Winter Park

Is this long-established Colorado resort, the closest to Denver, going to challenge Breckenridge in the British popularity stakes now that it has at last built a ski-in ski-out base village? Not only is it a fine place for beginners and excellent for intermediates, it also has plenty of challenging skiing in the Vasquez Cirque for experts. And this winter, instead of having a 20-minute hike along the Parsenn ridge to get there, it will be possible to grab a $5 tow behind snowmobiles. The coming season, its 62nd, runs from Wednesday 15 November to Sunday 22 April. I stayed in the first-rate Zephyr Mountain Lodge after it opened last March.

Zephyr Mountain Lodge, room only, two-room apartment for four people, seven nights beginning 27 January, with flights and transfers, £619. Thomson (0870 606 1470).

St Anton

There's nothing like staging a world event to give an established resort a shot in the arm. That's what has happened to this Austrian favourite, which hosts the 2001 Alpine Ski Championships for two weeks from 28 January. The railway that used to divide the village from the main slopes has been diverted. And in December a new eight-seater gondola from Nasserein up to the popular Gampen area opens, while both the Kandahar and Fang pistes have been made less forbidding. More snowmaking guns will ensure the runs to St Christoph and down the Rendl are reliable. The season runs for five months from Friday 1 December and, as I found last year, there is often excellent skiing in the weeks before Christmas. The Arlberg plastic ski pass gives access to 84 lifts, 262 pistes and 185km of downhill running.

Sporthotel half-board for seven nights starting 21 January, £590 including flights and transfers. Airtours (0800 028 8844)

La Plagne

One of the first French resorts built by skiers for skiers. There are 10 satellite villages besides the original Plagne Centre, famous for its escalator to the ski front and carpeted cable car up to Aime La Plagne. It may be at least 12 months before the lift link with neighbouring Les Arcs will be opened, creating 412km of piste and 186 lifts. But La Plagne is already making progress in other areas: the queue-prone Grande Rochette gondola cars, which over 30 years have carried 20m passengers up to some great skiing and one of the most beautiful views in the Alps, have been replaced for this season (Saturday 16 December to Sunday 22 April) by a system with 24-people cars able to lift 3,000 skiers an hour.

Plagne 1800, chalet-board for seven nights starting 6 January, £359pp sharing including flights and transfers. Ski Beat (01243 780 405)

Jackson Hole

This Wyoming mountain resort lies at the base of the spectacular Grand Tetons, which rise 1,260 metres out of the 'Hole' itself. It shook the whole concept of American skiing, when with a positively European attitude to off-piste, it opened up the backside of Rendezvous Mountain to expert skiers last winter. They can now sign out of the patrolled ski area to enjoy a further 3,000 acres of unpatrolled powder skiing. You need a guide and transceivers to enjoy it safely, and a strong pair of legs to walk back out. All this is in addition to the unpisted black Hobacks which are lift-accessed within the area. Out of 36km of piste there are plenty of runs for intermediates from the Gondola Summit, and beginners enjoy the lower, gentler Teewinot slopes. Average snowfall is more than 400in. a season. Skiing starts on 2 December and runs until 8 April. The Lodge at Jackson Hole, room and breakfast, seven nights from 6 January, £624pp sharing including flights and transfers. Neilson (08705 14 14 14)

Villars

This sunny old Swiss resort in the Vaudois Alps, once British-dominated, is rapidly smartening up its act for the twenty-first century. It has been steadily improving its lifts recently. Last season saw the installation of a six-seater up Grand Chamossaire, from just beneath the cog-rail terminus at Bretaye. The valley lift along to Les Diablerets has been modernised and this winter sees the opening of a new chairlift on the far side of Meilleret. And it benefits, too, from the new cable car up to the Diablerets Glacier. The panoramas of craggy summits are not easy to forget. There are 47 lifts serving 220km of piste, none of them too difficult and the skiing ranges from the 1,300m base village to 2,970m. The area even includes four snowboard parks.

Hotel du Golf, half-board, seven nights in January from £477 per person sharing, including Heathrow flights and transfers. Swiss Travel Service (01992 456 123)