Solitary Splendor

FIVE U.S. SKI RESORTS OFFER A CHANCE TO DITCH THE CROWDS AND ENJOY YOUR PERSONAL PEAK EXPERIENCE By Everett Potter

The most magical phrase in skiing right now is “private powder.” It refers to a privately owned ski mountain that offers very limited access, uncrowded slopes, no lift lines, untrammeled snow and maximum privilege. It’s just you, a friend or your family and acres of untracked snow, or in some cases perfectly groomed slopes. Exclusive and remote, these five private powder resorts were practicing social distancing long before it became necessary to get away from the crowd.

SCARP RIDGE, CRESTED BUTTE, COLORADO

Eleven Experience is one unusual ski operation in Crested Butte, a marriage of Rocky Mountain ski town life and wild backcountry skiing. It starts with lodging in the heart of this mining town turned skier’s paradise, at Scarp Ridge Lodge or the adjacent Sopris House. The outside of Scarp Ridge, a 19th century Croatian saloon, has a Wild West look, but inside it’s sleek and modern, with five king rooms with ensuite bathrooms, a kids’ bunkroom and even a room for your nanny.

I liked the indoor saltwater pool, steam room and sauna. The place has a gym, but at the altitude of nearly 9,000 feet I was more grateful for the oxygen-enriched air system. Sopris House, an 1882 structure that was formerly the Spritzer Bar, has been renovated with three king rooms with ensuite bathrooms, and a twin suite with an ensuite bathroom. There is a private “saloon” in keeping with history, with a pool table and jukebox—also a private outdoor courtyard, a media room, an outdoor copper hot tub, a cold plunge pool, a sauna and an in-room retail bar.

You’ll need to extricate yourself from these comforts in the morning and get picked up for a custom-designed snowcap ride, which will drop you on 1,000+ acres of exclusive ski terrain in nearby Irwin, located about 13 miles west of the Crested Butte.

Eleven has exclusive access to the 1,000-plus acres at Irwin, long a snowcat destination, and the two on-mountain outposts, the Cat Barn and the Movie Cabin. They’re well situated for breathless skiers to enjoy lunch and après. At over 10,000 feet above sea level in the Elk Mountains, it averages 450 inches of snow every winter. It’s blissful and exhausting, and at the end of the last run I wasn’t sorry to get back to Eleven Experience’s lodges. The day’s remaining decision was whether to dunk myself in the indoor hot tub or the outdoor hot tub before heading out to dinner. elevenexperience.com

SILVERMT.COM

SILVERTON MOUNTAIN, COLORADO

It takes a certain kind of skier to even want to ski Silverton Mountain, which lies about 80 miles from Telluride. The 1,800-plus-acre terrain is awesome, tough or frightening, depending upon how good a skier you are. There’s just one lift, and it takes you to 12,300 feet. There’s another 1,000+ of vertical you can hike to reach 13,487, the highest point for lift-served skiing in North America. Take it from me, you may not have much breath left in you when you reach the top. The experience you’re here for is similar to snowcat or heli-skiing, and all about floating through unbelievably deep powder. The Bureau of Land Management oversees the mountain and limits the number of daily skiers to 80. You can ski with or without a guide, but it’s a serious decision as the trails are unmarked. In fact, they’re not even cut, and nothing is groomed. You ski through trees and from one clearing to another, in deep snow, making fresh tracks. There’s a great and steep snowfield called Rope Dee Dope. The rest, unmarked, seems endless, and many of the runs would qualify as double blacks on any other Western mountain, steep to the point of terrifying.

When I finally hit the base of the mountain, I climbed into a waiting bus with pounding music and fellow skiers that brought me back to the lift for round two and later, round three. At day’s end, the seriously high altitude combined with skiing 8,000 to 12,000 feet a day is both exhilarating and utterly exhausting. I didn’t need luxury, nor would I find it in Silverton, so I stayed at the very comfortable Teller House Hotel, which has an old-timey Western feel. You don’t come to Silverton for comforts. You come because want it steep, deep and uncrowded. And so it is. silvertonmountain.com

YELLOWSTONECLUB.COM

THE YELLOWSTONE CLUB, MONTANA

Exhilaration is an inadequate term for the feeling of skiing an enormous mountain with a couple of friends and never seeing anyone else, never dealing with a lift line, on snow that is perfectly groomed. That was my first day at Pioneer Mountain, which tops out at 9,860 feet and has steep cliff faces, chutes and tree skiing. With more than 2,700 skiable acres and 2,700 vertical feet, it’s a ski area larger than either Deer Valley Resort or Sun Valley.

Never heard of it? That’s because it’s the private mountain of the Yellowstone Club, a 15,200-acre billionaire boys’ club that you may have heard about. This private powder, a term that the club has used to lure members for years, is only for the 500 members, their families and invited guests of what is likely the most exclusive “club” in the world, with members such as Bill Gates, Justin Timberlake, Tom Brady and Eric Schmidt.

I visited the club back when only one or two houses had been built and have returned a few times since, as mansions, a Tom Weiskopf 18-hole course and the clubhouse named for ski pioneer and filmmaker Warren Miller were finished. There are now more than 100 runs, and while you can ski with a pro like Scot Schmidt, an extreme skier and star of some of the great Miller movies, I’d rather ski solo to enjoy the solitude and the sheer beauty. I’ve never had a better time on a mountain. The membership fee here is $400,000 for those who pass the financials, and of course there’s the additional requirement (or should we say privilege?) to build a house at the Yellowstone Club. yellowstoneclub.com

TWIN FARMS, BARNARD, VERMONT

When the weekend warriors of the Northeast were headed to Vermont ski areas Killington, Stowe and Okemo one weekend, I headed north in search of a wintry sanctuary in the rarified air of Twin Farms. I admit to being awestruck upon arrival at this star of the Relais & Châteaux group. Routinely ranked as the top C-level getaway lodge in the country, if not the world—with rates to match—Twin Farms has everything just so.

Set on 300 acres, the main house is an 18th century farmhouse that was the retreat of the writer Sinclair Lewis. There are 10 freestanding “cottages,” more like small private homes, with whimsical designs that range from alpine to Adirondack to a Moroccan-inspired getaway. There are also four suites in the Farmhouse at Copper Hill and two more in the lodge. There are welcome fireplaces and amenities such as an unpacking service to help you settle in. The original artwork is by the likes of David Hockney, William Wegman and Frank Stella. There’s a 15,000-bottle wine cellar but no menus. Chef Nathan Rich asks you what you’d like to eat, and then prepares it.

This hushed perfection might seem a tad oppressive except when you step outside the door and gaze up at Sonnenberg Mountain on the property. Here lie six perfectly groomed ski trails—Main Street, Man Trap, Free Air, World So Wide, Jay Hawker and Trail of the Hawk—accessible by a quick ride on Twin Farms’ Sherpa snowmobile to the top. The entire mountain is reserved exclusively for Twin Farms guests. I lapped these for hours each day, with the snowmobile always ready to get me back up to the top. Challenging? No, but they are pure joy, especially when followed by a soak in a Japanese furo bath at the resort’s Bridge House Spa. twinfarms.com

BRUSH CREEK RANCH, WYOMING

Chances are you’ve never skied Wyoming’s Green Mountain in the south central part of the state. It is a private mountain retreat of some 600 acres, surrounded by National Forest lands, and the alpine centerpiece of the Brush Creek Ranch Luxury Collection. This is a group of historic guest ranches on a 30,000-acre working cattle ranch near the town of Saratoga. It includes the Lodge & Spa at Brush Creek Ranch, the French Creek Sportsmen’s Club and the Magee Homestead, the latter a member of the Relais & Châteaux group, with just 12 residences and suites and designed for adults only. There’s also the Farm at Brush Creek for dining.

It’s a lot of luxury to take in in the middle of Wyoming. But the reason I went was private powder, which meant riding a snowcat for four miles just to get to the base of Green Mountain and then continuing via snowcat to reach the summit. The mountain maxes out at 30 skiers and snowboarders at a given time. There were 1,100 vertical feet ahead of me, and the experience was memorable.

You disembark from the cat, click into your bindings, and off you go. In seconds, the echoes of the snowcat’s chatter are replaced by Rocky Mountain silence, the swoosh of powder and a deep sense of being on your own, making swooping turns. There are a few cut trails that are groomed, but there’s much more tree skiing, and even double black diamond runs, so the better skier you are, the more fun you will have. What Green Mountain also offers are views that seem to go for a hundred miles. It’s not Jackson Hole in terms of challenges or amenities, but it’s a wonderful mountain shared with just a handful of other enthusiasts. There are yurts at the base that serve as warming shelters. There is also talk of building lifts at some point in the future. That would likely increase the number of skiers, so the sage advice is to go now. brushcreekranch.com

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