Vail Mountain opened for skiing at 9 a.m. on December 15, 1962, with one gondola, two chairlifts and $5 lift tickets. The date had been promised on a roadside sign months earlier, the gondola was scheduled to arrive two months after opening day, and snow was thin. Getting to that morning took nearly six years, a cover story for a land purchase and a Forest Service permit that was refused before it was granted.
What was open on December 15, 1962
| Detail | Opening day |
|---|---|
| Opening time | 9 a.m., December 15, 1962 |
| Lifts | One gondola and two chairlifts. Vail Daily identifies them as the four-person gondola from the base, a lift from Mid-Vail to the top, and one lift in the Back Bowls |
| Lift ticket | $5 that season; the lifts ran free on the first day |
| Trails | Swingsville, Ramshorn, Riva Ridge, Lodgepole, Gitalong, Pickeroon, Giant Steps and Bear Tree |
| Ski school | A one-day class lesson cost $6.50 |
Riva Ridge is still on the map: Vail lists it as the longest run on the mountain, at four miles. Almost everything else has changed. Vail now lists 5,317 skiable acres, 278 trails and 32 lifts, with a top elevation of 11,570 feet.
The gondola that nearly arrived in February
The gondola was meant to be the centerpiece, and it almost missed the season. Bob Parker, who handled publicity for the new company, was going through requisition orders one night in August 1962 when he found that the Swiss engineers had scheduled it to be finished in mid-February 1963. He phoned the company in Lucerne and was told it was February and nothing could change. He changed it anyway: he found a transport expert in Brussels, pulled gondola parts off boats and barges and trucked them to the airport there. Everything was in place by opening day. The account, published by Vail Daily from June Simonton's history of the valley, adds that a small sign on U.S. Highway 6 had promised "open for skiing December 1962" for months.
Snow, or the lack of it
A late winter in 1962 let construction crews bring most buildings close to finished, but the warm weather carried into December and left marginal conditions on opening day. Snow stayed scarce that first season until a storm arrived around Christmas. The next season began the same way: in December 1963 the Southern Utes were brought in to perform a snow dance, and it snowed heavily a few days after they left. Modern openings hinge on snowmaking and forecasts; when Vail opens each season covers how that works now.
From a climb in 1957 to a lift line
Earl Eaton, a prospector who grew up near Edwards, took Pete Seibert up the mountain on March 19, 1957. The climb took seven hours, breaking trail the whole way, and at the top the treeless bowls on the back side convinced Seibert, a wounded 10th Mountain Division veteran who had taught skiing in Aspen, that this was where his ski area belonged. Seibert became known as the founder and Eaton as the finder.
In 1958 the partners bought more than 500 acres of the Hanson Ranch, land that is now Vail Village, for $110 an acre. They bought it as the Transmontane Rod and Gun Club so that competitors would think they wanted a hunting and fishing lodge. The Vail Corporation was formed in December 1959 with 26 shareholders. George Caulkins, a Denver oilman, drove across the country with Seibert and a movie projector to find more investors; each paid $10,000 and received four lifetime season passes and a plot of land. In 1960 the company's assets, apart from land, were a jeep, a tin-roofed hut, an outhouse and a small over-the-snow vehicle called the Kristi Kat.
The Forest Service, which manages the land under the ski area, rejected the first application in May 1959, saying there was no public need yet and that existing permit holders, especially Aspen, should be allowed to finish their development first. After an appeal it granted a permit on September 9, 1959, and the final approvals to start building followed in January 1961. Construction began in the spring of 1962, and the Town of Vail was incorporated in the fall of 1966.
Where the story goes next
The timeline from the first climb to the present, with the town, the company and the Back Bowls, is in how old Vail is. The company that runs the mountain today is covered in who owns Vail and when Vail Resorts was founded, and the name has its own story in how Vail got its name.
The Lodge at Vail, one of the first two hotels built in the village along with the Vail Village Inn, is still operating, and Vail calls it the village's original hotel. Rooms are on the Lodge at Vail listing.
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