Vail Mountain opens Back Bowls after reaching 90 inches of snow for 2023-24 season

Vail Mountain dropped the ropes on Sun Down Bowl and Sun Up Bowl on Thursday, allowing guests access to exit the back side of the mountain via Sun Up Express (No. 9) and High Noon Express (No. 5).

It’s the earliest opening for the Back Bowls since 2019, although only by a day. Last season Sun Up Bowl opened on Dec. 15.

But while Sun Up Bowl was open on Dec. 15, Chair 5 didn’t open until Dec. 28 last season, making this year’s Chair 5 opening by far the earliest in years.

In 2021, Chair 5 opened on Dec. 28, and in 2020, Chair 5 opened on Dec. 19. In 2019, Chair 5 opened on Dec. 13.

‘More than 60 years’

The Back Bowls are considered to be among Vail’s most legendary terrain, offering wide-open spaces with few trees across several thousand acres.

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In a press release issued Thursday, Vail Mountain said the Back Bowls are “legendary for a reason,” and that the “Seven Legendary Back Bowls have been exciting guests for more than 60 years.”

That’s not exactly true. While Sun Down and Sun Up Bowl have indeed been in operation for more than 60 years, the remaining five bowls did not open to the public until 1988. Vail added China Bowl, Tea Cup Bowl and Siberia Bowl to its trail map two years earlier, in 1986, as the expansion began being touted to the public. But the ski area boundary, at that time, was still marked off at the edge of Sun Up Bowl.

In 1988, Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia Bowls were added to the trail map, accessible via the Mongolia Surface Lift (No. 22), which opened during the 1988-89 season along with the Orient Express Lift (No. 21).

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The opening of Sun Up and Sun Down Bowls means Vail now has 60% of its terrain open, as the resort has also opened Game Creek Bowl on the west side of the mountain and the Blue Ox, Highline and Roger’s runs on the east side of the mountain in recent days. Those areas are accessible via Game Creek Express (No. 7) and Highline Express (No. 10).

Vail is also expected to open its newest expansion, the Golden Peak T-bar (No. 16) to ski racers in the coming days. That lift offers access to the race trails Fall Line, Golden Peak Race and Slalom Alley.

7.5 feet of snow so far

Vail Mountain opened to 1 inch of fresh snow on Thursday, bringing the resort’s cumulative snow total to 90 inches, or 7.5 feet for the 2022-23 season.

Much of that snow has arrived over the last two weeks, with a Dec. 1-4 storm system dropping off 22 inches of snow and a Dec. 8-11 storm system depositing another 21 inches, according to Vail’s mid-mountain snow stake.

It’s possible that Vail could see more snow, as well, with the National Weather Service’s Grand Junction office issuing a hazardous weather outlook for Friday, extending into the Gore Range near Vail.

But the system will likely miss our area, as the Grand Junction office predicts the southern mountains of Colorado to bear the brunt of the storm.

That storm “will bring snow to the central and southern mountains” but is not expected to last past Friday.

Meteorologist Joel Gratz with OpenSnow.com issued a more localized forecast for Vail on Thursday, saying the area “will be in a dry weather pattern” for the next week, not seeing any snow through Dec. 21.

“The next chance for snow in Colorado could be between December 22 to December 25, though early indications are that this storm will track to the south of the state and that is usually not a favorable track for (Vail) to receive a lot of snow,” Gratz said. “Then another chance for snow in Colorado should arrive between December 27-29, and the early indication for this storm is that it could track directly through Colorado which would increase our chances for snow accumulations.”