More than a foot of new snow allows Vail to open Chair 5, Milt's Face

With heavy snow falling into the early afternoon, piling on top of nine inches of new snow reported this morning at 5 a.m., Vail finally was able to open Chair 5 in Sun Down Bowl today.

After a slow start to the season, more than two feet of new snow in the last week has allowed Vail to steadily offer more and more terrain since late last week, including Sun Up and China Bowls, as well as parts of Blue Sky Basin.

“With 9 inches new, snowing hard all day, there's only one thing to do for our fantastic guests. Chair 5 is now open with skiing and riding on Milt's,” reads the Vail Mountain Facebook page.

A huge amount of pent-up powder demand generated long lift lines at the base of Vail Mountain this morning, including waits of up to a half hour at the Vista Bahn and Riva Bahn high-speed quads.

But once snow riders got up on the mountain they were rewarded with at least a foot of fresh snow in places – the first truly deep powder day of the year.

Another storm is expected to drop up to four inches of new snow Monday night into Tuesday. Then things dry out and warm up somewhat for the remainder of the week.