Vail Mountain has 5,317 skiable acres, the most of any resort in Colorado and, behind Big Sky, the second-largest single-mountain ski resort in North America. That is the figure on Vail's mountain-statistics page; you will also see 5,289 on the Town of Vail's welcome page and "approximately 5,300" in Vail Resorts' annual report, all describing the same mountain.
Vail Mountain's terrain numbers
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Skiable terrain | 5,317 acres |
| Trails | 278 |
| Lifts | 32 |
| Top elevation | 11,570 ft (3,527 m) |
| Base elevation | 8,120 ft (2,454 m) |
| Average snowfall | 354 inches (899 cm) |
| Longest run | 4 miles (Riva Ridge) |
| Terrain split | 18 percent beginner, 29 percent intermediate, 53 percent advanced |
The percentages are Vail's own classification, and more than half the mountain is rated advanced. That still leaves 47 percent at beginner or intermediate level, so the acreage alone says little about how hard a day will be. The trail map matters more than the total, and how high Vail is has the elevation detail behind the top and base figures.
Where the acres are
The Back Bowls hold just over half the mountain. They are seven bowls with 2,785 skiable acres and 47 trails, and the acreage is not evenly spread among them.
| Bowl | Acres |
|---|---|
| Sun Down Bowl | 625 |
| China Bowl | 601 |
| Sun Up Bowl | 475.2 |
| Inner and Outer Mongolia Bowls | 470 |
| Siberia Bowl | 336 |
| Tea Cup Bowl | 277 |
Sun Down and China are the two largest, and the two Mongolia bowls, listed together, are the remote, low-angle end of the group, reached by the Orient Express Lift and a traverse to the Mongolia Platter. Blue Sky Basin and Game Creek Bowl are not among the seven. Blue Sky Basin, the far zone of the mountain, added 645 acres when it opened in January 2000, after a 1990s growth agreement between the Town of Vail, Vail Resorts and the Forest Service (the Town of Vail's history page covers that agreement). Subtracting the bowls and Blue Sky from the total leaves roughly 1,900 acres for the front side above Vail Village and Lionshead, Game Creek Bowl and everything else.
The guides to how hard the Back Bowls are and which chairs serve each bowl go bowl by bowl, and how to reach Blue Sky Basin from Vail Village covers the trip to the far zone.
Skiable acres are not the permit area
Vail Resorts' annual report for the year ended July 31, 2025 describes the land Vail Mountain operates on under its Forest Service permit as 12,353 acres. The permit area is set aside for ski trails, lifts, buildings and other improvements, so it is a different measurement from skiable terrain. The same report calls Vail Mountain the second most visited mountain resort in the United States for the 2024/25 season.
Choosing among Colorado mountains
Size is one factor among several when comparing Vail with its neighbors. The Vail versus Breckenridge comparison and Beaver Creek versus Vail set it next to other differences, and how much lift tickets cost covers the price of a day on the mountain.
