Vail opens Chair 5, updates progress on new Chair 17 as snow keeps pounding down

A day after opening its new Chair 7 six-pack (Game Creek Express), Vail opened Chair 5 (High Noon Express) on Tuesday as it continues to work on the new Chair 17 (Sun Down Express). Heavy snow fell throughout the night and is continuing into Wednesday morning.

Here’s more information on the lift openings at Vail, per the mountain’s Facebook page:

“Lift Update! High Noon Express (5) is now open for the season, serving as a return lift from Sun Up Bowl. This means we now have 29 lifts spinning and 4,500 acres open for skiing and riding! We need about six more inches of snow to open Cow’s Face, Après Vous and Chicken Yard – so keep thinking snow!

“Over at the new Sun Down Express (17), Leitner-Poma continues to work on the lift construction, which is impacting our ability to open Sun Down Bowl. The Vail Mountain Team is working hard on a plan to open Sun Down Bowl around the construction, and we hope to have news for you soon! See below for a statement from Leitner-Poma and stay tuned for an update on Leitner-Poma’s progress with Sun Down Express.

“From Daren Cole, president of Leitner-Poma of America: ‘We know that excitement for the two new chairlifts at Vail Mountain is incredibly high, especially with the amazing early season snow the resort is enjoying. Although the delays we’re experiencing are due to third party vendors, I truly want to apologize to Vail and the entire community for the wait. Unfortunately, global supply chain issues are the climate of our time and this has resulted in significant delays for this project which is now additionally complicated by winter weather. We will continue to work diligently to complete the Sun Down Express chairlift quickly and deliver an outstanding product to Vail that will provide greatly improved access to the resort’s legendary Back Bowls. We want to thank the Vail Mountain and Vail Resorts teams who have gone above and beyond in partnering with us and helping make the best out of an unfortunate situation.'”

Snow is expected to continue throughout the day on Wednesday, with more in the forecast for Friday:

“Dense snow fell on Tuesday night and snow totals now on Wednesday morning range from a dusting to about 10 inches,” Opensnow.com meteorologist Joel Gratz wrote on Wednesday. “Snow will continue on Wednesday, then we should see a break on Thursday, and then more snow will fall from Friday through Saturday. After that, yet another storm will bring snow from Sunday through Tuesday morning. And we could have more snow around January 6-7.”