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Vail Ski Resort

Home / Ski Resorts / Vail Ski Resort

Vail Ski Resort is a ski area located in the state of Colorado in USA. The resort is in the town of Vail, CO.

We recently ranked all of Colorado's ski resorts, so you can see where Vail stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Season Passes

Vail is a part of the Epic Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one season pass, and ski at most of the Vail owned and operated slopes with it throughout the year. There are a handful of types of Epic lift ticket passes available, ranging from 3-7 days, to season-long.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Vail around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Vail Mountain Resort Terrain Overview

Vail has a total of 195 ski trails, which are serviced by 31 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 5,317 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 2,152 hectares, 8.3 square miles, or 21.5 square kilometers.

Vail's slopes see on average 354 inches (10.8 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 29 feet every year!

Trails
Total Runs
195
Ski Lift
Lifts
31
Skier
Skiable Acres
5,317(22 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
354"(10,790 cm)

Vail Ski Resort Elevation

Vail Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 11,570 feet, or 3,526 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 8,120 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 3,450 feet (1,052 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

The summit of 11,570 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
11,570'(3,526 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
3,450'(1,052 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
8,120'(2,475 m)

Vail Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
76.8out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Vail is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, with a difficulty score of 76.8. This mountain ranks in the top 10% of most-difficult ski resorts in all of North America, mostly due to the fact that it has 53% of its trails rated as expert-level, and a vertical drop of 3,450 feet.

 DID YOU KNOW?

At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.

Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.

Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level

Vail has 5,317 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Seeing as Vail is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, it's no surprise that over 82% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level. This leaves only 18% of its skiable acres as beginner terrain.
Green Circle
Beginner
18%(957 acres)

Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.

Blue Square
Intermediate
29%(1,542 acres)

Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.

Black Diamond
Expert
53%(2,818 acres)

Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.

Is Vail Ski Resort good for beginners?

This is one of the hardest ski areas in the country to ski at, so it is not great for beginners. Vail Ski Resort ranks in the top 10% of the most-difficult ski resorts in the country. It has 53% of its trails rated as expert, or black-diamond level.

Vail Ski Resort Location

Vail Ski Resort is located in the state of Colorado, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Vail, CO.

Address:
Vail, CO 81657 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
vail.com

GPS Coordinates:
39.64000, -106.36000

Getting to Vail Mountain Resort

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Vail Ski Resort), its coordinates of 39.64000, -106.36000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Vail, CO to get close.

By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.

A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Vail Ski Resort.

NameCodeCityDistance
Denver International AirportDENDenver, CO91 mi

A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Vail.

NameCodeCityDistance
Eagle County Regional AirportEGEEagle, CO30 mi
Aspen-Pitkin Co/Sardy FieldASEAspen, CO40 mi
City of Colorado Springs Municipal AirportCOSColorado Springs, CO106 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Vail Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.

Other Nearby Ski Resorts

Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Vail Ski Resort.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Beaver CreekBeaver Creek, CO11,440 ft62%9 mi
Copper MountainFrisco, CO12,313 ft66%16 mi
Ski CooperLeadville, CO11,700 ft42%20 mi
BreckenridgeBreckenridge, CO12,998 ft82%20 mi
KeystoneDillon, CO12,408 ft69%22 mi
Loveland Ski AreaDillon, CO13,010 ft63%25 mi
Ski Granby RanchGranby, CO9,202 ft30%36 mi
Winter Park ResortWinter Park, CO12,060 ft72%36 mi
Aspen Mountain Ski ResortAspen, CO11,212 ft79%40 mi
Aspen Highlands Ski ResortAspen, CO11,675 ft93%41 mi
Aspen SnowmassSnowmass Village, CO12,510 ft86%44 mi
Echo Mountain ResortIdaho Springs, CO10,650 ft27%45 mi
EldoraNederland, CO10,800 ft48%47 mi
SunlightGlenwood Springs, CO9,895 ft51%55 mi
Crested ButteCrested Butte, CO12,162 ft74%63 mi
Howelsen Hill Ski AreaSeamboat Springs, CO7,136 ft44%63 mi
MonarchSalida, CO11,952 ft51%76 mi
ButtermilkLarkspur, CO9,900 ft47%82 mi
Arapahoe Basin Ski AreaDillon, CO13,050 ft76%84 mi
SteamboatClark, CO10,568 ft77%86 mi

Vail Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation11,570 ft
Base Elevation8,120 ft
Vertical Drop3,450 ft
Trails195
(18% Beginner,  29% Intermediate,  53% Expert)
Lifts31
Skiable Acres5,317
Avg. Annual Snowfall354 inches
Vail Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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