Vail - If you died today, you'll wish you would have done it

If you have a week, start exploring every inch of the bowls and of Blue Sky Basin. You will never feel so alive. I started my trip with a lift ride over runs that looked as if they had about an inch of snow and grass peeking out through the ice crystals. Vail with very little snow is depressing.

Pros	5289 Acres of Pure Fun - 7 Back Bowls Nearly a third of its runs are groomed every night Blue Sky Basin - It's a little slice of heaven
Cons	Pretentious people wearing fur The Price - A huge mountain has a huge price tag

Description

Blue Sky Basin - 645 acres that is nowhere near civilization
The Back Bowls - 6 miles wide and a couple thousand feet deep, can you imagine it?
127 trails on the front side alone with every terrain imaginable.
14 high speed lifts
Do you love to eat? The Vail Village offers incredible meals
DO you love to drink? The apres scene is famous for getting you to the lift line three hours late
Ice skating at night or strolling through the village it's a good place for the family.
It is expensive so be prepared to cut the cards when you get home

Guide Review - Vail - If you died today, you'll wish you would have done it

Imagine yourself on a huge mountain that has very little snow, so much possibility yet so little opportunity to make turns. I spent most of the day listening to the crunch of my skis making contact with the stuff that pours out of the snowmaking guns.

The runs were quick and satisfying for an early season ski day but deep within my soul I felt the need to be bitter. After an afternoon of prayer and pandering to the local bartenders I awoke to the storm that had been promised by every local I met. Of course, they had filled me with enough fluids and food in the Vail village to put me into a coma.

When I finally took a look out my window in the Lionshead village I temporarily lost it. I felt the urge to race out and get in a few turns. I had to compose myself and ready my body for what turned out to be four days of increasingly lighter snow. Making turns in fresh snow that hugs your thighs like a chocolate shake is as close to floating without dropping into the water. The snow carried me from turn to turn just as warm Caribbean currents would move a castaway lost at sea.

I was lost in a sea of gladed bowls and epic face shots. I can only hope that you find yourself in Vail immediately after a huge storm. You may never recover from the emotional scare that it places right next to your heart. You will never look at another mountain the same way.