS the details of the brush with fame to everyone you know. As I ski down one perfect platinum blonde run to the chairlift I hear the attendants whisper: ‘there’s Elle’ as they stare after a leggy ski-suit clad figure disappearing into the mist. I don’t have a mobile to SMS anyone on, but I feel brushed by stardust just the same. Another day I am almost sure Goldie (Hawn) is next to me at the exclusive Aspen Club & Spa, and was that short guy with the glasses in the Deli really Stephen (Spielberg)? – I like to think so. The town of Aspen lies between four separate ski areas: Aspen Mountain, officially called Ajax, (intermediate/advanced level), Snowmass (wider runs for all levels), Buttermilk (great for beginners) and Highlands (locals, and advanced skiers love this one). This means you have access to a tremendous variety of runs and experiences. Each day you can ski a different resort, and even have your skis valeted from one resort to another so you don’t have to carry them – this is Aspen after all. One day I take the high-speed gondola (complete with iPod docks) up Ajax, and ski the steep, groomed runs. On another I head to Highlands and it begins to snow; great fluffy flakes that mean we ski through knee-deep powder all day. At night the town, lit up with fairy lights and coated in white, looks equally magical; especially when right on cue, as if a Hollywood director had yelled ‘action’, a horse drawn carriage rolls past, jangling with bells. There are so many good restaurants it is difficult to know where to start. Montagna Restaurant at the famous Little Nell Hotel is great for stargazing, while locals will tell you they love Takah Sushi, an institution in Aspen and L’Hostaria, where the food and the atmosphere are equally addictive. Out of town the Degustation menu at Willow Creek Bistro at the Ritz Carlton, Aspen Highlands stands out. Lovers of the high life also need to book an a la carte lunch at Cloud Nine Bistro atop of Aspen Highlands. You can ski or snowboard to the bistro, then dine at over 3,000 metres with magnificent views of the Maroon Bells mountains wearing their thick layer of snow like a white mink coat. Après ski drinks should be in 39 Degrees, at the chic Sky Hotel at the foot of the Ajax gondola, or for a more traditional, older crowd try the bar at the Little Nell. Later in the evening get yourself an invitation to the members-only Caribou Club. The historic Hotel Jerome is still a wonderful place to stay with its antiques and pillows piled snowdrift high on the beds. The hotel is undergoing a grand refurbishment so by the start of the ski season it should be looking very plush indeed. You can book into a range of apartments including the Little Nell Condominiums through Frias Properties. Those who want to stay beyond five stars can go one stage further and rent a private house. At the very top end of the market specialist brokers like Nelson Bell will cater to your every whim, finding incredibly luxurious houses for you to rent and then making sure that everything from the choice of movies to the way the kitchen knives are laid out is exactly to your taste. Bell numbers Will Smith and Maria Carey among his clients, (although he would never tell you that himself: discretion is the name of the game with the rich and famous). He’s redecorated rooms, changed furniture, put in toboggan runs and converted whole rooms into private bowling alleys – then changed it all back again when the owners of the exclusive properties return. Through Bell you can stay in a $US27 million house from around $10,000 - $15,000 a night, which if you think about it is quite a bargain. | |||||
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