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Snow continues as rumors swirl around opening of Back Bowls at Vail

More storms in forecast ahead of World Cup ski-racing action at Beaver Creek

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November 24, 2018, 7:55 am
nick on ben's face

Nick Williams drops a rock on Ben’s Face at Vail on Friday.

Editor’s note: Sun Up Bowl opened on Saturday morning, Nov. 24, with both Chair 5 and Chair 9 cranking up. Heavy snow started pounding the Vail Valley at about 12:15 p.m. on Saturday, followed soon after by the closure of eastbound Interstate 70 at Vail Pass at 12:48 p.m. Also, Mikaela Shiffrin finished just off the podium in fourth in Saturday’s GS in Killington, Vt.

All the talk in the lift lines at Vail on Friday – a soft and snowy day after Thanksgiving – was of a potential rope-drop on the Back Bowls over the weekend. Rumors, some of them anonymously substantiated by mountain ops workers, focused on the possibility of Sun Up and Sun Down bowls opening either today (Saturday, Nov. 24) or, more likely, on Sunday.

Quick point of comparison, parts of the Back Bowls opened for the first time last season on Jan. 12.

But now, helped by a half a foot of new snow since Thanksgiving night, Vail Mountain is in excellent early-season shape. Light snowfall was continuing Saturday morning and expected to carry on into Sunday. At Beaver Creek, that meant the opening of Rose Bowl on Friday, with more terrain likely to open in time for World Cup ski racing festivities next week.

“Storm #2 is moving through Colorado on Saturday and bringing periods of very heavy snow to the northern and central mountains,” Opensnow.com meteorologist Sam Collentine wrote Saturday morning. “Cold temps and lingering snow early Sunday morning will be followed by dry conditions through Tuesday. We’re back in business on Wednesday, with additional chances for snow through next weekend.”

That, of course, means weather will no doubt be a factor for the Birds of Prey men’s World Cup races at Beaver Creek, which get under way with downhill training runs starting Tuesday, Nov. 27. The main events kick off on Friday with a super-G, followed by Saturday’s downhill and Sunday’s giant slalom. For the full schedule of events, go to the Vail Valley Foundation website.

But that’s next week. The men are at Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada this weekend, and the women face the Beast of the East starting today (Saturday, Nov. 24) at Killington, Vermont. Look for EagleVail’s Mikaela Shiffrin to add to her top-five all-time win total with another victory at Killington either in today’s GS or Sunday’s slalom – or possibly both.

Then the following weekend, the men come to Beaver Creek and the women will be at Lake Louise, minus Vail’s Lindsey Vonn, who has dominated on that course but is out due to a bum knee sustained in a recent crash. It was Vonn’s best chance to pick up some early wins in her final-season quest to break Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time victory record of 86.

On Nov. 20 Vonn tweeted: “Yesterday I crashed training Super-G and hurt my knee. The good news; I do NOT need surgery. The bad news; I won’t be able to race in Lake Louise. LL has always been my favorite stop on the WC and I am devastated to not be coming this year.I am down but I am NOT out! #nevergiveup.”

Then on Thanksgiving Vonn tweeted, in part: “Finally, with my latest crash I am again reminded of how lucky I am to do what I love and to have such a great team around me to help pick me back up…again!”

Vonn already holds the all-time women’s World Cup victory record with 82, and as an Olympic downhill gold medalist and four-time overall champion, she has nothing left to prove in the sport. Consider this: Shiffrin is fifth on the all-time list with 44 … and she’s 38 wins behind Vonn. As Shiffrin goes for her third straight overall title, here’s another fun fact: Vail Valley ski racers (Vonn and Shiffrin) have won six of the last 10 overall titles!

On the men’s side, Austria’s Marcel Hirscher is chasing a little history of his own, coming into Beaver Creek next week looking to become only the second male ski racer to amass 60 career wins – still a full 26 behind Stenmark but good for second on the all-time list. Park City’s Ted Ligety sits 14th on that list, with 25 career wins, which is just three spots behind legendary countryman Phil Mahre, who’s in 11th all-time with 27 career wins.

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.

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