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Telluride is why skiers love to ski

I have zigzagged and wedged across Colorado ski resorts, from Loveland to Steamboat and from Vail to Breckenridge in seasons past, but never this far west.

This former gold- and silver-mining town snuggled against the San Juan Mountains seemed remote at first. So remote some celebrities, such as Oprah Winfrey, Bob Dylan and Tom Cruise, have had vacation homes here far from the bright lights of the paparazzi. And it seems fitting American fashion designer Ralph Lauren owns a ranch nearby.

But until I boarded a flight bound for Montrose Regional Airport, the tiny strip 90 minutes from Telluride, I had no clue how accessible it is or how popular it is with those who supposedly who shun the elitism of other ski resorts.

Utah: Happy (ski) trails to you

For Dillon Cook, sitting across from us in the gondola, The Canyons was a whole new world peopled with kids who came from everywhere just to be in ski class with him.

''I liked the Tunnel of Fun,'' said the 9-year-old from Houston, describing the bumpy trail through the trees where the instructors take their classes to cut loose. ``We had five boys and one girl. . . . The girl was Ally, and she was better than any of the boys.''

Sherri Williams from Atlanta, on the last day of her vacation, noticed The Canyons' people-friendly design, a terraced layout that separates cars on the lower level from the Resort Village at midlevel, a pedestrian zone with the ticket office, rental shops, restaurants and the Grand Summit Hotel.

Sundance: A star that didn't go Hollywood

Standing on the lip of Bishop's Bowl at the top of Sundance Resort, watching the pair ascending slowly on the Arrowhead Lift, I couldn't resist turning to my skiing sidekick, Wally, and delivering the line, ``Who are those guys?''

Certainly not Butch and Sundance. Chuck and Jack were a couple of retirees on a day trip from Salt Lake City. They are more typical of the characters found on the slopes of Sundance than the movie stars one might hope to encounter.

At $47, the lift ticket costs just over half of those at the big, glitzy ski resorts around nearby Park City, Utah. That explained the abundance of young snowboarders and fixed-income bargain hunters on a sunny February morning.

Utah's ski resorts spring into the sports spotlight

In addition to great powder snow and a long winter, Utah's ski industry is blessed by the lingering buzz of the 2002 Winter Olympics, plus a major nearby airport that makes getting to Salt Lake City easy from other parts of the country.

The Olympics brought international acclaim, dozens of new and faster lifts and thousands of more acres of skiable terrain. Traffic on the slopes was up by 37 percent in the six years after the Olympics, before the economy soured, making Utah skiing a $1 billion industry.

``That was our coming-out party,'' said Nathan Rafferty, president of the trade group Ski Utah. ``We were always in the shadows of other resorts, like Colorado's. But hosting the Olympics put us on the map.''

Whistler's got game -- and it's the big one

The ski area that will be the focus of the world's attention this season is Whistler-Blackcomb in Vancouver, Canada, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Olympian or not, you'll be able to ski there before and after the Games -- and even during.

``We have 200 trails and only 10 percent will be used for the Olympics. Ninety percent of the ski areas will be open to the public during the Games,'' said Whistler's Amber Turnau.

Of course, the problem is that lodging will be scarce and expensive during the competitions. The Olympics take place Feb. 12-28, followed by the Paralytic Winter Games March 12-21.