The 19th-largest country in the world finally has its first ski resort as Sky Resort opened in Mongolia in late November. Situated on Bogd Khan Uul Mountain, the attraction is 15 minutes outside the capital city of Ulan Bator. The resort provides nine runs served by two chairlifts and four surface lifts with an elevation of 3,000 feet and vertical descent of about 626 feet.

Sky Resort may be smaller than a ski resort in North Carolina, but it's a great start for a country covered mostly by semi-desert plains and the Gobi Desert. It caters to expert skiers with a dedicated racing slope and aids novices with one chairlift designated for beginners. Bogd Khan Uul Mountain only receives an average of about eight inches of snow per years, so the resort will utilize Italian-made snow guns to cover the trails. Fortunately an average temperature of four degrees below zero Fahrenheit, mixed with dry conditions, make for ideal snowmaking. Currently, lift passes cost about $11 and rentals cost about $24.

Central New York's Largest Ski Resort Gets Bigger

In December, one of the most exciting developments launched as Greek Peak Mountain Resort— the largest ski destination in Central New York— upgraded its accommodations and became one of the only places in the country where travelers can hit the powdery slopes by day and splash around waterslides and pools by night.

The addition of Hope Lake Lodge, a 106-unit, four-star condo hotel; Waterfalls Spa, a 5,500-square-foot luxury spa; and the 41,000-square-foot Cascades Indoor Waterpark have transformed the popular ski destination into a four-season resort. The development plan for the new property additions was first conceived in 1975 and constructed during the past year. In addition to luxury and family-friendly elements, the resort's developments were executed with environmentally-conscious plans.

Green features such as enhanced energy efficiency, water conservation, locally made sustainable furniture, and advanced VRV heating/ cooling systems have all been blended into the  design of the resort. The five-story, Northwoods-style luxury condominiums at Hope Lake Lodge each have a full kitchen and a fireplace. Amenities also include a state-of-the-art fitness center, restaurant, cafe, and lounge. The four-star condominiums are available for quarter-share purchase and traditional hotel stays.

Greek Peak includes 32 trails served by six lifts, three Terrain Parks, and a full-service Nordic Center

Whether you are heading for some skiing in California, Colorado, Vermont or New York in the U.S. or perhaps as far as Canada or Europe, record snowfalls in parts of North America and Europe have provided 2010 with optimal ski conditions right off the bat as snow bunnies everywhere head for the slopes. But as your travel experience may remain vulnerable due to unpredictable weather and incidents, it is not such a bad idea to consider travel insurance.

The most important part of planning your ski vacation is preparing for the unexpected. Ask yourself for instance, what happens if:

*    Your equipment is lost, stolen, damaged or delayed en route?
*    You need rental equipment to replace your own damaged or delayed equipment?
*    You don't have overseas medical coverage?
*    You're injured and require medical evacuation services?
*    Your trip is canceled or delayed due to bad weather?

While travel insurance can't predict or prevent such things from happening, it can help when you most need it. Whether it is a package plan that offers the broadest protection, medical coverage or medical evacuation splans in the event of an injury or illness, or equipment coverage for reimbursement or damages, insurance can ease the mind so that a skier or rider's only concern is the slow poke in front of them and out-of-control person in the center of the slopes.

Europe began developing downhill retreats in the early 1900s, and the U.S. soon joined in. While America's initial efforts centered in the East, it was the powder-plastered peaks beyond the Great Divide that offered the best slopes for serious sliding. In the decade before World War II, Western enthusiasts began slicing trails, installing lifts and building lodges. A handful of those early areas have gracefully matured into classic ski resorts.

Sun Valley

One prewar enthusiast was Union Pacific chairman (and, later, U.S. diplomat) W. Averell Harriman. He had seen the best of Europe and wanted to build a similar resort out West. After months of searching, Harriman bought ranchland near Ketchum, Idaho, and named it Sun Valley. In 1936, he built a four-story lodge that offered gourmet restaurants, a glass-enclosed pool and a basement bowling alley. The world's first chairlift, a single-seater patterned after a Central American banana hoister, hauled bunches of skiers up the mountain. Guests included a Who's Who of Hollywood. In 1964, Union Pacific peddled the resort to developer Bill Janss. Thirteen years later, Janss sold it to Sinclair Oil owner Earl Holding. "Lift-ticket prices went up a buck or two, and people complained," says Sun Valley executive Jack Sibbach. "Bumper stickers said, 'Earl is a four letter word.' " But Holding planned to keep Sun Valley a premier resort. He installed high-speed lifts, added state-of-the-art snow-making and built opulent day lodges with varnished woods, floral carpets and restrooms with gold fixtures. Today, Sun Valley offers two sets of slopes. Beginners have Dollar Mountain, which features easy trails. The main runs lie a few miles away on Bald Mountain where the expansive terrain is largely intermediate.

Aspen

Many early ski instructors were Austrians fleeing Hitler. One of them, Friedl Pfeifer, became the Sun Valley ski-school director. When the war began, he joined the 10th Mountain Division and trained at Colorado's Camp Hale, 82 miles east of Aspen. The old mining town had already tasted downhill skiing. In 1936 William Fiske slid skiers up the mountain in a "boat-tow" built from a mine hoist and a Model-A engine. The operation was disbanded during the war, but that didn't stop soldiers from spending leave in Aspen. After a day of hiking up and skiing down, they would hit Hotel Jerome's J-Bar for a bourbon-laced milkshake known as Aspen Crud. After the war, Pfeifer returned with the hope of building a new Aspen ski area. He and Container Corp. of America founder Walter Paepcke formed the Aspen Skiing Co. The ski area grew, and Aspen became a year-round destination. By the time John Denver penned "Rocky Mountain High," Aspen had eclipsed Sun Valley as America's trendiest ski resort. "Aspen was my mecca for skiing," says Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis. "I grew up in New England, and the first place I came to in 1964 was Aspen, Colo."

Buttermilk and Aspen Highlands began operating nearby in 1958, and a decade later, Snowmass opened a dozen miles down the valley. All four are now jointly owned and available on a common lift ticket. The Hotel Jerome J-Bar remains a favorite hangout, although it no longer serves Aspen Crud.

Alta

Alta began as a silver-mining boomtown in Little Cottonwood Canyon southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah. Population mushroomed to 3,000 in 1872, but started skidding a year later. By the 1930s, the town boasted six registered voters.

The U.S. Forest Service hired Norwegian Alf Engen to survey the mountains around Alta for potential ski sites. The Salt Lake City Winter Sports Association raised $10,000 and built a ski lift out of ore-hauling tramway parts. Operations began in January 1939 with full-day lift tickets going for $1.50. The next year, the Alta Lodge opened as a Spartan, European-style hostelry. After World War II, entrepreneur Edwin Gibbs bought a pair of three-story hospital barracks and hauled them up the mountain to build the Alta Peruvian Lodge. Both still house guests. Unlike Sun Valley and Aspen, Alta never attracted a glamorous following. The slopes lie at the cusp of timberline, surrounded by jutting peaks that receive 500 inches of snow annually. Powder flocks trees, plasters hills and buries slopes under a blanket of glistening white. Experts show up on fat skis and head for the chutes. "You can do small hikes, and it's just like backcountry skiing," says spokesman Tyler Jackson. "You may have to do a traverse, but for the advanced skier, it's usually worth it." While many resorts have become slopeside real-estate developments, Alta remains true to its roots. There are no concrete condos, five-star hotels or trendy restaurants. Even snowboards are banned.

Squaw Valley

In 1937, Wayne Poulsen decided that Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe would make a splendid ski area. Developing his dream waited until he met Alexander Cushing, a Wall Street lawyer who came to nearby Sugar Bowl on a California ski vacation in 1946. In a fortuitous stroke of misfortune, the New Yorker broke his leg on the first day out. Poulsen befriended the hobbling attorney and persuaded him take a look at Squaw Valley. Smitten, Cushing returned home, raised $400,000 in capital and bought a one-way ticket west. The ski area opened Thanksgiving Day 1949. The first five years were trying. Avalanches wrecked lift towers, floods destroyed an access bridge and fire leveled the lodge. In the sixth year, things turned around forever. In spite of having only one chairlift, two rope tows and 50 lodging rooms, Squaw Valley won the bid to host the 1960 Winter Olympic Games – the first to be broadcast in the U.S. "Following the hype of the Olympics in Squaw Valley, ski resorts began popping up all over the country," observes spokeswoman Savannah Cowley. "Skiing soon became a popular American pastime." Little remains from the Games, but the area still has an international flavor. A Euro-style tram hauls visitors up a thousand-foot cliff face, and topside chairlifts carry skiers to Alps-like terrain so open that trail maps name few individual runs. It reminds folks of how things were back when skis were made of wood, bindings required manual latching and leather boots laced to the ankle.