Winter Wonderland (That's Not a Typo): Spilled Milk #349

NOW is the time to book your winter plans if they include skiing. This list covers the 10 best destinations worldwide, with everything you need to know about lift tickets, dining and where to stay!

Today’s newsletter includes:

• all the info on the top-tier skiing destinations in North America

• all the info on five more international options for your ski vacations — four in Europe and one in Asia

• 58 restaurant recommendations

• my recommendations for the best hotels to stay in

• current lift ticket pricing to help you make the best decisions (they may surprise you!)

The sun rises over Zermatt during ski season.

It’s summer, and we’re at the peak of our most special eating season. Farmers’ markets are in full swing, and home gardens are bursting with seasonal produce. Here in Minnesota, our home garden produced its first tomatoes, two weeks earlier than last year. Local seafood is more popular than ever before, and grills across the country came out of mothballs months ago. So why are we talking about winter vacations at the height of the summer season?

Because if you love winter fun, there are a handful of resorts around the country and others overseas that you want to think about booking now for your winter getaway — if snow and hot mulled wine is your vacation vibe.

There is something gloriously irrational about skiing. You wake before dawn, wedge your feet into rigid plastic coffins, pay the GDP of a small principality for the privilege of standing on a frozen mountain and then, because humans are beautiful lunatics, you hurl yourself downhill at speeds that would terrify your ancestors and your insurance agent. It’s a dance with gravity in high-performance fabrics, and we are, all of us, chasing the same thing: the mythical, uncut, feather-light pow pow.

Great news, Spilled Milkers: “The Blue Food Cookbook” is available for preorder. It’s a celebration of fish and shellfish and will be your seafood bible.

Preorder it today through Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Amazon or your favorite local bookstore.

Skiing may have originated as a way to get from one fjord to another without freezing to death, but the modern ski resort is a far cry from functional necessity. By the early 20th century, the great mountain ranges — the Alps, the Rockies, the Japanese Shiribeshi — had been colonized not by empires but by bon vivants and adrenaline addicts. The Swiss brought the glamour, the Austrians brought the après-ski, the Americans brought the lift technology, and the Japanese, quietly and exquisitely, brought the powder.

Today, the global skier is part athlete, part pilgrim. The right snow is an obsession, a quest. There are heli-drops in British Columbia. Cat tracks in Colorado. A 3 a.m. ramen followed by first tracks in Niseko. We chase snowfall forecasts the way others chase stock tips. And the best resorts are no longer just about terrain; they’re about what comes after the turns: the truffle fondue, the mid-mountain spa, the D.J. set halfway up the gondola line.

This list isn’t just about size (though, yes, Whistler is enormous) or luxury (though, yes, Courchevel’s Cheval Blanc has a three-Michelin-starred restaurant attached to its ski valet). It’s about atmosphere, history, soul. These ten resorts, five in North America and five international, represent the full spectrum of ski culture. From Telluride’s silver-mining ruggedness to Zermatt’s stately serenity, from the reckless joy of St. Anton’s après to the serene perfection of a Niseko powder morning, these are the places where skiing becomes not just a sport, but a state of mind.

So, wax your skis. Pack your passport. Book a table before you book your lift ticket. Because somewhere out there is the perfect run through the perfect snow, followed by the perfect meal — and this list is where to start looking. Also, yes, there is a larger section on Aspen because I am there twice a year. Okay, let’s go: