Five-Star Skiing at Beaver Creek

This weekend goes down in my personal ski history as one of the best. I was invited to the Ritz Carlton, Bachelor Gulch at Beaver Creek for the grand opening of the first Rocky Mountain outpost of Wolfgang Puck's fabled restaurant, Spago. The original Spago is in Los Angeles, and two others have popped up in Las Vegas and on Maui. But I wouldn't trade this past weekend of powder skiing right outside the hotel's door for all the palm trees on the planet.

For a few blissful days, I lived Beaver Creek's slogan, "Not Exactly Roughing It." I stayed in a luxurious residential suite at the fabulous hotel, dined at its stellar new restaurant (you can read about that on my food blog) and skied great snow. I'm a typical Coloradan who often day-skis, changing into boots in the parking lot, then shouldering skis and trudging to the lifts. That makes a weekend like this an especially appreciated indulgence.

At the Ritz Carlton, Bachelor Gulch, they do everything but ski for you. When you sit down to put your boots on (or take them off at day's end), an attendant comes over and asks whether you'd like help with your boots. I declined, because I didn't want to allow myself to get too spoiled. When you walk out the door, another ski valet puts your skis down on the snow, with a pole on each side. When you get set to board the lift in the kind of heavy snow we enjoyed this weekend, the well-padded seat is swept clear before you sit down.

The luxury and service are lovely, but best of all were the snow and the skiers with whom I shared the day. The light fluffy snow fell and fell and fell and kept on falling. Friday was the first day this season of operations for the Bachelor Gulch Express right behind the hotel, but the connecting trails to Beaver Creek Village were not yet open. Therefore, when a group of us went skiing, it was like having our own small (three trails), private ski area.

One of the three had been groomed, one was split groomed and one was left untouched. We made run after run after run in powder that welled over our boot tops. By the time we called it quits for a late-ish lunch, we still hadn't tracked it all out. Not only were the conditions extraordinary and liftlines non-existent, but the company was exceptional. In our group with people joining in and dropping out, I found myself skiing most of the time with two famous Austrians, Wolfgang Puck and Franz Weber. Wolf is a household name, thanks to TV cooking shows, cookbooks, restaurants, including casual ones bearing his name at every airport around and food products from soup to pizza with his likeness. (Photo shows Wolf, Claire and Franz -- and a lot of falling snow)

In skiing circles, Franz Weber is as revered as Wolfgang Puck is to foodies. Franz is best known as six-time consecutive World Speed Skiing Champion, who dominated that thrilling sport from 1980 to 1985. He won more than 80 percent of the races he entered, is the former world record holder and still holds the US speed-skiing record set at Velocity Peak near Silverton, CO, in 1982. He retired as World Champion in 1985, but "unretired" seven years later for the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville, France. There, he clocked his fastest personal time of 138.112 mph (222.222 kph), average speed. After that, he hung up his speed boards for good.
Therefore, when Franz Weber -- the Franz Weber -- told me that I am a solid, smooth skier with good form, my head swelled. I wished I had a recorder with me. Never has anyone of that stature paid me such a compliment about my skiing -- ever. He said it a couple of times on the slopes and again during cocktails that evening. Skier's euphoria set in and hasn't lifted.

The other thing that made this perfect day even better was that these famous, accomplished men who hobnob with other famous, accomplished people were truly a pleasure to ski with. We shared liftline laughs, compared notes on mutual acquaintances and continued to marvel at the great snow. Austrians have a noun for locations or situations that are comfortable, casual and congenial: Gemütlichkeit. My extraordinary skiing experience combined Gemütlichkeit, the reflected glory of skiing in such company and the five-star luxury of Beaver Creek's Ritz Carlton, Bachelor Gulch. It'll will be tough to beat that -- ever.