Ski and Be Seen

Park City, Utah

Hang out with the Sundance Film Festival’s rebellious offspring—the lower-wattage film festivals that run concurrently across town in Park City. First, score some seats at the 12th Slamdance Film Festival (January 19–27; 323-466-1786, www.slamdance.com), which was hatched by filmmakers who were rejected by Sundance and is dedicated to showcasing work by first-time directors. Or catch some free viewings at the six-year-old X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival (January 20–24; www.x-dance.com), where you can see action-sports films ranging from skating to surfing to motocross. In all the excitement, don’t forget to bring your sticks so you can hit Park City Mountain Resort’s Jupiter Bowl. Preening Hollywood types don’t tend to ski.

Kitzbühel, Austria

This January 20–22, watch the world’s top skiers try to survive the world’s most unforgiving downhill course, above Kitzbühel. Austria’s Hahnenkamm Race, now in its 66th edition and 39th year on the World Cup, has created such heroes as Franz Klammer, who won the event a record four times. The knife-edged derring-do of racers is breathtaking: If the 260-foot jump in the “mousetrap” doesn’t send these shrink-wrapped huck dolls skittering, there’s still the unsettling prospect of catching an edge while hurtling at nearly 90 miles an hour through the Zielschuss Kompression. www.hahnenkamm.com

Aspen, Colorado

Even if the sight of motocross bikes launching 70-foot gap jumps to the thump of rap music doesn’t twist your throttle, Winter X Games 10 shouldn’t be missed: It’s the best party in Aspen. January 28–31, more than 200 athletes compete at Buttermilk Mountain in disciplines like slopestyle, superpipe, and snowmobile snow-cross. While 70,000 people gawk at the high-fliers at Buttermilk, the slopes of Ajax and Snowmass are often less crowded. At night, tens of thousands converge on Aspen’s Victorian streets, where the bars overflow. 800-525-6200, www.aspensnowmass.com

Chatter Creek, British Columbia

By late January, the heart of British Columbia is on its way to another 30-foot winter, so head on up to snowcat-ski 60 miles north of Golden at Chatter Creek Mountain Lodges—a six-year-old operation that’s already created a buzz among Bombardier aficionados. Chatter Creek—owned and operated by four former heli-loggers who felled trees to build a 9,200-square-foot lodge in a single summer—offers a white-collar powder-skiing experience (tricked-out snowcats, massages, fancy lettuce on your dinner plate) with a blue-collar feel (snowmobiles, pool tables, canned beer). Three-day trips start at about $1,350; 250-344-7199, www.chattercreekcatskiing.com.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

According to snow geek Tony Crocker, the Tetons usually have the best snow conditions in January, when colder temps keep the white stuff fluffy. This makes it a perfect time to attend the January 26–29 Jackson Hole Steep and Deep Camp, where you can hone your high-angle techniques. Each morning, small groups of four to six skiers get on the resort’s early tram and hit the mountain hard, learning how to deal with tight gullies, execute crux moves, and billy-goat their way out of trouble. The $820, four-day clinic includes instruction, lunches, lifts, two dinners, parties, and video analysis. 800-450-0477, www.jacksonhole.com

Lake Tahoe, California

A hard-skiing winter isn’t complete without pulling up a chair(lift) to the all-you-can-eat buffet that is Lake Tahoe in winter. Surrounding the lake, or a short drive away, are 15 resorts. The wild card, says Tony Crocker, is California’s snowfall variability, which is among the highest in the West. So rent a car and follow the most auspicious snow reports. As a general rule, Tahoe’s north shore is a better bet for higher snowfall, says Crocker. Translation: Think places like Squaw Valley USA and Northstar-at-Tahoe, with its newly revamped base village. With the most snowfall (550-plus inches) in Tahoe, Kirkwood will have the best conditions if it hasn’t snowed much recently. 888-824-6338, www.skilaketahoe.com

February

Mt. Baker, Washington

Come winter, a jet stream often trains like a fire hose on this near-mythical ski area that once received a world-record 1,140 inches of snowfall in a single year. At the annual Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom, February 3–5, 300 racers—from ankle-biters to Olympians—take their shot on the same racecourse: a natural sluice that careers down the mountain. The laid-back extravaganza culminates on Saturday night with a salmon barbecue for 600. $40–$55, depending on category; 360-734-6771, www.mtbaker.us

Wasatch Range, Utah

Want to poach six resorts in one day? Sign on with the Ski Utah Interconnect Adventure Tour and you’ll sample up to six Wasatch Range resorts before the sun drops over the Great Basin. Be one of 12 skiers to don avalanche transceivers and take the Deer Valley Resort lifts before they open. After a few powder runs, you’ll hop over to adjacent Park City Mountain Resort. Then leave the ropes behind for a two-mile backcountry descent to the base of Solitude Mountain Resort and on to nearby Brighton Ski Resort. Next, it’s back to Solitude, across the dramatic 500-yard traverse called Highway to Heaven, and into Little Cottonwood Canyon via Twin Lakes Pass. Another long backcountry run deposits you at the upper base of Alta Ski Area. But your quivering legs aren’t done yet: You’ll drop into Mineral Basin, return to the mountaintop, and ski to Snowbird’s base before catching a shuttle back to Deer Valley. The $175 price tag includes guide, lunch, lifts, beacon rental, and transport; 801-534-1907, www.skiutah.com/resorts/interconnect

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

There’s a charming wholesomeness to Steamboat’s 93-year-old Winter Carnival. Today’s version (February 8–12) takes over the entire town. A favorite event: the Friday-night phenom where a celebrity exhibitionist covers himself in glowing lightbulbs, then skis down the mountain launching fireworks from his pack. Head to Howelsen Hill to see if someone can break the world record in the gelandesprung—a ski-jump contest in which leapers use standard alpine gear. Many events are free; 800-922-2722, www.steamboat.com

Bardonecchia, Italy

Forget figure skating and soporific biathlons: At the XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy (www.torino2006.org), unpack Old Glory and head 40 miles west to the town of Bardonecchia, home of all the snowboarding events. There, February 16–17, Vermont’s Lindsey Jacobellis, 20, and Maine’s Seth Westcott, 29, are both early favorites to mine top metal in the new medal sport of snowboardcross, a.k.a. SBX. (Think motocross on snow, with four athletes plunging down a banked course, elbow to elbow.) Tickets, $59–$151; 877-457-4647, www.cosport.com

March

Telluride, Colorado

More than a century ago, Butch Cassidy stormed the San Miguel Valley Bank, in Telluride, Colorado, and snatched more than $20,000. In an unusual celebration of that heist, Telluride Ski Resort can relieve you of your own 20 grand. After flying in to Montrose or Telluride, you and three guests are picked up by helicopter and flown to town, then driven by snowmobile up to Tempter House, a sumptuous ski-in/ski-out rental perched on a 12,200-foot ridge. For the rest of the weekend, the ski patrol is your chauffeur. There’s also an on-call massage therapist, a personal butler who waxes skis, and a breakfast delivery each morning. $20K (really!); 970-728-6900, www.tellurideskiresort.com

Jay Peak, Vermont

A beautiful thing called orographic uplift, coupled with 3,861 feet of Jay Peak—the biggest summit that storms pass over after barreling across Canada for hundreds of miles—guarantees that this small but storied ski area gets walloped with 355 inches of natural snowfall each winter. Some of the best stuff falls in mid-March, when the days are blessedly warmer. Track the Doppler, then drop in for a midweek powderfest at this 2,153-vertical-foot Wolf Creek of the East, starting with a tram run up to Tuckermans Chute. Lift ticket, $58; 800-451-4449, www.jaypeakresort.com

Moonlight Basin, Montana

Feeling strong after almost five months on skis? Test your quads against the hale Montanans’ on March 18 at Moonlight Basin’s mini-triathlon, the Headwaters Spring Runoff. Competitors boot it up a timed hike of nearly 1,000 vertical feet to the top of the resort’s Headwaters, a crashing fist of a mountain face. Competitors choose a run down lines like Hellroaring for the race’s freeskiing segment. This trifecta ends with a 1.5-mile Super G race to the resort’s midmountain Madison Lodge. Last year’s men’s champ, a ski patroller, smashed the other 50 racers’ times by more than two minutes and took home $1,700. Still feeling a little soft for hiking? This year, Moonlight installed a double chairlift to access the Headwaters, increasing the resort’s lift-served vertical terrain to 2,720 feet. Entry fee, $75; 866-212-0612, www.moonlightbasin.com

April

La Grave, France

Imagine signing up for a ski race with no gates, minimal groomed piste, and no fixed route. Now imagine that said race also plunges 5,900 feet through bumps, crud, and icy patches on the flanks of 13,081-foot La Meije. You’ve just envisioned the tallest downhill ski race on the planet, and the centerpiece of the Derby de la Meije festival (April 4–7). The race begins atop the famously raw ski area of La Grave, which overlaps with Ecrins National Park, in southeastern France’s Hautes-Alps. From there, taking in some great views of the mountain’s treacherous glaciers, up to 1,000 racers depart in waves of ten. Chuckleheads abound: A few years ago, an American lit something resembling dynamite on the back of his mono-ski to propel himself over the flat section of the glacier, where the race turns off-piste. About $70; 011-33-4-76-79-90-05, www.derbydelameije.com

Livigno, Italy

Check your alpine bindings—and your inhibitions—at the valley’s entrance when you head for the Live Free Heel Fest (formerly La Skieda), a weeklong grappa-drenched party that bills itself as the world’s biggest tele-skiing festival. As many as 1,000 heel flappers from some 20 countries—a virtual bent-knee United Nations—descend on the small mountain village of Livigno, in northwestern Italy, April 1–8, to participate in silly races (a crowd fave in the past has been the slalom through heavy, swinging bags that knock racers out of their boots), a film festival, cookouts, gear demos, and guided daily ski tours for up to 100. $170, including lift tickets and all events; 011-39-0342-052230, www.livignofreeheel.it

Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia

Whistler’s Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival is the season-ending blowout. Last year, the pros showed their stuff on the rails, boxes, and hips of the terrain park in the slopestyle events. The centerpiece of this April 14–23 bash is the superpipe, where boarders and skiers air 20 feet out of the pipes. But what really attracts the 275,000 revved-up groms and jibbers are all the other off-hill events—free concerts at the foot of the ski hill; a nighttime urban rail session under the lights, attended by 7,000 fans pumped full of Red Bull–and–Jägermeister antifreeze; pro photo and filmmaker throwdowns in front of keyed-up audiences; and parties throughout Whistler Village. 604-938-3399, www.whistler2006.com

Chilkat Mountains, Alaska

In the spring, the skies over Valdez buzz with choppers from nearly half a dozen heli-skiing companies, so if you’re looking for the lonesome Valdez experience of 15 years ago, do like ski-porn auteurs Teton Gravity Research and Absinthe Films: Head southeast to discover the new heli-skiing frontier of the Chilkat Mountains. The ragged Chilkats have better weather than the Chugach range during the March and April flying season—and, some say, better snow. Sign on with Alaska Heliskiing (formerly Out of Bounds Adventures) and you’ll likely get snowboarding star Tom Burt as your guide ($3,750, based on a five-person group for six days of skiing and eight nights’ lodging; 907-767-5745, www.alaskaheliskiing.com). If you stay at Bruce and Carrie Bauer’s bed-and-breakfast (907-767-5668), by Mosquito Lake, you can practice your jumps and tricks on Bruce’s homemade terrain park.

Mammoth Mountain, California

Every resort says it has spring skiing, but if you want heavenly April turns, Tony Crocker advises heading to Mammoth. Why? “No Sierra Nevada mountain preserves its snow as well,” Crocker says. This 3,500-acre resort has the high altitude (9,000 feet) to keep the place open until Memorial Day or later 90 percent of the time, and the cycle of warm days and freezing nights is the recipe for perfect corn snow. Spring lift ticket, $56; 800-626-6684, www.mammothmountain.com