Why settle for purchasing a piece of the valley when you can acquire a mountaintop instead? These new high-altitude residence clubs make the climb to the summit worthwhile.

Credit crunches. Subprime hysteria. Burgeoning recession fears. For a money man with a vested interest in investments and interest, these are times to try one’s soul.

One response — and a time-honored one, at that — is the noble act of running away. Quitting. Giving up. Cashing out. Divesting yourself of your global economic woes and fleeing to the high hills. Best of all, thanks to the recent profusion of high-altitude, high-luxury residential clubs, those hills are now more inviting than ever.

It’s a simple plan: Just acquire yourself a lofty, ultra-exclusive perch in the mountains — one blessed, of course, with world-class skiing, concierge services, helipads and the requisite contingency of in-house chefs (what, you’re going to shoot and boil a squirrel every night)? Then sit back and peer down upon the world as it wrestles with all those rising uncertainties. From where you’re sitting, it will all be miles below.

Men of means looking to unleash their inner Hemingway — by which we mean embracing nature and rugged living, not blowing one’s head off with a shotgun — might well find themselves gravitating toward the Idaho Club, located outside the small (population 6,835), remote (only 620 miles to Twin Falls!) and tidy burg of Sandpoint.

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