After winning gold in front of a hometown crowd at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo, Norway, Stein Eriksen came to America and put a Norwegian stamp on U.S. skiing. He started at Sugarbush in the East and went on to found ski schools at Aspen, Colorado, and Heavenly, California. In 1981 he became an ambassador for newly opened Deer Valley in Utah, and in 1983, after spending the better part of a year exploring Europe's ski destinations and assessing their lodges, he built this hotel in the middle of the ski resort at 8,200 feet.

Just steps away from the Silver Lake chairlift, the place is assuredly ski-in/ski-out, though you can still get there by car. Eriksen brought more than just the rack of ski trophies that hang in the lobby. Expect accents like rosemaled wood—a Norwegian process for painting ornate flowers, which developed in the region that gave the world telemark skiing. Most of the lodge's 180 rooms are clustered around 68 different common areas, giving the

After winning gold in front of a hometown crowd at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo, Norway, Stein Eriksen came to America and put a Norwegian stamp on U.S. skiing. He started at Sugarbush in the East and went on to found ski schools at Aspen, Colorado, and Heavenly, California. In 1981 he became an ambassador for newly opened Deer Valley in Utah, and in 1983, after spending the better part of a year exploring Europe's ski destinations and assessing their lodges, he built this hotel in the middle of the ski resort at 8,200 feet.

Just steps away from the Silver Lake chairlift, the place is assuredly ski-in/ski-out, though you can still get there by car. Eriksen brought more than just the rack of ski trophies that hang in the lobby. Expect accents like rosemaled wood—a Norwegian process for painting ornate flowers, which developed in the region that gave the world telemark skiing. Most of the lodge's 180 rooms are clustered around 68 different common areas, giving the place a community vibe you don't find at stuffier ski institutions. Still, ski valets handle your equipment from click in to click out (with the notable exception of snowboards; Deer Valley is skier-only). A fine-dining restaurant downstairs offers contemporary American cuisine, while après at the Troll Hallen bar is more of an "aperitifs and ski sweaters" than "$5 buckets of Coors Light." (Though its Stein Burgers, topped with aged white cheddar and fried onions, are some of the best pub food anywhere.) The lodge even has its own chocolatier on staff and sponsors chocolate and wine tastings. A 10,000-bottle wine cellar gives its sommelier plenty to choose from. You can swim in the outdoor pool and spend the rest of the night by the fireplace in your lodge or with a movie splayed across the flat-screen TV. In addition to several Nordic-style treatments, the spa also has a popular four-layer anti-aging skin treatment.

So maybe more people head to the overly well-groomed Deer Valley for hot chocolate in the lodge than hucking cliffs in the backcountry. It doesn't mean the place doesn't have great terrain and plenty of that famed dry Utah powder. The Lady Morgan area—opened in 2007—has expert-level glade skiing. The notorious Daly chutes in Empire Canyon, and the X-Files trees beyond that, hold powder stashes well after a storm. If the slopes are empty—and as the ski area prides itself on exclusivity, it often is—you'll find miles of North America's best corduroy covering smooth rolling terrain. The ski area constantly scores high marks for the food in their lodges—think vegetarian chili, double-chocolate brownies, and, yes, some very above-average hot chocolate. Stein, now in his 80s, still skis and sometimes pops in to Troll Hallen for a drink afterwards. One of the few mountain resort properties to earn the designation, his lodge was awarded a Mobil five-star rating in winter '08. Given the level of service and personal attention to each guest, it's easy to see why.

A former senior editor at Skiing magazine, Pieter van Noordennen owns more ski jackets than any man should.