Your guide to skiing and snowboarding at Vail Mountain Thanksgiving week
Vail typically is open for Thanksgiving and it's is a great time to kick off the early ski season. You can expect less crowds in early season with all of the restaurants and shops open for business. Everyone is excited for the start of the winter season. Condition and terrain can vary year to year and natural snowfall is supplemented with snowmaking.
The Vail 60th Anniversary season is off to a celebratory start, and we’re excited to welcome you back to legendary skiing and riding during this season full of thanks. We’ve got over 550 acres of terrain available this week, including some of your favorite terrain in Northwoods.
We’re watching the forecast closely and it looks like we’re getting more November snow from Wednesday evening into Thursday. Although this won’t be a big storm, we’re excited to be building on over five feet of snow to start off the season! Even with all of this natural snow, we wouldn’t be open top-to-bottom or village-to-village without the hard work of our snowmaking team – thank a snowmaker if you meet one! As always in November – early season conditions exist.
Here are some tips to make your Thanksgiving at Vail the best yet:
Where to park: Visit our partners at the Town of Vail for all of the latest parking information, here. The closest parking to our gondolas in Vail and Lionshead Villages are in the village parking structures. BUT! Free parking is available at Donovan Park, located at 1600 South Frontage Road on days when the pavilion isn’t in use. From here take one of the country’s largest free public bus systems to get to the villages.
Stay tuned, because we’re working on opening additional access portals at Golden Peak and Cascade Village. The best way to find this information will be on the EpicMix App, which you can download, here. Fun fact about the EpicMix App: it will give you predictive lift wait times so you can navigate the mountain based on these live and forecasted times!
Where to ski & ride: Skiing and Snowboarding will be open from Gondola One and Eagle Bahn Gondola (#19), and we are looking to add two new access portals as soon as possible. We see a lot of excitement to get on the hill between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., so we recommend arriving early for those first few gondola cabins up the mountain, or after 10:00 a.m. Why not eat a little extra turkey and enjoy the snooze button?
We have top-to-bottom and village-to-village access, but we have some special tips for our beginners. Northwood will be open, which means excellent beginner terrain accessed by Sourdough Express (#14). We’re spinning at least eight chairlifts for front side skiing this week. Follow our social media channels for any new terrain alerts if we’re able to make them happen!
Where to eat: Mountain dining is excited to welcome you back with venues open across the mountain. Mid Vail at the top of Gondola One, Buffalo’s at the top of Mountaintop Express (#4), Two Elk at the top of Sourdough Express (#14), and Eagle’s Nest Market Place at the top of Eagle Bahn Gondola (#19) will all be open for you on-mountain for cafeteria-style dining. We will also have The 10th open for cocktails in the lounge and full service lunch in the dining room.
We are also previewing one of our newest dining locations, Simba’s Café! Simba’s is located at the top of Eagle Bahn Gondola (#19) and will be serving up coffee, cocoa and ice cream! What’s not to love about a mountaintop scoop of ice cream?
Where to Celebrate Après: Looking to kick off après right at the bottom of the mountain? Visit Express Lift Après Bar for a full set of 10 unique taps and après favorites at the base of Gondola One. If you’re over in Lionshead, enjoy the patio at The Tavern, overlooking the last skiers and riders to come off the hill with a glass of Champaign or a nice Aperol Spritz.
We hope to see you this holiday week – happy Thanksgiving and cheers to sixty years!