First Trip to Vail

Hi,

My wife and I are going to Vail the first week of March. We are both
advanced - not quite expert. We ski around 20 days/year. Can anyone
tell us what part of Vail would suit us best? I hear the back bowls
are something else. It looks like you could make a week of that side
alone. Thanks in advance.

Best,
Gregg

GF wrote:

My wife and I are going to Vail the first week of March. We are both
advanced - not quite expert. We ski around 20 days/year. Can anyone
tell us what part of Vail would suit us best? I hear the back bowls
are something else. It looks like you could make a week of that side
alone. Thanks in advance.

Do you like standing in liftlines? If so, you're in for a treat! I'd
especially recommend the line for the gondola, since you can be seen by
everyone while you're standing in it. The line for the quad at
Lionshead is also pretty good. But I'm told that the true queue
conissseurs will head for the back bowls where the lines are
particularly large. Happy standing!

//Walt
//
// Vail - always more than you thought

On 2006-02-22, GF penned:
Hi,

My wife and I are going to Vail the first week of March. We are both
advanced - not quite expert. We ski around 20 days/year. Can anyone
tell us what part of Vail would suit us best? I hear the back bowls
are something else. It looks like you could make a week of that side
alone. Thanks in advance.


Vail has some awesome terrain, but the lift lines are definitely a
PITA. If you'll be there a whole week, you might look into visiting
Beaver Creek for a day or two -- it's maybe 15 minutes away, even more
posh than Vail, and much less crowded. Most likely, whatever ticket
you have for Vail will work at Beaver Creek as well (but don't take my
word for it).

Something I've meant to try is:

http://vail.snow.com/info/mtn.overview.tours.asp

Might be a nice intro to the terrain.

As near as I can tell, the really good terrain at Vail always involves
a long, long, long catwalk at the end. Frontside that's not an issue,
though.


--
monique
Longmont, CO

GF wrote:
Hi,

My wife and I are going to Vail the first week of March. We are both
advanced - not quite expert. We ski around 20 days/year. Can anyone
tell us what part of Vail would suit us best? I hear the back bowls
are something else. It looks like you could make a week of that side
alone. Thanks in advance.

Best,
Gregg

From the back bowls go to the 2nd ridge which is called Blue Sky Basin
...... this is a new area where you ski nothing but powder ......

GF writes:

My wife and I are going to Vail the first week of March. We are both
advanced - not quite expert. We ski around 20 days/year. Can anyone
tell us what part of Vail would suit us best? I hear the back bowls
are something else. It looks like you could make a week of that side
alone. Thanks in advance.

You should find plenty to enjoy.

Whether you'll enjoy the bowls will depend on the state of the snow.
After a big dump, they are sublime for an advanced skiier. That can
last for several days if it's not crowded (which it shouldn't be
during the week in early March)

If you go in deep powder, be sure to get straps or ribbons; I spent an
hour looking for a ski once, and found it purely by luck. Also, you
want fat skis.

The bowls can get pretty badly scraped around if it hasn't snowed in a
few days. And if they crust, they're damn unpleasant, although they
soften up nicely if it's sunny. They do groom some of the bowls when
they get scraped up and crusty, but grooming sorta defeats the
purpose.

My wife had her breakthrough from intermediate to advanced in Blue Sky
Basin. The area off Pete's is nicely wooded but fairly open; she
gained the confidence to attack steeper, tighter ungroomed glades.


--
dhs

GF wrote:
Hi,

I believe it was Thumper (in Bambi) whose mother told him the proper
response to queries about Vail ...

Thanks for the tips!
Gregg


On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 00:25:37 -0500, GF wrote:

Hi,

My wife and I are going to Vail the first week of March. We are both
advanced - not quite expert. We ski around 20 days/year. Can anyone
tell us what part of Vail would suit us best? I hear the back bowls
are something else. It looks like you could make a week of that side
alone. Thanks in advance.

Best,
Gregg