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From your work goals to your personal health and wellness, January is all about pressing the reset button. For skiers, that can look like many different things. Maybe your goal is to surpass last season’s vertical, or get in better shape so you’re not huffing and puffing after every run. Perhaps you finally want to get that avy certification or conquer your fear of steeps or moguls. Or do you just need a few quiet days in the mountains to get your head in the right place?
Watch: A Quick Yoga Practice to Reset Your Body
A new year brings new challenges and a refreshingly clean slate. To help inspire you to seize the day, we collected a list of the best destinations in ski country to press the reset button in 2025. From spas to camps, these are opportunities to start the new year off with a win and set the right tone for the months to come.
SKI’s Top Wellness Retreats, Spas, and Camps to Kick Off 2025
Montage Big Sky, Big Sky, Mont.
The newest Montage opened in December 2021 with 139 luxury rooms, 39 residences, and ski-in/ski-out access via the Lewis & Clark high-speed quad, steps from the massive property. Tucked into its own base area, the Montage Big Sky is the best of both worlds. It’s off the beaten path, which helps it feel like an exclusive destination, but it’s connected to the rest of the ski area by lifts and shuttles, so you can enjoy the restaurants and bars at the main village and the town of Big Sky when you feel like it.
The Montage Big Sky’s crown jewel, though, is its state-of-the-art, 11,000-square foot spa. With 12 treatment rooms, decked out his and hers relaxation lounges with plunge pools and steam rooms, dreamy indoor pool and 3,000-square-foot fitness center. Spa Montage signature treatments include the High Altitude Acclimation Massage, designed to help people adjust to the higher elevation and mountain elements, and the Full Bliss, a complete body treatment that includes an exfoliation followed by a hot-stone massage.
Steep Skiing Camp, Alta, Utah
Even if you’ve been skiing for years, stepping up to steeper slopes can feel intimidating. There’s no better place to improve those skills than the legendary landscape of Alta. (The resort is still closed to snowboarders, so this clinic is for skiers only.)
Related: Are Ski Retreats Focused On Mindfulness Worth It, Or Full Of It?
This four-day steep-skiing clinic, held March 18-21, is led by veteran skier Kim Reichhelm, a former U.S. Ski Team racer and two-time World Extreme Skiing champion. It’s designed for advanced to expert skiers who want to build confidence in bigger terrain, and the group size is limited to 12 skiers. You’ll stay at Alta’s slopeside Rustler Lodge, and there’s an option to add on a day of backcountry shredding with Powderbird Heli Skiing in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Miraval Berkshires, Lennox, Mass.
The Miraval name is well-known in the fitness and wellness space, but less so in the ski industry. Enter the Miraval Berkshires, which is trying to change that. This newish property (opened in 2019) is located in Lennox, a fine base for skiing the small but charming Berkshires ski areas of Butternut, Jiminy Peak, and Catamount.
Unlike other destinations on this list, people come from across the country to experience experience Miraval Bershire’s Life in Balance spa and fitness center. The 29,000-square-foot facility is a standard-bearer in the wellness world, offering amenities including a steam room, sauna, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, and a serenity pool. The treatment menu reads like a course catalogue, with over a dozen of different types of massages alone. There’s also a full slate of fitness classes, seminars on popular health and fitness topics, and oodles of scheduled activities, from kombucha-brewing to winter hiking, that make this place feel like a true retreat. The only downside? It might be hard to find time to ski.
Winter Backcountry Skills Course, Mount Baker, Wash.
If you’re looking to venture into the backcountry this winter, signing up for an avalanche course or two is critical. But those courses alone won’t necessarily teach you skills like how to ascend a skin track or tips on skiing in variable conditions.
This four- or six-day winter backcountry skills course with the American Alpine Institute is held on various dates throughout the season. It consists of two online evening lectures to introduce you to the concepts of avalanche avoidance and mitigation, followed by several days on the snow in the woods near the Mount Baker Ski Area. Each course has a maximum of 24 students, but once you get outside, you’ll be broken into smaller groups, with one instructor for every six students, so you’ll have plenty of time for personalized instruction. Stay in Bellingham or near the base of Mount Baker.
El Monte Sagrado, Taos, N.M.
Set just east of the town of Taos, this unique wellness retreat is one of a few where skiers can enjoy the health benefits of the desert air while also spending quality time at one of the best ski resorts in the country. El Monte Sagrado’s focus is one of sustainability and commitment to ecological preservation. But that doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice luxury during a stay here. To the contrary, guests enjoy eco- (and skin-) friendly details such as chlorine-free pools and hot tubs and locally grown ingredients in the De la Tierra restaurant.
But it’s at the hotel’s spa where skiers can really soak in the regional benefits, literally. Signature treatments such as Sagrado High Desert utilizes oils from indigenous flowers and plants rehydrate dry skin, followed by exfoliation and massage. There’s also a fully equipped fitness center and daily yoga classes.
Uphill Skiing Clinic, Bolton Valley, Vt.
Uphill in-bounds skinning at ski resorts is a popular pastime, with more and more resorts across the country offering uphill access. The benefit? Exercise and fresh air in a more controlled environment than you’ll experience in the backcountry.
Watch: How to Attach Your Skins
But before you strap skins to your touring skis, consider taking one of Bolton Valley’s Intro to Backcountry clinics, held on six dates between January and March. These $120 per person, 2.5-hour intro classes include a Nordic/Backcountry/Uphill lift ticket, plus $20 off backcountry rental gear that they can keep for the whole day. Participants will learn the basics, including how to use tech bindings and skins, then will be guided for a short skin and descent on beginner terrain.
Lodge at Blue Sky, Park City, Utah
A stay at the Lodge at Blue Sky is meant to be more than just a place to sleep and store your gear. This Auberge resort on its own 35-acre retreat in Wanship, just outside of Park City, is designed to be the centerpiece of your vacation, with myriad winter on tap including snowshoeing, wildlife viewing, sleigh rides, fat-tire biking, ice fishing, dog sledding, and even heli-snowshoeing in the Wasatch high peaks. Nearby ski destinations include Deer Valley and Park City Mountain.
But the highlight for weary skiers looking to rejuvenate is the Edge Spa, so named for its cliffside location overlooking Alexander Creek. It’s small, only five treatment rooms, testament to the more exclusive experience on tap here. Signature options include the High West Whiskey Rubdown, which starts with a shot of local High West Whiskey and includes a foot soak and scrub, a hot towel compression massage, and a hydrating massage. Don’t miss the Edge Sanctuary, where resident energy healers guide guests through their own relaxation journeys.
Freestyle Ski Camp, Mammoth Mountain, Calif.
Love ripping laps through the terrain park or the halfpipe, but never taken the time to learn how to do so properly? Mammoth Mountain is undoubtedly the place to improve your moves. The resort’s two-day terrain-park clinic, held four more weekends this season, is geared toward intermediate to expert skiers or snowboarders ages 10 and older, and will help you fine-tune those tricks you’ve always wanted to master, so you can ride the park or pipe with style and safety. The camp includes five hours of instruction with freeride pros.
Amangani, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Just 20 minutes from the ski resort, the Amangani sits at the pinnacle of luxury. The 40-room boutique resort overlooks the Teton range and the sprawling Snake River Valley. Although it’s only a few miles away from the hubbub of ski civilization, it feels like it could oceans away.
In addition to one of the prettiest pools—a 115-foot-long outdoor heated infinity pool—resort is home to the Amangani Spa, where the Aman Advanced Facial is one of the signature treatments on tap. Additional spa facilities include zen-like relaxation lounges, a well-stocked fitness center, eucalyptus steam room, and a yoga studio. Between ski days, guests can partake in other winter endeavors, including fat biking or snowshoeing in Grand Teton National Park or a wildlife-viewing sleigh ride through the National Elk Refuge.
