In an age of mass production, there’s something very special about products still made by hand with craftsmanship as their core value. Matt Cudmore began creating skis in his garage in 2009, and it wasn’t long before Meier Skis was born. The quality spoke for itself.

Cudmore continued holding down his day job as an engineer until 2012 when he finally quit and was joined by wife Rosie in running Meier Skis full-time. The Glenwood Springs, Colorado-based duo continues to keep everything about their skis local and eco-friendly.

It all begins with the wood, shown off by the skis’ clear topsheet, which is a combination of local Aspen trees and recycled pine known as "beetle kill" due to the onslaught of the forest by the Rocky Mountain Pine Beetle. Then, metal, ink, glue and other supplies are purchased from local vendors and the entire product is held together by resin made from pine oil and recycled vegetable oil instead of petrochemicals.

The added perk of Meier Skis’ local presence and hand manufacturing is that if one of the company’s six models ($590 and up) doesn’t do it for you, they’ll customize a one-of-a-kind ski to your specific needs. Either way, riding a pair of Meier Skis makes you part of a special club. The company currently sells fewer than 100 pairs per year, with distribution limited enough that you’re likely to be the only one on the mountain rocking a pair.

Timbers Resorts enjoys a partnership with Meier Skis, having created skis for One Steamboat Place and The Sebastian - Vail with custom designs to expand into a Dancing Bear Aspen ski next. Through our Owner Referral Program, Owners at each of these properties are eligible to receive skis for the whole family when referring friends or family who close on ownership.

Learn more about Timbers Resorts and our Owner Referral Programs at each property, by contacting us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.

From a perfectly seared New York Strip steak to a fruit-and-spice cradled spear of Caribbean shrimp, Owners and guests of Timbers Resorts know that one exquisite meal elevates the day. What we eat can lift our spirits, energize our evenings and afternoons, as well as open our senses to new experiences. Shouldn't our glass of wine stand to do the same?

One scenario that the luxury residence surroundings of the Timbers Resort properties properly attend to is just this: it is the case that the wine cellar on site is as crucial as the chef. That being said, you don't need to be a sommelier to know some basics about wine-and-food pairings. Have a look at the following starter's guide, and then begin your own journey into the cork-and-cuisine possibilities of dining at Timbers Resorts.

Wine and Food: Basics for Any Fine Pairing

• Contrast Complex and Simple: Say you order the sumac-rubbed bluefin tuna at Cocina Del Mar, located at Esperanza Resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Sumac can be a big flavor, simple but sparkling with lemony citrus. A good way to approach forward flavors like that is by selecting subtle and complex wines to accompany. Think oaky Chardonnay blends, anything mellow, buttery and layered. On the other hand, if you went for a complex dish full of heat and rich tastes -- say a tropical choice from the The Preserve at Botany Bay -- then something crisp and simple like a sauvignon would make a refreshing complement (or you can join fruit with fruit and rarely go wrong ... so think riesling, viognier, and the like).

• Respect Your Sugars and Salts: Here's a sommelier's secret: salty food generally does a number on wine. So, for example, if you're digging into anything that crackles with bacon, like the Squab en Croute at FARM -- the restaurant at The Carneros Inn -- then lean toward soft, jammy merlots and riojas. The sweet and the salty meet in the middle, and you'll enjoy both as they work together.

• Match a Treat with a Treat: If it's an evening for that fine steak at Truffle Pig at One Steamboat Place, don't skimp. Match a great cut of beef with a great pour of vinum. Go up to a worthy, top of the line pinot noir or cabernet. On the other hand, that kind of wine might be less well matched if you're enjoying a wood-fired pizza at Pazzia Pizzeria in Tuscany, one of the specialties of the options offered at Castello di Casole. In that case, it's perfectly alright to look for a more modest and less developed red. These are the perfect opportunities to play around and search for that surprising lower-end bottle, something that you can claim as your find of the month!

Finally, remember that wine is supposed to be fun, something pleasurable. Don't feel like you have to obey any given rule(s). Knowing some of the above basics should help you navigate, but never get caught in that "no merlot!" trap they set for audiences in the movie Sideways. Wine is in the palette of the imbiber. Go your own way, and enjoy!

To discover more about Timbers Resorts and the dining options at each of our properties, contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.

Timbers Resorts is honored to be included among the nominees with Castello di Casole and The Sebastian - Vail in two esteemed contests - the  2013 Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards Survey and the 2013 Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards.

• For info and instructions on The 2013 Travel + Leisure Awards Survey, simply click here.

• For info and instructions on The 2013 Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards Survey, simply click here.

Thanks for voting! To learn more about Timbers Resorts and its travel award-worthy lifestyle, please contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.

What's the secret to happiness for Owners at Dancing Bear Aspen when in their adopted home (Aspen)?

It's not just the exquisite surrounding at Dancing Bear 's luxury accommodations and fractional living spaces, it's Aspen itself. The community is rich with ideas, with arts, with options for the active lifestyle ... and Timbers Resorts is a part of that community.

Let's take a closer look at what that means. When you move here, when you stay here, the place itself is a part of a tapestry — day to day, night to night — this is the town and these are some special ways to explore it.

Opportunities and Ownership

The short list of ways that Aspen and Dancing Bear intertwine could stretch on for quite a length, but some highlights are worth a moment. We'll touch upon seven: ways you'll play to the ways you'll relax, from the spots you'll dine and drink to the events that bring together Owners and other members of the Aspen community.

— Aspen Outfitting Company: Getting outside is part of the Aspen experience. The Outfitting Company helps Owners at Dancing Bear to see and experience everything about the stunning landscapes in this part of the world. Timbers Resorts Owners enjoy preferred rates on equipment and outdoor activities (including prime access to private fishing spots).

— Aspen Music Festival: In the summer, especially, Aspen comes alive with culture. A key event is the music festival. From concerts to receptions, Dancing Bear Owners are invited to private performances and guest status at the main events.

— Aspen Center for Environmental Studies: One can't underestimate the importance of nature to the environs of Aspen. The ACES brings Owners into the rich landscape surrounding Dancing Bear, up into the woods and mountains on guided hikes at preferred rates.

—Remède Spa: After a day of play, an afternoon or the next morning at the spa makes for a healthy mind and body. Dancing Bear Owners enjoy 10% off the menu of soothing services at Remède, plus complimentary access to the spa and facility.

— Casa Tua: If all this good living has encouraged an appetite, step into this elegant nightclub and restaurant for fine dining (and a little dancing after). Dancing Bear Owners are also invited to the art and fashion shows for which Casa Tua is also known.

— Brexi: The onsite bistro at Dancing Bear is part of a family of great eating establishments in Aspen. Step out to Wild Fig, Steakhouse No. 316, or Above the Salt, and present your Dancing Bear Aspen Restaurant card for a 10% discount.

— IWM Cellars: If you've a taste for fabulous pours, explore the selection via IWM and The Little Nell, where preferred rates and online cellar management is part of the Dancing Bear experience in Aspen.

For more information on living like a local at Dancing Bear Aspen, visit our site, stop by our Sales Gallery at 411 South Monarch Street in Aspen, or contact us via phone at 970.925.2510 or via email at [email protected].

Action sports make their home at Buttermilk Mountain again this January, as the ESPN X Games bring the world's cutting-edge skiers, snowboarders, and other athletes right to the doorstep of Timbers Resorts' luxury private residence clubs at Dancing Bear Aspen and the Timbers Club.

In its 12th year on the slopes, many well-known X Games faces will be back: Snowboarding star Shaun White, Snowmobile standout Tucker Hibbert, Ski hero Tom Wallisch and others. Check the full list of athletes on the X Games website.
A fresh, new face will be appearing front and center this month as the host of the global X Games circuit: Ramona Bruland. The Aspen local and Aussie native has been a familiar fixture in the Aspen Snowmass area for several years as a host on Plum TV. She makes the giant leap to ESPN with this January's Winter Games and the support of friends from the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond.

There are all kinds of additional surprises in store this year, and so, in the run-up to the action, we turn to the hottest moments and unbelievable records from last year's action.

On the Trail of 2012: Remarkable Moments

Aspen 2012 was very much about honoring the achievements of the late, great Canadian Sarah Burke, a world renowned freestyle skier who passed away shortly before the Aspen events convened.

In a sense, many of the accomplishments that came out of last January's competitions were infused with the spirit of that 29-year-old phenom.
— It was the Canadians who scooped up a special honor in Burke's name. Her teammate Roz Groenewoud nabbed the country's first gold in the wake of the tragedy. And Burke's teammate Kaya Turski notched a nearly flawless ski run in the champion's honor as well.

A lot of perfection showed up on the slopes.
— Take Shaun White's snowboarding perfect score. Carving up a super-pipe with an injured ankle, he still managed to tick every box in the competition ranking: 100 out of 100 points.

— Torstein Horgmo also logged a perfect snowboarding score with dramatic new spins, including a triple cork spin that sent ripples through riders' worlds.

X Games Aspen by the Numbers

It wasn't just the athletes and the stories that caught enthusiasts' attention last time. The 2012 games marked the record second-highest attendance in the history of the event — some 108,000 attendees showed up to watch.

If you're thinking of coming — making a day-by-day breakdown (courtesy of Aspen Daily News) should help you plan things this coming year.

— In 2012, crowds peaked on Saturday at 45,000.

— Sunday was the second busiest, at 26,800 people.

— Thursday and Friday were lighter days: 16,200 and 20,000 respectively.

So, set your schedules. X Games Aspen 2013 is scheduled for Jan. 24 through Jan 27. The full schedule is now online.
And leave some time each day for entertainment such as DJ Calvin Harris at Belly Up Aspen and Major Lazer at Buttermilk.

Another ideal way to unwind is enjoying your own luxurious finishing line at Dancing Bear Aspen for a bit of post-game relaxation — running the numbers and the highlights of your own over a plate and glass at Brexi Brasserie as the perfect way to recap the action.

See you on the slopes!

To discover the X-traordinary lifestyle at Dancing Bear Aspen, visit our site, stop by our Sales Gallery at 411 South Monarch Street in Aspen, or contact us via phone at 970.925.2510 or via email at [email protected].

The South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by Food & Wine magazine and the Food Network every winter brings together everything Timbers Resorts loves and stands for: fine food, wine and travel, all while staying in the finest luxury accommodations. This year from February 21 through February 24, the biggest stars from the food and wine worlds will descend upon Miami for four star-studded days of tastings, parties, seminars and brunches.

After taking part in the New York City Wine & Food Festival in October, Timbers Resorts has been invited to take part in its winter equivalent, affectionately known as SOBE Wine & Food (or in Twitterspeak, #SOBEWFF). And with many of our Owners and friends residing in Miami all or part of the year, there's nowhere else Timbers Resorts would rather be.

If you join in the festivities, you'll find Timbers Resorts at Wine Spectator’s Best of the Best at the Fontainebleau Miami on Friday, February 22, and at the Tribute Dinner at Loews Miami Beach Hotel on Saturday, February 23.

Best of the Best is all about perfect pairings. Leading chefs from around the country select from Wine Spectator’s top-rated wines to accompany their dishes, bringing the experience of both the food and wine to new heights.

At SOBE Wine & Food Festival’s must-attend event — a tribute dinner for Nobu Matsuhisa hosted by Martha Stewart — Timbers Resorts will be a contributor to the live auction, so don't forget your checkbook.

Chef Matsuhisa is hands down the king of stylish, inventive Japanese cuisine, with 35 red-hot restaurants worldwide. Top chefs Daniel Boulud, Thomas Buckley, Frederic Delaire, Ricky Estrellado, Matt Hoyle, Johnny Iuzzini, Yoshihiro Murata, Yuji Wakiya and Roy Yamaguchi will each prepare a course for an unprecedented, once-in-a-lifetime meal.

Of course, simply attending the main event — SOBE Wine & Food Festival's Grand Tasting Village — is a fun and exciting excursion in itself. Catch demonstrations from rock star chefs including Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, Rocco DiSpirito, Rachael Ray and others, or simply taste the wares from hundreds of wineries, restaurants and even liquor companies and tourism boards.

Whatever your “taste,” SOBE Wine & Food Festival will have plenty to satisfy. But tickets to the hottest events and rooms at the most luxe hotels are going fast, so don’t waste any time in booking your trip. Bon Appetit!

To learn more about Timbers Resorts' lifestyle of fine food, wine and travel, please contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.

For five winning students, when the credits roll on five inspiring projects in 2013, it'll be Timbers Resorts that helped to make it happen.

In its third year supporting the 5Point Film Festival's high-school outreach Dream Project, Timbers Resorts is pleased to be the title sponsor of the current program.

Let's take a moment to look at the 5Point Dream Project, where it comes from, and what it means to the young people who join it as participants.

5Point Dream Project

What do you dream about? Do your dreams keep you going, every day?

The organizers of the 5Point Film Festival, held annually in Carbondale, and the folks at Timbers Resorts think these are two important questions.

For high school students local to the 5Point festival area — roughly speaking, that'se the Roaring Fork Valley, from Aspen, Colorado to Rifle, Ohio — the chance to find out just what a dream can mean is a chance to win a scholarship that will help them pursue a life-changing opportunity. All they have to do is dream it up.

Lucien Blakemore, a junior at Colorado Rocky Mountain School, took one such opportunity with the help of 5Point, in March 2012.

With a scholarship from the Dream Project, he was off to the mountains of Chile, hiking and skiing the rugged Andes before joining a sustainable agriculture project in Peru, working specifically on recycling and waste sorting in small communities.

"Every day held new challenges, most of them physical," he told the Project. "And seeing the ease with which the Peruvian locals carried stones and trees which doubtless weighed well over 100 lbs,, the experience was a humbling one, to say the least."

In other projects: Claire Woolcott, a junior at Polaris High School, went to Canada to work with international caregivers in communities of people with special needs.

"I learned that I am stronger than I thought," she said to 5Point, "which gives me so much confidence for anything I do in the future.”

5Points asks its student applicants to submit essay materials that describe something that they'd like to accomplish, and how they mean to go about that, and to show the ways that they exemplify 5Points' five guiding principals: respect, commitment, humility, purpose, and balance.

"While we can ultimately only give five students the opportunity to go on a unique adventure," says Crosby Nordblom, festival manager and Dream Project coordinator, "we find that we are offering all applicants the opportunity to search their dreams, find a channel to chase a passion, and fully realize their potential.

"Requiring students to describe how they will embody these principles, we want them to throw themselves into a life-changing experience that will inspire them to create something meaningful, push them to be a better person, and have a positive impact on a community."

The deadline for applications is March 1. Download the forms at the 5Point website.

5Point Film Festival passes and individual tickets can be ordered via the website or at the Carbondale Rec Center's front desk leading up to and during the festival.

Ski jackets may have to be practical, but frumpy simply won’t do when you’re on a stylish winter holiday. When you’re whipping your way down the mountain in Colorado while staying at The Sebastian - Vail, One Steamboat Place, The Timbers Club in Snowmass or Dancing Bear Aspen, you want a jacket that will take you right from your day of skiing to après-ski cocktails and later on be a chic topper when you head out to dinner.

With one of these four stylish options, selected to suit each of Timbers Resorts’ premier Colorado properties, you won’t need a single other jacket in your suitcase.

Bogner Down Jacket Kea-D

Price: $1,299

Where to buy: Bogner

Where to wear: The Sebastian - Vail

Skiing is a serious sport in Vail so try a jacket with a technical vibe in an eye catching color like this pick from Bogner. The down-filled and waterproof jacket’s clean lines are flattering and the decorative patches just might have people wondering what ski team you’re on as you fly by.

Ralph Lauren RLK Hooded Print Jacket

Price: $1,495 now on sale for $787

Where to buy: Ralph Lauren

Where to wear: One Steamboat Place in Steamboat Springs.

Steamboat has a bit more Western flair than other ski towns so the gents should turn to this Ralph Lauren shell inspired by Southwestern textiles. Layer it up for a cold day or wear it on its own for spring skiing. The fantastic print is so unique that you’re sure to stand out in the crowd.

Moncler Grenoble Patri

Price: $2,290

Where to buy: Moncler

Where to wear: Dancing Bear Aspen

Moncler is the absolute leader in stylish skiwear, particularly for Aspen, where a little extra flash and fur is de rigeur. The Grenoble Patri has a luxurious sheen to its lightweight, technical nylon and is filled with feather down to keep you toasty but not bulky. An elastisized belt sets your waist off and a (removable) fur collar is the ultimate in ski opulence and removes the need for an unsightly neck gator.

Beretta Xtreme Ducker 2-in-1 Waterproof Jacket

Price: $499

Where to buy: Beretta USA

Where to wear: The Timbers Club in Snowmass

Stand out from the crowd and think a little outside the box for a jacket to suit Snowmass, which features several terrain parks and plenty of extreme skiing terrain. This Beretta jacket may be designed for hunting but the abstract camo print will look as cool on the slopes as it does in the fields, and the fleece lining and waterproof Gore-Tex has all the functionality you need.

If you arrive at your property still in need of a new jacket, be sure to check in with the concierge. Timbers Owners receive preferred rates on retails items at the stores on site.

To learn more about Timbers Resorts and our Colorado properties – and others around the world – please contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.

Denver is the gateway to any vacation in Colorado, whether you’re en route to or from One Steamboat Place, The Sebastian, The Timbers Club or Dancing Bear Aspen doesn’t mean you should just pass through. Tack a day onto your vacation and take a whirlwind tour of Denver.

Get a jump on the day with breakfast with a cup of coffee and a walk around Larimer Square. Larimer between 14th and 15th streets made up the entire town of Denver when it was founded in 1858 during the gold rush. In 1965, Larimer Square was the focus of Denver’s first historic preservation effort and it is now home to trendy shops, restaurants and nightclubs.

If shopping is your thing then you’ll also be right next to the 16th Street Mall, a 12-block-long shopping area. Still not satisfied? Well, then Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood will definitely do the trick with more than 500 stores, spas and galleries.

Denver is not commerce without culture though. Take in some of Denver’s Western heritage with a stop at the Denver Art Museum. Although you’ll find pieces by the masters, it’s the selection of Old West art that can’t be missed. This will place you right nearby the Colorado State Capitol and its gold-leafed dome. Even if you don’t take the time for the free tour, take a photo at the step marked exactly 5,280 feet above sea level. There’s a reason Denver is called the Mile High City!

Denver and Philadelphia are home to the only two U.S. mints open to the public so a peek around the Denver U.S. Mint is quite unique. Although you won’t see gold being melted into bars as they used to do when the mint opened in 1862, you will get to see how lumps of copper and nickel become shiny coins and sent into circulation.
Nighttime in Denver is best set aside for sports and beer. Denver is home to professional football, basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer teams so there is almost always a game to catch. Afterwards, head out to one of the city’s many brewpubs to take in the local beer. Wynkoop Brewing Co, Breckenridge Brewery and Great Divide Brewing Company are all popular with locals and tourists alike.

Are you a Denver local? Let us know if we missed anything in comments below.

To learn more about Timbers Resorts and our Colorado properties - and others around the world - please contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.