After visits to more rustic ski resorts, Vail and Beaver Creek bring back what it means to be pampered.
By YVETTE CARDOZO and BILL HIRSCH
Published October 12, 2003
[Photo: courtesy Vail Resorts]
The ice rink is aglow in the evenings at Beaver Creek.
ABOVE: Slopes at Vail are specially groomed for snowboarders.
RIGHT: Want pampering? A skier rides a moving walkway at Beaver Creek.
[Photos: courtesy Vail Resorts]
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VAIL, Colo. - We were standing on the front steps of the Lodge at Vail, fumbling with gear when a cheery chap grabbed our skis.
"No need to bother with this," he said. "We'll wax them for free and store them in our private ski check on the hill. All you have to do tomorrow morning is walk outside, grab them and go ski."
Fair enough. We went inside, to the registration desk.
"When would you like to test drive the BMW?" a helpful desk clerk asked.
"Do what?"
"You can take a BMW out for the day - take it anywhere, see if you like it," he answered.
Just like that? No membership in some club, no participation in a convention? Just be staying somewhere in Vail and these folks will turn over a $40,000 car for our amusement?
Well, yes.
We had forgotten what real service and attention to detail at an upscale ski resort can be like. We had spent years roughing it at new resorts to the north, where the guests are supposed to be, well, hardy and self-sufficient.
Over the next few days here, we became reacquainted with real service. Whether we needed ice for our drinks or extra pillows or information on where to eat,it was provided in a flash.
And there was much more.
Ski? Who skis?
To understand why, it helps to know that Vail is the place where modern, upscale, skiing started. Sure, before Vail opened in 1962, there were rustic ski towns in New England, and North America's first ski resort, Sun Valley Lodge in Idaho. But before Vail, not many places provided top service for the masses instead of for the favored few.
For years, this place was the gold standard of modern ski resorts. Then came Whistler, in British Columbia, and a host of Whistler wanna-be resorts across Canada. Plus a bunch of newly renovated places across the United States.
As time passed, Vail and neighboring Beaver Creek developed further.
They are still inventing services to pamper guests and adding adventures to keep them busy.
For instance, Vail's on-hill Adventure Ridge is the look of the future. Beyond the common skating rink and sleigh rides, it has enough to keep folks busy who don't care to put on skis. And it is located halfway up the mountain, providing the views.
You reach Adventure Ridge by taking the Eagle Bahn Gondola (so you don't need to be wearing skis) to the complex - apres-ski lounge, restaurant, children's center, skating rink and more:
* "Thrill sleds," which look like mini luges with hand brakes. Guided tours on these take you down ski runs after the skiers are gone for the day.
* Snowmobile tours, again across the ski hill after skiers have gone, that let you enjoy sundown from the top of the mountain or travel trails by moonlight.
Miniature snow machines, almost small enough to tuck under your arm, that kids get to ride on. These have real motors and go along a track on snow.
* Ski biking, which are bikes fitted with ski runners; they take a bit of learning to master.
* Laser tag, snowshoeing and tubing . . .
Of course, snow tubing at Vail has a hint of adventure but plenty of safety.
For instance, we sat in a mountainside shed to watch a training video that showed us how to ride up the tubing rope tow, how to sit on the tube, even how to slide down the hill.
Outside, we dragged huge inner tubes to the bottom of the rope tow, flopped onto the tubes and waited until someone hooked us up. And then the tow whisked us to the top, where we found a dozen lanes to tube in and lights that signaled when it was safe to go. Before we set off, we enjoyed the view toward the valley, framed by snowcapped mountains glowing pink in the setting sun.
Ping, the light turned green and we went, two of us hooked together, whooping and zipping down at a dizzying speed.
New ski runs, too
We also visited Blue Sky Basin, the latest addition to Vail's collection of skiing areas. This one is 520 acres - as big as some resorts - and gives a new dimension to Vail.
Call it "back-country light." This is a chance for skiers to ski through the trees and on winding trails - getting away from the crowds. .
Even the buildings are different. No huge, fancy lodges, no modern touches. The warming hut at the top of the runs is small and spartan.
All this is enough to keep guests busy for a week, but there's also Beaver Creek, 10 miles to the west. Beaver Creek has always come off as Vail's snooty upscale cousin - lots of amenities but relatively tame skiing.
Even that has changed.
The upscale touch is still here: If you think the ski-waxing service at Vail pampers, wait until you see the four outdoor escalators that connect various levels of Beaver Creek's Village, and the moving walkway that takes people who have already strapped on their skis across a bridge to one of the outlying lifts.
Unlike Vail, which stretches nearly a mile and a half across the mountain base and feels like a city, Beaver Creek's base village is cozy. It is filled with seriously expensive shops. (Dale Chihuly glass art, on-site bronze sculptors at work, shops devoted to breathtakingly expensive shelf art aimed at those who own the condos here.)
And the village is studded with little surprises, such as street entertainers and the "cookie ladies," who greet skiers with baskets of free, fresh-baked, cookies.
As a result, a room at Beaver Creek has become a truly hot property. An average, two-bedroom condo runs $500,000. And when 23 condos went up for sale in the new Ritz-Carlton for more than $1-million each, 93 people waited in line to buy.
For those who just come to ski, Beaver Creek's new terrain includes an entire mountain aimed at expert skiers (a sign at one point warns people to ski in pairs), a separate area called Bachelor Gulch with its own Ritz-Carlton hotel, and Arrowhead, a separate ski area with new townhomes, a small village and relatively easy ski runs.
- Yvette Cardozo and Bill Hirsch are freelance writers who live in Issaquah, Wash.
If you go
Getting there: Nonstop flights are available into Vail/Eagle Airport from Miami and Atlanta. The Eagle airport is a half-hour drive to Beaver Creek; Denver International is about 110 miles away.
Staying there: Though Vail and Beaver Creek have a justified reputation for being expensive, there are discounted packages available. The Lodge at Vail Skiers' Escape runs $199 per person per night midseason, for a three-night stay midweek; this includes daily breakfast and two days of skiing.
At Vail, early season packages for four nights include skiing, lift tickets, a lesson, equipment demonstration and dinner, for as little as $97 per person per night, based on quadruple occupancy in a two-bedroom condo. This would save about $500 on standard prices.
At Beaver Creek, early season packages including skiing, lodging, dining and use of the spa start at $332 per person for four nights, based on four people in a two-bedroom condo in nearby Avon. That is about half the cost of a standard package midseason.
For more information: Contact the resorts; the toll-free numbers and Web sites are:
ABOVE: Slopes at Vail are specially groomed for snowboarders.
[Times art]