Things to Do on a Ski Trip If You Don't Ski
As featured in The Washington Post: Ski Trip Advisors managing partner John Steed spoke with the Post for its story on ski trips for people who don't ski.
Every family has one. The person who said yes to the ski trip and has no intention of skiing.
I hear about this person on the phone almost every week. About a third of the people who call us ask what there is to do off the mountain, and they tend to ask quietly, as if not skiing were something to apologize for. It isn't. A great ski town is still a town, and the best ones were towns long before anyone cut a run.
Start with the town
My first piece of advice is the least glamorous: walk into the visitor center or the chamber of commerce. Most hand out a free walking-tour map of the historic district, and the people behind the desk know which galleries, shops and restaurants are worth your afternoon.
Then take a proper tour. In Telluride, the historical museum leads walking tours through a downtown that has been a National Historic Landmark District since 1964. The whole town is only 12 blocks long and 8 blocks wide, so you won't need a car. In Aspen, the Aspen Historical Society's downtown tour meets across from the Wheeler Opera House and ends at the Hotel Jerome. In Jackson, the Jackson Hole Historical Society runs walking tours from its museum, and the elk antler arches on the Town Square make the obvious first photograph.
Ride the gondola anyway
You don't need skis to see the mountain. In Telluride, the gondola is free and carries you up and over the ridge to Mountain Village in about 13 minutes. At Aspen Snowmass, a sightseeing ticket lets non-skiers ride the gondolas up for lunch and the view. In Jackson Hole, the Aerial Tram sells winter sightseeing rides to the summit of Rendezvous Mountain, and the Bridger Gondola ride is free with a dinner reservation at Piste Mountain Bistro at the top. Riding up is also the best way to see how the whole resort fits together, so you know where to meet the skiers for lunch.
Book a spa day
Every one of our resorts has a spa worth a whole day. In Telluride, try The Peaks Resort and Spa in Mountain Village. In Aspen, The Little Nell and The St. Regis both have full spas, and Snowmass has the Viceroy. In Big Sky, Spa Montage takes up 11,000 square feet. In Jackson Hole, look at the Four Seasons, or SpaTerre at Teton Mountain Lodge at the base of the resort.
Telluride
Telluride was a mining camp before it was anything else. Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank on Main Street in 1889, and the old false-fronted buildings still line the street. The Telluride Historical Museum fills the town's old hospital, built in 1896.
At the end of the box canyon, Bridal Veil Falls drops 365 feet, the tallest free-falling waterfall in Colorado. In winter it freezes solid, and ice climbers come from all over to test themselves on it. You can watch from a safe distance and be glad you are not one of them.
Telluride Sleighs and Wagons runs horse-drawn rides out to the historic Aldasoro Ranch, with a dinner ride for anyone who wants to eat under the stars. And snowmobile tours with Telluride Outfitters climb high into the San Juans.
Aspen Snowmass
Aspen had an opera house long before it had a ski lift. The Wheeler Opera House has been putting on shows since 1889, and it still does: concerts, films, comedy and talks. The Aspen Art Museum is a short walk away, and the shopping in between is some of the best in the West.
Down by the Roaring Fork River, next to Rio Grande Park, is the John Denver Sanctuary, a 4.5-acre garden the city dedicated to him in 1998. His lyrics are carved into the boulders. It is free, quiet and beautiful under snow.
The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies leads guided snowshoe walks on Aspen Mountain, at Snowmass and at Ashcroft, an old silver mining ghost town up the Castle Creek Valley. Beyond Ashcroft, Pine Creek Cookhouse serves lunch to people who arrive by sleigh or on a mile-and-a-half walk through the snow.
Snowmass is where the non-skier gets the thrills. At the top of the Elk Camp Gondola, the Breathtaker Alpine Coaster runs more than a mile through the trees at up to 28 miles an hour, and there is a tubing hill right beside it.
Big Sky
Big Sky is the youngest of the four and the most wide open. For the non-skier, the main event is the Lone Peak Tram, the fastest in North America, which climbs to the 11,166-foot summit. Up top, Kircliff, a two-story glass observation deck, reaches out over the mountain. On a clear day the view takes in two national parks and three states.
Down the road, Lone Mountain Ranch runs daytime sleigh rides and a sleigh-ride dinner in a cabin lit by oil lamps, with a cowboy singer and huckleberry cobbler. Spirit of the North will teach you to drive your own team of huskies. And Yellowstone is close. In winter the park roads close to cars, and heated snowcoaches run in from West Yellowstone all the way to Old Faithful.
Jackson Hole
Jackson Hole may be the best place in the West to be a non-skier. Just north of town, the National Elk Refuge holds thousands of elk through the winter, and horse-drawn sleighs have carried visitors out among them for a century. The National Museum of Wildlife Art sits on the hill above the refuge.
In winter the road to Granite Hot Springs closes to cars, so you get there by snowmobile or dog sled and soak in the steaming pool with snow piled all around. Heated snowcoaches run into Yellowstone, and guides lead wildlife tours through Grand Teton National Park.
Eat well, and reserve early
In every one of these towns, the best tables fill weeks out in high season. The non-skier is usually the one with time for a long lunch, so make it a good one.
Let the skiers ski
The secret to a good mixed trip is not to force it. Pick a place where the skier can catch the first chair and the non-skier can linger over breakfast, then meet for lunch on the mountain or a drink at the end of the day. I told The Washington Post a few years ago that most resorts and resort towns have learned to really embrace the non-skiers. It's even more true today.
If someone in your group would rather watch than ski, tell us. We'll plan a trip that works for both of you, spa days and sleigh rides included.
John Steed is the managing partner of Ski Trip Advisors and has been planning ski vacations in the West for over 30 years.
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