Pack your thermals, a super El Niño could redraw the American ski map

Go west

Brits rarely need encouragement to chat about the weather, but this winter presents a particularly compelling reason to do so. A powerful El Niño is brewing in the Pacific — already dubbed a super El Niño — and it could redraw the American ski map.

Named by Peruvian fishermen after the Christ Child, El Niño is a natural climate pattern that produces unusually warm Pacific waters, which tend to peak around Christmas. Returning every few years and generally reaching its height during the northern-hemisphere winter, it can push the Pacific jet stream south, carrying storms and moisture with it.

Although the knock-on effects for European winters are harder to predict, across North America the pattern is clearer: El Niño years historically tilt the odds for snow in California and southern USA mountains, with resorts further north often missing out.

Among the more intriguing beneficiaries is Taos, New Mexico, where Aspen locals go to escape ‘silly season’ in Hollywood-on-snow. Founded in the 1950s by German-Swiss émigré Ernie Blake, Taos retains an old-school, European mountaineering streak: steep chutes, bumps and glades, with some of its finest terrain still reached by hiking along the high-altitude Highline and West Basin ridges.

In Taos itself, low-slung adobe buildings house art galleries, margarita bars and laidback restaurants serving bluecorn enchiladas, with the desert stretching towards the Sangre de Cristo Mountains beyond. Will El Niño deliver? Ask us in April. Until then, it provides a splendid excuse to ski somewhere new.

It’s all down from here

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For decades, Courchevel’s hierarchy has been expressed in altitude. Courchevel 1850 had the palaces, Michelin stars and eye-popping chalets, then, as one descended the valley, things became progressively more relaxed — and affordable. That distinction is beginning to blur.

This winter, Maisons Pariente, founded by the fantastically stylish French family behind Le Coucou in Méribel and Crillon le Brave in Provence, unveils the 37-room Hôtel Saint Roch, with richly layered, dacha-inspired interiors and laidback intimacy (above).

Perhaps the more interesting shift, however, is downhill. Courchevel Moriond (1,650 metres) gains two five-star hotel-residences, Sundance Courchevel and Steamboat Lodge, as La Tania, the valley’s low-key, wooded outlier, welcomes the four-star ski-in/ski-out La Bârma hotel and Residences. Courchevel’s appetite for the high life remains undiminished, but you no longer need to climb quite so far up to find it.

The long way round

Verbier has spent the past 15 years trying to solve a peculiarly Swiss inconvenience. Savoleyres and La Tzoumaz — the sunny slopes rising above the left side of town — form part of the Verbier 4Vallées ski domain, yet reaching them from the resort’s main ski area has traditionally required a bus journey across town.

The solution, a new lift linking Savoleyres with Les Esserts, was first proposed in 2011, but Swissness intervened. Local objections, including a determined challenge from a Savoleyres chalet owner, raised concerns over forest clearance, landscape and environmental impact, ultimately reaching the Swiss Federal Tribunal. In 2016, the court partially upheld the appeal and demanded further environmental assessment, leading to a redesign.

This December, the full Esserts–Planards–Savoleyres Télémixte (a blend of gondola cabins and chairlifts) is set to complete the missing link. In preparation, Verbier has retired its 56-year-old Savoleyres gondola — Switzerland’s oldest operating gondola until last month — and added a new piste from Carrefour to Les Esserts. Visitors arriving to inspect the hard-won new connection can also check into Norwood’s shiny new 36-suite Ski Lodge, opening this December in the heart of town.

A home from home

The best hosts know that a comfy bed and well-stocked cellar are only the beginning. Invite close friends to stay and part of the pleasure is knowing what will interest them, whom they might enjoy meeting and how best to share the place you love with them. It is an ethos that defines Iconic House, a collection of ‘Maisons Hôtelières’ founded by brothers Robin Michel and Thibaud Elzière and dotted across France.

The brothers own all seven houses, each of which is selected to reflect their passions and the way they like to spend time with family — from skiing in the Alps to surfing on the Atlantic coast and lazy Provençal wine harvests. Each is fully staffed and impeccably equipped, yet retains the privacy and ease of a family home.”

This winter, that idea extends beyond the houses with Compositions, a new approach that begins with getting to know guests before they arrive, then suggesting days around what might interest them. At Le Sarto in Megève — a classic chalet designed by Henry Jacques Le Même — a day’s ski touring far from the lifts might be followed by a guided tour exploring Le Même’s architectural legacy in the village (above). At Le 1550 in Courchevel, guests can drive a piste basher before enjoying a cheese tasting at a local farm.

It is a pleasingly personal alternative to the ubiquitous menu of ‘money can’t buy experiences’ proffered by many properties, rooted in the simple truth that the best hosts are those who anticipate what their guests will enjoy.

Bottoms up

Three years ago, Matteo Oddo, the genial bar manager at Badrutt’s Palace in St Moritz, Switzerland, stumbled upon rows of forgotten spirits and wines in the hotel’s dusty cellars. The Ports, whiskies and vermouth wines, among others, had been collected by generations of the Badrutt’s family. A bottle of honey liqueur, bottled, according to its label, in 1870, was in perfect condition thanks to the subterranean room’s steady temperature and dim light.

A carefully curated selection of cocktails, made using some of these rediscovered alcohols, are available to sample in the Renaissance Bar. Quantities are restricted and service is only available to guests whom Oddo and his team feel will understand the messaging behind these very special drinks.

The bottles are symbolic, he explains, of the hotel’s heritage and pioneering hospitality philosophy. ‘My name is not Badrutt’s,’ he concludes, ‘but I am honoured to be here and to provide exceptional service’.

Beyond the piste

Set amid rolling meadows with views over Mont Blanc, Megève has always understood that there is more to a ski holiday than skiing (just ask Audrey Hepburn’s character in Charade, 1963, above) and this winter offers fresh temptation for those who prefer their mountain air served with a long lunch and an excellent facial.

The Sibuet family, whose cluster of rustic-chic hotels has helped shape Megève’s particular brand of Alpine living, has been busy. Lodge Park enters its centenary year with the region’s first Longevity Spa, offering advanced therapies, including photobiomodulation and cryolipolysis, and the adjoining Chalet du Lodge, complete with its own pool and wellness facilities.

Les Fermes de Marie is also adding a three-bedroom family chalet in its grounds and the group’s skincare brand, Pure Altitude, takes its Alpine credentials a step further with SkiCare, a six-piece limited-edition collection formulated specifically for skin exposed to altitude and winter weather. It might all sound suspiciously like an excuse not to ski. In Megève, of course, nobody has ever required persuading.