Vail ski resort · slopes, lifts & elevation

Vail is a ski area in Eagle-Vail, Colorado, the United States. Its 322 mapped downhill runs add up to 215 km, which ranks it #3 of 960 ski areas in the United States and gives it 2.2% of all the country's slopes. The average run is about 668 m long.

Slopes at Vail

About 25% of the slopes are beginner or easy runs, 37% intermediate and 39% advanced or expert, which makes Vail best suited to confident and advanced skiers. 29.7 km (14%) of the runs have snowmaking, which helps early and late in the season.

Lifts and elevation

The resort has 32 lifts: 20 chairlifts, 6 magic carpets, 3 button lifts, 2 gondolas, 1 t-bar. Most of them are chairlifts or gondolas, so you ride seated. Skiing runs from 2,451 m up to 3,525 m, a vertical drop of 1,074 m — the kind of long descents found in big Alpine-style resorts. The high top station usually means reliable snow well into spring.

Getting to Vail

The nearest airport is Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE), about 47 km away in a straight line — roughly 1 h 2 min by car; Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE) is 62 km away. Nearby ski areas include Beaver Creek (167.3 km), Copper Mountain (115.0 km), Frisco Nordic Center and Ski Cooper (32.4 km), which together add 426 km of slopes for a multi-resort trip.