Bald Mountain is one of the best shaped ski mountains anywhere. It has a steady uninterrupted pitch from summit to base with no flats and no traverses, which is why strong intermediates and experts both love it for the same reason. Lift queues barely exist. Beginners ski at Dollar Mountain nearby, which works better than splitting a group usually does.

This was the first purpose built destination ski resort in North America, opened in 1936, and the place where the chairlift was invented. Ketchum at its foot is a genuine western town with good restaurants, galleries and a literary history, and Hemingway is buried there.

Lodges and hotels in Ketchum and at the resort are expensive but understated, with a spa at the Sun Valley Lodge and an ice rink for the evening. Friedman airport is twenty minutes away but weather dependent, and Boise is two and a half hours by road.