Vail's Back Bowls have no road and no trailhead of their own. You ride up from Vail Village or Lionshead, connect across the mountain and reach each bowl by a particular chair, so the chair numbers work as the directions. The seven bowls cover 2,785 skiable acres and 47 trails; the table below matches each bowl to its chairs and to the runs that show how it connects.
From the villages to the bowl chairs
Start at Gondola One in Vail Village, or in Lionshead at the Eagle Bahn Gondola (#19) or Born Free Express (Chair 8, winter only). The villages are a 10 to 15 minute walk apart, and a free in-town bus runs all day and well into the evening. For where to leave the car, see where to park at Vail ski resort.
From the base you connect over the mountain to the bowl chairs. Vail publishes a Front Side map and a Back Bowls map on its trail map page, and its terrain and lift status page shows which chairs are running on the day. Which links are open shifts with snow and lift operations, so plan the connection from the live status rather than from a fixed route. Lift closing times are in what time Vail lifts close.
Which chairs serve which bowl
| Bowl | Acres | Chairs | How it connects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Down Bowl | 625 | Wildwood Express (#3), Sun Down Express (#17), Game Creek Express (#7), Mountaintop Express (#4) | The most chairs of any bowl. Windows has a hidden entrance; Never is a long traverse across the bowl's west face to less-tracked terrain. |
| Sun Up Bowl | 475.2 | High Noon Express (#5) and #9 | Through the Back Bowls Corbel to The Slot, a groomed bowl run that links to China, Sun Down, Tea Cup and Blue Sky Basin. |
| Tea Cup Bowl | 277 | Tea Cup Express (#36) | Between Sun Up and China. Tea Cup Glade ends at the base of #36; Morning Thunder returns to #36 and Orient Express (#21). |
| China Bowl | 601 | Orient Express (#21) and #36 | Poppyfields East and West are the groomed intermediate runs; Genghis Khan, on the west side, drops right beneath #36. |
| Siberia Bowl | 336 | #21 and Mongolia Platter (#22) | Bolshoi Ballroom, a low-angle glade run; riding the Platter to the top adds a few hundred feet of vertical. |
| Inner and Outer Mongolia Bowls | 470 | #21, then a traverse to Mongolia Platter (#22) | Remote expert terrain reached by that traverse. Vail counts the two bowls as one entry. |
Two sets of chairs recur across the bowls. Après Vous follows the ridgeline between Sun Up and Sun Down and finishes on Sun Up Catwalk, which leads back to High Noon Express (#5) or Sun Down Express (#17); those were the two chairs that opened Sun Up and Sun Down on December 5, 2024. Siberia and both Mongolia bowls share #21 and #22.
Choosing a bowl by ability
Intermediate skiers have two groomed routes into the bowls. Poppyfields East and West, in China Bowl, are mellow intermediate runs with consistent grooming, a good introduction to bowl skiing with views of Blue Sky Basin and Mount of the Holy Cross. The Slot, off Sun Up Bowl, is the other consistently groomed bowl run. Both are groomed; the ungroomed terrain around them is a different proposition, covered in how hard Vail's Back Bowls are.
Strong skiers and riders have more to choose from. Genghis Khan is steep and wide with a natural cornice. Siberia mixes low-angle glades with large cliffs and sustained steeps. Inner and Outer Mongolia is the one that asks for effort: the ride up #21 and the traverse to #22 lead to quiet, remote expert terrain that feels like a backcountry day. Tea Cup Bowl draws less traffic than its neighbors, and Vail points to it as a good place to be on a powder day.
Game Creek Bowl is a warm-up, not a Back Bowl
Game Creek Bowl is not one of the seven. It has easy groomers on Lost Boy, moguls on Wild Card and south-facing bowl skiing on Deuces Wild and Faro, and Vail calls it a stepping stone to the larger bowls. Because Game Creek Express (#7) also serves Sun Down Bowl, it is a sensible first stop for a group of mixed ability before Sun Down or China.
Timing the trip
The Back Bowls do not open with the mountain. Vail's 2026/27 season opens November 13, but the bowls open in stages once the snowpack allows. Sun Up and Sun Down opened on December 5 in 2024, the earliest since 2018; in 2026 the first Back Bowls terrain, parts of Sun Up, China and Blue Sky Basin, did not open until February 5. When the Back Bowls open has the pattern by season.
Blue Sky Basin is a separate area, reached from The Slot and in view from Poppyfields; getting to Blue Sky Basin from Vail Village covers that route.
