Deer Valley Resort Snowboarders once were content to slide their stuff in U-shaped snow forms known as halfpipes because they look like the bottom half of a pipe. But sliding back and forth inside the pipe and launching themselves off the upper edges for midair turns became routine for some. Ski resorts responded with what are called terrain parks, where more challenging features such as this rail were added in Deer Valley, Utah. Snowboarders use snow-covered ramps to get on and off the rail.

By Lawrence Walsh, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

New terrain with a worrisome name, a solution for a longtime lift ticket problem, appropriate ways to celebrate golden and silver anniversaries and a yearlong goodbye to one of the most highly recognizable ski lifts in the world.

Those are some of the highlights -- and one low light -- of what's new this season at Aspen Highlands, Sun Valley, Taos, Deer Valley and Jackson Hole.

COLORADO Aspen Highlands

Aspen Highlands officials no doubt thoughtfully considered what to name 180 acres of new advanced, expert and extreme terrain.

But "Deep Temerity?"

Where was its risk assessment manager?

Temerity is a foolhardy disregard of danger. Maybe they thought the name would emphasize that it's for experts only and discourage less-skilled skiers and snowboarders.

If it doesn't, perhaps this description of the terrain will:

"Skiers and riders can explore steep chutes, carve turns through aspen groves and dive into tight pines as they test the limits of their lactic acid threshold," said spokesman Jake Gonzales in a statement. "The famed runs of Steeplechase and Temerity will be almost as long, and lungs and legs will burn for those who try to make it nonstop."

And there will be no rest for the weary on the ride back up.

The new Deep Temerity triple chair will whisk skiers and snowboarders to the top -- a distance of 1,700 vertical feet -- in a little more than seven minutes. According to Mr. Gonzales, the new lift will eliminate the need to make the long traverse out of Highland Bowl and allow for more direct fall line skiing and riding while doing laps in the bowl.

"We are thrilled to be able to open this new terrain," mountain manager Ron Chauner said in a statement. "Our staff has dreamed about opening [it] to the public for a long time, and this represents a project whose concept reaches back to 1976."

And there's more to come.

Mr. Gonzales said the resort, part of the Aspen Skiing Co., plans to add another 270 acres of additional terrain in the same area in coming years.

Aspen Highlands, the locals' favorite mountain, has 18 percent beginner terrain, 30 percent is intermediate, 16 percent advanced and 36 percent expert. Three high-speed quads and two triple chairs serve 131 slopes and trails and a vertical drop of 3,635 feet. Aspen's annual snowfall is 300 inches.

The resort, located in the White River National Forest, is three miles from Aspen and Aspen Mountain and close to Buttermilk and Snowmass.

For more information: www.aspensnowmass.com and 1-800-525-6200.

IDAHO Sun Valley

I've been critical of Sun Valley in the past because for decades it has been stuck in the '40s, '50s and '60s.

The resort was slow to install modern snowmaking and high-speed chairlifts, slow to construct user-friendly facilities at the base of Bald and Dollar mountains and slow to demolish old, outdated and unsafe buildings, especially a wooden on-mountain restaurant.

But when Sun Valley decided to upgrade, it did so in style and in a hurry.

And it's come up with an innovative solution for visitors who buy a multiday lift ticket but decide not to ski all of the days it allows. Now they can exchange the unused portion for shopping, dining, a trip to the spa or a number of other activities.

Dollar Mountain, a beginner's delight, has 13 runs, served by a triple chair, two doubles, one rope tow and one Magic Carpet that slowly moves first-timers back up the hill. Seventy percent of Dollar Mountain's treeless terrain is for beginners, 30 percent for intermediates. It also has a beginner terrain park and a snowtubing hill.

Bald Mountain has 65 runs served by seven high-speed quads, four triples, two doubles and one rope tow. The ability breakdown is 36 percent beginner/novice, 42 percent intermediate and 22 advanced. It also has a new superpipe for snowboarders.

All of that is what you'd expect from a first-class resort with first-class amenities.

Now let's talk about something that Sun Valley isn't well-known for: stars.

No, not the ones in the old black and white photographs of Hollywood celebrities that line the walls of the Sun Valley Lodge. These are the stars most visitors never see at night because their outdoor environment at home is too bright.

The nearby town of Ketchum has one of the strictest lighting laws in the country. As a result, the stars don't have to shoot for your attention. On clear nights, you can make your way by starlight from the Milky Way.

For the best viewing, sign up for a stargazing dinner at the Galena Lodge about 20 miles north of Sun Valley. The ultimate opportunity is when the moon is new and the sky is jet black. During dessert, local astronomer Steve Pauley presents a slide show. But it's only a warm-up for what comes next: a walk outside to look through a telescope. It's an experience you won't forget.

For more information: www.sunvalley.com and 1-208-622-4111.

NEW MEXICO Taos

Taos' legendary founder Ernie Blake helped thousands of skiers improve their skills by urging -- to the point of insisting -- that they take at least one morning lesson.

He would undoubtedly approve the resort's decision to offer its Ski Week program for only $50 a week in January in honor of its 50th anniversary. The program, which includes six morning lessons Sundays through Fridays, normally costs $200.

Those who don't have time for a Ski Week program can sign up for a concentrated version at Ski Camp, where they'll be encouraged to use Rut Camp to "break out" of their intermediate doldrums, build confidence in Ski the Steeps or Mogul camps or free their heels in Telemark camp.

Although Taos is known for its more challenging terrain, there are trails rated green and blue for novices and intermediates from the top of every lift. The resort lists 24 percent of its terrain as beginner and 25 percent as intermediate.

Stronger skiers will search for powder lines in little pitches and hidden spots or hike from the top of Lift 2 to the Highline and West Basin Ridges for a descent down Main Street from 12,481-foot-high Kachina Peak.

The new "Out to Launch" terrain park has been expanded with new features for high-flying skiers. Snowboarding is not permitted at Taos.

The big news this season are the changes at its European-style base. The Inn at Snakedance is now the Snakedance Condominiums and Spa after a $3.5 million renovation and the addition of a spa. The Edelweiss Lodge and Spa, built on the site of the former historic Edelweiss Hotel, has one, two- and three-bedroom condo units.

For more information: www. skitaos.org and 1-800-347-7414.

UTAH

Deer Valley

A silver anniversary is always a special event.

But it's even more so in the case of Deer Valley because silver was the primary reason its population began to grow in the late 1860s.

In 1868, silver was discovered on Flagstaff, one of two mountains that make up the resort. It eventually yielded silver ore valued at more than $400 million.

Skiers now crisscross the 9,100-foot-high mountain in search of powder and well-groomed trails, and they find both in abundance.

And, according to a survey of more than 20,000 readers of Ski magazine, they find a lot more at what has been ranked, for the second time in three years, the No. 1 ski resort in North America. Its ranking hasn't dropped below third in the past nine years.

Deer Valley was given top marks for service, on-mountain dining, grooming and access. (See the Top 10 on Page K-2.)

Bob Wheaton, Deer Valley's president and general manager, said the groundwork for that honor was created in 1981 by the resort's founders, Edgar and Polly Stern. Their backgrounds included luxury hotel and real estate businesses, and Mr. Wheaton said they were the first to apply hospitality industry standards to a ski resort.

As a result, Deer Valley was the first resort to refer to customers as guests, to offer ski valets to carry guests' ski gear from their cars to the slopes, to provide free parking lot shuttles, to have a state-licensed child-care facility on site and pagers for their parents, to design elegant lodges in the style of National Park Buildings, to uniform all its employees from kitchen staff to lift attendants and to provide complimentary ski check during the day and overnight.

Mr. Wheaton said guests like the resort's uncrowded atmosphere. A limit of 6,500 lift tickets per day is one major reason for that.

He said the resort spent $8 million this summer to enhance that feeling of spaciousness by replacing the Sultan triple chair with a high-speed quad on Bald Mountain and extending it another 1,000 linear feet. The extension opened 75 additional skiable acres and approximately 65 acres of glade skiing. Snowboarding is prohibited at the resort.

The Silver Lake Lodge deck was increased by 1,200 square feet to add more outdoor dining space, and the heated village plaza was expanded by 2,200 square feet. Additional retail and rental shop space will open this season in the Silver Lake Village.

Mr. Wheaton, who has been working at the resort since before it opened, has seen Deer Valley grow dramatically -- from five chairlifts in 1981 to 21 chairlifts this year, from 35 slopes and trails to 91, from 50 instructors to 500, from 200 employees to 2,000. More than $100 million has been spent on improvements.

And the highlight of the first 25 years occurred when the resort hosted the freestyle mogul, aerial and alpine slalom events of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

Some silver was found there, too.

For more information: www. deervalley.com and 1-800-424-3337.

WYOMING Jackson Hole

Although experts believe the resort's 55-passenger aerial tram still has several years of life left, Jackson Hole's owner and managers said this will be its last winter season. It will be decommissioned in September.

"This decision has been extremely difficult and quite honestly a very sad one," owner Jay Kemmerer said in a statement. "However, to minimize safety concerns, we decided to plan a closing schedule for the tram, and we think this proactive stance is the best.

"Forty years is a long service for any type of machinery, and it is time this 'old lady' retires. We know this may impact our business, business to Jackson Hole and the state, but we are committed to the best long-term solution for all our constituencies. We must move on."

Resort president Jerry Blann agreed.

"She's a child of the '60s that has been going 100 percent summer and winter, and [she] has earned a graceful retirement," he said.

The decision to close the tram was made after 18 months of "unprecedented evaluation" into all facets of its operation by leading industry engineers. There are two tram cars. As one car climbs 4,139 vertical feet in 12 minutes, the other descends.

The Kemmerer family has invested $55 million in the resort since it assumed ownership in 1992. That includes the new Sweetwater triple chair that will link the beginner terrain to low intermediate runs at mid-mountain.

"With steep slopes and lifts that rise [more than] 4,200 vertical feet, beginners through low intermediates have historically struggled here," Mountain Sports School Director Brian Maguire said in a statement.

"This new lift will dramatically improve their experience and our teaching environment by allowing gradual transition from green slopes to the gentle blues of Casper," he said.

Because of the Kemmerer family's previous investment and plans to spend millions more, it is asking for help from all quarters, including local, state and federal officials, for the $20 million it estimates it needs to install a new tram.

It might be a tough sell. Although ninth in size, the state of Wyoming is 50th in population with only five people per square mile. If a new tram isn't possible, the old one might be replaced with a gondola and a chairlift. It won't be the same.

For more information: www.jacksonhole.com and 1-307-733-2292.