Vail: the back story

About Vail: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ski Resorts Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Unlike Aspen or Breckenridge, Vail was never a mining town: it was built from the first day as a ski resort. Its founders were veterans of the 10th Mountain Division who had trained in these mountains during the Second World War and came back to build the mountain they had imagined.

The Shining Mountains

Long before settlers came west, the Ute people summered in this valley, which they called the Shining Mountains for its peaks. By the 1870s prospectors were searching the Gore Range for gold and silver, but the mines were soon worked out and the valley returned to sheep ranchers.

A road and a name

In 1939 construction began on Highway 6 from Denver through the Gore Valley. Its engineer, Charlie Vail, gave his name to the pass, and later to the town and the resort.

Vail was built from day one as a ski town.

Soldiers on skis

During the Second World War the Army’s 10th Mountain Division trained nearby at Camp Hale for alpine warfare; a bronze soldier in Slifer Plaza honours the 18,000 men who trained there. Many came back after the war, among them Pete Seibert, who returned with fellow troopers Bill “Sarge” Brown and Bob Parker with the dream of a great ski mountain. Trail, area and building names on Vail Mountain still carry ties to the division.

Building Vail

Construction began in spring 1962, and by autumn 1966 the Town of Vail had been incorporated. The mountain opened with the first gondola in the United States, two double chairlifts and a beginner Poma serving six square miles of terrain, and its villages were built with a nod to classic European alpine architecture.

Growing up

From the 1980s Vail became a year-round resort. A managed-growth agreement between the town, Vail Resorts and the U.S. Forest Service preceded the opening of Blue Sky Basin, which added 645 acres. Vail co-hosted the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships with Beaver Creek, and at 5,317 acres it is today the largest ski resort in Colorado.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Vail: the back story before you go.