Vail, Beaver Creek open more terrain for holidays as snow returns to forecast

The Vail Valley will be warmer and drier this weekend as both Vail and Beaver Creek announced major terrain openings for the holidays. And more snow is in the forecast for next week.

“China, Tea Cup, Siberia and the Mongolia bowls are now open,” Vail announced Wednesday on its Facebook page. “You may now access 4,436 acres of legendary terrain on Vail Mountain.”

Vail as of Thursday had 84% of its terrain open for snow riding, with 20 of 31 lifts running. Beaver Creek also opened more skiable terrain.

“We’re thrilled to announce that Grouse Mountain Express Lift (#10), Larkspur Express Lift (#11) and Birds of Prey Express Lift (#9) will be open for season starting [Thursday] Over 1,300 acres of terrain will be available to explore,” Beaver Creek announced on its Facebook page. “With 25″ in the last week, there’s still a bunch of fresh snow to find.”

Beaver Creek as of Thursday had 73% of its terrain open and 11 of 23 lifts running.

Expect even more terrain to open in the coming days with additional snow in the forecast. Last weekend saw more than two feet fall in a three-day period. The storms next week don’t appear to as significant.

“We’ll see dry weather through Monday. The coldest temperatures will be on Thursday and then look for warming temperatures through the weekend.” Opensnow.com meteorologist Joel Gratz wrote on Thursday.

“Our next chance for snow will come from a southwestern storm on Tuesday into Wednesday and the deeper accumulations will favor the southern mountains,” Gratz added. “Another system could take a similar track around the end of Christmas week.”