Jan 12, 2007  |  By: ZACK ROSEN  | COMMENTS     

It’s hard out here for a ski fan.

With local temperatures topping 70 degrees in recent days, fans of winter sports aren’t finding much action near D.C. Luckily, the winter brings a series of gay ski events out West, where locals can escape the January heat and hit the powder.

“I first went to [Aspen Gay Ski Week] in the early days, in the ’80s,” says Richard Strange, a former World Bank employee and veteran attendee of gay ski weeks.

While the events might have started off small (Strange remembers people gathering around a local pond for wintry events), today’s gay ski weeks are held all over the West, and they’ve become major go-to winter destinations.

“It’s more like a festival,” says Dean Nelson, director for WinterPRIDE, a gay ski week on Whistler Mountain, the highest mountain in North America, in Whistler, British Columbia. “We discerned that people are coming here to meet old and new friends from around the world. It’s a celebration of diversity. It was starting to sound like a Pride festival except in a ski resort.”

WinterPRIDE was born when the previous Whistler gay ski week, Altitude, was cancelled at the last minute during the 2006 ski season, leaving ski fanatics with plane tickets to nowhere. In response, Gay Whistler, a privately held company that plans gay ski weeks and other gay-friendly events in Whistler, scrambled and put together a full event in just 12 days.

The success of that hair-raising inaugural week led to the creation of WinterPRIDE, which, this year, is made up of a panoply of attractions sure to entice avid skiers and snow bunnies alike. Although whooshing down the slopes is the main sport, WinterPRIDE also offers snowboarding, dog sledding and even canopy tours — a series of zip-lines set up in the snowy treetops.

Indoors-only types who might have been dragged along by a mountain-loving partner won’t be left out in the cold. One of Canada’s top fitness experts Cat Smiley, herself a competitive skier, will be leading an exercise boot camp that promises a no-holds-barred, intense military style workout, sans the belittling, yelling and intimidation. Plus, from photos of Smiley, the ladies will have some serious eye-candy while getting whipped into shape.

NOT CONTENT TO be just about physical pleasures, WinterPRIDE also offers educational classes for health professionals taught by accredited instructors. Topics include facial reconstruction for AIDS patients, issues faced by lesbians during menopause and the special health needs of the transgender population.

If this all sounds like too much work, never fear — there’s still plenty of hedonism on the schedule. A culinary event combining singles and aphrodisiac foods is sure to raise the temperatures of some attendees. Singles attending the mixer will wear chef hats and help to feed one another lusciously tempting foods like strawberries, oysters, figs and, of course, chocolate. 

“You’re getting your hands dirty,” Nelson says, “and you’ll have fun doing it.”

In fact, the weeklong festivities have no shortage of social events. There are afternoon happy hours, après-ski events, comedy shows, a formal banquet and, most impressively, a mountaintop tea dance being spun all night by DJ Jamie Sanchez.

This year’s event is expected to bring in around 2,500 people. In the past it has been about 95 percent men, but a larger advertising base with lesbian publications is expected to push women’s attendance up to 10 percent.

FOR THOSE SEEKING a quiet get-away, WinterPRIDE is probably not the ideal option, but Vail Gay Ski Week in Vail, Colo., could be the perfect intimate vacation. Though the town is the largest ski area in the United States, its gay ski week, held from Feb. 6-11, usually only draws about 50 skiers who are mostly in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

Even with events planned every day — generally a dinner or smaller party with the exception of the large closing night party — the biggest attraction at Vail is the skiing. Vail Mountain stretches seven miles long and is made up of a variety of specially dubbed sections, including the Front Side, Blue Sky Basin and the Back Bowls. The Front Side is mostly suited for novices, the Blue Sky Basin is made up of intermediate and difficult runs, and the Back Bowls is strictly for the experts.

The town of Vail, nestled in Colorado’s breathtaking scenery like an Austrian ski town, is noted for its shopping, gourmet dining, art galleries and luxurious spas. A long-established vacation spot, Vail has many housing options, including a number of condos, ...