Vail Valley Blog

So how was YOUR season?

With just a handful of days left in March and only two weeks of season in April, visitors are leaving, and those of us who are planted here are getting excited about summer, and the sports we take up in lieu of snow shredding: hiking, biking, fishing, boating, bird watching, and view seeking just to name a few. Some locals find that the relaxed, glowing days of summer are preferable to the snowy, bleak winter days where snow no longer means that school is closed or work is skipped. Colorado is definitely its own brand of heaven around this time, and “summer vacation” for many, is this time after the season, in April and May, before the golden days really set in.

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WOOha! Vail announces next-season unrestricted pass for less than $600

Its an epic season by weather standards here in Colorado, but with the warming temperatures and the end of the calendar appearing not too far off, Vail Company is clearly thinking very far ahead. In fact, Vail has come up with its most perfect offering ever for the upcoming ‘08-’09 season, and if you are one of Vail’s most loyal customers, or want to be one, the resort company has just opened up its pearly gates with you in mind, with the Epic Pass
Continue reading WOOha! Vail announces next-season unrestricted pass for less than $600…

Subprime mortgage execs foiled - from Beaver Creek

You may have heard about the Countrywide Mortgage executive ski trip to Bachelor Gulch being canceled due to ridicule of their bad and unethical decisions- including the one to fire 11,000 employees yet provide a ski trip to 30 executives that could cost well over $1000 a day per person:

From The New York Times:

The company was to pay for 30 invited guests’ hotel rooms, meals, skiing and tips.


In the statement, the company said that “in light of recent events” it had decided to cancel all gatherings with business partners and clients for the rest of the year, moving quickly after being criticized for planning such an extravagant event.


The three-night gathering, which was to include business meetings as well as skiing, drinking and sampling expensive meals like $140 caviar and Kurobuta pork osso bucco at the Spago restaurant, had already drawn negative press. “Let ’Em Eat Kobe Steak,” a headline in The New York Post sneered on Saturday.


Countrywide has held the gathering every year for its correspondent lenders, which make the loans and sell them to the company. And companies treating business partners to high-priced junkets is nothing new in the corporate world.


But this year’s event coincides with a continued crisis in the mortgage markets. Default rates are skyrocketing. Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage company, has foreclosed on about 90,000 loans so far. Banks have called for intervention from the federal government to prevent a wider housing crisis.

Undoubtedly neither the Ritz nor Spago will miss them, as they field calls daily to deny availability for the busiest-of-the-year month of March. But Denver Post blogger Al Lewis had a particularly interesting take on how to make everybody happy: Continue reading Subprime mortgage execs foiled - from Beaver Creek…

Spring Break Special: Learn to Snowboard

Spring in the Vail Valley is newly undeniable- the skies are friendly and daily temperatures crest above 32 Farenheight. Spring break must be just around the corner. With so many new riders out there, we made a little video showing you what you might expect from your first couple of days. Oh right, and its okay to laugh at us. For sure.

Thank you to Venture Sports, who totally set us up for a couple of awesome days with their amazing knowledge and friendly service, and to Bobby from Beaver Creek Ski School for teaching us everything we learned. We had a blast!

Vail announces record snowfall

As it snows all textures out my window right now, I remember the following announcement that hit my inbox earlier today from Vail:

MORE THAN 24 FEET OF SNOW SEASON-TO-DATE AT VAIL

*Vail has received more snow since Dec. 1 than any other year in its history - 244 inches since Dec. 1, which is more snow than any other year in its history.


With more than 24 feet of snow so far this season, guests at Vail have been enjoying some of the best powder skiing conditions in recent memory. It’s not just the quantity of snowfall - it’s also the frequency and timing of the storms. The snowfall at Vail hit at the perfect time of the season, just before the December holidays and has continued to fall ever since.


In fact, it snowed 24 of the 31 days in January at Vail, the highest number of January snow days in seven years.

Continue reading Vail announces record snowfall…