All you need for a satisfactory day's skiing is a bit of a slope, a sprinkling of snow and, ideally, an effective lift. But life's too short to make do with merely satisfactory skiing. Once in a while, you want an extraordinary day's skiing - a day that will live in your memory long after you have hung up your boots. So where are you going to find that?
I've been reflecting on the great days I have enjoyed over the last decade or three while 'researching' ski resorts around the world, and come up with a personal top 10 places to go and things to do.
I have tried to achieve a balance - not all of my suggestions revolve around thigh-deep powder snow, or around the North American resorts where I mainly seem to find it.
But I will admit to a detectable bias towards spectacular scenery - which is one of the main things that takes me back to the mountains every year - and to more than one mention of the word lunch. And for a country with nowhere near as many major resorts as Austria or France, Switzerland seems to have produced more than its fair share of special days.
At the end of each item is a web address for further information.
1. Savour the matchless views from Mürren's Schilthorn run, Switzerland
Mürren is a tiny, car-free village set on a high mountain shelf in Switzerland with close-up views of one of the most dramatic groups of peaks in the Alps - the precipitous Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. The views from the village are spectacular, but for the complete Mürren experience take the cable-car up to Piz Gloria, the famous revolving restaurant at the top of the Schilthorn, pause for a revolving beer and then zoom down the black run back to the village 1,300 metres below. It's a gloriously varied run, but not especially difficult since they started grooming the snow on the top section regularly. And ahead of you all the time is that view.
2. Experience the ultimate winter sports thrill, heli-skiing in western Canada
Normally, downhill skiing means spending more time sitting on lifts than skiing. It can also mean competing for space on overcrowded, heavily worn runs. But a helicopter takes only a few minutes to fly you 1,000m up a mountain. The descent, if all goes well, consists of plunging down virgin slopes of deep powder snow with only half a dozen companions in sight. It isn't difficult: the slopes are usually not super-steep, and special wide skis help enormously. Western Canada has the best conditions; a day out from the superb resort of Whistler, including three uplifts, costs £260.
3. Go boldly into mountaineering territory in Chamonix's Vallée Blanche, France
On the fringe of central Chamonix is an innocent-looking cable-car station. But let your eye follow the cables, and you'll see that it goes up to a sheer rock pinnacle at the shoulder of Mont Blanc to the Aiguille du Midi, a staggering 2,800m above the town. The cable-car ride is spectacular enough, but after it comes the acclaimed Vallée Blanche - an epic run of 24 kilometres in all. You ski over glaciers through fabulous mountain scenery back to Chamonix. It is not difficult, but you need a guide to avoid the hazards . You can book one at the Maison de la Montagne.
4. Make fresh tracks in the fabled powder of the Utah Interconnect, USA
Few resorts in the world get the quantity and quality of powder snow that is found in the leading resorts in Utah - the state where the Winter Olympics will take place next February. Alta and Snowbird nestle in one valley, while two more villages, Brighton and Solitude, are in the next one. Just over the hill from there is the big-name resort of the area, Park City - which, ironically, does not have quite such a good record for snow as the others. The Interconnect is a guided tour that takes in all of these resorts and a lot of off-piste ('back country') slopes along the way - including some where you're virtually guaranteed to make fresh tracks. There's a bit of hiking involved, and incompetent skiers are weeded out fairly early in the day. The cost is £110 per person.
• www.skiutah.com/interconnect
5. Linger over lunch above the classic resort village of Zermatt, Switzerland
Zermatt isn't perfect - the locals could be friendlier and less grasping - but in many ways it is the definitive Alpine village, a marvellously atmospheric jumble of chalets big and small, huddled together at the foot of the improbably pointed Matterhorn. Its mountain restaurants are simply the world's best, and although some of the cosiest are in hamlets close to the village, for the classic lunchtime views you need to head for the terraces higher up in the Gornergrat and Sunnegga sectors - especially at Findeln. If there is a better spot for lunch on a sunny day, I haven't found it.
6. Rack up miles in the world's biggest ski area, the Trois Vallées, France
If you like to cruise around a big area, hardly ever skiing the same run twice, this is the place. You can get lift passes in Austria and Italy that cover more lifts, and the Franco-Swiss Portes du Soleil claims a similar quantity of linked lifts (200) and piste kilometres (600), but in practice the Trois Vallées has no real rivals. Both on- and off-piste, there is vast and varied skiing around the four linked major resorts of Méribel (prettiest, and the British favourite), Les Menuires (the cheapest), Val Thorens (at 2,300m, the highest in France) and Courchevel (the swankiest and best all round).
7. Enjoy - or ignore - the Hollywood ambience of Aspen-Snowmass, USA
American skiing has lots of attractions: frequent snowfalls, efficiently run mountains, uncrowded pistes, safe and steep powder slopes, superb accommodation, amusing Wild West towns and excellent restaurants with affordable prices. Aspen has them all in spades. It has a glitzy Hollywood image, but you can safely ignore that and concentrate on enjoying yourself. The slopes of Aspen and nearby Snowmass are huge, and (as a result of resort policies) the quietest in Colorado. There is even a restored mining town. Everything from rowdy basement bars to super-sophisticated dining.
8. Cruise the long and easy run from Weissfluhjoch to Klosters, Switzerland
I hate to see novices confined to the nursery slopes when there are runs like this they could be taken on (as I was, many years ago) before the end of their first week on skis. From Weissfluhjoch above Davos it's 12km around the mountain and about 1,500m vertically down to Klosters. If snow conditions are good on the lower parts it's a hugely satisfying doddle, with the bonus of lively huts for refreshment and celebration in the woods in the final stages. You end up at the station, where trains take you back to Davos.
9. Burn the candle at both ends - and in the middle - in St Anton, Austria
The après-skiing often comes first in Austria, land of the tea-dance and the outdoor disco-bar that throbs from lunchtime onwards. St Anton throbs with the best of them, but the Arlberg region, of which it is part, also offers Austria's snowiest and most challenging skiing. It appeals mostly to competent skiers and riders, who can make the most of the powder, bumps or spring snow on the off-piste slopes beneath the Valluga. Next-door Stuben, Zürs and Lech add further extensive possibilities. The bars on the lower slopes are packed by 3pm.
10. Relax in stunning scenery around Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Italy's most fashionable resort is no place for the mileage-hungry who snack from a back-pack. It is a place where few people make it on to the mountain before mid-morning, and a large proportion of those are heading straight to lunch. Why bother? Because Cortina enjoys the most beautiful setting of any resort I have seen. The town is ringed by spectacular cliffs and peaks soaring up from wooded slopes. While skiing here, I regularly stop just to stare - but there is excellent skiing to be had, spread over several areas.
• Chris Gill is the editor of Where to Ski and Snowboard 2002 - the Reuters Guide.
Have your say online
What do you think is the ultimate skiing challenge? Share your top 10 in a debate at Join the talkboard debate or email escape@observer.co.uk
