For me, the upgrade of the Orient Express is the most needed.. I'd also like to see the bottom of Poppyfields re-graded to eliminate the 1/2 mile of sidehill that funnels everyone over to the same small portion of the trail.
At 11:51 I think 6A was supposed to be an easier traverse to get to their planned restaurant in that area. Glad they aren't following through with the restaurant because it's honestly a pretty bad location and they could've just put it at the base of Skyline and Tea Cup with much better access from both directions. I imagine they won't actually be cutting 6A without a facility at the end of it. This video is super neat and I'm glad to see someone making a deep dive of the master plan. This was my first season in Colorado and I've only been to Vail on days with minimal lines but I can imagine some of the lift chokepoints are bad on peak days. It'll be interesting to see what they do with this!
A new mongolia lift would be great, however if it went to the top of benchmark you would have all sorts of people dropping into EV that wouldn't know what they are doing.
Make midvail a mid station for gondola 1, have it go up to patrol hq. Such an easy solution to chair 4 lines which a ton of people are only on cause they think it’s the only way to the bowls
Vail needs a summer single track climbing trail on the west side for hiking and mountain biking. They finished up the Mill Creek trail a year ago. But the summer trails all over need refurbishing and modernizing. Then there is Beaver Creek summer trail system. Arfff.
I think the Forest Service approved it from their end. They were going to build it a couple of years ago. But a consortium of rich second home owners in the Cascade area nimby’d it at the public meetings. Vail Resorts wants to shut down pedestrian access on the service roads in the summer. So they would have to allow it.
I think that Vail needs to replace Skyline and have the lift not go all the way to the top and stop like right by CJ glade or something. This would definitely stop them from needing to close it down from wind too. I find skyline incredibly frustrating to lap when you have to ski that traverse every time in order to get to the runs off of skyline. I am so disappointed none of that is a part of the plan.
I think the reason Skyline goes all the way up is for intermediates. So they would have to cut a blue from the top of CJ's to the bottom of Both Pete's and Earl's to make that plan viable.
@@SRGSkiing I would say don't bother cutting in blues, blue sky is for advanced/expert skiiers, not for beginners and intermediates. I also think the plan should be to stop skyline at where the trees end and then have a T-Bar that will take you the rest of the way up to Belle's Camp, then that way if people want to do a few runs on lovers leap or steep and deep, they don't have to detour to earls to do that.
Here's the thing--I think your plan is great. Management would not. And the reason why is that 40% of all skier visits to Vail are intermediate level skiers. That's the largest group, with advanced, expert, and beginner skiers being smaller percentages. As such, Vail would NEVER consider a project that wouldn't expand, much less REDUCE, their intermediate offerings. I love the idea, but unfortunately, knowing how the industry works, I can assure you that that will never happen.
@@SRGSkiing Well I think having a shorter skyline lift and a T-Bar to bring you to belle's camp would be the perfect solution. Then they don't have to close down Blue Sky because of wind. Or what about adding a mid-station to skyline so that the people who don't want to do the traverse can just get off at the mid-station. I get that they have a lot of intermediate skiiers, but they have the whole front and the back bowls where they have intermediate terrain, they can just leave blue sky for the expert skiiers and it would be better for us because there will be less lines there too.
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Some other things we missed in the video: Easier access to West Earl’s Bowl, Snowmaking along Game Creek Bowl Ridge
How would they accomplish that?
The earls bowl access
For me, the upgrade of the Orient Express is the most needed.. I'd also like to see the bottom of Poppyfields re-graded to eliminate the 1/2 mile of sidehill that funnels everyone over to the same small portion of the trail.
At 11:51 I think 6A was supposed to be an easier traverse to get to their planned restaurant in that area. Glad they aren't following through with the restaurant because it's honestly a pretty bad location and they could've just put it at the base of Skyline and Tea Cup with much better access from both directions. I imagine they won't actually be cutting 6A without a facility at the end of it.
This video is super neat and I'm glad to see someone making a deep dive of the master plan. This was my first season in Colorado and I've only been to Vail on days with minimal lines but I can imagine some of the lift chokepoints are bad on peak days. It'll be interesting to see what they do with this!
Really nice breakdown. Thanks for making this.
I really like the idea of the Riva Bahn getting to the backbowls.
Eagle Bahn regularly runs at 6 m/s, just the cabins are hard to fill. With its 50 cabins it only has a functional capacity of 2400 p/h.
More of these master plan videos! Maybe you could even branch out and do some sort of "fantasy master plan/upgrades wishlist" feature at some point.
Hmmm... maybe we should start a gameshow on that premise... with 8 episodes already in the schedule... with the first one being on July 5th... 😉🤫
Awesome breakdown! Could you make more videos analyzing other resorts’s master plans
We're fitting a few into the schedule, for sure!
A new mongolia lift would be great, however if it went to the top of benchmark you would have all sorts of people dropping into EV that wouldn't know what they are doing.
Make midvail a mid station for gondola 1, have it go up to patrol hq. Such an easy solution to chair 4 lines which a ton of people are only on cause they think it’s the only way to the bowls
Vail needs a summer single track climbing trail on the west side for hiking and mountain biking. They finished up the Mill Creek trail a year ago. But the summer trails all over need refurbishing and modernizing. Then there is Beaver Creek summer trail system. Arfff.
They ain’t gonna spend money to make it easier for people to not buy bike haul tickets
@@henrydegenry but “they” don’t own the mountain. “They” just rent the land in the winter months from the White River National Forest.
@@endoalley680 so you think the forest service gonna build it when there’s already access by climbing the fire roads?
I think the Forest Service approved it from their end. They were going to build it a couple of years ago. But a consortium of rich second home owners in the Cascade area nimby’d it at the public meetings. Vail Resorts wants to shut down pedestrian access on the service roads in the summer. So they would have to allow it.
@@endoalley680 interesting
Getting people to count to 6 was hard enough on Chair 4, now having them use 3 fingers on a second hand equals lifts stopping.
Always the human factor 😂
I think that Vail needs to replace Skyline and have the lift not go all the way to the top and stop like right by CJ glade or something. This would definitely stop them from needing to close it down from wind too. I find skyline incredibly frustrating to lap when you have to ski that traverse every time in order to get to the runs off of skyline. I am so disappointed none of that is a part of the plan.
I think the reason Skyline goes all the way up is for intermediates. So they would have to cut a blue from the top of CJ's to the bottom of Both Pete's and Earl's to make that plan viable.
@@SRGSkiing I would say don't bother cutting in blues, blue sky is for advanced/expert skiiers, not for beginners and intermediates. I also think the plan should be to stop skyline at where the trees end and then have a T-Bar that will take you the rest of the way up to Belle's Camp, then that way if people want to do a few runs on lovers leap or steep and deep, they don't have to detour to earls to do that.
Here's the thing--I think your plan is great. Management would not. And the reason why is that 40% of all skier visits to Vail are intermediate level skiers. That's the largest group, with advanced, expert, and beginner skiers being smaller percentages. As such, Vail would NEVER consider a project that wouldn't expand, much less REDUCE, their intermediate offerings. I love the idea, but unfortunately, knowing how the industry works, I can assure you that that will never happen.
@@SRGSkiing Well I think having a shorter skyline lift and a T-Bar to bring you to belle's camp would be the perfect solution. Then they don't have to close down Blue Sky because of wind. Or what about adding a mid-station to skyline so that the people who don't want to do the traverse can just get off at the mid-station. I get that they have a lot of intermediate skiiers, but they have the whole front and the back bowls where they have intermediate terrain, they can just leave blue sky for the expert skiiers and it would be better for us because there will be less lines there too.
Yeah, I would love to see that. Management just wouldn''t, trust me.
Weird they are so concerned about lines in lionshead when you can literally walk on to chair 8 at anytime even on Saturday
It's more of the age of both lifts than the lines, but it is kinda nice having that secret go-to.
@@SRGSkiing yeah, got stuck on 8 for over 10 mins multiple times this season
so is all of the going to be developed this year or is it more for the next few years?
Assuming that all of this even happens in the first place, these projects will be built over the next several years.
@@SRGSkiingI can’t wait for that new Mongolia lift. That is an awesome little spot back there and the Silk Road catwalk sucks.
I really hope they never make pete's stash inbounds.
I hope so too
Are we supposed to hear about that?
It's written in the master plan somewhere... some technical jargon about their special use permit
0:24 Vail Lift Lines