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Program If this is your first time stepping into Nordic skis, fear not. While instructor Jay Richards' maximum class size is six, if experience levels vary too widely between students, he'll split the class into even smaller groups. Private and couples' sessions are also available.
If you've come with some cross-country mileage already under your belt, however, you'll be thrilled to test out such expert runs as "Skater's Waltz," along Maplelag's 42 miles of gentle, rolling groomed trails.
Hunker down Lodging is rustic yet comfortable--pine interiors, a throw quilt and checked curtain here and there for color, no phones or television sets--but Maplelag's offerings are not exactly slim pickings. You'll have full access to the main lodge's 24-hour hot tub (which seats 37, the largest in Minnesota) and sauna.
Round up a couple of friends and bunk together in a Scandinavian-style cabin with wood-burning stove or book your own converted caboose--complete with a bathroom/shower and a double bed.
Fuel Maplelag serves three all-you-can-eat, family-style meals a day in the main lodge dining room (typical offerings include Norwegian pancakes with pure maple syrup and lingonberries for breakfast, wild-rice soup and stuffed quesadillas for lunch and cranberry-roasted brisket for dinner). Try not to ruin your appetite diving into one of four "bottomless" jars of cookies--oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodle, chocolate chip and ginger. Grand total About $315 for three days and two nights: Accommodations, from $218 (800-654-7711, ); group ski lessons, $72 (three hours per day); equipment rental, $25; all meals and use of trail included.
Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
The highest peak of the Laurentian Mountains at 2,871 feet, Mont Tremblant (French for trembling mountain) is steeped in folklore. According to Algonquin legend, Tremblant would receive a violent shaking from the god Manitou if man ever disturbed its natural setting. With that in mind, developers managed to maintain nature's delicate balance at this ski resort about 90 minutes northwest of Montreal Airport. Man-made structures and 94 beginner- to expert-level runs integrate smoothly with stunning vistas of glacier-fed lakes, rolling peaks and snow-blanketed maple and birch forests. Program Tremblant's four-day adult snow school is offered for both snowboarders and skiers. Early in the week you'll pose for a group photo of up to seven participants (typically three women and four men). Daily three-hour sessions (Mondays through Thursdays) are spent strengthening your posture, carving, snowplowing and turning skills with a certified instructor each morning (skiing: Dec. 6 to April 7; snowboarding: Dec. 20 to Jan. 6 and Feb. 21 to March 24).
Hunker down Le Westin Resort & Spa () offers guests "The Total Tremblant Ski Package": up to a five-night stay, including complimentary lift tickets, daily breakfast and lunch and a guided tour of the mountain.
Before you dive onto your room's 10-layer "Heavenly Bed," you might want to soothe your weary muscles in the heated outdoor waterfall pool and hot tub (complimentary for guests). Fuel For the three meals (four for snowboarders) not included in your hotel or clinic package, there are more than 30 restaurants and pubs to choose from in the pedestrian-only resort village. Be sure to hit Le Shack (819-681-4700, ), Tremblant's largest and most popular apres-ski watering hole, for favorites ranging from a savory caribou-rib and chicken combo to a grilled veggie couscous salad.
Your last day features a farewell banquet. Snowboarders are bid adieu over lunch at Microbrasserie La Diable, known for its European sausage and microbrews, while skiers celebrate over dinner salads, pastas and dessert at the resort's Congress Center. Grand total About $1, . for four days/five nights, includes lift tickets, most meals, accommodation for four in a two-bedroom suite from $895 per person (819-681-8000, ); program, $160 (866-661-1366, ); gear rental, $; food, $80
Alpine Meadows, Tahoe City, Calif.
Just one Sierra Nevada mountain valley south of swanky Squaw Valley--the site of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games--Alpine Meadows is a world apart. While the celebs flock to its uptown neighbor, locals favor Alpine Meadows' less-crowded but similarly stunning slopes. A 45-mile drive southwest from Reno/Tahoe International Airport, the resort offers 2,400 varied acres of groomed Tahoe National Forest terrain with 14 lifts and 100-plus runs. Program Fine-tune your technique in three-day women's intermediate and advanced ski and snowboard clinics (from $517, including lift tickets, one day of free gear rental, an Alpine Meadows-logo fleece jacket, instruction and apres-ski activities; 530-581-8329, ). Clinics typically run from 8 . to 3 . on rotating three-day weeks from January through March. Although clinics often attract about 30 women at a time, the 5-1 student-to-instructor ratio ensures ample opportunity to improve your stance and turns.
Days 2 and 3 start with an hour of Vinyasa yoga to help you channel your energy and retain the correct neutral posture to overcome a natural tendency to lean backward. Instructors provide videotape assessments of participants so you can visually track your progress in the resort's AV room at the end of each day's session.
Hunker down Get some beauty sleep in the city-chic Plump-Jack Squaw Valley Inn (800-323-7666, ), bedecked with opulent custom furnishings, sculpted metal fixtures and overstuffed down comforters and pillows.
Fuel Your clinic includes a hearty welcome breakfast at the Alpine Bar & Grill (fresh fruits, bagels and eggs), a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres party your first night (nearly a full meal with overflowing platters of spicy chicken wings, mini pizzas and crackers and Brie), a sit-down dinner banquet on Day 2 and a farewell luncheon (offerings include chicken Parmesan, marinara-topped pastas and veggie stir-fries with bread pudding or strawberry shortcake for dessert).
PlumpJack serves complimentary full breakfasts to all guests, and there are plenty of popular resort town haunts to choose from for the two other meals on your own tab. The casual Truckee River-front River Ranch Lodge restaurant offers a cozy hearth-warmed setting to enjoy "continental California" cuisine, ranging from a grilled and marinated portobello mushroom platter to cedar-plank-roasted salmon (800-535-9900; ).
Grand total About $ (skiers)/$ (snowboarders) for three days and three nights (program, from $571, includes lift tickets; equipment, $60 for ski package/$72 for snowboard package; accommodation, from $ per person for a double; food, about $110 for four meals on your own
Chicks With Picks, "Chicks East," North Conway, .
If you're looking for a challenge beyond the slopes, take your enthusiasm vertical with a lesson in ice climbing "with women, for women" courtesy of Chicks With Picks (CWP).
Co-founded in 1999 by Kim Reynolds, a Winter X Games ice-climbing veteran, CWP has introduced hundreds of women to a sport once dominated by men.
CWP's "Chicks East" brings beginners to Mount Washington Valley in the White Mountains--home to the International Mountain Climbing School (IMCS). IMCS's annual Mount Washington Valley Ice Festival (/ice_festival) attracts a horde of ice hounds to the charming village of North Conway.
Chicks East 2005 (Feb. 22-25) begins two days after the Festival with North Conway's 19th-century Cranmore Inn serving as a cozy base camp at the edge of the 796,000-acre White Mountain National Forest.
Program You'll learn the real meaning of "girl power" as you take your first ice-ax swing on a frozen waterfall cascading from stunning nearby practice points including the 700-foot Cathedral Ledge.
With state-of-the-art equipment and detailed instruction in belaying, safety, foot and tool placements, energy conservation and body position, you'll be amazed at what you can do when encouraged by your professional female climbing instructors (a 4-1 student-to-guide ratio).
You'll join your hosts as they present a charity auction one night--open to the public at a local school--at which CWP has previously raised $4,000 an hour by selling gear donated by such big-name sponsors as The North Face, Asolo and Patagonia. All profits are donated to local women's domestic- and sexual-violence shelters in Ouray, Colo., and North Conway. CWP has contributed $60,000 in the past six years.
Hunker down Toasty comforters, patchwork quilts and a roaring wood-burning fireplace greet you at North Conway's Cranmore Inn (just over two hours northeast of Manchester Airport), which has been in constant operation for about 140 years.
Fuel You'll enjoy three scrumptious meals a day with your fellow climbers. Expect wholesome, homemade dishes in the Inn's dining room, including apple-buckwheat pancake (with locally produced maple syrup) breakfasts, bagged veggie-hummus sandwiches and juice pouch lunches to go and spicy peanut noodles with roasted chicken for dinner. Day 2 includes dinner at the popular Shalimar of India, just a block away (), which specializes in mild tandoori lamb, chicken and vegetarian curries.
Grand total About $775 (double occupancy) for three days and three nights, all-inclusive--instruction, all meals, all equipment use and lodging (970-626-4424, )
Dina Mishev is a Jackson, adventure travel writer, ice climber, skier and Teton County Search and Rescue volunteer.
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