Vail Ski Conditions 2007 November

11/23/07 Well, the season started out with excitement (in October) with over 2 feet of snow before Halloween. Some of the most snow I've seen in Oct. in a number of years. However, it sort of jinxed us for November (so far). November has been quite dry and warm. The Tues/Wed before Thanksgiving things finally cooled down and we received 4 inches of snow. Enough to get Born Free run open with man-made snow, but that was about it. Vail Mountain has now moved their snow guns over to some green runs and Bear Tree. C. Ratz

11/23/07 Still cold outside and the weather people are calling for perhaps a couple of storms between Nov 27 - Dec 1. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Chair 15 opened for beginners with a large learning area at the top of the mountain. C. Ratz

11/24/07 Darn cold this morning, around 10 degrees. Great for making snow. In fact, they are making snow on lower Simba this morning. Sort of surprising that they are making it over there already. I would think it will take a lot of time to get that run open but who knows. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they work on some of the upper trails to get some top to bottom skiing. C. Ratz

11/25/07 I went up right away in the morning. Good groomed slopes. This is the key during early season when there are just a few ski runs available. They have the cat-walk going around to Chair 2 open.... Good for practicing the technique. Saw Mark Ulmschneider (owner of 517) and did 4 runs with them. Also saw Paul Green (owner of 416) Amazing how we could find some decent snow after the holiday weekend crowds. They were blowing snow on Pride, Simba, base of Chair 9 and on Columbine. It makes me think they are working on getting Chair 2 or Chair 9 open soon. You can tell they don't need much snow higher up or just a bit of snowmaking here and there to open more runs. Let's keep our fingers crossed. Chris R.

11/26/07 Snowing lightly outside from 9am-11:30am, not a lot but enough to make the runs soft. I took out the telli skis today and hooked up with Mark and Bernd from 517 again. Five quick runs before work. It was nice with less people on the runs after the holiday. Weather is calling for more snow on Wed and Sat perhaps. Just a foot of snow and ski runs will be open all over the place, but we need that foot. Chris R.

11/27/07 Got out on the mountain pretty late (3:00pm) but got three runs in before the lifts closed at 3:30pm. Certainly a bit icy this late in the day. They are blowing snow on Pride but still haven't opened any extra runs. I saw that someone has been skiing down Columbine near Chair 2 but it isn't open to the public. Not sure if Ski Patrol is working on the trail or what. Clouding up late in the day and they are calling for 2-4 inches tonight. I sure hope so since I have tomorrow morning off. Chris R.
11/28/07 New snow this morning and still snowing as of 10:30am. I did four quick runs. They said 4 inches up at Mid-Vail but there was probably 3 inches down in Lionshead and up on the top of Born Free lift. Nice to get soft snow again. Yellow Jacket guy said they were opening Chair 26 and the Pride ski run today but he didn't know what time. Columbine and Ledges are open from the top of the Gondola but you have to walk to the top of Chair 15 to get to those runs. They were blowing snow at the base of chair 2 (pic above). I still say we need 8 more inches before they can open the upper half. Buddy of mine said East Vail got 6 inches, so top of mountain probably received same. Sweet! Chris R.

11/29/07 They opened Pride and Chair 26. We now have top to bottom skiing from the gondola. They need to blow a bit more snow in a few spots on the Pride, but below Chair 26 (swinging down through lower Simba) the snow was excellent. Then I took the gondola up and walked over to Chair 15 (beginner) and skied Ledges all the way down. It was decent. But we still need a good slab of snow to come down. 4 inches at a time isn't quite doing it to build a base. They were blowing snow on lower Lodgepole so it looks like they are trying to get either Chair 2 open or the Vista Bahn lift for this weekend. Chris R.

11/30/07 I did my daily runs super early. Here's the scoop. Runs were groomed better and it is snowing over by Holy Cross mountain (as of 9:30am). We could see the storm clouds moving in from the South. Vail announced they are opening Chairs 2, 3, 4, 7 on Saturday tomorrow. Wow! My opinion is that it might be a bit thin up there but who knows. They are making a lot of snow and if we get the snow they are predicting, it might be pretty decent. Keep your fingers crossed. Chris R.