Vail has a rich and vigorous history, one that has often placed it on the leading edge of change. Earl Eaton and Pete Seibert purchased the Hanson Ranch in 1957, and that land became what is now Vail. Vail opened Colorado’s first gondola in 1961 and established the first quartet of high-speed quad ski lifts in 1985.
In the past 50 years Vail Village and Vail Mountain have undergone dramatic growth, serving to take Vail to the international prominence and elite status it now enjoys. Vail Ski Resort is a ski resort in the western United States, located near the town of Vail in Eagle County, Colorado. With more than 5,289 acres (8.3 mi2; 21.4 km2) and an average snowfall that has averaged 360 inches (30 ft; 9 m) during the last thirty years, Vail is regarded as one of the best combinations of terrain and dependable snow in the country, often ranking No. 1.
Vail Mountain has three sections: The Front-Side, Blue Sky Basin, and the Back Bowls. Most of the resort is wide open terrain with all types of trails. Vail Village is modeled on Bavarian village styles, with pedestrian streets.
Map of Vail Ski Resort
Construction of the resort began in the then-uninhabited valley in 1962, and it opened six months later on December 15. There were originally three lifts, including one gondola that ran from Vail Village to Mid-Vail on the line where Gondola One operates.
Read also: Your Visit to the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater
By the early 1970s, the construction of Interstate 70 from Vail to Denver was mostly completed, replacing US Route 6. The opening of the Eisenhower Tunnel in 1973 (north bore, now westbound) provided easier access from Denver to ski resorts like Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, and Vail. Also in the mid-1970s, President Gerald Ford and family continued to vacation at their Vail home, bringing it international exposure.
Later, Vail Village was expanded. A new plaza was opened at Vail Village in 2008. On February 27, 2010, one of the original black diamond trails into Vail Village, International, was renamed Lindsey's to honor Vail's Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn.
To mark Vail's 60th anniversary, the 2022-2023 season saw Leitner-Poma construct two new high speed chairlifts.
Traditions and Transformations in Vail Village
With the evolution of the area there are a few traditions in Vail that remain intact: Vail has again secured the No. 1 ranking in ski magazine. But the inevitable march of change continues to show its face throughout Vail Village.
There are many transformations that are proposed, underway, or already complete, each making its individual mark on the complexion of the town. One big change that occurred this year is not such a visible one. moved its headquarters to Broomfield, outside of Denver. However, most of the changes in Vail Village are easily observable.
Read also: Comprehensive Vail Resorts Overview
Certainly the most controversial and hotly contested project was the Village’s central compound of Crossroads. The Crossroads debate is finally over; the voters spoke and Solaris, the redevelopment of Crossroads, is to become a reality. Originally built in 1968, the building will be torn down in the spring of 2007 with completion of the complex planned for summer of 2009.
One Willow Bridge Road, located in the town’s center across from Crossroads, is scheduled for completion by the end of April 2007. Unique among the larger, new projects, One Willow Bridge Road is exclusively owner-occupied. The complex includes 10 whole ownership residences and 12 fractional units.
The long-standing, prestigious Sonnenalp Resort of Vail greatly expanded its hotel, added retail space, the Swiss Chalet restaurant, and underground parking. Tivoli Lodge, on Hanson Ranch Road next to the Vista Bahn ski lift, was scraped and rebuilt.
Also next to the Vista Bahn lift a mountain-front building will be erected, the Vail Mountain Club. A new Skier Services and Plaza center is also underway at the base of the Vista Bahn lift. In the same vicinity, the 11,600-square-foot, mountainfront Avanyu Spa will be built on to The Lodge at Vail.
Manor Vail north of Golden Peak will add an additional floor and connect all four of its buildings, creating an additional 17 privately owned condominiums. Two levels of underground parking will also be added.
Read also: Vail Ski Club Benefits
Four Seasons Resort and Residences-Vail will be located at the gateway to Vail Village, formerly occupied by the Holiday Inn and long-standing Alpine Standard gas station, and will offer both a resort and residential facility. There are also fractional ownership opportunities in the Residence Club. Also located at the gateway to Vail Village is the new Vail Plaza Club with its unique “fixed ownership” concept.
Sweet Basil restaurant has received a facelift on its entire façade, which has included a large expansion and remodel of the dining area. La Bottega restaurant has also expanded its space once again to accommodate dining demand.
This year Vail Village saw countless upgrades, remodels, and additions; demolition and rebuilding; incoming and outgoing businesses. It’s the “New Dawn,” Vail taking on the new millennium with gusto; and like it or not, ready or not, here it comes.
The Disney Connection
It’s an era of outdoor recreation history that has long intrigued Coloradans, though much of Disney’s interest in the Rocky Mountains has faded from public memory. “Months of research by highly specialized people have shown us that this is one of the fastest growing areas in the United States,” Disney said during a 1959 visit to Denver.
It was being called Disney’s first business venture in Colorado, but that wasn’t exactly true. By the 1960s, as his bowling alley was opening, Disney was likely interested in another business in Colorado, as well - the ski business.
Disney struck up a friendship with the legendary University of Denver Ski Team coach Willy Schaeffler, who was director of ski events at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics, where Disney had been in charge of pageantry. Disney had been interested in skiing since the 1930s, when he provided a few thousand dollars of startup capital for the Sugar Bowl ski area in California, and long dreamed of opening a ski resort of his own.
At some point in the 1950s, Disney had seen Aspen Ski School Director Fred Iselin’s film “Little Skier’s Big Day,” which was filmed in Aspen by Bob Murri and starred 5-year-old Susie Wirth, also of Aspen. Disney bought the film and adapted it into “Fantasy on Skis,” which aired on Disney’s “Wonderful World of Color” television series to an audience of 40 million people on Feb.
Later that year, Disney visited the Celebrity Sports Center and then took a cruise west on Highway 6, stopping in Vail on his way to Aspen. But Willy Schaeffler had also been scouting a few ski areas for Disney, and wasn’t hot on Vail. A Sports Illustrated article, published in 1962, quoted Schaeffler saying, “Vail has the vertical drop - 2,700 feet - but I’m not sure it has the steepness, the sharp concave terrain features that challenge really fine skiers.
Disney was fond of Aspen, visiting for nearly a month in the winter of 1963. His visit was covered by the Aspen Times Weekly, which wrote in the Feb. 15, 1963 edition, “Local pilots have been ogling the beautiful Beechcraft ‘Queenaire’ which arrived at the Aspen Airport last Saturday bringing Mr. The seller had likely learned - possibly from the Aspen Times’ coverage of Disney’s visit - that he had a high-profile buyer with deep pockets, and raised his price.
As his company was buying up land in Florida, Disney and Schaeffler had also settled on the Mineral King Valley in California for Disney’s ski resort project, purchasing land there, as well. But Disney had already developed terminal lung cancer by the time he recorded that message, and he was dead by the end of 1966. His company tried to maintain his commitment to creating the Mineral King ski area throughout the 1970s, but was unsuccessful.
In the 1980s, the legendary Disney leadership duo of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, who led the company’s creative and financial renaissance, began in Vail. Wells, who owned a residence in Vail, later helped usher in a Vail-Disney partnership, as Vail signed a licensing agreement with Disney in 1986 to use Disney’s Sport Goofy character to promote children’s skiing.
The announcement came just two weeks after Vail and Disney had announced another partnership where Disneyland would be used as a venue to promote Vail vacations. Disney awarded 25 free trips to Vail per day at the park every day from Nov. 28 to Dec.
Vail Associates president Mike Shannon and Sport Goofy shared ribbon cutting duties at the grand opening of the Golden Peak Children's Ski Center in Jan. Vail local Brian Hall, who had been hired to stage children’s theater plays in the plaza at Beaver Creek at the time, said Disney “provided the costume and invited him to attend mascot school at Disneyland, where, after shadowing Mickey and Minnie, they suited up themselves and made the rounds of the park,” according to a 2014 Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine story.
“As the story goes, (Gillette and Wells) rode up the chairlift and decided, ‘We’ve got to do something together,'” Hall said. “Children ski through a magical forest with talking animals near Gitchegumee Gulch, through Indian Burial Grounds, through the gates of old West Ft. Whippersnapper and down a re-created mine shaft at Devil`s Fork Mine,” the Chicago Tribune reported in 1989.
Vail and Beaver Creek made Disney-themed trail maps to coincide with these adventures, depicting Sport Goofy skiing around in the kids’ areas. The Sport Goofy deal lasted until 1994, and while it was expiring, another Vail-Disney partnership was budding.
“This has zero to do with the theme parks,” East West Partners’ president Harry Frampton told the Vail Trail in 1995. But the Beaver Creek metro district’s planning board wanted more control than the Disney developers were willing to offer, and Disney sold the plans to another corporation, Hyatt.
“Disney and Vail Associates worked very hard to get this project together,” Bowker said. But the headline that’s probably the most memorable from the affair stated otherwise.
Enjoy reminiscing about the old village, enjoy the enhancements of the new village, and most of all enjoy the holidays in a place like no where else in the world - enjoy the holidays in Vail!
Shane Macomber/Vail DailyALL |
Timeline: Vail - Everything that's made Vail what it is today
Future Development
In 1972 the White River National Forest analyzed the terrain surrounding Vail to determine ski area feasibility of the greater regional area and identify additional opportunities for public parking and access to National Forest lands between Vail Pass and Lake Creek above Edwards. The investigation was stimulated by the planned construction of Interstate 70 over Vail Pass, or alternative Red Buffalo Corridor, and the awarding of the 1976 Winter Olympics to Denver by the International Olympic Committee in 1970 with the showcase downhill event later planned for the yet undeveloped Beaver Creek ski area.
New parking areas on Shrine Pass, Battle Mountain, Meadow Mountain, Minturn, Stone Creek, Avon, and Lake Creek were identified as development sites, base areas, and potential new skier entrance portals. Integration of Vail Ski Resort, including Blue Sky Basin, with skiing terrain on Battle Mountain, Grouse Mountain, Meadow Mountain, Stone Creek, Beaver Creek, and Lake Creek were analyzed and considered physically feasible as an integrated mega-resort with multiple portals.
The 2002 Revision of the 1984 Land and Resource Management Plan Forest plans, White River National Forest, Chapter 3-Management Area Direction, 8.25 Ski areas - Existing and Potential, pages 3-80 through 3-8, and 8.31 Aerial Transportation Corridors, page 3-84, establishes long-term planning direction for Vail Ski Resort.
The theme of an 8.31 aerial transportation corridor designation is to serve the principal purpose of transporting people to, from, and within communities, and ski areas. The theme of an 8.25 land allocation is to allow ski areas on federal lands to be developed and operated by the private sector to provide opportunities for intensively managed outdoor recreation activities during all seasons of the year.