ROTATING RESTAURANT - At the Piz Gloria Restaurant, which sits on the Schilthorn, near the town of Murren, Switzerland, the diners go around 360 degrees in an hour, all the better to get a load of the incredible views. You’ll see some 200 peaks. CNS Photo courtesy of Switzerland Tourism. You could blame it on lightheadedness, but pasta I've dined on high in Italy's Dolomites, empanadas I've consumed in Bolvia's Andes and couscous I've eaten in Morocco's High Atlas tasted better than their counterparts in Milan, La Paz and Marrakech. Once, while chowing down on an early-morning breakfast at Whistler Resort's Roundhouse Lodge in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, a friend who was a skiing novice put down a fork filled with scrambled eggs, stared out the window and watched in awe as the jagged peaks above the Overlord glacier turned pink with the sunrise. "Sublime," he said a few seconds later, before resuming his repast. "I've never seen anything quite like that." Here's a rundown on some of my favorite lofty eateries: The Roundhouse Lodge sits at 6,069 feet on the slopes of Whistler, part of a two-mountain schussing complex with 200 trails, 33 lifts and a vertical drop of more than 5,000 feet. The Roundhouse is about 1,000 feet from the summit of the resort and is on a ridge separating Glacier and Harmony bowls. Look to the northeast and you'll see the Musical Bumps, including the Oboe, Flute and Piccolo peaks marching off toward Blackcomb Mountain. The lodge has several restaurants. The Steeps Grill offers casual, full-service dining and regional British Columbia cuisine with an emphasis on Pacific salmon, including a tasty chowder. It also has two cafeterias. The special one is Paloma's - on the top level. Patrons who take part in the First Tracks program can eat breakfast there at 7:15 a.m. and get a 45-minute jump on the rest of the skiing public. So in addition to staggering sunrises, you could get two or three runs practically all on your own. The cost for First Tracks this winter will be about $15 for adults and $11 for kids ages 7-12. Children 6 and younger are free. For more information, look up www.whistler-blackcomb.com. To the south a bit in Washington is Crystal Mountain, arguably that state's most challenging resort, with 11 chairs, 50 runs and more than 3,000 feet of vertical. The Summit House Restaurant is at the top of the Rainier Express lift, elevation 6,854 feet. It offers pizza, pasta, sandwiches, chicken and burgers and a stunning view of Mount Rainier, which rises to the west almost 8,000 feet higher, to 14,411 feet. When I skied there during the decade I lived in Washington, I couldn't resist showing friends the route I'd used to climb Rainier's summit. For more information on Crystal, look up its Web site at www.skicrystal.com. GOING UP - To get to the Piz Gloria restaurant and its fabled roesti (potato cakes), you take the longest cable car in the Alps. CNS Photo courtesy of Switzerland Tourism. For a great view of Lake Tahoe from a rocky outcrop at 8,200 feet, Squaw Valley's High Camp has Alexander's Cafe. It also overlooks some of the mountain's lower runs, including KT, Red Dog and the entire valley. Perched at the top of the Aerial Cable Car, it is open for lunch and dinner and features a fresh fish of the day, steaks, grilled chicken, salads and homemade soups. The restaurant's sunset dinner package is $34 per person, and you can ski back to the valley afterward because the Mountain Run is lighted until 9 p.m. For upper-slope views - Granite Peak tops out at 9,050 feet - the Poolside Cafe offers views of the spa and runs below the Palisades, Headwall and Siberia Ridge. Its fare features soups, salads, burgers and sandwiches. For more information on Squaw, which has 177 runs and 34 lifts, look up its Web site at www.squaw.com. Down at Mammoth, the three-year-old Parallax Restaurant at McCoy's Station is halfway up the mountain at 9,609 feet. It offers wonderful vistas from the top of the resort, including the Cornice Bowl, Climax Run and the top section of the Gondola. Off to the west are the spiky Minarets. The menu features Thai beef salad, pineapple-glazed pork back ribs and wild game chili. For more information on Mammoth, which has 156 trails and 27 lifts, look up www.mammothmountain.com. In Colorado's Rockies, Keystone Resort's Alpenglow Stube lays claim to being the highest gourmet/fine dining restaurant in the United States, at 11,444 feet. And it has a AAA Four-Diamond rating, too. To reach it, guests ride two enclosed gondolas from the base of Keystone's River Run. Ski-in/ski-out access, fur-lined slippers and a picturesque view of the Continental Divide complement the Colorado cuisine. Signature dishes include Pine Cone Pate, Outpost Elk Chop and Gratin Stube. For more information on Keystone, which has a summit elevation of 12,200 feet, 20 lifts and 117 trails, look up www.keystoneresort.com. James Bond fans may be familiar with Switzerland's Schilthorn Peak and the Piz Gloria Restaurant, which rotates 360 degrees every hour. It serves up breathtaking views of more than 200 mountains and 40 glaciers - including the Eiger, Munch and Jungfrau peaks. In one scene from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," bad guy Telly Savalas and his henchmen chased Bond down the slopes from here. The Schilthorn, topping out at 9,500 feet, is also the starting point for the annual Inferno race, in which 1,800 skiers challenge the clock in a 10-mile, 7,100-feet descent to the village of Lauterbrunnen. It is the world's longest downhill race. Nonracers can also make the descent - albeit at a much more controlled pace. The Piz Gloria is reached from the village of Murren by the longest cable car in the Alps. It offers a wide variety of Swiss and European fare, including roesti - a thin, flat potato cake - schnitzel and bratwurst. And if you are thirsty, ask for the legendary martini - shaken not stirred - at the James Bond Bar. For more information on the Schilthorn, go to www.schilthorn.ch. For Switzerland, go to www.MySwitzerland.com or call (877) 794-8037. Last but not least on my list of eateries is the mountain hut at the Chacaltaya, some 4,000 feet above La Paz, Bolivia. This single-lift resort has a base of 17,130 feet and is the globe's highest ski area. I made some turns here in the mid-1980s while attending a language school in Cochabamba, which was at the relatively low elevation of 8,000 feet. I was somewhat acclimated to the elevation. It's a good idea to bring your own grub if you ski here - to say nothing of your own oxygen tank. Members of the Club Andino Boliviano sometimes sell food from the hut beside the glacier, as well as a tea made from coca leaves that helps take away symptoms of soroche, or altitude sickness. It did the trick for me. For more information on Chacaltaya, look up www.goski.com. Brian E. Clark is a staff writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune. © Copley News Service

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