‘A great Christmas gift from Vail,’ Blue Sky Basin opens for 2023-24 ski season
John LaConte/Vail Daily archive
Blue Sky Basin opened for the 2023-24 ski season on Monday following two days of fresh snow on the mountain.
Blue Sky was one of the last major terrain openings on which Vail guests were waiting, and the Christmas Day opening was met with delight from skiers and snowboarders who found untracked snow throughout the day.
Vail local Tyler Moore said after hearing that Blue Sky would open on Monday, he caught the first gondola ride out of Lionshead and made his way over in time for the rope drop.
“There was only about 40 people waiting, tops” he said. “Not crowded at all … It was a great Christmas gift from Vail to open up Blue Sky.”
Moore said he skied Blue Sky for the rest of the day, finding fresh powder every run.
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“But it’s still very thin in places,” he said. “So you do have to be careful. Early season conditions still exist. I was skiing over branches and trees all day.”
Both the Skyline Express lift (No. 37) into Blue Sky, along with Pete’s Express (No. 39) opened on Monday. Moore said the powder was deeper near Pete’s lift.
“But we had really good runs in Earl’s Bowl also,” he said. “We were some of the first people down Champagne Glade, the coverage there was fantastic.”
Conditions alternated between sunny and cloudy, with snow falling at times. A small storm system hovered above Blue Sky in the afternoon, depositing more snow in the area.
Vail reported 6 inches of fresh snow to start the ski day on Sunday, and more continued to fall throughout the day, with the resort reporting another 3 inches on Monday morning. Vail now has a 37-inch base at mid-mountain.
Temperatures were cold; the day started with a -4 Fahrenheit reading on the thermometer and only increased slightly throughout the day.
Forecasters say it will remain cold, as well. In a hazardous weather outlook issued Monday morning, the National Weather Service’s Grand Junction office said temperatures will be “unseasonably cool for late December, especially in the mountains.”
Local meteorologist Joel Gratz with OpenSnow.com said some storm energy will linger in the area through Tuesday night, but “snow accumulations should be light, just a coating to maybe a few inches, if that,” Gratz said.
Gratz said the next chances for snow in the Vail area will come around New Year’s Day, and then possibly in the week to follow.
“For the early 2024 period, the longer-range forecast models show chances for storms around the Rockies, but it’s too soon to know if these storms will bring significant snowfall,” Gratz said.
