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Hit the heights, skip the altitude sickness

By Hilary Nangle
Globe Correspondent / November 15, 2009

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Forget Atkins, the Zone, and South Beach. I lost five pounds in eight days on the Altitude Diet. Of course, there are side effects: headache, sleeplessness, nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, chills, and shortness of breath.

While most folks, even if they take no precautions, feel few symptoms of altitude sickness at elevations higher than 6,000 feet, others can do everything right and still end up sick. I’m one of them.

The best strategy for averting altitude sickness is to skip vacationing at elevations that trigger it. Here are my favorite western resorts where the altitudinally challenged can score big mountain skiing without the big mountain heights.

Ogden and Salt Lake City
Utah’s top resorts typically get in excess of 300 inches of snow in winter, but staying slopeside usually means bedding down at elevations well above 6,500 feet. Yet it is possible to ski lofty peaks and revel in the state’s famed powder if you remember this mantra: ski high, sleep low. Both Salt Lake City and Ogden are below 4,500 feet, which makes either ideal.

From Salt Lake it is an easy commute to the Big Cottonwood Canyon (Brighton and Solitude) and Little Cottonwood Canyon (Alta and Snowbird) resorts. The interchangeable Ski Salt Lake Super Pass is valid at all four. The pass provides significant savings, but here’s a steal: Book a four-day, four-night package at a participating property by Dec. 15, and the fourth day of skiing/riding and the fourth night of lodging are free. It gets better: The pass includes public transportation.

Ogden is another choice for skiers and riders. About a half-hour up the canyon are Snowbasin, a gold-plated resort that hosted the 2002 Olympic downhill, and Powder Mountain, the largest single-mountain ski area in North America. They’re not the most convenient resorts, but that means they are rarely crowded. Ski Salt Lake, 800-541-4955 www.visitsaltlake.com; Ogden, 866-867-8824, www.ogden.travel

Sun Valley, Idaho
When it comes to pampering, elegance, and history, Sun Valley has few competitors. Pacific Railroad chairman (and future governor and diplomat) W. Averell Harriman built the country’s first winter resort in 1936 and soon afterward welcomed European nobility and American glitterati. Ernest Hemingway penned most of “For Whom the Bell Tolls’’ here; and Gretchen Fraser, America’s first Olympic ski medalist, trained on local slopes. Sun Valley retains its air of exclusivity, and on a bluebird day it earns its name.

Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain is popular with advanced skiers. Whether buffed or bumped, the trails dropping down Baldy’s 3,400-foot vertical retain a consistent, thigh-burning pitch. Open throttle on a groomer, and it can seem as if takeoff is imminent. Baldy’s green circle trails would be blue squares at most other resorts, but Dollar Mountain fills the beginner void. 800-635-4150, www.sunvalley.com

Banff/Lake Louise, Alberta
Few places can compete with the double-whammy of Banff and Lake Louise when it comes to scenery, wildlife, natural hot springs, castle-style hotels, and skiing. Unlike Colorado’s Rocky Mountain towns, where elevations are often 7,000 to 9,000 feet or higher above sea level, these two Canadian Rockies’ gems rest at elevations lower than 5,500 feet. But there’s nothing small about the skiing at Norquay, Sunshine, and Lake Louise.

Norquay, with a 1,650-foot vertical and fewer than 200 skiable acres, has virtually no midweek lines but it does have meticulously groomed intermediate trails on one peak and true double-diamond steeps on the other.

Getting to Sunshine is easy: A gondola climbs nearly 1,650 feet from the parking lot to an above-treeline village and more than 3,300 acres of terrain.

Still not big enough? Lake Louise, Canada’s second largest ski area with 4,200 acres, awaits. This sprawling, multi-peak resort can keep any skier or rider happy. 877-754-7080, www.skibig3.com

Whistler/Blackcomb, British Columbia
Two hours up the Sea to Ski Highway, the twin peaks of Blackcomb and Whistler deliver a big bang for the skier’s buck: a whopping 8,171 skiable acres comprising every type of terrain imaginable. Blackcomb’s 5,786-foot drop is the second highest on the continent; Whistler’s 5,200 isn’t too shabby, either. All that terrain funnels down to the town of Whistler, which sits a mere 2,200 feet, give or take, above sea level. The downside of Whistler’s lower elevation is that it can be foggy, even rainy at the base, but once on the mountain - where that rain is usually snow - there’s no reason to descend. A gondola connects the peaks, and there are plenty of restaurants and lodges on both.

The 2010 Winter Olympics are scheduled here Feb. 12-28. Whistler is hosting 63 alpine skiing, sliding, and Nordic events, but even during the games, less than 10 percent of Whistler Mountain’s terrain will be closed. 866-218-9690, www.whistlerblackcomb.com

Hilary Nangle can be reached at hilary@hilarynangle.com.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.