When Taylor Swift and her then-beau (Scottish deejay Calvin Harris) spent a Christmas slopeside in Strawberry Park in 2016, it wasn’t paparazzi shots of the couple skiing that nearly broke the internet. It was two images from the star’s Instagram feed: one of the couple building a top-hatted snowman in the woods, another of the pair (anonymous under helmets and goggles and facemasks) astride an ATV on a snow-packed backcountry road, far from the chairlifts and groomed runs of Vail and Beaver Creek. Locals and perennial visitors understand that experiencing winter here involves much more than zooming down the groomed runs of our signature resorts. Trade your ski boots for ice skates or mukluks and your adventures may not earn the fleeting envy of 113 million Instagram followers like Swift, but hopefully you’ll gain something more profound: an indelible memory of the magic of winter in our valley.