With one of the top terrain parks and half pipes in America, it attracted a high proportion of boarders - 25 per cent, as opposed to the average 10.Like Vail and Beaver Creek, the pistes, more than half of which were for advanced skiers, were extraordinarily well marked, with maps available in dispensers at every lift. The safe skiing message was very much in evidence with signs warning, "Space not speed". Even the paper serviettes in the resort's restaurants had the Skier's Responsibility Code printed on them, reminding guests, for example, that those skiing ahead had the right of way.In the flat light and penetrating cold, I decided to try the suitably named "Psychopath Gully", a black run which did, indeed, produce scary voices in my head. Coyote Caf?with its menu of 13 tequilas, was the apr?ski venue de choix; though again, it did not exactly rock.Those who prefer a livelier and less pricey resort would be better off at the more casual Breckenridge, a charming, Victorian, former mining town whose historic Main Street was lined with brightly coloured clapboard shops selling an impressive range of super-tat such as black bear skins for $1,695, cute caf?and techno lounge bars.An hour's drive from Beaver Creek at Breckenfridge, so called because of its winds (I needed tights and an extra layer it was that nippy), the ski pass scanners did not bother to look up, let alone speak. The slopes were groomed, broad, motorway affairs that I slinked down, sometimes alone.In the centre of the village (which bore not the slightest soup? of snow on the ground because of heated walkways) was an open-air ice rink surrounded by boutiques, where I could have parted with $129.50 for a child's skiing jacket at Le Petit Skier, $31.50 for an ornamental fake cabbage from Karin's Fine Incidental Home Decor or blown $10,000 on a beaver coat at Giovanny Alexander. Even sitting on the chair lifts watching the carved slopes glint in the sun like darting silver fish was a joy.

Beaver Creek has more tree line and glade skiing than Vail, 27 per cent of the pistes were for advanced skiers, 39 per cent for intermediates and the rest for beginners. Gerald Ford, the former president, has a home here, as does Tom Hanks.I may have fallen for Vail, but I was immediately on for a torrid affair with Beaver Creek. The skiing was a blissful mix of perfect weather and perfect cappuccino snow (firm underneath with a light froth on top). It was difficult to leave.A 15-minute drive away was Beaver Creek, which, along with Breckenridge, Keystone and the Arapaho Basin, was included in the Vail lift pass A shuttle bus linked the resorts. Beaver Creek was a gated, attractive, purpose-built village (and the youngest in the States), where second homes started at $2.5m. A five-star affair with heated bathroom floors and outside hot tubs with waiter service, it not only offered cosy refinement, but also an impressive restaurant, the Wildflower, serving such creations as macadamia crusted ahi tuna and ancho chile rubbed bison medallions.

Instead of a spot of gl?in and dancing on tabletops in your ski boots when the lifts shut, there was nothing more on offer than a chat over a chilly beer or margarita while I was there.The shops catered for both the toffs and the tacky, with fur boutiques selling $29,995 (£16,000) sable coats and souvenir shops offering urns for $20 in which to put one's ex-wife's ashes.While Vail lacked a 4pm knees-up, it did do a particularly fine line in luxury accommodation, namely the Lodge at Vail. For lunch we had a choice of reasonably priced wraps, grills, salads, soups, noodles and the like. For mass catering, it was good and tasty.Those barmy enough to miss their office could have taken advantage of the facilities at the business centre halfway up the slopes, which offers the use of computers, free email and the internet, as well as up-to-the-minute stock quotes.While Vail town centre may have embraced the (not unpleasant) faux Tyrolean look, it failed to pull off European standard apr?ski. Blue Sky basin, which opened in 2000, offering more than 600 acres of gladed powder with some grooming among the trees, provided equally good terrain for showing off. And all this under endless cornflower skies - Vail is farther south than Rome and enjoys more than 275 days of sun a year.Smiling welcomers at Two Elk Lodge, a vast, wooden, mountain restaurant featuring an outdoor terrace with underfloor heating, produced yet more tissues. I cruised around on smooth, wide runs, never having skied so well.