Mountain vacation offers communion with nature
Askier, I'm not. I recall joining the Williamsville High School Ski Club in 1965 or so, and later describing the bunny hill as "treacherous." This was complicated by a bad knee, which required surgery several years later - one more reason I learned to enjoy aprés ski wear and the lodge while watching children a small percentage of my age take on those perilously high trails of Glenwood Acres and Kissing Bridge. (Remember the perspective, here.) So, when I went to Banff and the Colorado Rockies, for sure, it wasn't for a ski holiday.

Of course, when I went off to Banff and the Colorado Rockies (separately), I was not prepared for the enormity of those mountains, either. No disrespect intended, but my treacherous bunny hill was a cake walk for the chronically aged in comparison to those in the Rockies. These are "holy cow" mountains, not the hills we take for higher ground around here.

There is a magic about the mountains in winter that even the uncoordinated can appreciate. The golf course at Banff may be closed, but tell that to the wandering moose who meander from hole to hole. You wouldn't swim Lake Louise, but it isn't any the less pretty in winter. And the Colorado Rockies hold their majesty in any kind of weather … if, at times, perhaps, you can't see it for all the snow.

CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel

Maybe the thought of flying from snow to snow isn't one holding broad appeal to a Western New Yorker. As one who has lived 50-some winters here, rarely leaving it for anything except perhaps a weekend trip to New York City, I understand that sentiment.

Still, as Peter Noonan (Herman and the Hermits) sang, "There's a kind of hush" in the mountains, accompanied by the low whisper of a brisk winter breeze. Evening walks in the Rockies are akin to attending church, except even more personal. The sky is bluer; the stars shine brighter. Here you can touch and taste nature, and the wilder elements of

this wide world. This is home to coyote, fox, eagle and bear. You're a mile closer to the sky. Things really are bigger out here … a mile somehow seems a little longer. And that edge between wilderness and civilization points up razor sharp.

All this contrasts to the snugly warmth and comfort awaiting you in mountain valley lodging. Real fires blaze in hewn stone fireplaces out here, fireplaces large enough to honor proportionately the open spaces they serve. Books read just as fine here as they do on any Caribbean island beach. Here's a place where you don't have to worry about how you look in your Speedo or last year's bikini. Here they actually expect you to wear bulky sweaters and eat heartily. That's like comfort food for your mind of a stress-reducing fashion. And if you do ski, there's your recreation.

And if you don't, like me, there's nonetheless a lot to be gained from a winter vacation in the mountains … things like peace, rest and a communion with the wild in earth's natural cathedral.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)