Vail - 2/18/10

[speden]

After Copper Mountain we moved over to Vail yesterday. We spent the morning settling in to the new digs. The condo at Copper was pretty nice, but the one we got at Vail is downright opulent. Walking around the Vail village, there seems to be a pretty high standard for construction around here.

We got out for a few runs yesterday afternoon, but by then the trails we hit were pretty messed up from heavy traffic. Seems like the best parts are the upper mountain on the frontside and of course the back bowls. The lower part of the frontside seems kind of sucky, since a lot of traffic heading back to the villages gets funneled onto just a few trails.

So still operating on Boston time, it was easy for us to get up early and be in line when the lifts opened at 8:30 this morning. We hit the groomed trails in the morning when they were smooth as silk. The snow here is nice and powdery. They only groom less than half the trails each night, so if you want groomers you need to check the morning grooming report. If you want natural and bumped up trails, they are everywhere.

In the morning we hit stuff in mid-vail and Game Creek and found lots of nice trails. Not as long as the trails at Copper, but still good. All the lifts here seem to be high speed, which is great, and they have the slowest load and unload speeds I've ever seen, so they rarely need to stop them since no one falls during load/unload.

After lunch we moved to the China bowl, just as a fairly heavy snow squall moved through. We could hardly see ten feet in front us so every sudden dip in the terrain came as a surprise. On another run we decided to do some of the glades in the China bowl. Lots of deep powder everywhere there.

Looks like they could pick up another 3"+ of powder tonight, so I'm hoping for some prime conditions for our last day tomorrow.

Some pics:

Mid-Vail area

Snowstorm in the China Bowl

Shangri-La Glade. We strayed in here by accident and found we didn't have the skills. Took us a half hour of hard work to get down this. It got steep and tight, and me and my two boys each had a fall in here, but thankfully no injuries. Not a run I will soon forget!

Looking back on our last run of the day on the lower frontside, probably near Ruder's Run.

Vail village is quite picturesque, and has a lot of activity and people bustling about.

 

[frozencorn]

Love the Red Lion. Coverage looks good. Haven't been in 3 years, but can't wait to get back there.

 

[RISkier]

The two lifts at mid Vail tend to get and stay pretty busy. Main lifts from the bases such as the gondola and the Vista Bahn get busy after folks wake up. Have you made the trek out to Blue Sky Basin? Probably our favorite part of Vail. It's so immense it takes a while to get the lay of the land. We thought Vail village was a bit over the top; sort of ski metropolis rather than a quaint ski village with alpine charm. BTW, The best skiing is higher up. You can download on several lifts, Gondi, Vista Bahn, the long lift way on the East part of the mountain. The George, located just before the bridge in Vail village has great prices on afternoon drinks and the deal you can get on crab legs is really outstanding.

 

[billski]

Thanks for the report. We'll be going there next month. My first time, my ski bud's been there a few times. Looking forward to the bowls, getting away from the front side (I need my space! We will be staying at Lionshead. Interested in any tips, with regard to anything - rentals, food, happenings, etc.. I plan to bring my boots, but rent skis.

 

[Vail Sage]

The Vail daily or Mountaineer has info on events for the week, Montauk has excellent Seafood, Garfs is a fun bar, and Skiset has a location in Lions Head and Vail Village. You can find the newspapers at most hotels or stores. Both restaurants are really easy to find and here is the link for skiset.

http://www.skiset.us/

Have fun Vail is a blast.

 

[meff]

We've been out to Vail four times the past few years, hope to go again in March.

If you are staying in Lionshead and want a bit of Boston - Bart and Yeti's they generally will have Boston sports on the TV.

For demos/rentals we've always grabbed 'em at Pepi Sports in the village - if you reserve them the day before you will get a discount - I think its 30% if you only need the skis.

As far as space, you can even get some of that on the front side, but if you want to get to the bowls this would be my suggestion from Lions head:

If the Eagle Bahn isn't slammed, take that up, jump in to game creek bowl and out and then into the back bowls. I'd get to Blue Sky early since it tends to get a bit busy by noon.

If the gondola is slammed, take Born Free express up - from there you can go down a cat track to Avanti Express. From there you can jump down to Mid-Vail and up Mountain Top express or jump into Game Creek and then into the back bowls that way.

That option puts you into Sun Down bowl. Personally I'd do the Mountain Top route since you have some more options as to which bowl you go into.

Depending what you are looking for, there are some good trails on the front side, I'd personally try Riva Ridge/Tourist trap - also if there is good cover, Pepi's face can be a fun way into the village. I also like doing some morning warm up laps on Avanti, but thats just me.

 

[billski]

Outstanding beta. Thanks!

 

[speden]

We wrapped up at Vail this morning. I wasn't planning to ski this morning, but since they got 6"+ of fresh last night, I asked the hotel if we could get a late checkout. They said we could stay until 12, so that was enough time for me to get in a good workout on the slopes. They don't sell half day tickets, so had to shell out $98 for about two and a half hours of skiing. But it was worth it.

This was the sixth day in a row I was skiing, so I was nursing some sore muscles in the morning (especially my neck for some reason). I rubbed in some Bengay ointment and the powder conditions soon made me forget any aches and pains. The first trail I hit had at least 6" on top of groomed snow, but that was a little too much for my limited powder skills and my skinny Volkl AC-20's. I took a header about halfway down the trail, then got stuck in a flat section with no speed. Luckily after that I found some trails with about 3" on top, and that was within my skills and was a blast. If I'd had more time I would have headed to the back bowls, but I had plenty of fun on the front side.

Yesterday was also a powder day, with about 5" of fresh, but I didn't plan the day right. We hit some trails first that had been completely groomed out, then wore ourselves out on some flat traverses we could have avoided, and later wound up at a lodge for lunch when it was hellishly jammed. We did have some fun runs in the China bowl yesterday, but instead of lapping that bowl we moved on to other trails that weren't nearly as fun.

Here are a few pics from the last couple of days:

This is probably Genghis Khan in the China bowl

Poppyfields East in the China bowl, one of my favorites.

Looking back at the main bowls from Blue Sky Basin. There are some fantastic views riding the Skyline lift in Blue Sky Basin, but the wind was whipping so good over the ridge I didn't take any photos.

Vail village is all lit up at night. All the sidewalks are heated so no snow sticks to them. They like the fine arts in Vail, so you'll find a lot of galleries and sculptures scattered amongst the shops and restaurants.

Some Friday night Apres ski in the village. Live music and lot of skiers with drinks.

Gotta admire the groomers at Vail. They groom what they need to, but leave a lot of the good stuff alone. Impressive restraint.

Upper Born Free

Lionshead village. This is the side that has the gondola.

 

[speden]

Have you made the trek out to Blue Sky Basin?

We got over there yesterday. The terrain looks awesome, but I could see from the lift that most of it was going to be too hard for us to enjoy. Hopefully I can get back there in a few years and take advantage of it.

 

[speden]

We will be staying at Lionshead. Interested in any tips, with regard to anything - rentals, food, happenings, etc.. I plan to bring my boots, but rent skis.

Lionshead looks like a good place to stay. We were in Vail Village which is nice, but more spread out. One thing that we liked was the ski valet service the hotel had. When you check in they wisk your skis off to a ski check area next to the lift, and they stay there until you're ready to check out. With that you don't need to lug your skis around. Maybe that's less of a problem in Lionshead since it seems more compact.

One thing we didn't do right at the beginning of the trip was drink enough water each day. By about day three we realized we were all getting dehydrated in the high altitude. Also the dry air isn't great for sleeping, and we didn't notice the condos had humidifiers sitting in the closets. Once we got those suckers going we didn't get so dried out at night.

I was thinking of renting powder skis, but didn't think we'd get enough snow to really need them. Then the forecast changed and we got some decent snow, and I was wishing I had some powder skis to try out. Maybe next time.