The Back Bowls have no fixed opening date. Since 2019 the first Back Bowl terrain has opened as early as Thursday, December 5 (2024) and as late as Thursday, February 5 (2026), in a winter of low snowpack. Vail opens them in stages after snow arrives, so a December trip needs a plan B, and the useful skill is knowing where the live answer is posted.
Opening dates by season
The table gives the first day any Back Bowl terrain opened, or the first day of Chair 5 where that is the date on record. Sun Up and Sun Down are the bowls that usually open first, served by High Noon Express (Chair 5) and Sun Down Express (Chair 17).
| Season | First opening | What opened |
|---|---|---|
| 2002-03 | November 16, 2002 | The earliest Back Bowls opening on record |
| 2018-19 | Late November 2018 | Earlier than any opening from 2019 through 2024 |
| 2019-20 | Friday, December 13, 2019 | Sun Up and Sun Down |
| 2020-21 | Saturday, December 19, 2020 | Sun Up and Sun Down |
| 2021-22 | December 28, 2021 | Chair 5 opened |
| 2022-23 | Thursday, December 15, 2022 | Parts of Sun Up, Tea Cup and China, with Inner and Outer Mongolia as hike-to terrain; Chair 5 followed on December 28 |
| 2023-24 | Thursday, December 14, 2023 | Sun Up and Sun Down, with the season snowfall total at 90 inches |
| 2024-25 | Thursday, December 5, 2024 | Sun Up and Sun Down; more than 2,000 acres open across the mountain |
| 2025-26 | Thursday, February 5, 2026 | Parts of Sun Up, China and Tea Cup and Blue Sky Basin; Chairs 5 and 17 followed on Sunday, February 22 |
From 2019 through 2024 the openings sit between December 5 and December 19, apart from 2021-22, so early to mid-December is a fair expectation in a normal year. The 2025-26 season broke that pattern. February 5 was the latest opening in Blue Sky Basin's 26-year history, in a winter when a lack of natural snowfall delayed terrain openings across the West. Another late start for Sun Down Bowl came in 1977, when the Back Bowls were first mentioned as open in the Vail Trail on February 25.
Four of the six openings with a specific first day fell on a Thursday, one on a Friday and one on a Saturday, and Sun Down's 2026 opening was a Sunday. Midweek is common, but the day of the week is not a rule.
What moves the date
Openings follow snowfall, and the recent record shows how much it takes:
- December 2019: about 11 inches of new snow in the previous week.
- December 2022: 18 inches in that week's storm cycle.
- December 2023: storms of 22 inches (December 1 to 4) and 21 inches (December 8 to 11) had lifted the season total to 90 inches.
- February 2026: the Vail Mountain SNOTEL site read 5.6 inches of snow-water equivalent on February 5, close to the second-lowest reading for that date on record (6.0 inches in 2018).
A snowy stretch can bring the ropes down quickly, while a dry, warm one delays them for weeks. Fresh snow alone is not an opening. In late November 2023 Vail Resorts emailed Epic Pass holders that 8 inches of new snow made conditions perfect in the Back Bowls while the ropes were still up. Skiing past a rope risks losing the pass.
Bowls open in stages
Vail counts seven bowls in the Back Bowls: Sun Down, Sun Up, Tea Cup, China, Siberia, and Inner and Outer Mongolia, totalling 2,785 skiable acres. They rarely open together. In December 2022 portions of Sun Up, Tea Cup and China came first, with Siberia connected via the Silk Road trail and the Mongolia bowls available only as hike-to terrain. In 2024 it was Sun Up and Sun Down. In February 2026 it was China Bowl and part of Tea Cup, plus Sun Up terrain reached from Chair 9 that let skiers continue to Blue Sky Basin, while Chair 5 stayed closed. Sun Up and Sun Down followed on February 22, and Inner and Outer Mongolia, served by the Mongolia Platter (Chair 22), were the last bowls still closed. "The Back Bowls are open" can therefore mean one run or several.
The bowls are not all the same age. Sun Up and Sun Down have operated for more than 60 years; China, Tea Cup and Siberia appeared on the trail map in 1986, and Inner and Outer Mongolia were added in 1988 with the Mongolia surface lift and Orient Express.
Where to check
Vail's Terrain and Lift Status page lists which lifts and trails are open each day, and the My Epic app carries real-time mountain alerts and lift status. Vail Resorts lists Friday, November 13, 2026 as the planned 2026/27 opening for Vail Mountain, subject to weather, and has not named a date for the Back Bowls.
For a December trip, when Vail Mountain opens for the season and when it snows in Vail cover the front side of the mountain. The bowls themselves are covered in the bowl-by-bowl guide to Vail's Back Bowls, how hard the Back Bowls are and how to get to them. Blue Sky Basin, beyond the seven bowls and opened on its own schedule, is in how to get to Blue Sky Basin from Vail Village.
