Industry News
After months of waiting, side-eyeing snow totals, and watching storms miss Colorado altogether, Vail Mountain officially cracked the gate to its Legendary Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin this week—in what stands as one of the latest Back Bowl openings in the modern era.
In a post shared on Vail’s Facebook page Thursday, the resort announced a limited opening of select terrain beginning Friday, February 6, crediting the “creativity” of its mountain operations team for making the long-anticipated moment happen. The move brings Vail to more than 2,800 acres of skiable terrain, a psychological milestone in a winter that has been defined more by patience than powder.
The terrain opening is narrow and cautious. In the Back Bowls, access is limited to Sun Up Bowl (Over Yonder) and parts of China Bowl, including East and West Poppyfields, Gillet’s Dream, and sections of Shangri-La. In Blue Sky Basin, skiers can access terrain via a newly opened Morning Thunder gate, with runs including Big Rock Park, Cloud Nine, The Star, Grand Review, and Hornsilver. Five lifts are now spinning in the zone, and Vail said the terrain will remain open seven days a week, with additional expansions dependent on snowfall. The timing, however, is what makes this opening notable.
In strong snow years, Vail’s Back Bowls typically open from late November to mid-December, and have occasionally opened even earlier. Resort records and past announcements highlight November 25, 2018; November 26, 2014; and November 24, 2010 as early openings, with the earliest this century coming on November 16, 2002. Against that backdrop, a February 5-6 opening is extraordinarily late by modern standards.
Is it the latest ever? Probably not—longtime Vail employees and instructors have publicly recalled at least one season in the mid-1970s when portions of the Back Bowls either opened in late February or did not open at all, although the information is hard to verify. What can be said with confidence is that in the modern era of widespread snowmaking, high-capacity grooming, and advanced mountain operations, a February 5-6 opening stands out as one of the latest Back Bowl openings in decades.
Vail paired the terrain announcement with something entirely new: the first-ever sunrise concert at the Back Bowls gate, featuring Chris Lorenzo from 8-9:30 a.m. Friday morning. Access is tightly controlled, wristband-only, and 18+, with guests required to arrive early and ski or ride in—a fittingly strange and celebratory moment for a season that’s been anything but normal.
Conditions remain variable, and the resort has been clear about that. This isn’t a full send; it’s a careful step forward in a winter shaped by low snowpack and warm spells across much of the West. Still, for skiers who’ve been staring at closed gates since November, the message lands loud and clear:
Better late than never.
