As the only permitted snowcat skiing outfitter in the Vail Pass Winter Recreation Area, Vail Powder Guides owners Ben and Jenna Bartosz know where and how to get the goods. The Bartoszes, who have been guiding on the pass for 30 years, run only one snowcat a day (with a max of eight skiers/riders), so a full buyout ensures an unforgettable day, complete with lunch in a backcountry yurt.

If snowmobiling is your kind of fun, arrange for a two-hour or half-day excursion at Vail Backcountry Tours, which operates on 150 acres of groomed trails and single track in the White River National Forest minutes from the resort. Private tours are available with optional transportation to and from your hotel or home.

Bear Cat Stables in Edwards brings the lyric “dashing through the snow on a one-horse open sleigh” to life with its dreamy sleigh rides, but Bear Cat ups the ante with double the horsepower (i.e., two-horse open sleighs). There’s an après-ski option with drinks and s’mores, or a more extensive four-course dinner option at the cozy Bear Cat Cabin. In either case, bundle up and take in the ultimate winter wonderland. As you might expect, the holidays are the busiest time of year, so if you want to buy out your hay-fueled limo, book ahead.

There are few experiences more iconically Colorado than an evening at the Tennessee Pass Cookhouse, an off-the-grid fine dining restaurant near Camp Hale outside of Leadville. Erica Curry manages the cozy dinner yurt, which is perched on a ridge with an elevation of 10,800 feet and accessed by an easy mile-long snowshoe or backcountry ski. Post-dinner, plan on strapping on a headlamp and getting down the same way you arrived—unless you’ve also booked a reservation at one of the nearby sleeping yurts. The cookhouse and yurts are available for private buyout. 

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