I don’t think I can adequately express what an incredible day it is when the ski mountain in your town opens.

I have been thinking about Vail mountain almost nonstop ever since I moved to the town of Vail in August. When off-season hit in October, the mountain loomed larger. When we got our first tiny little snows, I started dreaming about skiing. I drove 40 miles to Breckenridge and Arapahoe Basin on two separate days last week just to try and scratch the itch. The skiing was OK. It was nothing like today.

 Today, November 21, 2014, was opening day for Vail Resort.

I woke up at 8 a.m. and jumped on my girlfriend while yelling “OPENING DAY!” Somehow I didn’t get kicked. We leisurely made breakfast and got dressed for the day. We walked a few hundred feet to the nearby free bus stop, and rode a bus full of excited skiers and riders to the mountain. We arrived around 10 a.m. to an almost non-existent line at the base. The lift attendant pointed a RFID reader in our vicinity, and we were headed up. I can’t even explain THE FUCKING CONVENIENCE.

Vail Opening Day Conditions Report

The conditions for Vail’s opening day 2014 were all that you could ask for. Multiple skiers and boarders stopped us on the mountain to incredulously ask “Can you believe it’s this good on opening day?!” There was powder aplenty on the higher sections of the mountain, which is a real rarity on opening day at a ski resort.

Seven lifts were open:

• Gondola One out of Vail Village
• Eagle Bahn Gondola out of Lionshead Village
• Avanti Express
• Born Free Express
• Little Eagle
• Wildwood Express
• Lionshead Carpet beginner surface lift

VAIL CONDITIONS UPDATE DECEMBER 1, 2014: The Vail back bowls have begun to open for the 2014 ski season. The Sun Up Bowl and Sun Down Bowl are both open, with word coming from Vail Resorts that the China Bowl will be open soon! Get out there and make some trails in the Legendary Vail Back Bowls!

The full list of what ski runs are open on Vail can be found here.

The lower runs were fairly trafficked and icy. The trails down to the Vail Village Gondola One (which has wifi and heated leather seats, jesus) and the Eagle Bahn Gondola were all-bad, not-good, practically no fun. Transitioning out of some edge-of-run powder onto these groomers made me wince involuntarily, more than once.

All said though, conditions on the mountain were great. If you are considering paying a visit to Vail for opening weekend, I would aim to come on Sunday, as there’s a big storm which is supposed to start dumping on the Vail Ski Area around the end of the ski day on Saturday. Sunday should be a powder day, if there is any luck with us here on Vail opening weekend.

Luckily, I don’t have to make those sorts of decisions. If you don’t know already, let me tell you: commuting to ski is the absolute worst thing you will find yourself unable to stop doing. Short of cocaine.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive I-70

I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. Boulder’s a great town, and relatively close to the mountains. When you live in Boulder and want to go skiing, here’s what you do:

1. Pack all of your gear into the car on Friday night, and go to bed as early as physiology will allow.
2. Wake incredibly early on Saturday morning— up way before physiology will allow.
3. Brew three thermoses of coffee to try and overcome your unavoidable grogginess.
4. Get in the car and start driving before the coffee’s even cool enough to drink
5. Spend three hours in traffic up, because apparently even though you hit the road at 5:45 a.m., everyone else got an earlier start than you. Also none of them know how to drive in snow. Interstate-70’s 70 mph speed limit becomes a cruel joke.
6. You really need a bathroom because you drank all that coffee but there’s no fucking way you’re getting off the highway.
7. You finally arrive at your resort, where hopefully you don’t have to pay for parking.
8. You pay $70-$120 for a life ticket, depending on where you’re going.
9. You rush to the slopes, ski until last chair to make the interminable drive worth it
10. Get in your car at 4, absolutely exhausted.
11. Sit in traffic for four hours getting home (assuming there are no road closures or accidents)
12. Hate your life/ wish you were still skiing

It’s horrid. People from out of state tend to ask “Oh, you’re from Colorado? Do you guys like ski and snowboard every day?” No. No we don’t because I-70 is where souls go to die.

Living in a ski town

None of that is an issue when you’re living in a ski town. I cannot overstate how much of a difference this makes.

We took a bus into town, got to the mountain late, left early, and were out only $5 for a coffee break. Not that this is normal for Vail (as I’ve discussed before, Vail is very good at making you spend money), but it’s also totally possible.

Living in a ski town is awesome. Period. Full stop.