Vail Mountain continued to open more terrain on Friday, opening Teacup and China Bowl along with the Orient Express Lift (No. 21) and the Teacup Express Lift (No. 36).
The move follows Vail Mountain’s opening of Sun Up and Sun Down Bowls on Thursday, making the resort now 66% open with 2,742 acres available for skiers and snowboarders.
Remaining terrain openings will include Inner and Outer Mongolia Bowls, accessed via the Mongolia Surface Lift (No. 22), and Blue Sky Basin, accessed via Skyline Express (No. 37).
The move marks the second year in a row that China Bowl opened on Dec. 15.
In a release, John Plack with Vail Mountain described the recent rush to open more terrain as “heroic efforts by Vail Mountain’s Ops Team,” and said the team “continues to work under blue skies, preparing the resort’s 5,317 acres for skiers and riders.”
Those blue-sky conditions are expected to continue, with no snow in the forecast for the next week.
“If you like sunshine and warm-ish temperatures, then the next six days will be for you as we’ll see dry conditions and high temperatures mostly in the 30s,” said Meteorologist Joel Gratz with OpenSnow.com.
The next chances for storms will be sometime between Thursday, December 21, and Monday, December 25, Gratz said.
“Right now, it appears that storms during this time will mostly track to the northwest and to the southwest of Colorado, which would not lead to significant snow for us here at Vail.”
Another chance for snow in Colorado could arrive between December 27-29, Gratz said, “and the early indication for this storm is that it could track directly through Colorado which would increase our chances for snow accumulations.”