VAIL Like nothing on earth.™

Conditions Update January 17 – 18

 Blue bird skies and above average temperatures. Bwana Sunday morning

On busy weekends, avoiding crowds in the mountain is easier than you think. 

Update January 18th. With the exception of High Noon Express (#5), and Game Creek Express (#7) you can avoid a lift with a long line by navigating to lesser traveled lifts just down the mountain. To avoid long lines in Mountain Top Express (#4) and Northwoods Express (#11) you can take the Trans Montane catwalk to Highline Express (#10), and then take Sourdough (#14) to the top of China Bowl. The same can be said about Orient Express (#21), to avoid a line there, take Tea Cup Express (#36) instead. Also, remember that today there are two playoff games, the first one has a kickoff at 1:30 pm; crowds should start thinning out around that time.

Update January 17th. M.L.King Weekend is off to a good start; a tad of snow to freshen up the mountain Saturday morning, blue bird skies, with some picturesque clouds here and there, and another shot of snow sunday night! Probably best to wait for a few more inches of freshies to hit the Back Bowls and other south facing runs. Strong winds last night means that snow is accumulated on some corners, while leaving other corners dry. For days like this, well protected runs should have the most snow, so find a run that was groomed last night, where you might just score perfect turns. Two runs that have probably the best turns in the whole mountain this morning are Blue Ox, by Highline (#10), and Grand Review, just by Pete’s Express (#39) in Blue Sky Basin. Both of these runs were groomed last night, only to get some fresh snow on top after that, so go get it!

Something for everybody in Vail.

Blue Sky was skiing pretty good on Saturday

SkyLine Express (#37) Saturday morning

A view to stare for hours; Game Creek Bowl and Holy Cross Mountain