Our Day at Vail

Tuesday, December 28, 2010:

Today was a beautiful day. Not only was it a clear, beautiful, blue sky day, but we were surrounded by some gorgeous Colorado countryside. We got up early to make the 45 minute drive to Vail. Today was our day to explore a new mountain resort.

We arrive at Vail before the lifts even opened. So we had plenty of time to adjust our equipment and, as soon as the lifts were ready for passengers, we were in line. With Chad as our guide (once again), we managed to get the most out of this mountain. We were also joined this day by Chad's girlfriend, Cara.

Vail is a huge resort. It is comprised of several mountains and a series of "bowls." And we covered most of it. We started on the eastern face of one of the mountains and tried out several of Chad's favorite runs. They were marked as intermediate trails, but on just about any other mountain, they would be considered advanced-intermediate. They were wide, but they had a serious pitch to them. And we flew down. The conditions were excellent - a combination of fully groomed slopes and several inches of fresh powder.

After our warm up period, Chad then proceeded to lead us all over the resort. We hardly took the same lift twice as we traversed from mountain to mountain and slope to slope. Our goal was to get to one of Annette's the bowls -- called "Blue Sky Bowl." A bowl is a wide open expanse of slope that has very few trees on it. There are no real trails. You basically ski anywhere. And the pitch of the slope can be relatively steep. It is a very unique skiing experience.

We skied a really full day at Vail. We took a mid-morning break (which was helpful for those of us with chilled toes) and a lunch break, but otherwise we skied pretty hard and we were exiting the mountain just about the time the lifts were starting to close -- which was between 3:00 and 3:30pm. What a great day.

I had never skied Vail before, and I fell in love with this resort. I definitely need to go back -- soon!