Why focus on “Mountain Top Ski Lodges”? My earlier post, “Experience the Mountain” described what this site it intended to be about and how it came about, but here I want to share why these places are so special.

  • TIME – MORE MOUNTAIN – If part of the allure of skiing is the whole mountain aesthetic – up high, fresh air expansive vistas with bright white contrast – then why have to limit your enjoyment of this distinctive place you travelled to get to to just 7 hours maximum. Why not have it surrounding you from the minute you wake up to the moment you drift off? Maybe 17 hours! Your transition days are wonderful days too.
  • FIRST ON- MORE SKIING – If the lifts open at 9:00 am you can be on the newly bashed (or better yet, freshly powdered) snow before anyone else is on the mountain. You can do a couple of runs before the crowds surge their way up from the valley towns (not to mention you avoid all those lift-opening time lines).
  • TRANQULITY – REMOTENESS – Sometimes you want to get away from it all. A ski resort after the lifts have closed is typically a very remote place in middle of mountainous terrain. As with my other travel passion, Maldives resorts – www.maldivescomplete.com, the sensation of being in the middle of nowhere is a wonderful escape to nature from the hustle-bustle of modern life.

Mountaintop Lodges are indeed “Maldives of the Mountains” – idyllic, natural points in the middle of “nowhere” surrounded by a panorama of expansive vistas in distinctive colour palettes (blues vs black/white) often complemented with touches of decadent luxury. The MTSL are like islands floating in the air instead of the water. The isolation creates operational challenges for the property managers like supply logistics and transfers which can limit what is available.

Also, the properties tend to be premium travel destinations so Google, which has morphed from a “search engine” to a “sales engine” is now hopeless in terms of finding what you really want. Instead you have to battle with Google who is trying to sell you want they they really want (ie. which is whoever paid the highest amount for placement). Any search for ski-related properties is mostly the noise of SEO promotional sites and ads crowding out a needle-in-the-haystack of useful information. Hence a major motivation for consolidating the research here in an easy to use (and non-commercial) site.

These places are also distinguished by what they are NOT good for namely apres ski, shopping, massage treatments (after a hard day’s on the slopes), dine around or bussing over to a neighbouring ski area.