Be honest: No matter how perfect the powder, or how good your form is that day, you're secretly counting the hours until après-ski. You can come out of the cold, pry off those heavy boots, tell stories, and revel in the effect of drinking at altitude.

Make no mistake, though—après is an art. If you don't know where to go, you just might end up drinking wine-in-a-box in your lodge, which smells of wet wool socks. So we've done the work for you, searching high and low (mostly high) for the ultimate fireplace, the hottest hot tub, and the diviest dive.

You'll love 'em, even if you have no interest in ever strapping a board to your feet and falling down a mountain.

Where: The Penthouse at the Sky Lodge, Park City, Utah

 

What'll Snow You: Tickling the ivories on the baby grand piano in the 338-square-foot living room

 

The Cold Cash: From $3,000 per night

 

The Sky Lodge: Tel: 888 876 2525; Tel: 435 658 2500

Cool conditions: There have already been star sightings (drummer Larry Mullen of U2, Dennis Hopper) at Park City's hip new hotel. No wonder they're calling it the Chateau Marmont at 7,000 feet. With only 33 rooms, and situated a mere 100 yards from Park City Mountain Resort's 3,300 acres, the Sky Lodge's size and location ensure a worthy après crowd. After a drink at Bar Bohème—a local hangout recently moved on-site—corral your newfound entourage and float up the glass elevator to the Penthouse, a 2,700-square-foot, three-bedroom window on the Wasatch Mountains. Inside, you might screen Sundance films in the expansive theater den, or invite a new friend to lounge about on the massive Anichini-covered beds. Outside, you're barbecuing steaks, toasting each other in one of two hot tubs, and peering down at Main Street from the 2,800-square-foot wraparound patio (radiant_heated, so bare footsies won't get cold). Snowball fight, anyone?