The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
10 of the world’s best winter thrills
Make your moments in the mountains matter with these high-adrenaline ski adventures, says Chris Leadbeater
In theory, skiing is a simple pursuit. The gondola goes up, the piste goes down, and you spend your day flipping back and forth between the two. Rinse and repeat until sundown.
Except, of course, that there is a great deal more to a week in the Alps – or the Rockies, the Dolomites, or whichever of the planet’s icetopped ranges you have chosen for your latest mountainside holiday – than up and down. As any devoted skier will know, there is always a bigger challenge ahead; a steeper descent to tackle; another tempting section of off-piste terrain on which to prove yourself; a different resort, and a new country to visit.
Certainly, there are enough of these things to make for a list of the greatest winter-sports experiences that every proficient skier might want to tick off in their lifetime on the snow. A ski bucket list, if you will – although to distill such a list down to that one word, “ski”, would be to underplay it somewhat. While skiing would be its cornerstone, its life and soul, there would be plenty more to it than that regular rhythm of up and down, up and down.
It would involve some of the most demanding sections of Alpine geography – both as a playground for high-altitude ski touring and as an arena in which to watch the best in the business go head to head in sporting combat. It would involve the spectacular contours of Scandinavia. It would involve trips beyond Europe – to the hallowed slopes of Canada and America. It would involve journeys to even further-flung places – to the revered, but often less-skied (at least by Europeans) powder runs of Japan; to the resorts that sprang up in Central Asia during the Soviet years, and remain to this day as tantalising options for the truly adventurous. And it would involve fun and games as well as hard miles in the legs – at festivals alive with laughter and music; in stylish restaurants at upper elevations.
In fact, it might look like the 10 skiing extravaganzas detailed here – a mission statement for the daring and the intrepid, throwing down the gauntlet from Scotland to Sapporo.
1 Complete the Haute Route
There is off-piste. And then there is the Haute Route – the Alpine challenge that ranks as one of the sternest tests for those who trust their abilities in all conditions. This fabled high line over the rooftops of France and Switzerland links Chamonix to Zermatt (and with it, Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn) via 112 miles of cols, peaks and ridges. Only for truly advanced skiers, it involves tricky ascents as well as daring descents, and crampons planted in ancient ice (including Swiss duo the Otemma Glacier and the Glacier du Mont Durand). Summer hikers take 12 days over it. Winter-sports wonders can do it in a week.
HOW TO DO IT
Mountain Tracks (020 8410 3449; mountaintracks.co.uk) offers the Haute Route as a seven-day ski trip, from £1,695 (not including flights or equipment). It has space remaining on two departures in 2024 (April 13 and 20), or will cater to private groups. You can also hit the trail in hot weather, via Macs Adventure’s 15-day Walker’s Haute Route. From £2,175 – flights cost extra (0141 530 7275; macsadventure.com).
2 Ski the fjords in Norway
For all its ruggedness, Norway is not a country of enormous elevation. At “just” 8,100ft (2,469m), Galdhøppigen, its tallest peak, is almost exactly half the height of Mont Blanc.
But what this icy country lacks in raw altitude, it makes up for in scenery. Norway has something that the Alps do not – coastal fjords, in all their magnificence. And while cruise ships like to sail into them, taking advantage of their glacier-carved depths, skiers can enjoy the view from an even finer perspective – not from the water, but from above.
HOW TO DO IT Venturesail (01872 487 288; venturesailholidays.com) offers the best of both worlds with a variety of escorted skiand-sail trips on Norwegian soil. A popular six-day jaunt into the Lyngen Alps, near Tromso (from £5,825; flights extra), has sold out for this winter – but spaces are still available on a Ski and Sail Expedition in Svalbard. This nine-day odyssey is due to begin on May 25 – too late for skiing in (most of) the Alps, but still well within the snow window in Norway’s formidable Arctic archipelago, which breaks the 80° line of latitude. Participants will spend much of the trip charting the Isfjord, and the slopes which flank it, aboard the 12-berth yacht Valiente. From £4,260, excluding flights.
3 Go heli-skiing in Canada
If you have already tried it, you will know there is nothing like it; the whirr of the rotor blades above you, the palpable sense of anticipation as you approach the drop-off point. If not, then heli-skiing is the winter-sports buzz you really need to feel; the flight to the heights that lifts you beyond the manicured pistes and the set limits of the major resorts.
Where better to try it than in its spiritual home, British Columbia? Heli-skiing originated there with Hans Gmoser, the Austrian-Canadian mountaineer whose daring instincts saw him start (what would later become) the heli-skiing specialist Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH) in 1957. The company’s first by-chopper forays into the furthest places took skiers into the Bugaboos and Cariboos – the sub-ranges of the Columbia Mountains that help form British Columbia’s eastern edge. Nearly 70 years later, CMH is still there.
HOW TO DO IT
Canadian Mountain Holidays (001 800 661 0252; cmhheli.com) offers a raft of heli-skiing breaks in both ranges. Its Powder Masters itinerary takes on the Cariboos, with guides – from £4,731 for five days, excluding flights.
4 Visit JaPOW!
Japan’s reputation as a winter-sports paradise is perhaps even greater than the distance involved in getting there. The cold freshness of its powder and the broadness of its skies have attained almost mythical status – and if the journey time does not worry you, there are numerous pistes on which you can test your technique. Shiga Kogen, on the largest island Honshu, is the country’s biggest resort, with 18 interlinked ski areas; Hakuba, also on Honshu, was the primary staging ground for the (Nagano) Winter Olympics, in 1998.
However, if you want the full perfection of the Japanese skiing experience, you may wish to aim for Hokkaido, the northernmost of the country’s three main islands. Regional travel specialist Ski Japan describes Niseko – which sits in the south-west of the island, an easy 50-mile drive from its key metropolis Sapporo – as “Japan’s number one snow resort”. Here, four connected ski zones provide a wealth of terrain, as well as spectacular views of Mount Yotei, the Hokkaido celebrity that stands as a dead ringer for Mount Fuji.
HOW TO DO IT
Ski Japan (0081 136 22 4611; skijapan. com) arranges tailored breaks to most Japanese resorts (prices on request). Alternatively, Ski Safari (01273 977 893; skisafari.com) offers Blizzard, Bento & Bullet Train, an 11-night adventure that splices a week’s skiing in Niseko to the sights of Tokyo and Kyoto. From £3,495, including flights.
5 Hit the road – and the slopes – in America
The United States and the road trip are one of travel’s most enduring alliances; a fine combination of lonely highways arcing through dramatic landscapes, with myriad splendid destinations waiting just over the horizon. But while the template image is a desert vista, heat haze swirling on the tarmac ahead, the great American journey can work just as well in the winter; skis on the roof of a sturdy 4WD, rather than top down on a red convertible.
It can work particularly well in Colorado, whose top-tier resorts – the likes of Aspen, Beaver Creek, Steamboat, Telluride and Winter Park – could make for at least a decade of Decembers in the Rockies. Or you could attack a plethora of them in one glorious break.
HOW TO DO IT
The American Road Trip Company (01244 342 099; theamericanroadtripcompany.co.uk) offers a Ski Colorado fly-drive package that slides through Aspen, Steamboat, Beaver Creek and Telluride over 14 days. From £1,699, including flights.
6 Go to battle in Scotland
Not every winter holiday has to involve a flight. Scotland’s ski resorts may not enjoy the elevation or the prestige of their Alpine counterparts, but there is plenty of lumpy terrain on offer – and no British downhill devotee can consider their bingo card stamped until they have battled the winds north of the border. Glencoe (glencoemountain.co.uk), in the Highlands near Fort William, is the UK’s oldest ski area, having installed its first lift in 1955; its 24 pistes, including four black runs, cost from £30 per day. Glenshee, on the Aberdeenshire side of Cairngorms National Park (ski-glenshee. co.uk; from £35 per day), near Balmoral, is the largest. It spreads out to 36 pistes, and though only two of them are black, “Tiger” is one of the country’s steepest. Come here for a day or two, and you could also tackle Cairngorm Mountain (cairngormmountain.co.uk; from £38 per day), on the western side of the national park, near Aviemore. Its 35 runs include three black descents.
HOW TO DO IT
Ski Norwest (07939 281 697; skinorwest. com) offers Cairngorm Mountain packages. A six-night stay at the three-star Highlander Hotel in Newtonmore, including breakfast – as well as five days’ equipment hire and lift passes – costs from £690.
7 Ski the ’Stans
For all their glory, the Rockies are a known concept. So too are the Alps. So there is an extra kudos in seeking pistes much less familiar to skiing obsessives in the United States and Europe. And that might mean venturing into Central Asia, where some of the enormous countries which form the heart of the continent have slopes worth tackling.
In truth, you can find resorts right across this vast region – in Uzbekistan (Amirsoy), and in Tajikistan (Safed Dara). But it makes sense to go even further east than this – not least to the south-east corner of Kazakhstan, where Shymbulak is a winter-sports institution. Just 20 miles from the country’s largest city Almaty (and just 235 miles from the Chinese border), this is Central Asia’s biggest ski resort, with eight miles of runs laced across the Ile-Alatau, a sub-range of the Tian Shan mountains. This was the first ski resort in the old Soviet Union. With a top elevation of 10,500ft (3,200m), it still attracts skiers in droves. Meanwhile, just over the border, Karakol plays a similar card in Kyrgyzstan – with 12 miles of pistes.
HOW TO DO IT
Ryce Travel (0031 648 729 047; rycetravel.com) specialises in group ski trips to the ‘Stans. It serves up an eightday Ski Adventure Kazakhstan – which includes Shymbulak – from €1,399 (£1,200). It also offers a five-day Ski Safari Kyrgyzstan – which features Karakol – from €945 (£810). Prices exclude flights.
8 Watch the Hahnenkamm live
Skiing does not have to be a participatory thing. There can be an undeniable thrill to seeing the experts of the sport treat gravity as their servant as they dash down the toughest runs. The Hahnenkamm races – which light up the mountain of the same name as it towers above Kitzbühel in Austria – are a case in point. Here is one of the most prestigious (and oldest; dating to 1931) events in the Alpine ski calendar; a January feast of slalom, super-G and downhill competition, staged on the resort’s Ganslernhang and Streif pistes. Over three frenetic days, the Austrian hills are alive with the sound of parties and cheering; most recently for local hero Vincent Kriechmayr – who emerged as top dog in 2021 and 2023.
HOW TO DO IT
Tickets are still available for the 2024 event (January 19 to 21, with three warm-up days from January 16), from €30 per day for adults (hahnenkamm. com). Not unexpectedly, accommodation in Kitzbühel is mostly sold out for the dates in question. Skiline (020 8313 3999; skiline.co.uk) offers four nights, B&B, at the Hotel Tennerhof, one of the resort’s five-stars, from £2,529, arriving on January 18. Alternatively, if you are prepared to catch the eight-minute train to neighbouring Kirchberg, you can save, stay and ski in the same area. A one-week stay at the Hotel Kirchenwirt, B&B, checking in on January 14, costs from £1,009. Both exclude flights, but include airport transfers.
9 Après at a festival in the snow
The idea of après-ski has evolved hugely over the decades – and where once the sinking of a few beers at a bar next to the main gondola’s base station might have been the limit of an evening’s entertainment, nowadays “après”-ski can be as important as the “during”.
Indeed, you could easily spend the entirety of a skiing holiday doing anything but skiing (although we wouldn’t recommend this) at one of the many dedicated festivals which take over some of the planet’s main resorts at various times of the season. Snowbombing is one of them; a riot of DJs and dance music that turns Mayrhofen into one giant club every April (snowbombing. com; April 8 to 13, 2024; accommodation-and-ticket packages from £469). But then, the Austrian hotpot has form for such merriment. It is also the home of Altitude, the comedy festival, first staged in 2007, which lands in the resort around Easter each year (altitudefestival.com; April 1 to 5, 2024; sixday tickets from £172).
HOW TO DO IT A seven-night half-board break to the three-star Hotel Strolz in Mayrhofen – flying from Gatwick on March 30, in time for Altitude – starts at £968 per person with Inghams (01483 945 754; inghams.co.uk). European Gay Ski Week will light up Val Thorens in the French Alps between March 16 to 23, 2024. One-week half-board packages cost from €999 (£857) (020 7183 0823; europeangayskiweek.com).
10 Go on a gourmet safari in the Dolomites
One of the undoubted joys of a skiing holiday is the licence it gives to fill your stomach. A week on the pistes is a guaranteed way to burn calories, and if you are going to keep making those turns – while keeping warm – then another plate of carbs never goes amiss. But pre and après-ski refuelling does not always have to mean yet another heaped bowl of pasta and sauce. Plenty of resorts have worldclass restaurants with first-rate menus – and in the case of the Italian Dolomites, they have an intriguing way of showcasing them.
HOW TO DO IT Gastrophiles can book a Dolomites Gourmet Ski Safari (0039 0471 840 005; dolomitemountains.com) that features six days on the slopes of Alta Badia and Cortina d’Ampezzo – including a crack at the latter’s formidable Armentarola run. However, downhill is allied to delicious in a series of haute-cuisine experiences and wine pairings – taking place in mountain huts as well as Michelin-starred eateries. Fully guided, the holiday can be taken between December and April, from €2,820 (£2,418), excluding flights.
Prices above are per person, unless otherwise stated.