VAIL, Colo. - Dec. 5, 2024 – This morning, Vail Mountain opened its famed Legendary Back Bowls for the 2024/25 winter season. This marks the earliest opening of the Back Bowls since 2018. Vail Mountain’s Sun Up and Sun Down Bowls will open with High Noon Express (#5) and Sun Down Express (#17), and the resort now offers more than 2,000 acres of skiing and snowboarding with more terrain expected soon. Vail Mountain is currently assessing terrain across the resort’s five other Legendary Back Bowls – Tea Cup, China, Siberia, Inner & Outer Mongolia. Vail Mountain Operations is also working hard to provide access to signature terrain in Blue Sky Basin.
Highly Anticipated Terrain and Lifts Open Across Colorado
This week also marks incredible terrain offerings across Breckenridge Ski Resort, Keystone Resort, Beaver Creek Resort and Crested Butte Mountain Resort.
- Breck: Breck’s famed T-Bar opened for the season on Saturday, Nov. 30 - one of its earliest openings in the resort’s history – ushering access to the resort’s signature high alpine terrain in Horseshoe Bowl and Contest Bowl, and bringing total skiable terrain to more than 1,200 acres this early season. Expert terrain under E-Chair also opened much earlier than usual thanks to more than 80 inches of early season snowfall.
- Keystone Resort: Keystone expanded terrain offerings this past week, providing guests with access to North Peak and additional terrain on Dercum Mountain. Thanks to generous snowfall and the hard work of the Keystone Mountain Operations team, this is the most open terrain Keystone has offered in the early season in the past five years! Leading into the holidays, Keystone will continue to expand terrain with plans to open all three of the resort's signature peaks. Keystone is also working towards opening the resort's newest lift-accessed high alpine terrain in Bergman Bowl.
- Beaver Creek Resort: Following a deep Opening Day, Beaver Creek Resort is now offering ski access from Beaver Creek Village and Bachelor Gulch. The resort is also announcing ski in/ski out access to the famed Birds of Prey race venue via Red Tail and Dally. Guests will also be able to “Fly 9” out of the venue, offering incredible views of World Cup ski racing on Birds of Prey Express Lift (#9). The resort’s unique ski in/ski out venue access will be available for both weekends of World Cup Racing at Birds of Prey.
- Crested Butte Mountain Resort: Quickly following a successful Opening Day, CBMR is announcing the opening of Paradise Lift. Today’s opening of Paradise Lift increases the resort’s skiable terrain by nearly 100 acres for a resort total of just under 400 acres already available for the early season.
Following 7 feet of snow in Vail and Breck so far this season, snow returns to the forecast in Colorado on Monday, Dec. 9, and operations teams will continue to make snow at every opportunity, expanding terrain offerings ahead of the holidays. With the snowpack continuing to sit above average across much of the state, this is an early season to remember, setting the stage for an incredible ski and snowboard season to follow. Stay tuned to resort social media channels for the latest terrain alerts and updates.
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Please credit Vail Mountain/Max Ritter