There are cruising runs accessible from most front side and Blue Sky Basin lifts, as well as the wide open Back Bowls, glades, and chutes.

Vail has the fourth-largest area of skiable terrain in North America after Whistler Blackcomb, Park City Mountain Resort, and Big Sky.

Vail Ski Resort was founded 63 years ago in 1962 by Earl Eaton, Pete Seibert, Harley Higbie, and others.

[6] During World War II, Massachusetts native Seibert joined the U.S. Army's Tenth Mountain Division which trained at Camp Hale, fourteen miles (23 km) south of Vail, between Red Cliff and Leadville.

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.

[11][12] However, Colorado voters denied funding by a 3:2 ratio that November,[13][14] and the games were relocated to Innsbruck in Austria, which had recently hosted in 1964.

In 1976, a gondola cable snagged on a support tower on Friday, March 26, and two cabins derailed, killing four people and injuring eight.

[15][16][17] The gondola was closed for the remainder of the season, and trading in stock of the ski resort's parent company was temporarily suspended.

In the late 1990s, Vail decided to carry out a terrain expansion known as Category III, later renamed Blue Sky Basin.

In protest of the expansion, the Earth Liberation Front set fire to Two Elk Lodge, Camp One, Patrol Headquarters, and four chairlifts in October 1998, causing US$12 million in damage.

In 1999, Blue Sky Basin, an intermediate-expert back-country area with moguls, tree skiing, cliffs, glades, and ridges, directly across a creek from the Orient Express lift, opened.

The following winter, a fourth high-speed quad, Pete's Express (#39), was opened, and an additional four trails on the east side of the Basin were added.

[21] In summer 2007, after seven years without a new chairlift, Vail undertook a lift-upgrade project on the East Front Side, as Leitner-Poma built two new high-speed quads.

It services several long mogul runs on the east part of the Front Side, and is also one of the less-crowded sections of the mountain due to its remote location.

It services a small pod of beginner trails, but is also used by regular skier traffic to move from Patrol Headquarters to the China Bowl and Blue Sky Basin.

to alleviate lines at the Northwoods Express lift by providing an alternative route for advanced and expert skiers finishing their time in Blue Sky Basin and the China Bowl to return to the Front Side.

The Tenth, built between the Wildwood Express and the Mid-Vail facility, is named for the famed US Army division that trained nearby and several Vail founders once belonged.

The first to go would be the Vista Bahn Express, which as part of Vail's 50th anniversary celebration was replaced by a Leitner-Poma ten person gondola.

The Mountaintop Express was the first detachable chairlift in the western United States to use a conveyor belt at the loading area, a system that is widely used at European ski resorts, shown to cut down on stops and slows, shortening the ride time (several more six packs built at Vail Resorts properties around the same time would include a loading carpet, including the Colorado SuperChair at Breckenridge in 2014, the King Con Express at Park City Mountain Resort in 2015, and Vail's own Avanti Express lift).

The fun park at Eagle's Nest was also expanded with the addition of a new zipline canopy tour in Game Creek Bowl, and the construction of an alpine coaster to the west of the Pride Express lift.

In exchange for the use of National Forest system lands the resort pays an annual fee to the U.S. Treasury amounting to about one dollar per skier visit.

The federal government supports the objective of providing healthy recreation opportunities in quality natural outdoor environments.

Reference: Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36: Parks, Forests, and Public Property, Part 251—Land Uses, § 251.51 Definitions.

[32] 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.

Twenty-eight ski lifts were planned for Grouse Mountain above Minturn, which was rated comparable to Snowmass in overall size and capacity with significant amount of terrain in the intermediate category with good snowfall.

Findings were presented to William Lucas, Rocky Mountain Regional Forester, by Thomas Evans, Forest Supervisor, and Erik J. Martin, professional landscape architect, lead member of the Blue Ribbon study committee for ski area planning feasibility, and program manager for ski area administration.

The opportunity to provide developed alpine skiing on Grouse Mountain was eliminated from future consideration with the establishment of the Holy Cross Wilderness in 1980.

Ski areas provide winter sports activities and other intensively managed outdoor recreation opportunities for large numbers of national and international visitors in highly developed settings.