Ski Resorts Where You Can Chill in the Summer

Winter sports aren’t for everyone — there’s the cold, of course, and then there’s the fact that snow and ice are the sworn enemies of joints and bones. But after the snow melts and the skiers depart, lots of mountain resorts offer unique off-season activities that just about anyone can warm up to.

Vail, Colorado

Aspen is an old mining camp. Steamboat Springs is a century-old ranching town. Vail, on the other hand, did not even exist on the map until 1962, when a group of snow-loving World War II veterans opened this built-from-scratch ski resort, designed to evoke a Bavarian village, on an unnamed mountain overlooking an anonymous valley where farmers had previously raised sheep and grown lettuce.

It took some time for Vail’s creators — and visitors — to embrace the idea of a summer ski resort. Indeed, encountering Vail’s quaint winding alleys, fanciful wooden balconies, and insistent brauhaus vibe, a newcomer can be forgiven for sensing a winter chill even when the actual temperature reaches 85 degrees.

The surrounding mountains beckon in all seasons, so it helps that Vail’s two gondola systems — one at each end of town — run year-round.

“How much round-trip?” I ask at the Eagle Bahn Gondola ticket booth.

“Coming back down is free,” says the young man behind the desk. “We just charge you to go up.”

I glance out the window at the pearl necklace of gondolas disappearing behind a distant peak, at that point barely halfway to the top. That’s not a climb any mere human should attempt. The gondola it is.

At the summit, Vail has created a quaintly satisfying mountaintop theme park called Adventure Ridge, where in summer you can leap like Superman on a bungee trampoline, scramble like Spider-man up a rock wall, and speed like The Flash down a 550-foot-long chute in an oversized tube.

Mountain coasters — gravity-driven rides that take thrill seekers on breakneck speeds down precipitous slopes — are a relatively recent development in summer ski resort fun. Vail’s Forest Flyer is one of the very best, a 3,400-foot track that — along with tight curves, nerve-jangling straightaways and dizzying corkscrews — offers spectacular views of the valley below.

Still, sometimes the simplest joys are the best: The summit of Vail’s mountain is an inspiring aerie with a 360-degree vista punctuated by the occasional soaring bald eagle or red-tailed hawk. Best of all, the mostly level, well-tended Fireweed Trail leads from the Eagle Bahn gondola to the upper station of Gondola One, enabling you take a different sky route back to town.

Hiking the mile route between the two stations, I pass through dense patches of pine forest that explode into broad, grassy fields with views of distant snow-capped peaks.

I kind of feel like Captain Von Trapp leading his family of singers to safety in Switzerland. All I need is a lonely goatherd, and I’m pretty sure there’s one someplace around here.

There’s a thin line between adventure travel and stupid recklessness, and I always endeavor to remain firmly on the please-don’t-hurt-me side of that demarcation. Vail offers more than its share of opportunities for the foolhardy — and also for those who like to approximate that quality without actually endangering life and limb.

For example, “Colorado River Rafting” evokes images of helmeted daredevils disappearing into churning vortexes of foaming water. And while Vail is perfectly located for a quick rafting trip down the upper Colorado River, this particular stretch consists of gentle rapids that merely hint at the treacherous whitewater more experienced rafters encounter downstream.

For my day on the river with Timberline Tours, I opt not for a multi-person raft, but rather a single-person inflatable kayak, which sounds like a bold choice even though it’s called a Duckie. Following the lead of Dave, a river legend steering the large raft of cheering passengers ahead of me, I thread my Duckie among rocks, enter whirlpools at just the right angles, and ride the eddies like a pro.

At the pullout, eight miles downstream, I drag my Duckie from the water with great, heaving pulls. I am a Duckie master. Take that, John Wesley Powell.

Likewise, inspired by the bone-shattering spectacle of mountain biking yet unwilling to pedal up even the shallowest incline, I get Vail’s Venture Sports to drive me to the top of 10,600-foot Vail Pass and drop me off with a bicycle. The 15-mile, hour-long glide back to town is virtually all downhill, a fantasia of lakes, forests, and wildlife.

Every once in a while, I encounter the blur of actual bikers puffing their way up the bike trail, torturing their way toward the summit. Honestly, I simply don’t understand some people.

My last night in Vail, I walk a wooded path from the middle of town, along the banks of gurgling Gore Creek, to the Gerald R. Ford amphitheater, where the New York Philharmonic is in the middle of its summer residency.

The strains of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” rise into the summer sky. I sip on the lovely rosé I bought at the concession stand.

Ah, I think. This is roughing it.

Lake Placid, New York

The Cliffside Coaster in Lake Placid (Uploaded to YouTube Lake Placid Legacy Sites)

Every day, it seems, some visitor standing rinkside at Lake Placid’s Herb Brooks Arena — site of the iconic 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey win over the Soviet Union — feels compelled to yell broadcaster Al Michaels’ immortal line, “Do you believe in MIRACLES? YES!!!”

This dreamy little town in Upstate New York is closely associated with winter sports — no less than two winter Olympics have been held here. And the glories of Olympics past can be experienced all summer long.

Start your visit at the Olympic Center, where you can ice skate year-round and tour Brooks Arena. Then head up to the dizzying heights of the 90- and 120-meter Olympic ski jump ramps, where the 1932 Norwegian team won Gold, Silver, and Bronze (a U.S. jumper came in fifth).  Roller skaters love to glide around the broad curves of the quarter-mile Olympic Speed Skating Oval, where ice legend Eric Heiden won five speed-skating gold medals in 1980.

And if bobsledding is one of those sports that you think would be fun if only it weren’t so deadly, take a ride on the Cliffside Coaster — the longest mountain coaster in America — which parallels the 1980 Olympic bobsled track.

Lake Tahoe, California

It sure does help when your ski destination also happens to be next door to one of the world’s deepest and most jaw-droppingly beautiful lakes. In fact, the argument could be made that the Lake Tahoe area is actually a summer wonderland that offers skiing in the off-season.

If you’ve got some time, don’t miss the simple joys of a drive around the lake, drinking in the shorescape that somehow becomes new every quarter mile or so. And leave time to stop at the lookout above Emerald Bay, where boats flit around dramatic Fannette Island like hummingbirds on a Larkspur.

You must also, of course, get out on the water: The lake’s Bonsai Rocks — improbably enormous, impossibly smooth — are best seen from a boat, and there’s no better way to appreciate both the rocks and the vanishingly clear waters of Lake Tahoe than from a clear-bottomed kayak. Clearly Tahoe, in Incline Village, conducts tours to the rocks and other shoreline treasures.

Vintage TV fans will recall that the 1960s western Bonanza was set around these parts, and that legacy is celebrated in a big way at the Tunnel Creek Café, located near the ranch where much of the show was filmed. As you dig into your protein bowl, take a moment to appreciate the memorabilia posted on the walls, including an authentic map of the Ponderosa Ranch — and a photo of a very stout Dan “Hoss” Blocker riding a very tiny motorbike.

Telluride, Colorado

Like most ski resorts in the summer, Telluride affords lots of outdoor adventure options. The gentle rapids of the nearby San Miguel River offer a safely thrilling raft trip. On a rented bike, you can follow a trail that takes you from the midst of a herd of elk to the foot of Bridal Veil Falls, the highest free-falling waterfall in Colorado.

The best free summer attraction in Telluride is also the best free winter attraction: The ski town’s spectacular gondola, which has swept more than 55 million passengers high into the Rocky Mountains since 1996.

After a brief down period following the ski season — during which the gondola’s ski racks are swapped out for bike racks — every May the Telluride Gondola starts off-season service from its downtown terminal, a short walk from every local hotel. As the gondola soars 1,750 feet to San Sophia Ridge, the valley vista spreads to Panavision proportions as the San Miguel River shrinks to a rippling blue ribbon passing through the grid of streets below.

You can linger on the mountaintop — enjoying the shops and restaurants or maybe heading off on a thrilling downhill bicycle trek — or you can switch gondolas and travel on to Mountain Village, where many of Telluride’s workers live and play. That’s because besides being an impossible-to-beat tourist value, the Telluride Gondola is also one of the country’s most distinctive free public transportation systems (it’s best to avoid trying to ride the gondola during rush hour).

For a one-of-a-kind romantic evening, enjoy a candlelit dinner at 221 South Oak, an award-winning restaurant located in a lovely old home (you can’t go wrong with the elk T-bone, and save room for the summer fruit crisp with brown sugar oak crumble). Then, stroll a few blocks for an after-dark gondola ride (it runs till after midnight and you can usually get a car to yourself). As the lights of town flicker far below, it’s easy to imagine the two of you soaring on wings of your own.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Before a single ski sliced through the snow at Jackson Hole, this was cowboy country. To a large degree, it still is — and that John Wayne-type spirit comes out to play during the off-season.

Stroll along Broadway in downtown on any night and you’ll spot the cowboys and cowgirls strutting to their favorite watering holes. There’s the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, built as a bank in the 1890s and recipient of Wyoming’s first liquor license following the repeal of Prohibition. Just how “cowboy” is the Million Dollar Bar? Instead of barstools, the patrons sit on saddles.

The Silver Dollar Bar in the historic Wort Hotel is embedded with 4,000 uncirculated 1941 Silver Dollars. Local bands play nightly at the Virginian Saloon.

And on Sunday nights, the faithful attend “Sunday Church” at the Stagecoach Bar, where dancing and live music have replaced the legendary fistfights that once made the establishment a notorious landmark.

If drinkin’ and dancin’ aren’t your thing, the National Museum of Wildlife Art features works by America’s greatest western artists, including Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. Local guides will take you by jeep into the mountains of Grand Teton and Yellowstone in search of bears, bison, and elk — and the Bar T Five and Spring Creek Ranches invite you to rustle up authentic cowboy chuckwagon dinners.

Sugarloaf, Maine

From the chairlift terminus at the top of Maine’s Sugarloaf ski mountain — the second-highest peak in the state — summer visitors get a magnificent eyeful of the Bigelow mountain range, a dramatic assemblage of slightly lower-lying mountains to the northeast.

Just beyond that range — and within a short drive of Sugarloaf — is a little-known but wildly fun summer attraction: The Northern Forest Canoe Trail, a 740-mile network of lakes and streams stretching from New York’s Adirondacks to Fort Kent in Maine. Here, the trail rolls through Flagstaff Lake and the meandering, tree-shaded north branch of the Dead River.

One guy who made the trip through this stretch of river: Colonel Benedict Arnold, who in 1775 led a force of 1,100 Continental Army troops in canoes and flatboats toward Quebec City.

The best way to admire the area’s mountains, eagles, and occasional moose is from the water. You can rent canoes and kayaks at Pines Market and Cathedral Pines Campground in Eustis, or you could opt to be shown around via pontoon by Master Maine Guide Jeff Hinman, who narrates 3-to-6-hour voyages for Flagstaff Lake Scenic Boat Tours.