By Christopher Solomon
December 3, 2006

After stagnating throughout the 1980s and '90s, visits to ski areas in the United States reached a record last winter, with skiers and snowboarders logging some 58.9 million trips to the slopes, a study for the National Ski Areas Association reported. That's the high point in a six-year climb out of the doldrums, and the ski industry is hoping the trend continues.

Heavenly The first big winter storm last week laid 10 inches of new snow on Heavenly Mountain Resort at Lake Tahoe, and snowmaking will be cranking 24/7 to open even more terrain.

To that end, snow enthusiasts will find much to keep them happy this season. The average age on the slopes retreated slightly, to 35 years old last winter, so expect more amenities that grab the interest of Generation Y (and beyond): challenging terrain, terrain parks and even more hotels aimed at the young and the hip. But graying baby boomers and their money still drive much of the industry, and there will still be plenty of comfort and convenience.

Here's a look at some of the most notable developments around the North American resort scene.

Parks and pipes

First, there were half-pipes, those sawed-off cylinders in which snowboarders (and later, skiers) performed their McTwists. Then came superpipes, with walls up to 18 feet from transition to lip. With skiers and boarders getting even better and everybody wanting to soar like Shaun White (aka the Flying Tomato), now a few places are showing off epic pipes with walls up to 22 feet. Look for them this winter at terrain park hot spots like Park City Mountain Resort in Utah, (800) 331-3178, www.pcski.com; Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, (800) 626-6684, www.mammothmountain.com; and Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe, (775) 586-7000, www.skiheavenly.com.

Terrain parks continue to evolve and change. Echo Mountain Park, near Evergreen, Colo., www.echomountainpark.com, which opened last spring, is the buzz of the industry. Echo Mountain is, in essence, a skate park in white, its 50 acres chock-full of rail slides, boxes, picnic tables and “knuckles” to slide across, not to mention many berms and lips for catching air. Hip-hop and heavy metal rattle the sole chairlift. Plus, it has a price-is-right lift ticket ($25 from Monday to Friday, $35 on weekends).

A stronger trend among resorts, however, is to take a step back, sometimes way back. “The areas are figuring out that it's not the big features, it's the smaller features” that are increasingly important for their customers, said Tim White, director of education for the National Ski Areas Association. Simply put, people need a place to learn what the big boys already know. And so at Adventure Peak at Heavenly this winter, many of the “features” – rails, boxes, etc. – will be pressed almost completely into the snow, or protrude just a few inches, so newcomers can get the hang of them without major consequence.

Angel Fire Resort in Angel Fire, (800) 633-7463, in northeastern New Mexico, www.angelfireresort.com, has likewise added its similar Lowrider Park on a separate slope to help skiers and boarders build up their confidence.

Getting around

Resorts keep trying to enhance the “skier experience” by tweaking all the factors that have an impact on a vacation, including making it easier to get around on and off the snow.

One of the most talked-about projects is at Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, near Salt Lake City, (800) 232-9542, www. snowbird. com, where a 600-foot tunnel has been bored through the mountaintop and a glorified conveyor belt run through it to ferry skiers and snowboarders along it. The tunnel, along with a complementary new high-speed quad chairlift up Peruvian Gulch to its mouth, makes it easier to get to the intermediate skiing on Snowbird's backside, Mineral Basin, while relieving the big crowds on Snowbird's primary tram.

The big news at Breckenridge in Colorado, (800) 789-7669, www.breckenridge.com, is off the hill: a long-awaited, eight-person gondola has finally been completed that connects Breckenridge, a historic Victorian mining town, neatly to the ski slopes and eliminates the need for boarding a bus. The gondola, which has a capacity of 3,000 people an hour and has a terminal just off Main Street, reaches up to Peak 8, with a midstation at Shock Hill.

Terrain expansions

The trend lately is for skiers and snowboarders to seek in-bounds, off-piste experiences. To that end, several resorts continue to offer customers more acres, and the more challenging the better. For instance, Keystone Resort near Dillon, Colo., (800) 468-5004, www.keystone.snow.com, historically known as a mellower mountain, this winter opens Independence Bowl, almost 300 acres of expert-only hiking and Sno-Catski/ride terrain east of the summit of Dercum Mountain.

The sprawling Big Sky Resort in Big Sky, Mont., (800) 548-4486, www.bigskyresort.com, builds on last year's cooperation with adjoining Moonlight Basin – in which the two offered a joint pass that gave access to about 5,500 acres – by adding still more skiing this winter. The 212-acre Dakota Territories, reached via the mountaintop Lone Peak Tram, is primarily intermediate skiing that begins in an open bowl above tree line before entering natural glades.

Lodging

In May, the 440-room MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa, (888) 829-7630, www.montbleuresort.com, officially opened on the south shore of Lake Tahoe, not far from Heavenly. MontBleu is clearly angling for a younger crowd than the tired Caesars Tahoe it replaces, with the successor's more metro-burnished look and its concerts by acts like Widespread Panic and Sugar Ray. But true to its casino roots, MontBleu includes a startling number of restaurants and a revamped 40,000-square-foot casino.

Just north of Lake Tahoe, outside Truckee, sits the new Cedar House Sport Hotel, (866) 582-5655; www.cedarhousesporthotel.com. The 42-room hotel has been described as “organic with an edge”: sleek, Euro-style design elements inside (like leather platform beds) meet a steel-and-timber aesthetic and environmental awareness (radiant-heat floors, partial sod roof, counter tops of recycled paper products). And because it's only a 10-minute drive from the revamped Northstar-at-Tahoe and other skiing, this hotel's emphasis is indeed on being active.

Family plans

The ski industry is trying hard to attract and keep families, whether through more innovative and affordable packages, or programs that make families enjoy skiing together, or both.

Ski magazine gave high marks to Aspen-Snowmass, which has a variety of activities for children and parents. This winter, children and parents can take a free naturalist-guided skiing/snowboarding tour on Snowmass with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, (970) 925-5756, then kick off the skis and listen to Old West tall tales while drinking free hot chocolate at the campfire in Snowmass Village, (800) 766-9627, just to name a few activities. Information: www.aspensnowmass.com.

Christopher Solomon's story was distributed by the New York Times News Service.

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