What top US ski area? Why, Vail, of course

Author: By Tony Chamberlain, Globe Staff

Date: SUNDAY, November 9, 1997

Page: P13

Section: Travel

Well, there's a hedge already. We can quickly eliminate Whistler/Blackcomb since that mega-resort -- one that often gets top-picked in magazine surveys -- is in British Columbia.

And some guidelines should be set about what it takes to be number one. Let us say, for modest openers, it should be all things to and for all skiers -- an area that can take you from back country to bowls to powder chutes to cornices to the most gentrified groomed cruisers to be found anywhere. And lots and lots of it all, say 4,645 acres.

Now bless that resort with so much natural snowfall of the champagne powder variety (on top of well-packed bases) that the 10-percent snowmaking coverage is mainly only top-dressing for the high-travel spots.

Now sprinkle the region liberally with first rate dining -- from gourmet eastern seafood to upscale buffalo burgers to . . . well, everything else. Throw in some night life downtown in the Olde Worlde European alpine village -- one that some Europeans prefer to home -- shopping to satisfy the itchiest charge card, and any number of international ski events coming through to keep the air charged with activity.

And, aside from the usual off-piste activities, horses to snowmobiles to first-rate back-country nordic trekking, now add a feature called Adventure Ridge, a midmountain park that offers alternatives to the usual skiing alternatives -- a walk though memories of winters past, tubing and sledding to pond skating.

Make the travel access easy, the airport close, the transportation sure and convenient. And, if the prices for everything are far from bargain fare, at least give skiers the sense that they got what they paid for.

Area Number One: Vail. And with this footnote: Beaver Creek, Vail's swank sister resort 15 minutes West on Interstate 70, is also one great ski area that boosts the whole Vail experience in the complementary way that Aspen/Snowmass work together. Vail even has its Buttermilk with the accession of Arrowhead last season.

The largest part of a description of Vail is largely its numbers: thirty lifts (10 high-speed) giving uphill capacity to more than 46,000 skiers per hour. Those 4,645 acres mentioned above easily swallow the crowds, and skiers can always find an alternative to gridlock.

Vail's frontside, stretched among three peaks, provides mostly grand cruising, with runs 2 miles long that open up enough to allow those airplane carves from edge to edge down the manicured faces. This may be the most standard blue-square skiing to be found anywhere in the Rockies.

Where Vail leagues away, however, is in its famous back bowls, which, in the next couple of years, are going to grow by another 2,200 acres. Not that it needs lots more acreage. There's enough already to exhaust most skiers who try to get all the way to Outer Mongolia and back in a day. The back bowls do, however, offer skiing at every level except early beginners.

Many advanced skiers like to stay out front of the mountain with a standout lineup of double black diamonds -- Highline, Prima, Blue Ox, and Rogers Run. There are shorter shots through the bumps, but these are the real thigh-burners, with Highline letting you show your mogul-bashing stuff for all the lift riders.

In a typical week's vacation, intermediates will not get to see the whole array of intermediate cruisers. Even those trails rated back in parts will not slow down solid intermediates as they wind down Riva Ridge, a top-to-bottom meander down some of the finest cruising trail in all ski country.

Beginner terrain is well accessed off the Golden Peak bowl, though with the amount of mellow cruising on Vail, beginners soon move out of these areas where they spend perhaps a couple of hours incubating their budding skills.

For a mixed-ability group, Vail can be perplexing because of its immensity. People who don't make organizational plans often end up skiing the whole day without the people who came with them to the mountain.

In fact, Vail skiers may be candidates for those lightweight battery intercom systems on the market this season so that the kids and 'rents can stay in touch. Yes, Vail is that big. One wrong turn and you're way across town by the time you get to the bottom.

Is this kind of big too big? If you get caught at mid-Vail midday, you might think it is. Just remember, whenever you see a crowd, plan your way around it. There are always alternatives, and Vail's major lifts have up-to-the-minute lightboards showing you where on the mountain the trouble traffic spots are.

With full bus service and interchangeable tickets, Vail vacationers should take a day at Beaver Creek, which, as you approach, looks almost like a theme park of some faraway hidden mountain kingdom. For skiers looking for an escape to the Vail bigness, it seems just like that (though hotel construction the last few years has boosted the bed base to a very upscale 4,700.)

But if it seems self-contained and a little tame down below, Beaver Creek offers some truly great advanced terrain -- as good as any resort in the Rockies. And with fewer crowds than at Vail. Birds of Prey, Rose Bowl (when the south face is bumped up), Larkspur, and Grouse Mountain will give top skiers all they want for many days of skiing.

The intermediate fare at The Beav is simply too much to enumerate, yet if you get there early, you can ski one fabulous 1 1/2-mile cruiser -- Latigo -- top to bottom without making a turn or seeing another skier. Before 9 a.m., this run takes exactly 92 seconds.

Anything off the Centennial Express or Strawberry Park lift will be winning cruisers for most ability levels.

The views from both these ski areas are outstanding (though the Interstate 70 corridor at the foot of Vail is unpretty (hidden from Beaver Creek.) Eagle Airport accommodates the 757-class planes from all points, and leaves less than a half-hour of very lovely driving to the resorts.

The Vail experience is an expensive one, and it hardly gives wilderness lovers a sense of an outback experience (though you can get out far enough in the bowls to find the immense emptiness a bit scary). Back around the front side, there's always a sense of bustle to the place.

Vail's very bigness and business may not be for everyone, but the skiing here is. No skier or boarder in the land will be disappointed, nor even feel the lightness in the wallet on the way home. They'll be on the plane dreaming of all that powder.