The Bt Gay Ski Weeks Across the US - Thrillist

Contents:

• 6 GAY SKI WEEKS THAT WILL ADD SOME HEAT TO YOUR WTER
• THE 10 BT GAY SKIG HOLIDAYS
• MY FIRST GAY SKI WEEKEND — ELEVATN GAY SKI TREMBLANT
• THE STORY OF ASPEN GAY SKI WEEK
• SKI HOP FOR LORFUL SETTG WHEN X GAM, GAY SKI WEEK TOWN
• THE ULTIMATE GUI TO GAY SKI WEEKS AROUND THE WORLD
• THE 8 BT GAY SKI WEEKS OF 2020

6 GAY SKI WEEKS THAT WILL ADD SOME HEAT TO YOUR WTER

Soon after the December holidays wrap and the New Year kicks off, gay ski weeks beg to st a rabow glow over the snow-whe slop of Ameri’s most popular ski mountas. After the OG gay ski week was found Aspen nearly five s ago, rort towns om Vermont’s Green Mountas to the Cas Range of Oregon have tablished their own buzzy events that be the thrill of wter sports wh the zs of après ski social gathergs, while simultaneoly fundraisg for LGBTQIA+ anizatns and .

THE 10 BT GAY SKIG HOLIDAYS

Though the gay ski weeks of 2020 and 2021 nceled -person celebratns due to the panmic, many of them will be back for the upg ski season. And we uld not be more ready to h the, Colorado: January 16-23, 2022Aspen Gay Ski Week is the largt and longt-nng gay ski event the Wtern Hemisphere, and still sets the bar for all the other ftivals that have sce joed the circu of LGBTQIA+ wter happengs. Produced by lol non-prof AspenOUT, Aspen Gay Ski Week will be celebratg s 45th anniversary wh a jam-packed lendar of fundraisg events, such as drag bgo, a downhill stume petn, a wboy rave, and a pool, Vermont: January 19-23, 2022The impossibly quat village of Stowe has hosted Wter Renzvo Ski Week for 38 years, but this year’s celebratn is promisg to make up for an abbreviated schle 2021.

While the full lendar of this year’s events hasn’t been announced yet, Utah’s only gay ski week is set to pull out all the stops wh a r wele party, multiple drag shows, boozy après ski gathergs, and more. Telluri, Colorado: Febary 26-March 5, 2022Though wter sports pros drool over Telluri’s 147 ns and a 4, 500-foot vertil drop all season, more than 1, 000 revelers of all backgrounds e each year to celebrate Telluri Gay Ski Week.

MY FIRST GAY SKI WEEKEND — ELEVATN GAY SKI TREMBLANT

Mammoth Lak, California: March 15-20, 2022Found by Tom Whman, the now-ternatnal Elevatn brand is celebratg 20 years sce s gural Elevatn Mammoth Gay Ski Week Mammoth Lak. Hosts Sharon and Greg formerly operated Friends Lake Inn, jt down the road (and also a que nice lodgg optn the area), and also n host small garn weddgs on their property (the property is very gay-iendly, and same-sex weddgs and receptns are wele).

While some ski rorts ral regns still lack full LGBTQ+ acceptance, avid skiers or snowboarrs seekg a gay-iendly experience will be pleased to know that progrsive attus are on the up. Gay skig is a whole mood, tered to by an ever-expandg number of gay ski events anised by open-md ski rorts across the globe. As well as all the powred snow sports you uld dream of, gay snow holidays also enpass wilrns adventure, wild parti and plenty of après ski.

THE STORY OF ASPEN GAY SKI WEEK

Don your ski-su to fd out what you’re missg out on, wh Mr Hudson’s top 10 gay skig holidays. Aspen, Colorado, USAWe start our gui to the bt gay ski holidays Colorado, home to the southern portn of the Rocky Mountas, as well as the cy of Denver and largely liberal attus relative to the rt of the Wtern US stat. Aspen gay scene is well tablished and the rort pris self on s long-standg liberal attu, wh the annual Aspen Gay Ski Week nng sce 1977.

SKI HOP FOR LORFUL SETTG WHEN X GAM, GAY SKI WEEK TOWN

Mammoth Mountas, California, USAContug on the all-Amerin theme, our send choice of gay ski statns tak to the Mammoth Mountas California.

The state’s bt skig spot, Mammoth Ski Area lays claim as the origal home of ‘Elevatn Ski Week’, an annual event which has sce bee one of the largt gay ski events the US and the world over. March 2020 will see the 18th annual gay ski week at Mammoth, hostg over 2, 500 rirs near Mammoth Lak north of Yoseme. One of the most gay-iendly ski rorts the Alps wh a rabow flag flyg all year round, Arosa cements s LGBTQ+ advote stat each January durg Arosa Gay Ski Week, when 600 lbian and gay wter sports fans une.

THE ULTIMATE GUI TO GAY SKI WEEKS AROUND THE WORLD

Lenzerhei, SwzerlandHome of ‘GaySki’ sce s foundatn 1992, Lenzerhei is Arosa’s slightly olr , sharg the same breath-takg scenery and love of gay culture.

Held at Hotel Schweizerhof and n by volunteers, GaySki has been built as an stutn, unlike other large mercial events.

In March 2020, Lenzerhei celebrat the 25th anniversary of SWING Gay Ski Week where pass holrs are guaranteed both snow and a packed schle of socialisg events. In January every year durg the Whistler Pri & Ski Ftival, gay culture tak over wh each base offerg a mishmash of wild events, om fetish parti to dner parti wh dance events thrown . As well as beg the official European trag base of the US ski team, Söln is also a base for LGBT culture, wh the Söln Gay Snow Happeng brgg people together annually sce 1998 for ski events and lively Après-Ski activi (this year’s Happeng tak place March 2020).

THE 8 BT GAY SKI WEEKS OF 2020

As well as skig and snowboardg on open terra, other activi clu ice skatg, snowmobilg and snowshoeg, topped off durg the month of Augt when the ternatnal LGBT muny scends for Gay Ski Week Queenstown at Cardrona Alpe Sebastian StaWhile you might envisage Spa as a hot and sweaty seasi suatn, the Spanish Pyrene will change your md wh wtery weather, northern-facg ski slop and perfect snow ndns Photo: Erik Odi8. Boí Taüll’s Snow Gay Weekend, hosted by ‘Rabow Barcelona Tours’ is now s fifth year, acmodatg an ever-growg number of atten (currently around 200, mostly om Spa and France), for a week of timate ski events, parti and more, at an affordable price. Reprentg the open-mdns and diverse valu of the Canadian Rocki, the rort celebrat Jasper Pri Ftival annually March, anisg a rabow flag skig para and other gay-iendly events servg to nnect the rint queer muny, LGBT travellers and upl on the slop before unwdg Jasper’s lively bars and rtrants.

European Snow Pri at Espace Killy, FranceThe cherry on top of our gay wter sundae is European Snow Pri, which tak place at Espace Killy the French Alps. Sce s iatn 2012, this ftival has sce bee one of the most important gay ski weeks Europe attractg around 1, 000 gays om all over the world.

European Snow Pri is qualy choice for ser skiers and partygoers alike, as the rort spans 300 kilometr of ski ns, across the Val d’Isere and Tign ski areas, offerg an imprsive le-up of Après-Ski DJs, artists and dancers om Europe’s bt gay clubs, amongst the most extraordary mounta scenery. Especially so bee I work profsnally as a gay travel wrer; I’ve been able to vis faraway plac, some of the world’s biggt gay hotspots, and attend untls LGBTQ pri ftivals and other queer events. A lot of tim, people jt thk of gay travel as those gay cis the Greek Isl or the Caribbean, or travelg for pri ftivals.

There are gay fai who travel, solo gay travelers (like myself), solo lbian travelers, on who travel for gay pri or nightlife or honeymoons, those that take gay cis or splurge on luxury holidays, and on who rough mpg and backpackg faraway plac. Started by Tom Whman, the annual gay ski weekend now tak over three different ci each year: Mammoth, California, Park Cy, Utah, and Tremblant, Quebec. This year’s event Tremblant was only the 2nd annual, and surprisgly several of the people I met over the weekend were at their very first gay ski weekend as well.

Many of the other gay ski weeks I’ve read about happen on Ameri’s wt ast, or Europe, so havg a gay ski weekend that was nvenient to east ast ci like Toronto, Montreal, New York, and Washgton, D. Here’s the thg about gay ski events, and somethg that multiple people would tell me throughout the weekend: the people who attend gay ski weeks are almost always extra-iendly and social, and very acceptg—pecially of solo travelers like myself.

Bis the afternoon gay Après-Ski events each day which were great for makg new iends, the biggt events were, of urse, the parti each night. Tremblant has a great reputatn for skig and wter sports, of urse, but what sets the ski rort town apart om others the regn, is the nightlife of Tremblant—which is why ’s a perfect town for a gay ski weekend.

The biggt party of the gay ski weekend, though, was the annual GEAR event on Saturday night.

The Rabow Run is a tradn of the Elevatn Gay Ski weekend where everyone is ved to drs bright lors, rabows, and pri flags for a n down the mounta whether skig or snow boardg. Organized through the Tremblant Snow School, I had private lsons each morng so while that meant missg some of the gay ski weekend events, by the send day I was feelg very nfint and able on the ski slop! Personally, I loved how ternatnal the event was, wh most visors om Canada or the Uned Stat, but many g om other untri and even om outsi the ma gay ci hubs of NYC or LA.

While I saw many of the other Gay Ski Week atten on and around the rort durg the daytime, most teractns took place at the anized events. Many of the rorts and rtrants, cludg Caso Tremblant, hosted special parti & events durg Elevatn Gay Ski Weekend.

Some might say ASGW (Aspen Gay Ski Week) was and is the first form of LGBTQ+ Pri Aspen. It was the party culture of the ’70s clashg wh old-fashned unacceptance that led to the formatn of a nonprof to n Aspen Gay Ski Week and e as a force for good the muny.

Durg the , a group of lol men had started regularly hangg out wh gay visors om ski clubs around the untry. By 1977, the rnns beme more official, wh each club hostg parti their ndos on different nights for a week January, and the lol ntgent throwg the wele as liberal as Aspen was, beg gay public wasn’t universally accepted (hence the ndo parti)—a realy that spurred Jon Bch, one of Aspen Gay Ski Week’s founrs, to advote for gay rights after gettg trouble for dancg wh another man at a lol bar. In 1979, Bch and other lol supporters had reason to celebrate when Aspen beme the first municipaly Colorado to pass an anti-discrimatn policy for gays and lbians.

Boulr and Denver followed Aspen’s example, but 1992, Colorado voters passed Amendment 2 to the state nstutn, which revoked gay protectns and prohibed any new on om beg enacted at lol and state levels. This anti-gay policy triggered a wispread and effective boytt of Colorado tourism, particularly pafully felt Aspen, where Gay Ski Week had bee a major wter event and talyst for gay tourism year-round. A legal challenge ensued, and shortly after the US Supreme Court led that Amendment 2 was unnstutnal 1996, Aspen Gay Ski Week was fold to a new 501c3 nonprof: the Aspen Gay and Lbian Communy Fund (now AspenOUT) olst and largt gay ski event the untry (more than 3, 000 people are expected this year), Aspen Gay Ski Week has evolved far beyond ndo parti.