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Get INTO the Cold / Ski Travel / Stowe / Ski Resorts / Vermont Travel / → All Tags

Get INTO the Cold: Stowe, Vermont

Trying to flee the freezing temperatures sweeping across the country is natural, but predictable. Instead, do what folks in these frigid destinations do—embrace it and Get INTO the Cold. The trick to staying toasty is chill-killing gear and lots of bone warming activity. So stop moping around waiting for summer to arrive and head to these five crazy cold places and get your winter wonderland on.

Cold Meter: Moderate-High
Early mornings at this classic New England alpine resort town can be deceiving when the bright sun makes it a bearable 30 degrees. But the mercury quickly descends to a body numbing 3 by late afternoon.

Outdoor Adventures:
Skiing brings in beaucoup visitors to Stowe each winter season where two mountains are split into six different traversable areas. Mount Mansfield, the state’s highest peak at 4,395 feet, is where the big dogs hang out on the multiple wooded trails and “Front Four” black diamond descents. Expect to shell out some duckets for lift tickets (min $57 day per adult during early/late season; more during prime and peak times).

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Ski Travel / Ski Resorts / Colorado Travel / Tourism Boards / Skiing / Travel Contests / → All Tags

Colorado Picks Three 'Snow Virgins' For Three-Month Ski Vacation

Colorado's most recent we-really-hope-this-goes-viral marketing campaign is drawing to a close, as the state's tourism board has settled on three lucky "snow virgins" to get 3-month all-expense paid skiing trips. The entire contest—which began with candidates sending in personal videos before getting flown in for final interviews—hopes to leverage a bunch of new social media to get Colorado's slopes exposure.

The three winners, who can be found on SnowAtFirstSight.com, will use blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr to discuss their experiences. In any case the kids all sound exceptionally bubbly. Exceptionally bubbly:

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You Are Now Free to Ski in Mongolia

We know, you've been waiting and waiting for some Mongolian developer to finally open a resort on Bogd Khan Uul Mountain, the 914-meter peak that overlooks the capital, Ulan Bator. Well, the wait is over. As The New York Times points out, Sky Resort opened to skiers in November, with dirt-cheap lift tickets, lots of artificial snow making (while temperatures are very cold, Bogd Khan Uul doesn't get much snow), and a ski and snowboard school with 27 professional instructors. There are nine slopes in total, with names like Chuluut, a beginners run, and Khurkhreet, the resort's only black diamond run. Does anyone know how to say Cowabunga! in Mongolian?

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Ski Travel / Adventure Travel / Canada Travel / Skiing / Ski Resorts / Helicopters / → All Tags

Take A Helicopter To Ski Where (Mostly) No One Has Skied Before

Adventure sports company Canadian Mountain Holidays is already taking reservations for their winter packages, with a Canadian heli-skiing vacation scheduled for March 13-20. To save you the trip over to Wikipedia, heli-skiiing is when you crave downhill isolation so much that you actually book a helicopter to take you into a remote mountain region. The Tour D'Adamants vacation package - guided by TV sports commentator Bob Roll and Tour de France competitor Ron Kiefel and presumably part of the company's Powder Masters program - revolves around a stay in the isolated Adamant Lodge.

The vacation sounds awesome even before you begin to muse about the near-total lack of other humans, at which point it becomes exquisite. The price tag is where things begin to get a little problematic for us: $10,100 per person. So while we've been known to argue that remote vacations are literally invaluable, we find ourselves having to revise that number downward to mostly invaluable.

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The Ski Season Is Already Underway In Colorado

Many people are still putting the final touches on their jack-o-lanterns, but it’s already time to break out the skis from the storage unit. Winter has arrived extra early in some parts of Colorado this year. Last week a baseball playoff game was canceled due to a little snow and sleet, and the Loveland Ski Area fired up the lifts for the first time this season on October 7. It’s been cold enough and they've had the snow-making machines running at full force to get everything ready for the beginning of the season.

The resort is about 50 miles outside Denver and this is the first time they’ve opened this early in about 40 years—guess there’s no trouble with global warming up on the slopes. Unless some other ski resort sneakily opened their facility without any fanfare, Loveland is the first ski resort to open in North America this year.

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Ski Resorts / Ski Travel / Park City Travel / Hotels / Funiculars / → All Tags

Park City's Upcoming St. Regis To Get Equally Swanky Funicular

Right now, we're a little preoccupied with our summer cocktails and our river tubing spots to begin thinking about the upcoming ski season. Yet we did come out of our summertime haze for just a moment to read this press release about the first funicular to ever open at a North American ski resort. The lucky ski resort? Deer Valley in Park City, Utah.

The funicular, which is nestled at the base of the mountain at The St. Regis Deer Crest Resort’s Snow Park Building and is adjacent to Deer Valley’s Snow Park Lodge, ascends 500 vertical feet in just 90 seconds to the primary hotel building.

The funicular cars will have panoramic windows that are tinted and UVA and UVB-protected. They will also be heated (with AC operating in the summer) with leather seats and a separate area for luggage. Fifteen well-heeled (booted?) skiers can fit into these cars. But unlike other funiculars in the U.S., the Deer Valley cars will function independently so that "demand can be met at the base and top terminals."

The ride is free and the St. Regis is hoping you'll try the funicular on a lark and then of course, pop into their hotel to check out Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s new J&G Grill, a wine bar, or the Remède Spa, or the ski beach overlooking Deer Hollow ski run or the outdoor terrace with its 40-foot long firewall.

A 500-ton crane is installing the funicular as we speak but the St. Regis Resort won't be open until later this year.

Related Stories:
· Park City Travel Guide [Jaunted]
· The St. Regis Deer Crest Resort [Official Site]
· Funicular [Wikipedia]

Travel News Briefs / Pirates / Hotels / Continental Airlines / Ski Resorts / → All Tags

Somali Pirates Strike Again

With so much travel news raining down on us, we don't always have time to give every story its own forecast. Here's more of the day's news, in brief.

· Hostage Situation: Somali pirates took over a U.S.-flagged ship near the Horn of Africa this morning capturing about 21 American crew members. However, the crew was able to regain control of their ship except their captain is still being held hostage. Story unfolding. [NY Post]

· Continental Airlines Switching to Star Alliance: Continental just received U.S. approval to join the Star Alliance. This alliance, which includes United Airlines and Lufthansa, will allow Continental to offer passengers access to more routes and better prices. So they say. Continental is currently a part of SkyOne which includes Delta/Northwest and KLM Airlines. After a 21-public comment period, Continental then can join the Star team. [Chicago Tribune]

· Kentucky Derby Travel for the Rich Only?: Hotel room rates in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby are averaging about $350 a night with the Hyatt Regency going for $1,130 a night. Reasonable or insane? [HotelChatter]

· Hotelicopter Is Kind of Real: One more from our sister site...The Hotelicopter is real in the sense that it's a hotel booking site, not an actual hotel. Oh. [HotelChatter]

· Ski Season Almost Over Dude: Lake Tahoe is closing up soon and LA Times gives you the closing dates for the ski resorts in the region. [LAT Daily Deal and Travel Blog]

[Photo: LAT]

Zip Lines / Ski Resorts / Ski Travel / Big Sky / → All Tags

Zipping Through The Mountains In Snowy Montana

No matter the location, zip lines make any travel experience that much cooler. That’s why we’re tingly all over to let you know about the latest and greatest. The newest “zip” takes flight in Big Sky, Montana and will definitely give you a break from hitting the slopes.

The three lines range in length between 350 and 500 feet, and will let you reach speeds of up to 25 miles per hour while you are praying that the cable doesn’t snap. Speaking of breaking the cable, you’ll need to weigh in at under 300 pounds to take in the fun, so if your winter workout has consisted of chips on the couch—consider yourself warned. You’ll be whisked over the slopes, and the ride can likely help you get a sense of what runs you’ll want to ski when you return to the ground. Best of all, they’ll pick up your gear at the first zip line, and will have it ready and waiting for you when you finish with line number three.

Make sure you dress warmly as the wind is certainly going to be blowing as you zoom throughout the trees. This is the first ski resort to offer something like this in Montana, and with the whole experience takes about two hours—you’ll be back on the slopes in no time. So strap on a helmet, get cozy with that harness, and try your best to see some wildlife below.

For a video of the experience, go here.

Related Stories:
·Big Sky Resort [Official Site]
·Skiing Is Just The Beginning At Big Sky [Jaunted]
·You Can Fly On Hawaii's Longest Zip Line [Jaunted]

Ski Resorts / Ski Travel / Skiing / Snowboarding / Big Sky / → All Tags

Skiing Is Just The Beginning At Big Sky

If you’re trying to fill up that US map on the back of the Winnebago with state stickers, you should head to Montana this winter. Besides getting to say you’ve been to Montana, there’s some pretty good skiing at the Big Sky Resort. The resort is only a 45-minute rental car disaster away from the Gallatin Airport in Bozeman. There’s daily service on most of the major airlines, and a couple of smaller ones as well, so you should be all set.

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Mont Tremblant's Aerial Obstacle Course

Juliana might not have done the zip line at Whistler, but it's hardly the only ski resort with aerial insanity begging us to risk our necks this winter. Along with Heavenly's Flyer, Mont-Tremblant, a Jaunted fave, has a treetop obstacle course connected by zip lines known as the Acrobranche.

The full course will take you 2.5 hours to navigate and the resort sums it up best:

Fly from tree to tree using logs, barrels, bridges, trapezes and zip lines and more. Also try a rock wall followed by a succession of wild zip lines. Harnessed onto a steel cable, fly away for a series of breathtaking zip-line glides.

We'd pay C$39 ($31) for that for sure. If the ice, snow and cold doesn't make it edgy enough for you, try the night trip for C$10 more; après-zip line hot chocolate included!

Related Stories:
· Winter Activities at Tremblant [Official Site]
· Ski Resorts in Summer: Actually Worth Visiting? [Jaunted]

Whistler Field Trip / Ski Resorts / Canada Travel / Whistler Blackcomb / → All Tags

Skiing The Whistler Blackcomb Mountains

Juliana just took a field trip to the Winter Wonderland that is Whistler in British Columbia, Canada. All this week she'll be reporting back on what to do there this ski season. Remember this place will be jammed up for the Winter Olympics in 2010, so you might want to go now or wait until 2011. Any questions? Let us know.

Just because Whistler is in the Great White North where people are practically born on skis or skates--and the snow is seemingly endless--doesn't mean that only expert skiers need apply. Everyone can ski Whistler.

If you have your own equipment then you're good to go. If not, stand in the middle of Whistler village, close your eyes and point your finger. There's a good chance you will be pointing at a rental shop.

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Austrian Slopes Have Us Forgetting About Switzerland

Over Switzerland? We reckon skiing in Austria is just as good, and often not as pricey. Sure, there's a bit less Swiss chocolate but the Austrians still know how to give you a good time going down a mountain.

The Arlberg region in the southwest is one of the most well-known resort areas with half a dozen choices for skiers including St. Anton and St. Cristoph--perfect spots if you feel you need some saintly blessing. If you get there before January 30, low season prices let you ski for three full days for €110 ($147).

Closer to Salzburg in central Austria, Krippenstein is not for beginners but we love the name too much not to recommend it. It's famous for some spectacular off-piste possibilities with huge vertical drops and is home to the Freesports Arena. Three days here run just €86.20 ($115).

If snowboarding is the way you prefer to glide then Hippach is a good spot for you. Close to Innsbruck in the south, Hippach has 45 ski lifts and reliable snow cover--and quite a bit of local fame among snowboarders. A part of the massive Zillertal ski area, you can shred Hippach as well as many other peaks in the region on a Zillertal SuperSkiPass; four full days are €133 ($177).

And before you waste pre-trip time worrying about global warming, don't forget that Austria has put giant blankets on some of its peaks to prevent premature melting.

Related Stories:
· Ski Arlberg [Official Site]
· Krippenstein Skiing [Official Site]
· Zillertal, including Hippach [Official Site]
· Austria's Melting Peaks [Jaunted]

[Photo: rossjamesparker]