Vail Colorado Skiing
Vail is the nation’s largest resort. With more than 5,000 acres of
skiable terrain, 33 lifts, 193 trails, and a four-and-a-half mile run, Vail is
simply, monstrously huge. Even by the outsized standards of the American west,
its size is more than ponderous. It’s downright surreal.
There are separate areas for slower beginners, and areas set aside
especially for families. There are long, broad cruiser runs for grinning
intermediates, and plenty of gut-busting bumps for experts - enough to fill
several large Eastern resorts, in fact. About half of Vail’s vast territory
is devoted to ungroomed back bowls. Terrain is evenly divided among beginner,
intermediate and expert. Average annual snowfall is a huge 350 inches, making
the season long and sweet.
Located only 100 miles from Denver, Vail is immensely popular with both
Americans and Europeans. It’s known as a place to see and be seen, and it’s
big enough to accommodate everyone’s tastes. Oozing nouveau old-world charm,
the village bustles with activity. Literally hundreds of shops, boutiques, and
restaurants, as well as galleries, museums and pubs, offer virtually
everything you can imagine. And more than a few things you probably can’t.
Celebrities and common folks mingle on busy streets, and when they’re not
people watching, skiing, or shopping for the latest fashions, some folks give
bobsledding a whirl (novices welcome!), or take to the air in hot air
balloons, or mush the backcountry on dog sleds. It’s all there at Vail. It
doesn’t come cheap. But it’s available. Figure skating and hockey skating,
showshoeing, telemark skiing, snowmobiling, parascending, snowboarding. There
are even mountainboards for rent in summer months. It’s all there. You’ve
just got to do it. Or not.
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