Canada
B.C.: Want a drone to capture all your moves on the mountain? Head to Fernie Alpine Resort, 3.5 hours southwest of Calgary, to book a package through Cape. It’s the only ski resort in Canada to offer drone video, and it costs between $100 and $200 for three runs with the drone. For more details, visit cape.com.
Or at Revelstoke Resort, a 2.5-hour drive from Kamloops, try the new Paparazzi Pass – eliminating the need for awkward GoPro fiddling on your way down the slopes. Download the app and ski past the six cameras spread throughout the resort, and high-def video downloads onto your phone.
Alberta: Canada gets its first heated ski lift at Sunshine Village, 90 minutes outside Calgary. Protected by an orange bubble cover, heated seats will make the five-minute-long lift up Lookout Mountain much more pleasant.
How does moonlight dining at 7,000 feet sound? This season, Mt. Norquay’s Cliffhouse Bistro will open up four nights for full-moon meals under the lunar glow and overlooking the sparkling lights of Banff.
Quebec: Beginner skiers should check out the new terrain-based learning slopes at several resorts in the eastern townships. No more snowplowing to slow yourself down, sculpted dips, banks and rollers give new skiers a better, truer feel for the sport. Owl’s Head and Mont Sutton have the new slopes, and Mont Orford has doubled the size of its beginner area. quebecski.ca
Ontario: There’s a new spa in the village at Blue Mountain. At Iwa, try the Japanese style stone-bed
sauna called the Ganban-yoku, a hydronically heated stone.
They’ve also got hot-rock yoga classes, plus massage and the
usual round of spa treatments.
USA
Utah: The big story is the $50-million (U.S.) investment by Vail Resorts into Canyons and Park City Mountain resorts. An eight-passenger, high-speed two-way gondola now connects the two mountains for skiers, and the company has rebranded the entire 7,300-acre ski area as simply Park City. There’s also a brand spanking new restaurant at the terminal of the new gondola – it’s called Miner’s Camp, but the food will be much fancier than the name suggests.
Vermont: Bring the kids to Stowe Mountain Resort. Book into the new, luxury suites and rooms at Spruce Peak Centre right at the base of the Spruce Peak lifts and connected to Mount Mansfield by a gondola. This new half-billion-dollar complex includes a rock climbing wall, skating rink, kids activity centre, ski school and daycare and restaurants – a one-stop shop for families.
Don’t want to stay near the ski hill? Check in to Field Guide, a 30-room, high-end boutique hotel in Stowe, just a 15-minute drive from the slopes. Rooms from $139 (U.S.).
Colorado: Sure there’s a new High Alpine lift on Snowmass mountain this year, but what’s caught our attention at Aspen Snowmass are the ski-in/ski-out spa treatments at the Viceroy Snowmass resort. In desperate need of a quick hamstring rub? Glide right into the slopeside spa for help, then right-as-rain back onto the lifts after a special 30-minute treatment.
Also welcome at Aspen Snowmass is the price reduction of teen lift tickets to children’s rates. Even better? Kids under 12 get a free lift ticket when they rent skis at the resort’s Four Mountain Sports.
Wyoming: The new Teton lift opens up intermediate and advanced terrain that could only be reached before by hiking up. Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Jackson Hole resort is also proud of its new on-mountain bistro, Piste. Part of the celebrations include half-price lift tickets for skiers who show a season’s pass from any ski resort in the world. The catch? You’ve got to ski in Jackson between Jan. 11 and 31. But by then your ski legs should be ready for the infamous chute, Corbet’s Coulier.
Europe
Italy: The stunning new cable car up Mont Blanc that opened this summer is ready for ski season. Leaving from the town of Entreves just outside Courmayeur resort, SkyWay Monte Bianco travels four kilometres up to a dizzying 3,460 metres with cabins that rotate 360 degrees so no one misses out on the views. Now, off-piste runs such as the Vallée Blanche to Chamonix and Toula Glacier to Courmayeur are easier to reach.
France: At Val Thorens, Another new modern boutique ski resort opens in the highest ski resort in Europe. Hôtel Pashmina le Refuge, a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, opens its doors in mid-December offering guests ski in/ski out access, top-notch service and restaurants, a L’Occitane spa and a heated rooftop see-through-tent for a chance to sleep under the stars.
Austria: Outside Salzburg, a new run and a new gondola have joined the four ski areas of Saalbach, Hinterglemm, Leogang and Fieberbrunn into one of Austria’s largest ski areas with the most modern lifts. High-speed and heated chair lifts make covering its 270 kilometres a lot more comfortable.