Lodging includes one night in a mountain refuge and the rest in comfortable hotels.

FORBES: Circumnavigation of Mont Blanc

Perched at the first midstation on the Punta Helbronner cable car at a heady height of 2, 173 metres, Rifugio Pavillon is a traditional mountain refuge with a deckchairlined terrace.

BBC: Mini guide to Valle d��Aosta, Italy

Lagunillas has three lifts and 13 runs, a good ski school, a single refugio (mountain refuge) which can accommodate some 30 skiers, and a convivial family atmosphere, quite different from the larger commercial resorts.

BBC: A South American snow-hound��s paradise

My train is chugging up the snow-carpeted mountain to the Alpine resort of Davos, once a refuge for consumptives and now, at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, home-from-home for the world's more conspicuous consumers (bankers, hedge fund managers, private-equity stars, inter alia).

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