Vail will open Nov. 18 with skiing out of both Lionshead, Vail Village

Snowmaking crews 'killing it,' allowing more terrain, gondola for opening day

Ski Team athletes like Ted Ligety have been ripping it up at Vail's Golden Peak. The public gets a shot on Friday, Nov. 18.
Jack Affleck/Vail Resorts

“We're still eight days out from opening, and things could change between now and then, but we have made such great progress with snowmaking that we can say with confidence already that we will be able to open both the Vista Bahn out of Vail Village and the Lionshead lifts for access on opening day, and we wanted to let everyone know,” said Chris Jarnot, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Vail Mountain.

Beginning at 9 a.m. snow riders will be able to ride up the Born Free Express Lift (Chair 8), the Little Eagle Lift (Chair 15), the Vista Bahn Express Lift (Chair 16) and the Eagle Bahn Gondola. Born Free and Bear Tree trails will be open, as well as a top-to-bottom skiing on Columbine, Lodgepole and Born Free from the top of the gondola.

Paul Fillion, senior director of mountain operations, said that crews have been “killing it” and have made more progress at this point of the year than any other time in his 30 years of making snow at Vail.

Go to www.vail.com for up-to-date terrain openings and snow conditions.

Forecasters are calling for more snow starting Saturday, with opensnow.com predicting 2-4 inches at Vail during the day Saturday; another 2-4 Saturday night; 1-2 inches Sunday; 1-2 inches Sunday night; and a couple of more inches Monday and Tuesday.

Breckenridge opens on Friday, giving Epic Pass season pass holders three of the five Colorado resorts to ski, including Arapahoe Basin and Keystone. Vail will make four of five on Nov. 18; and Beaver Creek completes the set on Wednesday, Nov. 23. The Epic Pass is available to adults for $669 through Nov. 29.

Conditions have been so good so far that Winter Park ski area will open four days early on Saturday, instead of its originally scheduled opening date of Wednesday, Nov. 16.

Beaver Creek today announced it will stay open one week longer this season, extending closing day to April 15.