How will you travel to Sundance? Perhaps dog sledding is an option you haven't thought of.

Slopes by Talisker (Kimball Junction) - Casual fine dining at the Waldorf Astoria Park City courtesy of chef John Murcko. 

The nice thing about being on a junket in Austria on Audi's dime -- which you can read about here, but you can read more about it on this blog come Monday, when I'll tell you all about how I flew out here on Business Class, raced cars on ice and did it for free -- is not only that I'm actually on this junket, on work time, but that I'm on this junket in a foreign land, with a few extra moments to devote to BlackBook's special cross-section of travel and nightlife. So, in the interest of "work," I ventured out into the town to see how the locals do the do. With a few fellow junketeers, we went out to the lovely Kaprun, Austria, which is about an hour outside of Salzberg, on the first night, and found out what Austria's apres ski scene was like.

These are getaways for lovers -- or lusters -- only, without the family, just-good-friends, kids, laptops (lap dancing and clothing optional) or other encumbrances. Either you want to see and be seen, or you don’t. Whether you’re after an in-room Jacuzzi, couples massages, meals, or just a fireplace and a view, read on.

“There are rules!” warns Bethenny Frankel, as a waitress approaches our booth at the downstairs bar of Bandit's, just across the street from her Park City home-away-from-home, Harry O’s, where her ChefDance dinner parties have been the top event in town for four years running. In case I forgot, we’re in Mormon country. “You have to order something to eat if you get a cocktail in a restaurant,” she explains.

The only reason a party in celebration of a film called Motherhood (featuring Minnie Driver, Uma Thurman, and Jodie Foster) is even worth mentioning is that it was full of drunk folk. Not that it was bad; Greenhouse has thrown compulsively fun parties all festival long. It’s just that after a week of the same party every night -- same people, different poster -- I don’t know. You just kind of want to abort the whole mission. (Sad movie-title pun intended to demonstrate desperation). Yay movie that already has a deal! Yay already famous people! Yay living in the back pages of US Weekly! Yay open bar!

Much has been said about the relative absence of the "independent spirit” at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Chalk it up to hard times, or the competing weeklong splendor of the inauguration of President OHMYGOOOOODDDDDD, but the consensus is that this year’s fest, even more so than years past, was an underwhelming mix of hair products and press conferences. “Why!?” cried the latte’d and parka’d. “What have you done with our beautiful independent festival, Paul Mitchell!? No one is wild or crazy or smelly anymore! Where is 1991? Where is out Tarantino drinking paint thinner in the street?"

Weirdest mix ever. It’s still a bastion of progressive filmmaking, but this year’s Sundance Film Festival is stuck in a time warp when it comes to music guests. While there were a handful of credible singer-songwriters on tap -- the achingly beautiful Rachel Yamagata and Damien Rice both put on memorably moving performances -- the biggest name draws at the Sundance Music Café this year were the frontman of the Goo Goo Dolls and a performance by the Gin Blossoms. Seriously.

We've got a few months left of cold days filled with the awesome combination of rain/snow (rainow? snowain?). But that also means that there's a few more months left to hit some fresh powder with your board. Wonder where to go? Wonder no longer. Here's a list of the top 5 mountains to take a trip to or down, courtesy Olympic gold medalist Hannah Teter (she rocks the half-pipe, if you didn't know).

Economic meltdown be damned, the Sundance Film Festival is sticking with tradition. It remains gloriously awash in free shit -- emphasis on the former or latter depending on which gifting suite, and what level of pull one has. The Paris Hiltons of the world walked away with boatloads of quality swag. (She took home 30 bags from Whiting & Davis “without shame,” according to a rep from The Hollywood Life House and LRG Gifting Villa.) But no doubt there are loads of hotel wastepaper baskets in town brimming with the likes of LK height-giving insoles and any number of unwanted perfumes and emollients. We’re keeping the St. Ives stuff, though. Something’s got to exfoliate and moisturize those wind-chapped hands.