A cold beer after a day on the slopes has been a tradition for a long, long time at ski and snowboard resorts. Now, with brewers brewing near most resorts, the connection has strengthened and produced a plethora of personalized “mug clubs” at resort bars.

The 11th annual Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month, going on now, has a new twist. Resorts across the U.S. are gearing up for a special celebration Friday, Jan. 11 – the first National Learn to Ski or Snowboard Day. 

The Denver-to-Winter Park ski train has become more than just a nod to the past: It's now a viable transportation option for Denverites headed to the hills.

As we bid a fond farewell to 2018, the editors at SnoCountry take a look at the news that shaped skiing and riding at mountain resorts across North America over the year.

Cloud-seeding machines strategically positioned in Colorado’s high country have been aimed at the sky for four decades, spewing a compound called silver iodide into the clouds to try to make it snow.

Skeptics have been plenty and definitive research was elusive — it’s hard to prove exactly how much more snow falls after clouds are seeded when no one can say for sure what Mother Nature had planned on her own.
 

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All across the West you can find year-round paved roads that cross major mountain divides and offer some of the best mountain views in the nation. Plus, many are home to ski and snowboard resorts.

Early on, above-freezing temps kept snowfall down in the Pacific Northwest. But lately, the temps have dropped and the depths have risen. Pacific storms have stayed north, pummeling the Cascades and intermountain region with snowfall measured in feet.

Skiing her best is the most important thing to Mikaela Shiffrin (Avon, Colo.), but numbers, not so much. Saturday’s slalom victory may not have been her best skiing, but it resulted in a huge win - FIS Ski World Cup victory number 50 in Courchevel, France.

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There are no silver bullets. No car-sized teleporters, either — at least not yet. Sometimes, Interstate 70 through the Colorado mountains in the winter is just a painful, unending, unavoidable slog. But several tricks can minimize the pain.

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They tried to kick blocks of snow from the cornice, hoping a tumbling chunk might trigger an avalanche. “All we were getting were crumbles. We just couldn’t get a big enough block to go,” said Bryan Wickenhauser, a champion ski mountaineering racer from Gunnison. “So yeah, there was some hesitancy. But we were all committed. No one was going the other way.”

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“Wow, that’s inspiring but I don’t think my knees will last that long!” exclaimed a thirty-something dude on the chairlift.

I had shared that I had just photographed members of the 70+ Ski Club racing, including some in their eighties and nineties.

At many U.S. resorts, you can have the mountain to yourself before the first chair.

The Steamboat Gondola has been the main transport onto the northern Colorado mountain since 1986, prompting new owner Alterra Mountain Co. to install a new gondola to get skiers and riders up and on the slopes more quickly.

Sprinkled in among the big-name resorts of Colorado are a collection of distinct ski and snowboard mountains that have the terrain, variety and unique experiences like the big boys – but without the high price tag.

The time has come, the superpipe is taking shape, and Copper Mountain is welcoming freeski and snowboard halfpipe superstars from across the globe to compete at the 2018 Toyota U.S. Grand Prix. This year the event holds special significance as it marks over a decade of partnership between Copper Mountain and U.S. Ski & Snowboard. Not to mention, early Colorado snow will make for excellent training and competition conditions.

Kids instinctually love to play in the snow, and you can share with them the thrill and camaraderie of a day on the slopes, the anticipation of new fallen snow that blankets the world white, the exhilaration of turns on skis. All across the country, you can find programs that offer a chance for kids to try out skiing and riding, most with just a small fee to get started.

There’s no shortage of luxurious hotels in the West that will indulge your every need. SnoCountry took a look around and came up with a quintet of the hotels that coddle and pander with the best.

A number of double-digit snowfalls coursed across Colorado in early November, giving four resorts in Colorado and one in Utah a chance to open early.

Many ski and snowboard resorts in the West rely upon a nearby town that is base for food, lodging and off-slope fun, so SnoCountry took a look at three well-known towns that act as hubs for the mountains that surround them.

As many ski areas make the final preps before a huge holiday week, weather conditions are shaping up great for both the East and the West.