SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

If you ski or snowboard, you have heard about Utah. Craggy couloirs and cold-smoke cover shots float in your dreams like faded illumination on a Renaissance map of the known world. Alta! Snowbird! Park City! Deer Valley! They call to winter explorers, sirens promising acre after acre of untouched, crystalline treasure and epic ski terrain. With a modicum of hustle, you can literally go from baggage claim to bagging vertical in under an hour.

Getting Around
If your trip falls on a holiday, call ahead to reserve a four-wheel-drive vehicle. If your conscience screams or your budget whimpers at the thought of renting a gas-guzzling 4x4, All Resort Express (www.allresort.com) offers shuttle and limo service to all resorts in the area, and the Utah Transit Authority (www.rideutah.com) runs buses every day from downtown Salt Lake City to Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude.

Night Out
If you’re still standing after a day on the slopes and a hearty meal, Salt Lake City (drinking limitations notwithstanding) has plenty to offer the well-heeled and the rumpled alike. The Bayou (www.utahbayou.com) brings SLC’s most extensive beer selection, with 200 varieties in constant rotation. The Hog Wallow (www.thehogwallow.com) is a converted Civilian Conservation Corps bunkhouse at the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon, offering live entertainment and libations in one form or another since 1947. In Park City, the Sky Lodge (www.theskylodge.com) provides a seriously upscale respite (including a 10-person hot-tub and heated deck) for Sky Lodge guests, guests-of-guests, and smooth talkers with deep pockets.   

Don’t Miss
Utah has powder in spades. Snow-savvy locals know that “sick days” rarely involve actual illness. From Salt Lake, go east up Little or Big Cottonwood Canyon and find Snowbird’s two trams, said to be the fastest in America. Hit Alta for a skiers-only nostalgia or the boarder-friendly Brighton with its Magic Carpet lifts. Solitude lives up to its name just 12 miles up Cottonwood Canyon where 1,200 acres of terrain has everything but the crowds. 

Tuck In
Salt Lake City is home to 175,000 residents and hosts countless conventions year-round. Experience palatial excess at the boutique Hotel Monaco (www.monaco-saltlakecity.com) and world’s best cachet at the 24-story The Grand America Hotel (www.grandamericahotel.com). Park City (30 minutes from downtown SLC on Highway 80) abounds with vacation rentals, from affordable and cozy condos to grand slope-side mansions. Praise is lavished on the posh Stein Ericsken Lodge (www.steinlodge.com) in both amount and quality roughly equivalent to the Wasatch Range’s 400-inch annual-average snowfall.          

Food Fix