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Free rides all the time at Bretton Woods (Bretton Woods/Facebook)

A ride up a ski lift in the offseason both gives a different perspective on a favorite mountain and gets the juices flowing for the upcoming skiing and snowboarding season.

Campers hone their culinary skills at Sugarbush's Farm-to-Plate summer camp, one of the many weekly themed summer camps. Photo courtesy Sugarbush Resort.

If you are heading to a mountain resort to enjoy golf or tennis and want the kids to have a great time in the outdoors, summer camps for kids and teens are just the ticket.

The camps focus on educational fun and outdoor activities that challenge as part of facilitating growth. They offer a huge variety to activities that kids love and some even offer camps for families.

Rider in Big Bear Grizzly 100 gets encouragement from a fan (Big Bear Gran Fondo/Facebook/Pink Shorts Photography)

For those with big lungs, tree-trunk quads and a desire to spend hours on a mountain bike -- or folks who enjoy watching them -- the mountains all across the country are an endurance racer’s heaven.

Summer at Copper Mountain will get the primary attention with upcoming improvement projects designed to keep ‘em coming up to the Summit County resort year-round.

I pulled into the Copper Mountain parking lot at 8:30 a.m. with minus-8 temps on a midweek road trip -- Summit County crackling' cold. Not many others were there that early, likely because of the cold and that there had been two days since new snow fell.

Most of us know someone who has never skied or snowboarded but would love the thrill of gliding down a hill on freshly groomed snow. But it’s hard to find the time, get the equipment and be confident that the ski school instruction at a particular resort will get your friend or family member properly introduced to the sport – and eager to return for more.

The Christmas-New Years season at Colorado ski and snowboard resorts definitively says that winter is here for good, punctuated by traditional torchlight runs down the slopes, fireworks, Santa appearances and much more.

With up to two feet of new snow this past week, resorts across the west continue to open and expand terrain heading into the weekend.

The unofficial race to open first in Colorado is over for 2015-2016, with Loveland Ski Basin and Arapahoe Basin both opening for the season on Thursday, October 29.

New lifts and trails often get the headlines during the off-season, but much of this summer’s work in Colorado centers around lodges, base facilities and restaurants.

The scenic chairlift ride, the downhill mountain bike run and the alpine hiking trek have long been standard fare at summer mountain resorts – but the focus has moved off-mountain lately.

For terrain parkers, the end of the winter ski and snowboard season means more than six long months of life without a jib, jump or butter box – unless you got the bread for some time at Woodward.

Sporting an Epic Pass, a Copper/Winter Park Patriots Pass and a Loveland lift ticket, Disabled American Veteran Jerry Eller of Canon City, Colorado recently conquered an eight-resort solo adventure.

In what has become a major ritual of spring, winter resorts have started rolling out discounts on season passes for next year – either to keep the current buzz going or give hope for a better season ahead.

Quite clearly, the future of the ski and snowboard industry will rely upon a younger generation that wants to get onto the slopes and trails at a winter resort.

Climate change – and its threat to snow-dependent ski and snowboard resorts -- has become a priority for many resort owners, and a large number in the West are taking steps to reduce emissions and energy use.

The sun was shining down on Center Village at Copper Mountain, Colo., where a huge crowd congregated for the 2015 U.S. Alpine Ski Team to be introduced during the Nature Valley First Tracks.

On Thanksgiving Day, there are always plenty of things to be thankful for – including the opportunity to carve out a few arcs at a nearby ski and snowboard resort before carving up the turkey. Early-season snow conditions can be an iffy affair, dependent as they are on a stretch of below-freezing temperatures for snowmaking and a couple of late autumn snowstorms to lay down a solid base.

It takes about two weeks to put down enough snow to open, and the race is on between Arapahoe Basin  and Loveland Ski Area as as to which Colorado ski area will open first.

It won't be long now!